Now that I have one-hundred-percented the game, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of its systems and where they go wrong. First up on the table: hacking.
Hacking is very, very powerful. That in itself is not necessarily a problem, if it puts you in equally great danger, yet it's exactly this it doesn't do for you. As a result, once you reach Street Cred 29, there just isn't any challenge left. You can take down an army base without ever setting foot in, and without the AI standing a single chance of stopping you. You are a lethal god walking into bases as everybody shuts down around you. Really cool and fun... for about an hour.
So what do I suggest instead?
In one of the early trailers you'd need a monowire to hack someone at a distance. That should partially come back. Every enemy squad is in their own subnet, so what hacking should be is that you should have to gain access to their subnet first. However, rather than just pointing your scanner at a distant enemy, you should have to make physical connection to either a connected individual (the stealthy grab from behind would serve for this), or through a connected dataterm. To facilitate this, any laptop that provides access to the cameras or turrets in the network should also count for this. If you have a monowire, you can do this from a reasonable distance.
Once you have a physical connection to the individual or a dataterm, you can initiate your Breach Protocol to gain access to the network. As an alternative, once you make contact with an individual (through stealth grab or monowire) you can also just initiate Quickhacks.
Back to Breach Protocol, once you are in the enemies' network, you have free reign to point your scanner at enemies and fire off Quickhacks until they are all down. However, since you are now in their network, enemy netrunners are free to pinpoint your positions (basically their version of Ping) and fire off Quickhacks at you trying to take you down. In order to prevent this retaliation, you can disconnect from the network whenever you want, but as a consequence you'll also lose the ability to use Quickhacks. Making hacking work like this will ensure a more dynamic exchange, rather than a single sided massacre.
Another point is that, if enemy Netrunners are to live by the same rules as you, they cannot hack you if you are not in their network. They should have options to remedy that situation with the addition of two new enemy types, both designed to make contact with the player and force him or her into the network. One is an enemy that will just try to make physical contact and plug into your port, the other tries to do the same but has access to a monowire to do it from a distance. Once forcibly connected, enemy Netrunners can upload Quickhacks to you. As a little bonus difficulty enemies who make a physical connection can also upload Quickhacks directly to you, just like you can do to them.
All this said, there should be damage scaling for both the player and enemy Quickhacks based on how many implants you or they have, and there should here and there be an enemy who has no implants at all and thus be completely unhackable. This should be rare for worldbuilding reasons, obviously, but it would be a nice and accurate surprise.
As a final note, the Cyberdeck that enhances Ultimate Quickhacks (Tetratronic Rippler Mk4) is very overpowered, especially since you get it at a measly 29 Street Cred. With that Cyberdeck and some legendary Quickhacks you can clear any area without setting a foot in it. It gets stupidly boring. This decks needs to be nerfed some (Upload time reduction is probably the one that needs to go) and you should need max Street Cred to get it. Switch it aronud with the current max Street Cred deck.
Oh, and maybe graphics-wise it would be more immersive if people didn't literally burst into flames with Overheat. It looks a bit too much like fantasy. Just smoke and the smell of scorched flesh would probably be more accurate, and just as clear to the player.
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TL;DR
Hacking should work like this:
What you can do when you're NOT in the enemy network:
- Quickhack people directly by grabbing them
- Quickhack people from a distance with monowire
- Breach Protocol directly by grabbing (= entering the enemy network)
- Breach Protocol from a distance with monowire (= entering the enemy network)
What you can do when you ARE in the enemy network:
- Quickhack people remotely via scanner
- Disconnect from the network
What the enemy can do when you ARE in the enemy network:
- Netrunners can and WILL quickhack you as often as they can
What the enemy can do when you are NOT in the enemy network:
- Specialized enemies will seek to add you to their Network so their Netrunner can quickhack you
- Hacker enemies will try to connect to you through monowire to upload Quickhacks directly, even if no Netrunner is present
Other notes:
- Damage should scale based on the number of implants
- Tetratronic Rippler Mk4 needs to be nerfed and put at endgame status (i.e. max Street Cred)
Hacking is very, very powerful. That in itself is not necessarily a problem, if it puts you in equally great danger, yet it's exactly this it doesn't do for you. As a result, once you reach Street Cred 29, there just isn't any challenge left. You can take down an army base without ever setting foot in, and without the AI standing a single chance of stopping you. You are a lethal god walking into bases as everybody shuts down around you. Really cool and fun... for about an hour.
