I think the minimap is a good idea for something the player could find to assist them in their hacking. For easier locks/puzzles there would be less need as the labelling system would be more intuitive, however, harder puzzles might be all but impossible to hack through without having some vague idea of how element A works with element B.

The minimap is a good idea, it will make solving some of the puzzles much less annoying as the player wont have to backtrack to see the effects of changing variables.

I don't really see where you're coming from with the whole slowing of time thing though. What you do with time depends on what kind of pressure you want to put the player under. Slowing time for the player reduces pressure, I don't see how your second point counteracts your first.

Why would people feel like the were in a hurry if they are thinking at 10 times their normal speed? They are aware of that fact, right? Even without external stimuli, if I was thinking 10 times my normal speed, I wouldn't be thinking "uh oh, a guard might be coming", I'd be thinking "pffft, that guard wont be back from his break for something like 6 minutes. That gives me an hour to pull off this hack. I've got all the time in the world".

Is the player going to be hacking under time limits a lot? Will they be under constant fear of discovery? If you are wanting to make the player "feel like they're in a hurry" (I assume you mean panicked, or excited), then you would be better off leaving hacking in real time.

Or if you want it to be a leisurely experience, just freeze time altogether when the player is hacking.

Oh, and I agree that having level one security as the toughest would make you feel badass when you got good enough to hack level one. Increasing the security rating of the hack along with the difficulty and player level would just be easier to impliment is all.
Also, in real life security levels wouldn't be static. What is "level 1" (I have no idea how they would rate them in real life) today would be level 20 in five years time when hacking hardware and software is improved, and better security software has superceded it. You need some way to make room for the players advanding skill, and I don't imagine the time frame of the game will be long enough for things to become obsolete. Unless you have a transition between levels, and the player becomes unable to hack level one security in the next world, giving the player room to grow.

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Original post by CIJolly Is the player going to be hacking under time limits a lot? Will they be under constant fear of discovery? If you are wanting to make the player "feel like they're in a hurry" (I assume you mean panicked, or excited), then you would be better off leaving hacking in real time.

I want to slow down time because I want hackers to be capable of changing the outcome of serious gun battles. They won't just be the nerds who follow everyone to jack in and unlock doors. They'll be able to rip in and turn the enemy's hallway against them, right in the middle of the heat, while the bullets are flying. Basically wizards of the future. Capable of massive damage, but easy to take out if not well protected.

The 10 was kind of thrown out there though. I'm going to have to test some things out to tweak the balancing.

How about giving an option to reset all the changes you've made, just in-case the player locks himself up and can't remember what variables he changed, etc.

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Original post by ussnewjersey4 How about giving an option to reset all the changes you've made, just in-case the player locks himself up and can't remember what variables he changed, etc.

That would be nice. I wish I could. But it would kind of give it a really wimpy feeling, wouldn't it? When the rest of my game is extremely adult-like and serious, then I have this magical reset button, which the AI techs aren't able to use for some reason.

I wish I could do something to make things a bit more safe for them. How about I just make sure it's not easy to forget what variables you changed? Maybe I could even show what order you changed them in. Like a log that tracks every change you make, and when. What do you think?

edit:

Actually... hmm. If the software the player is using is logging every action he takes.. It's not entirely crazy to imagine it being able to undo actions, as long as he's jacked in. So yeah, why not. I can allow him to select individual actions on the top of the log list and undo them.

Thanks for the idea :)

Yeah, hackers would use keystroke loggers and other programs to keep track of what they have tried and done so that they know what not to try again in the future and whatnot. Question is though, hacking seems to quickly be becoming the central focus of the entire game. If it's something that you want for a minigame inside the larger game, don't go overly into the details of how every little X, Y and Z work, otherwise as I said, the game will become a hacking game with some shooting thrown in, rather than a shooter with some hacking thrown in.

Just my thoughts,

Vopisk

If the hacker is going like a mage, eg, useful in combat, then you could give him a range of "spells" by allowing him to hack opponents directly.
Eg, turning off nightvision goggles, jamming guns, slowing down movement of wheeled robots, changing enemies friend/foe assessors, triggering self destructs, triggering their morphine packs/combat enhancing drugs to make them space out, limiting the types of ammo they can use, etc.
That way the player wont just be limited to using the buildings defences against opponents.

Also, if hacking will be taking place in combat, hacker duels could be implimented.

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Original post by Vopisk Question is though, hacking seems to quickly be becoming the central focus of the entire game.

It's the future. The theme is cyberpunk. So yep, hacking is the central part of the game. But just because I'm adding so much detail doesn't mean I'm going to neglect something else. Like I said before, everything I've mentioned so far is pretty cake to implement. I mean geeze, compare my goals to some of these other threads, talking about super advanced AI and real virtual worlds [disturbed]

I can detail a little dirt on the weapons. The guns will be upgradable, and very tweakable. There will be tons of equipment. And equipment is not just for hackers. The game is going to focus very heavily on explosives. There will be a heck of a lot of advanced bombs. And a heck of a lot of things that can be blown up. Most non-metallic walls can be advanced through my blowing the hell out of them. Players will be able to set up traps to take out many enemies at once, with trip wires, laser lines, proximity devices, door/car/motion bombs, etc.

Since my game takes place in such a giant leap in the future, after a dark age has taken out some technologies, I can add everything I want from our real life tech, remove what I want from our real life tech, then add anything I want from their future tech. That's a lot of freedom.