Anybody here played this yet? I bought the game the other night, but I 
am apparently too stupid to work out how to play it...

The objective of most computer games is to murder every living thing 
that you come into contact with. Call of Duty mixes things up a little, 
in that there are far too many living things for you to kill *all* of 
them. And the Far Cry series has a system whereby if you just walk up to 
a populated area, you'll probably be dead before you can fire a single 
shot, so you have to sneak around the place and take people out one by 
one. Batman did a fair bit of that too. If Batman gets shot more than 
about twice, he's dead. So if you're standing in a room with ten armed 
guards, you wanna be a little bit careful who sees you!

I'm not precisely sure which camp Deus Ex is in, but it seems to be the 
latter:
* It takes 4 bullet hits to kill you.
* It takes about twelve bullet hits to kill an opponent.
* The rate at which I expend ammo *vastly* exceeds the rate at which I 
can find more. Thus far, I have yet to have more than 12 bullets in my 
inventory simultaneously. And that's for a pistol!

So it seems the idea is to sneak past people. Now in Crysis, you can 
press a button and turn invisible. In Far Cry, you can hide in the 
bushes. And you've got binoculars. And a freaking sniper rifle! In 
Batman, you can see in the dark and see through walls. You also have the 
ability to fly and to instantly scale walls.

In Deux Ex, on the other hand, you're just a guy. OK, a guy with 
sunglasses embedded IN YOUR FACE... but you certainly don't have any 
special cyborg abilities. You can't run, you can't jump, you can't 
climb, your vision is inferior to normal humans (in that every flat 
surface lights up yellow when you look at it), and you die about as 
easily as a normal human too. So... I'm not sure how it's supposed to be 
possible to sneak past people.

Last night, I tried to steal some evidence out of the local police 
station. Well no, actually that's a lie. I tried to get from one floor 
to another without being shot to pieces. I presume the flashing marker 
on my radar is on a different floor.

OK, so you can't go in the front door. The map clearly shows a back 
door, but the floor is electrified for some reason, so going that was 
leads to instant death. But apparently if you follow the sewers, they go 
right there. Trouble is, some punks started shooting at me. Given that I 
only have 6 bullets, that means I've got to kill one guy, wait for the 
rest to disperse, grab the ammo out of his pistol, kill the next guy, 
etc. All without ever being hit by a single bullet. Needless to say, it 
took a few attempts.

Anyway, having got to the back entrance alive, I found I could use a box 
to climb up the fire escape. And look at that, there *just happens* to 
be a conveniently placed air vent just there. Isn't that surprising? So 
presumably that's where I'm supposed to go.

So I get into the building, and I'm in a giant straight corridor, with 
no hiding places, and a guard strolling up and down the length of it. 
Several times I tried to hack the computer on the office door to sneak 
in there. But apparently opening a terminal window doesn't pause the 
rest of the game. ;-) So... yeah, there's now 30 cops shooting at me, 
and I have 4 bullets. Clearly this can't end well.

Having died in this way multiple times, I concluded that the only 
possible way out of this situation is to take out the guard. I mean, 
every few seconds he comes and stands *right next to* where I'm hiding, 
*with his back to me*. There is no logical reason for why a human would 
do that; I can only conclude that the game is purposely designed this 
way to make it easy for me to take him out. (This *is* one of the 
opening missions, after all...)

So I take the guy out. (It's *really* frustrating how the button to put 
somebody to sleep and the button to KILL them are *the same button*! So 
every time you take somebody down, there's a 50% chance you'll kill them 
rather than just knock them out...) Now I can go hack the door... well 
OK, on the fifth attempt I can hack the door! (I have yet to work out 
what the myriad of different icons actually *mean*...)

I get into the office, and find that there's a convenient vent system 
that leads me straight past where the camera is. Which is good, because 
as far as I can tell, it's impossible to evade a camera, regardless of 
what the tutorial says. In one of the offices, I read some guy's email, 
and find he's involved with drug dealers. Presumably this is the magic 
"evidence" I need to make him talk. So that's one side-quest solved. At 
least I've achieved *something*...

