QUOTE (DrZaius @ Jun 3 2014, 02:18 PM)
I'm not sure I agree with this concept. I think drones in particular are always "wireless on"; otherwise, what Lobo described could happen too easily. Granted, an enemy hacker can take temporary control of a drone, but they should have to take additional actions (data spike it until it's smoking, gain enough marks to control device, force reboot to have it fall to the ground etc.).
They still do have to take an additional action - they have to use either Control Device or Spoof Command. So, for instance, the Decker could, as you describe, use one action to Hack on the Fly to put a mark (or marks, should they take the penalty) on the Drone, and then use Control Device to fly it into the ground and crash it, OR they could use Hack on the Fly to put a mark/marks on it and then use Control Device to shut the wireless off. It is still the same number of actions.
(on a separate note, if all they want to do is Brick the device, they don't even have to put a Mark on it - Overkill's character could easily deal enough Matrix damage to brick one of your drones without marking it.)
QUOTE (DrZaius @ Jun 3 2014, 02:18 PM)
VEHICLES, on the other hand, are different. I think it depends on what type of vehicle it is. Agree that if it's a company car, it's got wireless on all the time, since it's essentially a drone. But personal vehicles (in particular shadowrun vehicles, where presumably you'd want to creep around a city without broadcasting your location) should have the option to turn wireless off. Vehicles and drones are for the most part running silently, though, as that just makes good sense from a security standpoint. Additionally, turning off the wireless on a vehicle doesn't necessarily remove control; it still has the physical controls, or in the case of a rigged vehicle, the direct input.
I'm not sure if there is supposed to be a distinction between vehicles and drones per the RAW. Vehicles are essentially drones that are designed to carry people. In fact, here is the quote from the book:
Drones are unmanned vehicles intended to be used remotely
by riggers or run autonomously. Of course, any
vehicle or other machine with a rigger interface can be
run remotely by riggers or autonomously, but drones
tend to be cheaper, more specialized to their function,
and don’t need to pay for parking. Still, the rules for
drones apply to any remotely controlled or rigged device,
but between us chummers let’s just say “drone”
because it’s shorter.
So, I'm thinking that if you can shut the wireless off on a vehicle, you can shut it off on a drone. Also, from the perspective of "company" vehicles as opposed to "personal"vehicles - they aren't mechanically different - i.e. the Ford Americar that Renraku purchases doesn't have a different mechanical way of shutting the wireless off than the Ford Americar Bob Smith buys from his local Ford dealer.
QUOTE (DrZaius @ Jun 3 2014, 02:18 PM)
ETA2: I guess my main point is that on drones, there's almost never a case where you'd intend to turn the wireless off, since that's how you control the darn thing; it wouldn't be built into the device. ALSO, an effective way to negate wireless are the jamming rules, which I think would serve the same purpose as what Jack was describing (but require an active usage on the part of the jammer). In point of fact, I'm going to read up on the jamming stuff to determine if we can't take one of these vehicles.
Jamming is weird with regards to how they have ruled. The way it has been ruled, if I have a Rating 2 Commlink, and a smartlink (which is a device rating of 2) and someone hits me with a Rating 6 jammer, I immediately loose any wireless bonus that I get from the smartlink, however, both are still connected to the Matrix, and both still can perform any action that does not say "Wireless Bonus". So, for instance, I can still use my commlink to send messages (although I will take a -6 dice pool penalty).
So if you hit the van with a Rating 6 jammer, then it can still be traced, just with 6 points of noise. And if the person trying to track it has Signal Scrub and a wireless Datajack, he can negate 3 points of that.