I'm trying to script a few Matrix encounters, and I'm coming to realize I don't know what I'm doing. Can somebody help me out on the following?
1) J. Random Hacker badly wants a Nuka-Cola, and is using hack-on the fly against his nemesis, the Vending Machine. The Vending Machine rolls well, and beats J. Random's Stealth. This triggers an Alert. J. Random Hacker feels that even with an Alert giving the Machine a Firewall bonus against him, and whatever other countermeasures might be launched, he is still good enough to hack in and get his soda. Is J. Random allowed to continue attempting to hack-on-the-fly, or is he automatically blocked once an alert is triggered?
2) J. Random has planned ahead, and has taken the time to Probe the Vending Machine. The Vending Machine does not detect J. Random Hacker as he uses his forged credentials, and J. Random gains access to the Vending Machine's node without triggering an Alert. J. Random believes that he now owns the node, at the level of authority he hacked to. Is it possible for the node's Firewall to trigger an alert after a successful hack without the presence of ICe or Security Hackers to spot the intruder?
3) A normal commlink can only run a number of programs equal to its system rating. J. Random Hacker believes this means he will only face serious opposition on corporate Nexi, since an average commlink will only have three slots, and fighting off a hacker will require at the minimum an ICe frame running Attack and Analyse. If the target were using the commlink for something like a tac-net, then the system would drop everything from Rating3 to Rating 2, and J. Random is not worried about any system that can't roll six dice. Is J. Random reading this correctly?
4) J. Random Hacker is getting ready to 'harden' his commlink, and decides to save money and resources by not including an ICe frame to run his security. He reasons that his commlink can just run Analyse and Attack itself, so why pay for the extra code?
5) J. Random has a great idea. He is going to buy his cousin's old Nexus and load it with a dozen ICe programs, all packing useful security tools. Then, he will call all his friends with cheap commlinks and offer to have ICe hosted on his Nexus patrolling their Commlinks. Since the ICe is running on his machine, he reasons, the low system resources on the commlinks won't matter, and for a few nuyen a month they will have automated overwatch like a serious system. Will J. Random's plan work?
...thanks in advance for just *reading* this far; I know this is a lot of questions, and I hope somebody can clarify how these things are supposed to work together.