QUOTE (binarywraith @ Jun 18 2013, 12:38 AM)
Let's address this directly. For all that it's being touted as making hackers combat effective, how exactly does all of this help a hacker in, say one of the most common combat moments in all of Shadowrun.
Decker A is walking down the street, minding his own business, on his way to bible study class. Two Halloweeners, having decided that he looks like he'll make fun noises when they kick his spleen in, step out of the alleyway, armed with a length of chain and an 18" black rubber dildo, resepectively.
How does poor littler Decker A preserve his physical integrity and ocular virginity?
I'll give you a hint, it involves either fast talking, fast running, or fast shooting. None of which all the hacking prowess in the world is going to help with.
This whole boondoggle is just forcing more vulnerability onto every other character in the game, and it isn't even fulfilling the stated purpose because it only makes hackers more combat viable in edge cases where they're fighting someone heavily cybered or who is using advanced weaponry. Mages, adepts, spirits, critters, and regular old dudes with bats all get to bend him over and use him as an umbrella stand.
A couple of ways he can preserve his physical integrity, ocular virginity, and general dignity.
1: The Decker's trog heavy pal the Halloweeners didn't see because he's wearing active camoflauge and covered by a high-Force Concealment decloaks behind them like a Klingon Bird-of-Prey and attempts to disprove the physical concept that two objects cannot occupy the same point in space-time with their heads.
2: The gun bunny on his arm (because sexy gun bunnies dig scrawny hackers, right?) drops two machine pistols into her hands and lights them up, then collects the 18" black rubber dildo as loot for later.
3: His pal the mage waves his hand, says "these are not the hackers you're looking for," and the Halloweeners go looking for their nightly skullfucktoy elsewhere.
3a. His pal the mage whips up a fireball and incinerates the Halloweeners.
4: The hacker drops a collapsable baton into his palm, activates his wired reflexes, and warps the baton around their skulls.
5: The hacker drops an Ares Predator into his palm, activates his wired reflexes and smartgunlink, and smokes both of the bastards.
6: The hacker sends a wireless command to his overwatch gun blimp, which deploys a semiautomatic sniper rifle and smokes both of the Halloweeners before they even know they've been targeted.
7: The hacker drops a pair of SMG ball-drones to the ground which deploy landing legs, acquire the Halloweeners as targets, and smoke them.
8: The hacker hacks GridGuide to reroute a passing motor vehicle through the Halloweeners at full speed.
9: The hacker fires up his wired reflexes and uses his extra speed, agility, and processing time to leg it faster than they can chase him.
10: The hacker fires up his pheremones and convinces the halloweeners to go fuck someone else's skull.
11: The hacker offers to pay them off and successfully convinces them that they can't just beat him up and take the bribe anyway.
12: The hacker calls Lone Star/Knight Errant, and happens to be in an area where they can and will actually arrive in time to do jack shit. (Or at all.)
In only one of these options is the hacker even hacking at all. That's about the only way I can imagine for Mr. Hacker to combat hack his way out of that situation. Everything else is based on having buddies, being clever, being prepared, or just plain out having invested in other skills/abilities/equipment.
Because combat hacking your way out of getting skullfucked by a couple of Halloweeners is dumb, and it only gets dumber from there, unless you happen to be fighting drones.