Infiltrator/hacking suggestions

[Princess Frosty]

In the hope that Smed or anyone from the PS:N dev team reads this I'd just like to suggest some ideas to enhance infiltrator play.

Infiltrating was by far my favorite game play mechanic from Planetside, I felt the infiltrator in general was very well balanced once you kitted yourself out with the appropriate kit.

However what I'd really like to see is a more sneaking/hacking centric game play such as having more systems inside the base to hack, as well as more tools to help you infiltrate with as a replacement for weapons. For example

Tools:

• Mini motion sensor, can be placed on any surface, is compact and hard to see so can be hidden.
• Mini cam, attaches to surface and gives the inf a small window on his HUD which displays what the cam sees
• Escape/evasion tools like flashbang or smoke bomb style throwables

Extension of hacking:

• Mainframe computers on the bottom levels of bases to hack, below spawn room level like generators
• Hacking mainframes requires mini game which if you fail alerts the base to hack attempt
• Sucessful hacks should allow access to corrupt base functions

Corrupting base functions:

• Lock some internal doors on a brief timer to lock out sections of the base
• Remote turret control allowing you to turn base defences against owners
• Lock out various equipment and vehicle terminals
• Infect terminals, make weapon selections come out wrong such as 1/2 empty ammo magazines, reduced explsive damage etc

I think that would add a whole new level to infiltrating, people would need to protect mainframe access in the same way you need to protect the generator as it's a potential weak point in the base, give us more options to tip stalemates over base attack/defence.

It would be cool if there was a mini game to hacking which takes place inside access panels like re-wiring, something that's hard to do under pressure and requires some actual skill/thought, kind of like the hacking in Bioshock but something less stupid. Award some kind of hacking points for completing and set off alarms for failure, allow hacking points to be spent disrupting systems, more deadly disruptions require more points and so the mini games need to be repeated which means more time spent hacking and more risk.

Skilled hackers should be able to queue up a handful of hacking points by repeating the mini game (maybe getting harder each time), then cause simultaneous disruptions at once rather than just 1 small one, for example instead of turning 1 courtyard turret against the base you could do 4 at once for maximum disruption, instead of locking just 1 door you could strategically lock 2-3 at once and cause bottlenecks and whatnot. Very much analogous to infiltrators who could get into a base and then lay boomers in the gen room (which took 3-4 trips to the lockers) and then blow them all at once with a jammer grenade taking out the gen in 1 hit, more risky as it took time and meant exposing yourself more but payoff was better.

Counter hacking should be possible so friendly infiltrators can essentially check and see if enemies are inside their systems and trace which terminal is being used, set up traps that make mini games harder to complete without setting off alarms and such like.

Just some thoughts

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by Princess Frosty

Corrupting base functions:

• Lock some internal doors on a brief timer to lock out sections of the base
• Lock out various equipment and vehicle terminals
  

Those would do nothing but be annoying and slow down gameplay

rest sounds ok,

[kamikava]

I like this:

Mini cam, attaches to surface and gives the inf a small window on his HUD which displays what the cam sees.

Dont know how easy it would be to implement however.

[Traak]

Originally Posted by kamikava

I like this:

Mini cam, attaches to surface and gives the inf a small window on his HUD which displays what the cam sees.

Dont know how easy it would be to implement however.

Depends on the framerates and sizes.

[Furret]

imo, hacking/infiltrating doesn't need to be changed too much, except for one thing.

I always thought it was stupid that hacking was pointing a pretty laser at a panel, and getting advanced just meant your laser went faster.

Hacking, engineering, and medicing should be certs that require skill to use effectively, just like any other cert.

I really liked the system in Face of Mankind, there were low, medium, and high quality hacking tools. The higher quality your hacking tool, the easier it was to find your way out of the puzzle. It was still possible to hack the highest levels with your low quality tool, but you could easily have to stand next to the door for 30 minutes or more.

FoM was a much slower game than planetside however, so obviously the hard hacks wouldn't take that long even with the lowest level of hacking.

It really wouldn't be too hard to make minigames for each of the different certs.

For hacking, you have to make a bunch of puzzles fit together correctly. Door hacks could be as simple as two four piece puzzles that have to go next to each other.
CC hacks, however, could be as complicated as fitting together four 25 piece puzzles, something even a very good hacker would have to take a minute or two to do.
If you don't cert hacking and attempt to hack the door, you get a larger puzzle with all completely straight sides, as well as larger pixels (to blur the image).
If you've certed regular hacking, all of the puzzle pieces have ins and outs on all sides, regardless of whether or not they're outside pieces. The resolution has been returned to normal.
Advanced hacking has very sharp resolution and the corner pieces look like corner pieces.

