Core states that the RCCs are the size of small suitcases. Not exactly tablet sized. I tend to think of it as the briefcase sized remote control stations occasionally pictured in Armed Forces videos (or the Horizon version of them): rugged outer case, small set of variable display repeater strip readouts, couple dozen switches and dials, a few slots for programs or chips, a couple pickups for arm motions (AR controls for devices), and one or two small repeater screens showing the various camera feeds.
Around the hour and eleven minute mark, it’s mentioned that being a mark on a part of a PAN marks the entire pan. I think this was originally a mistake mentioned by Critical Glitch, and they eventually corrected themselves.
When you mark a slaved device, you also get a mark on the master, but that’s it. As far add I have found in the books, nowhere does it mention getting a mark on everything (that I have found, anyway).
One other semi-correction (although this one is easy to mess up, thanks editing). Per Core – no mention of a matrix connection being required to change ownership.
Per Data Trails, 169, it does require matrix access.
Holo Projections are only capable of fooling people out to 5 meters, while Trid Projectors are obviously Trid instead of Holographic. (As I understand Trid, it’s a third dimension on a flat projection, sort of a simulated holographic but not a true holographic.)
Extreme noise ratings for saltwater is entirely realistic. Dissolved mineral ions absorb and scatter radio frequencies over and above the already impressive values of fresh water. It is possible to use visual frequencies to increase signal range, but it will never be nearly as effective as above the surface.
The radio systems used to talk to submerged submarines are crazy big and crazy slow due to that physics.
VLF used a 2.5 mile long antenna, only penetrates about 20meters deep, and even using compression tricks got you about one page of text per minute.
ELF transmission penetrates to operating depts but takes very special ground geology at the transmission site ( which is 50+ kilometer), dedicated power plants, and only got you single forget characters per minute with multiple repeats usually needed for clarification.
Acoustical communication from the underwater sonar systems linked by hard cables to land are also used.
They keep playing with blue green lasers but that has the limitations of having to know your recipients position so you can hit them with the laser…
Some questions regarding Devices and Personas: can a commlink whose Icon been overwritten by a Persona still be hacked? Can a user perfectly matrix defend the commlink by going VR and then virtually fleeing?
Also, would a commlink being used for VR even be findable on a Matrix Perception test in AR? Say you are looking for a hacker in a coffin hotel, but the hacker is currently violating a corporate host. Does Find Hidden Device work while the icon is away from the physical location of the device?
When you enter the matrix via a device (commlink, cyberdeck, RCC, etc), your Persona subsumes the icon of the device, but a Matrix Perception can still identify the device. So
1) If you are in AR, and you decide to go VR to flee to “save” your commlink, you are leaving your body in a very dangerous place.. Sacrificing your meat for your commlink means nothing if they just geek you.
When you are in AR, your icons are in a separate, yet similar place to those in AR. It’s like how people physically in Dante’s Inferno, in AR, can interact with people who show up in Dante’s in VR, So. .
2) If someone is in VR near enough to hack you, and you are in AR, then you can find them. They are the icon (Persona) regardless of where their body and commlink are. If they are running silent within 100m of you, you can (with the proper tests) find them. You *cannot* find them if their icon is farther away than 100m of you, as 100m is the limit for finding icons running silent.
Now, assuming you spot his icon. You can throw enough Marks onto him to then use the Trace Icon, which will give you the physical location of the device used to access the matrix.
And, by this, if you are both in a Host – him via VR and you via AR, you can still interact with his icon; Marking it, Data Spiking it, etc.
How do you run away in the matrix? Speed and distance don’t have any actual meaning, so your attacker can keep up with you without expending any effort. All you can do is hop grids and hope it takes longer for them to do that than it took you.
For the other questions, my basic rule is straight out of real world information security: physical access is king. It does not matter what you’re doing in VR if the person wishing you harm is physically able to connect to or smash your device. This also applies to a person searching for your device in the physical space where the device is located. If it is transmitting (which it must be if you are connected to the matrix through it), then it can be found in meatspace. Matrix Perception should work, or you could also use a bug scanner or radio signal scanner. None of that is specifically stated in the rules as far as I know, but it all has to be true unless the fundamental laws of physics have been changed.
Cyberdecks and RCC’s are like Tablets rather then Smartphones which are the Comlinks.
Core states that the RCCs are the size of small suitcases. Not exactly tablet sized. I tend to think of it as the briefcase sized remote control stations occasionally pictured in Armed Forces videos (or the Horizon version of them): rugged outer case, small set of variable display repeater strip readouts, couple dozen switches and dials, a few slots for programs or chips, a couple pickups for arm motions (AR controls for devices), and one or two small repeater screens showing the various camera feeds.
