QUOTE (Fatum @ May 13 2015, 04:02 PM)
A warehouse in the Barrens will have how many wireless devices in the night that aren't on a very short list of these allowed? Even the least secure of corporate facilities have precisely zero reasons not to pinpoint anyone wireless-enabled coming anywhere near, because building a system with narrow-beam receivers and a white list database is cheaper than even installing cam coverage. If you want, radiowaves are just like any other electromagnetic emission: there might be a million of lights in the city, and people or vehicles with light sources might be passing a secure zone every few seconds, but that won't make infiltrating that zone in a brightly glowing suit a good idea. Actually, wireless bonuses system is even sillier than that, because a brightly glowing suit just sends electromagnetic waves in all directions until they're blocked, while a Matrix-connected device even in a mesh network must maintain the signal on a high enough level for the low-level handshake and routing protocols of other devices in range to carry its traffic.
None of this is in any way addressed in 5e (to the best of my knowledge). While in 4e, you had devices and systems specifically built to detect the wireless devices in range, and could use real-life sense to imagine how things should be working.
Generally, 4e Matrix was "okay, this and that is weird and you'll have to remember it works that way, otherwise just apply general logic"; 5e Matrix is "it works this way because that's how we think would be optimal for splitting limelight, leave your logic at the door".
Again, there a realistic ways to reduce the chance of being detected. Burst transmissions, rather than constant transmission is one method. You can design the system to use a direct beam to transmit to orbital or flying receivers, which requires line of sight(but, radio line of sight can go through walls, unless they are built to defeat that). You can also skip the signal out over multiple frequencies, so that it appears like background noise. You can use frequences similar to the ones your target uses, but different encryption, so that if they do get a hit, they still don't know what it contains. And you're not breaking any decent encryption in real-time. If you need some hand-wavium to explain how running silent/hidden works, there you go.
EM radiation detectors are awesome. They really are, but they are susceptible to noise, even in the barrens. Electromagnetic radiation is simply too prevelant: it's likely that the structural material of the building will have wireless rfids in it, as well as simple distributed sensors for diagnostics. The drones that clean the place and do maintenance, the banks of computers and wireless devices used for inventory purposes, the guard's radios, the employees radios, the spider if present, etc. And even if you have them on the white list, even if they're cleared signals, they're still signals that are bombarding your sensor constantly, and you need something analyzing the returns and making sense out of them.
It's why ATC is so damned hard: Even though you have planes with transponders, with filed flight plans, with pilots, there is a lot of electromagnetic energy blazing away up there, and you have to pick up each plane. Powerful airborne radars such as those on AWACs can pick up returns from the tops of cars on a highway, and track them. So you tend to scrub out particular signals, but you still get noise the more powerful your sensors are. And the less powerful they are, the less likely they are to detect what you want. It's a simple given. For that matter, your narrow band sensors approach is still susceptible to jamming, as powerful enough baths of EM radition can burn'em out.
So you use a variety of methods to reduce you signature, to make you fade that much more into the background. That's easy enough to approximate as having a hidden matrix icon. Because the first thing they have to do is detect it: to sense that EM radiation and correctly identify it. Some roll should be necessary to detect a commlink using a frequency agile burst transmission. So that's the matrix perception test, and since the default is that everything is wireless, then it can detect a wide range of electromagnetic signals, but it needs a skill to know what you're looking at.
Now, personally, I run it that any device you buy though legitimate means has it's hidden functionality removed by default, especially if it is a restricted item. It lets them be tracked, and establishes ownership. You need to "jailbreak" the device in order to enable it's hidden functionality, or to equip it with the capability to run hidden. That's the test on pg 237. A group of 5 guys with (Logic 4, Hardware 4), a tool kit, and AR plans can do that in five hours. More skilled or smarter ones could probably do that quicker, in fact, the definitely can. A single Logic 4, Hardware 6 professional could be throwing 18 dice or more. I assume all equipment at char gen has been through this process. But I simply can't imagine corporations being such champions of freedom that they allow you to hide your matrix presence using their stuff. Because, who else ya gonna buy from? The whole idea of omni-present surveillance, erosion of civil liberties and economic domination of corporations that answer only to themselves is part and parcel for the genre.
Also, when detecting a hidden device, it's not just a single perception test gives them all away. You get a hit, so you ask if there are any hidden icons, which is yes. Each other hit can be used to get information about one of those icons. Then you make a separate test for each icon to identify it, selecting randomly from the icons out there. Well, considering just how much more powerful a good commlink is than most devices at resisting the matrix, that's not a given success. Commlinks might not hack, but they can damn sure be hard to hack.
It's not unplayable, and it makes it's own sort of sense. And that's good enough if you want to include the matrix in the game, and not just have it in the background. I think it's pretty obvious that in the 6th world, the Matrix is supposed to play a big role in everyone's life. To that end, I did enjoy how accessible SR4 made the matrix and hacking it. When your entire party is on the matrix, team work tests allow some big progress to be made on a lot of things. And then everyone is using the matrix and doing stuff with those rules, rather than skipping that section on the way to magic or equipment. The Hacker is special because he's REALLY good at it, not that he's the only one who can do it. And by allowing teamwork tests, everyone got in on the action sometimes, which is a completely radical departure from how the Matrix worked for three editions. Now, SR5 has shifted it back towards the older edition in terms of who can hack, which I think is terrible, but it's still not completely impossible to dabble in it, and computers users can still help(for example, if you're being attacked they can be used to make Matrix Perceptions and identify the decker within 100m of them who detected their hidden commlinks, then share that with the decker so he can go for the kill. Again, everyone gets in.
But that doesn't happen when we make it verboten and run everything dark. That might be fun for some, but I like the Matrix, and I always wanted technological mastery to actually matter as much as magic or combat. I never liked the old "and now we wait for the decker to do his thing by himself" Matrix. I like that an AR using hacker can actually make himself useful in a fire fight by means other than using a gun, instead leveraging his matrix skill to help the party, when we're all working together and engaged in combat. I like that non hackers can assist a hacker in matrix combat, so the decker doesn't have to pause the action. It actually does work, mechanically.
Don't want your devices trashed? Have a good commlink and run that, or Slave it to your buddy who is better at Matrix Defense than you, and let him defend you with a whole pile of dice. Heck, you even help out the decker, because if the enemy sleazes and fails against you, you can mark him, and share that information with the decker, who now can go at the enemy hacker without needing to detect him first(incase he's running hidden, too). It's not easy to just hack a decent commlink(if a eurocar westwind is a luxury car, then we can peg the "average" matrix threat somewhere around there, with the really secure stuff being very heavily protected. I don't expect every corporate spider to be running a drek hot deck, or be 20+ dice around the table. Elite ones, sure, but most of'em ? Probably not, they're expensive, and teams of them work better than one uber guy.
Different strokes for different folks, but I think the idea of just ignoring wireless matrix is just... bad. And the rules as written, do allow us to still use our wireless equipment AND not be instantly hacked and put on blast. Heck, if your EW guy is running a deck, then he can actually resist being identified for you: (Sleaze 5(6), Firewall 4(5), Data Processing 3, Attack 2, Logic 5, Willpower 5) is throwing 11 dice to resist being identified in the opposed test to identify your icons that are slaved to him, which can be pretty sweet to keep your commlinks from getting spotted in the first place, as well as marking the opposing decker.
I guess though, when you start having the EW guy use a deck, he's really a decker, just a more defensively specialized one, I suppose. But it still works.