Have only thought of the few house rules that I have posted so far
Can those of us who prefer a BP build (for familiarity) still get 15 karma for a solidly written story? If so, it's probably easiest to apply said karma after spending the 400 BP, I'd think. Does that sound right to you?
I will look at the logic cap [...] if you want to sway me one way or the other i would gladly take your input on the realistic nature of the rules as you know allot more about real world computers than I.
Real world computing and SR computing should be two separate and largely mutually exclusive areas of expertise, but that might just be my opinion. The upside to Skill + Logic limited by Program Rating is that it adds a reason for Hackers to have a high logic, clearly. It also helps to avoid the need to buy programs at Rating 6 in order to increase die pools. An edit test usually only has a Threshold of 4 so getting an Edit program of 6 may not be as necessary. The downside to it -- illustrated by that example -- is that it does support a bit of min/maxing which makes it harder for newer players to know what to get at 6 and what they could probably purchase at 3. It also makes ratings less than 3 basically useless whereas the default rules don't really result in that. You might be less effective with skill plus a program rating of 1, but if you have 10+ dice in your pool for Skill + Logic but are capped at 1 hit, you're not accomplishing anything.
As a result, it does make Extended tests a little harder because you need to roll more when you have that cap as opposed to when you do not. Since many of the Matrix tests are extended, this can be an unexpected downside. The #1 problem it presents -- which frankly isn't necessarily a big issue -- is finding nodes in hidden mode. That 15+ threshold on the extended test is pretty hard to reach with a cap on hits. And, since you're using the decreasing pool rules from SR4a with respect to extended tests, they're already made a lot more difficult.
It's also much harder on Technomancers than it is for classic Hackers. Since TMs will start with less complex forms than a Hacker has programs, the need for Threading increases quite a bit which, in turn, means an increased chance to suffer Fading damage. On the flip-side, the savvy TM can figure out what level they can Thread a program and buy the hits necessary to avoid Fading and if they have a friendly GM, suddenly they have ALL of the complex forms which is really probably not the best thing either.
I've never had a problem with the basic rules. But, the optional Skill + Logic rules make Hacking feel like the rest of the game a little more organically. I've run with it for a semester just to test things out and I don't think it was any more or less successful than using the "normal" rules and since it means that Hackers have to care about that Logic attribute, I'm generally in favor of it. And, as long as the GM understands the effect this has on extended tests, things can be mitigated to some extent. And, the big important programs that interact with extended tests (i.e., Browse, Exploit, Scan, and Track; maybe Medic) can just be the ones that are purchased at higher ratings. Under the base rules, Exploit and Scan were likely to be high rating purchases anyway, so this only elevates the importance of Browse, Track and (maybe) Medic if you have that sort of character.
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Another question: Spoofing. I'm fairly free with things like Access IDs for Spoofing. Need to go through a door, scan a guard since their Access ID lets them get through doors. It wouldn't let you through all doors -- guards might not have access to the CEO suite -- but many of them. Since Access IDs are available upon a successful Matrix Perception test, the question really centers how your gritty realism translates to matrix security paranoia within the population. Most of the average people at my tables run in Passive Mode to avoid spam but to still allow access to their PAN by trusted or important sources. The likelihood that the average guard, for example, would be running Hidden is slim. Thus, the door-opening example works. But if you think that most people would be Hidden, it changes the way I might target the character away from Spoofing and more toward Exploiting.
But, with Spoofing comes trying again. Since the Spoof is a pass/fail sort of test, if you fail, you usually want to try again. Do you use the -2 modifier for trying again? Also, I know that when spoofs fail at my tables, I usually have a System + Analyze (Stealth) test happen on the server-side. Otherwise, there's little to stop a Spoofer until they glitch. This isn't necessary spelled out in the rules, but it's also not excluded.
Thoughts?
