[psycho835]

The description of Nutrition says it allows the target to "live off pure mana".

[Glaive]

Attacking each nanite from the Matrix sounds like it'd work. The only people that tried that were interrupted by an extraction run.

They actually touch on this in the book. The problem is that you're effectively hacking each individual nanite. Then, the rest all focus back on you and counter hack. Now, a decker can handle a simple attack program that deals minimal damage. But get hit with 1,000,000 simple attack programs all at once...

We'd need some blanket/nuke program that could target all of them at the same time.

What is it about cybercombat that requires me to only target one thing? Considering the way wireless communication works, it seems like it would be pretty easy to load up an attack program to effect everything in signal range. A major issue here would be the rejected code from the hundreds of thousands of nanites that made their saves. To rectify that, you'd need to create an isolated network running the older matrix protocols. Not something I expect many shadowrunners to pull off, but I bet the corps could get away with it. Wouldn't help the sinless in the sprawls, but it might work.
So in short:
1. Figure out a way to get my attack program to effect everything in signal range.
2. Do it in an isolated network that won't throw rejected code back at me.

[firebug]

What is it about cybercombat that requires me to only target one thing? Considering the way wireless communication works, it seems like it would be pretty easy to load up an attack program to effect everything in signal range. A major issue here would be the rejected code from the hundreds of thousands of nanites that made their saves. To rectify that, you'd need to create an isolated network running the older matrix protocols. Not something I expect many shadowrunners to pull off, but I bet the corps could get away with it. Wouldn't help the sinless in the sprawls, but it might work.
So in short:
1. Figure out a way to get my attack program to effect everything in signal range.
2. Do it in an isolated network that won't throw rejected code back at me.

The Data Spike action targets one icon.  The Fork program lets you target two.  Making a sort of "AoE Nuke Program" would be difficult at best and impossible at worst.

I'm not sure how exactly you would somehow force the nanites to run all the old protocols.  If you put them somewhere blocked off from the matrix with this "reconstructed old matrix" running, they just won't connect to it because they won't understand it.  In game terms, it'd be a null zone with no matrix coverage, but a weird sort-of-matrix that only certain things can connect to.  Additionally, if it's old protocols, it might not even do anything to them.  You commlink wasn't broken when you got full matrix damage in 4th, you just had to reboot I believe.  So at best they'd all reboot once and it's a mass of wasted effort.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Actually ... that's an issue that could be - should be - able to be hacked, firebug.  Glaive, I think you're on to something.  Simply put, you're spamming an attack against 'everything with *.XYZ address code' ... that really, honestly should be doable.  It wouldn't work in the standard Matrix, because there are filters that disallow that sort of thing, but if you're isolated and you're transmitting to a very narrow parameter set - which very narrow parameter set the nanobots by definition pretty much have to share - then you should be able to transmit an en masse 'nuke' attack.  And keep doing it until they're gone...

[SlowDeck]

This spam attack would probably require an army of technomancers, each backed by the max capacity of sprites they can get, all spamming the attack at once.

So, it's probably doable, but the question is if it's practically doable.

[firebug]

The only thing you'd have to worry about then would be the chance of all the nanites' deaths causing some kind of biofeedback to the patient.  I'm not sure it would happen but...  Well, if a deck burns when it is bricked, nanites might do enough to mess up the brain they are nested in.

Though maybe it's different for soft nanites?  I'm not even sure how/if they can access the matrix anyways.

[Mirikon]

Actually ... that's an issue that could be - should be - able to be hacked, firebug.  Glaive, I think you're on to something.  Simply put, you're spamming an attack against 'everything with *.XYZ address code' ... that really, honestly should be doable.  It wouldn't work in the standard Matrix, because there are filters that disallow that sort of thing, but if you're isolated and you're transmitting to a very narrow parameter set - which very narrow parameter set the nanobots by definition pretty much have to share - then you should be able to transmit an en masse 'nuke' attack.  And keep doing it until they're gone...

I agree that this could work, though it would take some serious coding to do. As with the virus plan, it would probably be much easier to code something like this if you had access to the CFD base code. The problem with a single-prong approach is that the nanites WILL fight back, and from what we've seen, I don't think they're pushovers in matrix combat. If you can get the base code, and make both a virus and an area attack program, then you can have multiple deckers or technomancers go in, some uploading viruses, and some doing attacks. Multiple attackers, multiple angles of attack, and wear them down until they're gone. Also, if you've got the base code of CFD, then it may be possible to write an antivirus to vaccinate nanite systems, or to use at the first signs of symptoms to clear out new CFD infections before they can get going. While the physical and magical solutions are nice, this is fundamentally a matrix problem, so I think the real solutions will be found in the Matrix.

[RulezLawyerZ]

To tie together a couple of disturbing threads from Mirikon and KarmaInferno...

