ah cool, new things to try then!

If you havn't played XCOM/XCOM2, you really should check those out. Really great games!

Bye
Thanee

They both have mobile versions, if that helps with anyone's gaming access. I haven't played the second one on mobile but I found the port of the first one to be excellent.

I'm not sure we can find a drone to mount a grenade launcher to, but if we can then Tamarind can use her gunnery skill. Using the grenades as mines is also possible -- especially on likely access points in the farm.

The mines are an interesting idea, or something with a remote trigger that we can spot from a distance. Ideally we want to 1) trigger the hold-fast adhesive without it being noticed, and 2) give it the 30 seconds to harden.

One approach could be to lay these near the turn-off to the farm. I think it's about a mile to reach the farm fence. I don't know what kind of road it is but I imagine dirt or gravel. Unless they're racing, it will take them 1-2 minutes to get to the farm, which should give the hold-fast sufficient time to harden before we engage.

We should also keep some hold-fast grenades in reserve in case they take a different way in. Mato has a good arm on him.

Mato requested the ghillie suit with thermal dampening. It might be expensive overkill, but he now has thermographic vision so he's more attuned to that risk.

I think AM requested the other ghillie suit but I'll let Gilga confirm.

two other for the smart platforms I think - but I don't know if you agreed with me.

OK, I think we need three ghillie suits then -- 1 with thermal damping for Mato, 2 regular ones for AM and Tamarind? (plus the tarps that are being thrown in for the firing platforms)

Do we need more than six adhesive grenades?

Jack, I might be being dense, but I'm not sure what is meant by a "protector" in that last post?

Wait, why can't AM - who is now Body 6, Strength 6 - handle a riot shield? Seems like she would do just fine with it.

I'm not sure what 'protectors' are either but Mato is digging into the question a bit more ICly.

Six adhesive grenades sounds like a good start to me, but it depends on how we spread them out. I'm thinking a few for traps, plus a couple for Mato to throw. If we want drones chucking them then maybe we want more.

Jack, what's the terrain around the farm? I was originally assuming brown and dusty, especially since spring is the end of their dry season (which lasts from November to April, with May to October being the wetter months), but I figured I should ask. No telling what the Great Ghost Dance did to their weather patterns.

1. I think protectors refers to the PPP stuff for +1 armor, but I am not sure.
2. She can likely take the shield but without a helmet or any other accessory. Originally I wrote something like she realizes that maybe she can but I guess I edited it out.

I'm talking about the armor addons from R&G p.70, SecureTech PPP, add +1 to armor for legs, arms and vitals each

Yes, it is pretty dusty, except for the areas with irrigation. There's already a new crop of corn coming up, so there is concealment left and right of the roads, although only about 1,20m high.

The road is separated from the fields through a continuous irrigation ditch to prevent flash flooding the road if it happens to rain.

For ambush points you have plenty of options before they reach the farm.

Gladius is currently sitting in one of the fields about a km out from the farm, hiding his 8 F12 barriers in the corn field.

I'll be slow this week due to the US holidays. Also, summer camps haven't started yet so I'm juggling child care until the summer routine starts in earnest next week.

As for the IC action, if I'm reading things correctly the barn looks very active but the house looks very abandoned.

Jack, what's the size of this little farm/enclave? Large enough that all those drones are necessary, or does the quantity of drones seem like overkill for the amount of arable land?

Hard to tell for a city boy, but compared to what you've seen in Snohomish, the number of drones seems actually low for the 100ha.

Hey! Mato grew up in the Sioux Nation! Probably in a city, but still. He was, you know, in the general proximity of it...

In my head canon I had Mato's parents working for Wind River Corporation, which is the industry leader in Sioux agriculture. But his father was in finance and his mother in marketing, so I doubt he'd know much about drones, except maybe through spreadsheets. He certainly doesn't have the Knowledge skills to represent any understanding of them, that's for sure.

