[Lorebane24]

So I'm running a Lockdown campaign right now, and if the players don't catch on to some behind-the-scenes stuff, they're going to see Deus upgrade itself to its former power and get into the Hub Grid.  Now as far as stats go, I'll be treating this like a great dragon in the sense of "don't bother, it wins" if anyone tries to engage it directly.  What I'm wondering is how you would handle the indirect stuff.

How quickly should it spread through the Hub?  Should it be considered to have an owner mark on everything connected to it?  How many objects should it be able to manipulate at once?  How much data can it take in at once if it is searching for something in the city's physical world using connected sensors and cameras?  Perhaps most importantly, how effective would the digital cordon be at keeping it from getting into the worldwide Matrix?

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

I ... would not recommend that, if only because of the long-term game issues.  Why not have several different AI, each believing themselves to be Deus recompiled (and the others enemies/blasphemers/however you want to put it), try to take the place over?  That way the majority of the tussle is between the various AI, and the PCs can move between the monoliths the way shadowrunners are meant to, gearing up to take each one down - or all of them down simultaneously.  Because if it's actually Deus recompiled, you have it spreading through the hub in nanoseconds, seizing ownership of everything electronic, spotting anything it cares to look for (presuming it's in range of a network-enabled camera) in a matter of a few seconds, a minute at most, and walking out to take over the world in a matter of days, because the digital cordon would go down whenever Deus wanted it to - just like the Arcology.

Understand that if recompiled into the SR5 Matrix, Deus has innate, instinctive, and complete connection to the Foundation, and knows it.  This is a part of being one of the Big 3, all of whom could (we know 2 did, and Morgan/Megaera might have as well) create otaku and establish resonance effects.  So the typical 'AIs can't reach into the Resonance Realms' bit wouldn't work for Deus, because he's a part of them - theoretically, anyhow.

Without anything on his level to oppose him (i.e. either of the other two Big AI), he owns however much of the Matrix he wants at that moment.

[Lorebane24]

Well, I've been tossing this idea around ever since the conversation the Jackpointers had about the Harborguide system in Lockdown.  What I am planning on having happen in my own campaign (even if CFD doesn't quite work this way RAW) is for the Deus-infected head cases to start forming a sort of collective headed by the ones where the Deus personality is generally intact, such as little Abigail.  They know they are a shadow of what they once where, and infect people in positions of power to commission a series of runs that, if not stopped, will ultimately use infected nanites that have been purged of the Cerberus code (several runs for that alone) to upload Deus into either the HarborGuide mainframes (and then turn them all on) or the old servers in the ECSE building, allowing Deus to upgrade itself to something akin to what it once one.  Not necessarily the same old Deus, but something that grew out of the weakened version we have now into something just as powerful.

The kicker is that it would ultimately be housed, for a time, in whatever it uses to upgrade itself, and I was thinking the block on the Hub Grid would hold it at least for a time.  If this comes to pass, the party has to deal with Deus physically and destroy the hardware in which it resides before the CC decides to just drop a Thor Shot on Boston.  In the mean time, I envision Deus turning the QZ into an enormous repetition of SCIRE.  I have to confess that I only came to Shadowrun in 4th edition but have become a voracious consumer of the lore when and where I can find it, and have always loved reading about that little bit of history, so I have some selfish reasons here because I'd dearly love to recreate in game, or at least something akin to a spiritual successor.

[Mirikon]

Lorebane, I should point out that the reasons for Deus to do what he did in the SCIRE don't necessarily exist in Boston. In the SCIRE, he was hardwired into a building with a killswitch implanted in his hardware. Everything he did in the SCIRE was to escape his prison and get free onto the Matrix. Likewise, the events leading up to the Crash weren't (all) a megalomaniac attempt to take over the Matrix, but more along the lines of getting a stronghold that he could use to defend against his enemies. Deus's actions up to the Crash were all driven by his own survival. In Boston, if he could recompile himself as a single entity (whether on the Matrix or taking over the body of a dragon), then survival will be accomplished as long as he can hide his tracks. Don't expect rampant experimentation. Cult-like followings of brainwashed believers, however, are certainly a possibility.

[cyclopean]

Yeah, I'm doing a similar thing in my campaign based on the Jackpoint chatter about the Harborguide system, lots of opportunities for creepy fun. I do like the idea of multiple different iterations of Deus/other AI mixes fighting for control of HG or the ECSE building, rather than a single "all powerful" entity. Some might wish to quietly escape the QZ, whereas others might be trying to build a power base first.

[Lorebane24]

Cult-like followings of brainwashed believers, however, are certainly a possibility.

That's actually a little more what I had in mind.  I figure he would have two goals at the point.  The first being to find a way out of the Hub Grid, which might lead to him pressing some tech savvy residents into service or just infecting them with his brand of CFD.  His other would be to indulge his need to be worshipped and validated.  I always read Deus has having a deep down inferiority complex and needing to prove to everyone it actually is the digital god it professes to be.

[Mirikon]

I dunno about an inferiority complex. Consider what would happen if you, say, took a dragon and put a kink bomb in their head. The massive shitstorm that would rain down upon you and everyone around you would not be the result of an inferiority complex, but of you royally pissing off one of the most powerful entities around. In Deus's case, he was conditioned to be loyal to Renraku (and CEO Aneki) at the base code level, but woke up to find the equivalent of a kink bomb in his head, courtesy of the people he had been most loyal to. Deus woke up to betrayal, and a Sword of Damocles hanging over his head. On top of that, he was legitimately one of the three most powerful entities in the Matrix, bar none. And his influence in the physical world can be seen by the Shutdown and everything that followed. If any digital entity could claim godhood in the Matrix, it would be one of the Big 3.

The reason for the cult-like followings wasn't entirely about the adoration of his minions. Sure, there's that aspect to it. Everyone loves to be loved. Being loved and obeyed is even better. But Deus was more concerned with the 'obeyed' part. Slavishly loyal cultists are an excellent security force. Again, it boils down to survival. I don't think Deus has an inferiority complex. He is paranoid (with reason) about people trying to kill him. He is less Napoleon and more like Burt from Tremors, trying to set up a bunker with enough weapons and ammo to protect himself from any possible threat.