Virus Breaker now available

[siremi]

- does not take into account if the virus is hidden or encrypted, given the time it will capture it regardless.

Uh does this mean that even if the virii is hidden PRIOR to the capture attempt the Virus Breaker will still see it?

I ask because that is how it is right now.  A virus hidden with a 2.0 hider is still seen by the Virus Breaker and can be captured.

If that is true then Hide/Unhide is now effectively useless much like Encrypt is.

The Virus Breaker acts on the virus process not on the actual virus file. You can hide the virus to protect it against disinfection, but not against capture. To even it out, the capture process takes a much longer time then the disinfect process. Also note that a hidden virus with a high hidden version is a better capture target then a low hidden version virus. If you hide it too well and they can't disinfect it, they will attempt to capture it.


Working on an update so you can see an [owned] on the virus process, that should enable you to see what virus does not belong to you and capture it back shortly.

[Crlaozwyn]

That's fine unless you factor in people stealing viruses and then changing IPs. The fact is people need to sleep - if someone stay up late and has an uber server, they could steal every virus in the game and be untouchable after one hour.

[siremi]

That's fine unless you factor in people stealing viruses and then changing IPs. The fact is people need to sleep - if someone stay up late and has an uber server, they could steal every virus in the game and be untouchable after one hour.

Same goes if they upgrade their gateway and infect every server and hide all the viruses if the Virus Breaker can't see the files. But it will happen way faster then if they capture / re-capture the viruses. Keep in mind that you can upgrade your bandwidth to upload viruses at very high speeds, while the Virus Breaker has a constant minimum capture time. If you upgrade the virus version they will also have to upgrade the Virus Breaker version in order to get a decent time.

[Crlaozwyn]

The difference is people can research unhide file to see the hidden files, whereas there's nothing you can research to find someone's changed IP. Someone started virus break on my files no more than 25 minutes ago - I followed the trail to a dead end; they've already changed IP and so they steal another batch of my virii. If this game is heading towards an eternal tag match on who owns the virus, I'm not interested.

[siremi]

The difference is people can research unhide file to see the hidden files...

Not exactly, a 50k power player can not keep up with the research of a 500k power player on the Hide / Unhide software, so the 500k player will always have a higher Hide version, the 50k will have no means to capture or disinfect (if V Breaker can't see the process), no means to defend (since he doesn't have enough hardware or software to protect (if the IP Change would not work as it does)).

With no means to defend or attack, the lower player will quickly run out of room to even place a virus of it's own, hence get bored or frustrated and leave.


The small players use the Virus Breaker way more often then the higher players, it also advantages them more then the higher players. A newbie stole your virus, not a higher player. It's balanced.

[Crlaozwyn]

It's true that the higher players will have better hide/unhide files, but isn't that the point? If all players were equal, why play the game? The point is to win, not to compete. As it is, there's really not much purpose in hide/unhide, since your software can still be taken.

While more small players may use VB than high players, I'd say high players use VB more (their servers are more powerful and can run more instances simultaneously). I know for a fact that one individual is stealing a minimum of 14 viruses at once. A low player MIGHT be able to run two or three; it's not at all unlikely that this person is running 20+ at once. While smaller players could use the protection, this system is clearly exploitable, and is clearly being exploited.

[siremi]

It's not an exploit, they are using resources and time. They are investing just as much time, HPD and resources as you did to install the virus, if not more. Disinfect missions pay ok and the HPD can be invested to upgrade the CPU / RAM instead of the BANDWIDTH, hence running more disinfect missions / capture processes. Some of the players are specializing in virus installs while others are specializing in disinfecting and stealing. It's supply and demand, when someone is installing a virus, it creates a demand for someone else to disinfect or steal it, so it's only natural one would specialize in one area, while the other will specialize on the counter-attack area.

I am constantly monitoring the progress and I can assure you it is a fair game.

Thank you

[virus man]

The difference is people can research unhide file to see the hidden files...

Not exactly, a 50k power player can not keep up with the research of a 500k power player on the Hide / Unhide software, so the 500k player will always have a higher Hide version, the 50k will have no means to capture or disinfect (if V Breaker can't see the process), no means to defend (since he doesn't have enough hardware or software to protect (if the IP Change would not work as it does)).

With no means to defend or attack, the lower player will quickly run out of room to even place a virus of it's own, hence get bored or frustrated and leave.


The small players use the Virus Breaker way more often then the higher players, it also advantages them more then the higher players. A newbie stole your virus, not a higher player. It's balanced.

But I thought the reason for the hpd:$ ratio changing was to give the new player a chance?
Also Except for 1 member in my group, which will be dealt with if they do not straighten up, the rest of my group has already agreed to limiting the number of secret servers we take over.  Granted this is something we discussed doing ourselves and not really a game enforced edict.  But I suspect other groups may start doing the same thing.

Perhaps Virus Breaker can be changed so that it can not hijack a higher level virus than itself?  I know except for 1 or 2 people in the game, having to disinfect and reinfect would end up taking longer than a hijack, but then those 1 or 2 people have 500kb+ bw and no that does not include me.

