Not a guide to starting up

[blackgauntlet]

Feb 1, 2012 18:52:25 GMT -5 Slide87 said:

Yeah it's a good solution...in fact my best character(Nero),a Gunslinger, has a dataport 2 implanted,and in emergency periods Hacking data is a good remedy =) 1000-2000 Y can make the difference,i think =) I hope in CK RPG hacking development,it's a cool way to play this game =) Anyway,the difficulty isn't hacking data(a dataport 2 and a few points on MIND/Hacking are the requirements...easily reachable),but selling data...At the end,a combat player has more chances to get vchips....So my gunslinger has more data hounds that my Hacker character...It's funny =) For this reason i bought a dataport,honestly ;D Yep,There are backrooms for selling data,but datahound clients are quite rare and data-sensitive(X backroom has Factions Y,Z Datahounds,so i think eh ^^),then it's safer sell all the data by terminal than walking in 36 sectors to search for the right datahound =)

But it's kinda strange, isn't it?

In my mind, the classes works best in:

Hackers
1) Hacking
2) Espionage

Snipers
1) Assassination
2) Combatant

Cybersword
1) Combatant
2) Escort

Gunslinger
1) Combatant
2) Bounty Hunter

AgentEx
1) Espionage
2) Combatant

FaceEx
1) Espionage
2) Assassination

And since Special Abilities (and more Elite classes) are still not implemented yet, the classes are currently more about "flavor" than actually changing our playing style.

Hopefully, it would change once class-specific abilities kicks in. ;D

[grävling]

Abs:

You may not know the positive effects of being stimmed up to >10. I think, but am not sure that 15 is the largest number that makes a difference.

1. there is more of you for the dogs to chew on.
2. it improves your initiative.

But you will have to learn how to dance around the Los V gangers, because if you cannot do this then the first time you are up against 2 yakuza assassins, or blue suits from the Corps,
well, they will munch you.

Best of luck, but pleased to see it is going better ...
Grävling

[grävling]

I think that if you are playing a hacker, datahounds should be more interested in getting their V-chips to you. So the percentage chance that when you confront somebody who is fallowing you than you get a V-chip out of it should be higher for hackers -- and maybe other characters if they install a dataport(?)

[fela]

Feb 1, 2012 13:37:53 GMT -5 absimiliard said:

Sure enough I tried to stop it, and got into a fight.

That 'sure enough' attitude is what killed you, not any other mistakes you made. There's only one thing that should be sure enough on brutal: stay out of avoidable fights until you have enough athletics to all but guarantee escape.

[Slide87]

Yes,i know BG,that normally it's in the way u said,but until vchips getting from encounters,it's better walking around with a gunslinger than a hacker...=) and yes,i concur with Gravling,they should search for us XD I repeat my opinion(by some time ago),that's by now vchips are difficult to find and search...=)BUt probably when we will have interiors,there will be other ways to get them ^^

[absimiliard]

fela: Well, I was trying to get V-chips. So stopping terrorized innocents is what I do while trawling. More precisely, I call it "trawling" because I'm trawling the zone I'm in for encounters. I could have easily run from it, I was trying to wipe the floor with the fight. So I would characterize my mistake more as "I should have run from the fight", or "I should have run out the fight and taken everyone on one at a time as they spread out instead of getting impatient and trying to get 'stuck in'." That said, I agree I made a mistake.

grävling: Oh, be-spectacled badger (Narnian I'm thinking, or genetically modified, how else can a badger talk, and wear glasses?), I wasn't even aware you could stim up past 10! I have noticed that when I stim up heavily I tend to have more AP than otherwise, particularly if my status says "Stimmed up". But I didn't even guess that you could push it above 10. Sweet. As for "dancing", that was totally my bad. I know well enough that I should run them out and tag them down one by one instead of getting stuck in and going toe to toe with groups. I screwed up by letting my impatience with getting the fight over sooner drive my tactics. (I don't actually find fighting all that interesting) So I got stuck in and pushed it a bit, and paid for it. Ah well, live and learn. As you can tell, I'm still training patience.....

