The return of decks was silly...
Silly or not - I personally
love the concept of having the deck back.
It is
iconic for the genre that William Gibson created with the Sprawl-trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa) back in the 80s.
Similarly, the rigger and decker divide is an artificial division that doesn't make sense.
Riggers are crazy good drivers while deckers are cyber-hackers.
Explain how...
When I said "almost" none I was talking about the
majority of all the wireless bonuses which actually do speed things up (a good example is that many Change Device Mode Simple Actions can take advantage of the Change Linked Device Mode Free Action if you enable them - including the laser sight you mentioned).
Beyond that there are some wireless bonuses that are actually really easy to explain (but have nothing to do with
speed).
For example;
You normally recharge a stun baton by plugging it in (it just take 10 seconds per charge). The wireless bonus is there so you also have gain the ability to recharge it wireless (via
induction). But recharging via
induction is much slower (it take 1 charge per hour).
A lot of devices are also not practical to make with universal access ports or physical buttons. It is simply much more convenient to access them via an ARO (this of course require wireless access).
As for Internal Router; The biggest reason why internal Router was added later and why it work the way it works was to please people that didn't understand the concept (like you)
Explain how wireless is faster than wired can ever be...
Because SR5 take place in
the future...No, your argument of bandwidth and speed bonuses doesn't make sense.
I don't think you should try to claim to know how technology will work
the future Having said that, I stand by my statement that almost none of the wireless bonuses make sense
until you embrace the idea that wireless communication in SR5 is
faster. Once you do that almost all of them start to make sense. You might not like them. But at least you can find an explanation to why they work the way they work.
It is just free advice. Use it. Or don't use it.
Bluetooth security is only viable with restricted range. If you increase the range and do not increase the security, Bluetooth ceases to be viable.
Still.... Once you take a closer look at how matrix actions, devices, slaving and hacking etc all work together while at the same time think "Blue Tooth" - everything about matrix 2.0 starts to make sense.
Again. It is just free advice. Use it. Or don't use it.
Also, hacking in previous editions were so heavy that you could basically send the other players out for pizza while the decker traversed node after node just to switch of a single security camera.
In this edition you just take a single test to place your mark on the camera (directly from augmented reality while walking together with your team) and then you take one single test each combat turn to edit the live camera feed as you and your team walk pass it.
I personally think rules are still a bit over-complicated (at least until you learn them), but they are a lot more streamlined and integrated with how you execute and play out normal meat space actions.
Bring back nodes and routers and local networks and whatnot might make things more secure but mostly it will just make things even more complicated. No thank you.
My primary focuses are wireless bonuses and technomancers.
As I said, almost none of the wireless bonuses make sense
until you embrace the idea that wireless communication in SR5 is
faster. Once you do that most of them actually fall into place.
As for Technomancers. They will be fleshed out in the upcoming Kill Code. I think they will expand on them being magicians within the matrix rather than making them biological deckers, but I guess we both have to wait and see about that.
After that, I am going to bring down decker gear costs...
You can make a perfectly viable AR decker hybrid (hybrid-anything really... be it face, street samurai, rigger...) by just packing a n Erika Elite or Little Hornet.
To provide matrix overwatch (disabling cameras, opening mag locks, controlling elevators etc.) you are often only opposed by 4 pr 6 dice anyway.
My AR decker is a cybered up physical adept gunslinger that is also really skilled at driving and also have a few drones (everyone should have a few drones).
Dedicated deckers with expansive higher rating decks are of course better suited for pure pay-data runs, but your AR decker hybrid can even manage to do that (by abusing a direct connection to get access to the host and by pushing the limit with edge once you locate the protected file you are after).