Goonhub
10-01-2020, 03:28 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-01-2020, 04:50 AM by Matticus0. Edited 1 time in total.)
I'm a relatively new player, so I'm sure my voice doesn't carry much weight, but I've really been enjoying the packet system and I think it's something that makes goonstation really special. I agree the system could be tweaked, but I would be disheartened if it was made too un-fun.
When I started I was immediately drawn to the computer systems as it appealed to my IRL hobbies, and the whole "hacking" mechanic drew me in to learn more. I figured out my packetnerdery from Zamujasa's pages on wiki and playing around in tech storage, and ended up being able to remote control my own telesci pad pretty reliably, make mechcomp monstrosities and figured out the secrets of APCs and laptops, which was a huge amount of fun (though I've been careful not to use it for things that would be un-fun for other people, as a pen-and-paper roleplay guy I generally think it's more about everyone's fun than just my own). Some may have seen my character Frederick Blumble doing dumb stuff with telesci on the RP servers, in the odd times I can get away from the kids to play.
I can see exactly where the exploits are, having identified them myself and avoided using them. It's a bit disappointing to see some hard-won methods getting out on a youtube tutorial, so shortly after I learned them, but they certainly weren't secrets, and were only ever the basics.
I was surprised at a few things in my journey that didn't make much sense - why it was so easy to get superuser access, why netpass_heads was just hidden in a random guardbuddy command, and why doors didn't seem to care about the player authorisation in packets, but did so in normal operation.
It seems the doors and lockers have become the main point of contention. But I should mention that su access is required for telescience nerdery as well, and to take a broad-brush approach and limit that to heads and AI for me would be a shame. There's not actually much you can do with su access as it is, but it unlocks the netpass_heads, which mainly only used for lockers. There's already crackable safes, the armory is crackable, everything is crackable in some way, that's part of the fun of goonstation.
It should be noted that other Z-level areas also have lockers - that's primarily the ones I go and crack because I don't want to steal a player's stuff. In-fact, packets seems to be an intended tool to use for some adventure zones.
It makes sense for hacking to be confined more to mechanics, they already have the gloves and tools. And just like people can steal gloves, anyone can steal /find some mechcomp bits.
It looks like the computer bits of the codebase are being worked on anyway, so it's probably not desirable to mess around with SU and the netpass_heads locations. I think suitable code changes in doors and lockers are best.
So here are my proposals:
Doors / locker opening packets should need the departmental numeric acc_code key/value pair, like SU access does. This reduces the power of device frames to auto-open everything so fast.
Doors / lockers should only accept opening packets sent from the mainframe like APCs, this just makes sense contextually as they can be AI controlled. This removes the ability for PDAs alone to open them as they cannot spoof sender by default, so now you need mechcomp / computers too.
Suddenly packet hacking now is more difficult, but still not gated to heads / AI. No more instant all-access device frames because of the need to pick the right acc_code for the area. No more basic PDA door opening without setting up some mechcomp. And people need to learn all the numeric acc_codes now.
To address traceability:
Fight fire with fire, the untraceability of potential criminals can be mitigated using DWAINE and the mainframe radio. With SU access you can mkdir /mnt/radio/1411 and /mnt/radio/1431, and then use grep -sr open /mnt/radio/1411 or grep -sr unlock /mnt/radio/1431 to identify suspicious logs, then use cat to read the sender address. Any AI could set this up at roundstart - perhaps it could be put on the wiki? I'm not sure if anything else really sends out wireless packets to open doors and lockers other than criminals.
I don't want to just recommend changes without offering to do it myself though, I just don't know how to go about getting access to the codebase or the wiki, nor if I'd be welcome. These were just my thoughts for a simple solution that didn't go too far.
When I started I was immediately drawn to the computer systems as it appealed to my IRL hobbies, and the whole "hacking" mechanic drew me in to learn more. I figured out my packetnerdery from Zamujasa's pages on wiki and playing around in tech storage, and ended up being able to remote control my own telesci pad pretty reliably, make mechcomp monstrosities and figured out the secrets of APCs and laptops, which was a huge amount of fun (though I've been careful not to use it for things that would be un-fun for other people, as a pen-and-paper roleplay guy I generally think it's more about everyone's fun than just my own). Some may have seen my character Frederick Blumble doing dumb stuff with telesci on the RP servers, in the odd times I can get away from the kids to play.
I can see exactly where the exploits are, having identified them myself and avoided using them. It's a bit disappointing to see some hard-won methods getting out on a youtube tutorial, so shortly after I learned them, but they certainly weren't secrets, and were only ever the basics.
I was surprised at a few things in my journey that didn't make much sense - why it was so easy to get superuser access, why netpass_heads was just hidden in a random guardbuddy command, and why doors didn't seem to care about the player authorisation in packets, but did so in normal operation.
It seems the doors and lockers have become the main point of contention. But I should mention that su access is required for telescience nerdery as well, and to take a broad-brush approach and limit that to heads and AI for me would be a shame. There's not actually much you can do with su access as it is, but it unlocks the netpass_heads, which mainly only used for lockers. There's already crackable safes, the armory is crackable, everything is crackable in some way, that's part of the fun of goonstation.
It should be noted that other Z-level areas also have lockers - that's primarily the ones I go and crack because I don't want to steal a player's stuff. In-fact, packets seems to be an intended tool to use for some adventure zones.
It makes sense for hacking to be confined more to mechanics, they already have the gloves and tools. And just like people can steal gloves, anyone can steal /find some mechcomp bits.
It looks like the computer bits of the codebase are being worked on anyway, so it's probably not desirable to mess around with SU and the netpass_heads locations. I think suitable code changes in doors and lockers are best.
So here are my proposals:
Doors / locker opening packets should need the departmental numeric acc_code key/value pair, like SU access does. This reduces the power of device frames to auto-open everything so fast.
Doors / lockers should only accept opening packets sent from the mainframe like APCs, this just makes sense contextually as they can be AI controlled. This removes the ability for PDAs alone to open them as they cannot spoof sender by default, so now you need mechcomp / computers too.
Suddenly packet hacking now is more difficult, but still not gated to heads / AI. No more instant all-access device frames because of the need to pick the right acc_code for the area. No more basic PDA door opening without setting up some mechcomp. And people need to learn all the numeric acc_codes now.
To address traceability:
Fight fire with fire, the untraceability of potential criminals can be mitigated using DWAINE and the mainframe radio. With SU access you can mkdir /mnt/radio/1411 and /mnt/radio/1431, and then use grep -sr open /mnt/radio/1411 or grep -sr unlock /mnt/radio/1431 to identify suspicious logs, then use cat to read the sender address. Any AI could set this up at roundstart - perhaps it could be put on the wiki? I'm not sure if anything else really sends out wireless packets to open doors and lockers other than criminals.
I don't want to just recommend changes without offering to do it myself though, I just don't know how to go about getting access to the codebase or the wiki, nor if I'd be welcome. These were just my thoughts for a simple solution that didn't go too far.