Netrunning in 2.0/Being Traced

[Parceble]

I really don't like the being traced while quick hacking system. If you kill the person you're quick hacking the trace should stop. It makes the game pretty much impossible to play as a stealthy Netrunner.

If you're in a building with say 10 people and you quick hack and kill one enemy in a room it should stop the tracing so the whole building isn't alerted. The way the game is right now you might as well not do any Netrunning and just spec into guns and health and always go in guns blazing because that's what it turns into eventually anyway.

Sure, maybe Netrunning was OP originally but 1. It's a single player RPG so really, who cares? 2. A huge draw to CP is Netrunning. It's one of the main things that separates it from other RPG's. But it's now just about pointless. and 3. It honestly just makes the game un-fun.. I was excited to jump back into the 2.0 update but I think I may put the game down and see if the tracing gets removed. It sucks because I actually loved the game on release. It had it's issues but I still enjoyed it. Now I'm just like... Bleh. The build I was going into just simply isn't fun or doable. You can't go into an area as a Netrunner and play stealthy. It's literally impossible.

So as a TLDR: I hope they remove tracing from quick hacks or at least make it so if the person you are quick hacking dies, the tracing stops.

 

[zzzfrofzzz]

netrunner on this patch ...
turn off any tracking device , camera and co , use only quick hacks wihout tracking , take perks for stacking quick hacks
and hoping nobody notice you xD

to be honest , knife "re now the most OP thing if you want stealth gameplay , it can overkill any minions
for mini boss , i use stack quick hacks without tracking and throwing knife , that's works pretty well

 

[oldmanwannanappy]

I also hate the tracing after the target dies. To be fair though, it's by far not the only thing I don't like in 2.0

 

[ShinAkira00]

It's not much of an issue for me since most of my stealth kills are takedowns, I use hacks to supplement it not to take down as much. That said, I can see how it may be frustrating and Netrunning does feel a bit too dependent on gun play or melee combat. It doesn't feel like it's own thing as much anymore and that needs to be addressed.

I don't think they gave netrunning as much support as they gave to other builds, they nerfed it (which was deserved) but didn't add anything except stacking quickhacks and that's not enough. Why wasn't Monowire should have been a stealth cyber-arm to enhance the effectiveness of hacks if connected directly to enemy NPC or systems. The other cyberware also didn't have any direct support for netrunning, just some stat boosts that were negligible.

 

[ToreadorVampire]

I think there's an easy way to get the old Netrunning experience in v2.0.

Go to Settings -> Gameplay -> Set difficulty to Easy.

It makes 100% sense to me that - in a world in which everyone is connected and you can wirelessly hack enemies - that they're connected to all of their buddies. So of course if you hack one of them, all of their friends are still tracing your location. Until you kill everyone in the network, there are still enemies tracing you.

 

[Crimsomrider]

Yup, don't like it either how tracing is magically being performed by nobody, so it's just a boring and shallow cheating gimmick made against stealth netrunners that puts a timer on their stealth segments for wanting to actually enjoy the darn build. Meanwhile all other playstyles get to enjoy their stealth fully.

All CDPR has to do is one of these two things and tracing is perfected;

• Either make tracing a mechanic only present if there is a dedicated Netrunner on the location (orange highlighted enemies). This for immersion purposes would be perfect because of their ICE protections used to protect the network, so taking them out would leave the area exposed to full hacking.
• Or tracing can be performed in every encounter, but once activated it marks a randomly chosen target that must be incapacitated in order to fully stop it (this one is pretty gimmicky, but at least it's better than what we currently have)

Right now tracing is nothing but a "How dare you have fun as a Stealth Netrunner" gimmick that shoehorns every stealth Netrunner towards Sonic Shock T3 quickhack. They literally locked the stealth playstyle behind one singular quickhack and punish the player if they don't use it.

Imagine if other playstyles had such a severe punishment for stealth where taking out an enemy from behind via grab/a knife/a silenced pistol would trigger a timer because the enemy "magically does not answer some non-existent radio check".

EDIT: And such an obvious tweak now exists as a mod;

Spoiler

Disable Reveal Position Hack v2.0 support

Disables revealing position hack from other than Netrunner.

www.nexusmods.com

 

[Nsaneone2000]

I have to agree I wasn't a fan of the trace location happening when the NPC your attacking is taken out, but yes everything changed around level 16 when I was able to get Sonic Shock. Oh wow when it did everything became so much more fun!! I have a strong feeling things will likely get a whole lot better as I level up further, i.e. queueing more hacks etc.

Maybe they were going for what others have already mentioned - in such a world everyone is linked - and when a hack is performed, everyone is aware. But yes this doesn't explain when you silently take down someone, the same doesn't happen. I think some of the ideas mentioned above would be brilliant. Or maybe even in a queue, anything past the first/second hack will trigger a trace? On the whole really enjoying it now, nice one

 

[Xamalion]

I'm so mad about this tracing BS. There's one enemy, all the others are more than 50 meters away. I nuke him with Synapse Burnout, and I get traced. BY FUCKING WHO? This makes absolutely zero sense, even in universe. I hack someone from stealth, no one noticing it, so who can trace me back? Also, why can't I interrupt this? They could at least make a counter attack possible, so until the tracing is successful you can kill the tracer and are fine. They killed stealth netrunning completely by forcing me constantly into battles I don't want to have. Thanks for nothing.

