How hacking works - Need Help

[Lu_Bu]

Hello everyone,
my PC's technomancer encountered a problem with the rules. There is no explanation on how hacking anything else works. Yes there are DCs for hacking computers but can they hack weapons? He found somewhere that weapon turrets can be hacked but there is no rules on how that works and I can't find it.
The whole point of the technomancer is to be able to turn off enemy's power armor and weapons more efficiently but we can't find out how to do more complex hacking.

[BigNorseWolf]

Hacking doesn't work that way

You can't hack weapons. There's no computers

you can hack armor but only to turn the environmental seals off. Takes a while though.

Turrets are computer controlled so they're fair game.

Hacking is useful enough in this system, but its not the only thing you need to learn how to do. If you want to deadify people, pick up a gun.

If you have access to a suit that is unattended or worn by a
helpless creature, you can turn on its environmental protection
as a full action, but turning it off requires a Computers check to
hack the system, treating the suit as a computer with a tier equal
to half the suit’s item level (the base DC to hack a computer is
equal to 13 + 4 per tier).

So not very useful in combat.

[Claxon]

The point of technomancers is not to hack the enemies equipment and turn it off. That's not how it works. You have a basic misunderstanding.

Hacking is for things that use computers.

As BNW points out, weapons don't have computers (or at the very least they can't be hacked if they do, and no weapon is explicilty listed as using a computer). Suits only lose environmental protection, which could be useful, but only if the person is already helpless...which means it's not really an "in combat" thing.

Hacking isn't meant to be a "combat strategy" it's meant to be the digital equivalent to lock picking.

[JetSetRadio]

Lu_Bu wrote:

The whole point of the technomancer is to be able to turn off enemy's power armor and weapons more efficiently but we can't find out how to do more complex hacking.

I didn't get this while reading the CRB. If there isn't a specific power that can do this then it might not be what the class is about.

"CRB p.118 wrote:

To the uninitiated, magic and technology are completely unrelated, but you know there are more correlations between the two than most suspect. Magic and technology are just tools, and when combined into one discipline, called technomancy, they can be far more powerful than one or the other on its own. You utilize tech to empower, harness, and manipulate magic, and you wield magic to augment, control, and modify technology. You are an expert at hacking the underlying structure of the universe itself, bending the laws of science and nature to your will. Your technomancy— which is gained from scientific study and experimentation— manipulates the physical world, weaves illusions, allows you to peer through time and space, and if necessary, can blast a foe into atoms.

Reading this and their spells I see the technomancer as a bender of physical matter and technology and much less of a lightswitch that turns armor off. They control elements, they can resurrect and they can jump start constructs. Like that type of stuff.

[Metaphysician]

Basically, you can only "hack" Computers, capital C. If something either isn't, or doesn't have, a Computer? You can't "hack" it.

Does this mean its impossible to use computer skills to target other technological devices? Not at all! However, it requires more than just the Computer Skill to do so. You need a feat or class ability that gives you the ability to effect other things. Mechanics, for instance, can hack enemy weapons. . . by using the Overload ability, which represents using their technical skills to override and shut down enemy gear.