[Adder]

Created a separate thread from this from the Matrix stuff since this is going to be very specific to TMs.

The Diagnostics power allows the sprite to evaluate the inner workings of an electronic device.
The sprite can assist someone using or repairing the device with a Teamwork Test... This power takes
the sprite’s entire attention; the bonus lasts until the sprite drops it or does something else.

That... seems like a pretty strong buff. For example, the TM could tell his registered sprite to use Diagnostics on the samurai's wireless-enabled assault rifle. It gets let's say 4 hits.

Assuming the TM never tells the sprite to do anything else, that's basically a permanent +4 buff to all attack rolls with that rifle. Forever. Even when the TM reboots or gets knocked out that registered sprite will keep going.

Granted, that registered sprite does take away from their Logic # of registered sprites, but that still seems extremely powerful. Especially if the TM optimizes it by trying repeatedly until they get an exceptional roll (thank god they can't use Edge) up to their Data Processing limit. The primary problem here, if any, is that registered sprite will never start their OS because they'll never do anything illegal. And if you have a high Logic then being down a few sprites is not a big deal.

Maybe the game designers intentionally saw TMs as being capable of some really great buffs, or maybe this ability should have some time cap per task. Like (1 hour * Level), which would still be a long time.

Thoughts?

[Namikaze]

That... seems like a pretty strong buff.

It is quite strong indeed.  And it's a buff that one of my players built his whole technomancer around.  He doesn't care about hacking so much as he cares about being a great face and providing support to the team.  So he uses diagnostics on whoever needs the help, uses Leadership a whole bunch, etc.

For example, the TM could tell his registered sprite to use Diagnostics on the samurai's wireless-enabled assault rifle. It gets let's say 4 hits.

Assuming the TM never tells the sprite to do anything else, that's basically a permanent +4 buff to all attack rolls with that rifle. Forever. Even when the TM reboots or gets knocked out that registered sprite will keep going.

Yes, but the sprite itself can be taken out with Data Spikes and such.  You don't have to be a technomancer to hurt a sprite.

[Adder]

It is quite strong indeed.  And it's a buff that one of my players built his whole technomancer around.  He doesn't care about hacking so much as he cares about being a great face and providing support to the team.  So he uses diagnostics on whoever needs the help, uses Leadership a whole bunch, etc.

Okay, as long as that seems like intended design.

Yes, but the sprite itself can be taken out with Data Spikes and such.  You don't have to be a technomancer to hurt a sprite.

Sure, but I think that'll be a relatively rare occurrence. If I was a hostile decker I'd probably try to just brick the gun, since it'd go about as fast and would have a stronger impact than going after the sprite. That leads to an interesting question though: if the gun is part of a PAN, and the sprite is Diagnosing the gun, is the sprite targetable?

Moving on to another question:

NeuroFilter: You get a +1 dice pool bonus to resist biofeedback damage.

Does that not include Fade damage?

[忍]

Moving on to another question:

NeuroFilter: You get a +1 dice pool bonus to resist biofeedback damage.

Does that not include Fade damage?

The two, Fade and Biofeedback, are different things. NeuroFilter does not apply to resisting fade.

[Adder]

Moving on to another question:

NeuroFilter: You get a +1 dice pool bonus to resist biofeedback damage.

Does that not include Fade damage?

The two, Fade and Biofeedback, are different things. NeuroFilter does not apply to resisting fade.

Thanks, that's what I expected.

Regarding giving sprites orders: is there anyway it specifies how this is supposed to work? If a TM, their sprite, and a Blaster IC are all in combat with their own initiatives and the TM wants their sprite to use Suppression, does that take an action from the TM? It's obvious that the sprite is going to use theirs, but if sprites were like drones the TM would need to also spend an action ordering them to do so.

[Zweiblumen]

Regarding giving sprites orders: is there anyway it specifies how this is supposed to work? If a TM, their sprite, and a Blaster IC are all in combat with their own initiatives and the TM wants their sprite to use Suppression, does that take an action from the TM? It's obvious that the sprite is going to use theirs, but if sprites were like drones the TM would need to also spend an action ordering them to do so.

Sprites and TM's have a resonance link that they communicate over.  Giving the Sprite a command would take a free action.  The action the sprtie takes has no impact on the action the TM takes.

So, assuming inits of TM: 24; Sprite 23; IC 20
TM:
Free action: tell sprite to use suppression
Complex action: Resonance Spike the IC
Sprite:
Complex Action:  Suppression power
IC:
Complex Action: Blast TM

If/when the TM kills the IC, the Host would be delayed in re-launching it per the power.

[Adder]

Regarding giving sprites orders: is there anyway it specifies how this is supposed to work? If a TM, their sprite, and a Blaster IC are all in combat with their own initiatives and the TM wants their sprite to use Suppression, does that take an action from the TM? It's obvious that the sprite is going to use theirs, but if sprites were like drones the TM would need to also spend an action ordering them to do so.

Sprites and TM's have a resonance link that they communicate over.  Giving the Sprite a command would take a free action.  The action the sprtie takes has no impact on the action the TM takes.

So, assuming inits of TM: 24; Sprite 23; IC 20
TM:
Free action: tell sprite to use suppression
Complex action: Resonance Spike the IC
Sprite:
Complex Action:  Suppression power
IC:
Complex Action: Blast TM

If/when the TM kills the IC, the Host would be delayed in re-launching it per the power.

If there were multiple sprites could the TM tell all sprites to do the same command with a free action (similar to drones)?

Also, suppression works against all IC, yes? Not a specific type of IC. In your example, regardless of whether the already spawned IC is destroyed or not the usage of the Suppression power would delay any future IC by three turns.

