The isolated state says that: "While in Isolated State all the Trooper's Hacking Programs, Skills and pieces of Equipment with the Comms Attack or Comms Equipment Labels or Traits (Hacking Device, Repeater...) are disabled." Should this be read as: "all the trooper's (hacking programs, skills and pieces of equipment) with the comms attack or comms equipment label are disabled" Or as: "all the trooper's (hacking programs), (skills and pieces of equipment with the comms attack or comms equipment label) are disabled" I.e. are hacking programs without the comms attack or equipment label unaffected by isolate? Yes, we know the answer from N3, but it's a new edition which means the question warrants asking for clarity.
FWIW, the first interpretation is grammatically correct but the second one isn't. For the second meaning, there's need to be an "and" after "hacking programs,". Also a comma after "label."
Trying to read the implications of what you’re asking... are you seeing if non-attack programs like supportware can still be used while isolated?
That's the gist. There are a number of hacking programs without the comms attack or comms equipment labels, which sometimes appear as upgrades etc. But really I'm just after clarity because the sentence is a little awkward to parse.
Sorry if I'm being dense - but does being isolated also stop them from being Hackable? I'm probably parsing this wrong but it reads like the Hacking skill is also disabled? "While in Isolated State all the Trooper’s Hacking Programs, Skills and pieces of Equipment with the Comms Attack or Comms Equipment Labels or Traits (Hacking Device, Repeater...) are disabled." EDIT - or is hacking programs separate from then "skills and equip with comms attack label"?
A Hacking Device for example has the Comms Equipment label and says that it "allows the use of the Carbonite etc. Programs." So I would say that if you're Isolated, the HD is turned off and no longer allows the use of those programs. Upgrade programs are styled as "Killer Hacking Device [Upgrade: Trinity (-3)]". So it looks like the upgrade is to the hacking device, i.e. the device allows the use of an additional program. So I would say that turning off the device means the upgrade can no longer be used. Potentially, Isolated wouldn't turn off programs for a Hacker without a hacking device who get programs assigned directly to their Hacker skill, if the program itself didn't have the Comms Attack label. But, I'm pretty sure the only program actually assigned in this way is Zero Pain, which does have the Comms Attack label.
Bit (of Bit & Kiss fame) has an alternate profile that doesn't have a KHD; she has Oblivion and Trinity, which both have Comms Attack. We can rule out supportware, since I think those only exist on EVO REMs. That means the only programs of interest remaining are Cybermask and White Noise. So for this to have impact, we would need to find a hacker with no hacking device who just has those programs as upgrades.
Laxmee has UPGRADE: Fairy Dust, although arguably it's associated with a Hacking Device Plus that isolation would disable. But more broadly its just a question of future-proofing and how we should generally parse rules. The question arose from idle conversation, not an actual game state that needed resolution. :)
