Rules are more similar to 5th edition than you seem to realize...
I wrote a 43 page document comparing them line-by-line, Xenon. I am familiar.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V-G6O3SOEJuuHBEzpOrTUpT9Owig_GqCUWcPeIZVAx4/editSo... similar mechanics, just that access now go both upstream and downstream which make access network based (while marks in 5th edition only went upstream which made marks icon based).
You're answering something I didn't ask. What I said was "you can only hack PANs/Hosts and not devices, I think most people's reading of RAW means every minor hack of an exterior camera is now a full-on host dive unless the GM invents some handwaving reasons". I didn't ask for a comparison of 5e and 6e. Bashee's work has made 6e's Matrix rules better, but there's still plenty wrong (I suspect because of sacred cows he wasn't allowed to slaughter.)
Let me restate my issue, in case I wasn't clear. In 6e, icons can be: (a) inside a host or (b) not inside a host.
If an icon is inside a host, you can't do anything to it without being inside the host first. (pg 185 "The virtual space in a host is separate from the Matrix at large, and any icons on that host are not accessible unless expressly part of a public-facing side. Gaining access to a host will allow interaction with the icons and devices on the inside.")
I cannot think of any reason why a corp wouldn't put its cameras and maglocks and personnel's guns inside its host. But if they do, I'm struggling to see what the new no-marks Spoof Command is really for.
In this edition direct connection let you ignore nestled hosts. This meant you could for example establish a direct connection to an exposed device, such as a maglock. Hack that to gain access on both the maglock and the host (but in this edition you also gain access on all other devices that are also part of the host). Then enter the nestled host (without doing a deep dive through all the outer layers of the onion) to gain a direct connection to the camera. Since you already have access there is no need to hack the camera so you just take the Edit File action directly.
I think this is a nonsensical reading, so much so I think I must be misreading you. Suppose you have a setup with a building control host A. Inside that is a security host, B, where the cameras and turrets are attached. Also inside A, but not inside B, is a beefy firewall host, C. Inside C is a juicy datastore hose D.
Leaving aside for a moment that we're almost back to the bad old days of second edition pizza break hacking, are you suggesting that a direct connection to a camera (on host B) allows you to jump directly to host D, bypassing hacks on hosts A and C?
I don't think that makes any sense at all. Maybe you can contort that one sentence in RAW to read that way, but I suspect it's not RAI. Banshee? Can you comment?
This is a case where game design breaks common sense. And its been this way since 4e.
Yeah. All I want is a game with a set of rules that can fit inside my feeble brain, that are internally consistent, and that don't make me go "wait, but why?!" more than, say, once a session.
Sadly, it seems to be too much to ask of Catalyst.
Don't get me wrong. This is not a dig at Banshee. He(she) Did the best they could given what they had to work with. No fault of foul there.
+1, to avoid any doubt. Reading between the lines a little, I think Banshee was given latitude to make incremental changes only. He made very good ones. I also think the Matrix rules in 4/5/6e Shadowrun can't be made to sing with just incremental changes. I would very much like to see what would happen if Banshee was given free reign.
And wirelessly recharging batteries is already a thing in RL... it's within my bounds for suspension of disbelief that devices can be powered 24/7 by wireless energy.
For the record: I am OK with buying into wireless power delivery via the Matrix. I realise it's almost completely unexplainable via modern physics. But I'll swallow that pill in order to never give a shit about the battery life on my PC's commlinks, because - and I cannot stress this enough -
fuck that noise.
However:
Look, if the game has to conform to physics, dragons and fireballs are out the window.
...
My background is in IT... the matrix rules are much more fun for me when I remember to willfully ignore reality and go with movie logic and what's "fun" and what's feasibly playable.
This is a game. A game that features astral space, magic and even dragons.
It is not the GM's job to build perfect fortresses that are impossible for players to penetrate...
Having rebellious cyber-cowboys slicing through corporate IC is a huge part of the setting.
Please accept this.
Yes, but also no. I don't think it's quite that simple. It's the dreaded "verisimilitude" argument again.
I'm down with dragons and wireless charging and "if you can plug into the port on the security camera, you can hack it more easily." But I'm not down with "...and yet, the corps don't do anything to block that port up, because if they did the rebellious cyber-cowboys would be fucked." Because the former are fundamental pieces of the setting's premise. The latter is a logical consequence of that premise, yet one that goes unanswered. Mechanically, the game answers it - it's that way because the game demands it. It's circular logic but there it is. But there's not enough support for that in the fiction. Inside the universe, the coprs explicitly have both the tools and the resources to make "perfect fortresses" and yet they... just don't. So you end up with ludo-narrative dissonance, and no option other than to pretend it's not there, and it's annoying.
Same thing with phone calls. It drives me nuts that we have rules for noise (clearly engineered only for game mechanic reasons, to get deckers out of their apartments and into the field.) But that breaks everything else, so we have hosts that... magically never suffer from noise, for no reason that makes any sense. And now you can't call London from Seattle without a pocket satellite link. Maybe you route calls via hosts...? But that's never described anywhere, and if you can route calls via hosts, can you route other stuff? Hacking traffic?
It's all such a mess of contradictions and inconsistencies and unstated assumptions. Xenon knows this better than most of us , because he spends endless hours answering questions about it, on here and Reddit. For some reason he keeps insisting it's all fine, though.
Indeed. I like to answer the question of "how do I become unhackable" as being "the same way you become un-magicable: You don't. You ensure your team has a specialist in that realm to protect you from its threats."
Yes, I'd say it's wrongbadfun to try to go immune to any one of the three of Shadowrun's Worlds. But of course: YMMV.
Uh: be a hobo mage who doesn't own a commlink? Be a physad carrying a burner commlink that's only used to broadcast a fake SIN? Be a streetsam using an internal router? Be a streetsam who's just willing to give up a few dice of wireless bonuses? Be a rigger driving a pre-2075 Matrix-2.0 vehicle via direct connection? Be a Barrens ganger who can't afford a commlink?
Aren't there
tons of ways to become unhackable?
In particular, consider the trope of the offline host: eg. an Azzie corp facility in the middle of the jungle with a host full of juicy R&D paydata. You want to invoke the trope that everything's wirelessly hackable: fine. But another trope is mercenaries fighting into compounds to get data. You can't have both tropes.
Why doesn't the decker stay at home in their cosy apartment, and hack remotely? Or hire a streetsam to plug a magic dongle into a slot? Shadowrun has no real answer, just fudges and guesses and mechanics that don't mesh with fluff. Perhaps that's enough for you, and more power to your elbow if so. I'd like more, personally. I don't think it's too much to hope for.