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Messages - Sherlockkat

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101
Ideas / Re: Compelling reasons for visiting branches
« on: February 12, 2016, 07:46:28 PM »
Quote from: Kyzrati on February 12, 2016, 07:22:44 PM
It would probably be a rather costly utility to use, either that or be one of the special rare utilities that you have to go somewhere specific to retrieve and will probably only ever get one, in which case it wouldn't really be a standard part of your strategy.

I think it would be ok-ish if its upkeep is about the same level as ECM suites. I don't know why I feel that way :D. I just do. (edit: Thought about it a bit more. It seems like this utility should let the cogmind pull ahead in short encounters while punishing longer ones. That's why I was thinking really high energy upkeep would balance out its ability. Given how expensive it is to run ECMs, a similar energy upkeep should make this utility hard to stack)

Quote from: Kyzrati on February 12, 2016, 07:22:44 PM
Also I was thinking that such an item might work better (mechanics-wise) the fewer weapons you are firing, although from a logic standpoint it would seem that the reverse should be true.

You are absolutely correct. I had the exact same thought after I posted that. Firing 2 weapons at 100 time is better, coz you can get 2 full volleys off before taking return fire than say firing 4 at 200 time where you will take return fire and a 4-wide volley might overkill anyway. It would also fit the romantic view of an alpha-striking cogmind which is more lean and mean than a lumbering tank :D.

102
Ideas / Re: Compelling reasons for visiting branches
« on: February 12, 2016, 11:58:39 AM »
Actually, one mechanic that I would like to see is the ability to stack delay modifiers. I believe there are no utilities which directly modify the time to fire. This kind of item can lead to a whole new kind of playstyle. Think glass cannons. The reason we don't see a lot of fast moving combat builds is because the "time to fire" stat is a equalizer. Fast moving builds can get into an enemy's line of sight with a good chance of not taking fire due to its high speed. But, the moment the first volley goes off, any initiative gained by moving into their field of view without them spotting you dissipates. Now, imagine a utility which does percentage reduction to time to fire. The ability to unload a volley of 5 rail guns at the cost of 2 would be amaaaaazzziinng. Then you can have builds which can forego defense coz their damage output is that of a machine god. Something to think about....

103
General Discussion / Re: Controlling Allies w/Keyboard
« on: February 11, 2016, 12:21:20 PM »
You hit the 'o'  key(not zero, but oh) and then you should able to select allies using 0-5 and issue them orders. I had trouble figuring it out too :D.

104
Ideas / Re: Power optimizer
« on: February 07, 2016, 10:02:38 PM »
I don't know. Removing their upkeep takes away from the power management mini-game for speed builds. My recent runs were very reliant on those processors and part of the fun came from figuring out which subset of them should be on in order to maximize utility while minimizing power deficit. This could be because it is truly fun. It could also be because I have the soul of an accountant :).

I also see decker's point of view having lost many games due to propulsion mishaps where I left some of my stuff off and this an annoying way to lose a game.

I am still leaning more towards leaving the processor upkeep there, at least for a while until you have sufficient input from new players.

105
General Discussion / Re: Alpha 6 Discussion
« on: February 06, 2016, 09:47:15 PM »
Regarding extension junction and beyond:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Quote
No problem! It'll be there for tomorrow's update.
Awesome!!


106
General Discussion / Re: Alpha 6 Discussion
« on: February 06, 2016, 09:11:32 PM »
Quote
It takes a brave Cogmind to do a speed run. Sounds funny to say that since as zxc puts it you just run from everything ;)
zxc wasn't kidding. You literally just run from everything. Getting shot at is sometimes the best thing. That's 2 full turns before they can act. At 30 speed, you can move roughly 8~9 spaces and you are out of their sight. The ECMs takes care of the rest. True story: The bit which is guarded by behemoths and sentries at extension. I went there twice as a speed build and just flew past the lot, no effs given and took no damage.