So what do I suggest instead?
In one of the early trailers you'd need a monowire to hack someone at a distance. That should partially come back. Every enemy squad is in their own subnet, so what hacking should be is that you should have to gain access to their subnet first. However, rather than just pointing your scanner at a distant enemy, you should have to make physical connection to either a connected individual (the stealthy grab from behind would serve for this), or through a connected dataterm. To facilitate this, any laptop that provides access to the cameras or turrets in the network should also count for this. If you have a monowire, you can do this from a reasonable distance.
Once you have a physical connection to the individual or a dataterm, you can initiate your Breach Protocol to gain access to the network. As an alternative, once you make contact with an individual (through stealth grab or monowire) you can also just initiate Quickhacks.
Back to Breach Protocol, once you are in the enemies' network, you have free reign to point your scanner at enemies and fire off Quickhacks until they are all down. However, since you are now in their network, enemy netrunners are free to pinpoint your positions (basically their version of Ping) and fire off Quickhacks at you trying to take you down. In order to prevent this retaliation, you can disconnect from the network whenever you want, but as a consequence you'll also lose the ability to use Quickhacks. Making hacking work like this will ensure a more dynamic exchange, rather than a single sided massacre.
Another point is that, if enemy Netrunners are to live by the same rules as you, they cannot hack you if you are not in their network. They should have options to remedy that situation with the addition of two new enemy types, both designed to make contact with the player and force him or her into the network. One is an enemy that will just try to make physical contact and plug into your port, the other tries to do the same but has access to a monowire to do it from a distance. Once forcibly connected, enemy Netrunners can upload Quickhacks to you. As a little bonus difficulty enemies who make a physical connection can also upload Quickhacks directly to you, just like you can do to them.
All this said, there should be damage scaling for both the player and enemy Quickhacks based on how many implants you or they have, and there should here and there be an enemy who has no implants at all and thus be completely unhackable. This should be rare for worldbuilding reasons, obviously, but it would be a nice and accurate surprise.
As a final note, the Cyberdeck that enhances Ultimate Quickhacks (Tetratronic Rippler Mk4) is very overpowered, especially since you get it at a measly 29 Street Cred. With that Cyberdeck and some legendary Quickhacks you can clear any area without setting a foot in it. It gets stupidly boring. This decks needs to be nerfed some (Upload time reduction is probably the one that needs to go) and you should need max Street Cred to get it. Switch it aronud with the current max Street Cred deck.
Oh, and maybe graphics-wise it would be more immersive if people didn't literally burst into flames with Overheat. It looks a bit too much like fantasy. Just smoke and the smell of scorched flesh would probably be more accurate, and just as clear to the player.
-----
TL;DR
Hacking should work like this:
What you can do when you're NOT in the enemy network:
- Quickhack people directly by grabbing them
- Quickhack people from a distance with monowire
- Breach Protocol directly by grabbing (= entering the enemy network)
- Breach Protocol from a distance with monowire (= entering the enemy network)
What you can do when you ARE in the enemy network:
- Quickhack people remotely via scanner
- Disconnect from the network
What the enemy can do when you ARE in the enemy network:
- Netrunners can and WILL quickhack you as often as they can
What the enemy can do when you are NOT in the enemy network:
- Specialized enemies will seek to add you to their Network so their Netrunner can quickhack you
- Hacker enemies will try to connect to you through monowire to upload Quickhacks directly, even if no Netrunner is present
Other notes:
- Damage should scale based on the number of implants
- Tetratronic Rippler Mk4 needs to be nerfed and put at endgame status (i.e. max Street Cred)
