You are about 40m away from the main entrance. To reach his flat you have to walk around the building to the back, so in total about 70m

@Jack:

Just so i get this right: Does it sound like someone was knocking the door, just very heavily, or more like ramming the door, getting it to open by force? And (whatever it is) it's obvious enough that the team sees/hears it, even through the transmission, correct?

It's definitely more like someone trying to kick the door in.

The noise is somewhat swalloed by being behind the building and having an active building site around, but yes, it is likely transmitted somewhat through your mike.

Ok, thanks for the clarifications.

http://i68.tinypic.com/fu5hnc.png


Just to clarify where everything is.

I have a noizquito around. Can it see what's at the door?

Apologies that I've been unable to post. I'm a bit sick and life's challenging. I didn't have am opportunity to state where James is. Please, Jack, decide as you see fit. Is it with the team?
How many armed drones are coming?

P.S. Assume that bnc shares cam feeds and all security relevant information on the team channel.

As I might not have internet for the next couple of hours, here's Wraith's initiative for when these buggers attack: Initiative Raph: 1d6+9 10

@Volker
I'd have said: James is with bnc to keep watch over her body. Your spy drone is able to make out two groups of two anthro drones currently in the process of knocking down the appartment door. Another two groups for a total of 8 are on their way around the corner. They move with surprising agility and very much in concert with each other.

@Luckace
There is the kitchen counter to hide behind - large enough for two, everything else is rather flimsy pseudo-Bauhaus style furniture.


Ini:
Group 1 (door knocker)Ini: 12+4d6 27
Group 2 (stand by) Ini: 12+4d6 21
Group 3 (Moving in) Ini: 12+4d6 25-10 for late to combat
Group 4 (Moving in) Ini: 12+4d6 28-10 for late to combat

We start the Ini at the moment where they attacked the door.
Those of you who sprint their, are at Ini-10 (but then, that doesn't affect you much while all you do is move)

Group 1
Knock down door: 13d6t5 5
DV 13P vs. Resist: 20d6t5 5
Door takes 8 P and disintegrates.

Janitor and Wraith take cover.
Group 2
Step through and make Electronic-Warfare/Sensor Check to detect targets:
Simple Action: Sensor Check: 13d6t5 2
Simple Action: Fire Taser at Janitor
Fire Taser: 14d6t5 6
Janitor defense (Full Cover): 14d6t5 6
Electric weapon makes this still a hit.
Janitor has to soak 9S(e)
Janitor Soak: 5d6t5 2
Takes 7S damage

Group 4 moves through the door and aims for Wraith:
Shoot Wraith: 14d6t5 5




Just for your information: Yes, you are seeing a swarm program in action, based on a powerful RCC.

14 dice on autopilot? Wow I did not know it was possible.

What about the spirit? I'd assume -10, but gets there in the first combat round?


At any case:
Spirit(Man F6) - Initiative: 12+3d6 21

Pilot 6 (DR of RCC) + Autosoft 6 + Lasersight 1 + Aim 1

The spirit is at -10 and will have to spend a complex action to materialize - also Anna will have to spend a simple action to give it its order (unless you are again reckless summoning)

Nova's Initiative: 6

Bye
Thanee

Initiative: 3d6+11 19 - 10 = 9

Anna is not summoning, the spirit was summoned a few hours ago (in the bunker gig). If I understand correctly she'll keep it until sunrise (or services exhausted). Thus, she only needs a simple action (does it matter what her initiative is?)

if SO:
Initiative: 18+2d6 24


P.S: Jack nice - never knew pilot was from RCC, incredible. Thanks for explaining.

@Gilga

Ah, ok. Still, it can't act before you give it it's command. So it will be acting in Ini Phase 1. (-10 to Ini for late to combat, At ini 11 starting to manifest. At ini 1 first combat action)

But before I continue, I want to see what bnc does.

Yes, definitely let's wait, I think she may be the mvp of this combat.

I'll be able to post thoroughly tomorrow, promise!
Can I already identify whether the drones are directly spider-controlled or running on auto?

Can bnc access the RCC to get control over all drones at once? With spoof command

Your earlier Matrix Perception test identified the RCC, so you know that one. You don't know that the drones run on their pilots, but from the data you have (synchrone movement) you can guess easily that they run with swarm soft and therefore aren't directly controlled through a jumped in rigger. A spoof would only affect one or two (with the Fork program) at the same time. The RCC is where the persona of the rigger is currently build, who also "owns" the drones.

When Nova's turn comes around, she would run towards the door and probably shoot one of the drones, unless there is some reason not to.

Depending on the situation by then, she might also fire up a dose of Jazz.

