I would say that the mage has to pay attention to make the illusion reactionary. Making an illusionary wall and just having it sit there is easy. Making the illusionary wall sprout the proper bullet holes takes attention.

No more than a spell that makes you a chameleon (at which point you have to be aware of every single angle of a room, even behind your head, and adjusting the illusion in real-time with next to no room for error... including any flickering lights or trid screens that might be behind you). Or one that creates, say, a dragon breathing flame... of which you have to make sure it's blinking properly, directly manipulating every scale, muscle, and shadows of the illusion, and every other little nuance of it. Or just about any other illusion on the same level.

Not only is this random lights business silly and complex enough to warrant a far more effective system, but it's annoyingly designed to the point where even the most hardened professional will advise a full on assault run simply because the place had it damn well coming.

Also, can't negotiate your way past anything. SR canon suggests this is viable, but in reality, you'll just heighten security, get your face logged, and make your life a hell of a lot harder.

Because fire is a major effect that affects more than the dragon itself. Creating an illusion of a dragon is one thing. Creating a gout of flame is another thing entirely. Creating a room that catches on fire because of that gout is yet another thing.

But if the illusion you initially created was of a dragon breathing fire, the gout of flame spewing from its mouth would be a constant and a natural part of the original illusion. Just like creating an illusion of a bunch of cheap Christmas lights blinking on and off.

And, once again, do I really have to keep pointing to illusions like Camouflage? You can be on the other side of the frelling planet and, miraculously, the illusion you created is still functioning on the subject. It's taking all available input of the terrain and mimicking it on the subject, even parts of it neither the magician nor the subject can see. Hell, even targets the magician nor the subject can see are being influenced by these miraculous effects.

And you know what? The drain for that is pathetically miniscule compared to Trid Phantasm.

But hey, apparently, that's nothing. Just throw a Christmas tree light in the room and all illusions come tumbling down. There's no way that Camouflage spell is going to be able to mimick a slow flickering of dim lights. No way, man. So what if he could be standing in front of a giant-screen trid and the illusion mimicks it in real time from every possible angle? Minor detail, that. Christmas tree lights are unstoppable compared to that.

So you say that the stock-ticker trick does work?

If you cast it while at the site and are sustaining a link to it there, sure, I'd allow it. You're basically telling the illusion to copy all the output from the ticker. Unfortunately, the moment you leave the spell's range, it'll stop working, but for the duration of your time therein, it should work just fine.

I'm not sure what you're saying "yes" to.

Is it that the mage has to provide input? Or does the spell require LOS to the object? Does the object have to reside within the spells radius?

See above.

Once again, reference Camouflage. It'll mimick anything within the range of the spell (ie, any "light" that hits the subject). If the subject goes into another room, it's not picking up any input from the previous room thus can't mimick it.

I guess I understand the rules you're using now.

So Trid Phantasm can, in addition to its normal functions, copy any object within its radius without regard for the "can't change after casting" rule? Is that right, or are there still certain "can't change after casting" limitations?

<just shakes his head>

I'm not bothering with this any longer. I've said what I've said, and that's it. Take it however you want to take it.

Do you have a link to the discussion? I distinctly remember that being before March 14. Or is this someone who switched names that I'm not recognizing, like the many iterations of Doctor Funkenstein?

~J