Imperial Hackers

Please note: Imperial Hackers Online is a fictional computer game built around the themes of trading and hacking. No real hacking takes place: every system, network, tool and piece of data in it is made up, and nothing in the game touches any real computer or account.

• The goal. The Imperium Hackers Group has opened its frontier to novice hackers on the colony planet Cryptara Prime. Its systems are networked through hubs and routes, and every system holds a wealth of information. You start as a Vagrant with one meagre computer, 30 datacrons of storage and a few thousand credits. Your aim is to rise through the ranks to Imperial Hacker and become the most powerful hacker on the planet. Your objectives:
  • Build a fortune: follow the routes between subnets, hack data out of DataHouses and sell it to Syndicates. Net worth, which counts your credits, vaults, computer, data, Room and buildings, is the main measure of success.
  • Earn your title: gain experience by hacking, selling, haggling, exploring and fighting, and climb from Vagrant through Zapper, PC Baron and Duke to Imperial Hacker. Selling data earns the most.
  • Explore the Cryptara Prime net: chart subnets, systems and routes to find the most valuable data and the best places to sell it.
  • Build a hacked empire: claim buildings or set up Shell Companies, staff them with scammers who earn credits, and fortify them with a Security Stack, security forces and honeypots.
  • Command the routes: deploy security forces to hold territory, and defeat Colonial Defenders defences and rival hackers.
  The Rankings show who leads the net in net worth, experience and combat. You have 25 turns a day, so plan carefully: the best hackers make every turn count.
• Turns. You get 25 turns per day. They reset at midnight (site time) and unused turns do not carry over. Only three things cost turns:
  • Routing to another subnet: 1 turn per hop, whether you route yourself or use Auto-Route.
  • Connecting to a system: 1 turn, charged once when you connect. Once connected you can spend, sell and haggle as much as you like at no further cost, and disconnecting is free. You stay connected until you route away or enter a building, and connecting again later costs another turn.
  • Attacking a rival computer, building or defence group: 1 turn per attack.
  Everything else is free: entering buildings, Assign and Remove, building Security Stack levels, Shell Companies, the Scanner and Map, messages and rankings. The bar at the top of every page shows the turns you have left.
• Data classes. Data is what you trade, and it takes up storage, counted in datacrons: a 30-datacron computer carries 30 units. From lowest to highest value: Class 1, Private Data; Class 2, Consortium Secrets; Class 3, Imperial Data. Crypto Vaults are the rare find, worth several times Imperial Data, with small stocks; they are scarce near Aurelia and more common out on the frontier.
• Systems: DataHouses and Syndicates. Each system shows three letters for Data Classes 1, 2 and 3 in that order. S means the class is there to be had and B means the system buys it. A DataHouse does not trade at all: its S classes are Available, data waiting to be stolen, and it never buys, so the classes it does not have show as a dash (SS-). Connect and Hack, then Take it for a fixed cost effort in credits, with no haggling. A Syndicate is the real market: Connect and Sell what you took, or buy from it, and haggle. A system that mostly sells is a DataHouse; one that mostly buys is a Syndicate. A +R after the letters means it also deals in Crypto Vaults. So Salted Hash Exchange BSB +R buys Private Data and Imperial Data, sells Consortium Secrets, and trades Crypto Vaults. Well-stocked DataHouses sell cheap; a Syndicate short of a class pays the most. When your storage is full, disconnect and route to a Syndicate that buys what you carry. Systems restock every hour.
• Hacking tools. Each time you connect to a DataHouse, you get a tool at random, and it decides how much you can take on that connection: the System Scanner, the one you will see most, fills up to half your storage; the MD Exploit Tool three quarters; and the rare RE Shell all of it, with bonus experience. Disconnect and connect again (another turn) for a new roll.
• Haggling. Only Syndicates haggle. Enter your own price per datacron when trading with one. Offer a little better than the listed price and the sysop may accept, which earns extra experience. Push too hard and they will stop haggling with you for an hour. A DataHouse's cost effort is fixed, though it moves a little with how much data it has.
• Aurelia and the shops. Aurelia (subnet 001) is where you start. The Computer Store there sells storage, security forces, honeypots and network charts, and recruits scammers (so does Aurelia Prime, the Crown building in the same subnet, if you enter it). The Imperial Network Building also sells computer system types and Shell Companies; Imperial Hacker News gives its location.
