Some people like equipment options that aren't strictly "better" per say, but simply "different". For example: Light machine guns are big guns that have a lot of bullets to shoot. They do a lot of damage and are scary. However, they are also big and heavy and difficult to aim/move with. A machine pistol is everything a light machine gun isn't, but you can fit it in your pocket and can walk downtown with it without obtaining kill-on-sight status from everyone around you.
Already there is a real world "that makes sense" solution for ways to differentiate different certain guns from other guns by making them situationally useful in different ways.
Here is the problem: How do we do the same thing for software, hardware, and hacking?
Inherent trade-offs with equipment, hacking edition
Moderator: Moderators
-
- Journeyman
- Posts: 153
- Joined: Fri May 21, 2010 7:34 pm
- rasmuswagner
- Knight-Baron
- Posts: 705
- Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 9:37 am
- Location: Danmark
I think you're asking the wrong question, or at least the wrong question at this step in your design process. What does a hacker character do? What does a hacker player do?
Every time you play in a "low magic world" with D&D rules (or derivates), a unicorn steps on a kitten and an orphan drops his ice cream cone.
- angelfromanotherpin
- Overlord
- Posts: 9745
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
You come up with metrics that matter and justify things into having more-or-less balanced trade-offs. A program that is more powerful may take up more RAM, restricting how many other programs can be run. A store-bought program is nondescript and anonymous compared to a home-written program, but is predictable and more likely to be countered by commonly-used ICE. Defenses can be weighted to succeed well (hard to penetrate) or fail well (raise alarm if penetrated).
A lot depends on what the base hacking system looks like.
A lot depends on what the base hacking system looks like.
Last edited by angelfromanotherpin on Tue Nov 18, 2014 4:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-
- Journeyman
- Posts: 153
- Joined: Fri May 21, 2010 7:34 pm