The Hacker Project - a free online game

To prevent automation / abuse:

- For each 100 collect requests your collect time increases by 0.1 hours.

It gets harder to collect the more collect requests are issued.

We've had some trouble with macros / automated scripts. I know who you are  :laugh:

what about those that have more than 100 virus'? that would mean every time that they collect the time goes up.

Awesome hope you will do something to those using scripts.

Just a question.  Does Collect All count as 1 collect request?  If not then this is not due to "macros / automated scripts" but due to certain SGP members who have well over 100 virii installed at this point.  Meaning this is a another patch caused by SGP being on top. ;)

Does it have to be because of SGP all the time?  :laugh:

@seremi, why don't you just block the player who's using automated scripts?

Well I just checked.  It counts EACH virus as a Collection Request.  So yes this is another thing against SGP since SGP has the majority of the virii income in the game.

And I am not even the biggest Virii user in the group ;)  2 others actually have me stomped big time.

I have a decent amount of virii installed. I can now collect ONCE per day without getting my income demolished by this new patch. I don't abuse scripts and I don't use macros. Macros/scripts could also be stopped by making collect all count as one instead of however many virii you have. As it is, I now have even less reason to log into this game. I understand that you're trying to avoid abuse of the game (if people set up a script to automatically download every 6 minutes or something), but people who play the game honestly are being hurt by it as well... I hate to be paranoid, but looking at the recent changelog, I'm almost tempted to think that's the reason it's been set the way it is.

If you want SGP members (and anyone else who actually is calculating and knows how to play) to quit, you should just say so. If people are abusing scripts, ban them (or give them a warning, then ban) - please don't give me one more reason to leave, unless that's your underlying goal.

 What about people like me that have Spyware on top of their Adware? It takes twice as many Requests to collect the same HPD.

Alright, before I really fly off the handle, can we get some more clarification emi? What do you mean by collection time?

Example:

Say I have 100 virii. I collect all. Is a or b true?
a) I now have to wait a minimum of 6 minutes before collecting again. The next time I collect, I'll have to wait 12 minutes.
b) My virii now generate 6 minutes less of income per hour/day/whatevertime.

 I have to agree *winces* with SGP on this one. While I find cheating a pathetic way to stroke your own ego, carpet bombing the playerbase with something that can be considered a MAJOR setback may be a poor solution. I personally would like to have seen something more along the lines of a collection timer (i.e. You can collect every hour,x minutes,etc.),rather than base it off of # of virii. Even new players have a few off of VB,and while it may not be "groundbreaking" to them-They are also affected by this limitation.
 As fo me,I only have 31 virii,and have hit "Collect All" twice. Im up to 62 requests-that means I can "Collect All" once more and be up to 93 requests-But wait!-Its been intercepted by my own SPyware! So do I wait longer to get my profits,or spend AP to get rid of my own virii?

 "There's a man selling guns in Starbucks! Your orders,Captain?"
 "Call in an airstrike,we take out the whole block."

Ok from some insider info I found out the real reason for this change.

There is a bug in the rounding with regards to the collect times on Virii.  I won't go into specifics on it but it is partially because of this bug that this change was implemented.  However the bug itself was not fixed so it is still possible to abuse it.  Just not as often as before.

Yay, another reason to have even less playtime in HP.........................................

Also, there is already a bug with this.

"You must wait 0.32 hours before collecting"

So I collect when the software says 0.3 (How the hell am I supposed to know when 0.32 is?)

It takes into account the collections, adds them to your collect total, RESTARTS YOUR VIRII COUNTERS, and doesn't give HPD.

Yay. You win, Siremi. For some reason, you want us to play less/quit. It's starting to work on me.

it even counts the requested for marked viriis!

Wooooonderful. Now we have less reason to use Spyware (If any at all now), Malware, Sniffers, just about any virii that could be marked/is useless upon collecting when you dont need to

I would also have to agree with sgp on this. this patch sir emi does nothing but hurt the player base more so than the scripters. now if a person has over 50 virus' they can only collect once a day. So why not make it where a person can only collect x amount of times a day. this would stop the scripting, it would be based off of how many virus' you have and would not hurt the player base as badly. as it stand i dont use virus' as much as others in my group and i can only collect around 4 times a day.

Like in the other topic, each collect all should count as ONE TOTAL collect, and if you individually collect it would count as well.

