Hacking

Corvus

I just wanted to leave a blurb of positive feedback on hacking. I have been enthralled with hacking in games since the ol Sega Genesis copy of Shadowrun came out, and I am very happy they both share similarities!

I look forward to additional hacking puzzles and hurdles in the future, especially if it might turn the tide in combat or unlock hidden areas that most wouldn't be able to access.

Originally I only had one qualm--I found, after a dozen or so hacking attempts on lvl 1-2 grids, that Ops blew by considerably fast. I quickly learned to bypass anti viruses and blast firewalls as I plotted to the array. Even so, I found a level one terminal with a 7 letter password and a huge grid, which meant it was down to the wire to solve the password each attempt.

Lately though it seems like Ops have been increased. I'm not sure if that happened because of leveling, added points in life force, or a QoL change but either way, it's far more enjoyable to hack now when I have a tiny bit of breathing room!

It would be fun, in the future, to find data nodes inside grids that we can hack (optional) and steal information to sell to npcs. It's an alternative to earning mark's and gaining a name for ourselves.

Keep up the great work.

Traveler

How did you "bypass" antiviruses? I found that if I tried to leave without attacking them, they'd follow me.

I was incredibly frustrated with hacking. I hated it. I lost over and over and over on a newbie level 1 grid. But finally I managed to win on occasion, and I don't know if it's the thrill of winning when you're almost out of Ops or if it's gotten easier due to some adjustments, but I keep coming back for more. I guess I like it after all.

Corvus

There was only one instance that an antivirus chased me down. It may have been one of the polymorphic ones and even then it gave up half way down the grid so I chugged on to the array.

With low ops it can definitely be frustrating, especially when it took about 5 ops an infection and sometimes I'd find myself locked on a node with three different firewalls which meant I more than likely had to beat all three to pass, or a damn honeypot.

I still find the system very thrilling and I'm sure it gets more fun with the additional difficulties but also hacking skills. The grid scan is going to be a miracle!

Maruna

Replicating viruses... Replicate.
Basic ones just attack.
Polymorphic ones chase. I think they also restore ops when you kill them (that could just be random).
Scanners I haven't yet figured out exactly what they do... You get a skill that jams them, though.
Glitches will respawn viruses if you kill them.
Firewalls block a direction. You get a skill later on to bypass them.

Honeypots stop you leaving a room entirely.

You get gridscan at level 2 which is amazing.
Ping at level 4 which is also amazing in conjunction with gridscan (lets you avoid single exit rooms if you're searching for the array).

It's a pretty fun skill, overall. I'm liking it.

Corvus

Thanks for the heads up! I assumed the regular anti viruses were just nuisances in rooms where you can't leave; something to bypass to save Ops, if possible.

I feel scanners will play a bigger role later. If we get a skill to jam them, I assume they will summon different anti viruses to us if we aren't careful. At low levels, scanners are just password fodder  

Yalau

I like it as well and can confirm that there are places that terminals unlock that aren't normally accessible.  One thing I'd like to know though is how do you know the difficulty of a grid?  Prior to entrance or while you're there?  Based on IkC strength?

TextWench

Yalau said:

I like it as well and can confirm that there are places that terminals unlock that aren't normally accessible.  One thing I'd like to know though is how do you know the difficulty of a grid?  Prior to entrance or while you're there?  Based on IkC strength?

Probe shows you if it's medium or easy or hard, AFAIK. There does seem to be a range within each of those ranks in terms of actual difficulty that's kinda RNG. You can get screwed by choice of direction and location of array and collection of ICE. 

Minion

That is part of the charm of hacking. The flux of difficulty even in the same terminal is, in my opinion, very enjoyable and takes a lot of the grindy feel out of doing it.

Corvus

PROBE will definitely give you a rough estimate in number form, but as @TextWench has said, difficulty may vary.

I completed a level 2 grid first and while it was a bit more combat intensive, it had a fairly short password and an easy array. The first level one grid I beat was massive and had the seven character passwords.

BobbtheBreaker

I really hope they expand on hacking in the future. I like the feel of it, though I think it could use a lot more features.

I really like the idea of being able to hack for a living, even if it shouldn't be as lucrative as the real risk of dying while bashing.

Or maybe they could do that. Make the current version of hacking the limited-only-to-standalone-terminals safe version, with some benefits. Then have a networked hacking alternate universe that's more lucrative but capable of killing you if you screw it up? Very Shadowrunny!

bairloch

Are there locked doors in cosmpiercers? then you could have a specialist hacker brought along just to pop the doors.
Now, what would make him specialized more than anyone else with the top skill rank? Well, I've got some ideas, but I don't know if there's anything in game. Would be fun, though.

Traveler

BobbtheBreaker said:

I really like the idea of being able to hack for a living, even if it shouldn't be as lucrative as the real risk of dying while bashing.

As I'm still at a really low level, I die to the security bots that get triggered on failed hacking attempts in certain quest lines. While I wouldn't want all terminals to be really dangerous, it might be fun to have a few with high rewards and high risks.

BobbtheBreaker

Wow, I didn't even know that was a thing! More of that, please, admin-guys.

Teotwauki

I'm envisioning raiding an enemy city with a small team of hackers trying to hack a terminal, while the larger raiding party is defending their helpless bodies.

What happens to your body when you hack?
Are there any penalties to terminating an attempt?

capheus

Scanners raise an alarm that calls more ICE, I think.

Qitorien

Teotwauki said:

I'm envisioning raiding an enemy city with a small team of hackers trying to hack a terminal, while the larger raiding party is defending their helpless bodies.

