Addiction and hot-sim VR... what are some good stats for addiction tests? Do technomancers also face addiction from hot-sim VR? Does anyone plan to make much use of those rules?

Technomancer's start with a bio feddback filter equal to their Charisma. If a technomancer wanted to could they take the Complex Form biofeedback filter to raise their existing filter above charisma, or replace the innate biofeedback filter all together with a higher rating.

Basically Can they take the form again, and if so would it add to or replace the existing filter the technomancer started with.

BlacKat

The main problem I have with the program requirement and leaving off logic are simple. It now makes sense to be a low logic hacker from a gameplay perspective. Trolls can be just as good at hacking as everyone else for the same cost. Going actually into the matrix with your mind means nothing, other than you get an out of body experience. Hackers can not actually hack under these rules. The hacking skill should be renamed to optimizing program settings skill.

I will say that, these rules are more real world based. But people can hack computers today instead of cracking them with programs. You can't do that in 2070?

but what when you encounter a video file type that you have never seen the marking on before? can you guess what it is based on pure logical theory?

Erm, take this discussion out of the Q&A sticky thread, and into the SR4 discussion forum? This thread is for Q&A about SR4's Hacking and Rigging, and not the merits of rolling in Logic with computer skill tests.

Vehicles an Drone come with integrated Sensors.

Can those be upgraded with Vision and Audio Enhancements directly, or does one have to add a Camera or Microphone Sensor package to do so as stated by the Sensor Package rules (thus being limited to capacity)?

The way my group reads it (and, sadly, this is yet another instance where the RAW could stand to be clarified) is that, yes, you have to install enhanced cameras, mics, etc. (the reason they list various size drones along with other devices on the general capacities table) to get those benefits.

As written, the integral sensors appear to be some sort of short-range radar-like system, not video/audio - which would be why smartlinks don't particularly help with targeting vehicle-mounted weapons while rigging or otherwise not pointing the gun yourself. And also helps to explain why metahumans have such a low sensor profile. If you or the Pilot program could just see them, you wouldn't have to replace Intuition with Sensors on perception rolls. All basic cameras are considered to have perfect 20/20 vision, so there'd be no real need for sensor ratings, either, if that's what vehicle sensors were. Of course, the designers could have had other intentions, but the rules aren't very clear on what, exactly, basic vehicle sensors include.

You can use the even smaller RFID-Tags for the drone. So, in theory, no problem with a dozen skinlinked sensors on a fly.

And since vehicle sensors are capable of picking up sound and giving the drone information about the surroundings, at least two different sensors are integrated even in a micro drone: acoustic sensors and radar (or even additional video, after all, the pilot can make normal Perception tests through the drones sensors).

SYL

Well, not normal ones - they use Sensor rating instead of Intuition, which enables them to recognize patterns/signatures - whether they can even perceive details this way is a good question.

With the Camera/Microphone, the Test would indeed be a normal one... with Intuition, Enhancements and all.

As for the RFID Camera/Microphone - uh, well, it has an effective visual/audio range of 3 meters... compared to the Camera/Microphone of a Micro Drone that sports a 100 meter effective range, its not that good.

What's the point of Passive Targetting:

hmm, do range modifiers have any effect on passive targeting?

so, if your trying to hit a fairly large target some distance away then passive targeting may well be the best solution. but when hunting metahumans its not so effective as the signature is to small?

Keep in mind that Sensors in SR4 have quite limited ranges sometimes, though.

ah, noted. im going by feel here as i dont have the book

I'm copying and pasting a couple of questions I had about Technomancers from another thread here hoping I might get some answers

Reading the rules I actualy have a couple of questions concerning them, and actualy hackers. Wired matrixs. Maybe I'm missing a few things here (which is why i'm here) but unless technomancers get a datajack they can't access a wired network with their living persona? Or atleast thats the way it seems. I'm assuming with a comlink and trodes they could access a wired one...but not with their living persona? Its very confusing i think in that regard since the book itself does make reference to the fact that wired networks exist still and that they're there for security purposes (harder to get to) and or they're obsolete systems that haven't been updated.