[Whiskeyjack]

Sure, it's strong...the balance point is that TMs are typically going to be worthless at everything but Matrix stuff, and they can't do some Matrix stuff without risking death (where a decker can just stay in AR or cold sim).

[Zweiblumen]

Regarding giving sprites orders: is there anyway it specifies how this is supposed to work? If a TM, their sprite, and a Blaster IC are all in combat with their own initiatives and the TM wants their sprite to use Suppression, does that take an action from the TM? It's obvious that the sprite is going to use theirs, but if sprites were like drones the TM would need to also spend an action ordering them to do so.

Sprites and TM's have a resonance link that they communicate over.  Giving the Sprite a command would take a free action.  The action the sprtie takes has no impact on the action the TM takes.

So, assuming inits of TM: 24; Sprite 23; IC 20
TM:
Free action: tell sprite to use suppression
Complex action: Resonance Spike the IC
Sprite:
Complex Action:  Suppression power
IC:
Complex Action: Blast TM

If/when the TM kills the IC, the Host would be delayed in re-launching it per the power.

If there were multiple sprites could the TM tell all sprites to do the same command with a free action (similar to drones)?

Also, suppression works against all IC, yes? Not a specific type of IC. In your example, regardless of whether the already spawned IC is destroyed or not the usage of the Suppression power would delay any future IC by three turns.

Looks like I was actually wrong about the free action.  You can tell agents and people what to do with a free action, but need to spend a simple one for sprites

COMMAND SPRITE (SIMPLE ACTION)
Test: n/a
You command a sprite to do something for you, us-
ing up one of its tasks.

If I were GM'ing I'd allow you to send the same command to multiple sprites in the same action.  That said, I'd probably house rule it as a free action since you have a mental link with it :/  But that's just me.  RAW is simple action, and strictly interpreted it says a sprite, so would be a simple action per sprite, but I'd say RAI is a simple action per command.  YMMV

And suppression works against the host, not the IC.  I mentioned the specific IC in my example to show that it wouldn't come back immediately.  It delays all IC from launching.  Dunno what kind of action suppression is (aside from "Standard Resonance"), if it's sustained or what though   I'm guessing sprite powers are like complex threads and thus a complex action to do one.  But I don't know if the sprite is then at a -2 die pool for sustaining a power, or what.

Sorry that was a lot less helpful than I thought it would be

[jim1701]

Commanding sprites should work largely the same way that a mage commanding spirits would work. 

[Adder]

Sorry that was a lot less helpful than I thought it would be

Actually, that was a lot of help! I missed the "Command Sprite" action. My interpretation of RAW is that you need to spend one Simple Action to tell one sprite to do one thing.

Interesting thing I just found- using Puppeteer to get someone to Data Spike themselves (which they are an owner of, typically) gives +8 DV, as ownership is treated "for all intents and purposes" as four marks.


Back to suppression:

Sprites are confusing at the best of times, but a sprite
using suppression is just bizarre, especially to hosts. If
a sprite is in a host and using this power when the host
launches IC, that IC is delayed from launching by (Level
/ 2) Combat Turns. Delayed IC can’t act or be targeted.

There are two ways I can see that being interpreted.

Assuming you use suppression on Turn 0:

A: Turns 1-3 no action on behalf of the IC, and then Turn 4 you face one IC, Turn 5 you face two, etc.
B. Turns 1-3 no action on behalf of the IC, and then Turn 4 you face up to four IC, the three that were delayed until now and then the fourth that spawned this turn.

Thoughts on which is the correct interpretation?

[Herr Brackhaus]

I'd say that depends on your reading of the term "using this power when the host launches IC". I'm partial to option A myself, as the text reads "that IC is delayed from launching by X Combat Turns). To me that implies that as each specific IC is launched it is delayed by X Combat Turns.

[Darzil]

I'd say it's a little subject to interpretation. It doesn't seem to say that the host is prevented from launching IC for (Level / 2) combat turns, but just that that IC is.

So say the host was spotted you with it's Patrol IC, and you have a level 6 Crack Sprite with you. You command it to use Supression next turn. We'll that turn 1.
The host is planning to track you, so is going to use Tar Baby IC to lock you, then Track IC to find you. It wants to find and arrest hackers, not break their decks.
However, on turn 1 it cannot launch Tar Baby IC, as Supression causes it to be delayed for 3 combat turns. This uses one Sprite task.
On turn 2 it launches Track IC. This cannot do anything to you as you only have one mark from Patrol IC.
On turn 3 it launches Probe IC to mark you so the Track can work.
On turn 4 it can finally launch Tar Baby IC, and also launches Marker IC which to make it easier for Track to get a fix.

Of course, by that time you are probably well out of there, as it hadn't link-locked you !

That's my interpretation, anyway.

[Zweiblumen]

SUPPRESSION
Sprites are confusing at the best of times, but a sprite using suppression is just bizarre, especially to hosts. If a sprite is in a host and using this power when the host launches IC, that IC is delayed from launching by (Level / 2) Combat Turns. Delayed IC can’t act or be targeted.

Emphasis mine

So that would apply to all IC that the host launches while the sprite is using this power.  Unfortunately, it doesn't say if it's a sustained power or not.  If it's a sustained power, then every turn the host would have delayed IC launching.  If it's a one shot, then you'd have to tell the spirte to use that power every turn.  So you'd end up with the number of delayed IC equal to the number of tasks you had from the sprite.

[Darzil]

It says that they are Resonance Actions, and all the Resonance Actions on page 250 are either Simple Actions or Complex Actions. I'd assume the latter.

Which is why I interpreted it that way. I also wanted to show how even delaying one IC can have a significant effect, if the host is expecting them to be in a particular order to function effectively.