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HP Info Terminal => News & Updates => Topic started by: siremi on April 22, 2010, 01:54:14 PM



Title: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: siremi on April 22, 2010, 01:54:14 PM
- players over 1 million power can no longer accept missions from the newbie / public servers, they can only accept secret server / faction missions.

- you can now select the power of a remote malware attack, from the remaining runtime hours of the software.
- if a remote malware task is started several times on the max power, only the first attack will use the max power, the next attacks will just use the remaining power when the task is completed.

- running an AV from directly on the host will complete 25% faster then the remote task. So one could upload an AV and run it from there to get a speed boost, provided the host has enough resources and BW for the upload.

- Robber Baron AV is now chance based:
- Robber baron AV takes 5h for each vir V 0.1 to disinfect.
On completion, there a small chance to disinfect.
The higher the RB version, the less chance to disinfect.
The higher the AV version, the greater the chance.
Cost: 100 AP
Base chance: 5% - 0.1% for 0.1 V of RB, +0.1% for 0.1 V of AV, min chance 5%, max 50%


- the remote task AV displays the AV version, while still using resources up to the vir version. This has been changed so it can be used to determine the chance of disinfecting the Robber Baron virus.


- new Faction mission. "Kill the Baron"
   -> We have received reports of an incursion in our network. Someone is stealing HPD from us and we have pinpointed the IP of the virus attack.
   -> We need you to go in and destroy this virus to stop the HPD leak. This task is very difficult, since you will have to crack the target yourself. Target will probably have state of the art defenses and could also track you down and take revenge, so thread carefully.
   -> Caution should be taken as the target can also change IP. If this happens, the mission is lost but may appear in our network again if we find the leak source again.
   -> You will need to acquire and use a Robber Baron AV for this mission.


Other notes:

- there is also a vacation mode package that I'm working on coming in the next days


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: Brok Ironfist on April 22, 2010, 07:12:46 PM
I see you changed the percentage increase to .1%, or is that not correct?  Previously you listed at .5% increase.

I think it makes more sense that way. 

Any chance you can do that to Process Tracer and Virus Indentifier?


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: ãłþħά-∆9 on April 23, 2010, 08:52:20 AM
I'm a little scared by this update  :5:


Time to download a baron AV i guess...


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: siremi on April 23, 2010, 09:23:44 AM
I see you changed the percentage increase to .1%, or is that not correct?  Previously you listed at .5% increase.

I think it makes more sense that way. 

Any chance you can do that to Process Tracer and Virus Indentifier?

Yeah we tweaked the percents during balancing / testing. Seemed a bit much to max the chance just at V 9.1, so made it's better at V 45.1 to get the max 50% increase / decrease. Maybe it will be increased, we'll see how it goes.

I am working on the balancing of the PT / VI, should be better soon.


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: siremi on April 23, 2010, 09:30:10 AM
Copy / paste of the new mission from a faction server. Certain sensitive data has been blanked.


Kill the Baron
          
     We have received reports of an incursion in our network. Someone is stealing HPD from us and we have pinpointed the IP of the virus attack.
We need you to go in and destroy this virus to stop the HPD leak. This task is very difficult, since you will have to crack the target yourself.
Target will probably have state of the art defenses and could also track you down and take revenge, so thread carefully.
Caution should be taken as the target can also change IP.
If this happens, the mission is lost but may appear in our network again if we find the leak source again.

This mission can only be completed on a successful local / remote disinfect while having the mission active.
You will need to acquire and use a Robber Baron Anti-virus for this mission.

You will need to execute the following actions on the target:    
          
     Crack into the server
  - firewall protection file #xxx| xxx V 21.1397
  - password protection file #xxx| xxx V 14.675
   
          
     Disinfect the virus to fix the HPD leak.
  - the file is # xxx Basic Robber Baron Virus V 0.5046
  - reports indicate file is not hidden.
   
          
     Erase your tracks to avoid retaliation.
   
          
     Target IP is: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx    
          
     Since we are on the clock, we will be very disappointed if you don't complete this mission in 485h 30m 18s
Tik Tok Tik Tok Tik Tok!    
          
     Your reward will be:
        1017274.00 HPD
        200 AP
        101727 Standing



Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: ãłþħά-∆9 on April 23, 2010, 09:40:21 AM
Copy / paste of the new mission from a faction server. Certain sensitive data has been blanked.


Kill the Baron
          
     We have received reports of an incursion in our network. Someone is stealing HPD from us and we have pinpointed the IP of the virus attack.
We need you to go in and destroy this virus to stop the HPD leak. This task is very difficult, since you will have to crack the target yourself.
Target will probably have state of the art defenses and could also track you down and take revenge, so thread carefully.
Caution should be taken as the target can also change IP.
If this happens, the mission is lost but may appear in our network again if we find the leak source again.