It seems that my main objective is on another floor. But there's a guy 
patrolling every inch of the space between the air vent and the stairs. 
So I wait for him to stand with his back to me, take him out, drag him 
into the vent - wait, WHAT?! Why is the alarm... oh, right. I'm standing 
under that camera again. OK, so the vent *doesn't* take me past the 
camera. So it's actually impossible to get off this floor without 
triggering the alarm. WTF? Maybe there's a control panel somewhere that 
I have to hack to shut it up.

Anyway, by some miracle I managed to run down the stairs and hide in the 
corner without anybody seeing me. If you just sit there for half an 
hour, the alarm eventually deactivates. So now I'm on the next floor, 
but it seems I still need to go down. So I sneak down while everybody 
has their back to me. Now I'm on the right floor, but it again appears 
to be impossible to reach my goal. There's a guy standing rooted to the 
spot, glaring straight at my exit. There's no way I can get without 
twenty feet of him without him seeing me. There's no way I can leave the 
stairwell without him seeing me. Game over.

In fact, I tried to sneak off, but we saw me, and I got killed. So I 
reloaded the game... WHAT! The last save was TWO HOURS AGO?!

Rage-quit.

There's no way in *hell* I'm replaying that entire three floors just to 
get back to this dead-end. All the XP I earned, the upgrades I bought, 
the emails I read through, the people I carefully took out... I have to 
redo ALL of that?? >_<

Either I'm playing this game completely wrong, or the difficulty curve 
is absolutely insane. This is, like, the THIRD mission or so in the 
entire game. It's the very beginning. And I'm having to replay sections 
of it over and over and over, dozens of times, just to advance a few 
feet forward. Maybe the game really is literally THAT HARD, but I 
suspect I'm just doing it wrong.

What the heck am I missing? Because every single time I play this game, 
I just get my arse handed to me on a plate.

PS. I enjoy the fact that I bought an upgrade that supposedly allows you 
to "see through walls", only then to find out that you have to manually 
turn it on somehow. Shame they couldn't make a tutorial to tell you 
*how*, eh?

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 14 May 2014 21:57:16 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> Anybody here played this yet?

Yep, I found it to be a lot of fun, actually.  I played it on the PS3, 
though (I'm guessing you're playing it on the PC?), so I don't know that 
I can help with your UI issues.

Jim
-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

Post a reply to this message

>> Anybody here played this yet?
>
> Yep, I found it to be a lot of fun, actually.  I played it on the PS3,
> though (I'm guessing you're playing it on the PC?), so I don't know that
> I can help with your UI issues.

Yeah, PC. I think playing this game makes my graphics card a little bit sad.

Is it usual for it to take two and a half hours to get from one end of a 
corridor to another? I can't work out if the game is seriously *that 
hard*, or if I'm just playing it wrong...

Post a reply to this message

Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Is it usual for it to take two and a half hours to get from one end of a 
> corridor to another? I can't work out if the game is seriously *that 
> hard*, or if I'm just playing it wrong...

I have the game for the Xbox 360. I don't remember it being that hard.
(And this even though playing a first-person shooter with a game
controller sucks.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

On Thu, 15 May 2014 19:15:01 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

>>> Anybody here played this yet?
>>
>> Yep, I found it to be a lot of fun, actually.  I played it on the PS3,
>> though (I'm guessing you're playing it on the PC?), so I don't know
>> that I can help with your UI issues.
> 
> Yeah, PC. I think playing this game makes my graphics card a little bit
> sad.
> 
> Is it usual for it to take two and a half hours to get from one end of a
> corridor to another? I can't work out if the game is seriously *that
> hard*, or if I'm just playing it wrong...

You must be playing it wrong, because it never took me that long.  What 
difficulty level are you playing at?

