Lets talk Tech

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

So I have been thinking.
IRL we have mobile phones and tablets that can do all sorts of cool stuff.
As it stands in CDDA the phone can only act as a clock and a low poered torch.

I think it would be cool to allow more options.

I assume it would break gameplay to allow the mobile phone to act as a computer or turret hacker like the laptop?.

We have on modern phones

Wifi
Bluetooth
Infrared
GPS
etc etc

Why not allow us to use this.

Example one

You place a comunication device in a vehicle or even a turret and allow us to log in VIA mobile phone to control its varius functions this could be expanded to allow us to control the radio control cars?.

What about logging into the security cameras of cars etc to view whats going on.
Lets say you find a hacking software on memory stick that allows you to log into cameras from say within 50 tiles.

You install it onto the phone (and for balance reason you could have fixed storage space) then it allows you to cycle < > through all the cameras with in that radius to view remotly whats going on around them.

Most phones now have a add hoc type Wifi system where you can create your own network on them so lets say we set a phone up with a private network that acts as a router in our base.

We can then carry a second phone and log into the phone at the base and control varius items with in our base say a genorator to turn it on or off we could even be forced to place a system of these phones up to allow greater distances all ove the towns etc :O.

@Narc0tiq touched on some thing ages ago that has stuck with me.

Programmable chips

We could use mobile phones to create and actually write real code in game to allow custom functions from it.
We would off course have to be carfull as people (like me) who have zero programming idea could kill the game with bad codeing LOL.
But think about this

We grab a mobile phone and isntall a programming enviroment on it.
We use a USB cable to connect it to say a turret we have built and write code onto a programmable chip placed on the turret to write custom software for it that allows this perticuler turret to turn on or off at certain times of the day or only attack certain monsters etc.

If allowing full programming in CDDA scares you maybe do what carnage heart does and have programmable chips that allow certain functions.

2

This is awesome. Computers and hacking need more things related to it instead of it being nigh useless. Fitting this suggestion is for those skills.

3

I think the route using the chips like carnage heart would be a better idea tbh.

i shall do a mock up of what it could look like will post it when done

4

I’m in favor of expanded functionality for this kind of thing, but let’s be realistic.
You’re not going to be doing any hacking from a phone, controling things once you’ve done hacking elsewhere sure, but phones just aren’t set up for breaking in to systems. (you basically touched on this, just being clear)
An exception to the above is wardriving, if we had in-game wifi or even local cellular set up, you could have your phone scanning for it, then you’d switch to a more capable machine to try and figure out how to connect or possibly hack into the system.
Having a phone be at least as capable as the RC car controller is a possibility, though you’d need a special RC car that uses bluetooth or something instead of a traditional RC controller, or some kind of module to attach to the phone. That wouldn’t be hard to support though.
Camera streams make sense, you might even expand that to have throwable or RC car mountable cameras that you can use to scout.
Hacking into car or building mounted security cameras is quite a stretch, they’d have to go pretty far out of their way to make that possible, and regardless any actual hacking would need to be from a laptop, not a phone.
Ad-hoc networks within 60 squares is pretty easy, further away than that and it starts getting difficult to implement. If we have a really good use case it’d probably be worth it, but I don’t know of one.
Controling random devices is also doable, you’d just need to patch in a wifi controler with a moderately easy electronics check.

If we added a programming interface, it’d probably be in Lua since it’s already integrated, building in another language or some custom thing like the chip programming thing is a ton of work for a pretty niche use case in the game. If someone gets really excited about it though, why not?

5

This realy is a basic mock up but its a flowchart of a basic turret

MMDmTfK.png1020×1028

6

If I could programme I would be adding this right now :open_mouth: but I cant LOL.

Any ways I hope it grabs the attention of some one capable who also thinks its a cool idea :slight_smile:

7
I assume it would break gameplay to allow the mobile phone to act as a computer or turret hacker like the laptop?.
I could see it happening for a laptop, but not for something as silly as a phone.
Wifi
Are there any packet sniffing and/or MAC spoofing programs available for phones? If no, next.
Bluetooth
Pretty much any important networking device uses either something else, or you need physical access to accept the link. Next up.
Infrared
Limited range, requires line of sight, and, usually, not set-up for anything important except as possible detection method. Next.
GPS etc etc
Uh, yeah, so you'd know your position, which you can also get by looking at your map screen.

Looking at modern-day networking, important security devices would have be pretty hard to crack with a mobile phone, since they typically don’t come with the required programs to do so. While I do know such programs exist for say… windows or linux, I have not heard of such programs existing for mobile phones (possibly lack of research xD). Additionally, any serious commercial security devices would use either a wired connection (e.g. requires physical access to it to influence) or a WiFi network (with signal strength adjusted/access point placement meaning you need to be inside the building that it protects) both likely using static, non-default IP addresses/subnet masks, as well as MAC Address filtering (whitelist). And those are just some of the more basic steps towards protecting any network, and are absolutely use-able for use in your own home (and, imo, suggested).

