Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => The Secret History => Topic started by: Daen82 on <08-18-13/2102:28>
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I'm pretty sure this has been a topic of discussion at some point, and that I'm probably jumping on the subject a bit late, but here we go...
Why on earth would anyone want their cyber-implants with any sort of external conectivity? In game it adds a very welcome something to do for deckers, during combat. But in terms of scenario and suspension of disbelief, the risks seem too dangerous for any possible advantage it may provide.
So, in-character wise, why would anyone even consider that sort of technology? What are its supposed benefits?
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Low data usage and faster browsing?
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Basic operating principle of computer security: Usable systems are not secure, secure systems are not usable.
Basic operating principle of human decisions: When the chances of negative consequences are low (and sometimes even when they're not), many people decide that it will never happen to them and thus take the risk, regardless of the severity.
Combine this with the fact that deckers and technomancers are gonna be rare as all hell, and it might start to make a little more sense to you.
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Low data usage and faster browsing?
With risks that a third party makes it malfunction, possibly causing death or the failure of an important operation? Hardly a fair trade-off.
Rhat's premise is actually pretty damn interesting; however, considering the way it worked before, it was pretty usable AND safe.
(also, pardon if I miss a lot of details here but... what about Deckers/Techies being rare? Why?)
Don't take me wrong, I really love how it changes the role of Deckers in general; I just find it hard to justify it in-setting.
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(also, pardon if I miss a lot of details here but... what about Deckers/Techies being rare? Why?)
Decks are illegal. All illegal Matrix activity gets flagged by GOD.
Also TM's are less than 1% of the population, fewer than the awakened. So who are you going to worry about more, the guy hacking with his brain or the guy who can light you on fire with his mind? (Answer: Both)
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I'm pretty sure this has been a topic of discussion at some point, and that I'm probably jumping on the subject a bit late, but here we go...
Why on earth would anyone want their cyber-implants with any sort of external conectivity? In game it adds a very welcome something to do for deckers, during combat. But in terms of scenario and suspension of disbelief, the risks seem too dangerous for any possible advantage it may provide.
So, in-character wise, why would anyone even consider that sort of technology? What are its supposed benefits?
Being able to run a diagnostic without invasive surgery.
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(also, pardon if I miss a lot of details here but... what about Deckers/Techies being rare? Why?)
Couple reasons. First off, as to technomancers, they just ARE extremely rare - they only even started coming around 5 years ago now, and the Emerged portion of the population is orders of magnitude smaller than the Awakened portion. An effective decker, meanwhile, practically HAS to be extraordinarily intelligent (already cutting the potential group down to an extremely small share of the population), be in possession of a relatively rare, highly restricted, and very valuable piece of equipment, and has to develop a skillset that can pretty much only be used for being a decker. No matter the assumption you run those numbers under, you're coming up with a pretty small percentage.
Part of it, of course, is that the new Matrix is WAY more secure - skript kiddiez are now impossible.
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And by slaving the cyber to a commlink you provide it protection as well.
See it this way: How many people have changed the password on their wifi?
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I don't want to sound insistent or stubborn, but the issue remains. To address some of the arguments:
- people do not care for their wi-fi password, but your modem isn't an artificial internal organ that can potentially kill you.
-if a cyber has wi-fi connections, it means any third party with access to a terminal can, theoretically, invade you for multiple harmful purposes, not only deckers. Heck, it would make sense to have some "wi-fi jammer device" in any mercenary's/police/runner" inventory, just in case.
- remember that this is not just a humanitarian concern, it can potentially hinder/compromise entire military/corp operations, its investiments, and any resources involved (including cyberware itself).
-the diagnosis idea sounds good, but can also be achieved via directly plugging into one's datajack.
Still hard to see why anyone would bother switching their gear to wi-fi versions (unless it has been ret-conned that it has always been an indispensable part of cyberware tech;is that so?)
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You can still turn off the wifi, and it was already an option in SR4. You simply lose any wireless benefits then. And not every piece of cyberware is owned by someone who's a professional criminal or high-ranked security. How many facilities are built to resist a truck ramming the gate and exploding inside?
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You can still turn off the wifi, and it was already an option in SR4. You simply lose any wireless benefits then. And not every piece of cyberware is owned by someone who's a professional criminal or high-ranked security. How many facilities are built to resist a truck ramming the gate and exploding inside?
I understand how wireless works great for the general user. But the runners and most meaningful characters involved in a shadowrun story are far from general public, they're actually closer to spec ops, militia, intelligence agents and the such.
People don't worry about gates being rammed by armored trucks because that isn't a very smart, discrete, practical or inexpensive strategy - unlike hacking/harassing a system remotely, cyberdeck or not.
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(also, pardon if I miss a lot of details here but... what about Deckers/Techies being rare? Why?)
Because Deckers/TM prefer to do it online? :P
Hence lower number of second generations. ;)
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-the diagnosis idea sounds good, but can also be achieved via directly plugging into one's datajack.
Not everyone has a datajack, with the rise of trodes and wireless they're much less common than they were in the '50s, and there's really no reason that your datajack would mesh with all of your cyberware.
