
Fester Addams
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Posted - 2005.10.01 12:17:00 -
[1]
The idea has been upp before and usually its a request to be able to get more runs than bought, ie you get a copy, build the full complement of ships/modules and then as a reward for being in 0.0 you get to make a few more.
This is a flawed way of doing it. (Please note I dont know if this is how you envisioned it.)
The way I could see this hitting the game would be if you could get a % boost to the number of remaining runs if you research the BPC.
BPC's in the game must be considered to basicly be information stored on some form of computer chip/disc/drive, I know most people have probably thought of them as actual paper plans but that would be silly.
Thus the copy has a hardcoded self wipe system meening once the licenced number of runs is used upp the vital information needed to instruct the drones in a factory what to do is wiped.
Hacking this chip should thus be combined with risk.
Firstly one or more skills should be needed, the cosmos hacking skill would be a nice start, have it be a prerequisit for a BPC hacking skill, this skill increases the chance for the hack to be successful. A second skill would improve the hacking boost.
The risk involved would naturally be that the BPC would be ruined by the hacking atempt.
Thus lets say I want to hack a BPC with 100 runs. I stick it in a lab slot and choose hacking, like pointed out it should be illegal and thus only doable in 0.0 or PO stations. If the hack is successful you would get say 30% + skill bonus more runs on the BPC but it becomes flagged as contraband. If failed the BPC is destroyed and now useless, the hacking protection hardwhare in the chip wipes the information and the print becomes 0 run.
Thus if successfull the 100 run copy becomes 130+bonus run. If the player hacking first built 20 units and then hacked it the percentage would be based on 80, not 100 and in this case thius end up with a BPC with 104+bonus runs.
The skill that increases the bonus could give 5% extra runs per level meening you get 55% bonus at maxed skills.
In order to make it possible to boost low run BPC's the number of runs would be rounded mathematically meening a skill of 4 or 5 would result in the 1 run BPC would become a 2 run contraband BPC.
The chance of sucess should for low skills be poor and even at maxed skills it should not be far past the 50% mark, say 30% +5% per skill level would be fair as this meens a maxed skill would have the ods being in your favor over the long run but it would not destroy the market as a large number of copies would be lost.
And as anyone who knows math can see the best profit would be to boost the rare 1 run BPC but only when you have enough to be able to cover a failed atempt.
I am not sure if you should be allowed to rehack BPC's, my gut tells me no but if there is a suitable modifier to the successrate then I guess multiple hacking attempts could be acceptable.
------------ 20. Is it true all pvpers have carebear alts? Yes, of course. I have so much fun looking up who's alt is who's 
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