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[LordBucket]

Codelink on Kongregate



Inspired by Uplink, Codelink(V2) is multiplayer hacking simulator. Upgrade hardware and software, hack into systems, banks, delete corporate files, perform missions for pay, discover secrets and generally run amuck.

I've spoken with the game designer, and apparently "hacker organiztions" (guilds/clans/etc.) are in the works, so soon we will be able to have our own Bay12 hacker corp.

Tutorial videos
(Note that there's about an hour of video here, and the pacing in them is very slow. If you're never played Uplink or Slavehack, you might consider watching the videos. If not, you can probably skip them. Though Note that while codelink is very much an Uplink clone, it is different from both Uplink and Slavehack in a few subtle ways that might not be immediately obvious. Cracking mini-games, for example. Servers going offline. Multiple file servers attached to a site, with both public and restricted resources. If you've never played a hack-simulator game, you might not know what to look for, but if you have, don't be surprised when things are different.)

Download version
The full download version of the game has some features that the flash version lacks, like full screen mode and customizable skins.

Getting started tips:

Spoiler: Things you need to know that might or might not be obvious (click to show/hide)

 * The 'starter zone' is Canada. Shops, and the codelink servers are located here.
 * It is NOT necessary to access administration or c-panel for most missions. Many early game missions only require accessing a totally public database that requires no cracking at all. Most other early-game missions only require accessing the 'employee login' section of a site. Don't waste your time hacking higher levels of security than you need.
 * Note that sites often require cracking multiple levels of security.
 * The proxy/routing system in the game is different from both Uplink and Slavehack. It is considerably more difficult to generate a proxy chain, and it appears to not be possible to simply connect to X and then connect to Y. Instead, establish a system as a proxy, then create a proxy chain using the route manager. Your first proxy will be the Codelink Orientation Server. It might be a little while before you establish a second proxy.
 * Note also that connect/disconnect tracking is a little wonky, and needs to be patched. The game is totally playable, but as of this writing, sometimes the text on the connect/disconnect button gets confused, and in general the game gets confused when you try to 'back up' through your proxy chain and perform actions on previous systems in the chain. It might be simplest to use the route manager to save proxy chains, and then simply connect to your target, disconnect and re-connect fresh from the route manager when you want to erase your logs.
 * If a server goes red on your map, that means that it has crashed and is presently offline. Avoid taking missions tht require you to access  crashed server. Also be aware that as of this writing the game seems to not acknowledge that serves have come back online until you refresh your web browser
 * There are cracking mini-games to speed up cracking software (password, firewall, etc.) Click the roundish circle thing to the left of the close-window-x in the upper left of a software window to read how these work. For some, the effect is not very noticeable, for others, like firewall cracking, it's extremely helpful.
 * The game has multiple skins available that (t present) require separate installation if you want to use them. These re completely optional, and are located here if you want them.

Spoiler: Spending your starter cash (click to show/hide)

In general it's recommended to buy high levels of software, and then only the hardware you need to run accomodate them. A lot of money can wasted on things that don't really help much in the early game. Knowin what I know now, if I were to start over, I'd buy a high level password cracker and firewall, and then an an SE Argon motherboard and whatever CPU/harddrive/memory I needed to accommodate those two programs, plus 100 QB leftover hd space. Nothing else is really important for a while.


There are only three things you'll need to purchase to effectively play early missions:

 * A password cracker
 * A log killer
 * Roughly ~100 QB available hard drive space

You'll also need FileCopy and FileKiller, but you should have those on your drive already. Even with nothing but the above plus your starter hardware,

When I first started playing I made the mistake of upgrading everything. Don't do this. if you want to upgrade hardware, the components that will have the most early-game effect are CPU and hard drive. Consider upgrading these. As well as a motherboard to allow you to fit multiple units. Possibly a CM Prodigy or a SE Argon. And a power supply if you need it to accommodate any upgrades you buy.

As for software, in addition to a password cracker and logkiller you might consider buying a firewall cracker. You won't need it right away, probably not for your first hour of play, but it will be one of the first new things that missions throw at you as you begin to advance. Alternately, consider possibly buying Server Scanner software. It's not mandatory at all, but there are a few missions that do require it. Though they don't pay noticeably better than file copy/delete missions, and it's trivial to simply choose missions that don't require scanning.

Consider also buying a SatNet manager. It's completely unnecessary for the early game, but it does give access to the world map if you want to explore.

Whatever you do or don't buy, be sure to leave ~100QB free space on your drive, as you will need that to do file copy missions.

[Vattic]

PTW.

[MadMalkavian]

Now this is a multiplayer hacking game I can get behind. I'll check it out sometime this evening at the earliest.

[My Name is Immaterial]

One question: are the admins better than the Slavehack ones?

[LordBucket]

One question: are the admins better than the Slavehack ones?

Yes. Momoguru is the designer. I've chatted with him a couple times and he seems like a reasonable human being. He's been answering questions, and I saw him offer to reimburse a player for a loss due to a bug. Apparently there is some sort of drama going on with the server admin who's physically hosting the game, but the dev himself seems plenty reasonable.

