Hacknet

Let's face it - Hacknet is bloody horrible. I thought I'd roll one to see what it was like, and man is it frustrating.

There have been promised improvements since patch 130, and it remains a mess. You can skip past my anecdotal ravings - the actual suggestions are towards the bottom of the post.

Let's start off with the newby hacker.

* They start with 28 weaponlore as standard - but with no weapon that fires bullets. This also means you have to either suck it up and use the stiletto to do the MC5 missions, or you have to pay out 800 credits for a pistol. If you intend to be a pure hacker, you have to divert DEX points from TC, to put into pistols/rifles. That means you also have to LOM those points back out later.

* The MC5 missions give pistols, rifles, drones, cannons, APU and PSI modules... no hack modules.

* There's no-where in the MC5 that allows a newby hacker to do that they're meant to do. They start with an attack and a heal software, but no logins to use them.

So that's not a good start

Then comes the Mr Jones mission.
* It's poorly written. It doesn't advise you to hack the GR to get to the decryption terminal. When I read up on TH, I couldn't then find the terminal, so I gave up.

* I gave up as the reward is a TL 90 hack tool. Sure, that's handy if you take your LE out and don't want to drop it if you get PKed, but other than that - does the TL90 tool give any benefit above a TL30? I've heard it doesn't.

By this point I'm feeling a little bit jaded, but I press on. I make my way to Plaza and into the Low Sec login in P1. I'm greeted by mobs that take aaaaages to kill.

* My HCK power is drained very quickly by my weapon. It then takes a long time to recharge. Killing the mobs is tedious.

* You finally get them down to near-death, and they fly away out of range. So much for that kill for another 5 minutes until it comes back.

* I spot the container with the rare hackcode in it. Oh good, I think to myself. Then I realise there's no path to it... I jump down - get the item in the container, and then I have to do a reset position to get back to the entrance. That's another couple of minutes stood around doing nothing whilst I wait for that. But ohhoho! I ports me a few feet from where I was stood before! So I'm stuck and have to suicide. Then it turns out those fragments are useless now anyway. You can't even sell them at Yos.

So - suggestions

* Fix the starting template for the hacker - give them skills that are useful. OR give them items that are useful.
* Give a better item with the Mr Jones mission - an attack module would be nice to tie in with the weapons everyone else gets. OR make TL90 more useful, like faster HCK regen.
* If you can't make the TL of the hack tool affect HCK regen speed, then either increase the rate it recharges, or lower the rate it depletes.
* Keep the mobs on the paths.
* Introduce hacking missions. Getting a player to hack a citycom terminal to unlock these missions would be fun. This would also give pure Hackers a platform for gaining Symp with their faction for FSM.
* Mobs could drop code segments - these can either be used to complete hack missions, or sold for credits.
* Characters should gain CON from being attacked in Hacknet. CON gained from being shot by any other mob in the game affects me in Hacknet, so shots in Hacknet should increase CON that's usable outside of it.
* Increase damage of mobs, or reduce the effectiveness of the heal - atm the heal outstrips all damage. If CON could be gained in Hacknet, it would stop people just using it as the new place to raise CON without danger.
* Remove damage to armour in Hacknet. Armour provides no bonus to runners in the net - so it should not be damagable. Either that, or make armour affect Hacknet, and keep the damage.
* Redesign the levels so that they're more intuitive to navigate, and remove the dead ends.
* I understand rare code pieces were meant to be made into rare Hacknet weapons. Make it so! Or at least put in a system where we can sell them to an NPC for a reward.

Also - any chance of a re-colour. Everything green = harder to differentiate between walkways, lifts, and that horrible scrolling code that is the skybox.

I'd suggest something like a dark grey or yellow for paths (or gray with a yellow outline, so that it really stands out). The lifts I'd suggest making blue - as this would tie in with the grav lifts around the game that players are used to.

Also the first level attack software uses around 30 HCK, and hits for 34 energy and 8 xray. The second level takes 100 HCK and does about 5 more damage. So why bother with the second tier attack software? It's litterally got 1/3 of the DPS.

(Only a short answer; just online with mobile phone..)

Thanks for the feedback, you're right, we need to do something for hacker.

* Starting Area MC5: There is a newb login (Mainbuilding)
* Jones Mission: the description terminal has a own world, so no need to hack the GR, you need to find the right 'login station', and Jones is telling you that as well.

Btw., you're telling there is an unreachable container and a crappy reset position, can you provide me more input for this, please? Which login; a screenshot for example.
It's clearly not intended that you have to die/suicide to accomplish a level or something else.

We do have some really good ideas for Hacknet, in the Team and from the community.

Many thanks for all the input you guys providing to us - We can only work with your feedback, thanks!

Wish I could tell you we're pushing out a bunch of HN changes or a total revamp, but sadly it needs some time and a lot of work.
But we do have that on our ToDo-List!


