[MadBear]

I have to wonder if that connectivity functions by using the surrounding matrix as a sort of tacnet?
There would be all sorts of up to the second information a tactical computer could take advantage of, even for items that don't seem readily apparent. Fragg, I could easily justify a connectivity bonus for shoes if I wanted to. 'Buy the new Nike DC cross trainers! With up to the nano-second updates about wind speed and track conditions you'll never miss a step! And with our new distributed computing functionality and biofeedback capabilities, these shoes respond to your personal physical needs by adjusting firmness, support, and spring with each and every step!'  Hehe. Gives you +2 Dice Pool to your running skill.
That being said, I agree that the whole concept is flawed. I see no reason for it, it makes little to no sense to me, and I'll likely be petitioning my GM to house rule it outa there.

[quindraco]

I have to wonder if that connectivity functions by using the surrounding matrix as a sort of tacnet?
There would be all sorts of up to the second information a tactical computer could take advantage of, even for items that don't seem readily apparent. Fragg, I could easily justify a connectivity bonus for shoes if I wanted to. 'Buy the new Nike DC cross trainers! With up to the nano-second updates about wind speed and track conditions you'll never miss a step! And with our new distributed computing functionality and biofeedback capabilities, these shoes respond to your personal physical needs by adjusting firmness, support, and spring with each and every step!'  Hehe. Gives you +2 Dice Pool to your running skill.
That being said, I agree that the whole concept is flawed. I see no reason for it, it makes little to no sense to me, and I'll likely be petitioning my GM to house rule it outa there.

I think many of the bonuses were bungled, to be frank.  Just about anything can be made better with Matrix access without anything so clumsy as adding dice to a pool.  Let's use your shoes example, and maintain the SR5 conceit that cloud computing is how major processing is done now.

1)  Purchase Nike Smartshoes today, with chemical analyzers in the soles, and taste the ground!
--Example: Forensic analysis: you just stepped in a pool of blood.  Would you like to know whose?  What about how many bloodborne pathogens you've just been exposed to?  Only you can prevent Ghoulism. 
2)  Chemical analyzers?  Bose has new treads which, with every footstep, collect and collate sonic data about the ground around you. 
--Example: See like Toph BeiFong, using the cloud to crunch the numbers, without setting off ultrasound mics (but massively setting off seismic mics).

[MadBear]

That's kinda my point, ANYTHING could be made more effective this way. If everything is better, nothing is better, so what's the point?
I could even argue that Smart Undies could properly constrict or expand strategic areas to make you more appealing to a particular member of the opposite(or same, who am I to judge?) sex, based on available attraction preferences. Gives +2 CHA bonus.
I guess I just don't see the point of this, either from a metagame reason or a fluff reason.

[Sichr]

Taking note

[Crunch]

That's kinda my point, ANYTHING could be made more effective this way. If everything is better, nothing is better, so what's the point?
I could even argue that Smart Undies could properly constrict or expand strategic areas to make you more appealing to a particular member of the opposite(or same, who am I to judge?) sex, based on available attraction preferences. Gives +2 CHA bonus.
I guess I just don't see the point of this, either from a metagame reason or a fluff reason.

The metagame reason has been simply and clearly stated. The devs wanted to develop a risk/reward incentive to use wireless connectivity. They felt that in 4e the choice to not use wireless was too simple and minimized an interesting aspect of the game.

You may not agree with it, but it's a pretty simple reason.

[RHat]

Thanks, OP.  Hugely helpful. 

It looks like it's fairly easy to classify bonuses into legitimately needing Matrix access (e.g. being able to make phone calls), merely PAN access with Matrix access helpful for improving range (devices activating remotely), and nonsensical bonuses (inductive recharging, unless I missed some explanatory detail).

You have a very incomplete notion of how the Matrix can help.

[Sichr]

Maybe playing 5th ed may broaden this POV

[RHat]

Eh.  It's sort of a background matter of technical aspects and computing theory.

[quindraco]

Eh.  It's sort of a background matter of technical aspects and computing theory.

Unlike my very weak background in the SR fluff, I have a very strong background in computing theory, so if you'd like to explain further, I'm confident in my ability to listen and learn.

