Dev Blog #4: ICE Breaker

Ivar Hill · 2024-08-01T05:29:17+00:00

Welcome back to another Core Decay development blog post! This month we will take a closer look at a hugely important part of the game - computer terminals...

LeftHandOfGod

It is so good to see a steady stream of content like this. It really makes us feel like development is progressing at a steady pace and that Embracer's implosion and subsequent fragmentation haven't dealt a severe blow to Core Decay's development cycle.

Ivar Hill

I'm glad it is being appreciated!

I do want to state for the record though that Core Decay has seen delays to its development cycle, for a variety of reasons. I'm dedicated to ensuring the game being completed, but it does mean that the time to release is still quite far away.

Just want to be clear on this for the sake of transparency - but it'll get there in the end, and I'm grateful for all the support and engagement! :)

Geeky

Ivar Hill I've been looking forward to your game ever since my friend showed me the trailer. It's been awesome following the journey so far, and I can't wait to see future updates! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Valle

I like the blend of explaining gameplay mechanics. sprinkled with bits of in-universe lore here and there. Makes the wait for launch nicer too, when there's a little bit of new things about the game coming up regularly.

Damien_Azreal

CD looks better and better with every single update.

sykth

Ivar, without reading the blog entry (I don't want to spoil my future fun with the game, I want to explore it, but I appreciate your enthusiasm for writing), I just would like to congratulate you, you already did something great. I am really want to play your game, I fell in love with it on first sight, and now, every new material that comes out looks like a really stylish, really deeply conceptually dreamt, probably hauntingly deep game. I applaud you for making it happen. Keep up the great work, I will be awaiting for the game.

erik_malkavian

Ivar Hill Very Nice Explanation about Hacking, One of my FAVORITE Ways of accessing Secured Data and Places.

I have a question about the criminality of hacking in Core Decay. If we get caught hacking, will we the Player immediately get attacked, even if we are only seen from afar?

Ivar Hill

erik_malkavian In essence, yes, though sight detection ranges are not huge, so you won't be spotted by people really far away.

Part of the challenge of hacking here is taking the risk of being detected while caught off guard, so ensuring an area is secured - or setting up traps such as mines in advance - is definitely encouraged!

Blade Sword

Ivar Hill
I have an idea at least in order to add a ressource in order to get access to some informations, like a decoding software for example in order to access a locked folder or even have that ability if our hacking skill is higher but uses the shard ressource.
Also and probably something to consider is that some computers can have credentials infos in them so hacking them once can allow some additionnal info.
I can mention a few game where computer use was interesting, SiN, Deus Ex games, System Shock games, DooM 3
I kind of suggest SiN even if it has no hacking mechanic, it had some interesting ideas by combining terminals and keys in order to get to somewhere. Also you could enter some prompt commands as it was a sort of basic DOS thinguy.

xassix

The way you describe it I'm a bit worried that lock picking, electronic bypassing and hacking will feel almost the same, the only real difference being that each activity has its own "lock-pick"-item.
Personally I think that a "proper" hacking system should involve some sort of terminal window where the player has to enter something akin to DOS or bash commands - kind of like the hacking in Deadeye Deepfake Simulacrum if you happen to know that game.

Ivar Hill

xassix You are correct in that lockpicking and bypassing is largely the same mechanic, just used in separate places and with separate resources. I would argue this is not necessarily a bad thing though, since it allows for an immersion factor, more interesting management of scarcity, and also a way to tie things into the cybernetic implant system where you can focus on a particular task to become better at. In large, the approach taken by Core Decay is influenced by voices such as Harvey Smith, who did a fantastic talk covering this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGIdYl2oN74 - among other things he discusses how mechanics that are mechanically redundant can still be important to separate out since it plays to the player fantasy, which is something the later Deus Ex sequels missed out on a bit.

Looping back to hacking - this does function a bit differently, in two ways. Firstly, the resource used for hacking is significantly rarer than lockpicks and bypass tools, making hacking by comparison a more carefully weighted decision (or very intentionally specialized in through implants). Secondly, hacking usually serves very different goals altogether compared to lockpicking and bypassing, where you could not necessarily achieve the same effect by simply replacing what the player is doing.

All this being said, I do like the terminal window approach as well - in fact, earlier versions of Core Decay actually did exactly this. When hacking, you opened a terminal window where you could type individual commands to do a few various things, in a bash sort of sense.