Engineering is more of a 'one of these things is not like the other'. You look at the larger scale of the vehicle or person, and depending on where they've taken damage, one or more of those parts are broken. You then select the part, and look at the three or four sub parts, and correct whichever sub part(s) is/are broken.
Example: Your vanguard has taken multiple hits on the left rear side (from enemy fire), as well as the underside in the front (from mines). Your driver tells you this, and you quickly select the 'bumper' and 'underside' buttons for repair. You then look at the 'bumper' sub parts, and see that the light icon is cracked, and the fender icon is bent. You then drag the fender icon until its straight (locks into place from varying distances depending on cert level), and wipe glue into the cracks of the light (difficulty again depends on the level of certification). Last, you go to the 'underside' tab and hammer out the dents in the armor, and click 'Finish Repairs'.
Ready for action!
Combat engineering would be as simple as being given the object you're attempting to build broken up into four or five obvious parts, and you place the bottom on the ground, then the next level, then the next level until your device is complete. Boomers would most likely be only one part.

Medicing obviously follows the same pattern. Depending on where the player has taken damage, you have to clip together blood vessels or pump in nanobots. Medicing would be a lot simpler than engineering or hacking.
Reviving teammates would be slightly more complicated, however. You have to double click the heart in time with the rhythm given, and connect pathways in the brain, while also pumping nanobots into the player's vital organs. The heartbeat would be sort of like a rock band or guitar hero track, although there would only be one 'note' when you have to click on the heart icon. The tracks would be random, but also set up to give a player enough time to connect passageways or click on organs in between every couple of heartbeats.

Comments/Critiques?

Edit: You know you've written too much when it logs you out while typing.

[Traak]

I like the idea of adding some skill, and reward for it, to the support certs. Variety instead of click'n'snore.

[Princess Frosty]

It would be nice if there was mini games that were a bit cooler than the traditional sort of slide pieces about or rotate knobs to find sweet spots or anything like that.

Some kind of circuitry with fibre optics and with various components kind of like the sort of stuff you'd see in star trek, and then you have to analyse the circuit and reroute parts of it to bypass security being careful not to overload parts of it. That's easy to scale in difficulty because you can just increase the total number of components and connectors for harder hacks.

It should ideally be that with practice you can hack quite quickly like everything else in the game it's better if it's skill based.

[Traak]

Just make the bases Windows-compatible. That would add a whole new level of hacks, cheats, backdoors, trojans, necessary updates, security vulnerabilities, and such.

Or you could make the base CC's and consoles Apple compatible, and then the game would cost $500/month.

[Senyu]

One mini game shows a large complex circietry (however you spell it) grid with 2 spots, your start and the desired spot and have you navigate it to get to the point. This could be done with an above view and moving your mouse perhaps?

Other than that I like the idea of of this thread. But I hope the mini games don't become to big or crazy ruining it. Like in oblivion, the key picking was simple but challenging sometimes

[MooK]

Hacking -

Let's go old school cyberpunk on this one, with a little skill.

Let's treat the REK as a utility designed for two purposes, instead of just one as it is now.

1.) As an electronics kit, we have a system which can variably improve the electronic function of a system. I.E. If we were in a biolab, we could "hack" into our own factions systems and increase respawn at a sacrifice to NTU. Another potential idea is hacking the system to improve electronic security.

2.) As a decking system, we introduce a utility that allows the user to interface with the system, to bypass security and infect or alter the system in a negative way, ultimately to hinder or capture an enemies environment.

The REK would be upgradeable. Using the current certification system, a more efficient REK would require efficient electronics and better training.

The mini-game idea is good, if we treat it with respect. Unlike games where the act of hacking is silly (bioshock,) we should make it interesting, fun, and pressured. I suggest command-line interface. It's classic, and really ties into the genre this game inhabits. Games like Uplink have introduced a semi-realistic approach to this, however, I believe it should be a little bit more realistic. The hacking process would be simple:

The REK would be used to:
* Identify what security systems are in place (ICE, IDS, Firewalls, protected content, etc.)
* Make use of existing tools to bypass these systems (Definition lists, brute force, etc.)
* Infect these systems to hinder the base core programming or capture the base (Override systems, introduce virus/trojan/worm/etc.)
* Secure your intrusions in the event the enemy is able to reverse your attempts (Counter-ICE.)


Note: the current implementation of the "virus" system is not acceptable.

There would be no way to "fail" the mini-game, aside from being captured and killed. Every "mistake," however, would potentially alert the enemy to your presence. For instance, the lights could flicker, equipment terminals could misbehave and distribute weaponry automatically, etc.

Now, I understand this can be a little overwhelming, and I believe a source mod known as Dystopia has solved it with an alternative: Allow the REK to automatically bypass security at a potentially slower pace. This would allow individuals to still compete without needing to become masterful at the game. The REK would have a high probability of completing the job without any mistakes (99% or something ridiculous like that,) so the automatic route would be potentially slower, but a lot safer.


As an expert hacker you would have the potential to increase your factions abilities and support them. Furthermore, you would be introduced to a system where you would need to actually learn some level of skill (like grunt assault, or infiltration, etc.) to really shine amonst your peers when assaulting your enemy (but if you weren't very good at it, you would still the automatic aspect of the REK to rely on.)