Quote
I assimilated an operator and he was a total bro.
That's good to hear, since I haven't done that yet and should soon. They have so many benefits now, if you can just keep them alive.

You were quite close to winning!

Bullying operators as a speed build is the best. It is especially hilarious when they are running up a one tile corridor to lock the terminal down and you overtake them and they can't get past you and try to run all the way back to find an alternate route :).

Good to know about the garrisons. Sealing them is not that difficult. You just need 2~3 hacking suites.

Quote
I have a new feature planned that you might like (although I haven't confirmed it yet, I've gotten close to implementing it several times but it keeps getting put off as lower priority): When distress signals go out they'll trace a path on the screen showing the direction of the signal.

Wait!! Watchers emit directional signals??  The feature sounds awesome. I wonder whether it makes it too easy to deal with watchers though. Part of what makes them scary is not knowing which way to run.

ECM suites and the "+x% for enemies not to notice you" can co-exist, no? (btw, what does ECM stand for?)

Request: Would you be able to upload my score sheet ot the high score list  :D? Was offline and I am fairly certain that it didn't get uploaded.


107
General Discussion / Re: Alpha 6 Discussion
« on: February 06, 2016, 07:54:03 PM »
Quote
.....the labyrinthine layout leads to forced encounters with stealth

I wonder whether this problem could be solved via item design. For instance, a common late/mid game item which gives you "+X% chance for enemies not to notice you" with fancy name like "quantum decohorence generator" or something like that and it can stack. This wouldn't be all that useful for a combat build because you would be far too slow to rely on this. But, when you are zipping around at 25 speed.... This can let us dive through groups of enemies which is what sometimes navigating through research as a speed demon comes down to.

Re non-terminal machines: @zxc:  I agree with pretty much everything you said. The scan/fab loop is pretty cumbersome given that a single low-level item is never going to change the flow of the game. I have no concrete ideas to improve the system. But, I think I would like the system if the balance was such that it would let us craft one or two off-curve items without the tedium per game just so that we can iron the kinks in our build.



Quote
What is the reasoning behind having two hacks to seal a garrison instead of one?
I wasn't suggesting any changes in that direction. Was merely curious what the interaction between sealing garrisons and prog dispatch is.

108
General Discussion / Re: Alpha 6 Discussion
« on: February 06, 2016, 03:47:21 PM »
Finally managed to get up to access using speed/hacky build in alpha 6 :). Died right in front of what I think was the exit. Lot of respect for speed runners. Speed/stealth runs are tense.

Score sheet:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Materials was messy. I got into a lot of trouble due to my laissez-"let's go with the flow''-faire attitude. But, it is materials after all. I just blew everything up and it was fine. Got my flight units and ECM suites.

Factory was a breeze. I assimilated an operator and he was a total bro. He was with me for 3 floors and revealed every secret door and every trap in my line of sight. Extremely useful. I forgot that he wasn't as quick as I was and ran past a sentry. Poor guy got one-shotted as he tried to follow :(. Gathered a critical mass of hacking utilities and picked up better flight units.

I think I am starting to understand research after dying there couple of times. In stark contrast to factory, research is almost linear with very few loops and labyrinthine. The shortest path between any two points is almost never a straight line. I managed to hack the exit locations in both -3 and -2 and I still had a hard time getting to the exit as I had nothing that could blow through walls. Ended up flowing through windy passages and got into a lot more trouble than I should. I blundered a little bit towards the end and lost my flight units to a couple of sentries guarding the exit. This was probably the start of my downfall.

