“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.” It looks like when a Hacker is in the Isolated state their Hacking skill and Hacking Device become disabled. It’s clear to me that means that they are unable to use their Hacking device in their orders or AROs but there are two things that I’m not clear on. 1. Since the Hacking skill is disabled, is a Hacker still a valid target for other Hackers? 2. Since the Hacking skill is disabled, does a Hacker still count as a Specialist for missions?
The Hacking Special Skill has not been disabled. The Hacker can no longer use Hacking Programs, or anything that has the Comms Attack/Comms Equipment Labels. They still have the Hacker Special Skill. So they are still Hackers for 1 and 2.
The text I quoted from the wiki seems to read that the Hacking Device and Skill are disabled. Am I misreading that block of text?
Where does it say that the Hacker Special Skill is disabled? It's not specifically called out, and isn't covered by the general text about Comms Attacks/Equipment as it doesn't have either of those Labels/Traits. “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.” Hacking Programs are disabled. Skills and pieces of Equipment with Comms Attack/Equipment are disabled.
That explains it. I was reading “Hacking programs, skills” to mean “Hacking programs and skills” when the skills bit is meant to be associated with Comms. So the things that are disabled are: 1. Hacking programs 2. Skills and pieces of Equipment with the Comms Attack or Comms Equipment Labels or Traits. How I was reading it: 1. Hacking programs and skills. 2. Pieces of Equipment with the Comms Attack or Comms Equipment Labels or Traits. Thanks for the clarification. Commas are hard.
So do CB documents generally use Oxford commas? I could easily have read the rule the same way, and the idea that a rule interaction like that is dependent on whether or not you know to expect an Oxford comma to separate clauses or not feels...not great? If the style guide for the rules specifies omitting Oxford commas, then the effect of that rule quote would be to disable: Hacking Programs Skills (full stop, so all Skills) Equipment with Comms Attack or Comms Equipment labels
The Oxford comma would help, but the wording could be simplified in other ways, too. Comms Attack and Comms Equipment are labels, not traits. And I don't think there are any Skills with the Comms Attack or Comms Equipment labels, other than hacking programs or Skills provided by Comms Equipment. Also, any Equipment that allows a Comms Attack should presumably have the Comms Equipment label. So it could say "While in Isolated State, all the Trooper's pieces of Equipment with the Comms Equipment Label (Hacking Device, Repeater...) are disabled. All the Trooper's Hacking Programs are also disabled." A purely academic exercise, given CB's policy that the pdf wording is immutable.
Y Yes, all Infinity documents use Oxford commas. And I agree that it needs to be clearer. For example: While in Isolated State all the Trooper's Skills and pieces of Equipment with the Comms Attack or Comms Equipment Labels or Traits (Hacking Device, Repeater...) are disabled. In addition, all their Hacking Programs are disabled.
