Let's face it - Hacknet is bloody horrible. I thought I'd roll one to see what it was like, and man is it frustrating.
There have been promised improvements since patch 130, and it remains a mess. You can skip past my anecdotal ravings - the actual suggestions are towards the bottom of the post.
Let's start off with the newby hacker.
* They start with 28 weaponlore as standard - but with no weapon that fires bullets. This also means you have to either suck it up and use the stiletto to do the MC5 missions, or you have to pay out 800 credits for a pistol. If you intend to be a pure hacker, you have to divert DEX points from TC, to put into pistols/rifles. That means you also have to LOM those points back out later.
* The MC5 missions give pistols, rifles, drones, cannons, APU and PSI modules... no hack modules.
* There's no-where in the MC5 that allows a newby hacker to do that they're meant to do. They start with an attack and a heal software, but no logins to use them.
So that's not a good start
Then comes the Mr Jones mission.
* It's poorly written. It doesn't advise you to hack the GR to get to the decryption terminal. When I read up on TH, I couldn't then find the terminal, so I gave up.
* I gave up as the reward is a TL 90 hack tool. Sure, that's handy if you take your LE out and don't want to drop it if you get PKed, but other than that - does the TL90 tool give any benefit above a TL30? I've heard it doesn't.
By this point I'm feeling a little bit jaded, but I press on. I make my way to Plaza and into the Low Sec login in P1. I'm greeted by mobs that take aaaaages to kill.
* My HCK power is drained very quickly by my weapon. It then takes a long time to recharge. Killing the mobs is tedious.
* You finally get them down to near-death, and they fly away out of range. So much for that kill for another 5 minutes until it comes back.
* I spot the container with the rare hackcode in it. Oh good, I think to myself. Then I realise there's no path to it... I jump down - get the item in the container, and then I have to do a reset position to get back to the entrance. That's another couple of minutes stood around doing nothing whilst I wait for that. But ohhoho! I ports me a few feet from where I was stood before! So I'm stuck and have to suicide. Then it turns out those fragments are useless now anyway. You can't even sell them at Yos.
So - suggestions
* Fix the starting template for the hacker - give them skills that are useful. OR give them items that are useful.
* Give a better item with the Mr Jones mission - an attack module would be nice to tie in with the weapons everyone else gets. OR make TL90 more useful, like faster HCK regen.
* If you can't make the TL of the hack tool affect HCK regen speed, then either increase the rate it recharges, or lower the rate it depletes.
* Keep the mobs on the paths.
* Introduce hacking missions. Getting a player to hack a citycom terminal to unlock these missions would be fun. This would also give pure Hackers a platform for gaining Symp with their faction for FSM.
* Mobs could drop code segments - these can either be used to complete hack missions, or sold for credits.
* Characters should gain CON from being attacked in Hacknet. CON gained from being shot by any other mob in the game affects me in Hacknet, so shots in Hacknet should increase CON that's usable outside of it.
* Increase damage of mobs, or reduce the effectiveness of the heal - atm the heal outstrips all damage. If CON could be gained in Hacknet, it would stop people just using it as the new place to raise CON without danger.
* Remove damage to armour in Hacknet. Armour provides no bonus to runners in the net - so it should not be damagable. Either that, or make armour affect Hacknet, and keep the damage.
* Redesign the levels so that they're more intuitive to navigate, and remove the dead ends.
* I understand rare code pieces were meant to be made into rare Hacknet weapons. Make it so! Or at least put in a system where we can sell them to an NPC for a reward.
There have been promised improvements since patch 130, and it remains a mess. You can skip past my anecdotal ravings - the actual suggestions are towards the bottom of the post.
Let's start off with the newby hacker.
* They start with 28 weaponlore as standard - but with no weapon that fires bullets. This also means you have to either suck it up and use the stiletto to do the MC5 missions, or you have to pay out 800 credits for a pistol. If you intend to be a pure hacker, you have to divert DEX points from TC, to put into pistols/rifles. That means you also have to LOM those points back out later.
* The MC5 missions give pistols, rifles, drones, cannons, APU and PSI modules... no hack modules.
* There's no-where in the MC5 that allows a newby hacker to do that they're meant to do. They start with an attack and a heal software, but no logins to use them.
So that's not a good start
Then comes the Mr Jones mission.
* It's poorly written. It doesn't advise you to hack the GR to get to the decryption terminal. When I read up on TH, I couldn't then find the terminal, so I gave up.
* I gave up as the reward is a TL 90 hack tool. Sure, that's handy if you take your LE out and don't want to drop it if you get PKed, but other than that - does the TL90 tool give any benefit above a TL30? I've heard it doesn't.
By this point I'm feeling a little bit jaded, but I press on. I make my way to Plaza and into the Low Sec login in P1. I'm greeted by mobs that take aaaaages to kill.
* My HCK power is drained very quickly by my weapon. It then takes a long time to recharge. Killing the mobs is tedious.
* You finally get them down to near-death, and they fly away out of range. So much for that kill for another 5 minutes until it comes back.
* I spot the container with the rare hackcode in it. Oh good, I think to myself. Then I realise there's no path to it... I jump down - get the item in the container, and then I have to do a reset position to get back to the entrance. That's another couple of minutes stood around doing nothing whilst I wait for that. But ohhoho! I ports me a few feet from where I was stood before! So I'm stuck and have to suicide. Then it turns out those fragments are useless now anyway. You can't even sell them at Yos.
So - suggestions
* Fix the starting template for the hacker - give them skills that are useful. OR give them items that are useful.
* Give a better item with the Mr Jones mission - an attack module would be nice to tie in with the weapons everyone else gets. OR make TL90 more useful, like faster HCK regen.
* If you can't make the TL of the hack tool affect HCK regen speed, then either increase the rate it recharges, or lower the rate it depletes.
* Keep the mobs on the paths.
* Introduce hacking missions. Getting a player to hack a citycom terminal to unlock these missions would be fun. This would also give pure Hackers a platform for gaining Symp with their faction for FSM.
* Mobs could drop code segments - these can either be used to complete hack missions, or sold for credits.
* Characters should gain CON from being attacked in Hacknet. CON gained from being shot by any other mob in the game affects me in Hacknet, so shots in Hacknet should increase CON that's usable outside of it.
* Increase damage of mobs, or reduce the effectiveness of the heal - atm the heal outstrips all damage. If CON could be gained in Hacknet, it would stop people just using it as the new place to raise CON without danger.
* Remove damage to armour in Hacknet. Armour provides no bonus to runners in the net - so it should not be damagable. Either that, or make armour affect Hacknet, and keep the damage.
* Redesign the levels so that they're more intuitive to navigate, and remove the dead ends.
* I understand rare code pieces were meant to be made into rare Hacknet weapons. Make it so! Or at least put in a system where we can sell them to an NPC for a reward.