Bye
Thanee

but if I hacked the RCC who runs the swarm program, could I not use Spoof command on the RCC (rather then the drones) to send a command to all drones simultaneously? If the RCC can use the swarm program, so can everyone who can force the RCC to issue commands. Am I wrong?

If you gain control of the RCC, you should just be able to send legit commands to the drones, or not?

Bye
Thanee

That's exactly what I meant. Thing is, the owner of the RCC can always just undo my commands. Ownership's always stronger than marks.

Unless your command is to turn wireless off and sleep for an hour... or something of that sort.

Or as it is a Swarm have all drones tase themselves. You vannot undo the electricity damage.

@gilga
That's pretty much where I want to go, but decision is with the GM, of course.

I only just realize that you can also run an agent on a RCC which means that there will be a rating 6 agent constantly firewalling it again, making it futile to attack the RCC as taking out the agent in a combat situation will just take an eternity.
Man, I don't like this rulebook...

I guess, I'll need some more minutes to figure out what I can do with firewall agents all around.
Be back in a minute...

@GM:


From my perspective, that should allow me to send an order to all of them simultaneously as I don't attack any of the drones but the RCC itself. I just forced it to issue a command, and this one is distributed via the Swarm program to all 8 of the drones.

So, let's just split reality into 3 parallel universes, and you, Jack, decide which one is valid.

=======
universe 1:
assumption 1: I can use spoof command to send the command "shut off" to all of the drones simulatenously
assumption 2: When I identified the RCC, I could note make out an agent program constantly firewalling it, i.e. it has to either run silent (and thus suffer the penalty) or the RCC is running other programs instead.

Initiative should be:
6 (intuition) + 7 (data processing, ASDF = 5678) + 4d6 (hot-sim) + 1d6 (co-processor) = 5d6 + 13.

Initiative: 5d6+13 33

Free Action: say "Eliza, move the van!"
Complex Action: Hacking on the Fly: 17d6t5 8
Opposed roll: 14d6t5 5
I calculated: Device rating 6 + Willpower 6 + agent constantly firewalling it with 10 dice: 2 = 14

I don't know if I missed anything else. I don't believe he can use an interrupt action like Full Matrix Defense specifically against this attack as I'm still in silent mode. Unless both he and the agent are fully protecting the RCC all the time, of course. If he managed to defeat my roll, please give me the opportunity to use edge.


universe 2:
assumption 1: any of the assumptions of universe 1 are wrong
assumption 2: I didn't see 8 agents running about and protecting each drone individually.

Initiative: 5d6+13 33
Free Action: load battle configuration through Configurator (ASDF = 7568, Fork, Hammer, Shell, Decryption plus Encryption hard-wired).
Complex Action: data spike at the first two who enter with tasers:
Data Spike: 15d6t5 5
Opposed rolls: 2#12d6t5 4 3

That's be: 7 (attack) + 1 or 2 (net hits) + 2 (Hammer) + 1 (decryption) = 11 or 12 boxes of damage, which should take out both.

As this happens in 33, Nagl would not be hit.


universe 3:
assumption: any of the assumptions of universe 1 are wrong and assumption 2 of universe 2 is wrong

Initiative: 5d6+13 33
Free Action: say goodbye
Simple Action: shoot myself


If there is something else I missed that would turn my action absurd but bnc could clearly see, please give me the chance to intervene. At least today and tomorrow I'm at home and can react quite quickly as I am on sick leave.

get well soon (and all that other cordial blabla)!

Take a look at the quote: "This trick only works on devices and agents, not IC, sprites, hosts,personas, or any other icons."

You can't spoof the owner, just devices that he owns.

Also, your defense and resistance rolls aren't entirely correct: Those drones are slaved to the Triox:
Dataspike:
"Test: Cybercombat + Logic [Attack] v. Intuition + Firewall
You send harmful instructions to a persona or device, causing Matrix damage to the target. Your attack has a Damage Value equal to your Attack rating, with one additional box of damage per net hit, and two additional boxes of damage for each mark you have on the target. This damage is Matrix damage (p. 228), resisted with the target’s Device Rating + Firewall"

Triox Ubermensch: Pilot 6 + FW(RCC) 7 + Encryption 1 = Defense: 2#14d6t5 6 2
First one resists attack, second takes 13 Matrix damage, soaks with it's own device rating + Firewall Defense: 4d6t5 2 11 Matrix damage - one drone is bricked.

ad quote: Yeah, that's why I posted it. An RCC is a device, not a persona. Of course, the device runs a persona but that never has been a problem. We spoofed commands from commlinks like a hundred times or so, and a commlink works exactly the same way as an RCC (CRB even says so specifically). So, rulewise, it should not be a problem to take out all of them at once. But it's your call, at the end of the day.

