The Hacker Project - a free online game

In Character Worm Event

In an attempt to rid True Light of its competitors True Light have developed a worm package, as others learn how to combat this virus and remove it True Light will develop its AI and will release in regular intervals.

Workings

Worms, 100% automated. Little cretins that start off with 100 in number randomly spawned, it is more likely to spawn on powerful secret servers however it is possible to spawn on low level ones. Every hour the 100 worms have a choice of doing up to 3 of the following

1) Duplicate Its self on the current server
2) Duplicate its self onto another server (uses logs, uses the system trace logs, so the modified ones do not get used)
3) Upgrade Version (.01 increase, max of .1)
4) Launch CPU user (uses 50mhz of cpu, when worm removed the process will close, no other way to remove process)
5) Launch RAM user (uses 5mb of ram, when worm removed the process will close, no other way to remove process)
6) Launch HD user (uses 100mb of hard drive, this is written as a file, read only until originating worm removed)
7) Launch Bandwidth user (uses 5KB of bandwidth, process does not execute if 5mb not free.)
8) Scramble Logs (within the last 100 logs it will remove, scramble up to 3% of them)
9) Wiggle into files (attaches its self onto a file, must have the software WormyScanner and a tag on the file says 'Wormyfected'
10) Delete Worm Threats (Deletes Wormicide Antivirus or a Worm Trapper)
There is a maximum of 1000 worm files, so that the real servers don't overload, once ALL worms are removed there is a minimum of 4 months before it starts again.

Another piece of software developed by Omnicron MegaCorp is the 'Wormicide Antivirus' taking 3 hours to complete (starting at next hour) it will remove the worm you choose, it can be activated from your gateway to remove one on the server you have connected to. There is a maximum of 1 dis-infect process running at the same time per antivirus file.

Another piece of software developed by Icarus MegaCorp is the 'Worm Trapper' when a worm has been trapped by this file the worm can be moved by the user to any server of his/her choosing. Please note it moves the file and does not copy. One file can be trapped at a time, as soon as the trap is removed the worm is once again active. The Trapper can be run from only your gateway.

True Light however underestimated the power of its own creation and as their mission completer's got infected, the worms found their selves back on the True Light servers. True Light invented the 'WormyScanner' you must manually scan files which take 10 seconds per 100mb and it will tell you if a worm has attached its self onto that file.

Hakuza MegaCorp soon realised how to crack these worms, they created their own version. These with improved AI can ONLY attack True Light, Omnicron MegaCorp, Icarus computers. However they will still infect Player servers. Hakuza starts with 45 while True Light started with 50. True Light Worms can still infect True Light Servers, each NPC server depending on its faction will have 'Estimated Worm Count: integer, the counter will give the number of worms + or - up to 5%. Recalculated every 6 Hours. There is also a total worm count from all the faction estimates placed under the HPD and AP labels.

Missions, when a Worm Event occurs ALL NPC servers will have worm kill missions. All factions will only have disinfect missions for them selves and have sabotage missions for every other faction, except for Hakuza, they will have disinfect missions for Omnicron as well, but why is this? We may never know.

I am still working on the idea so will be updating, I would appreciate your thoughts, values are open for adjustment :)
And I apologise to SirEmi, the amount of work this will need  :laugh:

So the worms will not be controlled by a user theres self controlled?

Self controlled yes, an extra challenge for people

but does someone have to actually install the first worm on a server? if so, you should have in the first few random events, it could infect the person who activated the worm.

Can we download the worm and install it on some else gateway?  :5:

When an event is declared 100 of the worm files spawn randomly on NPC servers only, there only means of travel is by them using admin logs and infecting.

(I am adding ideas to my original post)

This sounds good. If there is some sort of a counter showing how many worms there are left the corporations can have missions involving tracing and deleting these worms.

Adding Counters to the post

Hakuza havent developed any software. Anyone thinking of another worm software?

Hakuza found out how to crack worms

But so did Icarus too. Hakuza havent done anything unique.

Ive changed it so its only Hakuza that cracked worms

Now its unique. That gives the different corps something that makes them not just someone there to hack and/or take missions from.

I just thought of something;
They would do a lot of damage to a newbie (they start with 5kb as a worm can eat) so its best to let them mainly spawn on highlevel secret servers.

Yes that would make sense, it would also reduce the gap between newbie and Master Hacker!

Updating Post

And it would be useful for missions to be to kill the worms.

Updating Post

And the trapper is remotly?

Edit; And I think the counter/timer should be placed in the right corner just below the HPD and AP

The Trapper is remote, I think there should be a total worm estimate under the AP and HPD, but per server you have the faction total.

Ok. I believe this idea just needs some balancing by Sir Emi and then its ready.

Yay, possible I would have made 3 changes to the game now  :5:

(EDIT: not made just the ideas)

Just thinking this idea. Could someone try to fool others to follow his traces on logs to some server which would be full of specified worm virii. Maybe he has away to prevent worm follows with anti-virus but those how follow his traces would end up to a trap...  spawning virii is fun idea...

As proposed this would be unstoppable.

I assume that you have 9 different actions defined, that each worm is independent and that in any given hour a worm will perform 3 *different* actions (though it would not change the calculations that much if the worm could perform the same action 3 times). I also assume that only actions 1 and 2 lead to a worm replication.

The growth rate of the Worm - 66,66% per hour (41,67% chance of no divisions, 50% chance of 1 division and 8.33% chance of 2 divisions)

So...

With a three hour disinfection time if you start with 100 viruses...

And assume all worms are disinfected INSTANTLY (which won't happen as people don't have the anti-worm software)

166 worms after 1 hour
276 worms after 2 hours
357 worms after 3 hours (would have been 457... but 100 got disinfected)

You see the problem? In fact even if you started disinfecting all worms instantly you would reach the maximum (1000 worms) after 6 or 7 hours.

its 'up to 3', but yes I see the problem, would changing it so that if it executes every 12 hours work?

EDIT: and it can be the same actions, percentage of chance differs on the process

Intresting idea, however i think it needs more polishing,

For example,

a hacker could "farm" theses worms in a secret server and change server logs to force the worms to attack another server.

or "farm" theses worms in a secret server to prevent more virii from being installed, as currently the worms do nothing to the already installed virii.

Ive changed it so that teh worm uses the original logs, so being a farmer you will get infected. I have also added a few more actions the worms can do.