I'm a level 10 INT build. Points are largely spec'd into quick hacks. I got short circuit and overheat both of which count as non-lethal(Fire doesn't kill I guess?). Majority of the missions I playthrough I can just zoom in from afar with scan, drop short circuit and overheat on enemies ad nauseum until all enemies are cleared. I'm either dropping these hacks from a far away distance or I'm doing it through the security cameras. They rarely upload the hacks to locate me(I wish they did it more often) and they seem to have no measures for how to deal with me. At a certain point, It feels like i'm playing Watch Dogs. With quick hacks the game feels very uneven as even though i'm on hard i'm able to just go through enemies with ease to the point where I had an actual encounter with a boss fight it felt jarring to deal with something that is completely outside my build(which is another discussion)
From a lore perspective its also jarring. At this point of time in 2077, things like network security and connected augments are very well established in the culture. One would think there would be someone who would be sufficiently paranoid enough to keep their augments completely offline and invulnerable from hacks. Or more enemies who would at least go the non-augmented route either because of said security issue or just from personal choices.
But i'm not here to just complain. I do believe that the hack mechanics can be improved with balance. My personal suggestions to potentially help the balance of quickhacking would include:
-Make quickhacks cost more RAM if done through cameras. Would encourage more active exploration of the environment and less cheesing of your enemies from far away.
-Counterhacks proc'd by enemies if you drop quick hacks on them. Things like instant-overheat applied to you, position reveal upload etc.
-Have enemies you just can't hack into. I.e, enemies who have no augmented devices attached to them or someone sensible and smart enough to keep their augments off the net.
-Have remote quickhacks be generally more costly than if done inside of an enemy computer. Again this is to encourage taking the risk of actually going into the enemy base to drop hacks as opposed to just sitting outside.
-RAM as "ammo" as opposed to regen. Regeneration of RAM is also what encourages me to just be able to sit from afar quickhacking enemies with little to no risk to myself. RAM ammo could be a drop from destroyed drones, mechs or even servers (in units of 1-4) but could also be bought from quickhack vendors. Doing this would also hopefully make quick hacking feel like they have "tactical" considerations for dropping enemies.
-As an addition to the above suggestion perhaps it could be so that the RAM regen ability instead makes it so that you could have more RAM per ammo consumed (1 RAM gained at level 1 and 3 RAM gained at level 3)
From a lore perspective its also jarring. At this point of time in 2077, things like network security and connected augments are very well established in the culture. One would think there would be someone who would be sufficiently paranoid enough to keep their augments completely offline and invulnerable from hacks. Or more enemies who would at least go the non-augmented route either because of said security issue or just from personal choices.
But i'm not here to just complain. I do believe that the hack mechanics can be improved with balance. My personal suggestions to potentially help the balance of quickhacking would include:
-Make quickhacks cost more RAM if done through cameras. Would encourage more active exploration of the environment and less cheesing of your enemies from far away.
-Counterhacks proc'd by enemies if you drop quick hacks on them. Things like instant-overheat applied to you, position reveal upload etc.
-Have enemies you just can't hack into. I.e, enemies who have no augmented devices attached to them or someone sensible and smart enough to keep their augments off the net.
-Have remote quickhacks be generally more costly than if done inside of an enemy computer. Again this is to encourage taking the risk of actually going into the enemy base to drop hacks as opposed to just sitting outside.
-RAM as "ammo" as opposed to regen. Regeneration of RAM is also what encourages me to just be able to sit from afar quickhacking enemies with little to no risk to myself. RAM ammo could be a drop from destroyed drones, mechs or even servers (in units of 1-4) but could also be bought from quickhack vendors. Doing this would also hopefully make quick hacking feel like they have "tactical" considerations for dropping enemies.
-As an addition to the above suggestion perhaps it could be so that the RAM regen ability instead makes it so that you could have more RAM per ammo consumed (1 RAM gained at level 1 and 3 RAM gained at level 3)