The Hacker Project - a free online game

AdmiringWorm,

Generally that is the idea.  Steal money from other players.  Newbies though won't have enough of what we are after.  It's the bigger farms that would be in danger.  If you were to hit one of my farms with 15 level 5 fireshare virus you could gain 100k easily.  But go after a newbie with a bunch of .1 adware and you might get a couple hundred HPD, which do you think the player would be targetting?

Same thing with malware attacks and such.  Newbies aren't really worth it. 

Now, I can see newbies attacking each other for that couple hundred.  But that would be the point.

I was thinking more along the lines of the password breaker type program (as an example).  You have a 'cash out' program on your computer then 'scans' the opponents virus.  After the set time has elapsed you now have the correct codes to transfer the accumulated unclaimed time on that virus.  You get the HPD and the counter on that virus is reset. 

No need to install it.  But while the process is running the Memory and CPU usage could be that of the target virus or some such.  You would also only able to 'cash out' virus of equal or lesser level of your program.

Just my thoughts.
 

As I was just collecting on my new virii farm I was thinking that it would really suck if someone had the ability to steal all the 'hard earned' money from me.  I know you are saying SpyWare, but you need bandwidth and harddrive space and all that.  Plus, you have to rely on the other person not noticing they've been hacked and pressing collect.

But really, how often does your server ever get infested with spyware?  They are too easy to kill, too easy to trace.

So here is my suggestion for a new program or a rewrite of Spyware:

Cash Out - Running this program against an installed virus would cause the virus to 'Collect'.  In addition, since you started the virus's collect routine the money is directed into your bank account and not the owner of the virus.

Just like a malware attack, though, the player must not change IP addresses while the Cash Out routine is being processed.  The program will take 30 minutes to complete (no matter the size of the virus being manipulated.)  Log files will be generated indicating an incoming Cash Out process, including source IP, and once completed the same.

Cashout process can be killed by owner of the system or an IP change.

Ivan was the master at this... Used to hate attempting to steal his files and discovering that he'd FileShared his system to the max...

Welcome back Cotter...

Awesome!

While I agree that the Baron Injects were being abused.  I don't think the barons earned properly should be so easy to destroy...

A couple of suggestions:

1) Virus is not lost, but is either deactivated (i.e. not earning any income) or earn a pro-rated amount based upon the amount of server hardware available.  Pro-ration could be heavily lopsided (i.e. only have 90% of the hardware you only earn 60% of the income and so forth).

2)  Or, reduce the costs associated with installing virii (both AP and hardware requirements).  One of the problems I see right now is that income is hard to come by.  A dedicated attack on someone can cripple them too easily.  Months of work gone and nearly impossible to come back.

3)  Or just remove virii income.  Make Missions much higher gain in HPD.

I agree with the whole Hard-core PVP, but after being devastated I would like to have the ability to come back and proceed with the game.

Scores should NOT be POWER based but PVP based.  Damage done should be your gauge if you want to encourage PVP.  As it is, we can sit on our butts and just grind away with no thought about PVP and win this game.

Make the game less about grinding 24x7 and more about PVP.

Earn money by attacking players.
Earn money by destroying their software (software deletes, encrypts, etc...  MUCH faster DELETES, Much faster ENCRYPTS needed).
Earn money by destroying their hardware.

For each 1,000 HPD earned by PVP you earn 1 POWER.  Power no longer earned based upon  software level or hardware level...

Just my thought...  

You are allowed to purchase the life... Just not the body parts...

Life can be sold if it is worded correctly... Like the lady who sold her house for $250k and offered to stay on as the prize "house-wife" to the winning bidder...

LOL.  I tried to do a couple of the Steal and Research missions and discovered I couldn't crack any of the low paying missions.

Said, what the hell, and accepted some of the 90k missions.  Was easily cracking three at once...  Of course couldn't download them due to the fact the server was to reboot long before the BW would allow the download.

Actually it would be nice if we didn't have to 'load' a password break for each server we are attempting to break.  Make it more along the lines of IP SCAN. 

As for the overloading part, it could automatically determine if it can be overloaded to that point and just use up the necessary server resources instead of overloading it yourself.  If you can't overload it, then it fails.

When you complete the break it goes bye-bye automatically.

Actually.... Groups do matter.  This would be great if we could make it public for our group and not for the world at large...

The only thing I didn't like about the test account was that every time I would try to do a mission someone would log into the account and just cancel them...

They wouldn't even do anything with it...

Yes, I agree.  You shouldn't be able to put the test account into vacation mode.

Are you a Yooper?

Welcome norill,

We are all trolls and flamers here.  Nothing else.  In truth, I live under a bridge...   

As for virii...    http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/virii 

Yes, you are correct, virii is not the (politically) correct form.  But give it enough time and it will become the defacto standard usage.  Just like ain't ain't a word.... Some day Virii will become the proper way to spell viruses.

Plus it just plainly looks cooler...