• Your Room. Every hacker has a Room at Aurelia Prime. Scammers, security forces, honeypots and Shell Companies you buy or recruit wait there until you drop them in a building: they take up no storage, but they cost credits, they count toward your net worth at what you paid, and losing them takes that value off your net worth. You have no transport for people or hardware, so inside a building you own, Assign sends them from your Room to the building (use your imagination for how they get there), and Remove sends them back to your Room. Your computer runs up to its type's limit of security forces and honeypots from your Room to defend itself.
• Exploring. Your computer scans every neighbouring subnet as you arrive, showing its system, buildings and any hostile defences before you route there. The first time you visit a subnet beyond the Imperial Core you earn experience and may find an unsecured data dump, a forgotten crypto wallet, abandoned security forces or an old network map. The net takes as well as gives: an intrusion detection system can wipe data from storage, an Imperial auditor can take the Imperium's cut, and a juicy-looking server can turn out to be a Colonial Defenders honeypot. Network charts from the shops put more of the net on your map.
• Running data. You do not need to leave the Systems page between trades. Under the trading table, Where to sell this data lists the charted systems that buy what is in storage, best payout first, with the turns each trip costs; Route & Connect routes you there and connects on arrival, ready to sell, and so does clicking the subnet number beside any system, anywhere it is listed. With empty storage it suggests what to hack next.
• The Scanner. You scan networks to find systems, and the Scanner is where you plan a longer run.
  • Route to a subnet: enter any subnet number to see the shortest route, how many turns it takes, and the systems along the way. You can also click any subnet on the Map.
  • Auto-Route: follows the route one hop at a time, collecting discoveries as it goes. It stops if you run out of turns or come under attack.
  • System finder: choose where to hack or where to sell, and a data class, to list the nearest charted systems that deal in it, with stock, price and distance.
  • Known systems: every system in charted space with its current prices and distance.
  • Deployed security forces: where your forces stand guard across the net.
  Finding a data route: find a DataHouse with a class available at a low cost effort, then a Syndicate near it that buys that class at a high price. Two Syndicates a single hop apart that buy and sell opposite classes (for example SBB and BSB) let you trade in both directions.
• Buildings. Claim an empty building or set up a new one with a Shell Company. Assign scammers to it and every hour they earn credits, paid into the building's vault, turn up datacrons of the three data classes from their exploits, stored in the building until you Download them into storage to sell, and recruit security forces. Output is quoted per 1,000 scammers a day and rises with every Security Stack level you build, and a crew grows 5% a day by itself up to the building's capacity. Your scammers build up a Security Stack (levels 1 to 6): level 1 adds a Firewall & Vault you can deposit your own credits in, and later levels strengthen the defences and add a counter-hack turret that strikes intruders. The Buildings page lists every building you own with a one-click Route & Enter, and a Risk reading of each route, from Quiet to Severe.
• Colonial Defenders detection. The Colonial Defenders are private security, hired to guard the systems; the Federal Security Forces are the law, and they come to seize your computer. The Colonial Defenders run defensive tools across the net. Outside the Imperial Core, any connection or route hop can be spotted by one (an Intrusion Detection Sentinel, a Packet Sniffer, a Canary Token and the like): you are kicked off at once, the turn is lost, nothing is gained, and you pay a fine of a few percent of the credits you carry. Better luck next time.
• Federal Security Forces raids. You are the raider now, so the law comes looking for you. Outside the Imperial Core, any route hop or connection can draw a raid, more often the further you go from Aurelia. Honeypots decide whether they find you: each is a decoy sending the raid after a fake computer, so the more you carry against the raid's strength, the better your chance to slip away untouched (escaping uses some up). If they find you, your security forces fight: win and you drive them off and earn experience; lose and your computer is seized. Your computer can run up to its type's limit of security forces and honeypots from your Room.
• Hacker against hacker. Outside the Imperial Core you can attack a rival's computer in the same subnet, or a rival's building. Take down a computer and you loot 25% of the credits they carry and of the data in their storage (as much as your storage holds); their vaults are out of reach. Break a building's security forces and you can claim it, with its vault, scammers, data and Security Stack.
• Danger. The Imperial Core (subnets 001-010) is safe. Beyond it, the Colonial Defenders, raids and rival hackers will attack you. If your computer is destroyed or seized you return to Aurelia on a fresh Scrapdeck 386 and cannot hack until tomorrow. You lose the computer, the data in storage and everything in your Room; your credits, rank, buildings and vaults are safe.