"Fengshui says loudly, "Other tech skills, specifically secure tech, could likely use some love. Secure tech is good for things like vehicle theft, security system debugging, security installs/uninstalls, and security device resets. Those are fairly specific situations. We either need to add more situations to increase the usability of the skill or perhaps consider combining electro tech and secure tech, so that the resulting skill has more overall usage. I don't have a plan for this currently, but it is rattling around in my head.""
I brought up the topic in the topic suggestion, so I just wanted to get out some thoughts.
In the list uses for secure tech, bugging/debugging exists but I don't know if it's what any one would call functionally useful outside of a few niche situations (and is also limited in what it can apply to for use).
So secure tech can be boiled down to helping in some vehicle thefts at one stage and security installs/resets.
Grid 4.0 got several cool functions and ability that kind of drift over into what someone might expect from secure tech (or electro), and that's cool. I'm genuinely happy for deckers. But it does cut down some into what could've been cool additions for secure tech and comes without necessarily all the in-person risk that happens for someone with secure-tech. Now there's the good argument that a good decker needs UE investment in three skills where secure tech really needs just secure tech. But I've got a different argument:
Because of how installs work, secure tech installs never deteriorate over time. So that leads to people who invest in secure tech needing to continually invest points just to prevent their own stuff from getting torn down, but also so they can even try to have a chance at some real old installs from people who invested tons and tons of UE and might not be here anymore. And since secure tech only has about one other real consistent use, that pretty much feels like a lot of UE investment isn't for learning new abilities, opening up new pathways to plots or usefulness.. but to fight for the highest install safety rate. Vehicle theft levels off after a bit where the install stuff doesn't, since you're fighting other player investment and not objects.
(I'm also not sure if installs are weighing the stat investment as heavily as some other skills might, but I'm possibly wrong).
Additionally, a skill that complements security installs - like stealth - gets immediately negated by one simple, cheap, and easily available IC item in-game that automatically bypasses that investment to try to complement. In my opinion vastly overpowered and infuriatingly frustrating. I would love if this could be reconsidered.
My suggestions would be one or some of these suggestions:
!. Allow secure tech to work to counter some of the grid 4.0 stuff on physical items that they're already traditionally linked to (like installed security gear) or stuff you think they could be linked to when imagining secure tech (doors and similar).
2. Create a crafting list for secure tech like electro tech gets, but with different items more fitting to secure tech or components to complement other skills' crafting.
3. Allow for original installs to fade in over time so it won't take near the same skill level to uninstall, making it so top-end secure techs don't feel like they only need to invest more UE to pull down old installs or keep theirs up permanently.
4. This one is much harder, I think: the tracking bugs get reworked and opened up to
more stuff and with an escalating difficulty.
5. Or just merge electro tech and secure tech into one skill like was brought up in Slither's quote as a potential route.
