Those of you that managed to get to the top tier systems (good for you) will notice a special kind of Hell waiting for you.

I speak of the List. A generally angry system that some people though was there to stop you from exploring:
Once you manage to find how this particular system ticks, you'll find one more thing to trod upon your hope to break the system.

I speak of course of VSEC. More specifically, VSEC 3.0.

Unless you want to defeat the top security levels seen in the game (or play the new storyline), you don't need to run into this. In fact, system with it aren't even in missions until you get a "Veteran" ranking or higher.

In the past, I've been very against linking of auto-solvers. This is why; I was hoping that most people would get the general idea before I unleashed this beast.

VSEC 3 looks just like any other VSEC system, save for the version tag. However, it doesn't play nicely like the other VSEC systems. The rules are unpublished, and to top it off, there's no auto-solver in existence.

You people as a community are probably going to need to figure this out together as well as the full List system in general. I grant you this license:

Posting of VSEC 3.0 solvers is permitted.

If you want a guaranteed system to have this in place, start trolling around the in-game Ferrous Moon. Six to eight other companies are generated with this ability, but FM will have it in every savegame. Give it a shot. Post your speculations and discoveries here.

Ok, i'm actually at this point where i'm faced with this VSEC. I suck with VSEC and even VDPIN so i'm really stuck now.

For those of you that have no clue where to go, here are some pointers:

The system that locks down Uplink Laboratories (The particular company i'm trying to break), Ferrous Moon and I assume some others is called ACS, or Access Control System. Think about what that title implies.

Usually if you want to find a particular server within a company, you'd use their ISM to find links, or maybe the name server. In this case, they're locked down by ACS. How else do you find servers? Bear in mind, servers in Onlink are very uniform in name (Uplink International Bank, Random Company International Bank)

Edit. So far all I can tell is that you're limited to 10 moves and you can't click on the lights, although I reckon there's a twist to this. I've tried to reverse the normal 4x4 lit only solution in various ways but no dice.

I'd guess Internic, as it's the secondary nameserver of a lot of different servers. Or the basic search. But that aside, I'm still confused on how you're meant to access the bloody thing, as you can't do anything.

And I'd like Denial back, at some point. >_>

I would try and help out with VSEC 3.0 except I can't see it.

Although the variations I've seen of lights out are diagonal and knight's move variants (the chess piece). It might be one of those.

And, no offense here Miah, but I'm sick of seeing Vsec/VDPIN puzzles. Can't you use some other logic game instead for new security please? Any variety would be nice.

There is one. I just need to get off my lazy ass and make the graphics for it.

You can access the ACS itself. If you know where it is. The problem lies in completely accessing the ACS, because of this VSEC from hell.

i got into the ferrous moon acs even broke the vsec v3 protecting the console and destroyed the server and as far as i can tell it didn't have an effect on any of the other servers still couldn't run programs on them. so i am at a bit of a loss here

I use an online VSEC puzzle solver for the previous version of VSEC, and now i had encounter the Uplink Labs ACS's VSEC 3.0 and used the same solver and it worked.
Maybe i got extremely lucky or maybe this solver does Miah's version also.
Anyway, here is the link :
http://www.haar.clara.co.uk/Lights/JS/loutkey.html

That's going to vanish the instant Miah sees it...

So, in short terms each one of ferrous moon and Uplink research ISS has a seperate (Ferrous Moon) ACS server locatable through what? They're not on internic. I don't know what I'm looking for here.

Try searching on the InterNIC DNS Database

If it worked the same why v3 did, I might be concerned. However, since its function would be (shall we say) limited, the link stays.

I did say solvers were okay. I don't really plan to recant that.

Has anyone actually figured out the rules to this thing yet?

I think you got lucky cus it sure as hell doesn't work for me.

Thank you. Having given me a place to startis helpful, as that system doesn't even give you a starting point.

I redid the Uplink Laboratories Access Control System Hack to get to the v3.0 VSEC.
Here is what i saw and what the solver did.


Orr...... Maybe i got extremely lucky another time....



This is where you try to access the console and the VSEC is armed




This is what the solver told me to click ( the purple squares )




And voila ... instant magic...



LE: And as for rules, the only thing that i find peculiar about it is that you have to solve it in 4 moves or less, or it will be sealed.

What's the difference between V1 and V2 to start with?