And no...I asked him, and he's not involved with Slavehack at all.

[ScriptWolf]

Is it better than slavehack ?

[MadMalkavian]

I tried it and within ten minutes I was lost and had no idea what to do. I'm somehow on SATNET and unsure of how to get back to the start. I think I'll try again some other time when I'm less tired.

[LordBucket]

Is it better than slavehack ?

I would say yes, better than Slavehack. the systems in general are more complicated, and you have to pay attention more. It's far more comparable to Uplink. Though without the backstory. Also, I'm not far enough along to have done any pvp. Apparently that's not as simple as simply catching logs and going directly to an address.

If you're looking for  weak point in the game, I'd say it's that the pace is slower than Uplink, and it's harder to make a mistake. Uplink had a fast, almost-action pace to it, and I remember feeling genuine tension when I played it. Codelink is balanced to be a more long-term game that you play over months, and rather than getting game-overs, you simply avoid/pickup/overcome a criminal record which can be eliminated over time, via expenditures. Consequently, there's a bit more easy-mission grinding early on, and the "pace" of traces is much slower, in order to leave room for a buildup to a more late-game difficulty. In Uplink you always had to kind of estimate how much time you had left, and you never really knew for sure if you were safe. Here, you have a digital counter of seconds remaining until a trace is completed, and from what I've seen, even with only a single proxy 100+ seconds is typical. It's harder to get caught if you're careful, and if you are it's not an instant game over. Rather than holding my mouse over the disconnect button waiting to press it at the last possible instant like in Uplink, here I'm chatting with people while waiting for my various password crackers to finish.

So, the game is "friendlier" than Uplink, which makes it less intense. Which personally I'd say is a weak point. It's also a bit grindier. But either way, vastly better than Slavehack, and hopefully it's just the early game that's "easy" and as you levelup, get more difficult missions, get into pvp etc. hopefully it will become more interesting.

Related...haven't seen it in-game myself, but overheard the developer answering questions posed by someone else about how to best go about team hacking efforts on a single target, and apparently there are both support and attack type player interactions.

[LordBucket]

I tried it and within ten minutes I was lost and had no idea what to do. I'm somehow on SATNET
and unsure of how to get back to the start. I think I'll try again some other time when I'm less tired.

...yeah, i was considering making a tutorial. The official tutorials are very long and for people who've never played this genre before at all. Something a bit more direct would probably be helpful.

I'm somehow on SATNET
and unsure of how to get back to the start

The "starter zone" with shops and the free proxy is in Canada. Click the gps button in the lower left of your screen. If you're looking at Global View, it will be the hub in the extreme upper left of the map. If you'r looking at Database View, it will be hub.codelink, which is listed as Codelink SatNet Hub under gateway. Connect to that.

If you're on a specific regional hub, then click gps, connect to hub.codelink, click on "Global SatNet Hub" to get to worldview, then do the above.

Also, if anyone wants to missions, click "Agent" in the lower left then click "mission server." Note that the mission server appears to give you missions relative to your current hub, so you might want to make sure you're in the starter zone before you accept missions.

[MadMalkavian]

I tried it and within ten minutes I was lost and had no idea what to do. I'm somehow on SATNET
and unsure of how to get back to the start. I think I'll try again some other time when I'm less tired.

...yeah, i was considering making a tutorial. The official tutorials are very long and for people who've never played this genre before at all. Something a bit more direct would probably be helpful.

I've made attempts to play Uplink but I had the same problem. This game is too damn complex for me in hindsight and to be fair it's probably because I've got brain problems that make understanding complex things like this obscenely difficult. I think I'm going to not play this after all. I'm sorry for wasting your time.

[cerapa]

In Uplink you always had to kind of estimate how much time you had left, and you never really knew for sure if you were safe. Here, you have a digital counter of seconds remaining until a trace is completed, and from what I've seen, 100+ seconds is typical. It's harder to get caught if you're careful, and if you are it's not an instant game over.

Level 3 trace tracker showed exact seconds as far as I remember.

Will have to check this game out.

[ScriptWolf]

About to play now, bay12 group when it's implemented anyone ?.


Also I really wish this was not on kongregate and you could play on it's own optimised website.

Bucket did you download the client ? Is it clean ?

Finally anyone want to invite the dev here ?

[LordBucket]

About to play now, bay12 group when it's implemented anyone ?.

Sure. Once it's implemented.

Bucket did you download the client ?

No, I'm playing on kongregate.

Finally anyone want to invite the dev here ?

I mentioned I'd be posting. I'll send him a message with a thread link. He'll either love us or hate us.

[miauw62]

PTW, this looks interesting.

[Sensei]

I had a lot of fun with Uplink, and slavehack was fun to a point but I got tired of waiting X minutes to do Y*. If it's faster than Slavehack, I'll give it a look.

*well, I guess the other thing that bothered me was that when you deleted records of your accessing a server, someone else changing the records might incidentally put yours back on. That sure bugged me.