In Terra ex Machina, Cyberspace is going to be a huge factor of how well a group can complete missions. Being able to hack into a building's defensive systems or extracting/implanting files onto a data server. However, how might this work out in my game?
They have this in a Half Life 2 mod, called Dystopia, where hacking in cyberspace is a method of giving your team an edge (Hacking into turrets' IFF, opening doors/bridges to give your team access to a new area) and a method of completing objectives. In Dystopia, different servers/computers would be large structures, and the network would be represented by curving and meandering pathways and halls.
In Shadowrun (genesis), Cyberspace consists mostly of combatting server defenses and executing commands on different parts of the server. Very little maneuvering and exploring is done (You only go from sector to sector from a map).
I'm hoping that for Terra ex Machina, I can implement maybe a cross of the two, where you combat server defenses on a map (EG: BlackICE programs search and kill) and can explore the server on the map. Moving from machine to machine (or different parts of the machine??) can be done through on-map ports, and commands can be executed at the core of each server (or core of each part of the machine).
Any ideas or suggestions?
ID:265690
 Jan 18 2007, 11:08 pm (Edited on Jan 19 2007, 12:28 am)
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Excellent find, Shadowdarke. That one is entering my regular routine for sure. =)
Awfully hard to get the hang of it, especially because the tile grid in a given node is pretty misleading (I thought I would have to move 1-to-1 to go through gateways, etc.), but once you do, you can make pretty impressive intrusions in under thirty seconds if you know your stuff. (BTW, get the hardware bonus when starting the game, if you're looking for the easiest start. Hardware is the most expensive, hardest to find, and hardest to create manually when you're starting out. Software can be developed fast and skills practically develop automatically, and the money bonus only gives you enough to buy two or three decent programs. I also recommend upgrading your Deceive program ASAP. I was lucky enough to find a rank 5 Deceive program after just a couple days of play, and it served me well for the first four game months before servers started getting a little bit more wary.) | |
Shadowdarke wrote:
I didn't like the Dystopia's version of cyberspace. [...] No system admin is going to make their network into a twisting, meandering, and confusing maze of passages. The system users would hang him using spare Cat 5 cable. Gameplay over realism. ;-) | |
Crispy wrote:
Shadowdarke wrote: It's realistic if the system admin is a BOFH... :D Except the users hanging him with spare cat-5 part. The reverse would be true where he'd hang them. Or use the cat-5 as tripwire. :) | |
I didn't like the Dystopia's version of cyberspace. Anyone in software design knows that you want the GUI to be easy to use. In the future when we have fully immersive VR, this will still hold true. No system admin is going to make their network into a twisting, meandering, and confusing maze of passages. The system users would hang him using spare Cat 5 cable.
I never played the Genesis version of Shadowrun long enough to start decking. I'm a big Shadowrun fan, but I think that was a very bad port.
Decker (http://www.caro.net/dsi/decker/) is a rogue-like game that is based soundly on earlier editions of Shadowrun's Cyberspace model, and is very enjoyable for me. (Though the number crunching of game system was more like d20 than Shadowrun's "sling a handful of six-siders" style.) It generates system maps that are large enough to be a challenge to explore, but navigating them as a legitimate system user wouldn't be a hassle. It populates the system with lots of extra data and nodes unrelated to your mission, but it all makes sense being there and quite often you can make a little extra Yen on the side or possibly some nice new utilities by checking them out.
I highly recommend you check out Decker for a fun and challenging Cyberspace model. The source code is available too. :)