spectere.net
The Chatterbox => Gaming => Topic started by: NewF on December 16, 2007, 02:14:16 AM
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Just bought it today, pretty effin' cool game if I do say so myself. Anyone else ever play/hear/know anything bout it at all?
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Never even heard of it, you got some splainen to do.
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Is that some weird game that involves hacking and all that? I think I know what you're talking about.
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Yeah you join this corp. and you need to hack into government files and what not, its pretty friggin' cool.
Heres the link.
http://www.uplink.co.uk/
I just bought it last night.
Ps: The games not as easy as most people would think, its pretty friggin' hard....but fun :)
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I've been a fanboi of Uplink for years. :D I ended up getting it when it was still offered in a jewel case (not the first hand-made run, but the second run).
They ended up putting the source code up for purchase ($50, I think) so people have been making a bunch of mods. One particularly ambitious mod is Onlink (http://www.onlink-mod.net/); check it out!
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I still need to get used to the game first, i'm always getting game over because I keep messing something up because of not deleting all previous records of me hacking into the databases and what not.
Still not sure what i'm doing wrong, but i'll find out sooner or later lol.
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Uplink uses two types of traces, active and passive traces. Active traces are the ones that the Trace Tracker pick up; the ones that occur when you're connected. They tend to occur fairly quickly. Depending on how much damage you do you might have to contend with passive traces as well. These tend to be slower (except for banks; holy CRAP) but if you do too big of a mission they'll bust you with it. If it's not-so-high you might still get fined.
My advice would be to bounce everything through InterNIC first. Then, when you can afford a v4 Log Deleter, grab it and, after every hack, hack into InterNIC without bounces (it doesn't have any security to speak of, aside from a weak password) and delete all of the logs except for the connect and disconnect logs. This will prevent you from getting busted by the passive trace.
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See I had NO idea about that at all LoL.
Also, it pissed me off cause everytime i've saved up about 40k credits to get that new gateway, buy it, then fast-forward time to get it installed and then..............................you've been caught hacking into some place and your system and id is being revoked.
FUCK SAKES!
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Haha, yeah, I've been around the block quite a few times with Uplink. I'm to the point now where I have to make a conscious effort if I want to get caught, so a new mod with new challenges is very exciting to me. LAN hacking bugs me a bit sometimes (like when the system admin starts on a system adjacent to the one I'm on!) but I usually find that with a little bit of patience and perseverance I can get around any major hurdle in that game.
You'll get there soon, after you learn all the little intricacies with it. :P
Oh, also, make sure you have the latest patch (1.54 is the latest official patch). It fixes a lot of things and adds some useful new features.
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Yeah, just bought it yesterday so go the fullest updated version.
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So uhh...anything with connection routed to, made a connection, or connection closed, leave them alone in the interNIC?
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The connection routed to are the ones that you want to get rid of -- that, and the file accessed messages, are gets you nailed during the passive trace. The ones that report the connection being made to InterNIC (i.e. when you go in and delete the logs and whatever) are okay to keep.
Also, if you find that you don't have a whole lot of time with the active trace (like when you first start having the Global Criminal Database) you can connect to InterNIC and add some computers to your list to bounce through.
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K yeah i'm stuck at a point now. I'm at one of those hacking a bank to get someones current bank balance...but the decrypter is god-awful slow and it never completes before I get caught. And i'm broke! And all the other tasks are nothing but bank/money tasks! What the hell can I do now LoL.
I need some money to get the monitor/proxy bypassers.
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Sadface :< I just began to upgrade my computer, too :/
I thought I erased all the logs pertaining to that. I know I wasn't actively traced, but I thought I got my records from interNIC deleted.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/Bobbias/sadface.png)
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K yeah i'm stuck at a point now. I'm at one of those hacking a bank to get someones current bank balance...but the decrypter is god-awful slow and it never completes before I get caught. And i'm broke! And all the other tasks are nothing but bank/money tasks! What the hell can I do now LoL.