Access was very factoryesqe. Huge corridors and quite loopy. I managed to gather a couple of flight units. But, I wasn't as fast I used to be and lost a couple of key utilities. I wasn't able to find any terminals. So, no luck with hacking. Blew up an energy cycler. That made them mad. Soon, I was chased by programmers and other misc nasties.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

General thoughts on hacking:

Hacking feels quite viable and powerful as long as you are able to make use of it :p. One thing is that scanalyzers, fabricators, recycling units and repairing units have marginal use and encountering one is always a bummer. I am always thinking "Man, if only it was a terminal or a garrison..". I am guessing this will change in the future. I think garrisons are cool because you can seal them and that reduces the AI's options which is great. Also, question: This quote is from Kyzrati's garrison access post.
Quote
That said, there is another advantage to destroying them: For each Garrison Access taken out of commission, Programmer dispatch frequency is further reduced.

I know that Kyzrati said this was not the case in the stream, but does sealing the garrison access points reduce prog dispatch? Do you need to destroy them? Shouldn't sealing have the same effect?

Access(Main) is the god hack that we all try to pull off. But, even the regular terminal hacks which reveal local information are quite powerful. The hack that reveals secret doors is great and saved my butt quite a few times in research. The one that reveals patrol status is also good. Question: Does enumerate(surveillance) reveal watcher locations? In my opinion, watchers are easily one of the scariest enemies and they can be quite tricky to manage when you don't have transmission jammers. Trying to decide which way to flee when a watcher emits a distress signal can be quite tricky, especially if you dodged patrols in the first place. Then, you can't run back either.

@Kyzrati: I initially planned to stay off Cogmind until alpha 7. But, the mechanic changes were far too tempting and I played more than I intended too. Now, that I managed to get to access, I think I can stop playing for a while. I will probably skip the next alpha as my life is going to get a bit more chaotic in the next few months. Good luck with alpha 7.


p.s: I don't think the score sheet was uploaded as I was offline. So I am attaching it here.

109
General Discussion / Re: What does alert(purge) actually do?
« on: January 20, 2016, 10:14:48 PM »
Quote
Very nice hacking utilities!

Yah!! Those hacking utilities were rad. Those weren't even direct hacks that I did. It was those indirect ones with their innate penalty and everything and it still worked!! 6 times!! Of course, I then tried to seal a garrison access with a 65 percent success chance and failed 4 times :p.

Quote
Any threat response in the form of Programmers and assault ARCs will target you directly, so you won't be able to escape them until after losing them again once they track you down. Although know that you can hack terminals to make them leave the floor ;).

I see. So, if I understand correctly, the most dominant response to rising alert levels are the squads that they send after you and not increased "ambient" hostile presence in form of patrols and such. Is that right?

110
General Discussion / What does alert(purge) actually do?
« on: January 20, 2016, 09:22:23 PM »
So, I had this run where I landed on -4 with a couple of good hacking utilities (Exp and Adv hacking suites) and an alert level which was hovering somewhere around 2. Luckily, I found this level 1 terminal around the entrance and executed alert(purge) about 6 times and got the message "no threat on record" and thought "Great!!". I also managed to hack the exit location.

Except, I walked out and faced resistance which I usually associate with higher alert levels. The programmer dispatch messages started showing up almost as soon as I explored 4~5 rooms. Though, that could be because I was on treads and the clock was ticking faster than I was moving. I ran into waves and waves of reddish grunts and sentries. The assault carriers followed pretty soon and I got whittled down. It was almost as if I didn't purge threats.

So, question about enemy spawns:

i) When a level is generated, does the alert level play a significant factor in the amount of enemies that are spawned in that level or does it only control the rate at which they show up afterwards?

ii) When I purge threat, do enemies actually exit the level in order to reflect the new alert level?

It could be that I was just facing the nominal resistance hanging out in -4 and being a baby about it :). But, I am curious about how the alert level mechanic ties to enemy spawns. I was pretty salty losing that run after I hacked the exit location and purged a loooot of threat.