Jim



-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

Post a reply to this message

>> Is it usual for it to take two and a half hours to get from one end of a
>> corridor to another? I can't work out if the game is seriously *that
>> hard*, or if I'm just playing it wrong...
>
> You must be playing it wrong, because it never took me that long.  What
> difficulty level are you playing at?

I thought as much.

I've got it on Normal difficulty.

Now to figure out what I'm actually doing wrong...

Post a reply to this message

Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> >> Is it usual for it to take two and a half hours to get from one end of a
> >> corridor to another? I can't work out if the game is seriously *that
> >> hard*, or if I'm just playing it wrong...
> >
> > You must be playing it wrong, because it never took me that long.  What
> > difficulty level are you playing at?
>
> I thought as much.
>
> I've got it on Normal difficulty.
>
> Now to figure out what I'm actually doing wrong...

perhaps you're not used to stealth-based games...

Post a reply to this message

nemesis <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> perhaps you're not used to stealth-based games...

You mean it's not the kind of game where you run into the enemy camp
guns blazing and screaming at the top of your lungs, shooting everything
that moves?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

On 16/05/2014 09:52 PM, Warp wrote:
> nemesis<nam### [at] gmailcom>  wrote:
>> perhaps you're not used to stealth-based games...
>
> You mean it's not the kind of game where you run into the enemy camp
> guns blazing and screaming at the top of your lungs, shooting everything
> that moves?

Not with 12 bullets, you don't.

Plus, you would kind of have to figure out who the heck "the enemy" 
actually is...

Post a reply to this message

>> Now to figure out what I'm actually doing wrong...
>
> perhaps you're not used to stealth-based games...

Heh. At least it *is* stealth-based, and I'm not just walking around 
with 12 bullets when actually there's some part I missed where you get 
given an assault rifle with 700 bullets or something... I was beginning 
to wonder!

Post a reply to this message

might try something different for a change

one of the best and most beautiful indie games from the last generation to me is
Limbo.  Yesterday I finally bought it, having previsouly just tasted the demo.

Might warm the heart of fans of platform classics such as Another World or
Prince of Persia... though not quite as long as these...

Post a reply to this message

On Fri, 16 May 2014 08:17:55 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

>>> Is it usual for it to take two and a half hours to get from one end of
>>> a corridor to another? I can't work out if the game is seriously *that
>>> hard*, or if I'm just playing it wrong...
>>
>> You must be playing it wrong, because it never took me that long.  What
>> difficulty level are you playing at?
> 
> I thought as much.
> 
> I've got it on Normal difficulty.

IIRC, that's the difficulty I played at as well.

> Now to figure out what I'm actually doing wrong...

It might be a difference with the PC controls, I found the controls on 
the PS3 to be pretty intuitive.

Jim



-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

Post a reply to this message

On 5/16/2014 3:31 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Fri, 16 May 2014 08:17:55 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>
>>>> Is it usual for it to take two and a half hours to get from one end of
>>>> a corridor to another? I can't work out if the game is seriously *that
>>>> hard*, or if I'm just playing it wrong...
>>>
>>> You must be playing it wrong, because it never took me that long.  What
>>> difficulty level are you playing at?
>>
>> I thought as much.
>>
>> I've got it on Normal difficulty.
>
> IIRC, that's the difficulty I played at as well.
>
>> Now to figure out what I'm actually doing wrong...
>
> It might be a difference with the PC controls, I found the controls on
> the PS3 to be pretty intuitive.
>
> Jim
>
>
>
I've played it on PC. So, no, its no the controls, for the most part (in 
fact, I probably would have done even worse with one.. lol) but, they 
did make a few changes to things from the prior game to this one, and.. 
gah, I hate having to relearn which things on the keyboard do what (not 
that they would *ever* do such a thing with a game controller...)

