| From: | shadowrn@*********.com (Mark M. Smith) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Deckers, need new system |
| Date: | Mon Mar 25 19:15:01 2002 |
>According to Mark M. Smith, on Sat, 23 Mar 2002 the word on the street was...
>
> > I agree that some of the rules need to be tossed, but some make sense
> > even if I largely look at it from a 2d computing sense. I've always had a
> > lot of trouble in films and books that try to depict decking or a
> > similiar activity.
>
>I've long wanted some kind of program that makes all the text on your screen
>huge and in bright colors, so it resembles what computer screens look like
>in the movies ;)
A bit off-topic, but incidentally the big 3d floating objects setup in
Jurassic Park is apparently an actual piece of software. Just found out
about this the other day, but apparently it's a type of 3d filemanager
developed originally for IRIX and ported over the Linux now.
> > It may not be a hard test and considering you're likely a legal user
> > without any scrutiny the tests are easy, but you have to remember
> > commands, sort through data and the like. For those who don't get around
> > in *nix I just ran a few simple operations: login, scan users, analyze
> > user, move, edit file, logout. All of which are valid actions in SR.
> > Assuming the decker knows what to do and not needing to develop a
> > specific metaphor for everything simply speeds it up and prevents
> > problems with metaphor shear.
>
>Another way I thought of to reduce the number of tests required, is to let
>any Matrix action succeed if the character spends a number of Complex
>Actions on it equal to the TN minus his or her Computer skill level. The
>idea here is that this way, everyone can accomplish most actions, but will
>take some time doing it -- and the less you know about using computers, the
>longer you'll be looking for the right command, file, menu item, or
>whatever. Rolling tests is then only something you do if you need to perform
>that operation _right_now_ instead of at your leisure.
I agree entirely. If I'm sitting alone at home trying to do something, say
index all my SimStims just make an open test to see how long it takes.
Looking for publically available data would likely be the same sort of
thing. Addresses, phone numbers, background, and all sorts of other data is
freely available over the 'net for larger entities and public figures and
it shouldn't require much more than a "two hours later..." cut into
revealing the info. These are things that anyone could do most likely, but
deckers could do better (mainly skills, but I'd say that someone who fits
the proper archetype might be a bit faster at some things).
I wouldn't say any matrix action though. I'd seperate out the more illegal
and complex activities pretty quickly. Anyone can probably browse around
inside a datastore, but you'd need a decent decker to get you inside or at
the very least hand you the proper SR script kiddie tools.
>The problem, though, is that SR doesn't model access rights very well; the
>rules in Matrix for automatic operations try to fix that (as you can
>probably tell, they were modelled after Unix :) but don't work great either,
>IMHO.
Personally I think that the access rights are modeled as well as they need
to. There's your stuff and everyone else's and you won't have access to
pretty much anything else. I'd just do spot decisions on it, data is
private unless it's the sort of thing you'd find in a brochure or on a
company website. Technical docs, source code, tech support for Microsoft
products all these sort of things are kept as far away from prying eyes as
possible with access control being a matter of how much ICE is on them and
how heavily guarded they are. The only time it would ever matter I feel is
if say.. a sam pops up behind a corp decker and tells him very clearly that
he's going to help them get past some stuff. He might not have private
access to everything, but he can get you pretty far. Assume that somewhere,
somehow there's a root user, but I doubt you'd ever find anyone without a
great deal of trouble that had that password.
>Perhaps one way to do it is combine them with the above: if it's an
>automatic operation for you, you can either roll to do it in one action, or
>spend the above-mentioned time on it to do it automatically. If you don't
>have access to what you're trying to do, you must always spend the time
>_and_ make a roll at the end of it. This shouldn't penalize deckers much,
>because their Computer skill coupled with their software probably gives them
>a required time of 0 or 1 actions, but it will make other users, without a
>deck and a high Computer skill, take much longer to do things.
I disagree a bit. If you're under stress or in a hurry it'll take a long
time to do things you even have access to. When someone is shooting an
autocannon around you it's going to take a bit more than a few seconds to
hop on over and update your will. I'd suggest making everyone roll.
--
Mark M. Smith
belgand@**************.com
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