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    Do you like any of these ideas?
    Loans/Credit Rating Adjustments  13%  [8 ]
    "Ruin" Missions target Corps as well as Individuals.  15%  [9 ]
    Support Systems for variety of missions  15%  [9 ]
    Extension of Hacking Systems to Data-Mining/Phishing  16%  [10 ]
    Satellites  13%  [8 ]
    System Admin Jobs  15%  [9 ]
    Minigames  13%  [8 ]
    Total votes :61
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     Post subject:Mission Ideas/World Enhancements/Minigames
    PostPosted:Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:01 pm 
     

    Joined:Sun Feb 08, 2009 2:09 pm
    Posts:25
    I just completed a quick search for "Credit Rating" on these forums, and since I don't see it come up, I thought I'd just start a topic regarding additional Mission ideas. Some of these may already have been discussed, since I only took the time to search for "Credit Rating" and the rest is just ideas off the top of my head.

    1) Loans/Credit Rating: Bank accounts all have Loans, and as far as I understand it from looking at the Uplink code, there's a Credit rating value for each person the game creates (including you). I haven't delved much deeper than that, but wouldn't it be a nice addition to the game to have the credit rating hackable?

    Seems like adding a system not unlike the Academic Database to search for people in. However it would need to be able to alter values elsewhere. Is there already a function written to edit the Max Loan (which i believe is based on the credit rating) for an existing bank account, or existing Person?

    On the note of bank accounts, a lot of corporations seem to have their own banks, but don't have any corporate bank accounts. Is it assuming that the "Bank" itself is the corporate account, or perhaps that they just have hidden off-shore bank accounts in the Cayman Islands?

    2) "Ruin" missions targeting Corporations: Right now it looks like the worst we can do --albeit it's pretty bad-- to a company is to delete its work and shutdown their systems, and I guess get their managing directors/administrators arrested/framed (though that's not a "paying" mission AFAIK).
    As prolific as I would expect industrial espionage and sabotage to be in that kind of world, I would like to be able to target the legal individual Corporation for framing/financial ruin which wouldn't possibly be covered by any insurance.
    e.g.: Falsify corporate documents so the Gov't (Securities Commission for example) goes after the Corporation for a fine, cessation of business or even complete dissolution of the company.
    - Yeah, this is a little involved into the legalities behind dissolving corporations, etc, but it's something to consider to be able to Frame/Ruin Corporations like we do other individuals.

    Additionally, perhaps there could be "ethics" inserted into hacking particular companies over other ones. IE, I think there's a Company "alignment" value, which might be usable for some kind of modifier to the Neuromancer rating for targeting the said company.


    3) Support systems ranging beyond the ISP/Academic/Social Security level:
    a) Postal/Shipping Service: redirect packages/shipments, etc. to corporate warehouses e.g: Redirect a shipment of Nano-CPUs to be delivered to Uplink's warehouse and change the manifest to reduce the number of units so some "fall off the back of the truck" and get a free CPU/other hardware out of the deal.
    b) Government Departments (eg Department of Motor Vehicles in US): example mission: laundering Vehicle Identification Numbers so they're no longer "stolen"
    c) Insurance Agencies: e.g. Approve bogus insurance claims ( + Neuromancer b/c hurting the big-bad Insurance Co's), help frame individuals/corps for insurance fraud, etc.


    4) Extension of ISP hackability; eg: modify the DNS server to redirect to a "phishing site", let it run for a bit, which generates a single data file which gradually grows in size the longer you let the site run. The longer you leave it, the more account details you get (The more money you get paid in the mission); however, the longer you leave it, the higher chance it gets discovered/reported and you Fail the mission/get a criminal record. You then hack back in to retrieve the file at a later time/ get emailed the file if it is small enough.
    GENERAL form is a Time-based info-gathering mission.
    Possible variations include installing keyloggers/ on PCs, corporate LANs, etc., which have probably been discussed under Virii.

