of egocasting and gear dilemma

Fri, 2011-08-12 03:42

#2

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

Quincey Forder wrote:
-what if the pc got to bring illegal or controlled stuff, like dangerous implants or weapons?

If it is minor, then it just gets filtered out. If it is major, then the ego finds itself in a customs simspace asked pointed questions by humourless officials. "When I went to the CM locker next to the bodyvat I found that my weapons had been replaced with blocks of the same mass. Their surface was inscribed with a fractal pattern spelling out 'illegal equipment censored as per PCO 43287-119001'. My shirt had turned generic and was covered with 'copyright infringement'. Welcome to the Planetary Consortium, indeed."

Quote:
-If they use a darkcast, will they get their stuf untouched and clean? and who'll be told about what they carry with them ("Yes, sifu, the three free agents arrived, and they have the package you are looking for. Transmitting its nanofab blueprints to you as I speak. Do we resleeve them as they are?")

What do you expect from an illegal operation? The trick is to make it worthwhile for the darkcasters to treat you nicely - you have high g-rep, you can show them you have a contract with the Sacred Vengeance Corporation, a trusted third party negotiates the deal, you are sufficiently scary. But people who darkcast do occasionally have bootlegs sold to the slavery servers of Nine Lives and ID crew... "Do you trust them?" the AGI asked. "Hell no! Jin is a homicidal maniac who actually sold his mother to a syndicate, and Wasseil wants to sex up anything carbon-based. But I got the deal with BTMP to protect us." "BTMP?" "Bank of the Terrible Marching Powder, formerly of Medellin, now of Locus. Our happy duo will get their money from BTMP when we arrive, and since I paid the extra 50% protection fee they will mess them up horribly if it is ever found out they reneged on the deal." "Do you trust the *bank*?" the AGI wondered plaintively. "It doesn't matter, we need to get out of here."

Quote:
-the ego of one of the PC is flagged as terrorist/anarchist/whatever because of what he/she/they carried illegal/dangerous gear or whatever reason and instead of being resleeved, the ego was sent to detention simulspace.

Yes? This is why you should never bring any illegal stuff across egocasts. Suggests a ready-made adventure: a Firewall agent has been snagged by authorities for something (likely just temporary stupidity on his part) and now nearby sentinels need to get the ego from the customs server before anybody notices that he is a Firewall agent with plenty of sensitive information, and not just an idiot trying to smuggle in contraband AI.

—

Fri, 2011-08-12 14:14

#3

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

I like the idea of the third party contract for the gear shipment and the "copyright infrightment" teeshirt print, that's just plain hilarous! What could be funny though is having to walk around in a bridled morph with DEMO tatooed on the face, arms, torso and legs. For female "demo" morph, the breasts could be nippleless and neutered down there. "Look at that poor sucker!I bet you twenty creds he took the Bryan Lighlines low-price charter egocast, and got sleeved into the cheap demo version of the Fury line morph instead of the geniune article!" "Bet he got a Virgin one, to boot!"

—

[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Fri, 2011-08-12 18:35

#4

Xagroth

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

More interesting than that... If you have a "data account" tied to your mesh (more than enough to contain today's Internet, remember? ^^), and there are some... less than approved by the Planetary Consortium, let's say, blueprints, then what happens? Is it enough to steganography the blueprints, distribute the data around tons of parts of your mesh? Or will you send the blueprints into a darkcast while you go using a very visible normal one? Frankly, I have that problem more than the equipment one (and they use "Creative Commons" clothes, which is more than an insult to the corps... when they don't make their own designs, like hawaian shirts just for the heck of it XD), since I never thought that your gear was able to be "reesleeved" with you in your destination...

Fri, 2011-08-12 20:04

#5

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

I think that you're onto something here, Xagroth what keeps the traveler to scan all his gear and save a copy of the blueprints in his personal Mesh cloud. So when he's resleeved, he connect to the nearby CM and reprint his stuff. Where the third party contract comes into play would be when reprinting illegal stuff from contracted use of their CM and servers.

