Since the topic of "wireless bonuses" are alway combined with "hackers must be combat capable" here is some food for the creative brain. Please note that the following is just an idea how it could have worked without online battons, online silencers, online knifes and online air tanks. The rules are based on SR4 (because, well, everything was already in place with some improvement).

1) To make combat hacking possible you need targets, possibilities and speed. 5 rounds of wifi scanning and hacking on the fly vs 1 complex FA action does not work. SR4 used extended tests for hacking and wifi scanning, which was acceptable before the combat, but not during the combat. Kill extended tests, adjust needed successes, make it complex actions. You can use something like marks or note down hits etc, but basically its like the normal combat sequence: attack, defense, soak with combat superiority for very short time. Lets assume just as an idea that hacking on the fly can give you admin access for a short time (and that you would need probing for permanent access).

2) In my world a Tactical Network has become the default instrument for almost anything team related. Almost everyone of my NPCs have it, from normal guards to sport teams, from firefighters to soliders, from low end runnres to high end SEALS. Of course the rating is different, from rating 0 to 4, depending on situation, software and hardware. Give every archetype in the book a low level to mid level tacnet per default, from ganger to street sam. It should be descriped as normal as a smartlink, gas mask, armor jacked or fake SIN. You are a a runner, it is assumed that you have a fake SIN, an armor jacked and a tacnet. To get a full benefit it must be DNI controlled, manually controlled tacnets only give half the bonuses.

3) In my world, many people use airborne micro/mini drones. Sport teams, firefighters, cops, runner, soldiers, reporters etc. Almost everyone who can profit from an air view invests these 1-2k ¥ for some of these drones (air, ground, whatever). They have the same status as guns, smartlinks, armor jackets etc. If you meet an enemy, you can safely assume that is has slaved a fly spy to his level 1 tacnet. This of course must be reflected in the archetypes and in the item description.

4) Radio communication. Even the most dedicated Eloka-Ninja-Team will use radio communication (often combined with data transmission) from time to time. Many professional teams use them constantly, dedicating their life on their hacker, encryption and hidden status.

5) There of course many people who shut down the wifi for their items for skinlink/cable/PAN range 1m wifi or internal DNI control. Fine. But usually they still have a link and that link can be online (from webpages to facebook to tacnet and radio communication). Usually that link is DNI controlled (skinlink, nanotrodes, sim modul). Usually it means that internal ware is linked to the link as well (for example for a cybernetic diagnostic suite etc). Even if you have no direct access to the cyberware you can often gain access through the link, if the link is online. If you use a decoy link that is often linked to the runner link as well (and working through it is something like bringing a 40 dice tank troggy down: possible, but it takes some actions)

6) A lot of environment works on Wifi as well, from cars to construction drones to remote pizza crawlers. Cyberpunk 2020 had a very interesting idea: with some sort of ping you immediately see all remote controlled devices online (something similar exists in SR4 and 5 (in SR4 with extended tests, which should be corrected)), and with the next action you could hack and control them for a short time. Sometimes you can simply use standard orders, in other cases you must prepare default command scripts (similar to a samurai buying different kind of ammunition) for different situation (like throw things, attack target, block target etc). You could even use low level mass hacking (bot nets, multiple agents on your link) to hack and control several low level things at the same time to achieve "matrix space superiority" against an enemy team.

7) Your target is still offline? Well, you use air burst grenades with micro transmitters splattered all over the area. Use squirt guns with micro transmitters/skinlink manipulators. Use dart guns with nano transmitters. Make the nanoware cheap and effective (the nanoware which crawls through your veins and connects to internal ware). There are many possibilities on how to forcefully connect to someone. Hackrape is real.

make DNI controls and psychotropic/black ice a little bit more dangerous, even affecting cold sim and make the results of psychotropic ice only short term but highly effective.

=> Throw that all together and a combat hacker could do some or all of the following (depending on situation, numbers etc - but then again, I write this down to give you an idea, not to replace an entire chapter in SR45).