    5) Satellites: Introduce a new form of computer "Satellite Relay Station" which is physically on the map, but really just like a Wireless transmitter/receiver to connect you to satellites in range/specified satellites. Largest corporations would have these, incl. Gov't, Media Corps, Military etc. Designed to access Satellites (room for riddles/hidden data mining to get addresses/access codes to Satellites). Can store all kinds of info on it, or have access to satellites with specific functions;
    - Twist is that because of orbits, the satellites are only accessible from a given Relay Station at a particular time. Expand ad infinitum to allow for missions sending commands to move satellite into position, etc.

    6) "Legitimate" Sys-Admin jobs/ Defending a system: Play from the other side; be responsible for a particular company's system security and upkeep or even just your own Gateway;
    a) Hackers periodically target your company's systems, do a variety of things from deleting files to crashing servers, altering corp. records, etc. if successful.
    If you're not currently ON the system when one of those "random" events happen, then you play the Tracing game to find out who the hacker was and then squash as you see fit:
    If you are on the System, there's room for another minigame where you introduce countermeasures to remove that hacker's bypasses/kick them out of the system. Alternatively, speed up active trace, and you can then manually pick up the Passive trace from the last bounce point in the Active trace (faster than starting from scratch). If you're extremely good/lucky, you get all the way back to the other hacker's gateway, and can start hacking them directly.
    Possible results include higher rate of pay from the company; being Fired if you suck, etc. Also introduces idea of doing an inside job, or throwing a sys-admin job for a side mission.

    7) Additional "minigames":
    a) Hardware development: I think I saw something about a C++ compiler in game, but there's always room for missions in testing new chips/hardware; Even if it's a logic game like If x1 = 1, x2 = 0 and I want a result of 1, which of the following operations will work?
    i) x1 AND (x1 OR x2),
    ii) x2 OR (x2 AND x1)
    iii) ...
    Complicated levels of this could stack the operations you choose to make a chip; so maybe there's more than 1 correct solution and you have to trace the result through longer Logic equations at each step to get the right value.
    Alternatively, introduce a Sequence of input variables and a desired output Sequence and you have to design the chip to output properly, given "pieces" to fit into the puzzle. Most complicated level could be letting the pieces be just the input variables, output variables, and the operations themselves.
    b) as listed earlier, a Defense game, where a "hacker" tries to gain entry to a system and you have to place active defenses to stop them doing whatever they're doing / back-hack in an active trace/passive trace to gain retribution. Visually this could be similar to the interface you see on placing bypasses, only you have to remove the bypasses;
    i) Remove Bypass: Small-scale battleship-type, mastermind-type, or simple matching game which results in the bypass dropping off. Strategically speaking, I would think you'd probably only target the proxy/firewall to prevent actual damage to the system or encryption to prevent legible access, but maybe there's other choices as well. You run this concurrently with another mini-game; basically preventing the hacker from doing damage to your system for a short period of time which you can use for minigame "Active Trace"
    ii) Active Trace is maybe a "Who wants to be a millionaire" guessing game: You're given a list of possible IPs next on the list while the active trace runs; you can either select to Guess one of the IPs, or Wait. If you wait, some time expires and it gives you a shorter list (repeat). If you guess Right, you skip/gain a bunch of time and move on to the next system. If you guess wrong, you get backtracked, and you lose some time.
    iii) Every X amount of time the hacker will have re-executed a bypass, and you'll have to let the Active trace run as fast (in the background) as it normally does while you go back and Remove the Bypass again.
    - Run both of these games together, switching back and forth until you either trace the hacker all the way back to his/her gateway or they disconnect (determined either randomly, or after completing the deletion of files, copying, etc.).
    - If the hacker disconnects, you can pick up the Passive trace from where the Active trace left off and find them faster.


    Naturally, I've given no thought whatsoever to the implementability of any of these ideas, so I don't harbour any hopes that any of this is plausibly usable while maintaining low-system requirements for this game. Nonetheless, there's some ideas.


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     Post subject:Re: Mission Ideas/World Enhancements/Minigames
    PostPosted:Mon Feb 09, 2009 7:18 pm 
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    Well, I can't speak for all of them, but I did design the Medical Database, and there is a field for Insurance Provider and Policy number.
    Though in this release there's not really going to be a whole lot done with those, I think it's in the plan for the future.