@slide: I totally agree with you. Far and away the hardest part of being a early-game hacker, for me, is finding somewhere to sell the damn paydata to. Once I get my (player) hacking instincts right getting the paydata itself is pretty trivial. Finding someone to sell it to requires either trawling for V-chips or getting enough rep to get into back-rooms and hoping for a lucky contact. Either way it's damn hard because trawling for V-chips OR trawling for rep are both rough on a young hacker (who lacks the physical skills wanted)

--------------

Not a death report (yet), but probably a retirement report.

So Jade Hummingbird is my newest attempt at a hacker and started out almost perfect. I've been working on what I think is a good starting routine, and I'm a bit more nervous than Gravling about those second-day runs in corp-land so I may well retire Jade Hummingbird and try another start in order to try perfecting it.

My goal was to make a run to Bar of Birds, then the Texas Roadhouse, then Bar of Birds again. After completing those runs I'm usually exhausted. But hackers start with two stim-packs! So Jade Hummingbird stimmed up and caught another run out of the Texas Roadhouse. My heat was still low so I taxi'd out of 'Shima-land and back to the Bar of Birds, this exhausted me again so I popped the second stim-pack. Bang! Went from exhausted and stimmed up to "Crack-jaw", and not exhausted! This got me one more run, after which I quit corp-lands for now.

Jade Hummingbird then taxi'd down to get McFly's chip and then caught a ride from him to Los V territory where she picked up chips for Vinny and Cpt. Malloy. This was good because I planned to hack out around 2200 creds of paydata by going over the New Boston Exchange > Global Exchange > Universal Exchange > [A1, A2, A1] > Some-BraveStar-system road. She would then sell it to Malloy, before moving on to trawling the streets near Tuckamores for jobs and chips from encounters.

Alas, there was a glitch in my plan. I'm not as good, as a player, at hacking as I need to be. Jade Hummingbird was good for it, she had some hacking skill and I'd chipped in some memory for her head and upgraded her data-jack to a Mk. II. So I could run the whole length of the "road" to BraveStar systems. But I, personally, still need to learn when to jack out and when to try for that last download . . . . So Jade Hummingbird got caught out by BraveStar sysads after nabbing about 30 MP of paydata. Since I'd been hacking around for a bit her heat went through the roof.

I then spent a few more days trying to reduce that heat. Before sleeping I was good, I'd hack out more BraveStar data to sell to Cpt. Malloy each day. But my (player) lack of hacking experience continued to hurt me. Just as I'd get my heat down from a few days of hacking safely I'd trigger some script and some damn BraveStar sysad would get my location and tag me, raising my heat again. I wasn't helped by my choice to not get a taser early on, there were a few encounters where Jade Hummingbird couldn't run fast enough to escape and had to shoot a few thugs down, which lowers rep and raises heat again.

I'm currently in the position where I've lost a bunch of days due to necessary heat-reduction and I fear I'm slipping behind on the time/XP track pretty severely since job-running isn't good w. ~40 heat. Since this isn't what I was planning on testing out I'm thinking Jade Hummingbird might retire and, now that I've done a bunch more hacking, I'd try a new character. I'm convinced I'm getting close to a good starting routine, the cash from hacking is pretty substantial, if I can perfect my startup it will please me.

Lessons learned:
"I need to hack more, so that I get better feel for when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em"
"Wow, hacking can really help with the early-game nuYen issues I've been having"
"Buy a set of blue gloves earlier in the game, or take excess heat for anyone you have to kill"

-abs

[grävling]

Also going Texas Roadhouse/Bar of Birds/Texas Roadhouse gets you one free trip even without using any stims.

[absimiliard]

How is TR>BB>TR different from going BB>TR>BB for the first run? Because I succeeded in doing BB>TR>BB without stims. It was only the second run out of the Texas Roadhouse, and the third out of Bar of Birds, that required me to stim Jade Hummingbird up for the negotiations.

