SSR What do we actually want?

[673139fe91eb0ZylonBane]

If the hacker is up to no good, would he or she risk leaving a digital footprint at home?

Please look up "proxy server".

[673139fe9214cAurora]

Please look up "proxy server".

So what, you are going to order hardware to your home address through a proxy, making yourself look even more suspicious?

[673139fe92397fox]

From todays point of view that'd be relatively trivial. If he's a skilled grey hat, he'll have an assortment of insuspicious looking stolen or spoofed identities to choose from. Ordering gear, using a throwaway fake identity, to an empty apartment in an anonymous apartment building, giving a fake signature (digital or not) when it's being delivered is not much of a problem - as long as the gear itself isn't under special surveillance or outright illegal anyway.

If I had to write such a sequence, I'd make the building building a desolate and grimey looking skyscraper - partially abandoned due to some recent event (fire, health hazard, pest control, whatever). Parcels are delivered by drones. In order to access the cargo, the recepient has to authenticate via retina scan, which the hacker would go on to beat in some gnarly looking, low-tech cyberpunk way (fake eyeball on a stick or something like that). After the drone(s) left, he moves the goods to his den in the basement and gets to work (or moving on to another location, if he's paranoid).

[673139fe926a9Aurora]

From todays point of view that'd be relatively trivial. If he's a skilled grey hat, he'll have an assortment of insuspicious looking stolen or spoofed identities to choose from. Ordering gear, using a throwaway fake identity, to an empty apartment in an anonymous apartment building, giving a fake signature (digital or not) when it's being delivered is not much of a problem - as long as the gear itself isn't under special surveillance or outright illegal anyway.

That's probably what I would do, but then that means going outside in New Atlanta - which is what I was suggesting the hacker do.

[673139fe927b7fox]

I would like to see some of New Atlanta too so maybe we could follow the hacker after the sequence above to a new location.

[673139fe929efZylonBane]

So what, you are going to order hardware to your home address through a proxy, making yourself look even more suspicious?

Order hardware? What??

[673139fe92c22JosiahJack]

All software is free to a hacker, so obviously all hardware will b....wait, when did hacker become a macgyver too   .  Although I'm sure he is excellent at making do with what is in his current situation whether it is the streets of New Atlanta (only poor people still drive grounders though), the commons of a home superplex such as 71G, through hidden deals in upper level serviceways, or on Citadel.  Still he is unable to acquire the best hardware since only higher ups can clear security for surgical implantation so finding an underground surgeon(s) after locating all the right hardware would be part of hacker's wishlist.

Perhaps in order to complete the surgery, said surgeon requires hacker to access the medical procedures data from Citadel since it is one of Trioptimum's leading cybernetic augmentation research facilities.  So he goes on to perform the most daring hack of one of the largest companies.  This assumes he has very powerful hardware if he uses brute force algorithms, or maybe not if he has acquired Trioptimum hardware through the credentials of an exec in order to access the decryption softwaee.

[673139fe92da6Hikari]

Hardware hacking is a time honored tradition man. After all hacking together a useful unit out of three broken units is a thing that happens. Ditto with keeping parts bins 'just in case.'

[673139fe92fbaAurora]

Order hardware? What??

Did you follow the conversation at all?

[673139fe930daHikari]

I'm of the mind Hacker got caught so fast because to diego's watchdog programs Hacker looked like IA ad diego was paranoid at tht point. I mean sure that's practically spelled out in game but not explicitly stated as being why. Hacker could've sucked, but on the other hand he was able to cobble together the system analyzer and managed to get shodan's ethical constraints to go jump in a lake... so he has SOME skill.

[673139fe93337ZylonBane]

Did you follow the conversation at all?

The conversation was nonsense. Real-life recreational hackers practically never physically relocate themselves. They "work" from home, relying on software measures to obfuscate their location and identity.

[673139fe93611Aurora]

The conversation was nonsense. Real-life recreational hackers practically never physically relocate themselves. They "work" from home, relying on software measures to obfuscate their location and identity.

We weren't talking about moving or relocating, but rather going out to buy or otherwise obtain new hardware.

[673139fe938a2Learonys]

The conversation was nonsense. Real-life recreational hackers practically never physically relocate themselves. They "work" from home, relying on software measures to obfuscate their location and identity.

How do you know hackers work 60 years into the future? 

[673139fe939e5Hikari]

Not to mention no knowledge of how the local networks go. Maybe he relocated himself because there is no way to get from the public network to triop's private network and he was set up in an unused office or corporate dorm or something to get an entry point into the internal network.

