Hey, last time I talked a bit about the server network map, where you'll choose between different challenges to get different devices (and other gains). Today I'll tell you a bit about how these devices work. Again: this could be considered spoiler territory, so stop reading if you'd prefer.

(Also: we're still hoping to reach my estimate for a "comfortable" budget - i.e. definitely having time and resources to get everything done how I want it. So sharing this still helps!)

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As in 868-HACK, it's easy to complete a round (hack one server), and the challenges come from scoring points as you go or from completing multiple rounds with added difficulty mods. (I should note: sometimes when I talk about this people disagree with my claim that it's easy! If this is you, I recommend avoiding collecting any points at all until you've reached the end with 0 - getting all the points is probably impossible and you won't know how to judge the risks without a baseline. But for the sequel I'll be building a new introduction to help get the concepts across.)

I realised that if you have to finish hacking a server to get a device, then you never get to actually use the device from the final server, which feels kind of wrong: you've won the game but now it's over so your loot is worthless. So instead I moved it to the start of a round — the loot comes before the dungeon! Conveniently this also means that you get to play with shiny new stuff already in the first server you hack. Explained via mspaint:

This is kind of a basic point but it probably has some general applicability in other designs so I have belaboured it.

So straight away devices are adding more variety between plays — an opening with /exorcism feels very different to /menu. And if you're successfully hacking multiple servers, eventually you have lots of them! What do you do with them? First off, they're not all switched on all the time: you have to make (increasingly complex) choices about which ones to activate in any given round. But when you can get them plugged in, they can make powerful combos!

I'll go through some examples; they're still changing a lot as I work on the game so no guarantees which of these will actually make it in but it will give you some kind of a picture: