Ideas for Plastech

[Caischcer]

I really want to give credit to "TheocraticalGoblin" because I feel it was thanks to him and thanks to his very strong arguments I got this idea:

 

So, so far in the game hacking is a big deal but we don't see the corps really surveying their own mainframes (or systems, actually) what I mean to say is that, unless you are at plastech

or you trigger this so called "failsafe" daemon I horrendously had the unfortune to meet

once you hack a device it is yours forever.

 

I know this is an already very punishing game for some, but plastech doesn't have to be this boring"tug-o-war" for a device, if plastech is all about daemons and idk "cyber security" or so, then I propose to balance it in the following way :

 

We see a lot of surveillance on the physical aspect of a corp and a somewhat passive vigilance on the cybernetic aspect they just want to slowly waste your power and prevent you from hacking others by using daemons, but what if we had virtual guard programs?

 

 in a normal plastech sys you would have the usuall firewall-protected devices and daemons, but another unique feature of plastech would be "virtual patrols" they would be like mobile daemons (more or less) if you hacked a device that is occupied by a guard program the alarm tracker would go up like if you had killed a guard. But this could cause different actions, maybe get a guard into a "?" state, or get a modded mk guard into a "!" state, although I really favor the +alarm action. 

 

How could this be regulated to avoid it from being too overwhelming for the player at harder levels or too easy at lower levels? Well the number of guard programs should be linked to the number of modded mk maybe. This could replace the modded mk's rehacking ability but the idea behind plastech would be to first target your hacking platform and then your physical platform (since plastech is not a brute force corp like K&O)

 

you should be able to get the "who's the one getting hacked now?" or the "the predator became the prey" feeling while hacking on plastech so instead of you being the one who hacks plastech, plastech would be the one hacking you! (Awesome plastech is awesome!)

 

I thought this could be a very interesting gimmick to the game.

[Caischcer]

could anyone at least post "hi" this post is kind of lonely 

By the way is r4ttle snake or console random events in-game? I have not seen them since the early access

[Sorenson]

Hi !

 

 

 in a normal plastech sys you would have the usuall firewall-protected devices and daemons, but another unique feature of plastech would be "virtual patrols" they would be like mobile daemons (more or less) if you hacked a device that is occupied by a guard program the alarm tracker would go up like if you had killed a guard. But this could cause different actions, maybe get a guard into a "?" state, or get a modded mk guard into a "!" state, although I really favor the +alarm action.

 

Love the idea.

Honestly, I try to avoid plastech missions if I can, and in endless, I never do them until day 9 or 10, when all the MKI guards are replaced by omnicorps guards. I just can't stand them, retaking my devices I spent so much time hacking. That's why I have a similar feeling of a "turg-o- war" that makes me avoid them altogether. I prefer evasion to confrontation in Invisible Inc., and having a camera being retaken while my agent is still in the room is really annoying.

 

Also, I really like your view of the fact that there's no "active" protection other than Daemons on devices. That virtual patrol idea is really good, and would be a nice addition to the Incognita-side of the game.

 

Regarding the action it could trigger, I'm for both of them. There could be two kind of patrols, one that raises the alarm by 1 or more when you hack the device it is on, and another one that sends a guard to investigate. That way, hacking a device would still give you an advantage, but it would come with a sense of pressure that you should do what you have to do, and get the hell away from it.

As for having a guard going into a hunting (!) state, I would keep that for the Omnicorp, since it's a bit more mean that the other kinds, so it should be something special for them that would fit them perfectly.

 

Nice suggestion.

 

Btw, how do you think that "patrol" should behave on devices you have already hacked ? Or should it stay only on non-hacked devices ?

Also, is it supposed to disappear once you've triggered it ? What should happen once you hacked everything in the level ?

[Nxf7]

I think the problem is you just don't get to the point fast enough and your idea is confusing and it's very similar to what already happens. You KO a plastech cyberguard, he puts a daemon on a mainframe device and if you use Hunter on it the guard will die. 

 

I don't think plastech needs changing much at all, it has weaknesses like all the others. KO'ing and using Taurus to move the daemon if it's not already on a device you don't care about is one method. Killing them outright after EMP or Anatomy Analysis is another, or Hunter the daemon after KO.

 

I find doing this swiftly and ruthlessly can be faster than dealing with say K&O's turrets, 3 armour guards, and 180 degree vision guards. You need to change your playstyle against Plastech if you think it's supposed to be this hacking tug of war. 

[Caischcer]

Btw, how do you think that "patrol" should behave on devices you have already hacked ? Or should it stay only on non-hacked devices ?

Also, is it supposed to disappear once you've triggered it ? What should happen once you hacked everything in the level ?

 

Thanks for answering! I had an old post that had 0 replies a while ago which made me feel a little bit dumb.

 

So yeah I was in a rush when writing this and I could not explain that part of the idea.

 

So basically I think it could work like guard patrols but moving let's say one device per turn but the patrol can only move to the closest device to it so you can more or less predict where they are going so if you know they are going to move to a device you don't want to get penalized for hacking let's say an already painful 3 firewall siphon daemon protected device you could hack it first so the patrol can't move to that device. So yeah, the patrol can not guard an already hacked device.

 

But I am still thinking how this could be implemented at first I thought that if you had already hacked all devices one device far from the guard protected device the guard program should be stuck in that device forever so it would be kind of a strategy game of what devices you hack and which you don't so you can get those guard programs trapped in a device you can simply live without hacking (like a safe or a terminal database)

 

but now that I actually think about it that could make the idea of guard programs kind of harmless and I feel like you should be able to predict where they are going but still have the always present pressure of avoiding them like with physical guards in-game! and maybe I used the term "mobile daemon" incorrectly above because I don't intend this programs to be as mean as daemons but more like virtual counterparts of physical guards in the game.

 

You would spend time trying to deceive the guard programs and avoiding them just as you would with the real guards and of course "killing" them would have it's consequences!  

[leonseye]

Personally, I just EMP (or Xu) and murder them.  The cleanup cost is trivial for the headache saved.

[Sorenson]

Would you have the same approach in Expert+/Endless+ difficulty ?