Proposed Ideas for Hacknet
Neocron Hacknet Idea Outline
-Player
-Add in the ability to control the look of your cyberspace avatar
+Perhaps make this a hacknet program, that you activate while in hacknet. It sets up the external view camera (like alt+e does) but views them from the front. Freezes movement, and lets you select models for use on hacknet. More advanced programs requiring greater hack skill allow more options and models, with more and more detail
-Give the ability to control the look of weapons programs if custom made
+If at all possible, detect if a program was made by a user versus bought in a store. If bought in a store, lock it in to a general appearance. If custom made, allow the maker to set the weapon appearance of the program for use in cyberspace.
-Add in support of implants in cyberspace.
+Certain implants should have an effect in cyberspace, such as neural CPU's which would improve calculations or data transmissions. These factors may not necessarily appear relevant yet, but perhaps could come about in GAMEPLAY or ENVIRONMENT features later on
+Certain implants should have no effect in cyberspace, for example, eyes, bone enforcements. Considering the lack of these, and that the Law Enforcer works in Hacknet, perhaps code the specific implants that work in hacknet to work like the law enforcer, some good ideas come of this:
++If you set it up so that these certain implants -only work- like the law enforcer on hacknet, a hacker can "disable" certain implants by removing it, or enable them by putting them back in. This could be combined with a chat message to show that they're turning it off or on, for themselves, so they know.
+Ideas for implants:
++Bio monitor: tells you if your body is getting damaged in the real world
++Vocal bridge: Lets anything you say in local in cyberspace be parroted locally at your bodies location
++Emergency Jack: Lets a poker jack you out of the hacknet by force if there's an emergency and you need to be taken to safety.
-Allow an emergency jack-out from cyberspace
+If you add some manner of command to disconnect from cyberspace immediately, have it give a synaptic dampening effect like dying, just, don't go through the death screen, and return the player back to the generep they logged in on. Consider giving the jack out effect a delay, to suggest the hackers mind is still locked in on the hacknet when disconnecting. Also consider giving them a hefty load of damage to the head region to cover the concept of the cortex burning from the jack-out.
-Do not remove the player's body from the position at the genrep they were at
+Make an NPC that looks just like the player, with their health, and their disposition to other factions, if someone kills it, the player is dumped from hacknet and killed in the location they were at. I don't know if this can be done gracefully, but this would be an excellent check and balance, as well as keep up with how hacking locks and stuff leaves you vulnerable.
+Why would this make sense?
++Consider for a moment, that your body can get sucked into the genrep, but without knowing where to go due to hacking in, what if your consciousness went into the network ahead of your body, to try and plan out the route where you were going to go through the genrep network. Canonically speaking, that could make sense, and allow for a system of checks and balances against pvp players, or against a player on a GM run who doesn't have a compadre to watch out for them.
-Environment
-Add in different kinds of hacknet areas
+I know different color hacknets can exist, so you have the general green hacknet for normal. You have the blue hacknet for, perhaps, I don't know, high security or protected systems? What about a red hacknet, for damaged network areas. They have gaps and holes you need to jump over, and non working or nonsensical lift streams, or perhaps even environmental damage effects
++You can use neat effects like the blood effect on screen to flash the screen red and the intoxication effect to make things seem blurry or hazy with a white-noise effect to show damage or problems with an environment, making it harder to see and navigate the red environment
-Change what DNS you log into depending on where you log in
+if you enter hacknet from a genrep in any of the city sections, have a link in hacknet for that general area, Vis, PP, Plaza, ect. You can repeat this process in other locations. Just link it to the Mainframe for the city respective to where the thing is happening in, so you don't have to make all new areas overall.
-Keep the homogenized, repetitive look of hacknet.
+While it seems unappealing, hacking isn't supposed to be glamorous, it's repetitive, and mind-numbing. If you want colors, vivid changes, and reality, you don't jack in :D .
-Give more purpose to places.
+ If a player attacks a DNS and causes significant damage, perhaps set up an automated system to put a message out on the in-game forums, or using the neocronicle system to put out news reports of something happening. I'd like there to be a real world crunch when I go and break into Biotech's DNS and start beating up their firewall software! This will offset the repetitive features by giving a purpose to be had in each location
-Perhaps change some of the names of the enemies?