What happens to your body when you hack?
Are there any penalties to terminating an attempt?

The only penalty appears to being locked out form another attempt so far, though higher difficulty ones might have more penalties. I dunno. Your body remains there and is just as vulnerable as ever, except you can't defend yourself. I'm not sure what happens to your "mind" if you get attacked. Maybe it pulls you out of the attempt or maybe you don't even know until you die.

Teotwauki

I've terminated an attempt once and failed an attempt once, the consequences seemed the same. I would bee keen to know if there's any advantage to getting out early though.

I'm also interested to know if wetwiring continues to work while you're hacking.

Corvus

Since you are using your mind, some life threatening consequences for high reward hacking would be very cool! Like I said, allowing us to find data packages to download on successful hack and in turn sell to buyers would be a pretty sweet way to earn marks. Or maybe even finding hidden crafting recipes that are "well protected" trade secrets for arms manufacturers.

Perhaps hacking a corporation will grant infamy too which means you become as wanted as if you were a murderer. It would add a new element of danger to an otherwise safe activity, especially with high payout on the line.

Eiphy

There is a skill in hacking to assess a terminal's strength, but I haven't been able to make it work.

Qitorien

@Eiphy you just PROBE the terminal. That’s how you use that skill.

MundaneName

While I am having fun with hacking it feels very random to me. I lose many hacks just from bad luck and nothing I could have done would have allowed me to beat the level. Things like getting stuck in a room with multiple firewalls and anivirus which drains my GigaOps to the point of no return.

The password length variation at low levels is also very random. There is a huge difference between a 3 char password and a 5 char password. Combine this with the very random nature of password "drops" this causes a very large swing in difficulty. From one run where I avoid all anivirus to others where I have to try and kill multiple to get the password.

Right now the only consequence I have from a failed attempt is wasted time but as it stands right now I would be very hesitant to take on a hack with real consequences.

Avymos

To clear something up:

Polymorphic AVs don't chase. After absorbing a certain number of ops from you, they transform, which makes them do more damage.

AVs should not chase, but scanners are bugged, so ICEs called by scanners will chase you across the grid.

As well, JAM is not a reliable counter (probably bugged).

I love hacking, it's great. At least, it's great until 4 replicating AVs are chasing you across a 20x20 grid and gridscan shows youre 10 rooms away from the array with 0/8 password characters.

Annesani

Questions and comments. 

Q1: Does ops increase with character level? It doesn't seem to rise with hacker level. 

On to my comments! 

Hacking is pretty fun! So much fun that I always find a terminal to play with in the areas I explore. It makes me wonder why I didn't give my character a more technological background, but pewpew it is!

For folks struggling to deal with some of the passwords, the "guesstimation" is always an option. H**PY might be happy or harpy and a guess could be the difference between experience or a quick time out. At least until the consequences get worse.

Gridscan isn't all that useful for me, to be honest. I think I'd rather it tell me a general direction to go or not cost ops since 3 spaces can mean a lot in a hacking map.

Are we going to get branches of hacking or something in the future to further explore it? Not that I want a case of the haves and have nots, but I feel like this could have a lot of depth if poked at more.

Avymos

Ops scales up with hacking level, but is also heavily dependant on the size of the grid you're hacking. Player level has no effect.

Gridscan is hands down the most useful ability in the skillset. Use it when you move so you know you're moving closer instead of further away.

Minion

Hacking has a mine sweeper feel to me. You need to use logic and the tools at hand to make moves intelligently. Sometimes you have to take risks to get the reward. I honestly love it.

Annesani

Avymos said:

Ops scales up with hacking level, but is also heavily dependant on the size of the grid you're hacking. Player level has no effect.

Gridscan is hands down the most useful ability in the skillset. Use it when you move so you know you're moving closer instead of further away.

I seem to remember it costing ops to use though. Am I just remembering wrong? I'm unable to log in right now to check, but I'm pretty stingy with my ops. Nothing like having 10 left and you're 8 rooms away from the exit. 

Avymos

You should be using it from the second you start a hack. It uses 1-2 ops per use, but 1-2 ops per move is better than the ops you lose from wandering aimlessly.

Edit: To expand on that a bit, it seems like the hacking grids are generated as perfect mazes, meaning they dont loop back on themselves. There is only one path to any given destination. Which means it's relatively unlikely that you're going to find the array before you run out of ops, especially in the larger grids.

Minion

I dont even use it every move just at and after a junction to make sure I am making progress towards the goal.

Avymos

Yeah, every junction. I figured itd be obvious not to use it if you were in a tunnel

Orion

Decoy is so nice. I dropped one and it had 19 health, so unless you're mobbed, it'll be alive long enough that you only lose ops from using it and killing the ICE.

Crag

These are my failed morning attempts at the level 1 terminal in Litharge. Never made it to the array on these. Password is never less than 7 characters.

[ S | GigaOps: 3/111 | Password: BUBBLIE* ]

[ S | GigaOps: 3/111 | Password: *ILTRA*E ]

[ S | GigaOps: 1/111 | Password: *ECEAS* ]

[ S | GigaOps: 3/111 | Password: *MPUREST ] 

I managed to finish maybe 2 hacks totals out of probably twenty attempts. Many instances there is no way in hell I could have finished. I don't have any abilities to be very strategic. I try to avoid rooms filled with AV if I can but usually I am firewalled in.

I'm going to go look for a level 2 terminal and check it out. If this ones not bugged then I admit I'm not masochistic enough to enjoy hacking.