From:	"Jeremy \"Bolthy\" Zimmerman" <jeremy@***********.COM>
Subject:	Re: VR 2.0
Date:	Thu, 28 May 1998 14:16:46 -0700

----------
> From: Phil Levis <pal@**.BROWN.EDU>
> To: SHADOWRN@********.ITRIBE.NET
> Subject: VR 2.0
> Date: Thursday, May 28, 1998 2:07 PM
>
<snip>
>
> In my opinion, Virtual Realities 2.0 is an excellent book; the rules and
> systems described are robust and detailed, and the wealth of information
> provided allows for campaigns set entirely within the Matrix, in which
> every character is a decker.
>

Hey, this sounds familiar. ;)

> One aspect of the book bothers me, however: the methods by which deckers
> obtain their programs. Either they buy them, or they write them. Writing
> them takes excessive amounts of time: the example given of a decker with
a
> computer skill of 8 (damn good) taking a base time of 128 days to write
an
> Attack-8S program. Buying them is extremely expensive: Hacker House sells
> computer programs for three million nuyen. That Attack-8S could be sold
> for 128,000 nuyen. That's a pretty amazing living, 1000 nuyen a day.
>

One thing to keep in mind that's a programmer working under the bare
minimum's for programming... what I like to think of notepad, a cheap
compiler, and a ton of coffee. If he's got a nice little programming
package... Visual Z++ or the like on a pretty nice platform, he gets a +3
task bonus. So that 128 days becomes 42 days. Divided by the number of
successes. =) 4000+ nuyen a day for drek-hot programming? I don't see a
problem with that. The problem is finding a buyer, though, I think. How
many people can afford an Attack-8S program? The one that really hurts me
is the time/money involved in a Rating 10 MPCP chip with reality filters.
;)

> Both of these systems seem at odds with one of the aspects of deckers
> which I have always thought to be important: the idea that deckers write
> their own programs on a regular basis, indeed, use their own programs
> almost exclusively.
>
> Given good programming techniques, it seems reasonable to me that one
> should be able to 'upgrade' existing programs that you own. For example,
> one might buy an Attack-6M utility from some software house, hack it for
a
> while, upgrading it to Attack-8M, use it a bit, then hack it some more to
> add DINAB capability. Eventually, the program will need an overhaul as
the
> additions begin to tax the design of the original program, but it I find
> it quite reasonable that competent deckers should be able to write
> programs which are not utterly from scratch.
>

I do believe there's upgrading rules in the book. And purchased copies
come with the source code as part of their price. Without the source, it
costs about 25% less. I think you just have to subtract one size from the
other to determine cost/time to program.