Here are a bunch of artifacts/module ideas along the line of... well... electronic warfare (basically hacking mostly)

Disruptive:
Communication Blockade
Target cannot post any alert, com any player or use legion comm for the next 10 minutes.
Usable only after successfully hacking the target.

Information Blockade
All alerts received by the target will be delayed until the end of this effect. Lasts 10 minutes.
Usable only after successfully hacking the target.

Harmonic Disrupter
Target ship shield regeneration is reduced to 0 for 20 minutes. This effect cannot be removed.
Usable only after successfully hacking the target.

Defensive Bypass
Target ship's traps will not be triggered for the next 10 minutes.
Usable only after successfully hacking the target.

Deployment Blockade
Target ship cannot use any artifact for the next 10 minutes; target ship is immune to Deployment Blockade for the next 15 minutes.
Usable only after successfully hacking the target.

Trail Cleanse
All of your ship names on target's log becomes plain text and unlockable.
Usable only after successfully hacking the target.


Offensive:
Cyber Lance:
Special Module Limit 1
When attacking a target ship with this module installed, as long as the target ship still have shield, Scan will be used instead of Attack and Cloak will be used as Defense on both side for damage calculation. Cannot deal damage to hull when this is in effect.

Force Decryption Device
Special Module Limit 1
-75% cloak, +400% crit hack chance.

Link Nullifier
Planets of the target player will lose legion bonus for 20 seconds.
Usable only after successfully hacking the target.

Shield Feedback
Remove shield from target ship up to 50% of its max shield. Deal damage to target ship equal to shield removed.
Usable only after successfully hacking the target.

System Optimizer
Special module limit 2
-1 min to hack cool down.

Countermeasure:
System Reboot Device
Special Module limit 1
Artifacts that are "Usable only after successfully hacking the target" cannot be used against you if the last successful hack from that player is more than 10 minutes ago.

Emergency Cutoff device
Special Module limit 1
Artifacts that are "Usable only after successfully hacking the target." cannot be used on you within 7 minutes of the last successful hack from the specific player.

Electronic Retaliation System:
Special Module limit 1
When a ship uses an artifact on you, use the same artifact on it if able.

Cyber Viral Trap
Duration 1 week
When this trap is active, first ship to successfully hack you gains extra 30 min cool down on hack

Cyber Worm trap
Duration 1 week
When this trap is active, first ship to hack you will be unable to hack for the next 10 minutes, cannot be removed.

Database Controller
Special Module limit 1
When you are critically hacked, reveal which planet was hacked.

System Stabilizer
Special Module limit 2
One less module is uninstalled by the effect of Tactical Inner Bypass on you.

Electronic Support:
Mission Analyzer
Special Module limit 1
1% chance to refund energy cost on a mission for each 1000 cloak you have, rounded down.

Planet Locator
While you are still able to scan for planets (button not grayed out), attempt to lock on one random planet. (Basically a guarantee to scan except if the planet have cloak and blocks you out by that) Cost 50 energy to use.

Database Archive
Special Module limit 1
Extend duration of all alerts on your log by 50% while this is installed. Remove all alerts that have expired all its regular duration when this is uninstalled.

Discard:
I can see possible abuses with the following, so I'm discarding them. But if anyone have a way to fix them up, it would be nice to have something of those types.
Cargo Interceptor
If the target would receive a shipment of resource in the next 20 seconds, that shipment goes to you instead.
Usable only after successfully hacking the target.
Energy Rerouter
All energy gained by the target will not be added to its energy pool until the end of this effect, duration 10 minutes.
Usable only after successfully hacking the target.

I know some of the suggestions probably have problems that I did not notice when I write this, so feel free to fix them or point out the flaws. But those should make the game more interesting.
I intentionally left out the size of the special modules because I'm not very sure on what size should be assigned to them. I will leave that part to the experts.
On my first attempt to write this, I did so directly on forum and the forum decided to log me out(I really hate how it auto-log-out people after some time...) so I might have lost some ideas(I think I got all the supports and countermeasures but not sure on offensive and disruptive..)

The source of the items can vary. The Harmonic Disrupter, for example is most likely a CT lab item from chaotic inhibitor. Some of the modules can be mission or drops while quite a few "consumbles" are properly more fitting to be blue badges.
Orginally I intended to add EW-O-, EW-D-, EW-C- and ES- as prefixes to each of the modules to make them more like a set, but then the name can get rather long and weird so I dropped that. Although that still can be an option.

+1 to all

that gives way to much advantage to "hackers" and doesn't do any good at all for people who don't hack on a daily basis, in fact it really hurts anyone else that doesn't care for this aspect of the game so.......sorry -1

these are all really cool ideas but it's virtually useless to anyone but a hacker.

Did you guys even bother reading long enough to reach the "countermeasure" section?

And then there are electronic supports, Electronic Retaliation System and Cyber Lance.....

