Considering Total Reputation Dump

[CerberusArc]

Okay, so my situation is getting spectacularly annoying...please enjoy reading my forum novel...

I am level 24 with over 900 reputation. I am flirting around with the likes of Alpha Killer, who routinely appears on my scan list...and, unsurprisingly, I have no chance in hell of getting through his network with the level of programs I have.

Now, I used to be somewhat aggressive about reputation. I picked targets for resources but I would always try for a perfect hack. These days, I don't even try for a perfect hack, and I actually usually AVOID a perfect hack. I mean that I will ignore the last random node next to a forgotten net connection on purpose and quit the hack without taking it so that I get LESS reputation than I could get. I once skipped taking the core and just got out with resources only (keeping in mind that I had plenty of programs and could have taken the core, but chose not to because there was no point).

This is apparently not good enough because I continue to climb in reputation. Due to the programming of the scan system, I get very advanced players, some 10-20 levels above me. Come on! These are not valid targets for a player of my current development. I'm not going to take on level 8-10 defenses with my little level 4-5 programs. I should not be getting the top USA Hacker who is level 42 on my list! I would be an idiot to attack him, and it would be a total waste of my time and resources. Now if he very occasionally appeared in the style of "hey here is a tough target, want to try him?" then it wouldn't be so bad. However, he now appears in about 40 percent of my scans, over and over and over. He will routinely be mixed in with level 32-37 players. Almost never are these players valid targets or even possible to consider for a successful hack.

I have griped quite a bit about the matchmaking system used in game, and unfortunately my gripes continue to develop as I progress. I continue to love the game and have fun, but I am seriously, seriously irked by how poor the matchmaking design is. I guess it is more noticable simply because the rest of the game is quite well designed.

I no longer accept the "it will improve as more players join the game". According to your own post you have 1 million downloads. Now, I accept this is actually not that many in the grand scheme, but if there are even a tiny fraction of that, say 2,000 players, for me to choose from how the hell do I get not only the same players over and over and over again, but also players that are so unbelievably inappropriate for my level?

Bottom line, in the next update, I will be a very, very disappointed hacker, if major adjustments are not made to the matchmaking system. I think this week I am going to actively dump all of my reputation by intentionally failing 10 or 20 hacks in a row. Maybe I will get targets when I am at 300 reputation points that actually allow me to advance in the game. This problem is massively compounded by the fact that reputation is worthless. It is not worth getting and it sure as hell is not worth keeping. If the devs have read even half of the novels I have written on this forum, they know how much time I have invested in communicating improvement to the game. Some of my comments were noob (and appropriately shot down by advanced players), and some were, I think, very valid. I feel this is one such comment, and I will be a very, very happy hacker to see that maybe my investment in time here is not going to waste.

[dfnuts]

I understand where you are coming from, as when I was at 300 rep I started getting a lot of players who were well out of my range and I did just what you suggested. I connected to a target, let the preview timer run down and disconnected. This way I was losing between 10 to 12 rep each attack.

I did this until I was at about 100 rep, and then I figured something out. Something which meant thay I could of lost all that rep while collecting resources.

I realised that if I stealth hacked someone and only took some of their resources then it still counts as a completely failed hack. This was a plus plus situation for me, and before I knew it I was on 0 rep, all the while collecting lots of cash and bitcoins.

I have no plans on rebuilding my rep too high until it means something more then a place on the leaderboard.

[Luminaar]

Nice post Cerberus. Don't be too hard on yourself with your posts, they're always well thought out and well written. Novels are fine between compile times I'm in a similar mindset to yourself about reputation dumping, to help build the base up a bit.

I realised that if I stealth hacked someone and only took some of their resources then it still counts as a completely failed hack.

I'm also in the process of doing this, but at the higher rep levels (Sorry Crash!), in an attempt to keep reputation supressed a little and resources ticking along. I don't really want hit rock bottom and farm inactives (although I heard it's super juicy) as this kinda spoils the fun and face-rolling the iPad for resources would get tedious. Having *some* challenge is important - I'm certainly happy to lose against a good network defense, and usually learn something

This is apparently not good enough because I continue to climb in reputation.

As dfnuts mentioned, once you're down at 0, networks are probably poorly constructed or weak enough to make a "failed" hack and still loot tons. In the mid-range it's not so clear cut. Bases are generally well enough defended against a pure stealth loot run, but are still great targets for a conventional Brute Force attack, which in turn *gains* you reputation. This keeps you high enough to take a few cheeky resource stabs against higher level bases, which then lowers your rep again. I'm sure if you sink too low, possibly the 600's, you'd probably have to purposefully fail a hack to get lower, as bases would be less stealth friendly and wins would be worth a ton of rep - as you say, it's pretty easy to climb in rep

[BEASTMODE]

Nice post Cerberus. Don't be too hard on yourself with your posts, they're always well thought out and well written. Novels are fine between compile times I'm in a similar mindset to yourself about reputation dumping, to help build the base up a bit.

I realised that if I stealth hacked someone and only took some of their resources then it still counts as a completely failed hack.