I'm curious if its because we're running different paths while doing the escorts. Because my path out of Bar of Birds is pretty much out the south-west corner of North Square and then basically a straight run along the bottom of the neighborhoods. The return path from the Texas Roadhouse is usually the same unless I'm doing a trip to 'Shima-land, or I get lucky and get the AzTek wharehouse on the north end of AzTek Global. That leg doesn't usually matter much as I usually taxi out of the neighborhood I finish Texas Roadhouse jobs from and go straight to the Bar of Birds unless I'm close to North Square.

If there's a better route, especially if it's better enough that I can get in an extra run before running out of stims, I'd love to know it.

-abs

{edit} Is it because the taxi-ride to the Texas Roadhouse is quicker than the ride to Bar of Birds? That totally makes sense to me. I guess I'll need to try it next time. {/edit}

[grävling]

Feb 2, 2012 12:12:34 GMT -5 absimiliard said:

{edit} Is it because the taxi-ride to the Texas Roadhouse is quicker than the ride to Bar of Birds? That totally makes sense to me. I guess I'll need to try it next time. {/edit}

That's why. (hmm, Slide has proven that it is not. It's all about the 2 job comp, then)

Also you can take TR east then BB back to escort to Mars Corp (the neighbourhood)-- and then taxi to Fairlight Outfitters in West End, buy a 2 job computer, walk to TR and then get 2 jobs. You will get exhausted on the way back to Yakashima (neighbourhood)or AzTek Global, but that's ok, finish the run. Note that you want 2 jobs to the same area, and you do not want Frontline Medical Warehouse (unless you get it twice) because there is a wall separating it from the other buildings in Aztek Global.

[absimiliard]

Oooh, that's nice. Doubly so because I can stim up when exhausted and get two extra runs in that day if I'm lucky in routing.

At two jobs each that's a substantial nuYen advantage.

It's the location of that two job comp that ready makes it.

-----------------

So I've been experimenting, raising new knights up to test my theories. I am coming to the opinion that the limiter on a good early game for me is not time or money, but heat. I'm thinking bailing out at the 5-10 heat range is the right time, maybe earlier. My most promising results have been with minimal nu-Yen tries. I think I want to give it one more try......

***

Activate and brainwipe unit LI-4529-63, "Lia". Lia will proceed to meet with Vinny and gain his v-chip. Lia then proceeds to the Texas Roadhouse where she will bargain with the connector there.

**Static discharge** "Control lines breaking dow.. ." ***ZOT***

"What the hell! Now I'm in control." I cut a deal with the connector to escort some drones to 'Shima-land. The run was gravy. I called Benni and flew out, back to the connector. He sent me back to the same tower, with a different drone. Probably some sort of data-duplication issue.

Again Benni was a god-send. I taxi-d out and went shopping at Fairlight. One new Yakashima computer later and I was running south, heading to the Roadhouse again.

This time I had the processing power to validate two contracts. (don't ask me why my pc matters, connectors are just wierd) Both had me running escort again, but this time both drones worked for AzTek. By the time I finished up I was feeling pretty hot, maybe an 11 on the scale of "None" to "Fried"? I had my data-jack yanked by the 'doc in one of the towers, I'll get a better one later.

But first I taxi'd down to E-Street Pharmacy to get some stims, medi-kits, and the v-chip for McFly. McFly then flew me to the Tattoo Parlor in Los V turf for a new datajack, and 40 MP of tasty Mars Corp intra-cranial data-storage. I grabbed the v-chip for Cpt. Malloy while here, and called Benni for a ride out.

At Global Importers I got some stunning gloves, and some armor from some AzTek mart. I hacked the hell out of BraveStar, once I realized how much confusion I could sow throwing decoys out before any attempt to hack root. Malloy gave me the creds to finance some of this.

I finally crashed at the Bay Street Mission. Spent the few free moments I had practicing some brawling moves and improving my mind. When I woke up I stimmed up, popped 3 stim-packs, and headed out to Tuckamore's. My heat's done and I think I'm set.

