The Hacker Project - a free online game

Well, it creates an interesting discussion at least... For example, I uploaded a .4 FS virus to a server, to realize it doesn't have enough bandwidth (doh!). It'd take 213 hours to delete it... yeah right. As program versions go up, it becomes more and more impossible to delete software, both your own and other peoples'. Solutions?

siremi already said he'd consider it/add it to the list. What more is there to say? Close the thread if you want to - it's been a few posts since anything on topic happened.

Thanks for considering this SirEmi. As the game grows, it won't be long before every password crack will take exactly one hour - even the secret servers take nearly that long now. Were this implemented, it would give an actual incentive for research (and with the AP for researching, it prohibits people from skyrocketing either program too quickly).

Here's the key problem, as I see it - every change implemented seems to make the game more restrictive and limits what you can do. For example, the AP change limited the best way to make money to disinfect missions. If you make disinfects cost more without rebalancing other parts of the game, all you've done is make that people can play less; in fact, I think some people may start playing so little that they stop altogether.

Sorry I was unclear - I was making fun of you because everything you've asked for is implemented already. If you're too cheap to pay for it, why would Emi give it up for free?

You're gonna love this, because you can already do all that! Here's what you do (step by step)

1. Go to "Hardware"
2. Hit the "Buy New Server" button
3. Become a gold member
4. Go to "Gold FTP Server"
5. Rename the new server
6. Type in "Hungarian True Light Server"
7. Go back to "Hardware"
8. Buy upgrades for your new server
9. Give your friends access.

See how easy?

I'm sure that's exactly what this game is supposed to be - I've got nearly 200K worth of disinfect missions queued up.

Hey Maw! Hey Paw! Ima gonna be rich!

I haven't asked for invulnerability, I've asked for some semblance of realism. You think that a .3 firewall bypass breaking a version 6 is a good thing? There's NO defense you can research to stop people from cracking you - it's impossible. I could crack a version 117 password right now. Ok guys, scramble to make that V118 so I can't crack you!

This is why you have so many posts Noseedam. Keep it on topic or make your own thread. Don't spam the entire forums just because you had a thought

Thanks nos - I think it makes sense from both an ingame AND a real life perspective. It makes sense that the password encryption would become more complicated as the version increases, and the decryption logarithms for the breaker would become better as version increases. As an extreme example, a V100 password breaker isn't going to have any trouble getting past a v1 password protect. Why would it take almost an hour? Similarly, a v.5 breaker is going to struggle when trying to crack more complicated encryption than it's programmed for and would take longer.

Currently there's no point in researching password protect above version 1.2, as cracking time is capped at one hour and people can just overclock their breakers to get in anyways. My suggestion doesn't add any new features, only balances old ones:

-First, change the cracking time per v.1 to 3 minutes instead of 5. This is so that the higher versions don't take days and days. A minimum crack time of 5 min can still be in place (so v.1 would take 5 minutes, v.2 = 6 minutes, v.3 = 9 minutes). That limit also stops bigger players from just running over the newer players as they don't get an instant-crack.

-Make the ratio of breaker/protect actually matter! Every v.1 that the breaker is higher than the protect removes 1 minute from the break time. For example, a v.5 breaker against a v.4 protect would take 11 minutes instead of 12 (4*3-1). Also, every v.1 that the breaker is lower than the protect should add 30 seconds (or a minute). Therefore, an overclocked v.3 breaker -vs- a v.4 protect would take 12.5 or 13 minutes instead of 12.

-Limit overclocking (has been said before). I've cracked a v6 protect with a v.3 breaker. I don't care if it's real life or a game, that shouldn't happen. Limiting at ~ x3 makes sense - you're getting an extra 66% out of your software. That's more than you'll get in real life, and if you're actually putting any work into your software (or even just downloading the new stuff off pubs/secrets) that won't be an issue.

I don't believe I'm actually about to show the general populace what a great deal virii currently are... Let's take the stats of a .328 fileshare, my old standard, shall we?

A .328 fileshare virus makes 196.8 HPD/hour. Disinfecting this virus takes 43.3 hours. Therefore the total payout for installing this virus is 8,521.44HPD. Installing this virus costs 137 AP.

Disinfecting a fileshare virus also takes 43.3 hours, but the payout is 14321.21. This costs 20AP.

Installing the virus has a payout of 62.2hpd/ap. Disinfecting it has a payout of 716.1hpd/ap. You tell me - which one is a better deal?

Good call - I'll play half the game at a time Wish I'd thought of that.

ADD:
Sorry I'm frustrated - I just think the game shouldn't slow down the farther into it you get. What about having separate AP for different gateways or something? As it is, after you reach a certain point it's just a matter of time until you run out of AP and just sit there looking stupid.

By limiting the research processes we can run at once (since each one costs ap), it doesn't make sense to boost specs past a certain point. I know I'm nowhere near soviet, but I've got >85GHz CPU + 4 gigs of memory. I just want to know what to do with all that cash now... Maybe eventually when all software is v20+ I'll need to upgrade again, but until then there's nothing to do - except run disinfects on all of my own virii for the ridiculously cheap money, of course.

Bringing this to the top of the pile again - still dealing with this issue. What are you thinking, siremi?