And by the way, if in universe everyone is connected, stealth would be completely impossible, because everyone would immediately notice that someone is missing when stealth killed. But throwing a fucking knive at someone is not traceable, no one notices that. So there's zero logic behind this.

 

[ToreadorVampire]

I've just spent a few more hours playing and I noticed some interesting effects related to being traced. Mainly this was in relation to the Yelena Sidorova NCPD scanner hustle but also an assault in progress which I completed stealthily elsewhere.

• It seems when combat-quickhacking via cameras, enemies don't attempt to trace you?
  • I can't be sure but I directly combat-hacked Yelena via camera and she didn't even start a trace, meaning I could just wait for my RAM to regenerate and then fry her again
  • Maybe this was a bug, maybe it's because V's meatbody was too far away, maybe it's because I'd already damaged her by blowing a nearby explosive cannister, maybe it's Maybelline
• Even when enemies successfully trace you, not all of the enemies come for you, some remain unaware or simply retain their behaviour
  • This might be proximity-based, so only enemies within X metres can respond to a completed trace
  • This might be numbers-based, like "no more than X enemies respond to a trace". I can see how 50 enemies converging on your position all at once might feel unfair.
• Quickhacking objects in the area like explosive objects doesn't cause a trace, even if you cause multiple fatalities using that technique

Some more detail about what I actually did for that Organised Crime NCPD scanner hustle:

The first enemy, outdoors at the top of the ramp (body too low to force the door near Ryder's) I killed using a combination of a knife throw and pistol. He was alone so didn't want to waste getting traced too early. As I got to the top of the ramp I hit the 3 visible enemies with a volley of quickhacks. I was hidden at the top of the ramp, outdoors and they were all at the bottom of the ramp, one netrunner significantly further back, only just visible. They all fell without detecting me but I was traced. By the time their buddies had finished the trace and covered the distance to the bottom of the ramp (first chance of having LoS to V) I had enough RAM recovered to flatline them too. As direct effect of the trace, a total of three enemies came for me. Two on foot from the left and one from up-high on the right.

Of that backup responding to the trace, that was by no means the entire troupe. Yelena (the boss), a robot, another goon on foot and also the sniper were still in the area and didn't do anything differently after the trace completed. Further away still were two more goons who (when I reached them) were clearly also oblivious to me.

Once I knew I was in the clear from trace-responders I continued further hacks via the cameras and dealt with the sniper, Yelena, the robot and the other goon. Whilst hacking Yelena via camera, at no point did she begin a trace. The goon on foot I killed in one-shot by using distract enemies to lure him to an explosive cannister and then blowing it up in his face. I softened the robot up with a similar technique but then hit with two T2 short circuits in a row. Yelena on the other hand, yes, I softened her up with a detonated explosive cannister but she was so darn expensive to hack directly. I hit her with a short circuit, fully expecting her to come dashing toward me, and having to finish her off with good old fashioned guns. But - I hit her with a short circuit and she didn't even start trying to trace me. She just continued wandering aimlessly. That gave me all the time in the world to recover RAM and hit her again. I had to put three short circuits into her before she flatlined.

So - I dunno if Yelena didn't trace me because "I'd already been traced but she didn't come for me when I was, so she wasn't going to change her mind now". Maybe my meatbody was too far away to be able to trace it (I was hacking via camera at this point). Maybe it was just bugged or maybe having blown up a cannister in her face changed her behaviour somehow.

 

[Draconifors]

It seems when combat-quickhacking via cameras, enemies don't attempt to trace you?

They do. Not always, but in my experience most times.

 

[BarefootWarrior]

This is a real issue with me as well and I'm only at level 3. Non of my hacks are 'non-tracable' except 'ping' , which (at this point) makes no sense to me. At this level I am limited to tier 1 hacks. I was asking the same question, who is tracing me? I think the folks at CDPR need to rethink this one, especially at beginning player levels. Give a player a chance to build up, this is very frustrating.

 

[ToreadorVampire]

This is a real issue with me as well and I'm only at level 3. Non of my hacks are 'non-tracable' except 'ping' , which (at this point) makes no sense to me. At this level I am limited to tier 1 hacks. I was asking the same question, who is tracing me? I think the folks at CDPR need to rethink this one, especially at beginning player levels. Give a player a chance to build up, this is very frustrating.

At super low levels, yeah, at best I could use quickhacks to supplement other attacks; usually pistols since I'm planning on investing in Cool as well with this character.

I'm now at level 12 on this play-through and I've got my INT to 18 with some RAM boosting/recovering cyberware. I'm just at the point where I'm beginning to be able to complete gigs/NCPD scanner hustles without drawing a regular weapon, using quickhacks alone.

You'll get there as you get the levels to specialise. Tier 2 makes a big difference!

 

[BarefootWarrior]

At super low levels, yeah, at best I could use quickhacks to supplement other attacks; usually pistols since I'm planning on investing in Cool as well with this character.