—

[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Sat, 2011-08-13 10:19

#6

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

Information can easily be encrypted, and given the cost of cracking all information flowing around you can be fairly certain (unless you are a very interesting person to some powerful group) that they cannot hack the encrypted bundle you are lugging around. Some jurisdictions like the current UK can legally ask you to decrypt it, but there are deniable encryption schemes where the dirty stuff can be hidden from this too. The problem is that much information needs to be decrypted to be useful. This is true for egos, software and blueprints. They will be "naked" when in contact with an egobridge, running a processor or printed from a CM. This is where it is possible for governments to control things. Legal egobridges may have a filter that alerts authorities if egoIDs on a watchlist are sleeved. Trusted computing systems might refuse to run uncertified code. In the PC, fabbers have plenty of restrictions on what blueprints they might run, and could again squeal if a particular blueprint is entered (or, more likely, say "uncertified blueprint" and refuse to do anything). This is of course where the fun third parties come in. The nice people who sleeve you no questions asked into a morph you don't want to know how they got, have servers that don't mind what code you execute on them, and run heavy-duty manufacturing with no legal safeguards. Risky, expensive, possibly politically radical or just plain eccentric. This is where networking becomes crucial. Sure, quantum encryption, onion routing and untraceable digital cash may allow totally anonymous transactions, but since there will be at least one point of touch between you and the other party both have good reasons to want to trust each other. And there are plenty of people who want to break that trust. "Did you hear about the Dewey printgang? Someone pulled a real smooth rep scam on them, and got them to sleeve a 'visiting rimward agitator'. Turned out to be a Medusan ninja or something : once sleeved it activated a hundred kinds of malware, it's equipment locker was full of deadly gizmos, and it sliced up their centre. Then it went for all their mesh through the local equipment, wasting anything connected to it. Including posting rep transaction lists and egoIDs publicly, for the sharks to gobble up. If you passed through there recently you might be in trouble."

—

Sat, 2011-08-13 11:39

#7

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

dude you have a dangerous imagination! totally approve! by Medusan, you mean from Extropia based Medusa Shield? Could be an interesting way for an Extropian hypercorp to attack PC interest black ops style, seeing they're more or less allied with them, or at least in good term with them. or a scam by DirAct to tarnish their biggest concurrent's rep and public image, and get a rise of budget at the same time. Now, that sounds eerily familiar, don't ya'll think?

—

[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Sat, 2011-08-13 12:51

#8

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

Quincey Forder wrote:
by Medusan, you mean from Extropia based Medusa Shield? Could be an interesting way for an Extropian hypercorp to attack PC interest black ops style, seeing they're more or less allied with them, or at least in good term with them. or a scam by DirAct to tarnish their biggest concurrent's rep and public image, and get a rise of budget at the same time. Now, that sounds eerily familiar, don't ya'll think?

Agent provocateurs are everywhere. Why does my rumourmonger specifically say 'Medusan' in the first place? Is he biased, does he know something, or is he in on the disinformation? One of the creepy things in EP is that there are so many ways of attacking in untraceable ways. Which of course means that illegal bodyshops and fabbers tend to be pricey - they want a risk premium. Still, some good news about the Dewey printgang: the main backers were of course nowhere near the site and did not get too burned by the attack. They just have to deal with the massive rep backlash and need to rebuild their business. So now they are out for blood, looking for who was behind things...

—

Sat, 2011-08-13 22:01

#9

Mandella

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

Quincey Forder wrote:
When a person want to egocast, said person register what material he or she or they carry with them. those gear items are scanned, and the blueprints are sent along with the Ego. At the resleeving at the destinations, and passed the border, their stuff is rebuild from the blueprints transmitted with them, after being filtered by the Customs' informorph. Think of it like a personal baggage claims.

