Shadowrun

Shadowrun General => Gear => Topic started by: Joush on <10-29-11/0813:52>

Title: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: Joush on <10-29-11/0813:52>
Can an implanted comlink be equipped with a sim module or do you need to get the implant version? Can an implanted comlink be equipped with a skinlink to interface with other skinlink equipment?

Dose Direct Neural Interfacing control of a comlink allow you to silently make and receive calls? Can you see images and hear sounds without audio or visual devices if you have a DNI able to feed information directly into your brain ala simsense?

What exactly dose DNI do? The information on know-softs says that a sim module and a datajack are considered a DNI and the information on cybernetics says that implants are controlled that way.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: The Doomed One on <10-29-11/0925:30>
Can an implanted comlink be equipped with a sim module or do you need to get the implant version? Can an implanted comlink be equipped with a skinlink to interface with other skinlink equipment?

Dose Direct Neural Interfacing control of a comlink allow you to silently make and receive calls? Can you see images and hear sounds without audio or visual devices if you have a DNI able to feed information directly into your brain ala simsense?

What exactly dose DNI do? The information on know-softs says that a sim module and a datajack are considered a DNI and the information on cybernetics says that implants are controlled that way.
In order:
Don't know.
Don't know.
Yes.
Yes.
It lets you control the device with your mind so as to not need another manual way to control it, or at least that is my understanding of it.
Hopefully that helps.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: rasmusnicolaj on <10-29-11/0943:48>
I think you need an implanted simrig besides the commlink. Otherwise it would have been mentioned in the rules (I know not a perfect argument but commlinks and simrigs are not exactly the same).
I think the implant part make it possible for the commlink to interact with skinlinked gear as the commlink effectively are part of your brain.

On the other accounts I agree with the Doomed One. I recall some fiction (maybe fanfiction from this forum) about a multitasking women that fence at the same time she talks on the phone.

Rasmus
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: Valashar on <10-29-11/1321:06>
A simrig is not a comlink accessory. It is a separate device that does not need to be an implanted version if you have an implanted comlink. You don't even need a comlink at all to use a simrig.

Yes, if you equip an implanted comlink with a skinlink, then it can connect thusly with other skinlink modified gear you have.

Yes, if you have DNI then sound, images, etc. are sent directly to the sensory centers of your brain without passing through the various sense organs (eyes, ears, etc.).

DNI just means that a particular device is either directly wired into your central nervous system (most cyberware, implanted comlinks) or that you can control it via mental impulses via a device that can read your neural signals (trode net, sim module). It basically means faster control (some simple actions become free actions as shown in the main book) as well as completely silent and/or private control as there are no physical controls used.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: Sengir on <10-29-11/1328:56>
Can an implanted comlink be equipped with a sim module or do you need to get the implant version?
While not explicitly spelled out in RAW I'd say the latter, otherwise it gets too easy ;)

Quote

 Can an implanted comlink be equipped with a skinlink to interface with other skinlink equipment?
Can't think of a reason why not

Quote
What exactly dose DNI do?
Generally, on any device with DNI you can perform the Change Linked Device Mode action as a Free Action, i.e. toggling the wifi on your cyberware on/off, or extending a spur.

A Sim Module requires DNI to transmit the simsense data into the brain, without an interface to the brain it obviously can't do much. If you have both a Sim Module and DNI, you can indeed get all the stuff from your commlink beamed directly into your brain, and your thoughts get translated into commands to the 'link.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: tzizimine on <10-29-11/1518:38>
Important note: a sim module module allows you to experience simsense, hot or cold as appropriate. A simrig allows you to record simsense for others to experience. As for implanting, I don't see a problem with using the sim module in the commlink, I do house rule that to get the benefit of AR, you do need something with image link to correctly overlay the info with what you are naturally seeing.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: Sengir on <10-29-11/1921:30>
As for implanting, I don't see a problem with using the sim module in the commlink
The implanted Sim Module would become completely superfluous if you could just get the plugin for nearly free.