+Corrupted packets wouldn't really attack people, packets are pieces of information going from one point to another, essentially, you're firing packets of data at these Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics. These virtual entities could take the name of various programs, so perhaps consider calling some of them, like the security protocols, GATE_GUARDIAN v.1.0. Calling them infected is kind of weird, they're operating as they're supposed to, so perhaps consider removing that from the name, or changing it to hostile.
-Paydata:
+there's a lot of valuable data running around on hacknet, downloading some data fragments from destroyed programs and eventually processing it using your hack skill and hack tool, can lead to paydata that requires you to find a seedy seller in a given amount of time, based on a hint given. Basically, when processed, the pay data tells you to find a data broker in a particular location, and gives you a short amount of time to get it there. The data should be limited to people in the general area you can get to in that time period.
-Cooperative running environments
+with broad systems like a hacknet terminal inside of an office building, leading into the security system, to disable alarms, unlock doors, or disable certain turrets or robots inside the game world, would be a great way to improve the usefulness of a hacker, but also have them dependent on the other classes for protection. Or getting the hacker into a secured environment off site so that he can soften up security for the physical team to go in with their street samurais and Psi-monks to do the wet work. Use broadcast daemons to pipe through what the hacker says to the outside environment, and vice versa. Or allow the hacker to use cameras which basically will spawn the hacker temporarily in the game environment but modify their camera settings until they try to move, which brings them back to the network.
-Gameplay
-We need more programs!
-Offensive
-Melee Offensive Program
-For the more physically minded hacker, reaching out and manipulating the code of a program could be a valuable way to do a lot of damage to a less mobile program quickly, while also exposing the hacker to get damaged more frequently. This might be useful in situations when cornered, or if perhaps a hacker is themeing their avatar after something, say a knight with a sword, or a thief with a knife in the night!
-Check: Quick, good DPS, low hack-point cost
-Balance: Low range, some enemies fly.
-Basic Ranged Offensive Program
-Like what we have now, their effectiveness varies widely based on hacker's ability and intelligence, their range and rate of fire improved by whatever the best hacktool the player has in their belt, as they had to use a hacktool on their belt in order to enter the hacknet
-Check: Powerful, damage based on intelligence and hackskill, ranged, commonplace
-Balance: Performance tied to hardware used to hack into hacknet, hackpoint cost based on the level of the software run
-Complex Ranged Offensive Program
-These are unique ranged programs with special effects, either a blast radius or hitting multiple targets in field of view, these would replace faulty multilink attacks
-Check: Very Powerful, damage standard, but special effect modified by intelligence and hackskill. Ranged.
-Balance: Slower than basic ranged programs, Rare, should only be sold in certain discrete places or found in unique circumstances.
-Virus
-Attack program based on weakening a target's defenses, and causing damage over time, will -never kill the program- but will leave it with almost no health, if it lasts long enough.
-Check: Useful for system sabotage, and augmenting attack power against strong ICE, duration is based on your hack skill, and intelligence. Works on any friendly or non-friendly software without alerting them to your attack.
-Balance: Heavy hack point cost, slow to fire, only damages, does not crash the ICE/Program/Hacker, rare
-Denial of Service
-Attacks a program based on preventing the program from reacting as quickly, in both movement and action. Deals no direct damage to the program.
-Check: Useful for system sabotage, helps fight pesky fliers that run away or come back and swarm. Duration based on hack skill and intelligence. Common
-Balance: Slow to fire, deals no direct damage to the target
-Defensive
-Basic Barrier
-This is like the current hacknet program that puts up a shield, change no behavior from it, works great, maybe make hack skill and intelligence change duration and efficiency of the barrier
-Proxy: This makes an illusory copy of the hacker that follows them directly behind, it sometimes will take hits from enemy ICE if the Proxy is between the player and the ICE, health and duration, while limited, are improved by hack and intelligence. Added bonus: the proxy will defeat any attempt to use PING or TRACEROUTE on the hacker. (See Elucidary section below)
-Check: Can take damage for the player, protects from Ping and Traceroute
-Balance: Considerable hack point cost, limited duration, players can see right through it unless both aren't moving
-Sympathic Recursive Damage Loop
-Advancement of the Basic Barrier, when attacked, portion of damage is returned to attacker, depending on intelligence and hack skill
-Check: Behaves just like normal shield, damages attacking ICE based on their own effectiveness
-Balance: heavy hack point cost, slow to fire, lower duration than normal barrier
-Restorative
-Gradual Cortex Regeneration
-Behaves just like original healing program, no changes needed
-Neuronal Reconstruction Charge
-Heals health more directly in smaller increments than the entire regeneration process would have healed overall, however, it's immediate, which can be very important in dangerous situations.