- reduce enemy tacnet bonus from +4 to 0
- give enemy using a manipulated tacnet a malus up to -4 (combined to an 8 dice difference in combat effectiveness)
- manipulate the analytical engine of an enemy tacnet, weapon of teammates may be shown as jammed, ammunition counter shows something else, gerade explosion radii are bigger or smaller, concrete cover becomes paper cover and the other way around (or so it seems on the AR of the enemy), enemies become visible through walls (or the own people do not show up in the tacnet), their movement is predicted wrong (which leads the enemy team into a killzone). You know the stuff sadistic gamemasters and puppetmastering players love to do.
- clear up the own tacnet if hacked by an enemy hacker
- spam online commlinks with gay troll porn reducing visibility
- manipulate enemy communication and disable it or feed wrong orders (with a specialised edit-on-the-fly software) and status information ("Boss, i am bleeding out in the other alley, come to me").
- disable enemy micro drones, convert them into kamikaze distractions or use them to feed wrong information to the enemy tacnet - or increase the drone numbers for the team hacker at least temporarily.
- manipulate the environment. construction drones throw 1 ton blocks at you, car doors open suddenly when you pass, cranes are swinging at you, junk bots try to pick you up.
- take over an online link and work your way from there to linked items and cyberware.
- protect your team from enemy attacks, shut him down via electronic warfare (which could be handled a little bit like spell defense provided by a mage).
- use dedicated combat bots to kill the enemy (or convert infrastructure bots into kamikaze bots
- have fun with psychotropic or black ice in the DNI controlled link, which could give short term problems or even kill the user, depending on how far you want to go with brain hacking rules.
- depending on the linked status you could even block equipment or delay actions (clip dropping, items jammed etc), requiring a reboot, taking time, taking away enemy bonuses.

---

It would mean that there are certain incentives to go online and to go online with DNI - and certain consequences if you neglect your computer/brain safety. It gives you the possibility to go offline and it gives you the possibility to go online without looking as an idiot to any sane human. Combat hacking becomes a natural part of combat: you can be online, but you loose a lot of advantages, and you circumvent other dangers, which is exactly the basic idea behind combat hacking. I assume that many people have no problems with imagining "there is a micro drone in the air tracking my movement, I will hack and manipulate its data feed to the enemy tacnet"), as it seems far more embedded in the sixth world as ... online silencers.

Online silencers.
Online knifes
Online stealth suites
Online air seal
Online batons
Online air tank
Online finger comparment.

*sigh*

Edit: one common counter argument was: a tacnet is too powerful, compared to the costs or difficulty involved. To that I can only answer: so? An Ares Alpha, amor jacked or medkit is very powerful compared to the investment, too and no one really complains. If a tacnet becomes so normal and integrated into the world then it will be the same as a smartlink: standard. That is nothing to be afraid and it has happened before in all editions. And of course: it is just a concept, an idea how it could worked. I really don´t care if it would be +4 or +8 oder +2 in the end.

SYL

Well done, Apple. Congratulation on all that effort.
Many of the things you listed for the concept are things we currently use in SR4A (My Cyberlogician was king of these tactics at our table), and for the same purposes. Only difference was that we did not eliminate Extended Tests, which would make this an even BETTER concept.

Not sure why the developers chose to go the way they did, but...

I take a completely different approach.

I start with: there's no reason for anybody besides Team Combat to be particularly useful in combat. No, really. Why should Zorquath, Master of Trog-fu, be particularly useful in a lodge? In fact, wouldn't he be told to get the hell out? And shouldn't he listen respectfully to Moonblossom when she tells him to do so, just the same as Moonblossom would be told by Squeals the Rigger to keep her patchouli-smelling paws the hell off the controls while he's trying to get them out of Dodge in a big hurry? OK, great, so maybe Doofus the Decker knows how to point a tube and pull the trigger, or run communications, but anything requiring analytical thought is not combat-appropriate because of the realities of explosions, ducking, running, screaming, bleeding, and all the rest of it.

I have nothing whatsoever against a team of generalists, or cross-training, or even a decker with carefully prepared exploits firing them off in a big hurry, but trying against sense and sanity to shoehorn elements which are somehow combat-exploitable into such a scenario so that the decker has something to do which doesn't involve hiding behind cover, stroking his keyboard and crying is just silly.

If I were actually running such a team, in the sense of being the team organiser, I'd have certain pretty darned iron-clad rules.

A) Great, so tacnets are useful, but can't be relied upon the moment you're up against a pro team with a decker - which is precisely when any supposed edge would be most important. That is the exact opposite of a good idea. Tacnets? Banned. You're offline. Oh, you can have all the offline goodies you like, including gunshot locators, sonic analytics, optical analytics, you can be a freaking walking supercomputer if you can carry it, but you're offline.

B) Drones? Great. Awesome. If and only if there is an actually reliable link to/from the rigger, and only the rigger. Otherwise, they're candy for the opposition. The exact opposite of a good idea. Rigging is direct only, or drones are preprogrammed and offline, or there are no drones, period.

