anatomy of a hack txt data: line 0: name of server lines 1-14: seven jammer definitions (split by pipes) values are 00, feel free to make impossible yombies 0: name | difficulty type | block diff | destroy diff | effect | allegiance 1: appearmsg | destroymsg if name is "-1" the program will assume the whole entry is empty (difficulty: when blocking a jammer's ability, if its block diff is less than your hack skill, you can do it for free if they're equal, it costs one point from the appropriate pool (amp/buffer/clues) if the difficulty is higher than your score, it costs twice the difference some jammer's ability makes other jammers harder to block destroying a jammer works in the same way re: costs note that you can only destroy one each turn) (effect: report: no immediate effect on hacking, but the jammer's master's rep with you worsens pin: stops your avatar moving between nodes swarm: makes other jammers harder to resist needle: saps your avatar's buffer pool by 1. if any of those pools hit 0 you get logged out and reported more to come) line 15: a number of nodes to expect line 16-wherever, in pairs: nodes: 0: name | type | xloc | yloc | hackdiff | guard1 | guard2 | guard3 | effect 1: greetmsg | hackmsg (node stuff: unlike megadrive shadowrun, starcrawlers etc, nodes aren't linked by a circuit your avatar still has a presence in a 2d grid and can move pythag style towards nodes at a speed of 7+your level+(hack skill squared) you can spend 1 amp pool point to double it this turn as soon as you visit a node its guards follow you incessantly and at the end of each turn their abilities fire you can hack nodes and have them come under your control; see difficulty above except you can choose which of the three pools you can spend points from to do it gaining control of a node implies different things depending on their type you are subject to a node's ability at the end of every turn until you've hacked it xloc and yloc are 000; layout area might be 320x192) (node types: triangulator: controls nothing, visible at start of hack; hacking a triangulator means it sends a linear signal to other triangulators other nodes that fall along those lines are revealed uhhhhhh more later lol) line x: a number of events to expect then trios of lines: 0: turn the event fires | type of event | eventdiff (can be -1) | extraqualifier 1: eventprompt | eventfail (can be -1) | eventsucceed 2: eventextramessage (can be -1) (event stuff: the game's keeping track of the number of turns you spend if it's turn x then the corresponding event fires these can be benign or beneficial or otherwise types: broadcast - a message read to the player mail - a message the player can read if they intercept (difficulty check) eyeofstorm - full refill of yr point pools if you're on the right node at the time investigation - a jammer spontaneously gets attached to you and many more) there's no "winning" a hack - you're there to get information or maybe to bug the system so that you can stay connected without being in danger opening certain doors, finding prototypes or squelched data etc the cyber punk stuff lol last note: you get one chance to hack a given server per game. no sleeping outside the door