Another question I had was concerning SIN information and technomancers. SIN's bank acounts all that good stuff in 2070 is stored on your comlink at rating 5 encryption. But Technomancers have no inherent organic memory so how does this work with them? Especialy since it's elluded to in AAA sec zones they would get scaned and their sin checked.

Anyways If anyone can answer those questions or point me to where I might find the answers I'd be much obliged

As far as I know, Technomancers do not need anything extra to interface with the Matrix in any fashion.

As for the second question, there is nothing stopping a Technomancer from carrying a Commlink just for that purpose.

Actualy acording to sr4 they are on the comlink.

And Technomancers have no inate ability to access wired grids that are not connected to wireless ones.

most likely the comlink will only carry some choice bits of data about the persons SIN and credit status. the rest is off system so that you cross refrence the data given by the comlink with whatever database that carry the info you want.

want to check someones drivers licence? grab the SIN data of the comlink and then freed said sin into a national or regional database of people that have licences issued.

want to id someone? any number of databases can be used. but the more of them you check the more sure you can be that the person is who he claims to be. ie, if both the drivers licence, credit and maybe social security database all give the same info then most likely its the truth. or it can be an elaborate fake identity.

if you have maybe 2 or 3 of these sitting around, the only way to tell the real from the fake is by digging until only one keeps showing up.

a shadowrunners best bet is to have one deep and 2-3 shallow fake ids, and either put the real one on ice or trash it alltogether. only problem is that with the latter option you risk being used as a guniea pig if you should be caught alive as you do not exist...

A technomancer doesn't need a comm to run his gear. If he runs into a security checkpoint that requests his ID there are 3 scenarios I see.

1. He's got it on a storage device in his pocket with his (fake) SIN data and his Resonance enabled brain ponies up the information as requested.

2. He decides to hack the checkpoint and make it ignore him
2a. He gets nabbed for hacking a security checkpoint.

3. He gets nabbed for not having ID.

His brain can handle all comm tasks excluding data storage and wired/skinlink interface. All he needs is to keep a storage device (2070 version of the USB memory stick) in his pocket.

Question on hacking. A hacker attempting to break into a node roll's his hacking plus Logic or appropriate program against what? My initial reading of the rules led me to believe that the firewalls rating was the threshold the hacker needed. Is this correct? I looked through the thread and did not see anything on this so if it has been answered already sorry.

It is.

Thanks Sapphire. I figured I had it right but wanted to double check as the matrix part of the game never caught my attention like other parts.

There's actually a more complete answer (no offense, sapphire_wyvern ) because you can either hack on the fly or probe the target (both on p. 221). If you're using the probe the target rules, the threshold is System + Fireware for the extended test, but will get you backdoor into the system that you can exploit with a complex action at a later date. The back door might be fixed if security notices you using it, however, so it's still not fool proof.

It looks like there is little reason to not get both Commlink and Control Rigs installed, at least in terms of cyberware to install. I assume there are a lot of different skills involved.

I've been following these discussion with some interest. I want to get a feel for what a rigger/hacker can do in some common situations. In the folowing situations, I'd like to get an idea of what's feasible, and what kind of dice rolls might be involved.

Hacker is in the Mall, knows the target is shopping, but not exactly where. What can the Hacker do to track down the target in the Mall?

Hacker is in street, and sees someone interesting. What does the hacker do to surreptitiously discover that persons identity?

Hacker (w/control rig) is walking downtown, and is being followed by a drone. What can the Hacker do? Take over the drone? Spoof it so it follows someone else?

What happens to the rigger if you successfully jam against a jumped in drone?

Dumpshock, most likely

Right, but you aren't going to be seeing someone's commlink unless they are in your line of sight somehow (within range of your Commlink's signal, I suppose, would be more accurate). While you can get to any node in the world through AR, you have to know where to look first, and more often than not it is the physical location of the node (unless you happen to already have the Access ID of the person, which you can use for a Track function). Now, I suppose you can hack into the mall camera network and jump from cam to cam until you find your guy, then examine his commlink from a hacked drone. But if you can go VR, then it would be easier to simply hop from node to node virtually until you are within range of that fella ("flying around" so to speak).

But in AR you can still open windows to nodes, right? And you could still hop from one node to another just like you could in VR, you're just constrained to meat speeds, right?

If not, I must have missed something when I read through the Matrix chapter...