@Tecumseh

Happy Independence Day

Here the list of the drones:

24 MCT-Nissan Roto-Drone +2 articulated arms
12 Aztechnology Crawler +2 articulated arms
3 Sparring Drones +2 articulated arms
2 Mesametric Kodiak +cultivator/harvester upgrades

In total an inventory worth around 300.000 ¥

That's comparatively at the low end for a fully industrialized farm.

@Gilga

Your matrix perception test reveals that 18 of the drones are still slaved to a running Lone Star Remote Commander with a defense pool of 13
The rotor drones are offline.

I think the valuable point is "there's something going on in here" as compared to the farmhouse, where there doesn't appear to be anything going on.

The drones are potentially interesting resources for us, but we also have to make sure they're not used against us. Tamarind is making that same point ICly.

@Thanee

You know that the farm is a kind of neutral territory between CAS and Aztlan. The owner died without heirs half a year ago and now ownership is in limbo, with both sides not conceding the territory to either side.

It's likely that no-one went there since the owner's death and the drones are just following their regular automatic routine (cleaning and maintaining the drones and the interior of the barn.

Power comes from solar and a battery system.

A "simple" dispute over land ownership does not really explain all the spirits that are here on watch duty, though.

Those make me think there must be something more to it.

Maybe I am just overthinking it?

Bye
Thanee

You are of course correct about that OT - but that's what you know IT

@Gilga can AM get a trace on the location of the RCC?

Of course, we do not know anything specifically, but it seems fair to suspect something.

Bye
Thanee

A quick mention that for the next nine days I'm at a music festival most nights, so posts are apt to be on my phone, between concerts, away from my books. Also due to misinterpreting some info, no home internet until Thursday, so even if have access to books will be on phone. Please excuse poor formatting and abbreviated posts.

+++++++++++++

OOC I'd forgotten which matrix attribute the Electronic Warfare based hacking used, and gave Tamarind the wrong dongle. And was too behind to between chapters to address getting her RCC modified (needed to sort out guidelines for hiring someone to do such work). But I like Tamarind's IC strategy of just blaming it on GhostWalker

No worries, sweet short posts are.percectly.fine.

Btw: with the bootstrap software you can modify a device permanently (until it's OS is restored) to do all kinds of actions - for example giving marks to you

The software is in Data Trails p.56

Bootstrap: An IT expert’s tool of choice when work-
ing with boot code of a device. Corrupted by many hack-
ers, Bootstrap allows for hidden commands to be input
into the device after the next reboot. Popular options
include announcing the location of the device when
it connects to the Matrix, adjusting the processing of
the device so that the default device attributes are the
choice of the user, annoying the user with constant de-
mands for ownership permissions, and making a record
of every action on the device. This cyberprogram allows
for a variety of tasks to be set up in the boot record by
way of a Format Device action rather than just setting the
device up to no longer function.


If you have time on your hand and no opposition, that is a perfect tool to subvert other devices.

I love Bootstrap, lots of tricks that you can do with it! But giving marks seems a bit much? (Consider that the invite mark action is owner only, and while Bootstrap is really flexible, nothing in there implies that you become equal to an owner.)

But even without that, we could for example re-boot them in autonomous mode with instructions of what to do.

It is possible trough a trick:
You just have to instruct it to try a sleaze action on you. It fails it's action and gives you a MARK

Also, the RCC defends with 13 dice.
But that doesn't matter, as matrix perception isn't contested unless your opponent is running silent which it isn't.

Currently, the RCC runs
- swarm
- hardware autosoft 6
- electronic warfare autosoft. 6
- pilot sparring drone 6
- encryption
- shell
- virtual machine
- agent 5

It's attributes are A- S3 D5 F6
-

you only gave it a sleaze of 3 - so that path seems promising with full matrix defense. You can also instruct it to place 3 marks on you for a -10 dicepool right? If so it is the first time I find use to placing multiple marks in one swoop.

Exactly, you can add stealth mode and drop the dice pool even further

Sleaze comes from a dongle btw

Alright, sounds like a plan. So lets see which rolls I need: in the minigame.

