The Hacker Project - a free online game

Interesting update policy. Got a question: is there a delete my account button somewhere, because I can't find it. Sorry to bother you on my way out.

Me counter says there is a rev 0.1 installed on one of the true light servers. What's up with it?

38.55.76.233     Secret True Light Server     0.1     Yes

This won't go away like the last one. Any info on it?

Well, that was 6 days ago. Now it's 3600/hr or 86,400 a day.

You are right that your current numbers are much higher than mine, and will probably stay so. As I said, I'm quite a passive player. For example I choose to  d i c k  around with simple adware in the beginning instead of running for missions which has cost me a few weeks of development.

My point is, that with this approach, I also get to your level within a month without any hassle. If you aim for the top listing, you have to get a better start, granted.


Ok, granted, if you have a gold account, then you can save a bunch of HPD this way. If not, you just have to buy it from the software dealer. In other words, if you aim for the top-list, you have better odds with a gold (slightly).

And about vman. As I tried to express, if you go by the numbers, then sure, he is right, no question about it. But what I was talking about is reality (i.e. what really happens). If you piss of a lot of people, then they can annoy the hell out of you, one way or the other. If not, then its not really worth the effort and brings no profit.

Yes maxing server out is a must have. High level virri help you in increasing the amount of time before someone gets can do serious damage, but it also works fine with low level virii.

Tiak got it quite right (except that on a transistor there are 2 inputs and 1 output, not 3 inputs, but seems like a semantic typo)..

Your best bet on understanding this kind of stuff is playing with it.

Anyway, if you are interested in the low level workings of your computer, then you should start at Boolean logic (and, or, not, xor, nand, etc). Especially the NAND logic is interesting for IC's, because it can express everything. That's why most circuits are built of only a bunch (e.g. millions) of NAND gates. This is not that hard, but some folks still don't get it.

Then you go to the basic functionality of transistors and logic gates (which Tiak explained really well). In your endevour about transistors you will also encounter (MOS)FETs (field effect transistors) and CMOS, which are magnified/extended transistors and are used the most in IC's.

After you are done with the basics, you can play around with Programmable logic controllers. These are best fit for implementing simple logic circuits that control stuff (they are used for most of the industrial automation equipment that is below robotics level, e.g. CNC axes and production lines). These are your best bet to get something hands on for a few hundred bucks on a model level.

Programming with Verilog seems to be interesting (never did that one, I like the hands on approach much better), but to design an integrated circuit only makes sense if you have access to FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) or ASIC's production (hey, it's not really fun to design something that never gets implemented :p) Of course in a technical university you probably still have to do this, because they never let you play with the good stuff, and want to tourcher you with theoretical stuff until you lose your will to live on.

Yea, that works too. It's just my overly paranoiac thinking. If you have several servers, then you still have some defense/damage control against someone who would attack you for pure hatred (i.e. with no profit motivation). If you play nice and have faith, then one server is more then enough.

ps. And at some point you don't really care about the cost for new servers as long as they stay below a few hundred thousand HPD.

pps. Oh, and yes, I'm not pushing for first place. Of course if you do the competition thing, then every HPD is of importance.

While you vman are mathematically right, in practice nolkillerklowns is right.

I do the same thing. The beginning is slow, but it's quite convenient and you get an exponential growth until you reach the AP install limit. You never give away you IP (except for software dealer), so you get guests only really rarely. If/when they come, they cannot do much harm in a hurry. Even if they started to do captures/disinfects, with an adequate balancing of resources between servers, you just format/IP change and set the affected node up again.

Right now I make 2k+ HPD an hour with no time investment at all (thats not true, I have to hit the collect all button once in a while). I mostly spend around 10 minutes a day on upgrades, so it grows with like 3-4 basic FS daily right now, but because of the exponential growth, this will be an order of magnitude more in a few weeks.

I could be further ahead if I had done missions in the beginning to accelerate the HPD generation, but I was too lazy. Actually I haven't done missions at all in this entire round since the reset.