    I also think it'll be possible to ruin corporations (or at least their stock), but don't quote me on that.

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     Post subject:Re: Mission Ideas/World Enhancements/Minigames
    PostPosted:Tue Feb 10, 2009 7:34 pm 
     

    Joined:Mon May 29, 2006 6:11 pm
    Posts:266
    In case you hadn't heard, Miah's working on a full new storyline along with side-storylines or something. Basically, any mission ideas will probably have to wait. Also I think that Miah is trying to put in other hackers who will attack your box. There's a bunch of admin controls and defences and things for your gateway planned afaik.

    I do think the mail service idea is kinda neat and whilst probably wouldn't be that great on it's own could have input into other missions. To expand on physical mail, maybe taking over Email accounts could also tie in.


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     Post subject:Re: Mission Ideas/World Enhancements/Minigames
    PostPosted:Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:12 pm 
     

    Joined:Wed Feb 25, 2009 12:58 pm
    Posts:1
    Dude That Would Be An Awesome To protect Lans And Stuff Love Ur Suggestions All Except For 1 The Minigames, Lolz Sorry I hate Minigames XD But Otherwise great Suggestions!! 8)


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     Post subject:Re: Mission Ideas/World Enhancements/Minigames
    PostPosted:Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:47 am 
     

    Joined:Mon May 29, 2006 6:11 pm
    Posts:266
    Just re-read the OP:

    "a) Postal/Shipping Service: redirect packages/shipments, etc. to corporate warehouses e.g: Redirect a shipment of Nano-CPUs to be delivered to Uplink's warehouse and change the manifest to reduce the number of units so some "fall off the back of the truck" and get a free CPU/other hardware out of the deal."

    That is actually awesome. Obviously it'd have to be difficult to achieve, but obviously worth it. What about having them redistributed to another location and selling them to the highest bidder, or getting a % 'commission' on each one sold?


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     Post subject:Re: Mission Ideas/World Enhancements/Minigames
    PostPosted:Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:26 pm 
     

    Joined:Sun Feb 08, 2009 2:09 pm
    Posts:25
    It's tough from a game-balance point of view also, since we're introducing another way of making money/hardware which could potentially trivialize another. That is, if you end up getting a free piece of hardware worth more than most of the missions pay for that difficulty, it'll trivialize doing the other missions to get cash to buy hardware. If, on the other hand, you get a piece of hardware which isn't an upgrade or that you don't want, you've basically got No Reward for a mission. Of course, once Hardware starts to break down, and RAM management comes into effect, there'll be another offsetting force which might make the high reward from one mission be balanced.

    I don't know how much of the original Uplink code Onlink uses for certain functions, ie: if Miah/Tycho et al. have altered or replaced the code for whatever reason. Regardless, I imagine that as I learn more C++ and how Uplink's code works, I'll fool around with these ideas I have and maybe I'll get somewhere with making them work with the original Uplink. Once that is done, I'm sure the new aspects could be altered if necessary for use with Onlink.

    As far as % commission on units sold, since it's not multiplayer, you're basically faking NPCs buying hardware units. While that would flesh out the game to create Shortage of hardware and probably supply and demand systems, for a Single-Player game it's probably better to fake it entirely, and just have an arbitrary monetary reward like other missions. Explanation could be that you take a cut from your employer who black-market sells the hardware. In that respect, with the exception of getting a free hardware piece out of the deal, it's probably the same basic mission: Hack, Alter Records, Hide traces. I suppose you could just call it "here's your commission from the sale of those items" and give it in a lump sum the same way. To make it more complicated, I think you could use similar code to the Uplink Monthly Fee where it deposits a small amount into your account periodically and sends you a quick email re: the commission.

    I think one could reuse/slightly alter the code from the banks to come up with the necessary interface/records implementation, and reuse the code from the InstallHardwareEvent with a slight tweak on the message for that side of the reward. I'm not certain, however.


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