Hacking

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A skill that you can use to grant yourself illicit access to pieces of technology, or apply unintended side effects to pieces of technology.

Preparation

Gear

The gear that you should probably prepare before hacking.

  • Screwdriver - In order to access the maintenance panel, you must first obtain a screwdriver.
  • Multitool - Allows you to pulse the wires. Also very good for learning which wire does which. Needed to unbolt the door if the bolts go down.
  • Wire Cutter - Allows you to cut the wires, allowing for more long-term hacking. Can also reverse effects of the multitool.
  • Insulated Gloves - In order to not immediately get zapped by pulsing/cutting power wires you need insulated gloves. Budget Insulated Gloves work too but have variable insulating power.
  • Crowbar - Allows you to forcibly open a door. Works when the power is out or you've hacked away the power.

Hacking

Multiple powered devices are hackable. Doors and vending machines are the most common to hack. The process of hacking starts with using a Screwdriver to open the Panel on the object. You can then use either a MultiTool or Wire-Cutter to tamper with the object. To cover your tracks, you can then close the Panel with a Screwdriver. Remember, if you are trying to hack to get into unauthorised places or getting unauthorised objects you can potentially be sent to the brig, demoted, or even banned. If you are an Engineer, you may be asked by an authorised person to get into certain areas or get certain objects in an emergency situation but generally the right call (if you are not an antag) is to ask the relevant person first or HoP.

Wires

In order to hack an object, you need to figure out what wire does what by pulsing it with a multitool or cutting it with a wirecutter. The wire cutters make a semi permanent change (but you can reverse it by repairing the broken wire). Multi Tool effects are temporary when the power is on (and the timer controls this).

Above each wire, is a light. The lights indicate whether each item is on or off. If the lights are big circles it means that item is on. A smaller light means that item is off.

Wires per Object

  • Most Doors - There are 6 wires for normal doors: one goes to bolt, one goes to blit (bolt light), one goes to timr (timer), one goes to safe, two go to power.
  • High Security Doors - Double the lights as most doors
  • Vending machine - one goes to ACC (access), plus others.

The following effects will happen depending on the type of object you are trying to manipulate:

Airlocks

As previously mentioned, there are six wires in a normal airlock. Two of them are POWR wires, one is a BOLT wire, one is a BLIT wire, one is a TIMR wire and one is a SAFE wire. The effects are as follows:

  • POWR wire

Both of the POWR wires provide power to the door. If one of them is snipped it will electrocute anyone who touches the door, and if both of them are snipped the door will lose power. If you pulse one of the two wires the door will also lose power for a moment of time.

  • BOLT toggle

The BOLT wire bolts the door when triggered, making it un-toggleable until unbolted, meaning you can keep a door open or shut. If you cut this wire with wirecutters and mend them, it will not unbolt the door until you use a multitool on the bolt wire. Multitools can easily bolt and unbolt doors on command.

  • BLIT toggle

If disabled then the bolt lights will not come on. These are the lights at the top of the door

  • TIMR wire

The TIMR wire changes it's effects depending on what tool is used on it. By default, the door will close after a few seconds. If the wire is cut, it will immediately close as soon as it is able to. If pulsed, the door will have a shorter delay before it closes but still giving time to go through the door.

  • SAFE wire

The SAFE wire allows the door to close on unsuspecting crew, dealing 15 blunt damage and stunning the victim for three seconds. Just like the POWR wires pulsing this wire causes this effect to happen for a short period of time.

Vending machines

Vending machines have five wires. One of them is a POWR wire, one is an ACC wire, one is a MNGR wire, one is a VEND wire, and one is a SPKR wire.

  • POWR wire

The POWR wire acts exactly like the airlock's two, but since there is only one snipping it will disable the vending machine and there is no way to cause it to electrocute crew-members.

  • ACC wire

The ACC wire determines whether it abides by it's accesses (ex. a SecDrobe will not allow non-security personnel to order from it). Snipping or pulsing this wire bypasses this check, allowing anyone to access the machine regardless of access.

  • MNGR wire

Snipping the MNGR wire allows access to all items in the vending machine (ex. a hacked YouTool gives access to a single multitool)

  • VEND wire

Snipping the VEND wire causes all vended items to shoot out as if they were thrown. A mild nuisance, especially for the bartender and their glasses.

  • SPKR wire

Snipping the SPKR wire stops all speech from the vending machine. This includes vending machines that were made ghost roles.

Messages

  • Using a crowbar on a powered door will give you a message "the powered motors block you efforts".
  • If the bolts are down then the door will give you a message "the airlock bolts prevent it from being forced!".

Tips

  • When you shift click on an object, it will tell you whether the Panel is open or closed. If it is closed, you need a Screwdriver to open it.
  • Remember to close the Panel when you're finished doing whatever it is you needed to do.