Common mistakes

[maerg]

There are some network design patterns that simply does not work well. This could be a place to learn about them.
If you are aware of some mistake in network design that you have seen more than once, feel free to post it here. Explanation, why you think that it is a mistake would be great.


Double Sentry pattern:



Two Sentries side by side will not make your defense any stronger as there can be only one antivirus on any node. Detailed explanation was given in another thread here: http://forum.tricksterarts.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15

[maerg]

Another comon mistake with Sentry placement:

Sentry too early


At this position, i.e. too close to netConnection, Sentry is pretty much useless. Attacker can easily hack it down with few Beamers before the Sentry even start to spread the antivirus.

[Prochlub]

Well, yes, mostly. But regarding the second case, it does not have to be that bad at all times, at least not when Stealth is not your concern.
If you want Sentry to spread as fast as possible, you put it next to other active defenses, like Turret or Black Ice nodes. Sentry does not need to load into these, it immediately sends the installation packet to them, and they're ready to spread the Sentry program further.
But yeah, as a general rule of thumb, it's not the most elegant thing to connect it straight to the Connection. But the spread speed-up using neighboring turrets can be very useful to know.

[maerg]

If you want Sentry to spread as fast as possible, you put it next to other active defenses, like Turret or Black Ice nodes. Sentry does not need to load into these, it immediately sends the installation packet to them, and they're ready to spread the Sentry program further.

Really? I didn't know... that maybe explains some of my less succesfull hacks

[Pnub_utter]

Thought I'd share a sub par build network I hacked today.

[Nanix]

Thought I'd share a sub par build network I hacked today.

http://i.imgur.com/t5jy4z1.png
Looks like this one with that sentry cluster.

[Neur0c1d3]

Things I like to take advantage of are as follows.

1. Choke points made from active security nodes (as opposed to the passive scanner and guardian).

Do not use black ice as a choke point node, 4 programs + ice wall will destroy everything around it. Turrets/sentries are almost as bad, with 4 slots for the programs.

2. Sentries only in the front and middle of the network. (as well as only having 1 sentry)

Unless you've got good anti stealth, this is just asking for someone to disable the sentries and then take everything with a single worm.

3. Sentries placed in dead ends, with a security node in front. (like a turret)

Again, unless you have good anti stealth this is begging for an attacker to disable two nodes with one wraith.

4. Everything is connected to everything.

Just because you can connect that node to 4 others doesn't mean you should. For example black ice is hysterical with 4 shuriken on it.

5. Making a confusing network topology. (paths that cross over each other and such)

I'll just take a little bit longer to look at it. Or even take a screen capture to double check. People have infinite time to analyze your network. Also usually you have to sacrifice true security to do this...

6. I hate kraken!

Cool, but I can hack your network just as easy with other programs, give me 8 minutes to make some canons...

[Hell_Diguner]

Frankly the #1 most common mistake is upgrading your farms and mines too much.

[Crack69]

Frankly the #1 most common mistake is upgrading your farms and mines too much.

you mean upgrading them in general XD.
They really should either reduce the exp gained trom them or eliminate it completely. then i really wouldn't mind upgrading mine

[Crack69]

Then there's not focusing on a specific set of programs and instead upgrading them all.
for now the choice is between:
beam vs shuriken---i prefer shuriken since you can easily skip most poorly designed choke points.
blaster vs ram--- honestly what matters more in this case is your lvl. At low to mid levels (up to level 45-50) its all about blaster. Then from level 45 on you can start upgrading ram; ram 15 is good enough to stop at but ram 17 is the most optimal.
ice wall---high level icewalls are not cost effective level 3 is a goot point to stop at.
protector---these are to be brought to at least lvl 11, level 13 is just about perfect.
shocker---high level shocker can kill most defenses with ease level 12 is probably already overkill; shocker can easily substitute protector but it is reccomended you keep some ice walls for low defence requirements-again don't upgrade both protector and shocker. pick one and stick to it
worms---might be somewhat usefull while the library capacity is still low (40 or less). personally i find them too ineffective to be worth using even at high levels
maniac---dont have any experience with it but for now i can only say that blaster can easily beat it in terms of effectiveness-note: maniac cant take down most gates in one hit; don't try it

hope someone reads this...