Best suggestion, for someone really having that much trouble on it.. try 
watching one of those walkthrough videos, or something that are out 
there, to get a sense of just what it takes to do things, and how. Its 
been a long time since I played it, so I don't remember all the details, 
but.. a lot of it came down to, "Don't get spotted in the bloody first 
place.", if I remember right.

And, yeah, some cameras, you can't avoid too easily, others.. you just 
need to keep an eye on where they are pointed, and avoid getting in 
front of them. They *all* have a blind spot right smack under the 
camera, if I remember, so the trick is usually to slip right up under 
the camera, when its looking the other way, then wait until you know its 
pointed away from where you are going, and you have time to move, then 
get your ass there and out of its view, before it shifts back to look 
that way. This isn't always easy, but it is possible. Ducts are, of 
course, your friend, and, in some cases, you get more options, like 
being able to move a soda machine, to get at one, if you added enough 
strength mods, with the right upgrades.

Its definitely not impossible. Maybe you just suck? ;) lol

Note: unlike the prior one, I failed, badly, at the, "don't kill anyone 
you don't really need to.", option. This one was definitely a bit harder 
to avoid those sorts of, "Oh hell, lets just shoot this bastard!", 
moments in. :p

-- 
Commander Vimes: "You take a bunch of people who don't seem any 
different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get 
this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem."

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 14 May 2014 22:57:16 +0200, Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:


> I'm not precisely sure which camp Deus Ex is in, but it seems to be the  
> latter:
> * It takes 4 bullet hits to kill you.
> * It takes about twelve bullet hits to kill an opponent.
> * The rate at which I expend ammo *vastly* exceeds the rate at which I  
> can find more. Thus far, I have yet to have more than 12 bullets in my  
> inventory simultaneously. And that's for a pistol!
>

You can play the game with minimal killing, so bullet/kill ratio is not  
that important.
Taking cover and blind-firing also helps a lot.

> So it seems the idea is to sneak past people. Now in Crysis, you can  
> press a button and turn invisible. In Far Cry, you can hide in the  
> bushes. And you've got binoculars. And a freaking sniper rifle! In  
> Batman, you can see in the dark and see through walls. You also have the  
> ability to fly and to instantly scale walls.
>
> In Deux Ex, on the other hand, you're just a guy. OK, a guy with  
> sunglasses embedded IN YOUR FACE... but you certainly don't have any  
> special cyborg abilities. You can't run, you can't jump, you can't climb,

You can.

> your vision is inferior to normal humans (in that every flat surface  
> lights up yellow when you look at it)

This is true. I don't know why they made everything yellow. Maybe it's  
gold-tinted Oakley's?

> , and you die about as easily as a normal human too. So... I'm not sure  
> how it's supposed to be possible to sneak past people.

Invisibility is available.


> Having died in this way multiple times, I concluded that the only  
> possible way out of this situation is to take out the guard. I mean,  
> every few seconds he comes and stands *right next to* where I'm hiding,  
> *with his back to me*. There is no logical reason for why a human would  
> do that; I can only conclude that the game is purposely designed this  
> way to make it easy for me to take him out. (This *is* one of the  
> opening missions, after all...)
>
> So I take the guy out. (It's *really* frustrating how the button to put  
> somebody to sleep and the button to KILL them are *the same button*! So  
> every time you take somebody down, there's a 50% chance you'll kill them  
> rather than just knock them out...) Now I can go hack the door... well  
> OK, on the fifth attempt I can hack the door! (I have yet to work out  
> what the myriad of different icons actually *mean*...)
>
Tap to knock-out, hold in to kill.


> In fact, I tried to sneak off, but we saw me, and I got killed. So I  
> reloaded the game... WHAT! The last save was TWO HOURS AGO?!
>
> Rage-quit.

Stealth is like Pov-Ray. It requires patience.

>
> PS. I enjoy the fact that I bought an upgrade that supposedly allows you  
> to "see through walls", only then to find out that you have to manually  
> turn it on somehow. Shame they couldn't make a tutorial to tell you  
> *how*, eh?

