Brainwave

[ivandrago]

Hi all, I just got a brainwave. I have to write it down here before I forget 

Secret servers is the place where PvP can flourish under the right circumstances. Currently two things are holding this back:
1) robber barons are way more lucrative than installing virii on secret servers
2) spyware is (almost) rendered useless due to the fact that bandwidth can no longer be overloaded on secret servers.

I have the following suggestion to take care of problem #2:
With every file for delete missions that is spawning on secret servers, there's a small chance (10% perharps) that this file is infected with spyware. When this is the case both files (that particular mission file and a spyware of equal version) will be present. The lucky person is the one to spot and install the spyware first; Especially if the server already contains one or more virii

I was happy with Emi's decision to get rid of private farms (to pull ppl out of their caves and get them to actually play this game). Until today I still can't understand why he introduced Robber Barons instead. As a result of this there's still hardly any action on secret servers, so ditch the Robber Barons if you want to solve problem #1 ....

Several smaller tweaks can be done to increase the PvP experience in the battle for secret servers, but it would be useless to address those without fixing the 2 main issues first:
- too easy to process trace desinfect processes
- too hard to succesfully identify virii
- desinfecting spyware is too fast
- AP should not rise above the usual limit (3000 or 5000 for golds) when doing faction missions (if we go through with this then I suggest to raise these limits a bit)

[Brok Ironfist]

I think Robber Barrons
  -  should either be removed from game
  -  or make it so they are much easier to install and disinfect and produce less $$$

[bontrose]

and capture!

[Exousia]

Putting an absolute cap on AP will prevent the obscene Robber Baron versions and force them to stay v0.5 or below. As it is, however, it is true and always has been true that the disinfect and capture times are unreasonable. By that same token, I would like to point out that any virus capture takes an unreasonable amount of time.

Perhaps what is needed is to give the Robber Barons a vulnerability either to capture and/or to being turned against owner. On the one hand, a reduced capture time on Robber Barons so that it would be quick and easy, forcing people to invest in IP changes or to capture their own virii, reducing their versions more with each capture. On the other hand, an inversion program which turned the robber baron against the host server, siphoning funds from the server owner's account instead of a mega-corporation would bring along an additional twist to the game.

I believe that adding such vulnerabilities to these powerful programs would give people reason to find other player's Robber Baron servers and capture them and/or turn them, increasing PvP.

Just a thought.

[bontrose]

yeah instead of just "disinfect" missions you would have "invert or destroy" missions

you would have to make revertion(reverting) software

[Exousia]

yeah instead of just "disinfect" missions you would have "invert or destroy" missions

you would have to make revertion(reverting) software

Exactly. You'd have to recapture your own Robber Baron to fix the problem. We'd have to make it worth the time, though, since it's currently much quicker just to reformat and research rather than capture a Robber Baron.

[bontrose]

yeah instead of just "disinfect" missions you would have "invert or destroy" missions

you would have to make revertion(reverting) software

Exactly. You'd have to recapture your own Robber Baron to fix the problem. We'd have to make it worth the time, though, since it's currently much quicker just to reformat and research rather than capture a Robber Baron.

yeah try THREE MONTHS

[Exousia]

Yeah, that's obscene.

What I'm thinking personally is that if we give this bloated behemoth a vulnerability to disinfect and/or capture, it would balance things out better and promote PvP. Any software that huge and doing what it's supposed to be doing has to be complicated enough that throwing a monkey wrench into the works would be quite simple. Perhaps there could even be a chance at a failed capture attempt which redirects it nowhere, effectively halting it. Inverting the software would be slightly more complicated and simply break the Baron in a similar way to a failed capture attempt if it fails. Perhaps someone would even develop software to just halt a Baron's operation quickly before going for capture or disinfect. That's two new software types right there.

Right now, all I have to do is get one Baron running and then use the proceeds to produce a network of Barons. Even at v0.1, it takes long enough that as long as I'm checking in every day or two, I can IP change without missing a beat. I only had one instance where someone managed to put SpyWare on my active server which happened to have a v0.3 Baron on it as well. I was using it to transfer files, so it was the only one with any spare BW. Without spare BW, capture or disinfect are your only options and they take weeks even at the lowest version Baron. I can watch my logs to empty and then, no matter how good your log deleter is, once a log entry is created, I know I'm compromised. There's nothing an attacker can do, however, as long as I keep the hardware, especially BW, close to Baron's needs, so SpyWare is nullified leaving only remote attacks by means of VB and AV, which takes weeks. I can happily go off on a two week vacation confident that my Barons will continue uninterrupted until I get a chance to log on again.

Reducing this time to an obscenely small amount like an hour per tenth of a version would scare the crap out of Baron users. More aggressive players would go looking for Baron servers, observe offline times and attack in the night. Groups would have to work together to protect their Baron servers or a few IP purchases or some research would reveal a gold mine of HPD for hunter type players and force the cave-dwellers out of their holes without removing it as a source of income entirely.

We used to go looking for other people's farm servers in order to put SpyWare on them or disinfect/capture their virii and mess things up. The Baron is a nice answer to a more defensive style play, but with such disinfect and capture times, it's much more secure and lucrative than the farm servers ever were.

As a side note to Ivan: I can live with the Baron being removed, I just think we need to explore balancing options before we remove the feature without review. I do see your point about it promoting cave-dwelling, so I'm not trying to talk you out of that part of your suggestion necessarily.

[ivandrago]

As a side note to Ivan: I can live with the Baron being removed, I just think we need to explore balancing options before we remove the feature without review. I do see your point about it promoting cave-dwelling, so I'm not trying to talk you out of that part of your suggestion necessarily.

I can live with other measures to eliminate the domination of robber barons. All I'm saying is that I kinda miss the action on secret servers which I think is a significant part of the PvP everyone has been asking for.

[bontrose]

how about a robber takes 24 hrs to capture/kill at v.1 so it would continue on from there

v.1   24 hrs
v.2   48hrs
v.2579    61 hrs 53 min 46 sec
v.3   72hrs
v.5   120hrs

[Eledran]

I would not set up a cap on AP, but a cap on the maximun version we can install.

Also I think that PvP points could be used in order to increase the efective version of a baron virus....

I think the cap should be setted at about 0.6-0.9... Maximun v1...

[bontrose]

v1 is just asinine v.5 max

[ãłþħά-∆9]

2 main issues first:
- too easy to process trace desinfect processes
- too hard to succesfully identify virii
- desinfecting spyware is too fast
- AP should not rise above the usual limit (3000 or 5000 for golds) when doing faction missions (if we go through with this then I suggest to raise these limits a bit)

Nice maths ;)
But, I AGREE! I've been talking about capping AP for a few days now, it would stop people sitting in their comfy shells doing missions to farm, and it seems strange Emi would get rid of autofarms just to replace them with something that makes even more money even faster.

There is more PVP this round than last however, in fact i better go check my gateway

[bontrose]

pvp? yeah ppl who kill you for peeking your nose on to an abandoned server for instance

[ãłþħά-∆9]

The only weakness to barons is spyware, and its rare theres any spare BW on baron servers, although i have found a couple and have captured roughly 10million from other players barons...

I really wanted to come out with a great idea, but im far too tired and my thingy mind is shooting blanks

Edit: lol it changed penii to thingy XD