I used a similar system for my first game, but I assumed (at least in the more "money oriented" areas of the solar system) that the egocaster would be called to "check in" equipment he wanted cast with him. The casting company would hold the equipment until the duplicated stuff is turned in. If not turned in within the terms of the contract time the equipment would become the property of the casting company, to be either broken up for parts (to be nanofabbed into other stuff) or just re-rented in the case of common stuff. Since I generally increase the time it takes to nanofab stuff in my system, most egocasting firms keep a good stock of common items and gear on hand to give out to new arrivals traveling the cheap rates. So you may not get the exact make and model multitool you "left" with, but something compatible. In theory. Got a problem with that? Then pay the extra rates and either plan ahead or get ready to wait.

Sat, 2011-08-13 23:12

#10

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

I like that idea a lot! And it provides good storyhooks Like breaking and entering the warehouse on Mars to grab something belonging to someone related to their adventure, for example Or reclaim confiscated goods or maintaining such warehouse full of Fall-era or gatecrashing stuff, à la Warehouse 13, after a botched mission, or something. "why are we here, again?" and then poof! the lights go out, and some weird noises can be heard in the warehouse.

—

[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Sun, 2011-08-14 06:26

#11

GreyBrother GreyBrother's picture

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

How would you handle the costs, ingame? Included in the casting-fee?

Sun, 2011-08-14 09:14

#12

Xagroth

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

Personally, were I the Planetary Consortium or the Morningstar Corporation, I would purge any encrypted data from people I don't know are authorized for that. Or, in the best case, have it requisitioned until the ego leaves.

GreyBrother wrote:
How would you handle the costs, ingame? Included in the casting-fee?

In short: whatever they are willful to pay. You need to take into account stuff like risk, resources involved, effort, and the need of the players. Personally, unless there is reason not to use the legal egocasting (blacklisted, or needing the secret), the best option is to egocast into a cheap morph (like a baseline splicer), then go with a "best man" (another PC or even a fork) to overlook the process of switching to a good morph, like a ghost).

Sun, 2011-08-14 10:01

#13

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

Xagroth wrote:
Personally, were I the Planetary Consortium or the Morningstar Corporation, I would purge any encrypted data from people I don't know are authorized for that. Or, in the best case, have it requisitioned until the ego leaves.

Tough to do legally. Business travellers commonly have information that fall under attorney-client privilege, for example. Travellers could send their blueprints using a separate data channel. And it is not hard to steganographically hide your encrypted information in the terabytes of ego data, for example. So enforcement would be a nightmare too. It is a bit like banning people from using VPN in the real world: yes, you can do it, but suddenly no foreigner wants to invest in your country.

Quote:

GreyBrother wrote:
How would you handle the costs, ingame? Included in the casting-fee?
In short: whatever they are willful to pay. You need to take into account stuff like risk, resources involved, effort, and the need of the players.

Beside the casting fee and sleeving fee I would imagine that the printing fee would usually be rather minor - I would assume a moderate service/a few hundred or thousand credits if there is a lot of it. It is more a matter of service than resources. And yes, there is a bit of a risk premium. I expect that mainstream egocast providers like Nimbus has a fairly cheap gear policy but it also only prints objects within a limited range (as my example above); if you want a premium print (exotic materials, vetting by proper law enforcement) the cost goes up. I think people who want to transport weird, dangerous or illegal stuff will not use the services of normal egocast providers.

—

Mon, 2011-08-15 04:07

#14

Xagroth

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

I was using the "ban coded data" as a show of the PC's "hate".The Consortium wants only people that will conform to its norms and laws, not free agents with weaponry (or hacking data) ready to wreack havoc. As for the printing fees... Again, I say always the same when dealing with CMs: opportunity cost. While the black marketeers are fabbing your gear, they are not fabbing other guy's, so they might be losing money. I'd say that 500 creds per hour of assembling (plus mats) is reasonable for "normal" operations, the fee going up even to 1.000 creds per hour in peak times.

