| From: | Todd Montgomery <tmont@****.WVU.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | IC, IC, Baby! |
| Date: | Thu, 8 Jul 1993 13:03:30 -0400 |
not knowing if something was IC. Let me give an example:
A regular UMS system. You are standing in Sensor range os an SPU node.
Everything looks normal. The walls have controlls, etc. But standing
in the middle of the room is this large pedestal. The pedestal is a
black featureless otoganal shape that seems to suck in light. The
entrance to the room is blocked by a foggy wall. The other exits from
the room seem to also be covered with this foggy construct.
What is the fog and what is the pedestal?
Possibilities:
Fog: Some form of Barrier OR Access IC.
Just a fake construct to make deckers worry and might make
them mess up.
Pedestal: Additional controls for other node functions.
Fake construct to make the decker worry as above.
Unactivated Grey or Black IC.
Maybe both are fake so that the decker will not think to check
the rest of the room were other IC might be hidding.
etc. Etc. ETc. ETC!
You get the idea.
Nasty tricks like this are what can make the matrix fun.
But to be fair to the decker, I feel that if something is active in
the Matrix it must have some visible or aural sign. Invisibility from
a standpoint of security makes all the sense in the world, but it just
will really prove to be unfair to a decker. But inactive IC would be
invisible. This would be all right because something must trigger it,
be it a system op or a another IC. From a GM standpoint, IC should
deter intrusion. Its secondary task should be active response.
I personally use the idea that if you see nothing that is blocking
your path, then there is no IC. But this same situation may be a trap
were inactive IC or masked deckers could ly in wait. I used this once.
When the decker was noticed in a system, they shut down several nodes
to try and herd him into a dumby datastore which had no IC. But there
were several masked deckers and inactive IC waiting. It was quite a
fight and got rid of a very serious SRI munchkin.
Also think about how a system would go about sculpting there IC. If
their may idea is to deter intrusion, then IC with towering size,
nasty looks, and an aura that generally says "GET OUT!" is great. Of
course wage slave labor will suffer from such a depressing and fearful
presence....Well maybe save that for the response IC. Lets use several
less conspicuous forms of Barrier inside the system. Lower load
rating, too.
WHat I am trying, so very badly, to say is that I believe most systems
really nasty IC would be inactive and not obvious. The only really
active IC would be probe, barrier, and access. A passive approach
like this would make the system perform better (lower load ratings)
and workers in the system might be a little more happy. Using simple
tricks to snare unwary deckers would be all that would be needed to
set off the really obvious stuff.
That "cute little bunny" might be some form of probe IC or it could
just be a program frame from someone. A decker won't know until he
analyzes it. With a reality filter a decker will be filtering the
input and presenting it as its closest representation in his reality.
I believe to effectively do this that the reality filter must have
some built in analyzing capabilities. I really don't see any other way
for it to work. Does anyone else?
Will I have rambled enough.
-- Quiktek
a.k.a. Todd Montgomery
tmont@****.wvu.edu
tmont@***.wvu.edu
un032507@*******.wvnet.edu
