While I love the absolutely frustrating idea of adding security to systems that can't just be broken through by big program versions running on big cpus, putting a VDPIN on the GCD is too extreme for the stage of the game that you deal with the GCD in. Generally, by the time you start getting GCD missions, you're scrimping and saving for the connection analyzer and bypassers...but now in order to do the GCD missions, you also need the VDPIN viewer upgrade, which costs more than the connection analyzer and all 3 level 5 bypassers put together.

The missions don't pay any more, and this is a time in the game where players would normally use the GCD to raise their rank so that they could get to the juicier missions...but in my game, I was literally forced to hack a bank just to increase my rank (and to get the cash so that I could get the VDPIN viewer!) because I sat there for a week with no missions available, other than those that required hacking the GCD.

Considering how absolutely infuriating the VDPIN security system is anyway, perhaps get rid of the VDPIN viewer altogether and just show it by default? Or, perhaps, for those really high security systems, have two different levels of VDPIN security, a level 1 that shows the lights no matter what, and a level 2 that requires the upgrade to view them? Maybe even just having several levels of VDPIN viewer upgrades, with level 1 (GCD level) being pretty cheap, but level 3 (LAN file server) being fairly costly?

All I know is that it's a deliciously beautiful security system, but I feel absolutely horrified that I was all but forced to hack a bank, not really to get money, but just to raise my Uplink rating so that I could graduate to bigger and better...and I'm almost as horrified that I spent a total of 150k on systems that have thus far gained me about 20k in return. It's frustrating, and it takes a lot of the fun out of the game.

I another post Miah said h accidentally made the price too high.

I think it was meant to be 8500, not 85000.

Awesome, I was hoping something was up. That'll make things much less frustrating.

these systems should have been in the original uplink couse this is what some hackers must face before they even can think of accessing a system. becouse of the extreme security it is very fun becouse you might have to try a 10 to 20 times before you will get it... at the moment i have neve so far even been close to bust.... and i have ebeen messing around with these systems a long time