The Hacker Project - a free online game

For enlarged file size, unless someone is ataching v1 file shares to v1 deleters, it wouldn't neccesarily be all that noticable.  I have quite a few 100+ GB files, I probably wouldn't notice that v1 file share on one of those files, and I really wouldn't notice a v0.1 spyware on any of my files.  As for noticing it when it is run,  people may not pay attention, that v0.1 spyware would also be completely invisible to me on almost all of my running processes.   People also may ignore the fact that it is there.  If a file you need to protect yourself has a virus on it, but was incorporated with too high of a version, you might still want to use it, or if, say, a password break has a virus on it that takes a couple of hours to insall, I might use it, but always try to remember to kill it in time.

Assuming people eventually start having successful research again, this change also has teh sideeffect of making revelation and overload bombs ridiculously overpowered.

No, not America's most trusted brand of condoms, the kind of trojans where undesired content is run from a seemingly innocuous file.

The idea would go like this, we get a new file type called, "Incorporators" or something of the like, and with these files, we can hide viruses in other files.  After incorporation, the desirable file would have filesize of the virus in question added to it, and when run, would take up extra resources and would have a "hidden" install going in addition to preforming its regular functions.  This install takes 1.5x the time required to normally install the virus in question, and is canceled when the process is killed.  Once it completes, (and completion would be automatic once time isup) then the beneficial process would go back to taking up its normal resources, and a a virus process would start with the virus's normal resources.  After that, the original file will be deleted if you disinfect the virus, and the virus process will be removed if you delete the original file.

There would also of course be disincorporators, which could attempt to remove the virus portion from a file that has yet to be installed.  In the process of stripping the virus from the original file, some inefficiencies would pop up, making the file keep a limited portion of the file size and resource usage of the virus.

Your thoughts?

If it was ever going to update on its own, it probably would've done it at midnight game time, it didn't.

Maybe combine a megacorp run stock market, with player-run banks?  The stock market would work as described earlier, and the banks would be something that players would have to take efforts to defend (but not in the same ways as regular servers, so higher players don't have a monopoly).  Anyway, the player banks would be hackable if they weren't well-run, and it would be possible for the owner to embezzle from it, so one would have to trust them.  The player could also choose to invest a percentage of the money in the stock market and earn interest or losses for their investors.

I'm just throwing this idea out there, in some respects I don't like the idea of investing in-game itself.  In many games in which you can invest your earnings, people just hoard more and more money to gain higher and higher returns on their investment, and it essentially becomes a requirement to invest all of your money for a few months straight to eve have a shot at keeping up.

Hmm, all I can think of right now.
-Secret server access time  (You complete a difficult mission for Omnicron, and for the next hour, you have access to all omnicron servers regardless of whether you've cracked them)
-Favors (general tasks other players could do for you if asked, but from the megacorps.  For example, you could win one free nmap scan, or one log undeletion from one of that megacorp's servers.  These rewards would be rare, and the success of these operations would be randomized (for undeletion it would be something like a 1.05-(deleter used/top deleter in the game) chance of success))

The thing is, it doesn't close the gap...  This makes research slower for everyone, but those in the top 20 are affected least because expensive hardware is now a requirement for high-level research, where it wasn't before.

Let's look at an example:
Before:  Researching a v1000 PW Protect took about 280,000 MHz and 30 days.
Now: - - Researching a v1000 PW Protect takes about 10,000,000 MHz and 183 days (half a year).  It could be finished sooner, but at a higher cost. (In 30 days, 70THz)

Before: Researching a V100 PW Protect for yourself in 10 days would require 70,000 MHz
Now - - Researching a V100 PW Protect for yourself in 10 days would require 1,767,500 MHz
(method used for calculation: 5 * 210 hours + 65 * 240 hours)


This makes lower level players dependent on already existing files, because they no longer can make their own in reasonable timespans.

So, you gave us a means to start research on multiple files at once easily, only to make it entirely useless?...  Interesting...

Oh well, now with higher-level research impossible, no protects will ever compete with mine.  I thank you for administering an update to solidify supremacy of those on the top, and screw over everyone else.

This change is the kind of change that should be restricted to happening between resets. it makes catching up to higher players impossible without sharing the exact same files they have.

How exactly have you demonstrated this?  There have yet to be any sincere attempts to activate revelation in-game, but when these do occur, honestly, remote attacks would be about the only things which would be effective if the player in question has half a brain.

While they don't stop the initial activation, that is hardly all that would be needed to effectively combat Revelation.  Think about it, someone installs revelation, now, obviously, the only effective means of getting rid of it is to disinfect it...  But what then?...  Short of some sort of overload attack, they now have a revelation-ready server, which stands ready to install it again.  A decent player isn't going to have the resources available on the server to run malware when revelation is installed, and will do an IP change immediately after the disinfect.  This leaves the only means of shutting down a Revelation server as using Revelations, ironically enough.

Really, for most targets it is a rather ineffective.  The 2.452, which is the max that can be installed without overloading AP, takes 163 hours to level a server (there is malware in the game that takes ~38 after instal), it gives the target a message when they are first targeted, and gives them opportunity for IP change.  Revelation can be used against virus farms just fine, because they don't do IP changes, but there is little benefit in doing this, as it just makes a farm unable to grow, prompting the owner to switch to another farm for growth.  It would be effective against farms coupled with disinfects, as we've seen, but that is about the extent of its usefulness against conventional targets.  It would however be much more effective against targets installing Revelation, or with Revelation installed, as they don't get the benefits of IP change.

I didn't really have any part in the Tsar project, but your claim was rather shortsighted, and I felt the need to correct it.

But after that, we will reset again, then reset again, then reset again.  The subsequent resets will likely take much less time than the first has, because most of the current barriers to resetting will be gone (and because people actually will know how to grow quickly after a reset, unlike at the beginning the first time around).  If you're scared of losing whatever you gain, why play at all?  For that matter, I'm not entirely convinced you've gained much of anything on your own to lose yet.

V 0.1 nmap gets you that though.  It only takes 10 minutes and hardly any resources.  Nobody actually uses their scan blockers.

Soft Logs==Software Logs==The logs for spyware, sniffers, and hijacks.  They're permanent as-is.

Well, this suggestion is simple enough.  As-is they tend to just accumulate and accumulate to no end.  The system would feel neater if you could clear them out, and it would probably do the db some good as well.

Well, yeah, at least "the people" aren't ridiculing your accomplishments and calling you insane.    

Pfft... Jealousy!