Hacking ships & stations

Last modified by Daniel Turner on 2023/08/15 17:15

Hacking with the Trojan ROV (drone) can be initiated against both friendly and hostile targets. If you're on friendly terms with <target> you can also dock, where there's the option of hacking their internal computers too!

Ship Hacking

Drone hacking

To initiate a drone hack, you must have at least 1Trojan ROV on the Skunk, available for purchase from many drone dealer NPCs.

To hack a ship or station: fly within 10km of <target>* and enter the drone ('U'). Once you control the drone, select the target & activate the drone's special function ('F'), then select Drone Hack on the radial menu that just appeared. Now several icons will have popped up all over the surface of the target; fly to within 100m & activate (F again) one; you will be presented with a minigame. Be quick!

This minigame requires you to match the line with the highest frequency point that is visible on the graph, just like the Smalltalk minigame; however it's a lot faster! Again, there are several areas in the chart that will result in success, and several larger ones which result in failure.

Once you have succeeded in this minigame, the following affects are immediately applied to the target:

Disable all components, shields reset to 0. Capital ship shield generator restores even when hacked (probably a bug).

Damage 20% on all components.

Drop cargo containers 20% help

Hack effect should last for 3 hours. <needs checking for v4 - Snafu>

10Km is the maximum range from the Skunk for a Trojan drone*, although it'll take a long while to get to its target from that distance.

Don't forget that ships/stations are several Km in length/expanse, so an essential hack point may be just out of range!
The drone range indicator is top-centre of the drone screen. This 'shopped image shows the reducing range indicator until the drone is lost

*<?could be any personally-controlled drone - needs checking - Snafu>

Ship based Control Panel hacking

To hack a ship from the inside, simply activate (double click) the docking icon on any friendly or neutral ship and select dock.

Find a control panel inside (named and visually unique), then use the appropriate item listed below to gain the benefit shown on the chart.

Terminal	Hack Item required	Effect
Shield terminal	Security Decryption System	Drains and disable shield generators
Repair terminal	Temp Local Security ID	bugged, item unavailable on ships

Station Hacking

Some missions may require player to hack station components, eg the Rising Tide mission chain and generic Hack missions.

Mission can be finished by drone or from control panel hack.

Station drone hacking

Hacking a station storage module causes it to drop some ware containers into space. The station will attack <playerships> & their drones if a playership picks up those containers, unless <player> hacks the security panel(s) inside the station beforehand.

Control panel hacking

Terminal	Hack item required	Terminal location	Effect
Turret	Security Decryption System	Station Administration	Disable turrets for 5-10 minutes (whole station or one module?)
Discount	Temp Local Security ID	Free Commercial Port	Gives 10% discount and commission (duration not specified?)
Drone	Security Decryption System	Station Administration	Disable drones for 30-60 minutes (is local police counted as drone?)
Repair	Temp Local Security ID	Spacecraft Workshop	Disable repair for 1-5 hours (whole station or one module?)
Production	Temp Local Security ID	Free Commercial Port	Disable production for 1-5 hours (whole station or one module?)
Shield	Security Decryption System	Spacecraft Workshop	Disable and drain shields for 5-10 min (whole station or one module?)
Security	Security Decryption System	Station Administration	Station will not react to picking up hacked containers for 2-10 min

After hack highlighting terminal displays remaining hack effect time.