This mission can only be completed on a successful local / remote disinfect while having the mission active.
You will need to acquire and use a Robber Baron Anti-virus for this mission.

You will need to execute the following actions on the target:    
          
     Crack into the server
  - firewall protection file #xxx| xxx V 21.1397
  - password protection file #xxx| xxx V 14.675
   
          
     Disinfect the virus to fix the HPD leak.
  - the file is # xxx Basic Robber Baron Virus V 0.5046
  - reports indicate file is not hidden.
   
          
     Erase your tracks to avoid retaliation.
   
          
     Target IP is: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx    
          
     Since we are on the clock, we will be very disappointed if you don't complete this mission in 485h 30m 18s
Tik Tok Tik Tok Tik Tok!    
          
     Your reward will be:
        1017274.00 HPD
        200 AP
        101727 Standing


Thread = tread?
What a HUGE reward so i assume 0.1 disinfect mission will be 5 times less than that, so like 200k HPD?
Seems like our group should start disinfecting each other for quick profit, could even start a new baron install whilst they get rid of the first  :19:

Seems a good way to get free IPs
Maybe i can disinfect my own for massive profit


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: Brok Ironfist on April 23, 2010, 11:20:02 AM
Free IP's is exactly correct.

I got 12 this morning.





Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: Brok Ironfist on April 23, 2010, 11:24:59 AM
Each .1 Barron disinfect reward is exactly 201,600




Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: siremi on April 23, 2010, 11:34:57 AM

Seems like our group should start disinfecting each other for quick profit, could even start a new baron install whilst they get rid of the first  :19:

Seems a good way to get free IPs
Maybe i can disinfect my own for massive profit

I'm going to copy / paste what I said in the suggestions topic...

They could try this ofc, but you see the AP to install / disinfect the baron would be about 5 days worth for each mission. The way I tested it, you need two people for this, one that installs a Baron, one that gets the mission since the owner can not get the mission on his own vir. Then, the one that accepted the mission has to disinfect the Baron.

This is a lot of work todo for several reasons:

- the one installing the Baron has to wait XXX hours to install
- the AP cost on both sides
- the HPD reward for the Baron removal is about 7 days income from the Baron

So, it's so balanced that it's a pain to farm, but great if you're just trying to disinfect for some extra HPD...


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: bontrose on April 23, 2010, 03:33:08 PM
so you can get 7 days pay in disenfect 5 in the actual virri,
get a pair of ppl
 :12:


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: ivandrago on April 24, 2010, 01:01:18 AM
- running an AV from directly on the host will complete 25% faster then the remote task. So one could upload an AV and run it from there to get a speed boost, provided the host has enough resources and BW for the upload.

Will this work for RB AV in particular or does this apply to all types of virii ?


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: ãłþħά-∆9 on April 24, 2010, 06:39:46 AM

Yeah, word of warning to people researching Baron AV
Don't put it on the gateways with barons on them  :5:

I don't like this mission type at all lol
It's just making all my servers constantly public, argh.


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: Brok Ironfist on April 24, 2010, 09:04:40 AM
Yeah, no kidding.  All my servers have Barrons on them.  Getting hacked all day long... Whoo hoo.


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: Exousia on April 24, 2010, 08:01:41 PM
Lost one of my Barons while I was at work. :(

Hey, if we're going to lose Barons at this rate, can we get some more missions to do?  :5:


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: Brok Ironfist on April 24, 2010, 09:31:10 PM
Emi,

I'm wondering if the whole public IP can be changed around a bit.  Perhaps have the barons spawn a process on a random Secret Server, of the faction being targeted, when the person hits collect.  The mission would then point to that server and ask the hacker to trace the file.  The spawned mission could be on a timer that will vanish after a few hours once the trace has gone cold.

This would work well with an upgraded Process Trace <hint :laugh:>.

That way the hacker would have to make some effort to try and find the IP address instead of being given a list of IP's from the various secret server faction missions.

I was able to gather something like 12 IP addresses from other players way too easily.  Shouldn't be that easy.  Its worse than buying IP addresses.

-Brok



Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: Brok Ironfist on April 24, 2010, 10:15:25 PM
This idea might work for the File Share and Adware virus's as well.

Back in the day, we could install the virii on our own servers and create virus farms.    This has been moved to filling up the secret servers with virii instead and completely destroying the ability to download/upload various files and such on the secret servers.

I can see working the same way as the robber barons as I mentioned in the previous post.  People installing the File Share and Adware on their own boxes and when they collect it randomly targets one of the factions servers.  The virus would spawn a process on the affected server and the a mission would be generated.  The process would last for the number of hours it had saved up.  If someone is collecting every ten minutes they'd be spawning an additional process (but which would only last the ten minutes since the last spawn).

The Hacker would then have to trace the virus back to its source and then attempt to disinfect it.