Before the reset, I bought my own 4.2 FS as stolen sw. I had about 10 of them per server at once. Even if someone would have penetrated the server and started to capture/dissinfect the files (which no one did), it would have taken ages to do some reasonable damage. Resetting a node of that magnitude takes a few days, which I would have done. In essence the attacker would have gained no HPD, and would have lost a bunch of AP doing only a calculated damage. I never had to actually reset a node, and I had about a dozen running by the end of the round, which all had no protection whatsoever.

nolkillerklowns had another good point: if you go with this method, then make sure to max out the server usage. Makes it even less inviting to hack it. Oh, and now that I recall, someone installed a spyware on one of my servers back then, so you may have to get rid of those one at times, but that's rare. Also with high enough FS, you can make sure there are not enough resources to run such pesky plagues.

Actually this is also one of the fundamental problems of the game. It's growth rates are exponential, which inevitably makes periodical resets necessary. Another MMO I'm playing does a logarithmic growth approach (growth flattens out, everything gets substantially more expensive with higher levels). That one proved to be much more stable on the long run. They also open a new server every half a year for newer players, while keeping the older ones around. But that's another topic all together.

Oh boy, what a tone of voice. I'm kind of embarrassed that Succubus actually showed such a primitive behavior. One thing is for sure, his avatar is a lie.

- sorry to interrupt

What a surprise, everyone is biatching around again, like always. Hmm.. Just to break the monotony, this update seems reasonable to me. It brings the game in a more exponential development mode, which slows things down and creates some stability. I see a similar approach in another mmog I'm playing, and it really is working fine.

The people complaining, that SGP is not reachable anymore are strange. Can't follow the logic, because now the top research is slowing and it is actually easier to follow. Also there is no restriction on actually buying the max. version of the current top software versions.

Think it is much easier to follow the lead now and development gets  a more reasonable pace.

Also this might encourage a server reset, which would even out the cards with the new roles. But I doubt it will happen anytime soon with you folks, who actually see the accomplishments in this game as work. It's a game dammit, get your self some medical help if you cannot get that in your heads.

just my 2ct

ps. lol, a word filter..

completed my log undeleter (the 46.xxx thingy).. somenoe seems to have surpassed my log deleter by an ounce (stolen software?).. not that it would matter..

The log deleter (45.1) is mine, althow I don't have a group.

Ok, so I suppose a non-gold player cannot install that beast.. Well, just have to make some smaller ones, what a pitty..

.. but that is still in the distant planning phase :p

Got a questin. How many AP does it require to activate that thing. Are 3K enough?

I like the idea too.

(not that I would be stupid enough to even touch that reverlation thing).
Also, as Ged Crimsonclaw stated: the probability is so small. And I don't think someone will be bothered much by this. More probably once in a while some 'quitter' will try to download the virus and get so ripped apart.. And then peace.

~ setech

OK, maybe my tone of voice was a bit rude. I apologize for it. Did not
want to offend anyone.

As for the persistent world. Because the game has a linear development
tree (and exponential growth), there comes the point, when entering it
will be totally pointless for new players (i.e. they will never be able
to come close to the top players).

Cutting everything in 1/10 would be kind of pointless too, because the
overall power ratios would remain.

A reset is a possibility, although I must admit that the benefits of
being at the top are quite small for the revelation patch.

I don't really have an answer how to make this balanced. Still, what
I like about this game is, that it is supposed to aim at least at
semi-hacker attitude players. This means examining existing systems and
searching for the best possible way to achieve the target.

Maybe the solution would be to make some saner targets for the game then
just making level zillion+ software?

Well, I'll see how this will turn out. This is a game, and I'm here
trying to relax and have some fun. And that is exactly what I will do
one or the other way.

I really don't see the reason, why you people are whining so much. There is
only a hand full of people to pull the dooms day and as it stands now, they
won't do it. They even can prevent it. d**n, if I did not miss some critical
point in the description, the dooms day will be the same day when hell freezes
(read: never).

ps. I'm tired of the dozen of people on the top complaining all the time. If
you don't like this game, then show off and let the rest of us play!