111
Ideas / Re: Storage Unit Rebalancing
« on: January 14, 2016, 07:36:48 PM »
Aah. I will miss you, old friend  :'(. Looking forward to alpha 6 and the mechanics revamp. :)

112
Strategies / Re: Tips on staying alive?
« on: January 06, 2016, 05:05:40 PM »
Hi, Glad to know that the tips helped  :). As Decker said, materials can be brutal at times even if you are not a beginner. If there is something that I would emphasize on, it is not to get too attached to anything you find and locate those damn storage units. That alone would go a long way to eliminating the luck factor in the early floors. Good luck!!

113
Strategies / Re: Tips on staying alive?
« on: January 03, 2016, 03:52:43 PM »
Here are some general tips for surviving Materials  (-10 to -8). They are not in any particular order. They are fairly soft guidelines and you can get away with breaking them if you know what you are doing.

The general idea in these floors is to build up a inventory filled with decent parts that will let you tackle factory. There isn't any food clock. But you need to be careful not let the alert level climb too high as it can have consequences down the line.

1) Always carry backup weapons and at least 1 power source. Everything else is optional.

2) Navigate the floors by hugging the walls. This helps you dive into the nearest room. This will help with combat  (See 3)

3) Positioning is key when it comes to combat. Avoid fighting in the open. Reposition even it means you have to eat a couple of volleys. Run into the nearest explored room and position yourselves near, but not in front, of the door. The enemies typically come in one by one and you can take them out. This should work most of the time. Other times, they ambush you via secret doors and you just have to deal with it. In general, you do not want to take fire from multiple hostiles at the same time.

4) Don't run from enemies. Things can escalate quickly if you run into another patrol whilst running from one.

5) Enter the mines at your own peril. This is usually the exit with a cache of med matter storage units and mining claws nearby. I would avoid it if you are just starting out.

6) Digging is not a bad idea. You can use it travel between adjacent rooms while avoiding the main corridor where patrols typically roam.

7) Early in the game, you can't go wrong with evolving two propulsion slots. You will need them to carry stuff anyway. Equip legs. They are easily replaced and soak up a lot of damage and protect more delicate parts. The weapon slots that you start with should be enough for the first few floors. Aim to reach factory with 2 power slots, 3 weapons and 4 propulsion. The rest goes to utilities. Note that this is pretty generic setup. Specialized builds require different slot distribution.

8) Shoot the scavengers once. They will run away and leave your loot alone.

9) Part loss in unavoidable. The way to deal with it is to find storage units which let you carry more stuff. There is always a cache of storage units in the materials. Find them!! After you have equipped them, start grabbing weapons, power sources, propulsion and some utilities. My inventory usually consists of some power sources, a couple of legs, lots of weapons and a small number of utilities. This strategy should carry you a long way.

10) Armor, heat sinks and storage are key utilities that are worth hoarding in your inventory. Equip the more exotic utilities as you find them. No need to fret if they get blown off. You will always find something more interesting. (addendum 2/18/2016: This is even more viable post alpha 6 due to the coverage changes to the processors. It is unlikely that they will get blown off due to their very low coverage. So, you are better of equipping processors/hackware than waste inventory space on them.)

11) Materials is really small. You shouldn't be too far from the exit at any point in time.

12) The 't' key is an extremely useful inventory management tool. It sorts the inventory by type in the following order: power, propulsion, weapons, utils. You can use it quickly assess whether you are well prepared. Hit 't' to constantly check whether you have spares for what you think are the crucial components of your build.

These tips should help you hit the factory floors consistently. Things get more interesting from that point onwards. There are quite a few guides in the strategy section (check out the links below) by much more experienced players which should help you with long term survival once you are comfy with clearing materials.

http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=264.0
http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=338.0
http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=277.0
http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=343.0


 


114
Ideas / Re: Propulsion Rebalancing: Experimental / Alpha 6 Feature Preview
« on: December 31, 2015, 02:54:38 PM »
I can get behind removing Hcp Storage units. Another approach might be nerfing their integrity slightly. Storage is so durable that they might as well be a permanent fixture to your core. I might worry a lil bit about putting all my eggs in the storage basket if they are bit more fragile. As it stands, they take quite a bit of pounding.

