Hacking is easy...

The answer is the 3rd or 4th password on the left hand side of the screen ( 75% of the time )

For me, hacking is easy if you pick words that seem suited to the gameplay aspect. For example, I would choose a word like "slavery" over "kittens" every time and 99.9% of the time this system works. Are there any kittens in the game? Not that I've seen. Slavery, though . . .

I hate both the hacking and lock picking minigames. Always have since day 1. That is why I downloaded a mod that eliminates those two completely. Just a straight skill check.

Will someone please explain the hacking thing to me, maybe I am a bit dumb but I dont understand how it works ...... many thanks

:violin:

Exiting out and then waiting for that command prompt screen adds quite possibly 5 seconds to the whole thing. Besides, considering we're cheating when we do that, it's well deserved I'd say.

As for the hacking mini-game itself, it's confusing at first, but with high science skills, combined with a bit of logic, it get's pretty easy, IMO.



Sure, it's not really that complicated once you get the hang of it.

a) Make sure you have your science skill up. You'll only be able to access certain terminals depending on your skill level, and the higher the skill, I think the fewer the duds available. I think

b ) If you're on your last guess, EXIT OUT of the minigame (on PS3, it's the 'O' button). You can reenter the terminal right away with no penalty other than having to wait for the screen to do the command prompt thing (literally a few seconds).

c) The password will only ever be words, so no need to enter the individual random characters or anything.

d) When you enter a word, it'll tell you how many of the letters in that word are in the correct spot (so if you see 3/9 correct, then you know that 3 of the 9 letters are in the right spot). Use this to narrow down the choices. For example, if the correct PW is "SAVAGE" and you had picked "RAVAGE", then you should see '5/6 correct' after you selected the word. This should clue you in that all but one of the letters was correct, and then you just look for another word that has the same letters.

Another tip, if there are words ending in "ING", and you select one and you get anything less than 3 letters correct (ie 0/X correct,1/X correct,2/X correct), then the correct password cannot be a word ending in "-ing".

e) You can remove duds or even give yourself more chances by finding sets of characters that are enclosed by brackets, such as <&@*(>, (*&%*$), [*#^@^], etc. To find these, start on the left side of a line of characters and slowly move the cursor over one character to the right until you see a section of characters highlighted. If you hit enter, it should say either "Dud removed" or "Allowance Replenished".

f) Finally, sometimes I find that the passwords are somewhat thematically linked to the location. So, a terminal that unlocks a safe may have a password that is "PROTECT" or something. Not a sure-fire method, but sometimes a good starting point.

Multiple choice hangman.

Yeah, I really hate hacking in FO3/NV. It's the most unfun and unfair thing in the whole game.

Or more concisely Mastermind.

I don't think they sell that in my country.

Thanks for that Adept!!

Is the "anti-scumming" issue a PC issue? I play on the 360 and don't have to wait through the login screen. I can press A to bypass it. I also don't have to wait if I back out of a terminal. I can try again immediately.

I fail to see the relevance.

I'm on the PS3, and I think what they're talking about is when you re-enter, you can't just click through to the word jumble screen for the minigame. You kind of have to sit through a bit of typing animation that shows your resetting the password system or something like that. For me, I can only click through to the actual mini game after a few seconds of that animation. It's really not that big of a deal.

It would be different if it forced you to wait for a minute or two, or if it locked you out if you tried to back out, or set off alarms or something.

:violin:
Mini-games have been in RPG video games for twenty years. Maybe you should face the truth and stop deluding yourself that its a Pen and Paper game.

If hacking truly bothers you and your playing on the console so your computer screen is free[if your on the PC you can simple use the debug console to unlock any terminal you wish to skip]
http://stuvel.eu/fallout3#choiceform
It was designed for FO3 but works fine in New Vegas

This is brilliant. Tie the skill to the percentage chance of getting a successful hack and the speed at which the animation goes. 25 Science Skill = 15 second hack animation on Easy Computer. 100 Science Skill = 5 second hack animation on Easy Computer. Obviously this could be done for lockpicking too. I can practically feel the tension of trying to pull off that hack or lockpick quick enough as you hear the footsteps of the guard/owner approaching. Would be fantastic!

Unfortunately, it stops being 'realistic' once you enter the computer screen and the world around you pauses as you liesurely read through the records. Still.... a good compromise.

I would rather there be no allowance replenishes and rather there be only dud removed brackets and that could be based on difficulty and skill points.

Ummm... learn to time things. I timed 5 seconds... with a mod that greatly accelerated the typing speed of the fake login.

Also... they are not thematically linked to the location. There is no interface in the GECK to set such a thing up, it's just a lock level on the cell ref to the terminal in question, which in turn has no setup of the sort in its form. You're seeing patterns where there are none.

Yes, congrats on spending time to actually time it. I just came up with a number, and to be honest, even if it was 10 seconds, I wouldn't care. It's really not that big of a deal. If you don't want to wait too long, then have a better science skill and don't svck at hacking. It's been ages since I've had to back out of a hack now that I've built my science skill up and have the Followers Coat (with Programmer's Digest occasionally). The whole backing out and coming back in is a side step to the allowance anyway. If you're going to utilize it, I don't understand how you can complain about it taking too long. It's like complaining that the XP loopholes available take too long to build up your XP or something.

As for the thematically linked to the location bit, I didn't say that they absolutely were but just something I noticed occurring when I was hacking. Several times, I've found that selecting the options somewhat linked to the location seem to be the best bets. For example, in H&H tools, twice on two separate playthroughs, I've noticed that the correct option deals with paranoia, fear or other 'bad' things (like the most recent one was "infested" or something like that). In another place, the password was "secure".

hacking and i arn't best friends

but then i got 100 science, and now no computer can confuse me :celebration:

but, yea, its not a fun minigame :sadvaultboy:

I hate hacking in this game, just seems more dificult than in FO3. probably the reason that my science never got above the base level and i have like 2 terminals hacked.