Quote
I do house rule that to get the benefit of AR, you do need something with image link to correctly overlay the info with what you are naturally seeing.
House rules are every group's domain, but I fail to see the point. A Sim Module + DNI can beam images, sounds, and even emotions straight into the brain, why require an implanted display on top of that?
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: tzizimine on <10-29-11/1941:55>
Concerning the DNI with Image Link, I always envisioned the Image Link needed for AR, as opposed to VR, to coordinate your vision, as the input method of DNI would be a full-brain override.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: Joush on <10-29-11/2109:08>
Other then the description for knowsofts and brief mentions in the description of sim modules, where are these covered in the books anyway?

You don't need an implant for an image-link, it's an option on glasses, goggles and contacts, but over all you can see where there are a lot of questions here that the books don't seem to clearly cover.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: tzizimine on <10-29-11/2257:10>
The hacker in the group I gm for has DNI to control is dummy commlinks has Image link via contact lens. Its no hard to pull off, so it's really not an issue. Although it does bring up the question, how many times have you seen/played a situation here someone's glasses or goggles with smartlink were pulled off as part of an enemy tactic?
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: CanRay on <10-29-11/2307:03>
Makes the spell "Magic Fingers" a lot more useful.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: The Wyrm Ouroboros on <10-30-11/0029:27>
Can an implanted comlink be equipped with a sim module or do you need to get the implant version? Can an implanted comlink be equipped with a skinlink to interface with other skinlink equipment?

Dose Direct Neural Interfacing control of a comlink allow you to silently make and receive calls? Can you see images and hear sounds without audio or visual devices if you have a DNI able to feed information directly into your brain ala simsense?

What exactly dose DNI do? The information on know-softs says that a sim module and a datajack are considered a DNI and the information on cybernetics says that implants are controlled that way.

I would actually not require either a) skinlink or b) direct neural interfacing for an implanted comlink.  Skinlink runs the signals through your bioelectric field, right?  If it's implanted and taking up essence, the commlink is already connected to your bioelectric field.  Skinlink, in short, is for those gizmos that you do not have implanted, but that you don't want make susceptible to hacking.

As for DNI -- if you have a datajack, well, there you are; if you have an implanted commlink, you probably have a datajack.  I would presume that the datajack was automatically connected to the implanted commlink.  If not, then what are you doing?

I would, however, require each 'link necessary for the person to perceive in that sense 'spectrum' while in AR.  They can, of course, drop immediately into VR if they have the sim module up and running, and get the feed that way -- but I wouldn't allow an AR feed to be dumped directly into the brain without serious penalties.  The various sense links are there so that the character's sensorium doesn't get overloaded.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: Sengir on <10-30-11/1639:56>
Concerning the DNI with Image Link, I always envisioned the Image Link needed for AR, as opposed to VR, to coordinate your vision, as the input method of DNI would be a full-brain override.
SR4A, page 219f:
The easiest way to get your AR fix is through simsense. You need a direct neural interface—either via installed implanted commlink, implanted sim module, a datajack, or a trode net—along with a sim module for your commlink to interpret the signals and feed you the data.

IF DNI always needed the full override, street sams had a serious problem...falling unconscious every time you extend your spurs somewhat lowers their intimidation value ;)
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: Joush on <10-30-11/1726:52>
DNI also allows you to speak lanauges you've never learned and use skills you don't possess, so it makes sense that it works without dropping you limp.

Still, DNI isn't simsense, and it never really covers the limitations to simsense.

We know you can't use simsense to replace an imagelink for the proposes of running a smartlink system because it's explicitly spelled out. We know that you can control implanted devices with DNI, but not if you can get information from implanted devices from DNI, though we know that DNI can let you use know and lingsofts.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: tzizimine on <10-30-11/1753:16>
Joush, thanks for pointing out why I  ruled that way. After thinking about it, I realized the problem with the full brain override, but couldn't remember why the hacker needed image link. It was for the smartlinked Ares Predator he uses.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: Sengir on <10-30-11/1828:18>
We know that you can control implanted devices with DNI, but not if you can get information from implanted devices from DNI, though we know that DNI can let you use know and lingsofts.
My conjecture/houserule is that the feedback from DNI is the mental equivalent of status LEDs on a device -- at least as far as the level of information is concerned, the feedback itself could also be some other sense or maybe the knowledge is "just there", like facts from a knowsoft.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: Joush on <10-31-11/0331:49>
Or the haptic and thermal senses of a cyberlimb?