I personally feel the right way to nerf storage is to actually buff other utilities. So, I am inclined to wait until the hacking changes are in before making up my mind on this. I am really interested in the relation between low coverage of the processors and their life span. If I can get the combat utilities to last for a floor or two in a controlled combat environment, that would be great. This would dramatically improve their value relative to the storage units and we might start ditching them in favor of immediate combat efficiency. As it stands, I don't care what gets blown off as long as I can replace it and combat utils are not easily replaced.

115
Ideas / Re: Propulsion Rebalancing: Experimental / Alpha 6 Feature Preview
« on: December 30, 2015, 02:01:20 PM »
Quote
Pretty well-rounded build, and interesting that you immediately start with all that extra propulsion, though I can see how it ensures you a much less risky passage (in the early floors where core integrity is more precious) by standing in as makeshift protection.

I don't have much use for any other slots in the early game. Materials isn't threatening enough to invest in weapons. None of the early game utilities are very exciting. I can put the propulsion slots to immediate use and as you pointed out, they soak up good deal of damage. They also enables my hoarding addiction in the early game by increasing weight capacity  :P.

Quote
Man, you guys go crazy on the storage :P

My current working theory is that "well-rounded builds require larger inventories". For eg, When you have 10 weapon slots and you lose a weapon, that represents a 10% drop in fire power. If you have 3 weapon slots and you lose a weapon, that is a 33% drop. In that case, you need to be really efficient when it comes to replacing parts in order to avoid serious performance deterioration. This calls for a well-stocked inventory. Meanwhile, a cogmind with 10 weapon slots doesn't have to fret about weapon loss that much as its damage output isn't suffering that much. So, it can get away with under investing on storage. I haven't thought this through completely, but it feels right. I dunno... :-\

116
Ideas / Re: Propulsion Rebalancing: Experimental / Alpha 6 Feature Preview
« on: December 30, 2015, 05:47:11 AM »
I didn't do a full on propulsion test but I can make comments on a very specific playstyle with legs(6 prop, 2 power sources, 3 weapons).

I played quite a few runs with the experimental prop build and must say that legs feel super viable without the postive mod/extra stat . I run a cookie-cutter combat build and started most runs by evolving 2 propulsion slots first and going legs. I must say that this supports the early game storage units really well. I was able to support about 3 hcp units and lrg storage unit in the late game with no problems while remaining agile with about 6 propulsion slots.

Another thing that I noticed is that legs being a propulsion option frees up a lot of inventory space. You don't have to hoard legs, as opposed to hover units, as they are ubiquitous. You also don't have to hoard armor as legs soak up a decent amount of damage (can see the wisdom in decker's playstyle). The only other utility that is really essential is heat sink and they are commonplace. As such, my inventory was filled up with weapons and maybe a couple of power sources for back up.

Most of my runs ended in -4 and one of them in -3. I am fairly certain that this playstyle would be even more viable once the hacking/processor changes come in. Having 6 propulsion slots provides a lot of pseudo-armor and increases the life-span of fairly high integrity items like weapons and storage units quite well. But, the low integrity support utilities like targeting comps, analyzers and sensor arrays don't benefit that much without actual armor and get blown off. As such, it is hard to extract value out of the remaining slots as nothing stays there for long and you end up filling it up with low impact utilities. So, I think the hacking and coverage changes should push this build over the top as it supplies the necessary control and combat tools which is required to make this build works.

As it stands, I love the propulsion changes.  ;D. Here is the scoresheet of my last attempt if you want to get a better sense of my playstyle.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I am going to be taking a break from playing cogmind for a while in order to work on my thesis. I probably wont' play until mid Feb (maybe lurk around the forums though). I have been having super fun with this game for a while now. Keep up the good work and all the best :)!!


117
Ideas / Re: Hacking Overhaul: Alpha 6 Feature Discussion
« on: December 28, 2015, 08:16:31 PM »
Quote
I also never intended for non-stealth builds to be able to do very well at hacking, although that's the direction these changes are heading towards...