Heh, yeah, I'd avoid doing those missions for a while; they're very painful at lower levels. :P
There are no time limits in Uplink so if you don't want to flat-out abandon the mission you could keep it there until you earn enough money.
Sadface :< I just began to upgrade my computer, too :/
I thought I erased all the logs pertaining to that. I know I wasn't actively traced, but I thought I got my records from interNIC deleted.
[lol huge screenshot]
If you see that screen, you've been traced somehow; might have taken too long getting rid of the logs. Some ISMs (internal service machines) do have pretty decent monitors -- up to level 4 in some cases -- when you get to the higher level missions (and, on some annoying cases, even on lower-level missions, though you only get a fine for getting caught on those, I think).
If you're going to hack, just make sure that InterNIC is your first bounce. Always. Also, make sure you have a long enough bounce path so that there's no chance of getting busted. If you need servers, seed your list with InterNIC. It comes in handy to have a nice, healthy list of servers available, especially when you start dealing with central mainframes.
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Lol, yeah, I've been making sure I've got huge sets. I'm also using servers I get to come back to for missions, so when I go wipe the logs for my current mission, I wipe all previous logs too, breaking them in more than one place. I have enough time to wipe the logs on the active hack, as well as on interNIC.
Also, what are the orange colored servers on the map? Immutex Computers International Bank is orange, and I don't think it was before my last mission.
EDIT: Jesus Christ this game is hard. I got to the point where they wanted me to destroy mainframes, and hack the criminal database, but I couldn't get it done, and got caught.
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Yeah man, the game ain't as easy as I thought it was lol. Its pretty damn hard, and therres ALOT of shit you gotta get used to. Learn from your mistakes! :P
Also, another thing I'm stuck on. The missions where they want me to go into a place and it sais to "destroy ALL files I see in there". Well I did that 1 time before, went into the file list and deleted EVERYTHING possible, even all the log files, and when I tried to reply for a mission completion, they said it wasn't done yet, or they "didn't hear about it yet" :-\
Edit: Nevermind! Figured it out myself. Gotta wait for it to appear in the news before handing it in! :D
Ugh, another edit, how the hell does the monitor bypass work??!??
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When you get the HUD update, it should put an icon behind the "send mail" one, and you have to open it. When it's analyzed the network, you open the bypass and drop the icon it makes on the monitor, or whatever you happen to have to bypass. Oh, and you also have to have the right level bypass or it won't work.
My main problem with the game is running out of money and being unable to get the necessary upgrades to make more.
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Yeah, what Boobi-err, Bobbias said. One little clarification about the bypass levels -- you need either the level that they're using or above. If you want to get the level of the gear that the remote site is using without having to connect to it, buy the IP Probe. It'll scan the server and send you a mail with the security systems that they have in place.
Lol, yeah, I've been making sure I've got huge sets. I'm also using servers I get to come back to for missions, so when I go wipe the logs for my current mission, I wipe all previous logs too, breaking them in more than one place. I have enough time to wipe the logs on the active hack, as well as on interNIC.
I wouldn't worry about wiping the logs on the active hack. All it does is waste time since, by the time you do the mission, the active and passive traces have both passed that point.
The one thing that I'm not sure about right now is whether passive traces start where the active traces left off. I'll have to look into that. I bought the developers CD, so I have the source code at my disposal for finding such things out. ;D
Also, what are the orange colored servers on the map? Immutex Computers International Bank is orange, and I don't think it was before my last mission.
That introduced that in one of the later versions. I haven't played with them as much as 1.31 and earlier, but IIRC, the orange dots are your current mission targets.
EDIT: Jesus Christ this game is hard. I got to the point where they wanted me to destroy mainframes, and hack the criminal database, but I couldn't get it done, and got caught.
Yeah, that sort of thing is hard when you're first starting out. The decrypter software takes quite a while to run, so your best bet would be to either do an exceptionally long bounce path or to upgrade your CPU. Fortunately, a 200GHz processor can be had fairly cheaply (12000 credits, I believe), so I'd go with that method. Make sure the decrypter is upgraded to the highest level.
