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Message no. 1
From: davek@***.lonestar.org (David Kettler)
Subject: Alternative Decker's Utilities System
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 23:20:20 +0000
So I had this thought while following this discussion...

Make buyable utilities max out at rating 3 or so. These represent canned
'script-kiddie'-esque utilities that are really only effective against systems that don't
keep their security up to date. All other utilities must be written by the decker
himself/herself. Writing utilities should involve a combination of time and karma, sort
of analogous to learning spells. The karma represents the knowledge and experience
necessary to write a decent utility. Of course, for any utilites the decker writes he/she
can make as many backup copies as he/she wants. This means that even if a decker loses
his/her deck they'll only be out the cost of the hardware, not the software. This also
means that in theory a decker could give everyone a copy of his/her rating 8 attack
program or whatever, but in practice decker's jealously guard any utilities they write
themselves because ultimately they are based on security exploits and if everyone gets a
copy then the corps will learn how to defend against the utility and it will lose its
effectiveness (some sort of SOTA-like system?).

For character creation some variation on a spell point-like system could be used to
determine starting utilities.

Anyway, this was just a thought but I like the idea. It seems somehow much truer to my
stereotype of what deckers out to be like. Even when they're not decking they'll likely
spend a lot of time fiddling with their home-grown utilities to try to make them more
effective, etc.

--
Dave Kettler
davek@***.lonestar.org
http://davek.freeshell.org/
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org
Message no. 2
From: DaTwinkDaddy@*****.com (Da Twink Daddy)
Subject: Alternative Decker's Utilities System
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 18:28:14 -0600
On Saturday 11 December 2004 05:20 pm, David Kettler
<davek@***.lonestar.org> wrote:
> So I had this thought while following this discussion...
>
> Make buyable utilities max out at rating 3 or so. These represent
> canned 'script-kiddie'-esque utilities that are really only effective
> against systems that don't keep their security up to date. All other
> utilities must be written by the decker himself/herself. Writing
> utilities should involve a combination of time and karma, sort of
> analogous to learning spells. The karma represents the knowledge and
> experience necessary to write a decent utility. Of course, for any
> utilites the decker writes he/she can make as many backup copies as
> he/she wants. This means that even if a decker loses his/her deck
> they'll only be out the cost of the hardware, not the software. This
> also means that in theory a decker could give everyone a copy of his/her
> rating 8 attack program or whatever, but in practice decker's jealously
> guard any utilities they write themselves because ultimately they are
> based on security exploits and if everyone gets a copy then the corps
> will learn how to defend against the utility and it will lose its
> effectiveness (some sort of SOTA-like system?).

I don't think there should be a hard limit, but rather have it vary from
utility to utility. SOTA should be used to make up for making a utility
more public. The more people using a particular exploit, the faster it
will get patched. This itself will keep deckers from giving away their
good stuff. For example, you might lower apply SOTA to a *particular*
program everytime it's user-base went up by a factor of 10 (or whatever is
comfortable for you). Giving it to your friends (Including you, 6 deckers
have it) will probably not hurt, but if they give it to their friends (now
something like 20-40 deckers have it) it will drop in rating, becasue the
exploit(s) is(are) on the corp's radar. Posting something on the public
nets for free will probably have it's rating drop multiple points by the
end of the week (if 10000 people download it, it's rating drops 4 points).
This is, of course, on top of any normal SOTA effects.

The problem, I think, is that not all utilities even contain exploits. For
example, browse (at all ratings) is probably legal code. It's not
something publicity is really going to hurt.

I think karma should be added to the mix of requirements to make a program,
but, deckers (at least mine) tend to carry around a lot more programs than
mages carry around spells. Although, I guess decker's doesn't really have
foci to bond. And, while full mages have aonly a handfull of skills,
deckers have: Computer (+ B/R), Electronics B/R, Ettiquette (Matrix), SMUT
(Matrix), 11 familiarity skills, at least 14 program design skills, and
cyberterminal design (which is separate from cyberterminal code design),
all of which require karama to improve.

(Admittedly, a single decker probably shouldn't even be trying to have
*all* those skills)

> For character creation some variation on a spell point-like system could
> be used to determine starting utilities.

Or simply allow the decker to buy them. With a rating limit of the lessor
of 6 or computer skill (* 1.5?). Resources at char gen != nuYen.

> Anyway, this was just a thought but I like the idea. It seems somehow
> much truer to my stereotype of what deckers out to be like. Even when
> they're not decking they'll likely spend a lot of time fiddling with
> their home-grown utilities to try to make them more effective, etc.

Yeah, that's my picture, too. Not every decker will start like this, but
after a while they will end up like this.

--
Da Twink Daddy
DaTwinkDaddy@*****.com
ICQ: 514984 (Da Twink Daddy) YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy
Message no. 3
From: tjlanza@************.com (Timothy J. Lanza)
Subject: Alternative Decker's Utilities System
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 20:01:40 -0500
At 07:28 PM 12/11/2004, Da Twink Daddy wrote:
[Snip!]

I agree with everything you said except for this:

>The problem, I think, is that not all utilities even contain exploits. For
>example, browse (at all ratings) is probably legal code. It's not
>something publicity is really going to hurt.

Utilities are used to reduce the TNs for system operations. System
operations don't have a TN or require a roll if you're a legitimate user.
That means that anybody using a utility to do something is /not/ a
legitimate user.

--
Timothy J. Lanza
"When we can't dream any longer, we die." - Emma Goldman

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