Grid Takeover / Hacking

In SE1, if you wanted to take over a ship, you basically had to grind down half of the functional blocks below the hacking line and weld them back up again. In practice, this is extremely impractical. I understand that stealing someone's ship should not be trivial, but this system feels like way too much work for what you get out of it. In many cases, it's simply more efficient to grind down the entire ship and take the components rather than trying to hack and capture it.

There is also another detail: the ability to control a grid is strictly tied to ownership.

You can have a completely accessible cockpit or an open-style rover, yet you still can't sit in the control seat and drive it because you don't own the grid. It's basically password-locking the seat by default for no good reason.

I think we should separate controlling a grid from taking ownership of a grid.

Controlling a grid

You should be able to sit in a working control seat even if you don't own the grid or have it shared.

If nobody else is currently controlling the grid, you can use that control seat to pilot, drive, steer or otherwise operate the grid.

If the actual owner sits in another control seat afterwards, they take control back.

This does not mean you have taken ownership of the grid. You still don't own any of its blocks.

For example:

• Turrets would not suddenly recognize you as friendly and start following your enemies.
• But you could fire fixed weapons if they are selectable through the control seat's toolbar.
• You couldn't open locked cockpits or other inaccessible interiors.
• You could use an open rover seat, ship control seat, etc. if you can physically reach it.
• You could fly, drive, or dive the grid as long as there isn't already another pilot controlling it.

The same principle should apply to normal cargo containers.

If I'm literally standing in front of a normal cargo container, why can't I open it and take something out just because I don't own the grid?

I understand this for special containers like armored ammo magazines, secure lockers, etc. But a normal cargo container should be physically accessible if I can reach it. And ofc, this doesn't mean I automatically get access to every inventory connected to it. I should only be able to access what's physically in that container.

So taking control over a grid is possible while ownership remains unchanged. This can be useful for many reasons. Sometimes you just want anyone to use a parked rover without bothering to set up detailed permissions. And it ofc open up interesting scenarios. Stealing grids will become actually possible. So don't let any strangers to get on board or at least close the doors to where control seat are. Missions where you need to steal something or just being able to quickly escape by using one the locally parked grids.

Proper grid takeover / hacking

So, if controlling a grid is no longer tied directly to ownership, what about actually taking over the grid?

I think this should be something relatively simple, but still difficult enough that it can't be exploited or executed too fast.

You would need:

1. Access to several functional block control panels on the grid.
2. A hand held hacking terminal tool.
3. Hack a certain number of blocks

Certain functional blocks would count as hackable, for example:

• Control seats
• Reactors
• Batteries
• Event Controllers
• Production blocks
• Other important functional blocks
• Doors*

Weapons like turrets are not hackable.

The number of blocks you need to hack start with 1/4 of the total hackable blocks on the grid, as an example.

If you are using higher hacking tool tier you will reduce that count quicker. For example, tier 3 hacking terminal will decrease the count by 3 after each successful block hack.

* Doors are excluded from the block count you need to hack, you can only hack them to get control and open.

Hacking shouldn't be instant. The time could be comparable to completely grinding down the block with a hand grinder, multiplied by some factor.

This creates an interesting strategic choice. You can look for relatively light/easy blocks to hack and speed up the process, except if you intentionally want to take over on something like large nuclear reactor to shut it down.

And there is one important rule:

You cannot completely take over a ship while its owner is still on the grid or connected grids (like a ship docked to the station and the owner is sitting somewhere on the station or other docked ship). You need to get rid of the owner first. After that, you still need to hack one additional block, even if you had already hacked enough blocks before the owner left/died.

This prevents exploits when a sneaky hacker tries to get ownership of the grid right under the nose. Moreover, you can setup event controllers to listen for hacking attack and make a sound block announce how many blocks remain or play any alarm, activate some of the antihacking measures, like some additional traps or "surprise" turrets or what ever you can come up with to slow attackers down.

Firewall block

If you want additional protection, there could be a dedicated Firewall block. The Firewall increases the number of blocks that need to be hacked before the grid can be taken over.For example, it could make the requirement 3x higher. On the other hand, If you find and successfully hack the Firewall itself, it counts as 3 hacked blocks.

The Firewall would also be expensive and have a substantial PCU cost, so you wouldn't put one on every little grid. It would mainly be used to protect your most valuable ships and bases.

NPCs could use them too. Some NPC ships might have one, while others don't.

When you open the hacking terminal of a block you've already hacked, it could show you the remaining hacking count.

From that number, you can also potentially deduce that there is a Firewall somewhere on the grid.

You could install multiple Firewalls, but only one would actually have an effect. This prevents stacking them for absurd levels of protection.

Firewall block also make it impossible to control the grid you don't own.

What does this mean for ship design?

This could actually make hacking an important part of engineering your ship.

If you are worried about someone boarding and hacking your grid, you would want to:

• Protect your important functional blocks.
• Spread functional blocks across different rooms.
• Avoid exposing control panels directly to the outside.
• Separate critical systems behind doors and armor.
• Make the hacker move through the ship before reaching enough hackable blocks.

You could even create fake "control rooms" as traps.

Put a sign saying CONTROL ROOM, make it look important, and put absolutely nothing useful inside except an interior turret waiting for the poor bastard who enters. :)

Even if doors don't count toward grid takeover, I would make them easier to hack than grinding through blocks.

This would encourage attackers to actually infiltrate the ship rather than just standing outside and grinding through its hull.

Another, even simpler solution would be to make grinding enemy blocks much slower.

No more hydroman :)

A hand grinder would then be almost useless for breaking into an enemy ship. You would invest in a proper hacking terminal if you actually want to infiltrate and capture grids.

Grinding 2.5m heavy armor or concrete blocks with a hand grinder should basically be impossible or take an absurd amount of time.

That also creates some interesting defensive engineering possibilities. You could build mechanical systems that cover entrances with heavy blocks and effectively seal the ship during combat.

Of course, one can also put many functional blocks inside an armored chamber of heavy armor and thus make hacking very difficult. This is ofc a designer's choice. We can't do much about it except the fact that there will still probably be enough of the functional blocks scattered around the ship that you can easily cover or, if you do, you will probably make your everyday life using the grid much harder. Providing there is a firewall, and you are using the best hacking tool, their effects cancel each other. Therefore, you have to hack 1/4 (maybe 1/5) of all eligible hacking blocks, maybe doors should count too. In any case, if you allow hackers to deal with the ship for long enough, they will eventually take it over.

Final Thoughs

I think this system would give us a much better distinction between access, control and ownership.

You don't need to magically own a grid just because you sat in its driver's seat. And you shouldn't need to grind half of a perfectly functional ship and rebuild it just to make it yours.

At the same time, actually taking over a valuable ship remains a significant achievement that requires preparation, infiltration skills and patience.

I'll link some similar topics on this support site below. They contain a lot of useful details that could easily apply here instead of repeating the same information. Unfortunately, they're all archived now.

hacking-override-tool-module

cyberwarfare

Thx for reading.