After you break into the system your time will probably be limited. What I generally do is go into the security menu as admin, shut off the security systems, and disconnect. I zap my logs from InterNIC real fast, then connect again. With the monitor out of the picture it takes a bit longer for them to start tracing you, plus the admin password wouldn't have been invalidated if you went quickly enough. You can do a surprising number of missions with the stock gateway by doing things like that in stages. The only reason I generally upgrade mine is so that I could put more memory into it.
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oop-c did i do dis
(http://files.spectere.net/pictures/uplink/boom.png)
im in ur computer shutin u down
Also, thanks a lot for getting me hooked on Uplink again, you guys. ;>
Currently a grade 12 Uplink agent (Intermediate), neuromancer rating of aggressive, 4100c in the bank, 0c in loans, stock gateway, stock (60GHz) processor, 32Gq of RAM. Software owned: File Copier/Deleter v1, Log Deleter v4, Trace Tracker v4, Password Cracker v1, Decrypter v4.
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You're welcome. I love this game, and I wanna get really good at it! I just needa find out all the tricks of the trade and what not.
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It just takes a bunch of practice. After you get good at it, it's like riding a bike. I jumped right back in and probably did 25 or so missions in a few minutes. :P
I've been playing the game since it came out, though, so I do kind of have a head start. ;P
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Yeah no doubt lol. So with this monitor bypasser thing, is there any way to KNOW that you've bypassed the proxy/monitor?
Like an indication that its showing you bypass it? Because the way I used it was...accessed the bypasser, dragged it to the monitor, then clicked the monitor icon in my hud.
Then it slid over it, and just sat there doing nothing. That how it goes?
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Also, thanks a lot for getting me hooked on Uplink again, you guys. ;>
Wat? I thought it came out just recently.
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Yeah no doubt lol. So with this monitor bypasser thing, is there any way to KNOW that you've bypassed the proxy/monitor?
Like an indication that its showing you bypass it? Because the way I used it was...accessed the bypasser, dragged it to the monitor, then clicked the monitor icon in my hud.
Then it slid over it, and just sat there doing nothing. That how it goes?
Yep, that's all there is to it. The green light is all there is to it. :)
Wat? I thought it came out just recently.
Lawd, no. It's been out since mid-2001. I grabbed the demo after it was released and got it for Christmas later that year. :3
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Yeah, I heard about it ages ago, but never got into it.
Would it be a good idea to stockpile early missions and then do them all at once to get a boatload of cash, instead of doing missions a couple at a time and getting to highly skilled and being unable to do the easy missions? I kinda ran out of cash, and didn't know how to take out a loan.
Oh, and The orange wasn't a mission, green indicated a mission.
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Would it be a good idea to stockpile early missions and then do them all at once to get a boatload of cash, instead of doing missions a couple at a time and getting to highly skilled and being unable to do the easy missions? I kinda ran out of cash, and didn't know how to take out a loan.
You can still do noob missions later on in the game, they're just harder to come by.
And yeah, I generally stockpile them and do them in groups. 9 out of 10 times I wind up being able to do multiple missions in one connection (i.e. multiple file deletions on one server) which saves a lot of time in the long run.
Just make sure you don't mix up file copy missions and file delete missions. I did that once a while back and had to abandon a mission because of it. D:
Oh, and The orange wasn't a mission, green indicated a mission.
Yeah, so I've noticed. Oh well.
I'm definitely thankful for features like that, though. Uplink originally lacked that feature, not to mention the ability to zoom on the map and delete bounces. It was real...nice...having a huge bounce path and having to redo it, or not being able to find your target on the cluttered map.
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Yeah, I like being able to save a large bounce path, remove 1 node if it happens to be the destination, and then route from the last server to the node you need. It saves time.
Oh, and my paths usually give me like, 1200 to 2000 seconds to play with on the crappy servers, but on the high tech stuff, I get like, a tenth of that :/
I don't tend to keep too many secure passwords in my zombies.
