The Hacker Project - a free online game

Ok, so you made it so people couldn't cancel other player's downloads/uploads...(then changed it back)...how about making it so people can't cancel you d**n research?

Honestly, i log out for the first time in weeks, (yes that's how much i value this game, i've been online 24/7 for nearly 2 week now), come back, and wow, would you look at that! over another 1000 hours of research cancelled by some complete n00b who isn't worth using as my d**n footstool! And all probably just out of jealousy because they don't stand a chance in catching me.

Well tell you what, i'll make it easier shall i? Cancel my research one more time and i'm gone, i'm past the point where i can even be bothered about this crap anymore.

And don't anyone give me all that bs about tactics, tactics actually mean more than just logging in someones server and hitting select-all then kill.

Oh, and i've even put my name on my server now, just to make it that little bit easier.

First of Dama....I feel your pain...went thru this near the end of last round with 150,000 hrs research killed so i know what your saying...but it is a tactic to limit ones growth so that someone can play catchup(or as you said just plain jealous)...it sucks but it is what it is..But what those people don't understand is that by killing the research that gives them one less program to hack and steal or they gonna have to pony up the time, HPD, and AP and do it themselves.

I do however think this leads back to the amount of overloading one should be allowed to do to crack someone.

Possible solution(not sure how feasible thou) would be that is someone is overloading to crack your server and your server has spare resources then it should allow for the server to overload the protect software...If you can overload on one end to crack someone then you should be allowed to overload on the other end to defend.

Well...seems whatever i say makes no difference. Just logged In to do some more missions....

times that by about 20.


Well...like i said, i don't have the space for this frustration. see y'all later :17:

Can't post IPs, Dama.

Also, Gin, I've mentioned that idea a few times myself and received no comment on it thus far.

Nothing against you Exousia, but I have to ask myself if i really care...

I understand. It is my job to be the bad guy around here.  :bodyguard:

On another note, if you're not having fun, no one will blame you for leaving or just taking a break, but are you really going to let yourself be chased away by some hyper-competitive player who can't keep up with your research?

lol, i meant not caring about not being able to post IPs  :laugh:

You're the good guy in my books, hell of a sense of humour too :13:

I'm definately NOT having fun. Doing missions 24/7 for 2/3week straight, to get the cash to pay for all the research you're doing, and sitting there watching it between missions, then, if you're like me, making yourself ill by doing it, just to have it all cancelled by some (insert word here, forums filter all mine) is not what i would describe as fun.

I'm currently in the frame of mind where i just want to quit, either that or get a very thick piece of rope, tie a nice tight loop in it and strangle the living crap out of the person who keeps doing it to me. (sorry)
Only thing that is stopping me right now is the group. SGP. I feel like i would be letting the rest of these guys down, not just the current members, but all of those who where (and still are as far as we are concerned) a part of it from R1, not to mention letting myself down.

Heck, i don't even know why i'm taking the time to write this, maybe i feel like i owe you an explanation, at least those who i've had contact with. but i can't for the life of me, even figure out why myself. So your question is a good one Exousia...very good.

There is some d**n good people here, and don't one of you ever change. (or i'll hack you and stop your research LOL).

Anywho, i think i had better take a day or two to mull it over, it's not like i'm going anywhere, at least i hope not anyway  :5:


Edit: and why is it...the longer my posts become, the worse my spelling gets!

The game would lose part of its soul without you.

I research in short bursts rather than lengthy legs for this very reason. Haven't had a problem yet, though I imagine it would be just as easy to kill my processes as yours, but there would be less of a sense of loss.

How about limiting the max amount of hours you can research for one research task to one week, 24h * 7 = 168 hours.

This way you won't have hundreds of 5000 hour research tasks running to be killed, and the resource usage would be more fair as it increases with version increase and resource usage / research task should be more balanced.

And of course, the sense of loss would be lower if the tasks get killed if you have to research in shorter bursts.

Like I have said since R1.  We need Caps to keep a more level playing field.  Otherwise things will always get out of hand.

I support this idea Titam.

OK, sounds good ..... but leave the currently running research alone plz  :shocking:

That seems a little like back-paddling to me, research is low and hard enough as it is. It's more defenses we need, not more limitation. I understand the general direction of the idea, but to me, it seems like that would just slow things down even more, and even increase the problem.

The main problem is, as i see it, is players having it too easy when cracking other players. Now take spaceo as an example, you start the game, play for a few weeks, then decide you need a cash boost, so you go after someone with 10+ billion FP, what happens? you get absolutely slaughtered. It's the complete opposite here, even the new starters can crack into the server's of every top ten player, and let's face it, none of us can sit here 24/7 staring at our process lists/logs.

Like Gin said way up there, perhaps a subtle limiting of the overload ability, to say 10x MAX, or allowing us to effectively overload our defenses would be appropriate. Such a little change like that would balance this whole thing straight out, and as i put it before, it would make players actually have to do some work, to be able to hack the 'bigger boys'.

An example of how absurdly powerful the overload feature is, myself and Tri had a little test a while back while on IRC, we thought we would exchange IPs and see how far we could each overload, I dont remember exactly what Tri got to, but it was something like v1.0 -> v34 !!!...oh it gets worse, you want to know what i got to?
v3.0 ->v60+.   Yes, thats version SIXTY!!! (again, i don't remember the exact versions)

And how easy was it to research a v1.0 again?....Exactly.

 As one of the people that watched the astronomical version numbers in R1, I support this idea also.

 I typically don't kill research tasks unless the other person is such a weenie that it warrants it (this is a matter of perspective, I understand, as people have different opinions). I don't research often, and when I do it's out of NEED. When lack of needed software causes other software to become outdated, I have no other option but to research. I would like to think the same of others, but there are people that research strictly to have the best software versions available.

