Cyberspace

Cyberspace
Dystopia's catch phrase is "Jack in. Kick ass." Jacking in and hacking is one of the most popular parts of Dystopia. A good hacker is essential to winning the game. It can be extremely confusing to new players, though. Jacking in is the easy part, but it's hard to kick ass if you don't know what you're doing. With that in mind, here's the quick and dirty guide to cyberspace ass kicking on the map Vaccine.

Getting Ready
To jack in, you need the Cyberdeck implant. It takes up three slots, so only the medium and the light can carry it. It's also an extremely good idea to carry the SCS implant, as well. I would never jack in without it.

Once you have the implant, then you need to find a cyberspace terminal, also called a jack in point. Only one person can use one at a time. If it's being used, then the best thing to do is wait and play a kind of "tag team" with the other guy to jack in when he runs out of energy. If there is already someone there, then the best thing you can do is go out and try to help your team some other way. If FF is on, please don't kill the decker just so you can hack in yourself. That is selfish and rude, and a good admin will ban you for it.

Once you've reached a terminal, activate the cyberdeck implant while nearby.

Jacking In
This guide is for the "Vaccine" map:

You will find yourself in a purple box with an opening leading to a blue tube. If you're Punk, just head on out down the tube to the box, called a node. If you're Corps instead, you need to turn around from the node you hit, and head on back to the last one. Each node is color coded.

Green--The green node is the first node to center on. Both Punks and Corps can open the doors here, but it's a very bad idea for the Corps to keep them open. They are entrances for the Punks to get to the first objective. Once they get there, this node is pretty much useless.

Yellow--This is the one most hackers will spend the most time in. Here you can switch the Stage 2 turrets to attack either Corps or Punks, and open and close the maintenance hatch.

Red--This is the final node. There is only one terminal with access to it, the one in the Security Room. This node allows hackers to capture the next spawn for the Punks, or allows the Corps to recapture it, and allows hackers to raise and lower the defense of the Core.

The Green and Yellow nodes have bright white squares inside called jump pads. Hit them, and they'll send you flying up into the air to get easier access to various points in the node.

So how do you do all this stuff?

Running Programs
In each of the nodes, there are little building-like boxes with stuff inside. The entrances may or may not be guarded by a yellow barrier, called ICE (Intrustion Countermeasure Electronics). Inside each of the boxes is a screen with something you can do on it. If the other team has not put password protection or encryption on it, then you can get close to the screen, point at the button, and click on it as in Doom 3.

However, it's rarely that easy. Usually you have to get past ICE or encryption. And once you get past, you may want to put up some of your own. So you need to run programs. To do so, just go up to the place you want the program to applied, and a menu should pop up on your HUD. Press the button next to the program you want to run. All programs gradually eat energy while running.

Wedge--This program temporarily takes down ICE so that you can get through it to the hack point inside. However, you will get stuck inside when it comes back up. The only solution is to jack out, Wedge it again, or completely remove it with an ICE Breaker program. This program runs quickly and eats fairly little energy.

Ice Breaker--Permanently removes enemy-placed ICE, but it takes a lot longer to run and eats more energy. This is your only option if the enemies have placed an ICE Mine.

Password Crack--Does what it sounds like. It will remove password protection to give you access to a hack point. Runs about like the Wedge.

Decryption--This program takes longer than either the Wedge or the Password Crack. It removes encryption from a hack point.

ICE--Places an ICE barrier to block enemy hackers. Takes about as long and eats about as much energy as the ICE Breaker.

Ice Mine--Run this on friendly-placed ICE. Takes a while and eats energy, so only do it when you have a good chance. It will dump an enemy from cyberspace if he tries to use a Wedge on this ICE.

Password Protection--Puts a password on the screen to block enemy hackers from getting instant access to the hack. Not very secure.

Encryption--A much better, but more time- and energy-consuming way to secure a hack point.

Cyberspace Combat
You can't expect to spend much time in cyberspace without running into an enemy hacker. Fortunately, there are weapons at your disposal to deal with him. Unfortunately, he has the same weapons. Your primary and secondary fire give you a hitscan and a projectile attack.

Hitscan--Takes longer to charge up, but is easier to hit enemies with. It's a straight beam.

Projectile--Sends a ball of energy at the opponent that does some minor spash damage. It's a lot harder to hit them with this, but you can spit them out faster.

Both attacks drain 15 energy from the enemy with a direct hit. Take out all his energy before he can jack out, and you get +1 point for a cyber frag! You can do devestating amounts of damage this way; getting taken out of cyberspace by an attack does "dump shock" damage to their health.

Getting Better
Once you've got the basics down, go wild! Experiment with movement and timing. Try rocket jumping by firing the projectile attack down at your feet while jumping. A good hacker can make things much easier on his team.