The disinfect processes should be reduced to a less than an  hour or so to allow for quick in and out missions.

This would open up the hackers server to further invasion, without making it a "Buy IP or get IP from faction".

The virus would tie up BW, CPU and memory on the hackers server.  On the targeted server it would just contain the linked process.

Multiple processes would reduce the effectiveness of the subsequent virii process.

No one hacker can hit the same server more than once (thus limiting the maximum virii installed by a single player to 150 or so).  But this would more evenly balance out the income amongst the other players.  In addition, a person with 150 5 BW virii would need to start replacing their virii with bigger versions if they want to further improve their income.

The first person to collect against that server (with full BW usage) would get 100% of the virii income and each subsequent hit would generate 20-30% less than the previous hit.  After four or five processes  there would be no income generated from the hit. 

edited for clarity:
(
What I am referring to here is, the hacker's virus is a 150 BW virus.  The targeted server is 150 BW.  The first virii would get the full 150 BW worth of income, the seocond person if they had a full 150 BW would get 20-30% less.

If ten people were to hit the server and all their virii were 15 BW then they all would get 100%.   The next virii to hit the server would get reduced by 20-30%.

If one person where to hit the server with 75 BW and the second person where to hit it with 150 BW then the first would get 100%, the second would get 100% of the first 75 BW and 70% of the second 75 BW.

If a person were to hit the same 150 BW server with a 200BW virus, he would only get credit for the 150BW and the remaining 50BW would be lost.  Virii would randomly hit a server and if it has the available bandwidth it would take it all, but if not, then the remainder is lost.
)

Thus dozens of people spamming virii would interfere with each other and decline the other persons ability to collect from the virus.  It would reduce the guaranteed income from the virus's.  As everyone starts spamming virii collects their chance of getting a guaranteed income is reduced by that amount.

This would then push people to try and disinfect each others servers so they can get more of the income for themselves.

Now, with all the freed up bandwidth we can accept new missions that require us to use bandwidth on the secret servers... stealing files, uploading files and even acquiring better versions of existing files out there...

-Brok









Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: siremi on April 24, 2010, 11:29:45 PM

I was able to gather something like 12 IP addresses from other players way too easily.  Shouldn't be that easy.  Its worse than buying IP addresses.

-Brok


The thing is that people installed Robber Barons on their main servers as the RB was a safe and great way to gain income.

However, with this update I expect to see more specialized servers, the attack server and the research server that won't have the Robber Baron on them to give them away, and maybe the other servers as farm servers with RB on them...

We'll see how this unfolds and take it from there... overall good ideas thank you.


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: ãłþħά-∆9 on April 25, 2010, 06:31:46 AM
It's true but if we knew this was coming i'm pretty sure every one would have done just that, but it just kind of popped up out the blue...
Maybe you should make an AP cost for accepting missions, that would limit everything nicely, everythign would need to be done in moderation...

Yeah and i hear you can run a million robber baron AV remoteside-localhost and they have to trace you to close them all and spend all there AP on closing the large amount of tasks youve started :D


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: ãłþħά-∆9 on April 29, 2010, 04:15:05 PM
The way the kill the baron works; does it actually check for HPD leak or is that something it's just saying? If so then does that mean if i don't collect my baron, missions on my gateway wouldnt popup/.


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: Brok Ironfist on April 29, 2010, 04:42:55 PM
I know that if you switch factions the new faction will get the mission as well.  I found my barons on multiple faction :)


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: ãłþħά-∆9 on May 10, 2010, 06:16:52 AM
I targetted my own faction now I see antibarons on myself all the time  :laugh:


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: bontrose on May 10, 2010, 07:10:48 PM
shouldn't be able to do that


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: Tartarus on May 11, 2010, 02:41:12 AM
shouldn't be able to do that

Oh, it's doable.


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: siremi on May 11, 2010, 09:08:31 AM
shouldn't be able to do that

Oh, it's doable.

It doesn't matter. First one to erradicate the Baron on one of the missions get the reward once, and all other missions on the same file are scrapped. Changing Baron target faction will only get you targeted more and reveal your IP to more people that take the mission.

Also, if you own the Baron you can't take the mission on it.



Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: Brok Ironfist on May 11, 2010, 11:13:00 AM
Not only that, but you hamper your own efforts at increasing your faction standings.   :laugh:


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: ãłþħά-∆9 on May 11, 2010, 11:32:46 AM
I just like to know where I stand :3

Plus if i see an anti-baron mission on me disappear, time to hide  :atention:



Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: Exousia on May 11, 2010, 03:18:20 PM
Never tried it myself. I haven't changed factions since the faction update.  :7:


Title: Re: Robber Baron AV / PvP improvements
Post by: bontrose on May 11, 2010, 05:42:31 PM
yeah i threw the dart and it stuck