Take a look at the controls menu on how to see through walls.

Maybe you should start with difficulty set to easy.

-- 
-Nekar Xenos-

Post a reply to this message

> Best suggestion, for someone really having that much trouble on it.. try
> watching one of those walkthrough videos, or something that are out
> there, to get a sense of just what it takes to do things, and how.

Maybe I'll try that.

> Its
> been a long time since I played it, so I don't remember all the details,
> but.. a lot of it came down to, "Don't get spotted in the bloody first
> place.", if I remember right.

Yeah, getting spotted appears to basically result in an instant 
game-over. I mean, you could *try* to return fire, but you'll be dead 
very quickly. Running away occasionally works...

> And, yeah, some cameras, you can't avoid too easily, others.. you just
> need to keep an eye on where they are pointed, and avoid getting in
> front of them.

Yeah, well when there's a camera at the far end of a long, straight 
corridor with no cover, I'm not quite sure how I'd sneak up to it...

> Its definitely not impossible. Maybe you just suck? ;) lol

I feared this might be the case. :-/

Post a reply to this message

On 17/05/2014 09:22 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>> Best suggestion, for someone really having that much trouble on it.. try
>> watching one of those walkthrough videos, or something that are out
>> there, to get a sense of just what it takes to do things, and how.
>
> Maybe I'll try that.

Well, it's a good thing I did!

I spent hours trying to figure out how the hell you sneak from one end 
of a crowded hall to the other without a single human being ever seeing 
you. It seems like it's mathematically impossible.

And that I watched a walkthrough. It turns out, if you just give the guy 
at the front desk a blowjob, he'll *open* the door for you (i.e., you 
don't have to sneak through three floors of the building to get in), and 
then you can just *walk* past everybody, without caring if they see you.

...so it *is* mathematically impossible to sneak past! Because that's 
not what you're supposed to do.

(I hadn't realised it was physically possible to sneak to somebody in a 
different room me to. And besides, I hadn't realised that talking to 
people in-game could actually affect the game in any way.)

Perhaps more importantly, the walkthrough demonstrated that by holding a 
certain key combination, you can actually SEE ROUND CORNERS. This 
drastically reduces the game difficulty. The number of times I've poked 
my head round a corner to see if the guy turned around yet, only to have 
all 30 guards instantly go to maximum alert, surround me and kill me...

Post a reply to this message

On 18/05/2014 18:09, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> On 17/05/2014 09:22 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>>> Best suggestion, for someone really having that much trouble on it.. try
>>> watching one of those walkthrough videos, or something that are out
>>> there, to get a sense of just what it takes to do things, and how.
>>
>> Maybe I'll try that.
>
> Well, it's a good thing I did!


It is.
Last night I asked for some hints on how to fly an Elite Dangerous space 
ship, on the forums. And one kind soul made a 20 minute video for me. 
The internet has its darkside but also a good side (as shown here and 
there).

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

I solemnly promise to kick the next angle, I see.

Post a reply to this message

After spending about an hour trying to hack one terminal, I was 
eventually reduced to looking up the code on the Internet. (It's 1080.) 
It's only rated at level 3, but I just couldn't click all the buttons 
fast enough. Is there something I'm missing?

When you hack a device, you get to look around at the network and plan 
your route. But once you capture the first node, you then only have a 
few seconds to get all the way to your goal. (In this particular case, 
it seems the timer starts at 13 seconds.)

Complicating matters is the fact that this particular device has two 
registries to capture, each of which is only accessible via a single 
one-way route. So you have to take TWO paths simultaneously. Fortunately 
you can capture multiple nodes at once. Unfortunately, it's very hard to 
watch the progress of both nodes and click the next node on the correct 
path near-instantly as soon as the current one finishes capturing. My 
brain just can't react fast enough.

I have (or had) a STOP! virus. But given that I've never even got CLOSE 
to the end of either path before being booted out, adding a few more 
seconds to the clock seems unlikely to help much. I need to DOUBLE the 
available time or something!

