Underrail: Infusion > Development Log

Dev Log #10: Lockpicking and Hacking

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Smog:
Hopefully, the hacking system won't be too much of a puzzle for the player =)

Gogglemin:
Should've posted this months earlier but I showed this devlog to a friend when it came out and he looked me flat in the eyes and said "I need to play UnderRail now. I need to prepare for UnderRail 2."

He was so impressed by the new hacking mechanic he just had to play UnderRail. Suffice to say he's pretty close to beating the main game now.

It's kind of intimidating though. I suck at coding irl, and learning a new coding language is daunting.

Vagabond:
I was holding off on saying anything in recent dev logs because I love each and every one and it gets me more hyped by the day.

However, in the particular case of Hacking, I needed a video example to understand what it will be like, and the recent Hacking video on Youtube blew my mind.

I don't know how to code, and yet I am eager to figure out how hacking works because this is exactly the s*** I wanted to see in other games like Cyberpunk or Immersive Sims like Prey or Shadow of Doubt (give or take in the complexity). A completely detailed, in-depth additional and optional gameplay mechanic that adds a whole new layer to the main game, that you can entirely miss because of it's complexity.

That being said, I do wonder if besides the terminal and, paraphrasing Styg, GUI hacks, if we spec properly into a hacker+techie we can make our own "hacks" and "hacking tools" like cyberdecks (yes, it's actually a real thing). I can envision there being a dedicated forum thread specifically to all this, where everyone on top of their builds, share all the hacks they made. Like maybe a simple bruteforce codebreaker for simple 6-digit electronic locks. Or a self-destructive scan virus that gives you a full "map" of the system before deleting itself without a trace. Maybe besides hacks, we can make biometric scans of ourselves and (possible) companions that can be on us at all times to insert into hacked/disabled robots. The possibilities end with the imagination and the complexity of the system.

There is also a thought that can be a best of both worlds for those that don't want to go into the deep end, such as with higher hacking skill, the whole process gets easier, without changing the complexity at all, by having tooltips and thought bubbles appear. Something that can alleviate the burden of coding for the general public, while still keep the core essence intact and not dumb down or give outright answers and solutions. Think of it as turning the hacking from a meta-skill based to a hybrid skill & puzzle based system. You still need to find the solution like in an immersive sim.

Styg:
These not coding in the hacking videos / screenshots I've shown. It's just running some command shell programs with specific parameters. It's not really that complicated once you learn the parameters. Of course, you'd also have to know how to use the command shell, but if you know how to use windows or linux ones, you'll be fine.

Of course, I know that not everyone will be interested in doing this, so there will be easier ways to hack by using graphical programs and such, but those will be less powerful.

As for writing your own programs and scripts and such, it is my plan to develop the computer system as deep as I can over time (it might include post-full-release development). I would like to, at some point, provide a some sort of API for characters to write their own graphical software in-game as well.

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