Hacking is far too useful for certain non-stealth builds (any build as a matter of fact) to completely ignore it. For example, A mid-rangey combat build (2 power sources, 5 legs, 3~4 weapons and rest goes to utilities), which I enjoy playing, remains effective only within a certain region of the alert level spectrum. Once the alert level hits the deeper end of 2Z or early 3Z, things go south very fast. At that point, strategy goes out the window and you are just scrambling looking for the exit while being chased down by ARCs, hunters (I hate them) and programmers.

The problems don't end once you find the stairs, due to the positive feedback phenomenon which decker bought up a couple of days ago. The alert level doesn't go down enough and it soon climbs back up to a point where you can no longer keep up with attrition. Most of my runs end on -4 and -3 due to this. You cannot just ignore hacking and keep at it.

Hacking, at this point of alpha, plays a crucial support role for the mid-rangey combat builds. You need to constantly alert(purge)  and occasionally, get lucky with access(main) to get anywhere. As you mentioned in the positive feedback post, this might be alleviated a bit with the inclusion of branches.

On a completely different and unrelated note, what's up with this item called error protection suite? -10 matter upkeep wth ;D ?? I had it turned on without reading the stats and it ate through my matter reserves in a couple of turns and I died on -5 as I went allin on kinetics :D. Killed by my own utilities.

118
Ideas / Re: Hacking Overhaul: Alpha 6 Feature Discussion
« on: December 26, 2015, 08:43:13 AM »
The changes are interesting. I think reducing the number of hackware types and eliminating familiarity is a great idea. I am not sure how I feel about the removal = destruction mechanic. Any reason why you don't want to drop the coverage all the way down to zero? Is it to stop people from stacking processors/hackware without relying on other coverage tools like armor?

On the other hand, I am more excited about the fact this allows for a more stable high crit build where we stack target analyzers, core analyzers and targeting computers.

119
Fixed Bugs & Non-Bugs / Signal Interpreter not identifying exits
« on: December 25, 2015, 12:49:51 AM »
I am not sure whether this is a bug, but this has happened to me multiple times. I found that the signal interpreters (the plain old one, not the advanced or the improved ones) do not identify where the stairs lead. This seems to be at odds with its description which specifically mentions that it allows for deciphering of signals emitted from the exit allowing us to identify them. I do remember the advanced and the improved ones let me identify the exit. It could be just that this functionality is restricted to the more advanced version of the signal interpreter. Change the description maybe??

edit: Never mind. My bad. You need to be adjacent to identify the exit. Never noticed it before.

120
General Discussion / Re: Alpha 5/5b/5c Discussion
« on: December 22, 2015, 10:41:15 PM »
Fair enough!! I was just really salty after taking a detour into storage and having the terminal locked down 3 times  :). There was very little I could have done about that. I walked out of a door and wham..terminal locked down. It kinda sucks to have your game plan ruined by something like that. But, I am guessing it's there to force you to adapt.

121
General Discussion / Re: Alpha 5/5b Discussion
« on: December 22, 2015, 06:42:37 PM »
I have been playing a bit more and it feels like Trojan(assimilate) can use a buff. Operators are starting to get annoying. It is difficult to catch up with operators, especially in the early game, without hover/flight units. They are also hard to shoot down and are usually much closer to the terminals than I am. I went to storage a couple of times trying to get into recycling and the damn operators kept locking that terminal down. (On other news, you can't blow your way into recycling...)

I am not sure how you would buff the Trojan (or even whether one is required). It would be kinda cool if Trojan(assimilate) can have a level-wide effect instead of a terminal specific one. It might be overpowered in that case as there would be no reason not to do install that Trojan in some low-level terminal. You can counteract it by making sure only one operator is taken over by a single installation of the Trojan. If you want more, then you have to install more.