C) Radio? First off, no. Not if you care about stealth. If your signal is totally encrypted, it's a radio-frequency beacon saying I am here please take me from the gene pool before I breed. If you don't care about stealth, it should still be offline (in matrix terms) and encrypted (because of course). If you cannot meaningfully encrypt it in a fashion requiring at least a ten minute lag to decryption, it's off the table completely because it's actually an active liability, a way to carry extra crap while telling your enemy where you are and what you're doing.

D) If you have an active, wireless link in combat, you will (if you survive your supreme idiocy) be, as appropriate, court martialed, drummed out, or quietly .308 retired after the fact. I might do it myself in combat if your kit poses a hazard serious enough. And don't come crying to me because you brought it on yourself, you stupid slot.

Consequences:

Nothing my team has can be turned against the team without ripping it from their still-warm hands first. Not even a little bit. Even the data communications offer nothing except interception of an encrypted signal which should be worthless until long after combat is over, and offer absolutely no route into anything functionally significant, except for location of transmitters, which is a bad idea.

Yes, there's a gap between theoretical peak performance when annihilating a stone age village, but their performance can actually be relied upon in combat, instead of being up to the whims of what the opposition turns out to be.

Now, I hear you cry, what would my decker do in combat except voiding his bowels and begging for a swift death?

Everything on your list to any opposition too drool-impaired to enforce operational discipline, of course! Plus showing elaborate fake tacnets which convince the opposing decker that they're facing five times the number of cyborg terminators from an Ares scientist's fever dream, and convince him that he's totally messing them up (until his signal source is identified and neutralised with extreme prejudice and/or napalm). And if he gets bored, occasionally popping up with a carbine in his hands and firing off a few slugs of his own.

"But wait, Koekepan!" You turn to me with your huge blue eyes swimming with tears and your lower lip trembling. "What if everyone did that? What would deckers do in combat then? They would be bored, Koekepan, and that is against the natural law of RPG!"

A) they can fire more rounds of their own. They might even get a lucky shot in. This is good. More fingers on more triggers on my side is good.

B) they can fiddle with electronics in the area using any prepared exploits they have on hand, because although combat isn't a venue for attempting to create new exploits, well-known ones can be fired off as fast as they'll work. There are limits to how useful that can be against intelligent opposition. I'll pencil in time to care sometime in 2075.

C) they can stop pretending that they're playing a combat-oriented character, and belly-crawl for cover and evac while the grunts do what they do best.

You may (or may not) be familiar with the idea that the loudest noise your gun can make in combat is click. The rules you are proposing offer a wealth of potential clicks. To win in combat you need a lot of things, but a clearly concentrated mind is very high on the list. A grunt who is worrying about which piece of his equipment is really working, whether that shadow on his display is actually real, and whether that order he heard was genuine, is a grunt who is going to get shot soon by an opposing grunt who has no doubts.

I would agree that keeping as much offline as possible is ideal, there are some things that have to be online to be of any use.

1. Commlinks, these are basic shadowrunner gear, they are also practically useless without a matrix link, most of what they do is done via the matrix. All team communications are routed through each member's commlink, if they were all offline, you better be standing side by side with your team at all times.

2. Anything linked to your PAN, your PAN is routed through your commlink, so anytime your commlink is sending out a signal, you are also allowing anyone who happens to be in mutual area to your commlink, access to your PAN.

As far as your ideas mentioned above Koekepan. You seem to be attesting that a highly trained hacker will crumple at the slightest sound of a gunshot, that would highly depend on the background of the character. If the character has seen lots of combat,then he can likely keep his cool under pressure, hiding behind cover & using AR for hacking. Just my opinion, but it would seem to be reasonable.

Incorrect.

A) Commlinks are very powerful computers by today's real world standards. They can calculate probable enemy locations based on calculating auditory and visual data inputs on muzzle flashes, for example, and that doesn't require any kind of external link whatsoever. They can detect incoming signals in strictly passive-only mode, and draw inferences concerning the locations of commlinks which are online. This is the kind of stuff an iphone could do right now with a suitable camera, passive antenna and microphones attached; no matrix needed. This is desirable combat intelligence.

B) Simple integrated electronics with zero programmability can provide all the encrypted radio you need or want. No commlink required. If you're routing everything through a device which is an open invitation to the enemy, you're an idiot. That is if you even ignore what was practiced at least as far back as WWII: operational radio silence. Make your plans first. Maybe even your backup plans, and your fallback plans. Synchronise watches. Go silent. Kick ass. Get out.



If you're linking things to your PAN, if you even have an active PAN, in combat, there's a guy called Darwin who will have a chat with you as soon as you make it to the big debriefing in the sky.