 Having stolen a LOT of software (Rank 25 and not an hour of research done), I've had the opportunity to kill a decent number of research tasks. I don't, however. To me that is the equivalent of killing off the baby zebras just for fun. I don't benefit from satisfying my ego, I benefit from letting those babies grow into adults, then killing them off.

 Having a top position means someone is always gunning for you, and not everyone is as forgiving as I am. I will say one thing however, when I crack someone only to find useless software it makes me angry (Nmap Scanner for the win!). How people react to anger is different as the person itself. I imagine a good number of those kill research tasks strictly out of frustration, with even fewer of those actually being "tactically minded". However, one of the problems with being on top is there isn't much left to do. If you choose to harass and oppress the people below you, you get labeled a "griever". Research, at that point is one of the only ways to stay on top-as those below you have inferior software.

 I'm rambling. In short, don't leave because others need to satisfy their egos. You'll satisfy them more if you do.

I may support the idea of overloading only up to 10X, if this comes in the same time as the limiting of research tasks to a maximum of 168 hours / task.

The two ideas seem to complement each other to achieve more balance, since otherwise the protection research would go ahead of the breaker research.

As of now...best FW Prot is 12 and PW Prot is 15....with v5 crackers of both I can crack v44 Prots.....You say limiting research cause the protect research will go ahead of the breaker research...Let me ask this cause I don't have the formulas for research but if someone were to research a PW Prot v.1 25 tasks for 24 hrs and a PW breaker v.1 for 25 tasks for 24 hours would there be any difference in the outcome of the research or would they be the same version when research was completed?? I think they would be the same so someone could just as easily research Breakers to keep up with Protects without the need for overload...Now do I think there should be a little overload..yes to help those a little lower try and move up...I'm not for getting rid of it all together but, I think clearly there should be a limit on the amount of overload.

Example...10x overload on a v5 cracker will allow for bypass of a v19 Protect...I think a 14 version difference in software is more than adequate for anyone to get to the person above them but not necessarily the lowest man on the pole able to jump to the top...now this early on that may be the case but as the game advances and new players come into the game they should not be able to walk in the door and just crack top dog and get ahead.

But in all this rambling I must say I DON"T support the limiting research....the diminishing returns on research makes it way hard to get advancement on software and I think is limitation enough....now making it that someone can only research so many hours of so many tasks I think is putting too many restrictions on what WE as players can and can't do.

Long enough..sorry...Have a nice day!!    :bodyguard:

I too do not support limited research, one week is actually like 5 days for me atm (I know I do not have very many faction points...), so I can only research for 117 hours (real time not actuall amount of research). does not make much sense at all to me. I also just do not like limiting advancement as much as it has been. first rev, than lower research returns and higher server cost, now you want to make it so we cannot research almost at all... maybe we should just sit and wait for the secret servers to dish out better software, since they will be able to research it faster than we can...

I myself am not too sure about limiting the research, i can't decide whether it would be good/bad. Mainly because some people (myself included) like to 'stack' research, for instance, 20 x 168h research tasks, then 20 x 336h research tasks, and so on. And i figure if it gets limited to 168 hours, the AP costs are going to go through the roof, because we are going to have to resort to things like 1000 x 168h tasks just to get the same effect, lol.

In short, i really have to agree with Gin and gs on this one, research is just right at the moment (albeit a little too diminishing for me lol) and doesn't need limiting anymore, and as for the sense of loss, i know i had a big rant about it earler, but i suppose that's just one of the risks that you take when starting research that long :)

My suggestion would be to implement the 10x max overload, and see how much it changes things.

Looking at the complains for the research limiting, we can make it in order to make it only take 100HPD/hour for tasks below 168 hours (getting the granted 120 ranks points/research hour right now) and making it take 1000HPD (yes, ten times more) per each hour after the 168 hours and getting only 120 points of rank for each hour after the 168 hours. It is like a fine for over-researching.

A little piece of code:


Otherway, we could make tasks of research under or equal to 168 hours impossible to being killed, visible when connected to remotehost but with some sort of tag.

Perhaps:

Secure research file # FILE_ID | FILE_NAME v FILE_VERSION ([owned])[TIMER]

Now I have read though this post and a lot of sugestions have been made. I do not think that limiting research is a good idea. if you want to research for 1000 hours then you are going to have to protect that server. I have had a server running research for over 1000 hours now and it has never been cracked. Now if you are using your main server for research then it is easier for people to find your IP and crack it.

One sugestion I would make would be this right now when you overload password break .35 up to around 1.4 the resourses you use are the same as running a 1.4. here is an example.
Special Password Break  1.30368 / CPU 2607 / MEM 162960 This is a  0.358154 overloaded
 Password Break  1.43307 / CPU 2866 / MEM 179134 This is not overloaded

So as long as I have the resources to run a higher password break I do not need the higher break to crack someone. What I would suggest is that it when you overload a lower version the resources to run it should be doubled so I would have to have twice the resources.

Hmm, it was my understanding that the resources are already doubled when you overload, and then then once you complete the task, they go back down to the level reflecting the version. (Yep...that little buggy is still there :laugh: )

Oh noes...did i just say bug!?

In any matter, i say just DON'T allow overload AT ALL.....Ok that may be a little extreme, but more realistic no? After all, we can't overload our protects to compensate.

To avoid extremes (and possible flaming) i'll say we could always just allow an overload up to a maximum of 5x, that gives plenty of room to crack the secret servers when you are first unable to do research, like when you first start out, but doesn't allow just anyone and everyone to walk right in the front door of a top 10 player's server without lifting so much as their little finger :)