Also: Lots of these networks have extra bonus nodes that you can capture 
for extra points or whatever. But given that it's usually extremely hard 
to complete a successful hack at all, why would you ever go after the 
optional stuff? That doesn't make sense to me.

The whole thing screams that I'm missing something obvious - something 
that makes things drastically easier somehow. Who designs a game where 
90% of the content is impossible to access? Nobody. So I must be missing 
something here...

Post a reply to this message

On 5/26/2014 5:32 AM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> After spending about an hour trying to hack one terminal, I was
> eventually reduced to looking up the code on the Internet. (It's 1080.)
> It's only rated at level 3, but I just couldn't click all the buttons
> fast enough. Is there something I'm missing?
>
> When you hack a device, you get to look around at the network and plan
> your route. But once you capture the first node, you then only have a
> few seconds to get all the way to your goal. (In this particular case,
> it seems the timer starts at 13 seconds.)
>
> Complicating matters is the fact that this particular device has two
> registries to capture, each of which is only accessible via a single
> one-way route. So you have to take TWO paths simultaneously. Fortunately
> you can capture multiple nodes at once. Unfortunately, it's very hard to
> watch the progress of both nodes and click the next node on the correct
> path near-instantly as soon as the current one finishes capturing. My
> brain just can't react fast enough.
>
> I have (or had) a STOP! virus. But given that I've never even got CLOSE
> to the end of either path before being booted out, adding a few more
> seconds to the clock seems unlikely to help much. I need to DOUBLE the
> available time or something!
>
> Also: Lots of these networks have extra bonus nodes that you can capture
> for extra points or whatever. But given that it's usually extremely hard
> to complete a successful hack at all, why would you ever go after the
> optional stuff? That doesn't make sense to me.
>
> The whole thing screams that I'm missing something obvious - something
> that makes things drastically easier somehow. Who designs a game where
> 90% of the content is impossible to access? Nobody. So I must be missing
> something here...
>
Hacking is... tricky. Each node actually has a detection odds. If you 
are detected, you are screwed, period. There is no way in hell, unless 
you already have most of the nodes captured, and are just running for 
the end, that you can get it done *after* being detected. So, the only 
solution is to save just before you are going to hack, then, if you do 
get detected, reload and try again. Stop viruses and I think, slow, and 
the like are useful, and even a few seconds can be really important, 
since sometimes there is no way, at all, you won't be detected, but, 
delaying the security just enough can get you through.

Those "optional" nodes, sometimes have money in them, but often have 
more viruses, that can be used later on. Also - Depending on how good 
your hacking is, i.e., the upgrades for that, your detection chance goes 
down. Its a bad idea to hack a node that has a higher level than your 
current upgrade. The odds of detection approach 100% in such cases, and 
you are thus totally hosed. You can still manage it, but its pure luck, 
and may require a "lot" of reloading of the game, to get lucky and not 
get spotted by the security in the process.

Note also - often the security is on a one way node - i.e., it can hunt 
you, but not the other way around. However, sometimes, in a few cases, 
the security node itself is capturable. And that, if you can take it 
out, makes things vastly simpler. But, I think there where only a tiny 
number of them that had that, and then only 1-2 where the detection risk 
+ delay to pound that node into submission was good enough that I 
managed to shut it down that way.

-- 
Commander Vimes: "You take a bunch of people who don't seem any 
different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get 
this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem."

Post a reply to this message

On 26/05/2014 05:55 PM, Patrick Elliott wrote:
> Hacking is... tricky. Each node actually has a detection odds. If you
> are detected, you are screwed, period.

Really?

I know there's *supposed* to be a chance of not being detected, but I 
find that when I capture the first node, I am *always* detected 
immediately, with 100% probability. So the entire hacking minigame is 
simply a question of "can you press the buttons faster than the network 
can trace you?" If I didn't get detected... well then I guess the entire 
thing would be pretty trivial, wouldn't it?