I'm now at level 12 on this play-through and I've got my INT to 18 with some RAM boosting/recovering cyberware. I'm just at the point where I'm beginning to be able to complete gigs/NCPD scanner hustles without drawing a regular weapon, using quickhacks alone.

You'll get there as you get the levels to specialise. Tier 2 makes a big difference!

I agree, and thanks for the comment. I just hit level 6. My street cred sucks, still only at 3 but working on it. Right now I'm just working my way up, ignoring the missions / storyline and trying to build up. The pistol and sword (yep, a sword!) are my main stay at the moment. My other issue is the police...again! I'll be fighting a gang, the police show up out of nowhere and ignore the gang completely, they start shooting at me! Hope I get to tier 2 soon, jeeez!

Before anyone says anything, I am on 'EASY', if this is the easy setting, I can't even imagine what the highier settings are like.

 

[ToreadorVampire]

A trick which really helps stealthy netrunner builds is the leg cyberware which allows double-jump. I get a feeling it's tier two actually, but once it's available you can get it from Vik.

With that, you can climb to areas where most enemies can't reach. So, even when they detect you, you can take cover and the best they can do is toss grenades at you. They can't bring their main attacks to bear and slice you to ribbons. Beware there are some enemies who can power jump and can still reach you in those areas though. Your scanner will tell you.

 

[Veracious88]

Seems like cyberware malfunction + synapse burnout for infinite overclock is going to be the go to play style for netrunner now. The tracing mechanic is still crap though, even after all the enemies have been wiped the trace bar still fills up sometimes (a bug?) adding to my anxiety of thinking I may have left someone alive somewhere.

 

[Nsaneone2000]

For me my mind changed when I was able to get Sonic Shock. Then suddenly it became like the hacking in 1.6. I could choose to apply the hacks I wanted to cause minimal disruption (Sonic Shock followed by Short Circuit, or really Sonic Shock followed by Anything), but then when I wanted to go a little crazy, just mass spam Contagion, and let them find me . Having the choice now is quite fun

I truly hope they do implement some of the suggestions mentioned. They seem too good to not do. Either find a central server / Netrunner on a site, which has to be hacked/taken out to disable any trace.

 

[nwg5817]

I mean this is one of the arguments they had against vanilla net running is that you could just use one thing and wipe everything. Now you have to intro with Sonic shock how is that fun game play in the long term? At least I could switch between overheat shock and contagion but now I have to intro with sonic shock. How is this a good thing?

News flash cdpr net running was fun and what you built to begin with was great. It could have used some new challenges new difficulties new quick hacks etc. Instead it feels like everything has been pigeonholed and it's not fun. I really like that if you wanted to use mono wire or smart guns you had some versatility but you took out all the other versatility you had going pure netrunner. Also you have to take overclock and at the end of the day everybody's netrunners will have similar builds doing the same thing.

 

[Audi82]

Disable Reveal Position Hack - All Enemies

Prevents all enemies (with no exceptions) from revealing your location when you quickhack them.

www.nexusmods.com

 

[BarefootWarrior]

Disable Reveal Position Hack - All Enemies

Prevents all enemies (with no exceptions) from revealing your location when you quickhack them.

www.nexusmods.com

I just found this....LOL!!! hope it works, after I get to tier 2, I won't mind so much.

 

[jeffaubin24]

I mean, some are complaining about netrunning not being as easy as before while being at a very low level. Of course, if you're anywhere below level 20 or something, you shouldn't expect to be an expert netrunner. It wouldn't make any sense. Beginner netrunner who haven't put a lot of points and perks in intelligence SHOULD be easy to trace. They're beginners.

I used this analogy in another thread, but if you think about enemies being linked via a network, the trace mechanic now makes a lot of sense. It has been established since launch that a group of enemies are all connected to the same local network. For example, the PING mechanic highlights every connection in the network, and all the enemies light up. There is also a gig where you connect to a dead Mox so you can disable the cyberware of another Mox who has gone cyberpsycho. It would be impossible to do that unless every enemy was connected to the same network.

You have to think of enemies as computers connected to the same WIFI network. If you hack someone's wifi and severely limit download speeds, for example, then every computer on the network will notice. Even if you only input a virus that affects a single computer, others on the network would be able to see there was an intruder. Assuming every PC user on the network is technologically literate, they would all try to find the intruder and kick him out. This is how it works in the game, you are intruding in the network, so everyone connected to it can try to trace you. If you use quickhacks on objects not part of the network, like fuel tanks and stuff like that, it doesn't lead to a trace. Also, when you kill an enemy using other means, others on the network don't notice it because it is the equivalent of a computer being turned off. It doesn't raise any alarms on the network.

Nobody talks about the ways in which this update has made netrunning more fun, and even easier sometimes. For example, I used to run into "unconnected" enemies all the time. You couldn't use any quickhacks on those enemies. Now, after playing the update for about 30 hours, I haven't run into any such enemy. I believe they are gone from the game with this update, and you can now attack every single enemy with quickhack. That is a huge change in favor of netrunning.