Right now as it stands though it is far more profitable to hijack a virus than to disinfect it.  So when you take that into consideration, being that there is ZERO notification during the virus hijacking process until it completes, it does become unbalanced.

Otherwise if it stays the way it is you will end up with groups doing nothing but hijacking virii and counter hijacking virii.  Sorry but I am not about to ask my group to spend their time baby sitting my virii just like they won't ask me to do the same.  But I do know others in the game will do that.   And that will drive away more players than it brings in IMO.

[virus man]

It's not an exploit, they are using resources and time. They are investing just as much time, HPD and resources as you did to install the virus, if not more. Disinfect missions pay ok and the HPD can be invested to upgrade the CPU / RAM instead of the BANDWIDTH, hence running more disinfect missions / capture processes. Some of the players are specializing in virus installs while others are specializing in disinfecting and stealing. It's supply and demand, when someone is installing a virus, it creates a demand for someone else to disinfect or steal it, so it's only natural one would specialize in one area, while the other will specialize on the counter-attack area.

I am constantly monitoring the progress and I can assure you it is a fair game.

Thank you

No they are not.  You can run Virus Breaker at .1 on a 1.5 virus as a brand new player.   Then during that time you can be uploading and downloading as well or say screw the defenses and run missions.  It takes ZERO resource improvements to accomplish this task.

Right now per your own words Disinfect missions run about 266HPD per hour.   Which is roughly about the same as running about 3 missions non-stop for an hour (tieing up 300 mhz cpu for an hour) give or take 1 extra mission hour.  But that is actual work to get something.  Virus Breaker is something that literally needs nothing more than a single download and start running it then walking away from the computer.

I am sorry but I have yet to see how Virus Breaker in it's current form is balanced.   If a group of 4 people each took 6 hour shifts they could literally given enough time control every virus currently installed.  If those 4 people each had large servers of their own then they could almost do it overnight with the exception of maybe the file-shares.   Is that what you really want Sir Emi?  A group of 4 dedicated players controlling almost every virii in the game?  Because that is what can happen right now.  Heck my group of 6 could easily do so as active as we are.  But we won't.  We will only control those Virii on the servers we have selected so that everyone has a chance.

[Crlaozwyn]

Well, you're the game creator and your word is final of course. I can also say that I didn't buy gold membership so I could steal back my own viruses every day. Although the idea of stealing viruses is a good one, the factors of IP changing and stealing viruses that you can't even see combine to inevitably give virus thieves the edge. I say inevitable because they can't be stopped; anyone who specializes in stealing viruses will win in the end because, as you've said, there's a limited amount of server space. If I'd known that "features" like this would be implemented I wouldn't have bought gold membership and, as it stands, I wouldn't recommend gold membership (or most likely this game) to anyone I know. Please don't take that as a threat - it's constructive criticism. I want to see this game grow, and honestly believe that in the long-run this change will do much more harm than good.

[siremi]

Well, it's a new tool the Virus Breaker, maybe it will be re-balanced, maybe the capture time will be increased, we'll see...

But for now, if you don't like it, you can always switch to File Share virus, it's a less desired target for capture and it takes a lot longer.

[Kingdutch]

Well, it's a new tool the Virus Breaker, maybe it will be re-balanced, maybe the capture time will be increased, we'll see...

But for now, if you don't like it, you can always switch to File Share virus, it's a less desired target for capture and it takes a lot longer.

Just quoting you on that sentence, it's interpetable (Written correctly?) in two ways, and in both you are right. It takes longer to capture. However there's quite a few servers (Players mostly) where you can't stuff file shares on because they don't have BW or resources. Als it takes longer to upload or activate a file share virus so it's easily canceled before you're done.

I agree with the rest, Virus Capture + IP Change == God Mode and

 if ($godMode == "active") { $players--; } 

[ZacQuicksilver]

I have one question about this:


It looks (from the OP) that I can only use this on my own server: I can't use it to take over Virii on remote servers.


Is this correct? If not, how do I go about using it on servers that aren't mine?

[HJ®]

Connect to the remotehost, and then go to localhost Files/Programs.

Click Capture, a screen will come up asking you if you'd like to capture a virii on the Localhost/Remotehost.

Select remotehost, pick your virus, and be on your way.

[BobbyBob]

Well, it's a new tool the Virus Breaker, maybe it will be re-balanced, maybe the capture time will be increased, we'll see...

But for now, if you don't like it, you can always switch to File Share virus, it's a less desired target for capture and it takes a lot longer.

Just quoting you on that sentence, it's interpetable (Written correctly?) in two ways, and in both you are right. It takes longer to capture. However there's quite a few servers (Players mostly) where you can't stuff file shares on because they don't have BW or resources. Als it takes longer to upload or activate a file share virus so it's easily canceled before you're done.

I agree with the rest, Virus Capture + IP Change == God Mode and

 if ($godMode == "active") { $players--; } 

Rofl nice code at the bottom XP!