Okay, so we are still in universe 2, right?

As for the resistance rolls: yep, I just assumed dicepools as I didn't know how high they really were.


Uhm. Can I not judge from its position in RL which drone is which? I mean, they're not running silent or something. I should know which is which as I do have a camera feed (two, to be exact).

"Personas are the “people” of the Matrix. Some personas
are actually people, users and hackers who are connect-
ed to and using the Matrix. When a person uses a device
to connect to the Matrix, the device’s icon is subsumed
by the persona’s icon, so it’s basically gone from the
Matrix until the persona jacks out."

And how exactly would you correlate a serial number to a dusty drone you can just see from a drone hovering?
As it is, you have 8 drones on camera and 8 icons in the matrix without a direct correlation between them.

There is a new matrix action to mark RL targets to enable you to see just that in Kill Code

TAG
(SIMPLE ACTION)
Marks required: None
Test: Computer + Logic [Data Processing] v.
Sleaze + Intuition
You track and analyze enemy movements in real
time, giving your allies the edge in engagement.
The hacker may “tag” a number of targets on a
single PAN, equal to their net hits, within their line
of sight. They can then relay those tags wirelessly to
allies. Tagging a target negates up to 2 dice in pen-
alties from Visibility and Light/Glare to any affected
ranged attack rolls allies may be making against that
target, including blind-fire due to invisibility or shoot-
ing through cover. Allies who can see a tag may also
take one additional Take Aim Action against that tar-
get as a Free Action on each Initiative Pass.
Tags may be sustained by spending a Sim-
ple Action to refresh the tags each Combat Turn.
When using a PI-Tac, the hacker may add the PI-
Tac’s level to the number of targets they may tag.
Note: In order for allies to receive this bonus, they
must have the ability to see AROs.

Nova 6
Sharkboy 9
Between the two of you, the second drone will go down before it get's a chance to act

Second Phase:

Group 1 17
Group 2 11
Group 3 5
Group 4 8 (Eliminated)
Spirit (Materializes) 11

bnc 23
Wraith 0 no more actions this round

So, bnc is the only one with actions in this second phase, but on the plus side she is first (by the way, why aren't you just attacking the RCC?)

Which group are the bots with legs, if we know that?

I'm not sure what you mean.
All those bots have legs.
They are all anthro drones of the same model

Okay then ... does that mean I can also no longer spoof commands from commlinks? If persona carrying devices fall away, I can't think of many devices who still are able to issue commands at all.



By, uhm, looking at, I guess. There's a clear correlation between a device's physical location and its location in the matrix. E.g. "The devices that appear to be closest to you are the ones nearest your meat body." The correlation goes so far that it actually blends in. Several hosts make use of this 1-to-1 correlation, e.g. bars and nightclubs in which personas and RL persons mingle.
So, simply speaking, if I just target the drone icons farthest away from me and closest to Wraith's commlink icon, that's where I hit.


As for why I don't attack the RCC:
Basically because I have to assume that the drones have good autopilots. So, taking out the RCC would give us an edge, for sure, but taking out the drones even more so. Also, I just have to assume that there's an agent firewalling that thing and I don't know if I could even get enough hits against the RCC. And if I don't, it'll deal me matrix damage which is a nuisance considering I use a headware deck.

So, here is the rest of my actions:

23: Simple Action: turn off running silent
Simple Action: move car to the nearest point (since I didn't have a Free Action to ask Eliza to do it)
Free action: swap Firewall and Attack.

13 and 3: data spikes

Initiative: 5d6+13 33

33: data spike again (3 in total, thus targeting all of them)

Data Spike: 3#17d6t5 4 6 6

Opposed roll: 6#14d6t5 7 1 8 7 5 3

So: 4 vs 7
4 vs 1
6 vs 8
6 vs 7
56 vs 5 [I somehow mistook that for a 5]
56 vs 3

Wow. 7, 8 and 7 hits with 14 dice!
I use edge for my second attack:
Edge: 11d6t5 3

Soak rolls: Soak: 4#4d6t5 1 2 2 1
EDIT: plus the one I missed for drone number 5: Soak: 4d6t5 0

So...
1: I receive 3 points of damage, unresisted.
2: 12 boxes of damage - bricked
3: 10 boxes of damage - depends on the drone, but I assume they're MCT Kenchiku-Kikai and will thus have 11 boxes
4: 11 boxes of damage - bricked
5: draw 11 boxes of damage - bricked
6: 11 boxes of damage - bricked

I saw a mistake shortly after I posted the post above. It's already rectified but in case you already loaded the post: it has been edited (I thought I had 5 instead of 6 hits on my 3rd data spike)

@Volker
You can only spoof commands to unattended commlinks - those that are a device and not a persona


As for matrix-RL location correlation: That has been discussed since the core book came out, but there is just nothing in the books that would justify that assumption. There are fixed AROs that are specifically meant to corellate to a RL location, but the vast majority of icons have only two states: Being within 100m radius and therefore obvious, or being outside this radius and therefore needing a matrix perception test to be found.
Otherwise the tracking action wouldn't be needed at all, since after finding an icon you'd always have direction and distance from your icon as well.
Tracking and Tagging are the way to go if you want to identify something's location.