Hacking into car or building mounted security cameras is quite a stretch, they'd have to go pretty far out of their way to make that possible, and regardless any actual hacking would need to be from a laptop, not a phone.
As I mentioned above, those would/should likely be using a wired connection rather than wireless, which, like I mentioned, requires physical access.
8

Yep there is packet sniffing apps for phones.

As for the GPS I was thinking we could attach a tracker to say monsters and wildlife to track there movement on the map that would be cool?.

I am thinking maybe instead of using the phone to hack it can be manually connected to say a device you place in a car,turret to control it from a far.

It would be cool also to be able to sit in a basement and watch a camera from the outside of the building is this possible already I am not sure?.

9

[quote=“Onisuzume, post:7, topic:10431”]

GPS
etc etc

Uh, yeah, so you’d know your position, which you can also get by looking at your map screen.[/quote]

Actually, GPS would be useful to get the map of nearby stuff, location of cities, roads, rivers, swamps etc.

10

Hey matey

Yeah that’s another awesome idea.

I think being able to place a tracker on monster maybe it can be fired from a rifle fro a far and it tracks it’s progress instead of attacking it u could just avoid it.

What’s your views on programing within cdda it really would open up a huge world of possiblitys

11

That’s an AMAZING idea, I love it. I’m making to note to slip that in along with my hordes rework.

12

I’ll just leave my usual remark about the fact that even my cheap, crappy folding phone has an MP3 player function. Granted, not all cheap cells have those multiple fun functions, but it’s more common than it is in Cataclysm. XP

13

Phones could be used to remote access to a system. Aka remote access to your vehicle to turn stuff on and off. I use my Nexus 6 to RDP in my desktop.
Phones could be used to hacking if all your doing it using pre-setup software. My Nexus 6 has as much processor power as a lot of computers from two or three years ago.
Phone could be used a remote detonation devices and general other triggery.

14

Kevin I was thinking we could fire the GPS tracker from a rifle etc.

There really is some great possibilities it’s just implementing them that’s the hard part :frowning:

15

Oh man, I really like that Carnage Heart example. I would be totally willing to make a proof of concept for that if people could come up with enough potential uses for it. Really, I can’t think of anything other than telling turrets when to fire, which could be controlled through a simple menu anyway.

EDIT: or creating a custom classical conditioning program to shock your zombie slave when it does something you don’t like. That’s a whole can of worms right there.

16

Holy cap gatleos I hold u to that

Give me some time to sort kids out and tidy up I shall jump back on here and post me idea I have loads mate loads so u may as well get programming Lol.

17

Ok as promised

  1. Control of turrets (already touched upon this one)
  2. Control of genorators eg if fuel level is more than 5% and battery equals less than 25% start motor to charge all batterys
  3. Spot lights outside eg if time equals 7pm and batterys equal 25% full turn on lights else (then it could go the number 2 if batterys are less than 25% etc etc etc)
  4. We could have an automated house eg you walk up to your front door and on the door is a proximity sensor program goes a little like this

Check for player,open doors,else activate turret,
turn on all lights
check battery levels and automate recharging
etc etc

Need I really say any more about this what ever the play can thing of they could do :open_mouth:

18

Another idea sorry LOL.

We could have a special chip that allows us to comunicate with other devices and there programes I mean

We have a turret its been activated because of a horde of zeds its going crazy trying to take them all out it then counts the amount of zeds at 100.
It then has a if statment in the programme whice in this case is branching to an external device (wireless device)

the reciever of this device is connected to a car.

The car turns on along with all the turrets connected to it.

As you decide to make your escape due to the inavitable destruction of your base you run towards your all ready running car you jump in and make a fast get away.

Some thing like this

19

some idea for chips and there functions

  • wireless transmitter. ,channel 1.2.3.4,
    () wireless reciever. ,channel 1.2.3.4,
    ? random chip. ,Chooses a random number
    p proximity chip. ,distance (circuler,square),enemy.wildelife.all,
    <> more than less than chip. ,no need for description

I am even thinking we could actually make robots and have Ai that allows them to walk around,shoot and every thing we could build these robots using the vehicle construction menu

LrMB8ci.jpg962×1238

20

Here’s a simple mockup. Program enters at the blue arrows, then checks at each pass whether the current time is earlier than 6am or later than 6pm. If either is true item #0 activates, otherwise it is turned off. I imagine you would “link” various wireless-enabled devices (cars, turrets, gates, heating elements, etc.) and then refer to their id to give them commands or read their states. In this example, ITEM#0 would probably be a floodlight connected to a power source.

This mockup has a few problems. First, it’s not clear yet when and how the program should “wait”. There should probably be a wait command, then the player could set a custom waiting time for the program. Second, the cells probably need to be a bit bigger to hold all the needed data. If you were looking at the properties of specific linked items (fuel level, position, etc.) you wouldn’t have enough space to see all the relevant information. There could always just be a more detailed description off to the side or something.

The other alternative is lua scripting, though I’m not sure how that would be handled from the player’s perspective. Using external script files as “items” in the game feels a bit strange, but it could be fine I guess. The problem is figuring out how to refer to specific items from the scripts. Once you try to handle that, you’re probably well on your way to building an in-game text editor, and NOPE.

I dunno.