Ultimately, however, it was something that ended up feeling just a bit too repetitive with less strategic depth. Hacking is still visually interesting and uses such a terminal window in an aesthetic sense, but moving to a simple one-click action moves the decision towards whether you want to hack something in the first place more so than the act of hacking itself. Hopefully this makes sense! :D

xassix

Ivar Hill I guess that does make sense.
I hope though, that hacking wont be too rare or too simple. Being a hacker is usually my favorite fantasy in a cyberpunk world and I'd like to use it extensively. Its one of the reasons I like Deadeye Deepfake Simulacrum so much, since you can play that game almost entirely by hacking.

Ivar Hill

xassix Rest assured hacking can be very plentiful if it's something you choose to focus on! There is also a cybernetic implant that allows for remote hacking, among other things :)

xassix

Ivar Hill btw. When you say "remote hacking" do you mean that your hacking ability has some range in the physical world or do you mean that in the IT sense of the word "remote"? (e.g. you are logged into one computer and use that to hack another computer on the same network.)

Ivar Hill

xassix In a mechanical sense it refers to the former, although it technically implies the latter as well - for instance, with this implant you could disable a security camera by connecting to the terminal through the camera as a backdoor.

The model is fairly simple - and one-directional - specifically intending to control computer connected devices like cameras, alarms etc. when physically away from the terminal. As much as I do love more complex systems (Uplink remains one of my all time favorite games!) I do want to make clear that hacking in Core Decay is still just one mechanic out of many :)

SGM

I somewhat disagree with "there is no reason to not hack everything" applying to deus ex 1. As the game always pushed you towards finding log in information, because that removed the timer, which is probably the main challenge of hacking in DE1, loging in gave you all the time to read emails and on security terminals, look around with the cameras (I liked the ability to use control the cameras from terminals, more cute than practical perhaps, but it fits perfectly with an immersive interactive world).

I am not opposed to hacking being a resouce cost, but I don't see how making it a rare resource keeps it distinct from multitools/lockpicking. In fact it begs the question: What if I want to hack an Basic but locked office PC that only has a few emails about company picnics/coworker chitchat, I have to sacrifice an expensive resource for something that will obviously only contain side lore? Or are all unimportant PCs unlocked? which would be silly.

The only real critiqie with deus ex 1 hacking I had was the lack of security rating, as just one level in hacking to access Everything was too free. But otherwise, getting to read versalife worker emails, and getting to use terminals you found physically was fine, that made it distinct from multitools/lockpicks while giving you free access to the worldbuilding emails if you cared, even if unbalanced since trained hacking worked for everything. Some things just don't need to tied to resource management, at least not all the time, like stealth takedowns, "there's no reason not to knockout every enemy you see" isn't a bad thing, as long as the game made you work for it

Again, I am not opposed to resource hacking, it could also turn out really well m, just some thoughts

Ivar Hill

SGM You bring up some interesting points!

I would argue that in DX1, the timer is not a gameplay challenge as much as it exists purely for immersion - after all, it's trivial to simply wait and keep hacking and repeat, and in practice the environmental dangers are not really that relevant. I do think there is a worldbuilding factor to it that is appealing, it feels exciting to hack something with a running timer - and in that sense the DX1 approach does work quite nicely.

On the distinction from multitools and lockpicking, I don't think you're wrong here! It does fill essentially the same role, although sometimes I think that's all that is really needed. Using DXHR as a case study, it had the same reasoning when consolidating all 3 mechanics into the exact same mechanic - but even though it's mostly the same mechanically, that has issues both immersion-wise and in terms of making the level design and exploration feel more varied. Or to take an even more extreme example, universal ammo in Invisible War, which made both ammo and inventory management feel a lot more abstracted away from the world.

All that being said, I do agree with your central argument that not everything has to be tied to resource management, and the exact balance here is still something that is being iterated on. To demonstrate this by addressing your concern, the initial idea for more 'trivial' locked computers has been to more commonly tie those to other means of getting into the accounts, such as finding a sysadmin's user account override password, or a database of employee passwords, and so on - but, if this turns out to not be enough, we can easily consider balancing this by for instance only have hacking shards required for the higher security tier of terminal and not the base level one.

Thanks for these thoughts, they are always appreciated! :)