How was I caught?

[Consul]

After destroying a system by deleting all files and and the system and shutting down and rebooting it, I was caught even though the trace never came close to reaching me and I deleted the logs on the first proxy.
I hate that you can just randomly lose in this game for no reason and lose all your progress and you can't save at any point. Such a pain in the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ass grinding those boring ass first mission over and over again.

[Iczi]

What proxy do you bounce off of first? It's been a while since I've played this, but back then the go to was InterNIC since they don't trace you when accessing admin. Also remember that during the time you log into the first bounce you are still being traced.

You can test this easily, just try the mission again and as soon as you are being traced back, log off and clean the logs from the first bounce, wait a couple hours/days and see if you still get caught.

[Ian Brandon Anderson]

Yeah. Always bounce through InterNIC and delete logs on InterNIC since they don't trace you at all for popping admin. If you use another machine as a bounce server, hacking that system to delete your bounce logs will trigger yet another passive trace.

[Consul]

Originally posted by Iczi:

What proxy do you bounce off of first? It's been a while since I've played this, but back then the go to was InterNIC since they don't trace you when accessing admin. Also remember that during the time you log into the first bounce you are still being traced.

You can test this easily, just try the mission again and as soon as you are being traced back, log off and clean the logs from the first bounce, wait a couple hours/days and see if you still get caught.

Originally posted by Ian Brandon Anderson:

Yeah. Always bounce through InterNIC and delete logs on InterNIC since they don't trace you at all for popping admin. If you use another machine as a bounce server, hacking that system to delete your bounce logs will trigger yet another passive trace.

Yeah I used InterNIC.
Isn't it only governments and banks that passive trace?
Also how quick is it in terms of active speed? Is it 20%, less, more? I usually try to get a bunch of missions for the same area and do them at the same time before clearing logs but maybe that's getting me passively trace? Do you practically have to clear the logs as soon as you disconnect?

[Ian Brandon Anderson]

Originally posted by Consul:

Isn't it only governments and banks that passive trace?

Every system with security does a passive trace. That's what the process is called when people discover they've been hacked and start tracing you back through logs. Low level systems will issue you a fine. High level systems give you game over. Banks have a special hardcoded passive trace time of 2 minutes (realtime) for you to clean logs after robbing them, which I believe starts the moment you make an unauthorized transfer. Higher level systems also require a higher level of log deleter to dodge the passive trace, but you should only be buying highest level log deleter anyways.

Had a quick look through the source code and it appears you have 3 in-game hours based on this comment in src/world/computer/computer.cpp

// Now noticed - they have another 3 hours before trace

[Ian Brandon Anderson]

Another interesting mechanic in the source code (and alluded to in the game's tips) is that bouncing through a bank or government system can prevent passive traces from completing. The game assigns an AI uplink agent to trace you, and his skill level will determine whether he can do it or not, so random chance even if you screw up that you won't be traced.

Skills of NPC agents
Used in : Agent AI code

AGENT_UPLINKRATINGAVERAGE 7
AGENT_UPLINKRATINGVARIANCE 7
MINREQUIREDRATING_DELETELOGLEVEL1 2
MINREQUIREDRATING_DELETELOGLEVEL2 3
MINREQUIREDRATING_DELETELOGLEVEL3 4
MINREQUIREDRATING_UNDELETELOGLEVEL1 7
MINREQUIREDRATING_UNDELETELOGLEVEL2 7
MINREQUIREDRATING_UNDELETELOGLEVEL3 9
MINREQUIREDRATING_HACKBANKSERVER 6
MINREQUIREDRATING_HACKGOVERNMENTCOMPUTER 8

Something else I learned while poking through the source is that bouncing through a public server actually makes your active trace 1 second shorter haha.

TRACESPEED_VARIANCE 0.1
TRACESPEED_PUBLICACCESSSERVER -1
TRACESPEED_INTERNALSERVICESMACHINE 15
TRACESPEED_CENTRALMAINFRAME 5
TRACESPEED_PUBLICBANKSERVER 5
TRACESPEED_LAN 5
TRACESPEED_UPLINK_INTERNALSERVICESMACHINE 5
TRACESPEED_UPLINK_TESTMACHINE 30
TRACESPEED_UPLINK_PUBLICACCESSSERVER -1
TRACESPEED_GLOBALCRIMINALDATABASE 10
TRACESPEED_INTERNATIONALSOCIALSECURITYDATABASE 15
TRACESPEED_CENTRALMEDICALDATABASE 25
TRACESPEED_GLOBALINTELLIGENCEAGENCY 5
TRACESPEED_INTERNATIONALACADEMICDATABASE 35
TRACESPEED_INTERNIC 15
TRACESPEED_STOCKMARKET 20
TRACESPEED_PROTOVISION 30
TRACESPEED_MODIFIER_NOACCOUNT 0.1 // Player does not have an account on bounce system
TRACESPEED_MODIFIER_HASACCOUNT 0.7 // Player has an account on the bounce system
TRACESPEED_MODIFIER_ADMINACCESS 1.0 // Player has admin access on bounce system
TRACESPEED_MODIFIER_CENTRALMAINFRAME 1.3 // Player is routing through a central mainframe
TRACESPEED_MODIFIER_PUBLICBANKSERVERADMIN 1.6 // Player has routing through a bank with admin

[Consul]

Originally posted by Ian Brandon Anderson:

Another interesting mechanic in the source code (and alluded to in the game's tips) is that bouncing through a bank or government system can prevent passive traces from completing. The game assigns an AI uplink agent to trace you, and his skill level will determine whether he can do it or not, so random chance even if you screw up that you won't be traced.

