I think we can all agree that hacking mechanics are not in the best place right now. In my opinion the main problem with them is lack of transparency in how they work. Vague phrases such as "+30% hacking speed", "-10% bandwidth usage” and more don't actually tell us anything useful or appear to not do anything when we don't actually know what is our hacking speed or we don't know if “Piggyback” actually affects our opponent or not. 


As such here are some changes I'd love to see:

  1. Total hacking speed indicator for each Operation. (think Industry production on star systems but for each hack)
  2. Total expected cost of each Operation. (in hacking speed)
  3. Clear wording on each program of what it does, to whom and what's expected to happen given known information.
  4. Let players hack any system regardless of if there is a possible hack action on the system or if the system is a target of another hack. (will give “Divert” a reason to exist)
  5. Let hacks stay in target system for as long as player wishes it to stay. (while consuming an active Operation)
  6. Let players learn about opponents programs, bandwidth and hacking operations.
  7. Let players force hacking operations to go strait to the node they want (akin to forcing free movement for ships)

There are more problems with the system (like that most programs don't actually do anything useful), but I believe that these changes would make the system more accessible to players than it is currently is.


P.S.: We need "Hacking" tag.