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Haha, yeah, I know the feeling. It's basically impossible to keep admin access at that many locations (if anything, it'll drive you insane trying to do it). It has a pretty positive affect on your trace time, but it's a lot easier to just brute force it and throw in a bunch of access terminals and public access machines. :P
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Yeah, I love when I see 2% trace on me when I start doing the mission, and 3% trace when I'm totally finished :P
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Theres another problem i'm running into. Although I haven't used the monitor bypass yet, when I get into a system (usually a bank or criminal records server) the maximum I usually get is like 30 to 40 seconds. Like, with the bank, what I have to do, is go in, break the password, disconnect, reconnect, break the decypher, disconnect, re-connect, voice activate, then go do the stuff I needa do.
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The security on the GCD and banks are hella tight. You're pretty much going to need a long bounce path in order to give you more time. Connect to InterNIC, browse the server list, and add a shit ton of servers to pad out your connection.
The monitor bypass is also handy. While it won't stop the trace from happening, it'll delay it long enough for you to get in, or almost get in, to the system before you start getting traced.
The method that you're doing is pretty much the way to go. Until you can afford systems with fast processors you pretty much have to do hacks like that in stages unless you have an uber-long bounce path (and even then, decyphering can take a hell of a long time, long enough to need another go sometimes). You're definitely on the right path.
Oh, on my latest game I decided to do a "neuromancer++" type of game. Basically, I'm going to play as a pure hacker, not tampering with peoples' lives at all (read: ignoring all of the "generate university degree" missions and such) and only upping my neuromancer rating, never lowering it. Granted, the neuromancer rating doesn't affect much in the game (aside from your mission selection) but it'll be an interesting challenge if anything. We'll see how it goes...
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Theres another thing I didn't know. Bringing up a servers list lol. Gonna try that out as well. I always just connected to the servers available on the map.
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Well, I'm coming close to cleaning out interNIC. I may have to scout out some of the servers and see if I can get links to other servers that aren't included in interNIC's database.
On a side note, I just got a hold of revelation, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing here. I don't want to fuck this up by making some dumb mistake and killing myself.
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Oh yeah, InterNIC is pretty much amazing for that alone. :P
There are some things that it doesn't list, though. Namely telephone systems, central mainframes, and LANs, but it's definitely good for padding your list in cases like this.
On a side note, I just got a hold of revelation, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing here. I don't want to fuck this up by making some dumb mistake and killing myself.
Just don't run it on your own gateway, whatever you do. :P
If you want to run it on a remote system, upload it to the file server, go into the terminal, and type this:
> cd usr
> run revelation
...then note the nice red blob on the world map indicating the infected system. :P Also, congrats -- with your acquisition of Revelation you have entered the storyline. Things can get pretty tricky in there, especially at the end. Good luck!
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So I hear. I'm just wondering if I can get screwed up easily by working for those guys, or something.
I just got the counter offer.. I'm quite confused and really don't want to lose everything I have right now.
Took the counter offer, now I just received a warning from ARC.. Not good.
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Took the counter offer, now I just received a warning from ARC.. Not good.
Meh, don't worry about them. They can't touch you.
Let's just say, you're better off going down the path that you're taking than the ARC path.
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Alright, I'm getting to the point where I'm knocking out central servers and shit. God, I love "cd usr, delete, cd sys, delete, cd log, delete, shutdown".
Oh, and can I run the copy of RevelationTracer on my computer? lol. I just want to know if it actually runs and stuff.
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I don't believe RevelationTracer does anything if you run it locally. I might be mixing it up with something else, though.
The only thing that'll do damage is Revelation. Don't worry about the other ones.
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I'm not that far and advanced yet lol, I have no idea wtf you guys are talking about >.>
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I have no idea what you're talking about in the first place. >:s
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Well, I'm being very careful now, so that's why I'm still alive. Plus, I have used the fast forward a bunch to stock up on easy missions more than once so that I could get some decent cash.
Oh, and how do I hack banks for money?