-Check: Instant heal instead of Heal over Time. Modify total healing amount based on software level and hack and intelligence level
-Balance: Stamina drain for use, Heavy Hackpoint cost, heals less overall than waiting for regen to finish up, however, does an immediate heal.
-Antivirus
-Stops the effects of a virus and/or a denial of service attack, but heals no health lost from either affect
-Check: Stops the DoT of the virus, and the debilitating effects of the Denial of Service attack
-Balance: Heals no damage from either effect. Rare
-Cycle IP Address
-Stops the effects of a ping or a traceroute attempt
-Check: Duration lasts a while, based on hack and intelligence, also prevents both a ping and traceroute
-Balance: Resets entire hack point pool to zero, as it's essentially like reconnecting, but without teleporting away, it takes time for the system to catch up to you.
-Obfuscatory: The whole purpose of these hacknet softs is to make the player a smooth operator, rather than a raging death-inferno. It's entirely designed around the concept of avoiding the conflict, which may be important for setting up tactics or plans of attack, or just easily going through a system to gather intelligence.
-Sleaze
-For a duration of time in minutes based on intelligence / 4, what was once a hostile ICE becomes passive if their level is lower than your hack skill.
-Check: Allows for discrete play in a system, by turning what was once a hostile ICE into a passive one. Takes a moderate amount of hack points, higher levels of the software take less hack points to use and fire faster.
-Balance: Only can work on one piece of software at a time, must be cast subsequent times for each piece of software being attacked. Any penalties for attacking something friendly that may occur in the hacknet environment will occur if you attack a sleazed program. Only difference is that Virus works normally and does not alert the program to your intention to infect it.
-Disguise
-For a duration of time in minutes based on intelligence / 4, an entire hacknet region's hostile enemies identify you as a friend. However, activating a part of the system will cause the remaining duration to divide in half.
-Check: Very powerful, can allow for unmitigated system access
-Balance: Requires entire hack pool, prevents hack pool point regeneration for twenty seconds, extremely rare, available to high level hackers only.
-ARP Rerouting
-For a short duration, you've rerouted the attack protocol of the targeted ICE to attack anything -but- you. This might include sensitive datastores, or other runners, but anything that is not you has become fair game.
-Check: Allows temporary havock to take place, allowing the hacker to control the cyber battlefield
-Balance: Risky, may hurt allied hackers in hacknet with you, may also damage important features, heavy hack pool cost, somewhat uncommon
-Elucidary: Elucidary programs have a purpose in revealing information about the target they're being run against, giving information about health, about location, about the version of the software they've loaded up on their avatar
-Ping
-Tells you what active hacksoft the hacker is using, each level of software can tell you more about it. checks your hack and your software level versus their hack and their software level. If they're in a friendly system you are affiliated to, and they are sleazing or Disguised, and your software level and hack skill beats theirs, they are no longer sleazed/disguised.
-Check: Tells you what you're up against, can reveal a sleazed hacker, enabling defenses
-Balance: Can be defeated easily, requires close contact, heavy hack point cost, common
-Traceroute
-Tells you where a hacker had actually connected into the Hacknet, be it from their apartment, or from a specific in world location. If we keep a hacker's body at a location, this can be a seriously dangerous tool to use. You could send a physical fighter to the location and have them kill the hacker, which naturally would cause them to crash. To do this, a small version of a basic ICE is spawned, and slowly it begins to make its way to the hacker it's targeted. If the hacker doesn't notice the tracer, and it comes close enough to attack, the trace goes through. The trace has to be very, very close in order to attack, unlike other monsters. A hacker can only run one single trace at a time. If used on a normal ICE, the trace returns what faction the ICE belongs to, if any, unless it's destroyed before coming close enough.
-Check: Tells you where the hacker you've targeted is located physically, at least until they come through at another locations Uplink to the physical world through a generep. Can also take some agro off of you so the target attacks the trace
-Balance: Slow moving, relatively weak, takes a great deal of hack pool to cast, can only have one out at a time.
-New Feature
-Using your hack tool in hacknet can open up a cityterm wherever you are, allowing you to email to the outside world when deep in a hack, or if you suspect your body is in trouble.