Sun, 2011-08-28 10:49

#15

DeusX

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

My solution for this dilemma is for Firewall routers to have links to black-market concealed unlicensed CM shops, that can be used to print the 'special' equipment the sentinel team needs. As a nod to Delta Green I nicknamed these sites 'Green Boxes'. This naturally needs an i-rep networking roll. Of course if you want to make their lives more interesting, you can have the shop be raided just before the players arrive, so the first part of the mission becomes finding replacement gear. I have backup generic supply caches called 'Blue Boxes' with an assortment of useful gear in a war-bag, often in public storage lockers. These warbags contents are usually similar everywhere, so a team on the run can pick some up, and be able to rely on them containing useful weapons, meds, armor, etc. Example: My standard firewall war-bag is a smart fabric gym bag with shoulder-strap containing mixed credit chips; 2 clean ecto's with linked anon accounts and cryptocred; first aid kit (nanobandage, 12 dermal patches of Grin & Comfurt);armor clothing - fireproof second skin skinsuit (3/3), and smart vac clothing jumpsuit (2/4); Armor vest(6/6) with attached flashlight, utility tool, vibro-knife and 6 grenades - IR smoke, CR gas, overload, EMP, and 2 frag (with the explosive fill nano-built inside the sealed shell -20 to chemsniffer detection), all grenades are sticky-coated and have std fusing options - airburst/impact/signal/timed; and 3 open-source blueprint weapons: a) Love+Rage 'P90 Classique' submachine gun, with imaging scope, smartlink, laser sight, flash suppressor. No ID safety, so anyone can use it. Fires a smaller bullet than most SMG, with better armor penetration. Underbarrel seeker launcher with 3 HEAP, 3 plasma micro-missiles. [SMG AP-5, DV 2d10+1, SA/BF/FA, Std SMG range bands, extended 50 round mags in double mag stack on top of the weapon. 1st clip 50 flux rounds, 2nd clip AP (DV 2d10-1, AP-10)] b) L+R 'Lawgiver' heavy pistol, SA only, 10 shot extended smart mag. comes with smartlink, no id safety, clip-on holster, silencer and 2 spare mags - mags are loaded with 1 jammer, 3 hollowpoint, 3 AP, 2 reactive AP and 1 bug round, all accushot. The smart mag responds to user voice commands for shot selection in heavy jamming environments. For non-lethal engagements, it has an underbarrel stunner fitted (smaller battery, only 50 shot). c)L+R 'Bunker-buster' one-shot standard seeker missile in 80mm disposable, telescoping launcher with UV laser sight. Thermobaric warhead, laser-homing seeker, fused for airburst or impact, with fuse safety - weapon only arms after 45m of flight, but the safety can be over-ridden with an Interface check, and the missile used as a placed mine with motion, time or signal detonation. [AP -10E, DV 6d10+10, 20m uniform blast radius, then damage drops off at -2 per m] Anyone else do anything similar? DX

Sun, 2011-08-28 10:45

#16

750

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

I find myself reminded that the first Kovacs do in Altered Carbon is to go shopping for weapons.

Wed, 2011-08-31 06:58

#17

Xagroth

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

750 wrote:
I find myself reminded that the first Kovacs do in Altered Carbon is to go shopping for weapons.

No, that was the fourth or fifth thing he did. First was talking to his "employer", second was registering in a hotel... he didn't got a gun until the day after his visit to the brothel, and the fun with the fleeing man ^^.

Wed, 2011-08-31 21:49

#18

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

One thing I loved in that book is the AI managed hotels concept. It opens so many possibilities for EP setting. And the Cloud 9 is a great aerostat concept Oh, and let's not forget the Maori morph, in Broken Angels. back on the topic, what is the status of the ambassadorial baggage? could custom open a Titanese man's digital luggage if it's tagged ambassadorial baggage, even if they suspected open source blueprint version of heavily protected IP material? you could always send guns blueprints disguised as Red Bull 's fabber blueprints, like some spies use jpegs with secret documents interlaced inside the image. Without the right key, all the blueprint will generate when opened with a fabber is cans of the aforementioned energy drink (footage from the xp 'From Elysium With Love', Jack Travlota and Jude Slacker. (c) Experia Searchlight inc. AF09)

—

[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Thu, 2011-09-01 05:28

#19

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

Quincey Forder wrote:
back on the topic, what is the status of the ambassadorial baggage? could custom open a Titanese man's digital luggage if it's tagged ambassadorial baggage, even if they suspected open source blueprint version of heavily protected IP material?