Yes, most of those are hacker related, but not all of them. Don't just AoE everything

yes I did and they all included "successfully hacking" unless they are a ship mod which I am sure would be available for blue badges, again hacking related

Although the suggestions are great. I simply will get pissed if the alert for a lazuli fabrication was delayed for 10 minutes. By then it would be long gone.

Imagine getting an alert 10 minutes late that your planet is under attack. By then there would be nothing to defend.

People right now are already bitter enemies just for simple disable, raid and hacking, adding more insult to the said injuries will just result to more complications.

As I always say simple is good. The more complicated the mechanics of the game goes then it does not become user friendly. Althouhg some sort of change would be nice for the hacking ability. To drastic of a change might actually hrt the game.

Maybe if there were more raiding and disabling stuff...
But these abilities and modules would have to be either as difficult to get as the Caelon or you could only use one ability then a timer for another use.

That just proves u didn't...
out of the 21 module/artifact, only 10 have the "succesfully hacking" clause in them, 8 of which as a requirement and 2 are countermeasures.
5 of them are COMPLETELY unrelated to hacking
AND I specifically said "The source of the items can vary. The Harmonic Disrupter, for example is most likely a CT lab item from chaotic inhibitor. Some of the modules can be mission or drops while quite a few "consumbles" are properly more fitting to be blue badges." so I do NOT intend that all of them to be badge items.



If you think all 21 is too much(well, actully 16, 5 of them are not related to hacking) then perhaps pick a few you like. For all intent and purposes, not ALL of them need to be accepted at same time.
The System Optimizer, for example, is a fairly minor change and can be the only change if that is your preference.

Information Blockade are meant to be used for planet stealing. It would be rather unlikely for you to have a lock on both a planet and its owner thou, so it's more likely to be used as a "get back my stolen planet" kinda thing. It can be considered to have a limition similiar to gift of the naughty also placed on this so it can be only used for vengence purpose, but i don't think that's all that important. Besides, what's the likelyhood of you happen to be online and staring at the game the moment this is used on you? For most players, more often than not, this actully does nothing.


I agree that some of them should be hard to get, for example Link nullifier, if implemented, should be hundreds of blue badges if not more. On the other hand, stuff like Shield Feedback, the two traps, Defensive Bypass, Harmonic Disrupter can be much more common. Most likely, they will just give you one disable or something like that.

Each of them should be considered on their own, some might be over powered and shall never see the light of day, some are powerful but acceptable and made hard to get but others can very well be common.

I would really appreciate it if every single item is considered all by itself, list out the ones that are over powerd or can be abused so it can be changed/discarded. But I think at least some of them are fairly balanced and can be nice to have in game.

Not in any way trying to discourage you ideas, like I said the crit hack one I would totally dust of the computer pull it out of cargo and start hacking to get. The other are just to class specialized and cater to hacking. Perhaps if you suggested something that encompasses a broader playgroup it would be seen more favorably, but by all means keep the suggestions coming and thanks for your insight

Not everything is gonna be a "blue badge item" you know...
especially the counter measures.
other than exo clamp, there no item that "defend" against the actions which the badge is from.

In fact, Electronic Retaliation System have NOTHING to do with hacking whatsoever, why would it relate to blue badge aside from the name?
And cyber lance, while being more for hackers, also have another use: to fight against crew based ships. Eventually everyship will more or less cap on modules, so their module based stats will be about the same. This will allow some ppl to turn a disadvantage into a fair fight(at least until shield is down)

Just because it's electrionic themed and MOSTLY hack related don't make them ALL hack related.....
Considering most of them are limit-1, quite a few of those can be new mission tier bonus actully. especially stuff like Mission Analyzer and Database Archive

and the 2 traps are not "scaled down" of QFT, cause u can't fuse them (the former can be rid of, sorta, with a TM thou).

On a random side note... I did suggest other types of stuff before, it's been long dead thou(although with quite a few positive feedback, i guess ppl just didn't care enough)
If you wanna check them out~
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14825

Maybe I should stop making my suggestions in such big "shipments" and divide them down lol. Some of the stuff here(3 to be exact) would not have been thought to be hack related at all if they were put into a seperate post(no mention of hack, cloak or any related stuff)... But I don't like spamming the forum so~

random idea came again.. don't wanna make a new thread so....

RAP-Judgement
Activate a copy of legal "enemy artifact" that the target player have onto the target player.

(for example, if the target player ONLY has CM, EMP, drannik sab and Spy probe-weapon, it will randomly activate the effect of one CM, EMP or spy probe-weapon onto the target. it would NOT "use up" the artiact from the target's inventory"

RAP-Bless
Activate a copy of tempoary buff type "player artifact" that the target player have onto yourself

(same idea, but this one only includes stuff like crimson buffs, dark pyraimd etc and don't include stuff like RSL, ship bot etc even if the target have them.)