In light of the planned hacking overhaul, it probably doesn't make any sense to just buff this Trojan in a vacuum without considering other hacking buffs. Though, I am quite excited for hacking to be a viable playstyle in the upcoming alphas.

122
General Discussion / Re: Alpha 5/5b Discussion
« on: December 18, 2015, 03:03:27 AM »
I *just* got through recycling and into factory. 10/10 would visit recycling again for the benefits. Not gonna spoil it :). But, it's pretty awesome. Though, based on what happened down there, I feel like there are gonna be some consequences.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Edit: The change in volley timings is quite fun. It seems to have a definite, positive impact on the pacing. I feel more powerful. I had a run in alpha 5 where I got to research -3 before I knew it. The game flowed so well.

Edit 2: Also, the new inventory swapping scheme is quite useful even with its quirks (which zxc already pointed out). It saved me a quite a bit of time.

123
Competitions / Re: Weekly Seed #19 [Alpha 4b] [Seed: Happy Miner]
« on: December 15, 2015, 02:59:52 AM »
@karlnp : When you say caves, do you mean mines? Typically, if you see a bunch of med matter storage units and mining lasers around the staircase, then you can safely assume that the staircase will take you to mines. Also, you drop stuff from your inventory by press Alt + (inventory id). So, if you want to drop the first inventory item, press Alt + 1. I don't think you can drop the parts that are attached you directly. I am not sure, though.

124
Ideas / Re: Hacking overhaul
« on: December 07, 2015, 05:12:18 PM »
I like the idea of making hackware a permanent upgrade to the core. First, some background. I am not the best at this game, but I am not the worst either. I can typically make it to late midgame (Factory -5,-4) and sometimes, early lategame (Research -3).

Based on my experience, it feels like hacking is not really worth it unless you have a critical mass of good hacking gear (like a couple of deep network scanners or quite a few hacking suites). As a someone who doesn't farm for specific items, I usually make do with the storage units that I find. Commonly, this is something along the lines of couple of med storage units or something like a large storage, med storage or if I am really lucky, a HCP storage along with some other storage unit. This really factors into what I pick up. I would always pick up something that will improve my survival over a piece of hackware. This is also amplified by the fact that hackware are typically rare and typically appear in isolation. As such, I never pick up enough hacking gear to hit a critical mass.

Another observation is that except for alert(purge), the return of investment in hacking is usually some kind of mid/long term informational advantage (like exit locations, location of key machines). However, the capital required (typically in the form of hackware) is usually quite steep. You need inventory slots, utility slots, need to spend time playing the boring swapping mini game in front of the terminal etc. So, it feels like something that is so low impact in the short term needs to consume less of your of resources (again, referring to inventory space/utility slots). AAAND, that's why I think having hacking be some kind of permanent stat upgrade to your core to be a cool idea.

One way of doing this would be to have some kind of limited-use machine that you can find which reconfigures the core and makes our little robot computer literate. It can provide with hacking bonuses which we would have to choose from (like prediction bonuses, +10 to indirect hacks, easier trojan installation, multiple trojan installation on the same machine and such stuff..)

Again, this is coming from someone who isn't the best at the game. So, take it with a grain of salt.

p.s: Lot of this applies to fabrication too. Fabrication is typically low impact relative to the time/resource investment required. I prefer not to carry a matter storage container and spend 50 turns around a fab for a couple of improved assault rifles which is gonna get blown away in the next firefight.

125
Competitions / Re: Weekly Seed #14 [Alpha 4] [Seed: Intruder Alert]
« on: November 04, 2015, 10:18:36 PM »
I am not participating in the seed contest BUT THANK GOD YOU DROPPED THAT SPOILER. The trojan thing was driving me crazy. I kept inserting trojans into the terminals and trying out random commands like...like infect(machines) and complete nonsense along those lines. Also I am sure everyone is figured out how to get out of garrisons but..if you aren't clued in yet..
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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