I guess it depends on the habitat. Today the international system is based on a fairly well established set of customs and laws, where opening diplomatic luggage is a very serious thing. This might remain true in parts of the solar system, especially those that have compatible legal and political systems. So it could be that within the PC, LLA and Morningstar different polities do not open the luggage of each other. But if the PC has not even recognized Titan or some obscure habitat, there is no reason for it not to examine it with impunity. So the deeper question is what groups have recognized each other. The inner system likely has, but it is not at all clear that the anarchists recognize many of the major powers as legitimate governments. Ironically Morningstar might be viewed as legitimate but not the PC, since it was clearly founded due to a referendum where people (maybe) got their say, while the PC was just founded ad hoc with no input. Steganography is how I would send my contraband. "Oh, that is an artwork. Depicts the solar corona during the Fall. Made by my uncle, an astroartist of some renown."

—

Thu, 2011-09-01 09:34

#20

Xagroth

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

Quincey Forder wrote:
back on the topic, what is the status of the ambassadorial baggage? could custom open a Titanese man's digital luggage if it's tagged ambassadorial baggage, even if they suspected open source blueprint version of heavily protected IP material? you could always send guns blueprints disguised as Red Bull 's fabber blueprints, like some spies use jpegs with secret documents interlaced inside the image. Without the right key, all the blueprint will generate when opened with a fabber is cans of the aforementioned energy drink

About the diplomatic valise, well, unless there is a way to be sure it cannot be copied (at least without you knowing it has been copied), it's as easy as making a copy of the files once the ambassador enters, and then do whatever they need to decrypt the access if they are interested enough. Which would require more than mere "CC blueprints", frankly. As for the steganographically approach to data transmission, it is possible to detect it: the file is bigger with the extra data... and you don't really need the original file to compare. For EP complex data (that is, more than a couple of pages of text), I'd bet it would be hidden inside XP sims or even RPG games where you need to do a really complex, concrete and by no way casual or accidental actions. They would be like nowaday's eastern eggs. And even smaller docs should be hidden among enormous amount of data, since AIs can be asked to compare the document with a standard in order to check for extra data... but if the file is big enough, it's easier to hide the real package. And of course, it's best to hide things under "ashaming" stuff. Like secret documents in Playboy photos...

Thu, 2011-09-01 16:18

#21

750

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

Xagroth wrote:
750 wrote:
I find myself reminded that the first Kovacs do in Altered Carbon is to go shopping for weapons.
No, that was the fourth or fifth thing he did. First was talking to his "employer", second was registering in a hotel... he didn't got a gun until the day after his visit to the brothel, and the fun with the fleeing man ^^.

Well the first two was basically forced on him, and i had quite forgotten about the brothel visit. Still, to some degree he was a walking weapon in his own right. As a former envoy he was trained in brutal but effective hand to hand, and had empathy all but stripped off. On that note, i wonder how nasty a unarmed combat trained ego in a synth can be given the additional resilience of a alloy and composite body.

Tue, 2011-09-06 05:01

#22

Xagroth

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

750 wrote:
On that note, i wonder how nasty a unarmed combat trained ego in a synth can be given the additional resilience of a alloy and composite body.

I think there were rules regarding flesh against armor somewhere. Of course, while facing an enemy with armor, you can target the attack to somewhere unprotected (or at least less protected: for example, attacking the joints of someone wearing a reinforced armor would allow to ignore the reinforced protection), but when we are talking about a synth, there is no place less protected (unless the bastard is wearing external armor over the morph. Fortunately, the Reaper can't have more than a "mere" 32/32...)

Tue, 2011-09-06 05:45

#23

750

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

Well a reaper would stand out as a sore thumb, so that is out if one want to infiltrate somewhere. Best i can find so far is that synths get +2 to any damage they do via unarmed combat. That and the 6/6 inherent armor on top of specs that can match a olympian bio allows for some nastiness if one can avoid the clanking masses issues.

