Alternate Reality
Programs: Edit, Analyze, Encrypt
Availability: (Rating x 3)
Cost: 1035 x Rating (up to Rating 3), 2520 x Rating (up to Rating 6)
This unusual piece of IC is designed to work with more offensive IC and security hackers. It functions as a form of 'active annoyance' against unauthorized users, hopefully confusing or frustrating them until they trigger an alarm by mistakenly walking into a trap they might otherwise have avoided, and to keep them off balance when engaged in cybercombat. On the first pass of each combat turn, Alternate Reality lives up to it's name by editing the node's iconography to one of up to (Rating x 10) themes. Anyone without the proper encryption key is forcibly thrown into these new themes, which can have wildly different looks. A sword might be an attack program in one setting, but look like a simple brown button in the next, while a spider may change from a stationary rock to a giant spider. Alternate Reality spends the remainder of the combat turn analyzing icons in an attempt to discover unauthorized users and trigger an alert. Hackers utilizing a Reality Filter must make the appropriate test each time the reality shifts.
