An update from the devs #4 (Getting Close)

Tobias -

So a month ago I've published the last update on the development progress. So again many things happened.

As I've done last few times, I'm gonna show the source code count here again. I know it does not really tell anything about development progress but I feel its some kind of tradition. I've also realized I've counted the lines wrong, so there might be a lot less files now:

---------- Result ------------

            Physical :  22509
              Source :  19978
             Comment :  780
 Single-line comment :  524
       Block comment :  256
               Mixed :  24
 Empty block comment :  2
               Empty :  1777
               To Do :  14

Number of files read :  354

----------------------------

What's New

The last month was a lot about embedding the filesystem even further into the gameplay loop. Nearly all actions you take are represented on the filesystem. Downloaded or uploaded files show up there. Configuration files for apps also can be browsed, they sometimes even contain important information like hostnames, bank account information or mail attachments. Log files show you actions that where taken on the systems. To be able to do that I had to do more code refactoring, which is not really easy to explain, that's why I'm skipping the details here.

What's Next

I'm getting closer and closer to a somewhat playable version. There are still some gaps in the gameplay loop but it's really difficult to improve these without having people actually trying it. So, you may guessed it, it is finally happening! I will send out the first invitations soon! :D

So what already happened is that the first people received their invitation to the game! Its just a hand full of friends, who just try some basic features, giving feedback. We've ditched some game breaking bugs together. What we also realized is that some features are just not accessible yet. E.g. you can camouflage virues inside applications to trick people into installing them. Think about it as you give a high level cracker for free to other players, but it's actually a virus which earns money for your. and now instead of giving it out for free you charge them money for it so double win for your. However there is right now no way to create this camouflages and to distribute them however the feature is implemented and works. I don't think I will be able to add all of them to the game straight away, because I still need to think about a nice way of implementing it so it feels like a part of the world.

Next Big Challenge

The points mentioned above are all really important but there is one big challenge I'd like to work on before I invite more people. This is something the first players pointed out and something that is really critical. Right now there is about 43 NPCs in the game however you can find about 14 right now by using some hints and clues you can find. this leads to a huge problem which can be seen on the map below

NPC Map (every dot is a NPC in the Game)

Every dot is a NPC (I've removed labels just to not spoiler anyone). but what happens is that the majority of NPCs is right now just not accessible. And the main problem is that this breaks progress in some parts. since researching better software is not possible right now you have to find better software on NPCs or other players' servers so the problem we've encounters is the following. You get a cracker version 0.1 on the first system and then you can use it hack every system with a firewall with level 0.1. there you can find a version 0.2 cracker and so on, however how the currently accessible npcs are setup is that I've missed linking a server with a cracker version 0.4. this means that only 3-4 servers are actually accessible right now and this breaks everything. So I'm implementing more ways to find more NPCs which will fix this issue. This is also the last thing I'm working on before inviting people so stay tuned. Ah maybe squishing some more small bugs but then first people get their invites! I promise!

What I also wanna do is to make the development progress more clear and understandable so I'm thinking about updating the old Development Roadmap Trello Board. however this can contain spoilers. If you got any better ideas send me a message on Discord or to hello@hackero.io.