[PiXeL01]

I’m rereading the rule book for who knows what time and I’ve reached the vehicle section.
Now, my GM side would assume the city law enforcement contract holder could have a shortcut or direct link to the GridLink central to be able to direct traffic away from danger zones or into the way of dangerous criminals to cut them off.
So what if a decker wanted to do the same, what stats if any would the GridLink host have, which is still controlled by Renraku I assume

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

According to the guidance given in the "Sample Host Ratings" chart on SR5 pg 247, I'd call the sprawl's Grid Link system falling best under the category of low-level government.  Therefore with an appropriate Host Rating of 7-8.

Of course Hosts normally have attributes of HR+0, HR+1, HR+2, and HR+3.  For a system with so much and so public use, Data Processing and Firewall should probably be the highest two.  Reserve Sleaze for the worst, leaving Attack for the last stat (unless of course you decide that hackers have been a problem of late, and Attack is currently jacked up so that IC can better keep the system online...)

[PiXeL01]

Would make sense.

Currently I’m imaging that each intersection is a separate device(s) it’s own, disconnected from the main central host
Or
Each district a host on it own.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

I'd consider each traffic light its own device wirelessly connected to the sprawl-wide host.  Wirelessly because of course it is- there's no compelling reason to explain why the added expense of laying ground wires from every intersection would be cost-effective when wireless connectivity is the standard that's otherwise available.  No wireless can make sense in a heavily budgeted secret corp facility... not so much for public infrastructure.

However I suppose I can see the logic (both in-universe and meta) of making a single intersection=a single device rather than each individual light pole being an individual device.


I absolutely wouldn't think it makes sense to break down the gridlink by sub-hosts, however.  One sprawl=one host.  Getting more complicated than that is just complicating things for the hacker for no reason other than to complicate things for the hacker.

[Redwulfe]

Typically it would be one host for the the sprawl but it could be one per district, your city your rules. It wouldn't be that far of a stretch as power grids are separated to mitigate entire city blackouts. Knight errant in Seattle is on a one host per precinct infrastructure so I could easily see it in that city. I would also note that city emergency services and utility companies would probably be authorized to get automatic invites for marks to gain while on duty so your players may try to gain marks that way as well rather than just directly connecting to a low traffic area.

[Lorebane24]

From a GM' perspective, I'm more or less with you, but I l would imagine the host does a lot of automated control to keep traffic running smoothly.  If I had a hacker that eanted to reroute traffic or create a jam, I would say once they're in the host, they need to use matrix perception to find the part of the host that controls the area they want to affect, followed by an edit file action to change the data it is sending and recieving for a brief amount of time.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

From a GM' perspective, I'm more or less with you, but I l would imagine the host does a lot of automated control to keep traffic running smoothly.  If I had a hacker that eanted to reroute traffic or create a jam, I would say once they're in the host, they need to use matrix perception to find the part of the host that controls the area they want to affect, followed by an edit file action to change the data it is sending and recieving for a brief amount of time.

I'd think the player would just want to hack the traffic lights directly.  "Make it turn green before we get there so traffic starts moving and we can zoom thru, but turn red in time so that our pursuit is bogged down by traffic-law obeying civilians..."

And I don't see why it couldn't work that way.  Sure, the traffic lights would be wirelessly connected to the GridLink host, and subsequently enjoy the protection of its Firewall rating.  But why hack the host?  Same firewall rating either way, but the traffic lights' Device Rating is only going to be like 1 or 2, and much easier than the Host Rating of a governmental/municipal system.

[Lorebane24]

And that could certainly work too!  But in that case, the players is changing a single light, and if they come to another light they have to hack that one too.  I'm thinking if they actually hacked the host, they can reroute traffic several intersections ahead and set uo an overall favorable route forr themselves.  It would depend on what the trram is going for.

[Kincaid]

Direct connect to a single traffic light (get out those Seattle DOT jumpsuits!).
Get a mark on said light.  This should be pretty easy.
Marks run upstream, so you now have a mark on the host.
Enter Host.
Once inside the host, you are now directly connected to every slaved device in the WAN.  (Note: This does not mean you have marks on those devices!)
Get marks on the lights you need to control.  This should be easy from a mechanical standpoint, but since it involves multiple dice rolls the GM can throw in complications like spiders and Patrol IC.

Profit.

[Marcus]

I think any of those options are probably doable but it would a lot easier to develop the i always get a green light program, and you could keep pretty subtle if you only used it in emergencies, and gave it enough lead time to alter the light cycles. The traffic jam thing is certainly also doable but it's gonna get you into a fight real fast, and risks serious public backlash if you actually make it stick for any period of time and get identified.

