hacking

[Duritz]

Well, I do agree that people that are good at the task of hacking should get a reward, but I don't see how you can prevent people from abusing that system. Maybe that's why it's so simplistic now?

Maybe we could use a mix of point system and puzzles, or some kind of challenge to even the playing field. Or maybe you could get a choice of which one to use when getting your hacking kit?

Each person could choose whether they would like to use the point system (which because it requires more time, could lead to a higher reward), or they could do a puzzle (which could reward with faster time for faster completion, but wouldn't get quite as fast as the point system).

Maybe the choice would alleviate everyone's dislike of the other side.

If anyone has any ideas please post them. I can't quite come up with a system that makes everyone happy.

[Warborn]

Screw it. There's nothing I'm going to add which I haven't said previously.

[�io]

Yeah i suggested that earlier, include the option to turn the skill-based system on or leave the normal bar thingy. So like that if you're a good hacker with experience you can do it fast but a new comer can still fall back on the "auto-hack" if he can't do it fast enough.

But that will never happen, nor will a skill based hacking system. Most likely the devs will stick with the hacking cert the way it is. It won't make me dislike PS more but i will however be turning away from the hacking role now.

Originally posted by Duritz
If anyone has any ideas please post them. I can't quite come up with a system that makes everyone happy.

No system can ever make everybody happy.

[Myhouse43]

Whats being done about cheating? Or is it not a concern?

[Hamma]

All they will say is it is being addressed. That's enough for me

[Warborn]

Just thought I'd point something out:

Hacking
Allows faster use of the REK for hacking of doors and control consoles, and also allows temporary use of enemy-held medical and advanced medical terminals.

Read the bold part. Faster hacking of doors and... control consoles. Seems to me that anyone -- absolutely anyone -- with a REK will be able to capture enemy bases and open enemy doors. Taking the Hacking cert simply makes it go more quickly.

Advanced Hacking
Like Hacking, but also allows the use of enemy-held equipment terminals, air vehicle terminals and ground vehicle terminals.

No mention of anything regarding control consoles. Guess my theory is correct.


Summary: Hacking can be done by anyone with a REK. And given the fact that you can loot corpses, an REK won't be that difficult to get. Having the Hacking cert will let you Hack bases and doors more quickly, while having the Advanced Hacking cert will let you Hack the terminals listed above. Point being that Hacking isn't even close to what we've been making it out to be in this thread. You won't even need someone with the Hacking cert to capture a base. Hopefully this will shed a bit more light on how the developers of PlanetSide view Hacking.

All of this was from this page, which was part of the PSU Dev Interview feature.

[Hamma]

Originally posted by Warborn
You won't even need someone with the Hacking cert to capture a base.

This is false, I am almost positive you need adv hacking.

[Warborn]

I'm merely stating what I'm seeing in the dev information on certs. Unless control consoles are something other than the things you use to capture a base, and the person who sent you that information forgot to mention the part about being able to capture bases with Advanced Hacking, then I believe either the requirement for an Advanced Hacker being with you is no longer in, or someone made several large errors in the information that you recieved.

And on that note, I'd be very pleased if what I'm interpreting here is correct. Making it absolutely necessary for someone to have Advanced Hacking if you're going to take a base is really unnecessary. It'll only force more people to have Advanced Hacking that really want to, otherwise you could have 30 players ready to bring hell to an enemy, but they can't, because none of them have Advanced Hacking, so they can't take a base.


You know, now that I think of it, it'd really be better if Hacking/Advanced Hacking were changed to Electronics/Advanced Electronics. Hacking implies the wrong thing, I think.

[�io]

Originally posted by Hamma
This is false, I am almost positive you need adv hacking.

Hmmm... not so sure about that Hamma. If you read the cert descriptions is says it allows to hack faster not it allows to hack bases.

[Warborn]

Otherwise you couldn't take a base without an Advanced Hacking capable player, which really isn't fair to everyone else. No one cert should be so crucial to the game. Hacking is a tool, after all. Not a job.

[Hamma]

I think it would make perfect sense, I am still pretty sure that u need adv hacking. I would not want some random schmuck, max, or med to wander in and hack my base. :|

People should have to choose it as a role

[�io]

Well now that i think about it, if the act of hacking isn't skill based as this debate was about(which is very likely) than yeah you should be required to have adv hacking for base hacking and hacking for the big things like tanks and stuff. It would help the hacking role become something interesting even if it's not skill based.

[Warborn]

The only way I could agree that Advanced Hacking would work out as the only way to take a base would be if people have so many certs that it really wouldn't matter, because you could have most of the weapons, armor, medical, vehicles, advanced hacking, and everything would be peachy. However, that's clearly not going to be the case, so forcing people to have an Advanced Hacker with them when they want to take a base is an extremely poor design decision, and I sincerely hope it doesn't work that way. Making a group of players unable to capture a base unless they have a certain cert is really quite stupid, to be blunt. Why should these people have to covet and worship Advanced Hackers as the only guys who can take a base?

Having Advanced Hacking might be OK if it makes the process of capturing a base go more quickly, but forcing people to have someone with this cert with them is idiocy, and would do far more harm to the game than good.

[Navaron]

"However, that's clearly not going to be the case, so forcing people to have an Advanced Hacker with them when they want to take a base is an extremely poor design decision, and I sincerely hope it doesn't work that way. Making a group of players unable to capture a base unless they have a certain cert is really quite stupid, to be blunt. Why should these people have to covet and worship Advanced Hackers as the only guys who can take a base? "

"Having Advanced Hacking might be OK if it makes the process of capturing a base go more quickly, but forcing people to have someone with this cert with them is idiocy, and would do far more harm to the game than good."

I disagree, you have to have a pilot to fly a plane or drive a tank so why not have a cert to be able to hack the base. If you don't do this you'll have uber squads full of Maxes and snipers with no support classes and no hackers or anything of the sort bc you won't need them. You will loose teamwork and every schmuck will just race for the hacking point instead of protecting and escortign the one guy and getting him where he needs to be.


If your squad is so ill prepared as to have fought an entire battle and then realise you don't have an advanced hacker with you - you don't deserve the base.

It's not idiocy by any means, you simply can't do everything. People are going to have to diversify and pick up odd skills to make a good squad. Besides, it's not like you can only learn a couple things, you can get adv hacking and a metric ass ton of other things (Not too long ago the arguement was that you got too many perks), so that character won't be crippled just casue he knows how to hack.

[Serbitar]

Warborn: why ? This is a teamgame, if you want to go somewhere in force, youll have to find a drophsip pilot. If you want to hack a base, find a hacker.

Thats what I like. Not the "everybody can do everything".

Sure it makes the game more difficult, but hey, I dont want to play ttc tac toe.

If your group doesnt have a hacker, it has to find one. Thats teamplay, you know ? Not a design flaw at all.

Seems you have a verry narrow point of view on the whole topic.