> Those "optional" nodes, sometimes have money in them, but often have
> more viruses, that can be used later on.

As I say, usually it's hard enough getting a hack to work at all, 
without trying to capture even more nodes (which are usually extremely 
high-rated).

> Note also - often the security is on a one way node - i.e., it can hunt
> you, but not the other way around. However, sometimes, in a few cases,
> the security node itself is capturable. And that, if you can take it
> out, makes things vastly simpler.

Heh. Yeah, I saw that in the two YouTube videos that deal with hacking. 
Just now I was able to walk up to a terminal, capture one node, capture 
the security node, and... that was it. Beat the network, with about 15 
seconds still on the clock. It's almost too easy...

...but, as you say, usually the security node (or NODES) is behind a 
one-way path.

Post a reply to this message

On Mon, 26 May 2014 13:32:39 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> Is there something I'm missing?

I have heard that the PC interface for hacking in DE:HR really sucks 
rocks.  On the PS3, it's far, far easier.

Jim



-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

Post a reply to this message

On 5/26/2014 10:04 AM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> On 26/05/2014 05:55 PM, Patrick Elliott wrote:
>> Hacking is... tricky. Each node actually has a detection odds. If you
>> are detected, you are screwed, period.
>
> Really?
>
> I know there's *supposed* to be a chance of not being detected, but I
> find that when I capture the first node, I am *always* detected
> immediately, with 100% probability. So the entire hacking minigame is
> simply a question of "can you press the buttons faster than the network
> can trace you?" If I didn't get detected... well then I guess the entire
> thing would be pretty trivial, wouldn't it?
>

Heh, All I know is that I didn't have a problem, and I am using a PC. 
lol But then, I emphasized hacking first, before anything much else, in 
my upgrades, so.. that probably made a huge difference.

>> Those "optional" nodes, sometimes have money in them, but often have
>> more viruses, that can be used later on.
>
> As I say, usually it's hard enough getting a hack to work at all,
> without trying to capture even more nodes (which are usually extremely
> high-rated).
>
Rating go down, as you upgrade. So, pretty good odds that your upgrades 
are not high enough for the nodes you are taking on. Otherwise...

-- 
Commander Vimes: "You take a bunch of people who don't seem any 
different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get 
this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem."

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On 26/05/2014 01:32 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> After spending about an hour trying to hack one terminal, I was
> eventually reduced to looking up the code on the Internet. (It's 1080.)
> It's only rated at level 3, but I just couldn't click all the buttons
> fast enough. Is there something I'm missing?
>
> When you hack a device, you get to look around at the network and plan
> your route. But once you capture the first node, you then only have a
> few seconds to get all the way to your goal. (In this particular case,
> it seems the timer starts at 13 seconds.)

OK, so I upgraded the Capture and Stealth abilities to maximum. Now 
hacking just about anything is... almost trivially easy, actually. I've 
now got about a dozen Nuke viruses, and I never end up using them. Every 
single node is rated at 15%, and the network almost never detects me.

So I guess that's the secret, then. You just have to win a boatload of 
praxis points somehow...

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I just noticed something.

I hacked someone's computer. All it had on it was a few emails. But I 
can't help noticing... either I'm going mad, or the text is that email 
is a word-for-word transcript of the intro to HalfLife, with "Black 
Mesa" replaced with "Omega Prime".

...or maybe I really *am* going mad! That's one hell of an in-gag...

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On Sun, 08 Jun 2014 22:09:16 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> I just noticed something.
> 
> I hacked someone's computer. All it had on it was a few emails. But I
> can't help noticing... either I'm going mad, or the text is that email
> is a word-for-word transcript of the intro to HalfLife, with "Black
> Mesa" replaced with "Omega Prime".
> 
> ...or maybe I really *am* going mad! That's one hell of an in-gag...

Cool



-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

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