Essentially here's the deal. In the 60's nanotech revolutionized cyberware, not least by allowing rapid data transmission through the body by things like skin link, but the SYBIL virus fried enough nanotech that what's left is unstable and not trusted by most people. All of the cyber in 4E has wireless connectivity for diagnostic purposes already, 5E just offloaded some of the processing and routing to compensate for the increased size and cost of making all of this stuff in a world where nanotech is suddenly unreliable.
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Perhaps the same market forces that are actually punishing more secure solutions while rewarding less-secure options and use behavior today are present in the 2070s?
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Because the more WIFI equipement avaliable the faster all the WIFI equipement work ? Data transmission is not the burden of your sole Comlink every computerised item share the burden of transmitting data from every other item in the area. That is how they manage to have the WiFi Matrix to be so fast and so powerfull. The trade back is that it make equipement vulnerable to hacking.
Personnaly I dont like it. I never allowed the hacking of cyber-implants and never will, I also profundly dislike the Wifi-Matrix because, from a Gamemaster point of view it make devicing interesting situation far harder.
But Fluffwise, it is only the logical step.
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You know, it is completely possible to hack into someones pacemaker today, and even kill them through it. This is a think people can do RIGHT NOW. While the security has gone up (it is nothing now, to what little there is on cyberware today, and slaving a device makes it even more secure), and there will not be less wireless 50+ years from now, there will be more, and people aren't going to take turn off wireless and lose all the conveniences on the minor chance of coming up against a decker/hacker. Now, a someone in the military, or a shadowrunner, may turn it off, but the average person isn't going to bother.
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What are its supposed benefits?
Bonus Dice for throwing knifes ;D (these are the only Online Items my Char has)
. what about Deckers/Techies being rare? Why?)
Runner Decker/Technomancer very rare (see Posts above) ,but Megacon Decker ?
Plenty of them
with lots and lots of Dances
Medicineman
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. what about Deckers/Techies being rare? Why?)
Runner Decker/Technomancer very rare (see Posts above) ,but Megacon Decker ?
Plenty of them
Plenty of them? I don't see why. There's no point in training and equipping a whole bunch of them when one on shift can be sufficient for several facilities - especially given how much of the work is done FOR them by the structure of the Matrix.
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(also, pardon if I miss a lot of details here but... what about Deckers/Techies being rare? Why?)
Decks are illegal.
Umm what? They are restricted, not forbidden.
Also going with 1%, currently internal medical doctors (general practitioners) are around 1% of the population. Does everyone know and interact with a doctor, that's about the normal amount that the average person interacts with a decker (&/or techno).
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Cyberware is wirelessly enable for the sake of convenience. However convenient generally isn't safe. The more security conscious(read: paranoid) types like Shadowrunners and CorpSec would generally disable and/or skinlink the vast majority of their important cyberware.
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Daen82; as to your comment about having a wifi jammer, I give you this: http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=12790.0
There's a reason my heavily cybered street sam has a rating 4 jammer on him at all times. With it's wireless bonus (which is pretty ironic, if you ask me) of being able to selectively decide who you jam, and a movement speed of 36+++ m/combat turn, you can bet your ass that "Geek the decker!" will be my characters first mantra, followed closely by the more traditional "Geek the mage".
To be slightly more on topic; while WiFi seems like an odd way to go about a lot of things (medkits can heal me better when connected to the Matrix? And what the hell, by being online the hydraulic jacks in my legs help me run faster and jump higher? Anyway...), it's how the designers wrote it. I know that's a poor excuse, but in a world of mesh-networks and constant connectivity, it makes an odd kind of sense to me at least that the corporations would want to make products that require always-on connectivity for updates and "performance reasons".
Let's face it, game companies these days are doing exactly that; don't have a 24/7 internet connectivity? Sorry, you can't play our game (EA, I'm looking at you, bitches!). I don't find it inconceivable that a corp would do the same in the future, especially given that malicious attacks would be rare and, as of 2075, under the constant watchful eye of the GOD (I refuse to call them just GOD, because they are THE Grid Overwatch Divison...).
And while wireless seems like a risk, there are tons of things the enterprising runner can do to protect themselves; buy a top-of-the link commlink, and slave everything to that (hello, Transys Avalon). Then hire a hacker of your own to protect you even further, so that when the opposing hacker tries to mess with your system, you have time to plant 18 rounds from the cybergun in your arm into his head while he is still struggling with your firewall.
Carry a jammer at all times, slaved to your commlink, so that when someone tries to hack your gear you flood the airwaves with noise, conveniently slowing them down while giving you time to find and question/kill them.
Worst case, reboot! If you discover a hacker trying to brick your shit, reboot the device/devices, and turn off wireless to break their connection. Speaking of which; does a hacker suffer dumpshock if he gets disconnected by me turning my commlink off while he's in it? :D
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Probably not. You get dumpshock if you're VRed into a device when it's bricked but I would image just shutting it off(unless you like pulled the battery suddenly) would disconnect all of the users before shutting down.
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Speaking of which; does a hacker suffer dumpshock if he gets disconnected by me turning my commlink off while he's in it? :D
You don't go into devices anymore. If this was SR4, yes. But In SR5 you just interact with devices in at "astral space" like Matrix. The only place with VR environments are hosts. And it doesn't seem like its possible to turn off hosts.