What if we're looking at a Resonance Horror, rather than a magical one?

[Mirikon]

Not a Horror. Horrors are ubernasties from the deepest darkest metaplanes. The Resonance Realms are fundamentally different, and there is no correlation between the two (otherwise we would have seen technomancers projecting into astral space by now). Now, there be something big and bad hiding in the deep dark realms? Sure. We know there are entropic sprites out there, including entropic free sprites. But all evidence points to Sybil clearly being an AI phenomenon, specifically an e-ghost phenomenon. We know the megas captured and experimented on AIs, including e-ghosts, and locked them up in places where they could be studied, and that Cerberus was one of the people in charge of those studies. At this point, Occam's Razor says Sybil and CFD are products of e-ghosts.

[grid_roamer]

To comment on the original subject title I submit:

 The two major movements toward curing such/all plagues;

The revolt by the native american nations and the great ghost dance.....
The formation of the elf nations......

Both i feel were attempts to curb the effects of the matrix on their poplations.
Most  other fiction writings on the subject tend to be filler and only seem to benifit the lead/main character's motivations.

 Which are often pretty self serving therefore only somewhat relevant to actual gameplay. *Laughs*

[Namikaze]

I couldn't disagree more, Fenris.  The Great Ghost Dance and formation of the elf nations had nothing to do with the Matrix, as the nations formed as a result were both Matrix-connected.

The likely cure, and this is a bit of metagaming here, is to have the Resonance hold the solution.  The reason why is simple: it gives the Technomancers the ability to be the "heroes" of the modern age.  If there is a group of Technomancers out there - Denver Nexus, I'm looking at you - that could go into on really Deep Resonance quest to find the cure, it would be a huge shot in the arm for Technomancers everywhere.  It would finally lend them a bit of legitimacy, while also confirming the fears of those who hate Technomancers.  This could have the potential to really shift the power of the world, as the evidence uncovered in such a quest might implicate the corporate powers behind CFD.  It would be a hell of a series of stories, and that's ultimately what we want here.

[grid_roamer]

The response was to the imerging martrix and its political implications. As well as the the upswing in astral activity...

People were becoming disenfranchised; so the response was to declare independence of sorts from the current geo-political situation. Redefining their role in the world so to speak.
I defend my comment further by showing that the NAN nations are a bit better at conservation of their natural environment, and Astral manipulation which the authors translated into an opportunity to take the lead in Matrix development (Pubelo).

Naturally the Technomancer is a major player in this scenario, I agree. But it's hard to imagine a plot to halt plagues like the Sybill virus without seeing a cause/effect across class and community divisions.

Will a player see a Technomancer from the STC as more effective than one from the UCAS, working for ARES or the other way around? You can play any character the way you want, but imagining extremes like this might give any character's motivations a running start.....

I'm still new to Shadowrun but I would really try to play that angle given the chance.

[Namikaze]

The response was to the imerging martrix and its political implications. As well as the the upswing in astral activity...

We're getting way off the topic of finding a cure to CFD here.  I'll just point out that the Great Ghost Dance had nothing to do with the emerging Matrix.  It had to do with the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of native Americans, and the upswing of mana in the world.  The creation of the Tir nations was a direct result of the elves wanting a place where non-humans could live peacefully - of course, power corrupts and all that.  Also, many of the elves claimed that they had existed thousands of years ago (this would be in the Earthdawn era) and so they had a moral imperative to build their nations anew.

Naturally the Technomancer is a major player in this scenario, I agree. But it's hard to imagine a plot to halt plagues like the Sybill virus without seeing a cause/effect across class and community divisions.

I don't understand what you're saying here.  Are you suggesting that CFD is somehow affiliated with the NAN and the Tir?

Will a player see a Technomancer from the STC as more effective than one from the UCAS, working for ARES or the other way around? You can play any character the way you want, but imagining extremes like this might give any character's motivations a running start.....

No.  First, what's the STC?  Second, technomancers (or electrokinetics) are equal across all regions.  Some areas might be more welcoming than others, perhaps even offering more schooling, but from a game standpoint there's no difference.  From a fluff standpoint, there really isn't a tremendous difference either - a technomancer who is raised in a lab is certainly going to have problems adjusting to the real world, but that has more to do with how he/she was raised than the fact that they're a technomancer.  I guess I just don't see you're point.

[Trollbait]

Let's get unethical. Give them what they want. The tech exists to make clones, but if I remember rightly, the clone was just meat without a mind. Let the CFD provide a mind and it's good to go.
Not a cure, but may buy time to find one.

[Namikaze]

That is a VERY intriguing strategy Trollbait.  The virus wants a body, we can provide them.  It might just be that we give them what they want, and they stop taking people over.