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So I'm going to taunt you all with a change list, since I'm not able to release from where I am at the moment (I swear, it's not a padded cell).
First, the virtunet gateway. Historically, people have complained about the lack of fulfilling what it claims: total anonymity. So the feature was removed outright, I suspect from someone that also didn't know what it was actually supposed to do. Clearly something, but it was never clear.
The function is back in, but take a note: it only provides you a shield if you're actively traced. If you actually do something naughty enough to cause the feds to physically come out and look for you, the system will not save you.
As a result, this is a fantastic gateway for the new user. Most missions at a new level aren't extreme enough to cause someone to physically come out, and the hardware is extremely limited. So it's a fantastic gateway for a first upgrade, but you won't be able to stay in it forever, since you can't actually store most of your programs on it.
Also a note to cheaters: if you try to edit the gateway definition to allow additional hardware, the perk for this gateway disappears. You are warned.
Second, mission rebalance. Mc2m has been working on mission tiering. Historically, you would do a few lower level missions, and then suddenly a tidal wave of complicated systems hurl themselves at you. You might very well end up with a sessioned, ACL'd, level 4 LAN with dual lifters as your first LAN hack. And that's not fun.
So that's been spread out a bit. Previously, a level 8 "Skilled" rank was enough to automatically accept any mission at all. Now, however, that metric is level 3 "Veteran". Once you get to those, the systems can be pretty psychotic. They also pay much more because of it.
Third, market rebalance. Logging into the uplink internal services system, you might find a new menu option, something like "Upgrade Market".
It's exactly what it sounds like: software upgrades. The system scans your banks in search of software you already own and offers you upgrades at much better prices, far away from the issues from before.
Example: Upgrade monitor Bypass v6 to v7
Before: 30000c for v6, 35000c for v7, costs 65000 total overall
Now: 30000c for v6, 6000c for v7 upgrade, costs 36000 overall
Buying every upgrade individually (2->3->4->etc) is not advised, as you will still pay more overall. However, now you won't have the issue where you run into an encrypted connection and debate over failing the mission or sinking a lot of money into a disabler that you will immediately need to upgrade because you don't have enough dosh for the most advanced version.
Also, this interface applies to everything. Disablers, bypassers, decyphers, voice analysers, whatever. Now you can get the tools you need, as you need them, rather than worry about breaking the bank later because you needed something now and will need a newer version later.
Fourth, a new subsystem to the administration interface. There's been a greyed out option for aux gateways for a while called "Staging". That's now an actual thing.
In short, staging a gateway makes whatever you're doing come from that gateway specifically. It's a good option if you're doing something sensitive like a bank hack and don't want to risk your primary machine with 16 of those 300kc hyperprocs while doing it. It still attaches to you as an agent, so you still need to run a nuke if you're caught. And worse, you need to be staged at the machine to see the motion detector status. But it's still a hell of a lot better than the usual options.
Please note that only HUD/system upgrades and software installed on that specific machine can be used while that machine is staged. You can copy software over (for now) but in the case of HUD upgrades and the like, you will need to repurchase those, as they are licensed per machine.
The once exception is the administration interface itself, which is licensed per user. Unless you lose the machine that you originally installed the HUD:Admin on (which acts as a licensing server), you will be able to use the admin panel from any gateway.
Fifth, you can now upgrade your aux gateways. Now you can start with any ol' crappy gateway and work it up to something awesome, like your primary one. You'll still need to log out and back in to connect to the new one, but if you wanted to upgrade five gateways at once and wait for them all to be ready before doing so, you now can.
Anyway, that's it for now. More later etc.
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