ERRATA Hacking

[viziel]

[viziel]

As noted in the rules Forgery can be useful and allows you to involve the team in your hacking endevors.

As noted in my previous post, you want to define rules that make it very difficult for some newbie hacker from breaking into a very expensive device such as starship, or bypass the Gaia programming on an android (hint hint).

In my mind, these are worst case scenarios that abused will give the GM a headache, and should be considered.

One thing to consider when Hacking as it stands in the rules: Despite being 1s and 0s, its still SOFTWARE. Perhaps there is a mechanical lock in place to prevent subsquent actions. Like the big red nuke launch button requires two launch keys to be turned simultaneously in order to engage the circuits that would allow the software to launch a nuke.

That brings me to this post, involving more skill or others in order to hack. Again, to the standing on the hull of the ship to hack it. Perhaps plugging a DEVICE onto the hull of the ship would ease the job of the hacker.

Such devices, could falsify Gaia transmissions, introduce an army of entities or a number of things to aid the hacker.

Cyberpunk used to detail such devices as Angel packs, or AI's that were coded into hardware designed with the sole purpose of aiding a hacker in complex runs. These programs could carry more entities and could perform actions the hacker could not or not as efficiently...

Could this be a possible direction? How could the rules limit the use of such hardware?

Smuggling undergaia software through security; using or creating undergaia software. All these things should be very difficult and lead to dire consquences if caught.

Perhaps failure results in physical harm (tazer) to the hacker. Many games use that mechanic, at this level of hacking this could be a good way for Gaia to maintain security if a hacker fails or doesn't have enough safe guards.

[Rob Lang]

Keep the questions coming! I love answering them.

I can't go into the details of how Gaia actually works but keep in mind that it isn't software. It is a triumvate of Hardware, Entities and the Transmission medium. The rules for Hacking in C21 do not apply in Icar. There are no analogies and although I could write a white paper on it, the best thing to do is just accept the canon of the limitations for now.

Hacking Entities help Hackers do common tasks and there is a list in the next Alpha. Hacking Entities are passed around the Undergaia. Do I mention this? I'll check and add if not.

Gaia cannot do harm to the people performing the Hack unless you are bionic and are linked straight in. You cannot be hurt in a holoroom. If you hacking straight into a system on the side of a space craft then the space craft might have defense to put you off but it can only be triggered by a human, space craft cannot harm people directly.

[viziel]

I appreciate your daily replies, and your energy fuels my continued efforts...

I hope you dont get annoyed by my many posts..I realize I post allot, I have allot of time currently and I hope some debate on the rules will strengthen them. I will always understand the authors rule is his own, but I like to pose potential pit falls in case its something that might spur your imagination.

I find the ideas behind Gaia very interesting. I think about its abuse allot, and wonder how it could be tricked and exploited as the rules stand.

You DO mention Hacking software and the Undergaia. I remember reading that.

The philosophical ideal of being unable to harm humans, despite the fact that humans are trying to harm you is an interesting one.

If you are forced to operate within the rules of Gaia (which would be the FIRST thing I would explore as a hacker, how to bypass these limitations as they are the hardest of limitations), then using these hacking entities are just tools of manipulation. These rules allow you to steal hardware by manipulating the data thats stored in the hardwares computers.

Whats interesting is there are devices you call "Screamers" which block hacking attempts. I believe this should be removed. Nothing is NOT hackable, any belief that something isn't is just ignorant. However, this device should make hacking MORE difficult. Why wouldn't someone outfit their starship with screamers then??? A starship would have a limited amount of inputs/output ports to which it conects to Gaia and the outside world. That finite number could have a screamer added and boom...impossible to hack.

[Rob Lang]

If I remember correctly, which I might not, Screamers attach to the communications web to allow you to hack, not to stop it. I don't have the ruleset with me... I think that's right.

[viziel]

[Rob Lang]

Good point, well made. I'll improve the description.

Don't forget the equipment index has not been updated to be version 4 friendly!

[viziel]

There is an ear piece thats NOT HACKABLE too. I guess if things are going to be unhackable, I'd like a blurb explaining why, since that is a form of intelligence gathering and something I'm sure people would attempt.

just my 2p