Uh. No. This is blatantly wrong per canon. EVERY node is sculpted with its own metaphore. That fancy Matrix Cafe?* Well, it's all decked out in 1980's Disco Theme and there's a rave party going on. The Library? Is a -ing library on the matrix. In the real world it doesn't exist.

Check the Virtual Reality section of the Matrix rules. "VR environments are fantastic for intense and realistic [...] experiences." That implies at least some basic level of sculpting is available at all times.

Also, as it specifically refers to "VR simsense sculpting" it DOES NOT work in AR.

Oh, and in case that wasn't enough, go read Psychotrope.

*Hint: Matrix CAFE. As in, a cafe in the matrix, not a cafe with a matrix connection.

As I said, apparently you and I have differeing opinions on this subject. *shrug* Wouldn't be the first time.
Did not really care for Psychotrope. Badly written in my opinion. *shrug*

So I ask:

What is VR without any sculpting?

I don't consider basic VR as anything especially special. It is the Basic Scultpting that everyone experiences. It is FAR DIFFERENT than a Sculpted System, like Virtual Disney. *shrug*

There is sculpting and then there is Sculpting. *shrug*

The Matrix itself has a default reality.

Precisely, which will still make a contested roll against the Reality Filter.

Anything else is a house rule.

Indeed it does, Mr Anderson...

Yeah, but nobody likes that. It just looks like 1999. Boooring.

Which can probably defeated by changing the honeypot's ID and making sure the physical part is rotated to look like it belongs to a customer fairly easily - that's going into counter-counter-counter measure race, and I'm somewhat skeptical of that ability of low-end hackbot stuck into a low-end disposable link to be very effecitve at sorting out it's targets.

I don't say t's impossible and will automaically fail, but rather that it won't be the instawin failproof scheme you seems to say it is.

Which is really easy, just make the honeypot a drone with a spoof chip.

... counterable by making the dropper commlink a drone with a spoof chip, too.

A small one. With Gecko Tips and chameleon Skin. So it can slowly meander around the mall, invisible, on the ceiling, changing it's AccessID every hour. So, hey look, instead of a single-day hack, it spends the next five to eight days doing the hacks. Slower, and more carefully. PLUS, it can follow a target customer around the mall or shopping area, rather than using a second agent to decentralise where the thefts happen.






... my default matrix looks like Tron. Low-rated nodes look like the first movie, high-rated nodes look like the second.

Also only enable the wireless link (on the hackers drone) at business hours.

IE 24-7. The corps aren't going to lose the valuable 'I woke up at three AM and decided I needed to go shoe shopping' crowd merely for allow its wage-slaves time off.

Especially since a lot of places will be fully automated, using RFID inventory control to simply watch Joe or Sue Nobody walk out the door with XYZ merchandise ... causing an automatic debit against that person's credit account (via a "thank you for shopping with us; please authorise payment here" AR popup).

I said that *I* use such a rule. In this case it would be specific for the Reality Filter. I find it retarded that a commlink suddenly can gain a performance increase because you use a "matrix theme" that replaces the iconography you see and force the opponent to use your iconography and his computer starts to get slower.

So in the case of the Reality Filter I would say it affects any DICE ROLLS that involves XXXX+RESPONSE. That means that you get a dice pool bonus or a penalty instead of the chance of your computer crashing randomly because of a rather minor program.

I missed that caveat, whoops.

To the rest of it: I agree. It's -ing retarded.