1. I need 3 marks.
2. I need to perform bootstrap action (format device? - what kind of roll?).
3. I need to reboot the device.

Now I have a device that tries to hack me on demand and yielding me 3 marks when I need to (or possibly repeating my orders for the swarms).

I'd also need to buy the bootstrap program right?

my motivation is to understand the entire minigame to subvert the RCC - it seems fun to let Tam command a swarm of drones.

Format device is computer+logic [Sleaze]

Uh, oh...

Bye
Thanee

This has nothing to do with you needing a bit of direction towards action, I promise

Let me know if my rolls are good - if I misunderstood and there is something to prevent her from trying again, I'll edge the failed roll. Otherwise, it won't be the cleanest job but she can delete the log file entries or something.

What time is it now, ICly?

It's around 1130h now.

Changing ownership of gear is difficult and dangerous... If the owner might notice. But if it was privately owned, and that owner is dead, maybe easier? The RCC would be a minor upgrade for Tamarind, but the stealth dongle is exactly what she needs (and goes for 27knY). Who knows how things will play out, but since the RCC would work just as well in her pocket as it would where it is, she is looking for opportunities 😁

We should tell him, the price just doubled for the danger he is putting everyone in with that move.

Bye
Thanee

I wasn't sure if Raven was being really feisty or if she's just trying to scare up the price a bit.

Then I did a good job here.

But, honestly, this is a huge change of the situation, and we should definitely not just let him get away with that.

Bye
Thanee

Good disguise, assuming that's them.



Seattle border? You mean Pueblo, I assume (in the direction of where Seattle lies).


How far away from us is that?

Bye
Thanee

Just about 1900 km to the north-north-west.

The plates are from within the NAN, but from a region close to the border with Seattle.

Ah, that makes more sense now.

Bye
Thanee

How far is that charging station from our current position?

About an hour drive away

Thank you, that helps.

Next question: it's a black SUV but can we tell what type it is? Is it a model that's mostly for the road (like a GMC Escalade or a Eurocar Northstar) or something that would be more suitable for off-roading (like a Jeep Trailblazer)?

Edit:
And as long as I'm asking questions, what are the general weather conditions? In theory we're facing east (I think), so that puts the sun behind us. That might help, but only if there's sun.

Anyway, lighting, wind, temperature, etc.

@Tecumseh, your post went up while I was writing mine. I did some edits to provide what drone coverage Tamarind can, give the timing. (and I didn't think that the Kanmushi on the wall would have time to safely crawl out to their car during a rest stop).

@Jack_Spade some info, and rolls that you may or may not need.

She'll be running pelliper pilot, flying eye pilot, target taser, and clearsight in her RCC, and have it deal with one point of noise (meaning that she should be able to communicate with the drone well enough)


First, for using Lazybones (a Condor balloon drone) to look at the SUV to get as much info about it as possible.
perception on black SUV (limit 4): 12d6t5 3
3 successes

Second, for Pelliper 2 to scan the highway for that SUV approaching on the most likely route (aiming to see it 3-5 minutes before it would arrive). Sensor 2, Clearsight 6
Pelliper scan for SUV (limit 2): 8d6t5 2
2 successes

And Third, Mimic (the other Condor ballon drone) watching 'about a minute or two out' along the most likely route of approach. Sensor 4, Clearsight 6
Mimic scan for SUV (limit 4): 10d6t5 4
4 successes

Weather conditions:
Hot, dry, very little wind.
+2 from glare, unless you have compensation (or sunglasses)
+6 to infrared vision.
Sun is high up, so no staring into the sun for anyone.
One our of exposure won't have any significant results as long as you stay hydrated.

The SUV appears to be a nondescript Toyota Talon

Great, thank you.

Next question: How is Jagged Alliance 3? Early reviews look pretty solid.

I'm enjoying it - not on the same level as JA2 - but you never can cross the same river twice

So if I'm starting out, where should I begin?