But that’s me.
@47:40 ish Kenji asks about slaves and sub-slaves
I believe by RAW a slave cannot be the master of any devices, I don’t see it anywhere in Core, but it is mentioned on the Shadowrun subreddit.
I personally house rule that a device can be a master and a slave as long as all slaves and sub-slaves must be less than or equal to the DR x 3.
Can anyone provide a page where it says about slave and sub-slaves?
Around the hour and eleven minute mark, it’s mentioned that being a mark on a part of a PAN marks the entire pan. I think this was originally a mistake mentioned by Critical Glitch, and they eventually corrected themselves.
When you mark a slaved device, you also get a mark on the master, but that’s it. As far add I have found in the books, nowhere does it mention getting a mark on everything (that I have found, anyway).
Phone typing caused some typos. Getting a mark* ah well.
Agreed, I can’t find anything about that. As far as I was aware, the one single consistent rule with the matrix is that marks only go up.
One other semi-correction (although this one is easy to mess up, thanks editing). Per Core – no mention of a matrix connection being required to change ownership.
Per Data Trails, 169, it does require matrix access.
Holo Projections are only capable of fooling people out to 5 meters, while Trid Projectors are obviously Trid instead of Holographic. (As I understand Trid, it’s a third dimension on a flat projection, sort of a simulated holographic but not a true holographic.)
Extreme noise ratings for saltwater is entirely realistic. Dissolved mineral ions absorb and scatter radio frequencies over and above the already impressive values of fresh water. It is possible to use visual frequencies to increase signal range, but it will never be nearly as effective as above the surface.
The radio systems used to talk to submerged submarines are crazy big and crazy slow due to that physics.
VLF used a 2.5 mile long antenna, only penetrates about 20meters deep, and even using compression tricks got you about one page of text per minute.
ELF transmission penetrates to operating depts but takes very special ground geology at the transmission site ( which is 50+ kilometer), dedicated power plants, and only got you single forget characters per minute with multiple repeats usually needed for clarification.
Acoustical communication from the underwater sonar systems linked by hard cables to land are also used.
They keep playing with blue green lasers but that has the limitations of having to know your recipients position so you can hit them with the laser…
Some questions regarding Devices and Personas: can a commlink whose Icon been overwritten by a Persona still be hacked? Can a user perfectly matrix defend the commlink by going VR and then virtually fleeing?
Also, would a commlink being used for VR even be findable on a Matrix Perception test in AR? Say you are looking for a hacker in a coffin hotel, but the hacker is currently violating a corporate host. Does Find Hidden Device work while the icon is away from the physical location of the device?
When you enter the matrix via a device (commlink, cyberdeck, RCC, etc), your Persona subsumes the icon of the device, but a Matrix Perception can still identify the device. So
1) If you are in AR, and you decide to go VR to flee to “save” your commlink, you are leaving your body in a very dangerous place.. Sacrificing your meat for your commlink means nothing if they just geek you.
When you are in AR, your icons are in a separate, yet similar place to those in AR. It’s like how people physically in Dante’s Inferno, in AR, can interact with people who show up in Dante’s in VR, So. .
2) If someone is in VR near enough to hack you, and you are in AR, then you can find them. They are the icon (Persona) regardless of where their body and commlink are. If they are running silent within 100m of you, you can (with the proper tests) find them. You *cannot* find them if their icon is farther away than 100m of you, as 100m is the limit for finding icons running silent.
Now, assuming you spot his icon. You can throw enough Marks onto him to then use the Trace Icon, which will give you the physical location of the device used to access the matrix.
And, by this, if you are both in a Host – him via VR and you via AR, you can still interact with his icon; Marking it, Data Spiking it, etc.
How do you run away in the matrix? Speed and distance don’t have any actual meaning, so your attacker can keep up with you without expending any effort. All you can do is hop grids and hope it takes longer for them to do that than it took you.
For the other questions, my basic rule is straight out of real world information security: physical access is king. It does not matter what you’re doing in VR if the person wishing you harm is physically able to connect to or smash your device. This also applies to a person searching for your device in the physical space where the device is located. If it is transmitting (which it must be if you are connected to the matrix through it), then it can be found in meatspace. Matrix Perception should work, or you could also use a bug scanner or radio signal scanner. None of that is specifically stated in the rules as far as I know, but it all has to be true unless the fundamental laws of physics have been changed.