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Jamming Signals Question

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Stainless Steel Devil Rat:
In SR5 all the jamming techniques (I've been able to find...) by way of the Electronic Warfare skill and gear are represented under the rules as a noise penalty.

So how do you jam actions that don't involve a dice test that would be subject to a dice pool penalty... like security goons using the Send Message matrix action to radio an alert/call for backup? 

For that matter, if you happen to hack all/the only radio the opposition has, which matrix action covers cancelling or rerouting their outgoing call for help?  Seems like Snoop is closest mechanically, but doesn't explicitly cover manipulating the target's matrix traffic in the fluff.

firebug:
When a device is subjected to higher Noise than its Device Rating, it loses all wireless functionality.  This would be best way to try and shut out a large number of matrix devices, but it's not that easy to achieve, especially when the highest rating jammer a PC can begin with is R6.

There's no way to stop a message after it's sent; as far as I know, that might not even be possible in real life, but don't ask me.  You could stop someone's call with Spoof Command or Control Device, but that won't work if they just used Send Message.

Realistically, a PC hacker needs to be very proactive, bricking or jamming communication before it goes out.  It's a lot of work to do in addition to looping cameras and opening doors, but it's a vital step for any kind of stealth mission, and a big reason why getting caught is still a problem even if you have the best decker in the world.  Nobody's fast enough to stop six guards all sending the "Intruder" message at once.  The "proactive" thing applies to almost every aspect of being the team's matrix specialist, btw.  You can't unbrick devices (not in the middle of combat anyways), un-launch IC, and so your job is to negate identify and negate potential threats the same way the Street Samurai takes out the most dangerous enemy first.

Stainless Steel Devil Rat:

--- Quote from: firebug on ---When a device is subjected to higher Noise than its Device Rating, it loses all wireless functionality.  This would be best way to try and shut out a large number of matrix devices, but it's not that easy to achieve, especially when the highest rating jammer a PC can begin with is R6.
--- End quote ---

Is that actually said somewhere, or is it a house rule? Because... that makes many if not most devices utterly usless (wirelessly).  If a rating 4 spam zone inside a shopping mall (far as I understand the fluff, perfectly normal) shuts down R3 and below devices... well that's almost everything's device rating:

Simple 1 General appliances, public terminals, entertainment systems
Average 2 Standard personal electronics, basic cyberware, vehicles, drones,
weapons, residential security devices
Smart 3 Security vehicles, alphaware, corporate security devices
only things working in a shopping mall would be:
Advanced 4 High-end devices, betaware, military vehicles and security devices

Heck 5 noise would even shut down any cyberdeck you can possibly buy in chargen (before noise reduction, but still).

firebug:
It's an actual rule, and I've made that same argument about how stupid that exact interaction becomes.  The FAQ's answer was "it only stops wireless bonuses", but that's not the official rule.

My suggestions is to houserule Noise into "Spam" and "Static", based on the chart on page 231.  Spam is caused by traffic and cannot paradoxically shut down wireless signals, only cause penalties.  Static is caused by landscape and also includes the Noise made by Jammers, and can disable wireless functions.  Static and Spam don't stack, and Noise Reduction applies to both equally.  For the record, even though it's not listed in the book, the suggested errata is that Noise Reduction applies to all devices in the same PAN as eachother.

Stainless Steel Devil Rat:
Interesting, thanks for your info.  House rules aside, would you say that any noise reduction would by default be going towards spam/distance and be ignored at first when jamming occurs, and the target may subsequently "tailor" their noise reduction to go against the jamming noise (assuming they have the knowledge necessary to do so), thereby possibly getting their device rating back out of range?

example:  A rating 4 commlink running Signal Scrub is jammed by a rating 6 jammer because the Signal Scrub is actively working against spam in the area and/or focusing on reducing distance noise.  But if the target recognizes the jamming for what it is, he could "re-run" Signal Scrub to lower the jamming noise instead?

Going back to the matrix specialist being proactive... obviously the team's decker should be hacking the site's host before/while the team is gaining physical access.  And obviously it's ideal that noone is detected by guards/drones/sensors... but eventually the less-than-ideal will inevitably occur!  Presuming the decker's already sitting snugly inside the host, which action would she use to suppress an alert being sounded by a guard/sensor/drone using a communicator that's slaved to the host?  Obviously, a guard radioing on his personal commlink is something a decker sitting inside the host is ill suited to handle, but presumably a guard's supposed to use a radio on the site's security net since that'd magically ignore noise for being "inside" the host... 

And that last sentence raises another ball of worms... devices slaved to a host ignore noise... so can they even BE jammed?  Maybe it's best to presume they ignore noise except actual jamming?

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