RAP-Divine
Activate a copy of non-limited player artifact that the target player have onto yourself or a copy of legal "enemy artifact" that the target player have onto the target player.
cannot be used on players below rank 150


(this include everything of "Bless" and "Judgement" and also stuff like ship-bot, xcharge etc, but can't get stuff like RSL, glaviz device etc)
I can see Divine being used on a guy who purposely empty inventory except for stuff like styll prisoner etc to farm stats. However, long as Divine is not much more common than the best such "farmable" item, I think it outa be fine. Although I was designing it to be a CT lab item made of Bless and Judgement.
RAP=Random Access Probe

Dont be discouraged. This is actually good but having a lot of suggestion in 1 thread makes it complicated. Im sure Dan Reads all suggestions as sometimes the suggestion is implemented 4-6 months after it was suggested.

Although keep in mind that in Dan's interest to keep the game balanced. Any thing over powered seems to be discouraged by a lot of the players because everyone is territorial, If you want people to support your suggestion let it flow. and give people option to put their opinion on the suggestion. You never know what majority of the players would love until you throw in a few suggestions here.

Dont feel bad if your suggestion is being shot down by other players. What you think is a cool ability sometimes is considered by other players as an abomination. When you think of something for the game Think of that artifact as yours... and then think of it when it will be used against you. . if its something that is acceptable to you it might pass with others but then again whats acceptable to you might not be so much acceptable to other players.

well, i'm simply not happy with ppl shooting down all(or most) of the suggestion due to the general theme and/or just a few of them. That's why i said maybe i need to stop doing big "shipments". If I made some of them alone(as opposed in this big batch) it might be better recieved.

And as I'm not a hacker myself... most of those are actully useless to me. I just feel that something like this to make the hacking aspect of the game more diverse and interesting. Personally, besides Link Nullifier, I won't be really bothered by any of them being used on me much. I don't mind being disabled and I don't mind waiting out the effect of most of the items unless they were used in a semi-abusing way (like spamming com blockade) but that's unlikely. I think some ppl over react on some of them because it CAN have a huge effect(such as info blockade) but in actual game play... it rarely does.

More or less these ideas would be great if dan used his old touch of gold to balance them out so +0.5 good idea just needs to be balanced.
Saddly it will never happen theres to many players that are perfectly content with there contest of who has the bigger stick to ever have anything with class like anything with cyber/electronic warfare.

-1 this would take annoying players to a whole new level.

Case and point most players are perfectly happy with there "who has the bigger stick" contest they dont want to have players who in head on combat are weaker being able to fight back.

Why so short on these timers? Why not 24 hours for the Communication Blockade and 4 hours for the Information Blockade? Overall they're pretty good ideas that I would consider.



I see this as being too powerful. -1



This artifact isn't effective. Double the potency of the trap to make it effective.

It's good that you're making ideas. When people disapprove of them, they're giving you advice of what's acceptable and what isn't. It's what makes people better at determing ideas that the majority of people would like.

I design these things to have a real purpose in mind, namely planet stealing, as opposed to be a general annoyance. Granted com blockade would be fairly obivous and would be caged pretty fast so it won't hurt to be hours long. There is really no way of even knowing that you are under info blockade unless you check under ur status(which few regularly do) or until you are disabled by someone and noticed the lack of alert. I think it could be a bit "too much" to be unknowingly blocked for hours, as many bad things could happen to that. 10 minute is sufficent to serve its purpose, so i think it's enough.



personally i think this have a "self balance" point of "you can't choose what you will use up". so if someone happen to use a cageable artifact that is on the rare side on you and you auto-respond, then you are out of something rare and they are simply 1 cage down. furthermore, they could pour all their negative buff artifacts(that they want to use) on you first and just use 1 cage to rid of all the ones that was auto-responded. So you might be out of half a dozen artifacts when they are just down 1 cage.
The only case where this is too powerful, IMO, is if someone with lots of buffs CMed a ship with this on....
oh, and just to be clear, the "if able" means that conditions have to be met. For example, you can't auto respond with tactical inner bypass even if you had it if you haven't successfully hacked the guy. Furthermore, it requires you to have the artifact in inventory AND will use it up.


meh... maybe 10 min if unccessful and 20 min if successful so it always have an effect(pretty much 5 min extra CD and unable to TM it out)
I don't think ppl would be very happy with long non-removable effects.




See, i'm perfectly happy with your post, becasue you looked at the artifacts individually. Even thou i might not agree with your view on sme of the stuff, but at least you took the time to read it over and therefore your opinion is valueable and have solid basis.
What I'm unhappy with is some ppl who just see the general theme, see that there are a lot, and decide that it's bad because it would be bad to add a bunch of stuff which "must" be all related to the one aspect of the game w/o properly considering each of them seperately.

I really don't like the attitude of "let's shoot those 10 guys cause I know at least 5 of them are murderers"

Frankly, I don't think many ppl would be against System Optimizer, even if they are not hacker themselves, because it's not all that powerful. And if System Stabilizer or Database Archive was suggested by themselves, I would think most ppl would be fine with it. But because they were in middle of a pile of hacker stuff, some of which might be a bit too powerful, they end up being brushed aside by some ppl w/o taking a more careful look and consider them individually.