As for the drones: They have a really shitty pilot on their own - as demonstrated when you knocked one out and the other lost the swarm effect.
You already contended with the RCC - all the drones are slaved to it. One agent can protect the whole PAN with the protective action - which this deck doesn't seem to have.
With pilot 2 they also only have 9 Matrix Damage Boxes

Phase 3

Group 1 7
Group 2 1
Group 3 5

Spirit 1

bnc 13

Random roll: 1d3 1
Your First spike hits the lead group, breaking up the swarm and leaving one drone behind and dropping it's ini by 4 to 3

Group 3 acts next and fires at the new threat:
Shoot: 14d6t5 3
Spirit easily defends Defense: 13d6t5 6

Remaining drone 1 shoots at spirit: Shoot: 10d6t5 2
Defense: 12d6t5 3
No hit
Spirit attacks: Random roll: 1d5 2
A drone from group 2:
Having no natural weapon it does only Stun damage which doesn't hurt the drone at all.

AFter that, bnc takes care of the four other drones. Only three remains at the start of the second round (with bnc likely being first again with 33:

So ini from all to see who gets the last remaining drone...

Okay, thanks for the clarifications on spoofing and location.

As for the RCC: I see your point. For once, you and I come to different conclusions a lot these days which sometimes leads to actions I might have done differently if I knew how you regard things from the beginning. I thought, e.g., that I am the Firewall would not extend to the whole PAN, too, as it's not (as the name implies) a boost to the Firewall rating but specifically a dice pool bonus for users (which drones and guns are certainly not). As my first attack against one of the drones showed no additional bonus dice, I was confirmed because I was sure, no-one who spends 140,000 on a rigger console would then be stingy with a 12,000 nuyen agent that would grant 3 bonus dice against attacks (and be handy in many other situations, too). So I was sure I circumvented the agent's protection by attacking the drones instead.

Also, I assumed that a corp who gives a 3 months free rent to all residents of a block, raises a whole corporation to tear named block down and so forth, that is, a corp who spents hundreds of thousands of nuyen just to find something and set up a trap, would also buy proper pilots. From your perspective - knowing that the Triox is essential to steering the drones - attacking the RCC might be the logical option. From my perspective, I couldn't know that it would have done more than lowered their dicepool by just a few dice.

I see. The disconnect stems from the fact, that you assume the opposition has set this whole thing up just to catch other investigators or Kerstin.
There are a few more things going on - the main thing being that your opposition lacks some essential information...

Yep. Everyone moved out save for the one single person any investigators are bound to stumble upon. The very person surveillanced by a powerful watcher and an army of drones who are not only armed despite being worker drones, but also controlled by a rigger with a Triox Übermensch RCC? That sounds a hell of a lot like a setup for me. That's why I figured it doesn't make sense to pour thousands and hundreds of thousands of creds into it and then leave the striking force with cheap pilots.

Or maybe it's just bnc seeing herself as the main character all the time

initiative: 9+1d6 13

Man, i really need to invest some karma in Wraith's initiative... Previously scoring Ini10, thus having only one pass, is just painful!

Jazz up your life - for just 75¥ a pop!

Bye
Thanee

In case it's relevant

Initiative Rd 2: 3d6+11 20

btw, I think your init roll is missing, too, isn't iit?

@Jack

Do we know if Eliza did anything?

Right.

Initiative (Turn 2): 17

Bye
Thanee

@Volker
I think that should clear the situation up a bit more

@Jack
Not sure if Sharkboy's or bnc's, but here is what Sharkboy is going to do.

#1. Clinch
Need the constructo-bot to make a reaction+intuition check Clinch (Gymnastics 6 + Agility 9) [9]: 15d6t5 3

#2. Suplex
Throw Person Unarmed Combat: 21d6t5 6

Defense: 4d6t5 0

Yeah, you got this...

I am completely lost as why do we assume that a mage in that building is related to us in any way. Was there any ingame logic that I missed?

First and foremost, the same organization that set drones after Wraith and the janitor made sure everyone was sent out of the building - except it seems for a mage.

If you want everyone can make a Magical Theory test to get another clue.

M... so the mage is in the building under construction?
Magical Theory: 7d6t5 2