Hi i am having trouble understanding exactly how hacking works, or more specificaly how other factions tracing you as the UC works.

It almost seems like its not really posible to hack a system more than once. as it seems to be traced super eaisly. Or maybe im missing something.

its frustrating playing as the UC and than having my hacks traced so much, i think im missing something.

Thanks for the help

ok ill give that a try thanks

I've run into similar problems. Pirate bases seem particularly difficult to trace (and they get detection tech pretty quick. Annoying!). 

I agree that using some defensive programs can help to stymie back-traces, but I can't figure out many of the offensive programs. Accelerator seems like it should be quite straightforward, but I can't seem to actually reduce hacking times with it. Piggybacking also seems weird; how many programs would you need to put on a node before it pays for its own bandwidth? 

One that's currently frustrating me is that starting point seems to matter a lot.

I had two starts where I was at the dead end of a spiral arm.  The system next to me required tier 3+ tech to clonoize (lava/desert/toxic stuff) and then the system after that was a minor faction.

This basically just murders your hacking as far as I can tell, to the point that you need to keep rolling the dice to see if you can get a full hack on the minor faction and get a backdoor in, but it'll usually take 9ish turns, and then you've got to hope that you beat their trace.  So far, I never have, so it's just gambling that they don't cancel the entire hack.

Maybe i'm missing something and I should be going a different route when that's my start, and tech to something that'll help, but so far it seriously limits a UC start, as you basically cannot hack until you get that back door  or, if you're lucky, you can start firing probes inward and hope you get an easy bounce from there. 

Still means you're looking at 10 + turns tied up in workarounds though.

I find it ironic that Pirates get waaay better detection and hacking capabilities early on than anything that is available to enemy empires.

They get level 3 dettection before turn 50....

I used a "pretend being an ambassador" option on a minor faction allied with another major faction. They are still allied. Is there another way to break the alliance?

To the OP:

There are a number of things you'll want to consider. 

First: Route your hack through multiple nodes, this makes the hack take a little longer but it also makes the trace take longer since it has to go through every node on the path before reachign the source. 

Second: Use an Accelerator on the node you're trying to hack. Once you "reach" the node and the trace program activates, activate your Accelerator program on the node. 

Third: Place Encrypt programs on the friendly nodes long the hacking operation so the trace operation takes longer to get through each node. 

Fourth: Establish a back door on a nearby system and route through it to increase your speed by another 5%

Hacking is all about using your programs (offensive and defensive) wisely while routing your operation intelligently.

Sotnik wrote:

I used a "pretend being an ambassador" option on a minor faction allied with another major faction. They are still allied. Is there another way to break the alliance?

You're better off not trying to break the alliance and instead using the "Hack Economy" option so they provide larger resources bonuses to you. This serves you better than being their sovereign and they continue to provide you all the bonuses you'd have even if they're in an alliance with another faction. If you absolutely must break the alliance then hack the same minor faction several times and use "Improve Image" until you're at 100%, then use the "Impersonate Ambassador" function to reduce their loyalty to the other faction, you will have to do this multiple times to get them to drop low enough that they change sovereignty. 

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