******transmission ends, software wipe initiated******

I think that's about the best start I can get. We'll see how "Lia" does.

Lesson Learned:
"damn, hacking is a little slow, but it's profitable"

-abs

[blackgauntlet]

Feb 2, 2012 9:50:55 GMT -5 absimiliard said:

grävling: Oh, be-spectacled badger (Narnian I'm thinking, or genetically modified, how else can a badger talk, and wear glasses?), I wasn't even aware you could stim up past 10!

Dude, how old are you?

You're not a teenager, are you?

[absimiliard]

LOL.

Nope, haven't been a teen for agood long while. But I will admit to a love of CS Lewis that's a little irrational.

I'll also admit that I'm not big fan of Wind in the Willows. I'm pretty sure I read it once, but it's gotta be at least thirty years so.

Sorry.

I guess I could have gone with a Redwall reference instead. That and Mouse-Guard are probably the only other references I know of that include talking animals.

--------------

So, I discovered something that's radically changed my early game. And I owe an apology to someone....

fela: Dude, I apologize. You were right, I had no business getting involved in any encounters at that stage. But when I'm trawling back and forth over multiple zones for each job's XP it takes a lot of Real Life Time. I covet my RLT, so I'd assumed I'd gotten as far as was reasonable before starting to get involved in more encounters. I was totally wrong.

So, on to my epiphany.

I've been having trouble milking XP from Tuckamore's for a bit. I don't like letting my rep drop too much, I know it drops over time, so I try not to accept then refuse too many contracts. This meant that Tuckamore's was giving me enough non Los V. pickups that I was constantly wandering the whole map and losing massive time in game (and RLT) per XP gained. It was doubly frustrating because I thought Tuckamore's changed what they gave out over time, and that the earlier in game I was the more likely I was to get the Los V. pickup jobs.

I like to experiment, so with Lia I determined that I was going to experiment with not-giving-a-damn about my Los V rep as much. I found I had no problem refusing enough jobs to double-stack pickup jobs every time I went to Tuckamore's. My rep wasn't great, it never really rises much, but I do seem to net a rep loss/gain of 0 over time. (it does mean I go to bed occasionally at -4 to -8, but whatever)

This was huge. I can now do two jobs out of Tuckamore's reliably. That's 4 XP per "run", and I can get several runs in during a day. My practical limit is now not getting exhausted, but simply deciding that I've gained as much heat as I care to carry before bed-time. A dictate to myself to hack every morning when I wake up, after my 3-stim "breakfast" (gotta make sure I'm "Stimmed Up" every day!), has meant that I'm not even feeling cash light. Lia's gotten herself a good starting kit of gear and implants, and even recently funded two Los V. runners to the point of keeping them alive until they left and giving them a nice set of armor and some plastic bone grafts as parting gifts.

So now I've changed two beliefs, and my game is radically altered. Lia's not dead, and may well prove long-term successful, but I think I should put this up now, while it's fresh in my head.

Lessons learned:
"Do NOT give a damn about Los V 'respect', break all contracts at Tuckamore's until you get what you want."
"Hacking is like an apple, do it daily and you'll get the creds to keep the doctors busy. Okay, so that's not like an apple, whatever, live with it chummer."

-abs

[Slide87]

Jan 27, 2012 15:06:17 GMT -5 fallen said:

For runners, my starting script is armor, train Athletics, and Dermal Sheathing II or III.

Sorry guys and ladies,but where do I find Dermal Sheathing II,or III?

I've already seen these implants before,but yesterday i visited 7-8 Implant centers without finding these...If I well remember,the II version costs 5k(and this is the amount of cash i can afford,honestly,by now)...=)
Help is appreciated ^^ and sorry for the OT question ^^

[grävling]

I buy DS 3 for 5K at Saytek Medical in Dorchester.

[Slide87]

I love u grav xD thanks ^_^


EDIT: I found dermal sheathing III in Mars Private Clinic in West End,i badly remembered,the cost is 5k for the III version...now i have a doubt...but how many bodyware implants can i install on a single character?not one surely...