Glossary

Device - Think of a device as a computer. A device has an owner, a controller (which is normally the same as the owner) and a status showing what action it is performing. The controller of a device can install or uninstall technology on it. You can use devices that you control to perform useful actions - eavesdropping, cracking and hacking.

Hack - An action that a controller of a device can perform to disrupt or take control of another device. A hack can attempt to do one of four things:- take control of another device, attempt to corrupt the results of the action another device is performing, attempt to force another device offline or spy on it to find out more about it. There is also a fifth operation (guardian) which is explained elsewhere.

If your attempt to take control of another device is successful, you will become the controller of that device and be able to use it to do what you want. Any technologies installed on that device will remain on it, even if you do not have leases on those technologies.

If your attempt to corrupt the results of a device is successful that device will be placed in corrupting crack, corrupting drop or corrupting hack status if it was performing a crack, drop or hack. If the target device was in online unassigned status it will put that device into forced offline status (see Forced Offline).

If your attempt to force a device offline is successful, that device will be put into forced offline status. Note that this means that all subsequent attempts to hack that device will fail (a device that is forced offline can not be hacked) until the owner of the device restarts it.

If your attempt to spy on a device is successful you will find out what vulnerabilities are possessed by the technology installed on it, its current controller and its current status. This can be useful as knowing what vulnerabilities the device suffers from helps you determine what technology to use to exploit them during your hacking operations against that device.

All other things being equal, it is easiest to be successful at a hack to spy on a device and hardest to take control of it.

Signal - Every event is preceded by one or more signals. A signal occurs at a single point in time on a channel and can be intercepted by a device that is dropping on that channel at the precise moment the signal occurs. There is information in the signal which gives clues to how the event can be cracked - specifically the existence of vulnerabilities in the event.

Event - An event is one of three things - an electronic transfer of money from one party to another ("money transfer"), the carrying of a message ("mail") from one player to another, or a law enforcement action designed to catch players' devices that are dropping or cracking on a specific channel ("dropper sweep"). An event lasts for a specific amount of time during which they are open to being cracked by any player that has sufficient technology to exploit the vulnerabilities from which that event suffers.

A dropper sweep event that detects a device dropping on the same channel will force offline that device; if the device it detects is cracking on that channel the device may be confiscated. Therefore always look out for the signals for dropper sweep events and protect your devices by stopping them dropping or cracking in that channel for the duration of the dropper sweep event.

When you successfully crack a money transfer event the destination bank account for that transfer is changed to your own bank account and the money will be transferred to you when the event ends (normally this is instantaneous). When you successfully crack a mail event you can see the contents of the message being carried, including its attachments. When you successfully crack a dropper sweep event all devices that the event has discovered dropping are added to your known devices. Knowing other players' devices means that you can attempt to hack them. Note that only the first player that successfully cracks a dropper sweep event gets this knowledge. The act of cracking the event drains it of all knowledge of devices that it has caught; any other player cracking the event will discover no new knowledge.

Note that no matter how long a dropper sweep event lasts, the final 10 hours of the event is "safe" - the dropper sweep event is no longer trying to detect dropping and cracking devices. During this period it is safe to try to crack the event. Try to crack the event before this and you are likely to be discovered by it and your device confiscated.

Drop - Abbreviation of eavesdrop. A device can drop one or more channels to try to detect signals that occur on those channels. It is more difficult to detect signals on channels with high security levels - you may find it helpful to set more than one device dropping on the same channel for the more secure channels.

Crack - The process of using a device to intercept an event (see Event). In order to start a crack you must have detected at least one signal (see Signal, also see Drop) or have found out about a signal of that event (e.g. by receiving it as an attachment to a message). To start a crack you specify one or more crack technologies that are installed on the device you use. You must try to use a technology that exploits a vulnerability of the event - a crack can not be successful without this. You must also specify all or part of the address space of the event. By working together with others, or using multiple devices you can cover the whole address space of the event much more quickly than by using a single device. Speed is the key - the event can only be cracked while it is running and many events terminate as soon as someone has successfully cracked it. You are in competition with all other players. As a result of this players can create and join gangs (see Gang) that form for the sole purpose of cracking high profile events.

Technology - Think of this as two different things. Firstly various types of software that can be installed on a device and is used to do things such as improve the speed of hacks, effectiveness of hacks, cause incoming hacks to be less successful or take longer or detect who performed the hack, etc. Secondly technology can be a capability which enables you to do things such as encrypt your messages, add blind recipients to messages, decrypt messages, detect when someone has spoofed the sender field of a message, etc.

Technologies have dependencies between them so that in order to acquire them you must first acquire the pre-requisite technologies. Technology is acquired as a lease, i.e. you pay to have the privilege to use it for a specific number of days. When that period expires, if you have not extended the lease you will lose the technology and it will be immediately de-installed from devices you installed it on (even if these devices were ones not owned by you).

Other terms

Address Space - An event occurs within a virtual area of memory which is called its address space. When you start a device cracking an event you may specify just a portion of the address space to execute against. The fatal flaw that you are trying to exploit in order to successfully crack the event may not be in that part of the address space in which case the crack will fail. But a crack running against a subset of the address space will complete more quickly than one which runs through the entire address space. By using multiple devices, each working against a different part of the address space, you can crack an event much more quickly than using a single device working against the whole address space.

Channel - Each stream (see Stream) is split up into a number of channels. Every event and every signal occurs on a channel in a stream. Each channel has a security level associated with it and the difficulty of cracking an event on this channel depends on the security level of the channel.

Controller – Every device has a controller which is normally the same player that is the owner of the device. But devices can be taken control of by successfully hacking them, in which case although the owner of the device normally stays the same, its controller will change to the controller of the device that hacked it. The controller of a device is the only one that can use it to hack, crack or drop. An owner can regain control of their device by forcing it offline (see Force Offline) at which point control returns to the owner.

