Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I know this has been discussed before, but the idea really fascinates me and I wanted to throw out some of my own ideas.

So the idea is to have the ability to use a hacking module to attempt to gain access to another ship's computer. The PvE hacking minigame is already very solid and could easily be used in PvP with a few additions.

On the offensive side, the hacking ship would have to use a special module (different from the PvE hacking mod), which would require a special skill to use and consume an enormous amount of capacitor energy. The player would have a number of hacking attempts equal to the number of skill levels in PvP hacking. After all attempts are used up, the enemy ship's computer would essentially block any further attempts. Should the hacking attempt succeed, the hacker would be given access to the enemy's ship fitting screen and would be able to power down modules. Shutting down a module would have a similar effect to attacking a firewall or system core in the hacking minigame, requiring a number of "attacks" to shut down, and would do damage to the hacker's virus after each attack. This way, the hacker would be limited as to how many modules they can shut down. This would also mean that the faster the hacker gets into the enemy's computer, the more modules they would be able to deactivate. There could also be additional skills that would enhance the coherence and/or attack strength of the hacker's virus to scale the hacking effectiveness.
On the downside, any attempt to hack an enemy ship would alert that ship's pilot to the intrusion, and possibly identify the ship responsible. That way in a massive fleet battle hackers could be targeted and eliminated.

The defensive aspect would be where there would need to be additional mechanics for balance. First off, every ship would naturally be protected by a basic defense network, which would be fairly straight forward to break (similar to PvE hacking). However, a player could learn a number of network defense skills which would have effects such as increasing the size of the network (more nodes the hacker has to search), increasing the number of firewalls, and increasing the attack strength / coherence of the firewalls. To make things even more interesting, players could learn a skill to allow them to actually build the defense system themselves. In other words they would create the hacking puzzle, placing firewalls and computer core, designing the shape of the puzzle, even choosing the available paths to a degree. It could even go one step further and allow the defenders to place a limited number of firewalls during the hacking attempt to add further control and almost make it like a minigame of Stratego. This would add a huge element of strategy to the system and allow players to take total control of their computer defenses.

I love the idea of PvP hacking because it further increases the number of strategies a player can utilize in combat, and make for a richer and more dynamic battlefield.

Let me know what you think!

No, because I don't want your RNG PVE in my PVP.

this is a game about space. ships in space. shooting. not hacking each other.

It's a game about a lot more than ships shooting other ships but at least we agree this idea wouldn't work...

Oh dear.

Let us ask the following questions.
Does the proposal make the game a more involving and rewarding experience for the playerbase?
Does the proposal resolve a long standing issue, or create an improved balance for the game?
Does the proposal create an enhanced sense of involvement and excitement?

Or is the proposal an idea with no real merit looking for a non existent problem to solve?
Whilst all ideas have merit, and are great thought experiments, some lose it once shared, and are exposed to the light of day.

This would not improve the game, and would be less desireable than loot spew.

We must be responsible in what we suggest, there are those who might think such ideas are "the new Funnness" and we all are then cursed with it until sanity is restored, either through redundancy or sheer force of reason and overwhelming common sense..

Sorry

I think this is by far the worst idea I've seen.

-9000 internets

Besides, we already have hacking. The modules on your ship (scram/disrupt, web, ECM/damps, etc.) are "hacking" the modules on my ship to shut them down. These are targeted "hacks" from one specific module to another specific module/system and are acceptable.

Our ships should never be vulnerable to generic "hacks" like you describe. Especially since we have real-time perfect mental control of all of the modules aboard our ships.

on top of everything else. Use the search function.