Skills of NPC agents
Used in : Agent AI code

AGENT_UPLINKRATINGAVERAGE 7
AGENT_UPLINKRATINGVARIANCE 7
MINREQUIREDRATING_DELETELOGLEVEL1 2
MINREQUIREDRATING_DELETELOGLEVEL2 3
MINREQUIREDRATING_DELETELOGLEVEL3 4
MINREQUIREDRATING_UNDELETELOGLEVEL1 7
MINREQUIREDRATING_UNDELETELOGLEVEL2 7
MINREQUIREDRATING_UNDELETELOGLEVEL3 9
MINREQUIREDRATING_HACKBANKSERVER 6
MINREQUIREDRATING_HACKGOVERNMENTCOMPUTER 8

Something else I learned while poking through the source is that bouncing through a public server actually makes your active trace 1 second shorter haha.

TRACESPEED_VARIANCE 0.1
TRACESPEED_PUBLICACCESSSERVER -1
TRACESPEED_INTERNALSERVICESMACHINE 15
TRACESPEED_CENTRALMAINFRAME 5
TRACESPEED_PUBLICBANKSERVER 5
TRACESPEED_LAN 5
TRACESPEED_UPLINK_INTERNALSERVICESMACHINE 5
TRACESPEED_UPLINK_TESTMACHINE 30
TRACESPEED_UPLINK_PUBLICACCESSSERVER -1
TRACESPEED_GLOBALCRIMINALDATABASE 10
TRACESPEED_INTERNATIONALSOCIALSECURITYDATABASE 15
TRACESPEED_CENTRALMEDICALDATABASE 25
TRACESPEED_GLOBALINTELLIGENCEAGENCY 5
TRACESPEED_INTERNATIONALACADEMICDATABASE 35
TRACESPEED_INTERNIC 15
TRACESPEED_STOCKMARKET 20
TRACESPEED_PROTOVISION 30
TRACESPEED_MODIFIER_NOACCOUNT 0.1 // Player does not have an account on bounce system
TRACESPEED_MODIFIER_HASACCOUNT 0.7 // Player has an account on the bounce system
TRACESPEED_MODIFIER_ADMINACCESS 1.0 // Player has admin access on bounce system
TRACESPEED_MODIFIER_CENTRALMAINFRAME 1.3 // Player is routing through a central mainframe
TRACESPEED_MODIFIER_PUBLICBANKSERVERADMIN 1.6 // Player has routing through a bank with admin

how do you have admin access to a server when the admin codes change as soon as you exit?

[Ian Brandon Anderson]

Originally posted by Consul:

how do you have admin access to a server when the admin codes change as soon as you exit?

Password is only immediately changed if the trace was more than 50% complete at time of disconnect. Otherwise there's a delay after the AI is assigned to passive trace and discovers evidence of hacking. In the source code this is referred to as "timetochangeunderware" lol.

[mikesoft]

Originally posted by Consul:

After destroying a system by deleting all files and and the system and shutting down and rebooting it, I was caught even though the trace never came close to reaching me and I deleted the logs on the first proxy.
I hate that you can just randomly lose in this game for no reason and lose all your progress and you can't save at any point. Such a pain in the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ass grinding those boring ass first mission over and over again.

What could've happened is that you assigned less resources to the tracker (giving more to the password breaker, e.g.) and it doesn't update in real time anymore, so maybe you were caught when it appeared that you still had some time left.

Always bounce through a lot of hoops, and make your first one InterNIC. Every time I start a new game, the first thing I do is login to InterNIC (do the admin password of course) but more importantly, browse the server list and add all of them (or at least 30-50) to my quick access, so I can use them all even for hacking the simple servers. So this means I always jump through several banks and government servers before reaching my target, with a minimum of 20-30 bounces. I believe that for the most part, having such a long bounce list discourages the hackers passive-tracing you (or maybe the game is coded to never finish those long server lists). This way I don't get caught even when hacking the banks and transferring the million credits to me, although bank hacking works differently, you have a specific amount of time to clear your tracks. But I treat all my hacks the same way, I immediately delete my tracks even for low level targets.

[Arucard]

Wow, there is a lot of in-depth info there, I would just add the simplest advice for more casual entrants.
As stated, start your bounce with InterNIC to easily cut the link at the longest possible trace time. Also, before doing anything significant, get at least the Lv3 Log Deleter? (not sure of the exact name) the one that overwrites it with a "legitimate" file. Whichever one it is, the description actually says "impossible to trace", so if you might get a passive trace that's the one you need.

Add all public (or all) nodes you encounter to increase that time, but more importantly bounce from banks and any site you have admin or even user account on. They slow the trace much more, especially after you open an account with every bank.
Speaking of banks, they are very different, yes.
You can hack most sites with that setup and just cut the line at InterNIC, but taking money from a bank demands a bit more scrubbing. Don't try it unless you have the right tools and knowledge.
Still a very cool, mysterious, in-depth game.