Like many things in the game, it feels like you end up in a pitch black room with people trying to describe an elephant. The only way we seem to be able to figure out what DNI dose and it's limitations are by patching it together from a dozen different sources, some of them not really seeming to agree.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: All4BigGuns on <11-06-11/1732:47>
Personally, I think that the sim module accessory would not be compatible with implanted comlinks because the implanted sim module is just that, the sim module (cold and hot sim possible). The simrig is just an upgrade on the normal sim module incorporating the devices necessary to access the simsense stuff without a trode net or datajack.

As to making a call with an implanted comlink, well, I think it's quite plausible since the implant could translate your thoughts into your "voice" for transmission and sent received signals to the appropriate sections of your brain to "hear" the other person talking. Now you probably would need an image link still to see the other person from a video feed (without going full VR), but so many people in the Sixth World blank out the video that that isn't a big deal not to have.

The Direct Neural Interface, that one I'm a little sketchy on, but due to that being the control of the VAST MAJORITY of cyber implants, the whole thing about a hacker hacking into your PAN and gaining control over your cyber is--to be quite honest--bullshit. Now the hacker might be able to mess with your smartlink and make it useless in that fight by making it target your allies until it's deactivated, but everything else is pretty much cut off from access other than your brain. (The wireless nodes in the cyber implants being there pretty much only for diagnostic and maintenance purposes with little or no REAL access into the systems)
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: tzizimine on <11-07-11/1305:39>
Well, there are a number of 'activate'-able implants that could go wrong if controlled by someone else.... engaging the gyromount cyberarm during melee, releasing the retractable sputs while holding your gun, cyber-implant gun (speaks for itself)... I agree that an bone lacing can't be 'hacked' but plenty of other things can.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: All4BigGuns on <11-07-11/1308:53>
Well, there are a number of 'activate'-able implants that could go wrong if controlled by someone else.... engaging the gyromount cyberarm during melee, releasing the retractable sputs while holding your gun, cyber-implant gun (speaks for itself)... I agree that an bone lacing can't be 'hacked' but plenty of other things can.

The activation is via the direct neural interface, however, which means that your network has little or nothing to do with said activation. Worst they might be able to do is tie it up for a pass or two with a diagnostic. And that is assuming they know enough about cyber implants to be able to pull off starting a diagnostic.
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: Zilfer on <11-07-11/1829:09>
Well, there are a number of 'activate'-able implants that could go wrong if controlled by someone else.... engaging the gyromount cyberarm during melee, releasing the retractable sputs while holding your gun, cyber-implant gun (speaks for itself)... I agree that an bone lacing can't be 'hacked' but plenty of other things can.

The activation is via the direct neural interface, however, which means that your network has little or nothing to do with said activation. Worst they might be able to do is tie it up for a pass or two with a diagnostic. And that is assuming they know enough about cyber implants to be able to pull off starting a diagnostic.

Even 70 years in the future it still taking long diagnostic times.... damn. Thought theywould have fixed that in the future. xD
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: All4BigGuns on <11-07-11/2023:47>
Heh. Notice I said "pass or two". That would be quicker  :P

That said, that's assuming that a hacker would even know what to look for in a piece of 'ware to be able to do it in the first place. Which they probably wouldn't unless they were hacking as a sideline gig and had a day job as a cyber doc
Title: Re: Implanted comlink accessories and questions about Direct Neural Interfacing.
Post by: CanRay on <11-07-11/2024:30>
Even 70 years in the future it still taking long diagnostic times.... damn. Thought theywould have fixed that in the future. xD
Are you kidding, it's only going to get worse and worse...  So many things that can go wrong.