[Senko]

Another thing to consider is control vs management. That is while you have general day to day operations all going on for gridlink I'd imagine that there would have to be some central point where the whole thing can be controlled so if say a terrorist attack occurs in shopping complex A with injuries, fire and general mayhem due to a gang attack someone needs to be able to not only route the lonestar/doc wagon/fire services there but also ensure the nearest responders get a clean run from A to B (green lights, traffic automatically controlled routed out of a lane for them pass, traffic manually controlled notified emergency services will be passing through in the left lane and to move to the right). Probably some well secured building with various control systems and hardwired terminals that can be used to log in when you need to do something like that. Whereas you have the day to day stuff with some low level ID's e.g. lonestar services broadcasting a siren equivilent get a pass on breaking certain traffic laws or a visiting figure has a VIP code running ahead through the system and prioritizing their traffic so all the other traffic moves aside for them. Sort of like modern lane changes except their limo remains in one lane while the traffic ahead moves across and back to let them pass and traffic lights have a much higher chance of being green when they come to them.

It'd also allow for hackers to have a whole range of extra options in their hacking.

Levels of protection Low level slum system easy to break into as the money which isn't there for the neighbourhood also isn't there for the system while a high lifestyle neighbourhood system is harder to crack.

Levels of integration our above slum could have huge sections down or working intermittently making it easier to adjust things there and say create a black spot around your hideaway where people just don't go via the grid and if they query it "Due to sever power supply issues section 432EE is currently not available for grid link travel you have been routed via 432EWS instead, have a nice day." Much harder to pull off in the higher class areas but a code can do more there because the systems all tied together to avoid traffic jams and give the wealthy a quick enjoyable trip.

Levels of access with different difficulties to obtain running from the VIP package (which is bandied around on the right sites for those with the money to get a little extra boost in their neighbourhoods) up through law enforcement, government, corp with increasing difficulty to obtain and duration vs access. Buy/hack the VIP package and you can pretty much use it as much as you like but it just means you get to your destinations easier (don't use on a run or you leave a trace) but hacking the corp neighbourhoods board CODE is much harder will change in a short duration but will get you anywhere on the grid fast. If you want to actually control/route traffic to/from a specific destination you either need to get creative an use low level CODES to try and steer it or break into the local hub and use the terminals there to set up what you want from the hardwired terminals/back hack a very high difficulty host.

[farothel]

I'm not sure how gridlink works (if anybody does), but emergency services would have some sort of code to make sure they always have green lights.  I know that they are thinking about such a thing right now (there are still practical issues, like most traffic lights today don't have wireless).  If they have such a thing, it might be easier just to spoof such a code and let the system thinks you're an emergency vehicle.  You should be long gone by the time they catch on (it would be best to have those spoofing licence plates and to repaint your vehicle afterwards).

[Beta]

I suspect that doing things to traffic lights wouldn't change the traffic flows much, when Gridlink is controlling the flow of the vast majority of the traffic (If this anywhere that has banned manual controls they might have gotten rid of traffic lights entirely). 

Let's say you are are traveling along Avenue A, coming up to the corner with 1st Street, and there is a traffic light there which is currently red for you.  Hacking the traffic light to turn green for Avenue A and red for 1st street does NOT stop Gridguide from sending traffic from 1st street through the intersection (and keeping traffic on Avenue A stopped).  As far as Grid Guide is concerned, the light hasn't changed (it didn't tell it to do so).  So you may still have trouble getting through, depending on the traffic levels and if you are under manual control or not.

Now, if you just passed through and want to stop pursuers, hacking the light to mess up traffic (perhaps an accident, perhaps just confused traffic slowing things down), then hacking the light without hacking the host might be fine.  But if you want to give yourself true fast travel, you'll need to hack the files on the host to tell it that (for some reason) it should keep giving priority to Avenue A through all intersections (probably setting a file to emergency responder mode, or something like that).

[Xenon]

Direct connect to a single traffic light (get out those Seattle DOT jumpsuits!).
Get a mark on said light.  This should be pretty easy.
Marks run upstream, so you now have a mark on the host.
Enter Host...

This is how I would do it as well...

If the traffic light is slaved to a host to begin with of course... Because it quite hard to physically protect each traffic light odds are that they just run directly off the PubGrid or the Local City Grid.

Get marks on the lights you need to control.

...except maybe that rather than getting a mark on each individual light and then remote control them myself I would probably just use the existing mark from the master to Spoof a Command to instruct the slave to change by itself, on its next action. Acting as if the instruction came directly from the Host. That way I would not have to mark each individual traffic light...

Hi BTW... Been away form this forum for awhile :-)

[Kincaid]

I'm coming back from a period of dormancy myself--nice to see you around!