what IS hacking?

I'm playing the new expansion, but while I can get hacked, none of my offensive programs work. THe pirate node won't let me do anything: "Does not compute! No hacking operation passes through this node."

I only find four offensive programs to work with and they all give the same message. I went all the way through the tutorial, I thought.

Hey,

Offensive programs can only be placed on an existing hacking operation (the route that you trace when you choose the origin and the destination). In this case it seems you're trying to place a program on the pirate node but you have no operation that passes through there.

Once your operation reaches the node where the program is placed, the effects of the program will trigger.

Hope this helps!

What if you place an offensive program on a node that your hack operation has already passed through?

Yeah. Please explain more about especiallu offensive programs and hackiing in general Let me start

1. Your system A wants to hack Enemy system C, passing through Your system B. Will a tracer (C---->A) stumble upon B and discover my presence? 

2. The same situation - but this time you place offensive becaons - where (and in what order) would you place eg Piggyback and Accelerate. Those programs seem to doesnt fasten the hack...nothing changes, the number of turns is the same and hacks dont seem to be more succesful. 

HuskOfKnowledge wrote:

Yeah. Please explain more about especiallu offensive programs and hackiing in general Let me start

1. Your system A wants to hack Enemy system C, passing through Your system B. Will a tracer (C---->A) stumble upon B and discover my presence? 

2. The same situation - but this time you place offensive becaons - where (and in what order) would you place eg Piggyback and Accelerate. Those programs seem to doesnt fasten the hack...nothing changes, the number of turns is the same and hacks dont seem to be more succesful. 

I don't understand any of this. How can I get a hacking process done at all? I can't seem to replicate the tutorial hack at all, and since priates are my primary enemy the way I play, it would be good to be able to hack pirate bases.

Offensive Programs work by affecting ACTIVE hacks on that node. It's important to understand what that means so I'll try to clarify it a bit. A hack is only "active" when you are actually in the act of hacking a node, they are not active when you are moving between nodes with your hack. They also only affect the node they are placed on, they do not affect anything else. 

What this means for you is that placing an Accelerator on a node you've already passed through will accomplish absolutely nothing. 

The way to use an offensive program is let's say you hit a node and it's going to take you three turns to hack that node, an Accelerator will speed that up. If you hit a defensive program and need to be a trace, place the Accelerator on the node to get through the hack quicker. 

You will know when an offensive program is working because it will be a red section of your Bandwidth Bar. All Offensive program deactivate automatically when the currently active hack operation finishes and cannot be canceled once placed. They will deactivate automatically if you place them without an active hack operation reaching them at the end of the turn.