So ... Lately I've been hacking alot for several reasons:
- I wanted to try out and see if the feature is really interesting
- I needed to get new planets, another way than scanning, cause my last scanning rush brought me only 2 interesting planets out of 80 planets scanned and my next scanning rush won't happen until 2 weeks when I'll have time to research new tech.

My target had 20 cloacking (gamma channeler + AI computer) and 5 Scan (from AI Computer)

I had lately 405 cloak and 978 scan power ...

My remarks:
- With these stats I still just managed to fail 3 times in a row ... That's a bit ridiculous considering the stats of my enemy compared to mine.
- I never had critical fail (which I consider normal with my enemy low stats)
- I get a critical success approx once every 30 hacks = 150 energy spent to get 1 position of a planet (most of them crappy of course ... But who knows I might end up getting a dyson since 5 have been found) that's a 3.33% rate ... Don't know many people scanning for planets at that low rate ...
- I get between 56 to 185 Research points per sucess (non critical)

I get around 10% failure rate (some with no res taken, some with res taken)

so for 150 energy I get:
- 1 planet position
- 2700 res (100 res per sucess let's say, since I get some loss from the fail (I can also use res point just before hacking all the time to avoid that)
- no xp
- needs 1.5 day of activity to get that (if you are online often)

at high lvl 2700 res is like 2H res production ... No big deal.


I don't know what you think of these stats, but for the difference of stats between my enemy and me, I find them pretty low and not worth the energy + time spent on it. Of course I would have been happy if I had hit a nice planet but what are the chances for that anyway ... Hacking is kinda a much worse lottery that scanning.

I think you could try tweaking it depending on lvl OR Hack experience ... Like the more I have successful hacks the higher my critical chances are ... Makes sense since hacking could grow with experience in real life. I would also increase Hack usage and hence force people to equip scans / cloak to defend + generate more PvP in the game.

example:

+0.5% critical chance to hack every 100 hacks before 1000 hacks
then +0.3% critical chance to hack every 100 hacks between 1000 to 10 000 hacks

etc.


What do you think?

I think hacking has needed some improvemetns for awhile now, and I think that it needs to become something that everyone will atleast some of to survive in the game. Thxs for getting some cold hard numbers.

Another way of implementing such bonus could be done by hacking missions like some already exists for other features since I think Dan likes these kind:

- mission requiring XXX hacking => special item giving XX% to hack success or xx% to critical hack etc.

This could be a chain mission giving different bonuses with higher and higher hack requirements.

same could be done for the raiding option.

I was thinking that there could be a whole new kind of module that reduces the hacking timer. Computer modules. It would probably be difficult to implement considering there would have to be a whole new tech tree but 25 minutes seems like too long to wait between hacks. It's nice though that at least something in the game requires vigilance, but for the dedication it takes, the benefits are a bit lacking. A way to store up multiple hack attempts I would consider too "zynga-like".

Higher levels would get the short end of the stick if there is one. I've heard gripes that there isn't much conflict at higher levels but I think more hacks would change that, since higher levels give more RP and they aren't constantly decked out with cloaking and scanning modules and I doubt they have an infinite number of planet fluxes to unhack their planets. It would make vygoids more like cylons ... I know it seems impractical but I think the implications a computer module would have on the game would make it considerably more fun. I don't know if it is fair to the higher levels and I don't know if the game really needs an "equalizer".

or the hacking timer could just be plain reduced, having a similar effect and it would be monumentally easier to implement. I don't really know what would happen if the same were done for raiding, but raiding has its own problems.

BTW, what exactly does the "hacker" bonus apply to? success? critical success? If the amount of cloaking determines success rate as well then I don't see why someone wouldn't choose to be a spy instead.

Reducing the hacking timer could could cause problems, though I admit 25min is a bit long, rather then implementing conduits for hacking id like to just see hacking get some boosts to what it already is. Maybe increasing the amount of XP rewarded, or something.

a shorter hack timer might relegate scanning to the back burner for higher levels who have a very low success rate. Another reason higher levels might start fighting each other. If the timer were 10 minutes it wouldn't be too hard to hack a few planets a day with the current critical success chance. The galaxy size would not have to become insanely large. You could still protect your anonymity as well as before unless you were to partake in the hacking. I think I like most everything of what a shorter timer may or may not do to the game. But I do agree that a whole new module and tech tree is a bit much. I just seemed realistic.

The power of anonymity and the concept of hacking in this game really reminds me of battlestar galactica for some reason.

I think there should be some factor that determines whether your hack is detected or if your name is shown.

IMO i think people should only be able to hack a few planets (like 3, no limit, just %s) a week

UPDATE:


Haha that's so funny ... I managed to critically failed (so he has a position of one of my planets, don't know which one) to an ennemy with 20 cloak / 5 scan ... and me 350+ cloak / 1000+ scan ...

How stupid is that ? There's no logic.

Is there a bug of some kind when there's a huge difference in the cloak/scan of the target? I mean the %'s could get screwed up when your 10X or more over your target.

Hack chance caps at 95% - there is always a chance to fail, even against a lower rank.

That's why most of the high lvl players don't have any protections against hack I guess ... Even if they have no scan they can still make you fail or even make you critically fail.

I just feel like it's useless researching cloak since that even with high cloak I get bad results on ennemies with almost no scan / cloak (of my level).

- less than 3% critical success admit is pretty bad to someone with no defense at all. What is it going to be to someone with defense against hack?
- The last days I had alot of fails, much more than 10% to the lowest defense possible in the game at my level.

- more than 2 lvl lost with all the energy I used but I had extra research points.