[RHat]

Fair enough.  Simply put, my understanding is that distributed computing is built into the new protocols, and as such some of the Matrix bonuses rely on using the additional processing power of every device in roughly a kilometer radius - thus "making a phone call and such" is a vast underestimation of what benefits the Matrix can provide.  For example, the monowhip seems to be using the superior processing and multithreading capabilities to prevent some of the serious issues that glitching on the test can cause and to more effectively manipulate the whip.

[Crunch]

And notably the systems seem to be designed to use distributed processing to the exclusion of onboard computing power. Whether the ability could have been handled onboard isn't the question, just like SimCity manufacturers are using a protocol that vastly prefers distributed processing.

[RHat]

Not so much to the exclusion of, but rather:  If you're using the idle processing of everything inside of a click it's going to be an order of magnitude more power than you have onboard.

[Sengir]

For example, the monowhip seems to be using the superior processing and multithreading capabilities to prevent some of the serious issues that glitching on the test can cause and to more effectively manipulate the whip.

Its just that the whip is, well, a whip. The awesome matrix multicomputing could calculate movements which prevent entangling yourself in the whip, but to make use of that you'd need skillwires or a cyberarm. And then there is the BipodFolding@Home...

[RHat]

Unless new monowhips have come sort of controllers built in to allow the system to achieve that.  As for the bipods, those seem to follow from the assumption of a binary state on connectivity, as in "if it's not connected to the Matrix, you're not connected to it".  I won't argue that that makes sense for everything, but it is the way they seem to have gone.

[firebug]

Personally, I am just going to do away with the idea of Wireless Bonuses, as presented in SR5, for my home games. Some stuff will get a speed bonus for being DNI-controlled. Other stuff will just have their bonuses folded into their normal operation - plenty of it will still be vulnerable to hackers, since much of it will be routed via wireless and the Matrix due to it being a pain in the ass to run cables everywhere.

This.  I want to try and avoid this for me at all costs.  I admit, I think it's a bad thing.  Not a bad idea on your part, but...  With what seems like a majority of the gamers on this website taking a quick look at one of the new, major rules updates in the next edition and so easily saying that a) they will actively avoid using what is going to be on almost every piece of equipment (and not in-character, as in, the players and GM will say those things don't work like that) and b) it's because it looks so dumb and irrelevant that it's instantly identifiable as "terrible"...  I hope this sets off some alarms for the guys who designed it.  If I was a designer, even knowing the Houserule Rules, I'd still be worried about how much negative feedback this is getting before the book is even commercially available.


Anyways...  From what I can tell, yes, you're certainly right.  They confused "the matrix" with "your PAN".  The speed boosts on almost everything makes sense on most of them.  It's like how Smartguns allow you to eject a clip as a free action.  The idea's that the AR interface is convenient and quicker than pushing buttons on everything, and I like that.

Then there's things that clearly seem to go for the "shared processing power" point--  Computers that can work faster when they are wirelessly sharing the load with everything around them.  I love this, since it supports that global inter-connectivity the wireless matrix is supposed to represent.  Heck, even the Trauma Patch might make sense if nanomachines are involved, saying it uses the information available in the matrix to instantly look up how to heal this specific set of wounds (which is still bull, but the theory makes sense).

If they made them more clearly things that needed just to be part of your PAN, even if that may mean your PAN needs to be able to reach the matrix, I think I would like it a lot more.  Not to mention, they need that whole "risk versus reward" thing stapled to the seat of everyone working on it.  Will I consider making myself vulnerable to hacking for extra damage on a smartgun?  Yes.  Will I put myself at risk to change the color on my gun?  No.

A lot of it doesn't make sense because they seem to feel obligated to have -something- there, suggesting they would put matrix connectivity on a rock just to pretend that their system is that good.

Smartguns and Tacnet in 4th are, I believe, the best examples of what communication between PAN and device can do.  I'm particularly upset that they even mention that an Imaging Scope's bonus is to share it with team mates, implying you won't be able to do that with everything else you'll be carrying with a camera in it.  Fourth edition had things that were worth opening you PAN for, and even though I thought simplifying the matrix was a big part of 5th, they seem to have just loaded all the BS from the decker over to the street samurai and said "It's your problem now."

Oh, finally, did they forget what routing is?  The micro-transceiver could already reach practically across the world because that's prettymuch how commcalling works.