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Kanada Ten
Psychotropic Defense Utility
Type: Defensive
Multiplier: 2

Each rating point of PDU running reduces the TN for resisting the effects of psychotropic code by one. Reduce the rating by one after each resistance test. The program can be returned to it's full rating with a Swap Memory operation. This utility is becoming more popular, especially in Europe where a recent viral scare has driven sales upwards dramatically.

*Note that I still doubt the effectivness of such psychotropic attacks, but they appear at least valid in canon (SoE), though their scope in terms of actual damage is not known.
Kagetenshi
Meh. I'm very iffy about that effective a defense. If I were to allow it at all, I'd probably go with a multiplier of 8 at a minimum.

~J
Kanada Ten
Becasue it's somehow harder to filter specific code than all of it?
toturi
I'd put the multiplier at 4, the same as Shield, the highest for Defensive Utilities.

And I'll call it the Black Helm Utility. Protect your brain from Black Ice brain freeze.
Kanada Ten
Technically it couldn't stop Black IC from inserting psychotropic code since that bypasses programs; only viruses and normal simsense would be blocked by it I think.
mfb
yes, it is harder to filter specific code than all of it. filtering all of it is a simple matter pulling the plug out of your datajack. anything beyond that requires a roll of some sort, and often requires a program to bring the TN down to something reasonable.

moreover, simply blocking code isn't the issue. if you're resisting psychotropic effects, the IC's code has already gotten past your software defenses. i'd probably make this a cyberdeck component--maybe an expansion of the ICCM filter.
toturi
An ICCM Pyschotropic filter emulation utility?
Kanada Ten
QUOTE
yes, it is harder to filter specific code than all of it. filtering all of it is a simple matter pulling the plug out of your datajack.

That's not filtering, that's blocking. The idea is the PDU scans for psychotropic code and removes as much as it recognizes before it hits the user's brain - thus reducing the damaging code's effective rating. Maybe I need to rethink the concept.
mfb
eh, possible, i guess. depends on your view of how everything works. even so, though, psychotropic IC is really, really complex stuff. flitering it isn't much of an issue, but recognizing it should be. not to mention the requirement that you actually have some sort of knowledge of how psychotropic IC does what it does. how many programmers know psychotropic IC well enough to create code to recognize it?
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