What's next, SCRIPT CHECKS? If Script Checks get implemented there is a good chance that I'll stop playing.

This update also can potentially SEVERELY give an upside to disinfectors. If you can only collect once per day, you can't collect during ALL of that other time, and have your virii disinfected.

I call bogus on this. Just about every single update coming out hurts the infectors and helps the disinfectors.

This counts reset daily or is it permanent ?

If permanent I can tell you right now over half of the players will quit and do not but give bad reviews.

I understand what Sir Emi is trying to accomplish.   This was just not thought out very well IMO.

Sir Emi,
   If I may make a suggestion regarding future updates/changes etc.   Bring them up for discussion before hand.  Let those who pay you, be it via gold, donations, or voting, give their opinions and/or alternatives.  You have brought forth several changes that were not thought through only to have them back fire on you via many upset players.

Special note to virus man: (the bug you are talking about has been dealt with previous to making this thread. The one player that exploited it was fined 300.000 HPD)

- virus run time now shows 2 decimals
- marked virus is not taken into account as a collect request

- if you have 100 virii installed, you can collect like this:
  -> on 3 hours mark, collect all (time increases from 0.1 to every 0.2 hours, big deal)
  -> after another 3 hours collect all (time to next collection 0.3 hour (18 minutes))
  -> make collections every 3 hours you max time to collect will be 0.8 hours (every 48 minutes before it resets to 0.1 at 00:00 server time)
  -> so for 100 HPD making virii, collect every 3 hours and you don't even notice the change, it does not affect you at all. Heck you can even collect every 2 hours with no effect on the productivity of the viruses when having 100.

With 1500 virii installed, you collect about 3 times a day no problem.

BUT if you have 3000 virii, well then that's another story. Then you should only collect once a day, so the server can handle your request. Otherwise, we also have the option to collect only what you see on the page, that is 20 virii at a time.

P.S.: I don't know what the fuss was about malware or other non-HPD making virii, this patch does not affect the other virii types.

Ok glad the bug is fixed.  Now with regards to this.  You just gave Disinfect/VB users total dominion over Virii.  Before the safe guard over minimal loss was constant collecting.  Now that safe guard has been removed.   That is a major problem that has just caused an inbalance.

With regard to collecting.  If you collect from a Virus that has not generated any revenue does it still count as a collection?

With regards to the counter.  Why are you penalizing those with MORE virii than those with LESS virii?  That is not a balance.

With regards to actual collection amount.
SGP Cash Cow V 0.4 running on XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX for the last 1.05 hours... collected 252.20 HPD
That is .20 HPD more than it should be by the info provided.   1.05 hours on a .4 File Share = 252.00 HPD.  Not as it indicates.

 Is this an admission of guilt? If your not using a script,there wouldnt be any point saying it,though.

 "The one player that exploited it was fined 300.000 HPD"-Thats a lotta cash,a lot more than Ive ever seen. I wonder who coulda made that much to get fined that heavily,because SGP doesnt condone the use of BOTS or automated programs.

Yes, you have to maximize your collection efficiency by looking at the timers. Collecting before the minimum timer is an indication of possible script use, and resets the timer. This may change in the future.


We all share the game servers. The servers handle requests and the more virii you have the more requests it has to handle. To avoid spamming the server with collect requests, you are kindly instructed to collect less often the more virii you have.


Part of fixing the above mentioned bug was taking the rounding out of the equation. Hence, you see a rounded number but the real value has about 14 decimals and may show lower or higher depending on the real timer. What you see is a rounded value.

You realize that with the limit shown per page being 20 you are asking us to now click each individual Virii instead of using Collect All right?  By this statement you just nerfed the Collect All feature.  If you intend to keep this for ANY period of time then please allow ALL virii to be shown on one page.  Otherwise this is NOT an indication of possible script use.  This is a Feature that was added in a MONTH ago at least now.

Who is we?  I don't know how the DB is setup for this game.  But if it is stream lined then all 4K+ users all checking at the same time should not cause any real performance hit.  I understand though that with this game being so new there is still a lot of polishing to be done on the back end.  But by FORCING us to collect less often you have tipped the scales of Balance in favour of VB and AV.

Ok that is cool then.  I just didn't want there to be new bugs entering up.  I had noticed the descripancy in other areas with regards to the decimal places and what not.  From what I have seen, at least with software sizes, is that you Round Up on everything.  Is that correct?