You're missing my point entirely. I don't care if the decker crumples to the floor and screams like a four year old whose candy got taken away, or if he strips naked, paints himself blue and charges into battle. I'm saying that if there is combat hacking to be done, it has to be extremely quick which means that you can't have the decker trying carefully-laid plans between sips of chai. Can he fire off a bunch of exploits and hope that something works? Sure. Can he be painstakingly going through microcode looking for an exploitably sloppy buffer management routine? Sure, but he won't be done by the time the combat is long over.

My central point is that if you want your decker to be a useful participant in battle, the assumptions around the nature of electronics and their operation have to be such as to render electronics undesirable for use in combat anyhow, which makes the decker's awesome skills about as useful as teats on a bull. Either way, the grand plan for combat-relevant decking shrivels to a sort of exception case when faced with total morons.

I would love to sit in on one of your sessions, where your players never communicate on a run & nothing ever goes so far sideways that you have to signal them something went wrong. This may just have to be a case where we agree to disagree.

Of course people communicate on a run. They just don't do it using something which waves a bright red banner marked Here we are, please break our equipment but instead do so in a situation appropriate manner.

Example: Sam the Samurai is standing by, shotgun in hand, while Devlin the Decker attaches a tap. Sam mutters quietly: "We got incoming. Get down."

Another example: Simon the Sniper is overwatch and general controller from a rooftop. The team stalking through a shantytown have their radios in passive mode. If he says anything on the radio, they know things went south. Other than that, a simple coloured light can give them a basic status update, or coordinate stages of a plan.

You need to plan. You need to understand the situation. You need to be flexible and you need to have a team you can trust. Sometimes the very fact that someone is late at a rendezvous is all you need to know: something went south and you have just changed to the fallback plan.

If you can't work with that structure, then you won't understand how it can be done, and you should just accept that the opposition will detect the signals from your commlinks and use them for guidance on where to send grenades.

I think you misunderstand passive mode. It does not mean that your comlink (or radio) is electronically invisible. Only "power off" does that.

In the real world, a passive radio is sending out no signal, merely absorbing electromagnetic radiation through its aerial, much like your typical tiny FM radio.

But fine, here's a clarification: when I'm talking about runners or equivalent operators stalking the wild nuyen with a knife between their teeth and a radio in passive mode, I am talking about having that piece of equipment in a state where no signal is being generated, but only absorbed for the purposes of field intelligence on the movements and activities of opponents who are not observing radio silence.

... I would have thought that this would be tolerably obvious from real world vocabulary and from the context of my posts, but obviously I was wrong ...

Actually, that statement is not correct. Every receiver contains a local oscillator to bring the signal down to intermediate frequency (IF), which is emitting EM waves itself. This is how military counterintelligence (and others) locate radio receivers, which you appear to be referring to as "passive radios".

Not necessarily true. For example, the inbound waves can be directly interpreted, not by feeding them through analogue electronics, but by software analysis. If you're talking about strictly analogue radios, you're right, but it hasn't actually been universally true for quite a while. For reference you can look at some of the more exciting developments in software defined radios where the signal, (possibly after some kind of amplification depending on the strength and the aerial design) is fed directly into the software controlled systems without conversion. In fact, you can, if you're sufficiently bored, hook an aerial straight in to a circuit which does all sorts of neat things with the information without intervening oscillators yourself using equipment from radio shack. If this sort of thing really excites you on a deep level, just look at a voltage graph on a high voltage line which has been struck by lightning. Good times! Bear in mind that nothing here implies a Matrix connection or even a PAN link. Your biggest limitation is the voltage levels going in, for which you can use an appropriate limiter.

That said, I will grant you that on some level anything which is feeding a changing current through a conductor will generate a certain degree of field activity, but to pick that signal up and to separate it from environmental noise, especially if the equipment is at all competently shielded, is deep magic. In a busy electrical environment you might have better luck detecting perturbations in the local fields as a way of deriving the motions of your opposition. Still, no Matrix link required.

An argument not even in question at this point.

In this scenario, is he flashing this light from the rooftop or is there a row of lights on their radio?

Either. Both. Whichever suits the exigencies of the situation. The bigger point is that there are communication and coordination options which work perfectly well in combat, which have nothing to do with the Matrix, so something like:



is frankly out of touch, or at least unimaginative. Moreover, every run is different, so attempting to shoehorn all communications into the Matrix when there may be different, or actually definably better options which are non-Matrix, just so that deckers have something to do in combat, is silly. Given the right circumstances, a heliograph might be just the right answer. Good luck hacking one of those.