Corrupting Crack – This is the status of a device that was performing a crack but has been successfully hacked by someone performing a hack to corrupt its results. The crack the device is performing will fail. The controller of a device in this status does not automatically see that it has changed into this status. An attempt by the controller to stop it cracking will fail; the only action that can be performed is to wait for it to complete the crack (which will be unsuccessful) or to force it offline (see Force Offline).

Corrupting Drop – This is the status of a device that was performing a drop but has been successfully hacked by someone performing a hack to corrupt its results. The drop the device is performing will no longer detect signals. The controller of a device in this status does not automatically see that it has changed into this status. An attempt by the controller to stop it dropping will fail; the only action that can be performed is to force it offline (see Force Offline). How to detect that a device has entered corrupting drop status is a problem for a controller – periodically devices that are dropping should be stopped and drops started again. This will show up whether the device is in corrupting drop status or not.

Corrupting Hack – This is the status of a device that was performing a hack but has been successfully hacked by someone performing a hack to corrupt its results. The hack the device is performing will fail. The controller of a device in this status does not automatically see that it has changed into this status. An attempt by the controller to stop it hacking will fail; the only action that can be performed is to wait for it to complete the hack (which will be unsuccessful) or to force it offline (see Force Offline).

Dropper Sweep - See event.

Gang – A player that knows about a future event (knows one or more signals for it) can form a group of players to crack the event together. When a gang is formed other players can apply to join and the leader can accept or reject their applications. If any member of a gang successfully cracks an event, the spoils are shared equally among the members of the gang (i.e. the money is split evenly, the message is placed into all members’ inbox or the devices the dropper sweep event has discovered become known to all members). However every member of a gang can also choose to betray the other gang members and keep all the spoils to themselves if one of their devices successfully cracks the event. The other members are never told who has successfully cracked the event, but they are told how much each member contributed in terms of hours of devices spent cracking.

Inbox - Repository of all messages that have been sent to you (either by a player or by the system) plus any messages which you have intercepted via a successful crack.

Force Offline - The action of sending a device into Forced Offline status. The time it takes to force a device offline depends on whether you are the controller of that device or not. If you are the controller it should happen immediately; if you are not the controller it may take up to 24 hours to complete. A player who is the controller but not the owner of a device that forces it offline will lose control of the device back to the owner. This is the same effect as the owner of a device who is not the controller forcing it offline – control of the device returns to the owner when the force offline completes.

Forced Offline - A status of a device. Think of this as a device that is turned off. You can not install technology on it, use it to perform actions such as drops, hacks or cracks; nor can it itself be hacked. The only thing you can do to a device which is forced offline is to restart it, which only the owner can do.

Forum - The forum is where you can post in order to keep other players up to date and to discuss tactics. Be aware that messages posted on the forum are available to everyone, including visitors to the site.

Guardian hack - A hack operation used to set a device to protect another device. When you start a guardian hack, the device watches over the device you specify as the protected device. If that protected device is hacked by another device, the guardian will automatically and immediately come out of its guardian hack status and instead attempt to force offline the attacking device by starting a force offline hack against it. When starting a guardian hack, you should install a technology with a high hack reveal technology, since this must be greater than or equal to the level of hack suppress technology installed on the attacker. When you start a guardian hack, the hack steps you choose are the ones that will be used in the force offline hack of an attacker when one is discovered.

More than one device can guard a single device if required, but only one of them will be triggered into initiating countermeasures for each attack that is detected.

Guardian hacks last a maximum of 24 hours before they end. If you want protection after this you will have to start another guardian hack by hand then.

Message - Think of this as an in-game email. Every message is sent by the game or a player, but a player may use technology to fool recipients into thinking it was sent by someone else. Always be on your guard!

If you have the right technology you can add blind recipients to a message. If recipients (or people who crack the event carrying a message) have the right technology they will be able to see who these blind recipients are.

You can add attachments to messages. Attachments can be the addresses of signals, devices or players. You can also forward a message.

When you receive (or intercept via a successful crack) a message, the sender, recipients and attachments are added to your knowledge of the world. This is useful because you can only hack devices you know about, send messages to players you know about and crack events for which you know the signals. Be careful who you send information to and encrypt messages if you have the technology and your recipient has the technology to decrypt it.

Money Transfer - See event.

Online Unassigned - A status that a device can be in. A device in this status is idle and not doing anything useful.

Owner – The player that has "legal" rights to a device. The owner of a device is normally also the controller, but control can be lost to a player that successfully hacks it. Control of a device that has been lost as the result of a successful hack can be regained by the owner by forcing that device offline (see Force Offline) at which point control returns to the owner.

Player - Someone who has signed up to play. Every player is given money and some devices at the start.

Restart - Action of bringing a device that is in Forced Offline status into Online Unassigned status. The amount of time it takes to restart a device depends on the amount and sophistication of the technology that is installed on it. Only the owner of a device can restart it.

Stream – There are three streams in the world, each subdivided into a number of channels specific to that stream (see Channel). The commerce stream is where the signals of money transfer events occur. The mail stream is where the signals of ingame message events occur. The security stream is where the signals of dropper sweep events occur. Signals can occur on channels of any stream, and not necessarily a channel of the same stream as the event they are signalling.

Vulnerability - Something from which events and some technology suffers and which some technologies can exploit. In order to successfully crack an event you must use a technology that exploits a vulnerability possessed by the event. You can find out about an event’s vulnerabilities by detecting its signals and looking at them in the World tab. The success of hacks can be much improved by using a technology that exploits a vulnerability possessed by a technology that is installed on the target device.

C1 Game, Liphook, Hampshire, United Kingdom