Goonhub
07-09-2021, 11:03 AM
As a foreword, I'm not 100% sure if the change I'm about to propose is necessary, but I feel like it is definitely worth discussion due to some recent discourse on the subject, and I'd like to outline one way to adjust door hacking if a general nerf is deemed necessary. I've already suggested this in another thread, but I figured I'd make a new one as well.
The premise of this change is to add multiple possible wire layouts an airlock could have, as opposed to all airlocks having the exact same layouts. The purpose of this is to make door hacking more challenging, as it is trivial to find a few tools (screwdriver and wirecutter, preferably crowbar and multitool) and just test on some random maintenance door to find IDscan or the power wires, and quickly waltz into really wherever you wanna go.
Mechanically, there could be say, 10 different wire layouts airlocks in a round can choose from when they're being created. The fact that you still have to guess and check to figure out what each wire does would not change; it's just that one wire which toggles the bolts in one airlock may not be the same as the bolt wire in another airlock (but they could be the same!) You would identify what airlocks have the same layout as other airlocks by a Serial Number that would be at the top of the airlock's UI - for example, a random maintenance door could have a serial number of #6LK1. If you figure out which wires do what in this specific airlock, whenever you come across an airlock with the serial number #6LK1, you'd know exactly which wires do what as you've already hacked a door with that serial number.
Ideally, the *order* of the wires would be completely randomized for all doors, with the color of the wire corresponding to its function. The red wire may be the very topmost wire in one door, and it could be 5 wires from the top in another door, but if they have the same serial number then you know that the red wires both do the same thing.
As a helpful visualization, here are 3 imaginary door panels. Notice that the left and middle doors both have the same Serial Number. If you discover that the Red wire is the AI Control wire when hacking the middle door, you'll know that the Red wire on the left door is the AI Control wire. However, the door on the right does not have the same serial number - the red wire on this door instead is the Safety Wire. Also notice that the left and middle doors have the same wire colors, just rearranged, whereas the right airlock has some different colors.
![[Image: door_example.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/848786134657269790/863131141064884274/door_example.png)
The exact number of possible Serial Numbers a round could have is up for debate, and could even be dynamic and dependent on the map, or just purely RNG. The 10 I used earlier is just an arbitrary number.
You could, either in-game or IRL, have a notebook or text file or just pen and paper, where you write down what wires do what for each serial number and use that as a reference. At least pens and papers and the notekeeper program on PDAs would have more use then!
As a further note, perhaps make some doors just not display their serial number, requiring you to instead guess what the serial number is based on what colors the wires are? This would namely be used for areas like Security and the AI Core/Upload, but not really anywhere else since that'd just be an unnecessary headache.
The premise of this change is to add multiple possible wire layouts an airlock could have, as opposed to all airlocks having the exact same layouts. The purpose of this is to make door hacking more challenging, as it is trivial to find a few tools (screwdriver and wirecutter, preferably crowbar and multitool) and just test on some random maintenance door to find IDscan or the power wires, and quickly waltz into really wherever you wanna go.
Mechanically, there could be say, 10 different wire layouts airlocks in a round can choose from when they're being created. The fact that you still have to guess and check to figure out what each wire does would not change; it's just that one wire which toggles the bolts in one airlock may not be the same as the bolt wire in another airlock (but they could be the same!) You would identify what airlocks have the same layout as other airlocks by a Serial Number that would be at the top of the airlock's UI - for example, a random maintenance door could have a serial number of #6LK1. If you figure out which wires do what in this specific airlock, whenever you come across an airlock with the serial number #6LK1, you'd know exactly which wires do what as you've already hacked a door with that serial number.
Ideally, the *order* of the wires would be completely randomized for all doors, with the color of the wire corresponding to its function. The red wire may be the very topmost wire in one door, and it could be 5 wires from the top in another door, but if they have the same serial number then you know that the red wires both do the same thing.
As a helpful visualization, here are 3 imaginary door panels. Notice that the left and middle doors both have the same Serial Number. If you discover that the Red wire is the AI Control wire when hacking the middle door, you'll know that the Red wire on the left door is the AI Control wire. However, the door on the right does not have the same serial number - the red wire on this door instead is the Safety Wire. Also notice that the left and middle doors have the same wire colors, just rearranged, whereas the right airlock has some different colors.
The exact number of possible Serial Numbers a round could have is up for debate, and could even be dynamic and dependent on the map, or just purely RNG. The 10 I used earlier is just an arbitrary number.
You could, either in-game or IRL, have a notebook or text file or just pen and paper, where you write down what wires do what for each serial number and use that as a reference. At least pens and papers and the notekeeper program on PDAs would have more use then!
As a further note, perhaps make some doors just not display their serial number, requiring you to instead guess what the serial number is based on what colors the wires are? This would namely be used for areas like Security and the AI Core/Upload, but not really anywhere else since that'd just be an unnecessary headache.
