braddollar, on 16 July 2010 - 04:40 PM, said:
Really wish I had a video of the hacking from Neocron still around :\
While I understand what everybody is saying in regards to having to send people to defend the hacker, a noob taking too long to do it, etc, I think that it would inspire more of a cooperative play. Everybody has to go and defend the hacker, or the hacker will die and the game has to be started over. You counteract the noobs taking way too long, by requiring it to be done in 30 seconds, or using the Neocron method the computer fighting back, and then you are kicked out and required to try again.
Dystopia was mentioned before, and even that sort of minigame would be better than the current. I'm not so much talking about the actual cyberspace play, but the use of programs in cyberspace. You slap down an encryption program, and then it runs its course doing things like generating an algorithm, encrypting, etc. You can just let the program run and it takes X seconds, or you can choose to manually start each process by clicking on the buttons for that process. The sequence is always the same for each program, but the location of the buttons is random. So you can memorize the sequences and get pretty quick with it, but there is always a random element. Similar to the Moonbase style that was suggested, but something that I think makes a little more sense in the context of the game, rather than just "draw a line." (Admittedly I've not played Moonbase and I'm not in a position to do so currently, but "draw a line" sounds simplistic to me, and nothing like hacking.)
The Moonbase Alpha minigame is soldering points on an item to speed up repairs - the point of Moonbase Alpha is to repair everything pronto, so the minigame seperates the good players from the bad (not including player co-operation, job designation, general game sense). I'm not saying "This minigame is the one minigame to rule them all, impliment it!", just the general premise behind how it functions and how it benifits the gameplay over there, and how it could then enhance gameplay over here.
The problem with the Dystopia model, imo, is that the mapper has to make the area the hack occurs in, rather than just a pop-up screen as proposed through the Neocron or Moonbase Alpha suggestions.
On the subject of the terminal fighting back, it could be interesting to see the Overwatch player being able to counter-act the hacking attempts by the players by engaging in a minigame of their own, trading the ability to spawn units or move them into tactical positions to slow down/reverse hacking attempts (reverse only on unattended consoles). Alternatively, if the Overwatch player being able to directly do it is against the game that's aimed for, there could be a specific unit that could be introduced that would be able to counter-act the hacking attempts, lightly armed and would have to be positioned next to the terminal much as the players do to lower it back down.
I found a quick video which displays the hacking in Neocron twice, I've never played the game so I don't know how well of a demonstration this is, but anyway:
http://www.youtube.c...=en_GB&fs=1