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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Deuce Traveler" data-source="post: 6585239" data-attributes="member: 34958">Shayuri, I'm posting the little I have on the Matrix, and I wish it was more spelled out.  It seems we are both right in a way.  I can have active IC looking for potential hackers, but that's a limited defense almost like rolling for wandering monsters.  You have to really trip up for the system to go on full alert and really start deploying IC:Hosts in the Matrix are like a mini-Matrix on the grid.From the outside, it is a large icon, often sculpted to looklike a building or some other place you can actually visit.Most are floating above the Matrix’s virtual airspace, butsome are tethered to physical locations, mostly stores,clubs, local venues, and other places that are heavily associatedwith a particular site in meat space.The virtual space inside a host is separate from theoutside grid. When you’re outside of a host, you can’t interactdirectly with icons inside it, although you can stillsend messages, make commcalls, and that sort of thing.Once you’re inside, you can see and interact with iconsinside the host, but not outside (with the same caveat formessages, calls, etc.).When you enter a host, your persona actually entersthe host icon. This can be through a door or other portal,but some hosts let you just pass through its outer skin.The inside of a host isn’t limited by its external size, andit usually ranges between the size of a large house andthat of a large metroplex. The higher the host’s rating, thebigger it tends to be, but that’s not a hard-and-fast rule.Each host is on a specific grid. Like the rest of the Matrix,a host can be accessed from any grid. Hosts are part ofthe Matrix, so once you’re inside a host, the grid you’re ondoesn’t really matter. The Grid Overwatch Division trackstraffic to and from a host, which means it’s still watchingyou when you’ve entered a host, though it does notclosely monitor what you do there.Hosts don’t have to depend on GOD for protection.A host can run intrusion countermeasures, or IC, to defenditself. These programs are personas that seek outand repel or punish hackers. IC is ruthless and efficient,with the personality of a heart attack and the mercy ofan empty clip in a firefight. You can fight off IC, but thehost can always spawn more, so you can’t really winagainst IC. You can just hold it off long enough to getthings done.HOST ARCHIVESHosts have areas called archives that hold files that aren’tin use. File archives are deep in the host’s code, inaccessibleto the average hacker. If you want an archivedfile, you’ll have to convince someone who already has amark on the file to bring it out of the archive first.HOST ATTRIBUTESHosts have a Host rating. Unlike the ratings of devices,the Host rating ranges from 1 to 12. Hosts also have allfour Matrix attributes: Attack, Sleaze, Data Processing,and Firewall. The ratings of these attributes are usually(Host Rating), (Host Rating + 1), (Host Rating + 2), and(Host Rating + 3), in any order. For example, a Rating 4host might have Attack 5, Sleaze 4, Data Processing 7,Firewall 6.A host’s attributes are shared by itself and its IC programs.HOST CONVERGENCEGOD doesn’t track personas inside a host, but it stillkeeps tabs on the traffic to and from the host. Thismeans your Overwatch Score doesn’t change whenyou enter a host, and it continues to accumulate whileyou’re in the host. If you’re in a host when you reachconvergence, you’re not burned and dumped like youare out on the grid (Overwatch Score and Convergence,p. 231). Instead, the host gets three marks onyou and starts deploying IC.If you leave a host after convergence, the grid’sdemiGOD converges on you immediately. You’re betteroff just jacking out from the host.INTRUSIONCOUNTERMEASURESIntrusion countermeasures, or IC (pronounced “ice”), isa type of program that runs in hosts. The purpose ofan IC program is to defend its host from attack, and ittends to be cold-heartedly ruthless about it.Each IC program has a persona with its own ConditionMonitor and Initiative Score. It should be treated asif it is in hot-sim, so it gets a total of 4D6 Initiative Dice inMatrix combat. IC uses the Matrix attributes of its host.The IC in a host and the host itself share marks, so if oneIC program marks, they all do, and so does the host itself.Similarly, the IC and host instantly share spottinginformation, so if the host spots you, so does all its IC.Which usually turns out not well for you.Individual IC programs alone can be a threat, butmultiple IC programs working together can be deadly.Once the host starts to launch IC, it’s time to finish upand buzz out of there.SECURITY RESPONSEWhen a host spots you doing something unauthorized,illegal, or just something it doesn’t like, it informs itsowner (or its owner’s designee, like an employed securityspider) and launches whatever IC programs it has tofight off the intruder. A host can launch one IC programper Combat Turn, at the beginning of each CombatTurn. The host can have up to its rating in IC programsrunning at once, and it can’t launch more than one ofeach type of IC program at once. When an IC programtakes enough damage to brick it, it crashes and vanishesfrom the host. The host can then run another copy ofthe IC at the start of the next Combat Turn if it wants to.Most hosts don’t have intrusion countermeasuresrunning all the time. While IC is mercilessly efficient,it’s not very bright. The added safety of omnipresentIC is outweighed by the cost of paying (or covering up)wrongful injury and death lawsuits, especially since ICcan be deployed in seconds at the first sign of trouble.Typically, the only IC that remains active 24/7 is PatrolIC, which is mostly harmless to the innocent.</blockquote>

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