The Hacker Project - a free online game

- deactivated newbie protection, since there appears to be no use for it anymore and was just getting in the way.
- newbies start with 25 kb/sec bandwidth, minimum bandwidth is still 5 kb/sec.
- new servers still come with 5 bk/sec bandwidth, just the first server on each player has 25 kb/sec. This is to get a faster start, and be able to do the first "Intall vir" missions.

Good work Sir Emi. Keep it up!

 :clapping:

How does this effect existing servers currently under newbie protection?  Are they now vulnerable, and will their original server be given the 20kbps increase?

No more newbie protection Thraxian.

Existing servers keep what they have.  Don't worry about it.

The newbies started with something like some HPD up until now. They where given some HPD, 0.1$ at the exchange rate, would have been something like 11k HPD.

This was changed since I wanted to motivate them to earn that HPD instead, so they start with 0 HPD and 25 bandwidth / sec, that's about 6k HPD for +20 bandwidth. I think this will work better to get them to stay and explore the game.

I agree Emi.  One of the hardest parts when I started was that everything took so long to download.

I think this will improve perceptions.

 :rockon: thank you emi it will help

Also think for every day passed since the round started the new players should get 100hpd, to catch up alil but thats just me

It would make for good practice before the start of the next round, but I'd like to see this discussed more before I pass judgment on it.

The problem with giving HPD is that they don't feel motivated to do the missions, get new servers, etc.

However, the 25 bandwidth is a different matter, it will help speed up the learning process. Maybe they will get some more CPU / memory too as round progresses. Not much, just enough the get them started...

I agree with sir emi. 25 bandwidth is plenty to upload virii and download new files.

One could say that 9 kbps is also sufficient for downloading software (that can be run under 1110Mhz) or uploading viruses (again, most new players focus on file deletion as that is quicker).  The restriction just makes the uploading a bit more time consuming.  But then, some of the better "file delete" missions take hours to complete (especially larger files worth 500 or more HPD).

My concern is that by removing the newbie protection, new players will be more susceptible to early attacks.  Oftentimes, these early attacks discourage new players from continuing.

What was the original intent of lifting that protection?  The OP said "since there appears to be no use for it anymore and was just getting in the way", but that really provides no explanation.  Were too many people holding on to their newbie protection excessively long?  Were new players being "penalized" by being protected (since they can't run more advanced FW/PW breaking software)?  Just curious...

The main complaint of newbie protection is that existing players can create a new machine and that machine gets newbie protection.  Thus I could hack a #1 player, drop their defenses and use the 'newbie box' to hack the other player without any repercussions.

Yeah it is common for cowards to install a baron then intall malware overload virii and bomb it down to newbie stats just the baron is impossible to disinfect.


Delete file missions in my experience take 1 hour per 100 HPD reward. Maybe if virii did not take up bandwidth they would be able to upload their own virii.  :14: