Ginx

No, this thread is rather specifically about the timers (absolute timer and reconfig timer) in the hacking minigame and whether or not it is "too fast". The timer speed (count) is influenced negatively by AP and positively by equipment mods (integrated circuits etc) and skills. I had noticed that during normal gameplay the timers sometimes were *really* low, approaching worst-case impossibility (worst case being the codes being diametrically opposite the starting corners of the target boxes), which I think is rather silly for such a minigame - it essentially reduces it to a luck-based activity. Anyway, I decided to test the sensitivity of the hacking minigame by messing around with the AP counts. That's when I found out that there wasn't any limitation to the impact of AP on these timers. The hacking minigame is the only minigame which doesn't have constrained difficulty variables. This, to me, suggests lazy coding - or it could be that some coder just forgot to define the limits, and it slipped through QA. Either way, it *is* a mistake - but what's done is done, and what I am trying to do is to figure out a way of compensating for it. I haven't made any complaints (except for the complaint about unhelpfulness), I have made observations and one accusation (which I stand by). Anyway, if anyone finds any variables that influence the minigames - specifically the timers, but anything else would be helpful as well - please say so in here.

I'm not looking for a fix, because that would involve constraining the timer variable and that requires a coder who has access to the source code. What I am looking for is second way to influence the timers, or the effect that AP has on the timer, within the confines of the config files. By pointing fingers and throwing around words like "hacker" and "cheater", you are being entirely unhelpful and I am starting to think that my time would be better spent figuring out the internals of other games for modding purposes. Modding tends to involve "breaking" things and then figuring out creative ways to "unbreak" them. Mods don't get far if they have to stay within the dogmatic constraints of the original system. We're supposed to push the limits of what we can do, not constrain ourself by what we "should" (and shouldn't) do. Now stop being unhelpful. If you don't have anything to say, then don't say anything. Otherwise, at least try to help out here.

No, as I've said before the problem is with the hacking minigame only. The bypass and lockpick minigames *are* constrained to a maximum level of difficulty (13 nodes in bypass, six columns in lockpick, both of the games have a minimum timelimit that they don't go below). I still stand by what I said about bad coding, and I *did* add that it wasn't that bad in this case (limited number of influencing variables makes tracing relatively easy even in worst-case scenarios).

It's not about cheating. It's about leaving the door open to game crippling bugs. Any programmer knows this; if you don't confine your scopes properly, you may end up with bugs that can be nearly impossible to trace. This case in particular isn't *that* bad, but as an indicator of the general level of strictness of coding it's not good. A bug in anything that influences AP count could potentially break the game in this way - that is not good coding! Besides, this is getting off track - the point here is to figure out what config settings may influence the hacking timers. It's not just needed for this, since there may be future mods with different AP settings and they'll need to reign in unwanted effects like this one. I've gone through the game four times without any modifications, now I'm just messing around with the configs to figure out what does what and see how the game reacts.

Then why the hell isn't there an upper limit to how many AP points can influence the difficulty? When the possibility of such things is left open in the game mechanics the programmers basically open the door to bugs. Lazy programming.

As the guy above said, on Hard and with a hacked amount of AP you'll instantly fail any hack job. You barely even get to see the screen with the codes before you get a failure message. It is thoroughly annoying, and as far as I can tell it is the result of silly coding - there simply isn't a limit to how much the hack timer can be influenced by AP. This is silly because such a limit seems to exist for both of the other two minigames - lockpick and bypass still have non-impossible timers (difficult, but still not impossible). And I still can't find any reference to the timers in the config files, no way to change them or set how much they are influenced by AP...

The problem with the short timers is not in the trainer. I had the problem myself, and I didn't have the trainer until after in order to *fix* it... haven't actually tried it yet, tho. I prefer to treat the cause of the issue rather than the symptom.

Isn't there a way to change the timer variables in the configs somewhere? I have the trainer, but I'd prefer not to use it unless I have to (it's a hassle, really ).

I get insane (less than 1 sec) timers on hacking with the leveling tables you provided (instant max level). Makes it impossible to get out of medical, and when I modified it with a 2000XP delay I forgot that there's one more necessary hack (the one in Parker's orientation course). I guess it gets somewhat fixed once you get the Integrated Circuits armor mod, but I'd rather just change the timers manually somehow. You say you do that - my question is, how?