Automatic cam deact or manual removal.
nobody likes a network cluttered with shit.

To keep things super-duper vague, if a cam somehow goes missing from a location it still appears on the network it's connected to as an 'unknown'. There's really no reason for this to be the case for longer than necessary and it could be easily remedied by having cams linked to a hub, but not installed at a location, be un-linked automatically after a certain period of time has passed. Alternatively, give whoever owns the hub the ability to remove cams manually.

This issue causes PCs to have to purchase more and more equipment because slots that don't serve any purpose are still considered filled. Proposed changes would also make it far more possible for security equipment to be purchased illegally, for unspecified reasons.

That doesn't make any sense though. If a cam goes missing with these changes in place you still have to buy a new cam, right? I just don't want twenty cams that I no longer have linked to my hub, which should be perfectly reasonable.

@Necronex666 brought up a very important distinction...

There's really no reason for this to be the case for longer than necessary...

I focus in on that specific phrase because the way "necessary" is defined here affects the behavior of security devices that have been uninstalled, but not unscanned from a hub.

I don't want to go into too much IC detail. That being said, everything I am about to say comes from publicly accessible help files and examining devices. None of it is gated behind skills.

Based on previous conversations with staff, my understanding is that "is necessary" to keep devices connected to hubs to deter theft. If it were possible to easily reset / unscan devices from hubs, then to a certain extent the game would devolve into a constant back and forth of people stealing each other's gear. Ultimately, the character with the highest skills in the game would just "own" all of the other devices because nobody could touch them.

I think @necronex666's suggestion about having the devices become unlinked after a period of time seems reasonable on the surface. It might be even better to allow the owner of the hub to voluntarily 'unscan' any disconnected devices. Being able to unscan would all people to clean up their monitor feeds and remove all of the 'lost' devices.

The down side to that approach is that it does not serve to deter theft. In the current system, someone who steals a piece of security tech cannot use it. Therefore they have to get rid of it. They do not hold onto it for very long and it 'disappears' into the economy.

If players know that their stolen tech might become valuable as soon as the owner gets around to 'unscanning' it, then we have created a situation where players have incentive to stockpile a bunch of expensive gear knowing that, sooner or later, they will be able to reuse it themselves, or sell it 'like new'.

That is the challenge as I see.

I do not necessary know what the good middle ground is that allows network owners to clean up 'lost' devices, while at the same time still deters theft and keeps a portion of the game from devolving into two or three characters spending every waking moment trying to steal each other's gear.

I am currently working on code that would allow Secure Techs to fix problems like this. I hope to get it polished up soon. I'd rather have people forced to get an expert to deal with this than have it auto-resolve itself. :-)

@Mobius,

That is great news. Anything that gives character "experts" more power to resolve things makes the game world richer in my opinion.

@Mobius

Sounds cool, I like it.