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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Viruses And Hacking In The X-net


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How 'bout the aliens conducting some cyber attacks too. We could create a whole suite of attacks: misinformation, deleteing files, deleting funds, etc.
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Deleting funds, hehe. That's what X-Corps gets for not wanting money in cold, hard, cash! :D The best way to store money, is still Xenium bricks, it seems.

 

Most major corporations back up files every day. Still, deleting files means that you can lose a whole day's worth of research, as well as several hours to recover from the back up. I like this idea, becuase you can't have a major research base anymore. It'd get alot of cyber attacks, which would turn your 200+ scientists into no better than 50 trained chimps. You'd need to spread out your research, to protect anything you learn.

 

But, it won't hurt anything that isn't connected to the internet. That would mean neutrino scanner, engineering, and a few closed-network research computers.

 

You could deny shipping requests from a base under cyber attack, or it'd take a few more days using the mail-order form. You could even give very expensive crud shipments late in the game.("But that's not what I ordered!")

 

I dunno about the aliens conducting cyber attacks, but what about infiltrated countries? There isn't anything to stop them from DOSing X-Corps facilities. It'd make the game tougher as more countries fall under the influence.

 

These types of attacks can also replace a UFO that would be needed otherwise. Cut down on UFOs, increase some cyber terror, and you still have a challenge.

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  • 5 months later...

What if you had special events which could happen occassionally to represent something similar?

 

For example:

A research server has crashed due to an overload, all research now has poor progess for 10 days.

 

Soldiers recently returning from a raid show signs of having an alien virus and all must be quarantined, you may not send out any soldiers for 14 days.

 

Etc.

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Yeah, a weapon specifically against alien tech... Then again, cyberdisks and such are partly organic, so I'm not sure it would work out...

Besides, a Virus needs an open communication channel, AND a vulnerability... So unless the Cyberdisks regularly upgrade their software... and it's entirely possible they don't have any if it's all a Neural Network (like ou brains :D)

A virus in this case would be purely organic, but it's what nature intended :LOL:

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  • 1 year later...

How about you hack aliens just to fork them over in a similer way that they fork you over? You could send them wrong co-ordinates of a battleship or something, or even make them forget where your base is in retaliation missions.

 

The random events would be cool, but they should be a minor occurance, happening rarely and not having an effect that's too significant. I don't want to have my best ubersoldier come back from a mission and get a messege that says "Dover has the alien flu. We must now castrate him with a pair of rusty sissors." :(

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Bah, in my opinion random events you can't plan for that have significance are not fun. Look at Civ3 tg see good examples of this. Also, I have to imagine XCORPS networks are mostly if not entirely closed circuit b/c of hacking risks. Any external network needs would be handled through a different network. However you still are at risk to hacking if.....

 

You don't take care of those small UFOs flying around. I have to imagine with the level of hover equipment avaliable, being able to bail a few operatives from a UFO is not difficult. Let UFOs fly around your base too much without dealing with them and the aliens might drill to a network connection. So this way computer attacks are part of strategy, not luck.

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I was sucked into the new Star Wars game, EAW, and I thought they did ok with the random events. i.e. Not always imperative to complete in a timely manner, but when you do, maybe you gain something. Some are always there in the background to complete and you still have the option to do them as you progress as and when you can.

 

Examples of some rewards:

 

- Extra HWPs

- Extra cash (cash is only good so long as its still the main form of currency)

- Extra base positions (be they made up of mobile structures to enable more mobility or fixed structures - can go the entire gambit of capabilities that augment what you already can do - or entirely new capabilities of some sort).

- Extra troops (you didn't have to purchase - loyal volunteers to the cause and work cheap)

- Extra engineers/scientists (same as above)

- Extra (or unique) weapons (alien or human or hybrid)

- Extra (or unique) non-weapon items (to be used directly or unseen, such as drilling equipment that cuts down module building times or some such)

 

Any such rewards wouldn't have to fall into the maintainance fee category unless they were craft or completed modules.

 

I think this could be handled in a way that isn't mandatory but that if you do you can gain an edge.

 

This would be perfect for late-game recovery. A combination of doing things as usual as you can, and these sort of scripted bits that can help you along. Imagine if you lost the traditional buy/sell market, some of these methods are proabably best left under the proverbial rock you turn over.

 

Points of Interest Ideas

 

- Suburbs of overrun cities and towns to find personnel.

- Refineries (land or sea - maybe space if your lucky enough to get the tech to go out there and defend, or visit abandoned ones to make work - or steal stuff from then leave).

- A manufacturing plant(s) - same as above

- Warehouses - civilian, military, or alien.

- Financial institutions/black market institutions.

---- The first could be raided for funds directly at more risk of other forms of direct fallout (these points of interest once shown to you stay there to tempt you), or someone there will slide you some dough to your cause willingly if you did something at some other point of interest that wasn't the bank.

---- Black Market may have set up drop points to get things randomly at points of interest it had marked for you - can be any or all of these and occasionally (if they aren't more willing to just uh, give you stuff), you may have to bring stuff along that they may have requested from you in a direct trade.

- Abandoned bases or other types of structures that you can capture and use that go beyond the base cap limits.

 

Point is, there's a way to do this sort of thing without making it imperative to your survival. Basically put in as a lark and to further vary missions in my opinion. As to the notion of the original topic's title, that too could be a point of interest map.

Edited by Snakeman
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