Heya, is there any difference between Agents and IC? Or is IC basically just an alias for agent that implies its intended purpose, but does nothing to enforce that implication.

No REAL difference, no. At least not technical. Just in purpose and loadout (mostly).

IC are just patroling countermeasures against intrusion. (Umm... yeah, Intrusion Countermeasure ...)

An agent can be everything. The program helping your child with data search for homework. A spy program, etc. IC it is called if is is mostly search/destroy based.

So, basically if the GM wants to involve a little fluff, he might give a reduce the potential alert for a node discovering an unknown Agent, rather than an unknown IC?

Also, if a drone is destroyed, are all its loaded programs destroyed with it? I feel like that would go against all the fluff Shadowrun has for programs, but there's the question.

Aye. On first discovery of an new icon it could be pretty much everything: AI, Technomancer, Agent, IC, Sprite, Hacker. But you can classify them with a good matrix perception (like assensing - at least that is how i handle it... hm, have to look up that stuff in the books again though.... don't take my word for it.

Destruction of programs: Not stated, so pretty much in the hands of the GM. Note that someone could repair a drone for a pretty much set price (was it 1% per box... or 5%? eh...) and should regain full functionatility. But i guess when the gm said: well, yeah that took out the CPU or something he could always assign loss of programs and higher repair costs.

EDIT: Just like the "massive damage rule" if anything gets hit for more than 7 points of damage at once the GM might call some "trauma" rules. You could apply this to drones as well.

Thanks. If you put it that way, I guess it is always up to the GM. I just felt a good default would be not to destroy the programs, since program validity in Shadowrun is largely based on its registration key (and my programs cost more than the drones they run on ).

Any rigger worth his salt will have backed up all the software anyhow.




-k

And a data chip to back them up costs 1 :ь

So you can "back up" (read: copy) legal software, but you can't copy it? Makes perfect sense

Seriously though. Is there a rule that says you can do that?

Yes, in Unwired.
Just think of it as modern-day software: you can have a billion copies of the distro, but as long as you only have one key, you can have it legally installed once.

Fatum is the winner. Think of it like the discussion about WoW accounts we had. I have six copies of the game disc, and no account, so I couldn't play even if the discs hadn't become 40k terrain.

This is why my Hacker/Rigger keeps backup copies of all his program stashed in multiple amusing locations.

Personal favorite: on another players commlink in the folder labeled *THIS IS NOT PORN*

Hahahaha!
I'm so going to get creative with this.

When in actuality it's your software hidden with steganography among the most perverse porn you could Data Search?

Yes. It actually came in handy, thus making my paranoia totally worth it (see the Crime Pays thread for Dez bitching about my preparedness). And inspiring our Face to pick up Hacking.

All I can see now is Longbowrocks attacking Technomancers as he does the Awakened.
I always look for his posts as they are creative and amusing. Longbow when you get a chance post this Hacker/Rigger I want to see what you come up with.

Ty, but it's not super interesting. Our party was missing a face, so now I've scraped by for hacker/rigger/face with decent dice pools for all, but I didn't get to super-optimize for anything. Hopefully I'll have enough creativity to squeeze in an awakened murder between missions.

LOL

Soon you will join the rampage out to get my Technomancer as you realize just like the awakened a Mancer can do all you can do but better!

I cannot wait to see what you have in store. But dude seriously post him we can make him better! Plus we can help with modding your Drones to hell and back.

The thing about vehicle damage is that when all boxes fill up the vehicle is not really a big heap of metallic confetti, it just has the power and control systems so damaged that it will not go anywhere without some serious repair work.

Consider that in WW2, during the desert campaign, both sides would rescue tanks during night time and drag them behind the front line to fix them back up. This because what would stop a tank would rarely take it totally apart. Usually it was abandoned by crew because the engine or tracks where taken out. Or it could be that the ammo was cooked off, turning the crew into fine red mist while leaving the shell of the tank still intact.

Speaking of IC and Agents, a decent houserule I've found that makes IC more attractive is thus:

The programs an IC comes with count as Suites. (additional stuff in the payload works normally, but may optionally be part of it if you bought it from the same manufacturer. Like going from windows pro->ultimate), but IC are generally configured to defend, monitor, and patrol certain nodes.

This means the Sample IC from unwired should get a bit more use, and generally be a bit less headache when keeping track of processor limits. At most, they take up two(one for the IC, one for their standard programs, now suited), and ALSO means they can load them up and be ready to go fill their role with one Run Program action. Basically, if an Alert goes out, all the IC are ready to defend the system within an action, and take up less overhead, which gives the defending system a bit more of an edge against Agent Smith n Agent Sprite vs a target node.

A Very Nice compromise... I was thinking the same myself. Suites for IC is beautiful.

I usually keep my registered programs in cold storage somewhere, and use unregistered copies on my link.

Yep... SOP for any competent Hacker... Unless you just use a Warez Site...