smartlink detail (Smartlink)

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Smartlink

A smartlink is a real-time targeting link between a compatible weapon
and a character wired to receive it. It is not magic accuracy --
it's a physical handshake between hardware you're carrying and
hardware installed in your body, and it only works when both ends are
actually present and functional.

The weapon side

A firearm needs smartlink capability installed in its GRIP, through a
dedicated `smartlink` modification slot -- never the optic, muzzle,
barrel, recoil, or underbarrel slot (see help weapon modifications
for install/remove syntax). The DSI M91 Warden is the only production
firearm that ships with this built in from the factory; every other
production firearm needs the aftermarket module installed before it
can link to anyone.

The character side

You need at least ONE functioning smartlink interface:

    - An ocular implant: a micro-scale projector threaded along the
      optic nerve, not a replacement eye. It works behind a living
      eye or a compatible cybernetic one -- either is enough, and you
      never need both eyes fitted. It injects targeting and weapon
      telemetry directly into your vision.
    - An arm interface: installed either in a biological forearm or a
      cyberarm, on one specific side. It completes the physical path
      from a weapon gripped in the matching hand to your nervous
      system.

Whichever hand actually grips the weapon determines whether the link
can complete -- an interface on your left arm does nothing for a
weapon held in your right hand, regardless of which eye is doing the
targeting.

Checking link status

    weaponstatus <weapon>

reports SMARTLINK: ACTIVE or INACTIVE separately from BIOMETRIC:
AUTHORIZED or UNAUTHORIZED (see below) -- they are independent
systems, and a weapon can be linked without being biometrically
authorized, or the reverse.

Biometric locks are a different system

Some weapons (the DSI M91 Warden among them) separately recognize only
a specific registered user's grip and refuse to fire for anyone else,
regardless of whether a smartlink is active. This is a biometric
lock, not a smartlink -- see `weaponstatus` for both readings at once.

See also:

    help weapon modifications
    help smart magazine
    help surgery and cyberware
Combat