Then again this is zylon we're talking about. Mr 'I know everything about everything and if you  don't bow down at my rightness you are wrong and stupid and let me put my boot on your face as punishment for now bowing down.'

[673139fe93ce6fox]

We weren't talking about moving or relocating, but rather going out to buy or otherwise obtain new hardware.

Well, I was talking about relocating after getting gear delivered as a safety measure. That is if we want him displayed as a paranoid / serious character. That'd communicate a tense and dark mood right away and would be in line with the quarantine cyberpunk setting of the colonies. According to the lore, punishment for hacking is tight in those days - some even got executed by the UNN (a few years later).

On the other hand, portraying him as a casual, rather carefree guy in a not so unattractive part of New Atlanta at that point would contrast nicely with the way things turn out for him on the Von Braun Citadel Station. That'd be the Hollywood fairytale style.

Then again, maybe all that prologue-stuff should be left untold to keep the "YOU are the hacker"-idea pure.

[673139fe93e33Nameless Voice]

The UNN did not exist in 2072.

[673139fe93f75fox]

Yeah, I was mixing up some things. 

[673139fe94110CaveManta]

My fellow shockers! Please be calm.
We can't know how the internet/e-commerce/anonymity will work >50 years in the future. Especially in a fantasy universe like System Shock.
The question is whether we would like the intro of the game expanded upon or playable, allowing for more content.

   While it would be nice to see more of New Atlanta and learn more about the life of Hacker, to be honest, I think it would take too many resources to implement these things. Nightdive doesn't have a lot of budget or time to work with, so sticking close to the sequence of the original intro is probably the best choice.
   Sure, making the intro playable would require implementation of additional maps, dialog, etc. But new environments wouldn't have to be conceptualized from the ground up; They would come right from SS1..just remade/enhanced.

   Or maybe the intro should stay as a cutscene. Ah, I don't know. I can't imagine how much work it would take just to have a sequence where you land on the flight deck and travel to Diego's office. The halls you traverse would have to be filled with so many crew members living their lives. 

[673139fe942aaicemann]

As mentioned, the intro sequence works best unplayed so that players will fill in the blanks with their own imaginations. That's good story telling.

If you take all of that away and just have it all as playable, then it will also take with it much of the magic that went into the start of the game.

[673139fe946ccMarvin]

As mentioned, the intro sequence works best unplayed so that players will fill in the blanks with their own imaginations. That's good story telling.

If you take all of that away and just have it all as playable, then it will also take with it much of the magic that went into the start of the game.

Why? SS2 did the same and it didn't suck there. Have the intro as a cutscene and let it stop after you've hacked SHODAN, then let the player wander around (with restricted access) and offer a tutorial with a simulated cyberrig. After you head off to cryosleep, the actual game starts.

[673139fe94892Join2]

Playable intro requires:

Friendly interactive NPCs
Railroading - why can't the player explore the whole station?
Either a shit dummy-friendly hacking minigame substituting what should be the hack of the century that would in reality take quite some time and skill, or automating it with a cutscene/control robbing animation.
Establishing safe atmosphere rather than dropping the player right in where everything has gone to shit with a fear of the unknown.

Sounds like a dumb idea and I'm with icemann - best to leave it to the imagination in a short cutscene.

[673139fe94b5aJosiahJack]

Why? SS2 did the same and it didn't suck there.

It was very slow paced though.

[673139fe9504dMarvin]

It was very slow paced though.

So?

Playable intro requires:

Friendly interactive NPCs
Railroading - why can't the player explore the whole station?
Either a shit dummy-friendly hacking minigame substituting what should be the hack of the century that would in reality take quite some time and skill, or automating it with a cutscene/control robbing animation.
Establishing safe atmosphere rather than dropping the player right in where everything has gone to shit with a fear of the unknown.

Sounds like a dumb idea and I'm with icemann - best to leave it to the imagination in a short cutscene.

1) Yep, lots of work.
2) Because of security reasons, duh.
3) ... or simply start after the SHODAN hack, like I said.
4) True, but at the same time, it instills a sense of foreboding (you could potentially show some very early glitches in the station's operation), it gives a better perspective on how much you're screwed, and there is the possibility of forming an emotional connection to the devastation going on around you that post-catastrophe audiologs cannot convey. Both directions have something going for them, but neither one is perfect imo.

[673139fe95352ZylonBane]

Why? SS2 did the same and it didn't suck there.

SS2 did not do the same. SS2's Earth and Station maps both serve a specific gameplay purpose-- tutorials and initial character build.