No offense intended, but those who have paid/are paying for this game didn't do so to be told that we should "collect less" (read as "play less"). I realize that bandwidth isn't free, but then again some of as are paying for it. Yeah, if someone is collecting a dozen times an hour, I see how that could create some excess server load - but penalizing people based on how many virii they have is absurd. I don't collect nearly as often as some people - probably only every 3 hours or so, often more. Still, on principle it's bizarre to ask people (esp paying people) to change the way they play because of bandwidth. Can you imagine if WoW or Eve asked people to only play for 2 hours a day so their servers didn't get loaded, and penalized people who played more? How many people do you think would keep paying for that game, honestly?

I remember  you mentioned in a post a week or two ago that the server load caused by all players wasn't even a moderate load to your current server, so why is it a problem now? I understand that if the player base grows server load will be more of a problem, but at the game's current size I wouldn't think server load is a problem.

I do not own enough virii at this point where this update makes a difference, but I do understand how this limits the bigger players. Perhaps this needs to be implemented later on, but not right now.

This.

In fact, you even said

"The game doesn't use that much bandwidth even with all the page reloads it barely touches the available bandwidth.

I'm also monitoring to see how much it can take as it was designed to handle a lot, but I'm sure it will be improved in the future, we're just starting out here"

Uh, no, because Script Checks are retarded. I don't play a game to sit here and type in a bunch of numbers every few minutes just so I can play.

MS, You remind me of Script Checks. I'm going to have fun on your server.

 "MS, You remind me of Script Checks. I'm going to have fun on your server."

 I hope you have fun on my server! I went through a lot of trouble decorating and I just installed a bumper pool table. Dont forget your swim trunks! 14 foot deep heated outdoor ready for use! Tommorrow might be a squeeze,having dinner with the in-laws. Why dont we shoot for Saturday? Making Johnsonville brats on the grill,and Im picking up a case of Pointe. But stop by anytime,really.

 Honestly,your threats are empty. Apparently it isnt the only thing.

"You have made 278 collect requests today. You can collect profits every 0.28 hours. For each 100 requests your collect time increases by 0.1 hours."

This doesn't really bother me since I don't generally collect that often, and this was after like 3 collects for the day, but I can see that people who like to collect their virii all the time when they are online or people who have a ton of virii this could get pretty annoying...

I don't think it is really game-breaking though... although I don't like to hear that my marked virii are being counted here...

marked are not counted.

Ok so I have been working with this, I have a moderate amount of virii out there (around 50) so I admit happily that I am a bit small for this to be a major issue but I do have a couple of suggestions which would help players work with this better:

1) Would it be possible to have a counter which told you how much cash you could expect to collect if you collected all your virii? Of course this would be an approximation as some profits might have been nabbed by spyware or something but it would be really useful to know because sometimes I simply need enough cash, say for a hardware upgrade, to complete a research or for an emergency IP change. At times like that if I fall short it does get a bit frustrating having to wait longer than needed to get the cash in. (i.e. having to wait maybe 18 minutes when it only takes 6 minutes to generate the cash). At my level not a huge issue but I do see how it could become one.

2) Would it be possible to have an option to collect "adware" and to collect "file share" separately please? I am aware that the exact details of the situation would vary from player to player, but having this distinction would allow you the ability to rapidly distinguish between two sources of income if you needed a bit of cash quickly. The "ideal" option would be to allow players to define virii collection groups, though I am aware this can be cumbersome to implement/use.

Oh a final thing as this is really a suggestion should it stay here (as it is related to this topic) or be put in the suggestions board?

Not counted, but if it's still marked when you "collect" the virii (only the marked one), it count and don't give you any HPD.

Oh really?

You have made 545 collect requests today. You can collect profits every 0.55 hours. For each 100 requests your collect time increases by 0.1 hours. 

Collect         UnMark
   ***.***.***.***    **266    Adware Spam Daemon    Basic Adware Spam Daemon    0.1    4.09

Collecting profits...

 Basic Adware Spam Daemon V 0.1 running on ***.***.***.*** is marked and has been skipped...

You have made 546 collect requests today. You can collect profits every 0.55 hours. For each 100 requests your collect time increases by 0.1 hours

So, what else is there?