I'm also in the process of doing this, but at the higher rep levels (Sorry Crash!), in an attempt to keep reputation supressed a little and resources ticking along. I don't really want hit rock bottom and farm inactives (although I heard it's super juicy) as this kinda spoils the fun and face-rolling the iPad for resources would get tedious. Having *some* challenge is important - I'm certainly happy to lose against a good network defense, and usually learn something

This is apparently not good enough because I continue to climb in reputation.

As dfnuts mentioned, once you're down at 0, networks are probably poorly constructed or weak enough to make a "failed" hack and still loot tons. In the mid-range it's not so clear cut. Bases are generally well enough defended against a pure stealth loot run, but are still great targets for a conventional Brute Force attack, which in turn *gains* you reputation. This keeps you high enough to take a few cheeky resource stabs against higher level bases, which then lowers your rep again. I'm sure if you sink too low, possibly the 600's, you'd probably have to purposefully fail a hack to get lower, as bases would be less stealth friendly and wins would be worth a ton of rep - as you say, it's pretty easy to climb in rep

what you all say makes since, and also goes with my experiences. I'm only a noon at lvl 16 or 17 with about 200 rep. I've noticed though when I first started everyone was hacking me and resources were hard to collect but...now that my lvl is high and my rep is lower than normal, add that to great security(in my opinion) and I hardly get hacked at all now only retracers now and again from users that can't get past my security. But I agree the matchmaking should be revamped big time.

[Vnasty]

You know rep is useless but you don't move down? Your ego cant let go of the rep. Lol ok. Drop the ego and hack for what benefits you most. Resources. Rep will have incentive. While i build my empire ill come out of no where and crush your ego

[Bumbledolt]

hmm seems like a good idea iam at like 700 rep and getting players which get past my base hardly btw vnasty what is your level and rep.

[CerberusArc]

You know rep is useless but you don't move down? Your ego cant let go of the rep. Lol ok. Drop the ego and hack for what benefits you most. Resources. Rep will have incentive. While i build my empire ill come out of no where and crush your ego

Oh Vnasty, I wish I could do a search for you so I could attack you over and over again

You are always doing your best to irk me on my posts, lol.

[Jaystar]

Let's just totally remove the rep system. It is useless and pointless. Instead, the search should prioritise on level and not rep. Rep can easily be gained or loss and let it be a natural cause. If you include both rep and level, it will just skew the search results at either end.

I have reached the rock bottom at 0, and I see only a few people around my level. Then I had experience of the higher reps and I saw it was filled with 30+. I believe everyone has equal opportunities to attack everyone, not just on the same rep level.

Right now, I'm doing easy mode... sitting around 300 and no one even attack me. If they do, they usually fail because they don't know how to unblock the choke points. This almost feels like cheating but it's not. It's like a soft shield because no one can target you due to the search system.

So Dev! make it more interesting for everyone and just remove the rep requirement in searches.

NB: I do want to hack Vnasty, and all of you guys actually! I don't mind stealing a few rep points from your high horses .

[CerberusArc]

Let's just totally remove the rep system. It is useless and pointless. Instead, the search should prioritise on level and not rep. Rep can easily be gained or loss and let it be a natural cause. If you include both rep and level, it will just skew the search results at either end.

I have reached the rock bottom at 0, and I see only a few people around my level. Then I had experience of the higher reps and I saw it was filled with 30+. I believe everyone has equal opportunities to attack everyone, not just on the same rep level.

Right now, I'm doing easy mode... sitting around 300 and no one even attack me. If they do, they usually fail because they don't know how to unblock the choke points. This almost feels like cheating but it's not. It's like a soft shield because no one can target you due to the search system.

So Dev! make it more interesting for everyone and just remove the rep requirement in searches.

NB: I do want to hack Vnasty, and all of you guys actually! I don't mind stealing a few rep points from your high horses .

Hehe, please take my rep! Have it all!

Anyway, I think the game does need rep/leaderboards and such. These are expected parts of the game and would be noticable missing competely. However, there does need to be changes. Perhaps rep should be not tied to search results at all. Or perhaps less effect than level. As said before, there certainly needs to be more incentive to actually have rep. Right now there is very very little point unless for some reason you no longer need resources....hahaha...right.

[Silken]

Hehe, please take my rep! Have it all!

Anyway, I think the game does need rep/leaderboards and such. These are expected parts of the game and would be noticable missing competely. However, there does need to be changes. Perhaps rep should be not tied to search results at all. Or perhaps less effect than level. As said before, there certainly needs to be more incentive to actually have rep. Right now there is very very little point unless for some reason you no longer need resources....hahaha...right.

@ISpy make the point for league tables as well as reputation. Not sure if he explained how it would work or not. But I could see a point system, such as 1 point for beating someone lower level. 2 points same. 3 points higher level. Negative points for unsuccessful attack. Reset each week, have maybe 5 different leagues bronze, silver, gold, platium, diamond. 10/20 people in multiples table - top two get b-coin and gold rewards and get promoted. Bottom two get relegated.

Farmers like me, would never get out of the bronze league because i tank so many matches, but people who protect reputation and push to the top will get into the higher leagues with better rewards.