You are not forced to use online bonuses just to justify the matrix. Right now, even without online bonuses or combat abilities, the hacker/decker is one of the most powerful and versatile archetypes in SR, as he is able manipulate the entire world, from information brokering/gathering to security system override to delay and spoof alerts and information when the alerts triggers.
If the devs would have wanted to make combat hacking making sense, they should have simply used the systems already working and accepted in SR34 (tacnet, drones, radio communication, online links - every thing was already in place, the devs needed just to add some addition rules or better description of possibilities) and not ditching the old system while introducing something stupid, saying that is stupid, not using it for their own adventures and then wondering why some people would have preferred other systems, because they want to combine matrix with rules making sense.
Enforcing people and the entire world to act stupid just to justify stupid rules which are not liked by the devs either is ... stupid.
If you really want to see how combat hacking while influencing the ingame physical world, check out CP2020. And that was 230 years ago.
SYL
If the devs would have wanted to make combat hacking making sense, they should have simply used the systems already working and accepted in SR34 (tacnet, drones, radio communication, online links - every thing was already in place, the devs needed just to add some addition rules or better description of possibilities) and not ditching the old system while introducing something stupid, saying that is stupid, not using it for their own adventures and then wondering why some people would have preferred other systems, because they want to combine matrix with rules making sense.
Enforcing people and the entire world to act stupid just to justify stupid rules which are not liked by the devs either is ... stupid.
If you really want to see how combat hacking while influencing the ingame physical world, check out CP2020. And that was 230 years ago.
SYL
Indeed... "Stupid is as Stupid Does, sir."
CP2020 had a great system for Hacking. The MENU was awesome indeed.