X.

Hi Xenos

As mentioned - it was the low-sec login in P1. The one just behind the wall opposite the medicentre.

Thanks :)

...in addition to what was already said: The Hacknet is not for beginners. It's an area of increased difficulty. I'd strongly advise you to play/level up some other chars before taking on the Hacknet. And yes, once you've learned how to handle it, it can be a exciting, while somewhat limited experience.

Yes, it's also recommended to redistribute skill points before starting a pure Hacknet char.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mal

Let's face it - Hacknet is bloody horrible. I thought I'd roll one to see what it was like, and man is it frustrating.

* The MC5 missions give pistols, rifles, drones, cannons, APU and PSI modules... no hack modules.

By this point I'm feeling a little bit jaded, but I press on. I make my way to Plaza and into the Low Sec login in P1. I'm greeted by mobs that take aaaaages to kill.

* My HCK power is drained very quickly by my weapon. It then takes a long time to recharge. Killing the mobs is tedious.

---

that's why you want to use hackboosters, available from your friendly drug dealer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mal

* You finally get them down to near-death, and they fly away out of range. So much for that kill for another 5 minutes until it comes back.

* I spot the container with the rare hackcode in it. Oh good, I think to myself. Then I realise there's no path to it... I jump down - get the item in the container, and then I have to do a reset position to get back to the entrance. That's another couple of minutes stood around doing nothing whilst I wait for that. But ohhoho! I ports me a few feet from where I was stood before! So I'm stuck and have to suicide. Then it turns out those fragments are useless now anyway. You can't even sell them at Yos.

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Unlike your experience i always found escalator streams within Hacknet areas to take me up or down, except for the floor you'd fall down to accidentially.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mal

* Introduce hacking missions. Getting a player to hack a citycom terminal to unlock these missions would be fun. This would also give pure Hackers a platform for gaining Symp with their faction for FSM.

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Hacking missions are available from existing in-hacknet terminals. Try hacking any GR and exploring what's behind.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mal

* Mobs could drop code segments - these can either be used to complete hack missions, or sold for credits.

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Some hacknet mobs do drop code, which is dearly needed for crafting certain hi-level items. Store your loot for using or selling to players. There is no real need for selling loot, as bounties will pay for your weapons and boosters. Neither armour nor imps are needed within the Hacknet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mal

Also - any chance of a re-colour. Everything green = harder to differentiate between walkways, lifts, and that horrible scrolling code that is the skybox.

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As you progress deeper into the hacknet, you will experience different world colours (and adversaries of different strength). But well, maybe the hacknet isn't the right thing for you. Maybe you want to play in a less abstract environment. Since there's rumours of the hacknet receiving some development efforts, i'm quite curious - but still not sure if even a revamped Hacknet would be the most fun you could have in Neocron.

My focus is on improving accessibility for potential new players - highlight content that needs work to stop newbies logging in, trying something, seeing it's broken, and then just walking away.

It's fine saying that it's not for beginners, however, is that attitude correct? I.e. is it not for beginners because it's broken - or is is the intention that it's advanced and artificially more difficult? I personally get the impression that it's broken. However, If it's meant to be that way, then the hacker template on character creation needs marking as advanced - and perhaps have a warning about how badly it'll make you want to headbutt the keyboard :).

Mal, i believe this is a cultural question. Neocron is waaay more sandboxy than any game of the recent years. There is no continuous chain of missions to guide you through the game until you happily defeated the final boss. There is no final boss either. So there's plenty of room for anybody to find out how things work. And as i found out by trial and error, you can do it, too. I don't believe i'm 10 times more intelligent than you are, so give it a go. It's not broken, you just didn't try hard enough. And if you don't like trying hard, just try something else. And if you think, it's too hard - do you expect a game to be evenly easy? What about people looking for a challenge? What about people looking for other playstyles? Did you ever visit the Doy Tunnels to get a WOC disc, did you see Elvis in his glory, did you kill the Crystal Queen, the Shaman, the Juggernaut Warbots? What i'm saying is: This game is huge and has numerous opportunities for having fun. Some are for newbies. Go try them all.

Torg - I'm not a new player.

I'm looking at development opportunities to help improve the user experience for new players. Your opinion is noted - thank you for contributing.

I think that player should be automatically either killed or logged off when falling into abyss in hacknet. Lifts could be better indicated, it was confusing at start for me. Those matrix datastreams are barely visible from distance, until you learn the floor pattern that indicate a lift. Keep alpha as it is and change its colour for example to blue.
Also I think that software could use its own unique sound rather than copying PSI cast. This sound is very tiresome to listen, really. Even if whole hacknet stuff is copy-pasta Monk mechanics.
I agree, code fragments could be more usefull, for example it could be used to combine into random bp that guarantee quality or slots (my wild imagination) or at least sold at highier price.