Fri, 2011-09-09 14:41

#24

The Doctor The Doctor's picture

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

Xagroth wrote:
Personally, were I the Planetary Consortium or the Morningstar Corporation, I would purge any encrypted data from people I don't know are authorized for that. Or, in the best case, have it requisitioned until the ego leaves.

The thing about encrypted data is that you cannot necessarily tell what it is without decrypting and going through it. The data could be private e-mail (which, depending on local laws, customs may not be able to go through); it could be hypercorp proprietary information; it could be information from the government that the ego came from which they are required to carry but not divulge off-habitation; it could be saved game information. Without good reason to force an ego to decrypt their private information store customs would be wasting a lot of time and energy on a false lead. Plus, hypercorps that hear that the ego customs teams of a habitat might consider pulling their employees and contractors out because such invasiveness could be considered (and spun into) R&D risks. Fewer hypercorps producing on board a habitat means less revenue, which would hurt the habitat in the long run. All in all, is would be more cost-, time-, and processor-efficient to keep someone under surveillance than it would to deal with the backlash of shaking down each and every person with encrypted data who egocasted into a habitat (which would likely be a lot of people). The infrastructure to do just that is already in place (ref. [u]Panopticon[/u]).

—

[img]http://drwho.virtadpt.net/graphics/info_userbar.jpg[/img] [img]http://drwho.virtadpt.net/graphics/argo_userbar.jpg[/img] [url=https://drwho.virtadpt.net/graphics/blankbadge.png][img]http://drwho.vir...

Fri, 2011-09-09 14:47

#25

The Doctor The Doctor's picture

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

Xagroth wrote:
I was using the "ban coded data" as a show of the PC's "hate".The Consortium wants only people that will conform to its norms and laws, not free agents with weaponry (or hacking data) ready to wreack havoc.

The problem is that they would be effectively sacrificing much of their security posture. The PC's members (especially the security companies) would likely be using the strongest cryptosystems available in 10AF to protect everything that they consider valuable. There are far too many legitimate uses of strong crypto in everyday not-up-to-anything-shady life to ban it outright. Encryption protects blueprints, source code, and data connections to the central office.

—

[img]http://drwho.virtadpt.net/graphics/info_userbar.jpg[/img] [img]http://drwho.virtadpt.net/graphics/argo_userbar.jpg[/img] [url=https://drwho.virtadpt.net/graphics/blankbadge.png][img]http://drwho.vir...

Mon, 2011-09-12 07:02

#26

Xagroth

Re: of egocasting and gear dilemma

The Doctor wrote:
Xagroth wrote:
I was using the "ban coded data" as a show of the PC's "hate".The Consortium wants only people that will conform to its norms and laws, not free agents with weaponry (or hacking data) ready to wreack havoc.
The problem is that they would be effectively sacrificing much of their security posture. The PC's members (especially the security companies) would likely be using the strongest cryptosystems available in 10AF to protect everything that they consider valuable. There are far too many legitimate uses of strong crypto in everyday not-up-to-anything-shady life to ban it outright. Encryption protects blueprints, source code, and data connections to the central office.

Ok, so... there is this document called "roach motel protocols", where a beta fork of the parts are loaded inside an isolated computer, left to negotiate and then deleted after spitting out the conclussions. Apply that to the encrypted information, with the only outputs being "illegal" and "legal"... Had I to make any mission in tightly controlled societys (like the PC to an extent, or the Jovian Republic), I would go in with everything legal, and get my stuff once I'm inside. Fortunately, they cannot detect and delete skills (if they are not "chipped" skills, at least). So the options are as follows: 1.- Send an expert before sending the agents. The expert will assemble a Cornucopia Machine and get the necessary blueprints ready, or assemble a previously deployed system. 2.- Send a beta fork of one of the players to prepare the equipment using local materials. 3.- Deploy a package from orbit, inside a hard to detect insertion capsule or disguised as a rock. As you can see, I'm in full support of the idea that the critical point and most necessary one is to introduce the agent(s) as cleanly and seamlessly as possible, and only then worry about equipment.