Hacking computer passwords

[Numb7numb]

One frustrating thing that yanks my chain are these computers in game that you need to hack in order to come up with the password. This in and of itself is not the problem. The problem is when you pick a password and you get zero matches. This SHOULD mean that all letters in that word are not part of the password you need. The fact is that the letters in that word that failed has nothing to do with the letters in the password you need. I have done this over and over again and get the same results. If the first word is Salesman that should mean that all those letters can be excluded from the rest of the passwords containing those letters. This is not the case.because I have had numerious instances where at least two or three of the letters actually were IN the password needed. So what is left is nothing more than a guessing game.
I would hope that Bethesda would fix this and soon. Or maybe there is an excellent modder out there that could fix it? I am not one myself and I love and appreciate all the mods that you folks put together. Amazing work.
Thanks

[Darkwave Dahlia]

They're not fixing it and yes, there are mods but most of them are straight cheating.

[pho_kko]

The letters might be the same, but are they in the same position? They have to be the same letter and in the same position for it to count as a match.

[Kameraden]

I've never come across this, ever actually. Unless you're mixing up by what means the letters exist in the words.

For example:

Sale = Password
Mail = 1
Safe = 3
File = 2
etc...

Has to have the same letters, in the same order on the word to count. I'm guessing this might be your problem, but I dunno. lol

[Numb7numb]

Why would the position matter if the letter itself doesn't match?
What I mean is that the password you are looking for should have so many letters in that password and the password you need to find should have the same letters (of course the letters have to be in the same order for a catch) but the only way to solve this should be to eliminate the letters in the words that have a zero match. Meaning that, in your example, if the passwrod is Sale and you put in Safe you should get 3 out of 4 matches. So your password now needs to find Sale but if it doesn't show up on the list of possibles then you are just waisting your time. Did that make sense?

[pho_kko]

Originally posted by Numb7numb:

Why would the position matter if the letter itself doesn't match?

Who knows, but that's the way it is.

[pho_kko]

Well, there might be a lot of passwords on a terminal and if they only counted similar letters and not position, you wouldn't even know where to begin looking.

[Numb7numb]

I always took the four tries to mean that you had four chances to guess the correct letters in the password from the words you were given. If you had three of the four (example) letters and there was only one word that had those 3 letters then that had to be your password. Example is if your guess was a password with 'e' and 'g' and the word you guessed had those two then any other word with those two letters could be eliminated.

[pho_kko]

Originally posted by Numb7numb:

I always took the four tries to mean that you had four chances to guess the correct letters in the password from the words you were given. If you had three of the four (example) letters and there was only one word that had those 3 letters then that had to be your password. Example is if your guess was a password with 'e' and 'g' and the word you guessed had those two then any other word with those two letters could be eliminated.

Took me a while to figure that out as well. After being similarly frustrated, I hit up some guides. Try this one:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=559483481&searchtext=terminal+hacking

[Plays In Traffic]

If you see ()<>[]{} and they can have a bunch of gibberish in the middle click on it and it will useally remove a dud and sometimes reset your try's. High INT also helps by generating fewer password choices and more brakets.

[Wolförian Garmdomia]

Originally posted by Numb7numb:

Why would the position matter if the letter itself doesn't match?
What I mean is that the password you are looking for should have so many letters in that password and the password you need to find should have the same letters (of course the letters have to be in the same order for a catch) but the only way to solve this should be to eliminate the letters in the words that have a zero match. Meaning that, in your example, if the passwrod is Sale and you put in Safe you should get 3 out of 4 matches. So your password now needs to find Sale but if it doesn't show up on the list of possibles then you are just waisting your time. Did that make sense?

Because then "file" would be 4/4 and wrong when the answer is "life", by going off just getting the right letters, not caring about position. That is why position matters. "File" then becomes 2/4 and "life" is 4/4.

[wellsoul2]

Find a word that has the same letters in the same position as other guesses.
Example Fairs 0
Guesses where you get zero are good because you can now eliminate words with 'S'
at the end , also any word with 'A' in the second position.

That's why first pick is a word with common letter positions with the other choices.

Now based on that guess for a total of 3 times. Then search for brackets like ( ) and { }
and click on them. This can eliminate a dud and sometimes resets your tries.

[Emmental]

I don't understand what is broken, what needs fixing? The hacking mini game works exactly as intended the same as it has been in previous titles.

[mfree]

What needs fixing is the description of how the game works.

Since the very beginning a year ago I've seen many, many people misunderstand that it's not the number of letters matching, it's the number and position.

Myself, initially, included.

[Splaetos]

You can also just guess three times and exit when you aren't confident to get a clean slate.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Originally posted by Splaetos:

You can also just guess three times and exit when you aren't confident to get a clean slate.

Actually, unlike Fallout 4, Terminals do not permanently lock if you use all your guesses. Feel free to guess all 4 times, you'll only have a ten second cooldown for your next attempt.

Or, use Nick Valentine, who's got hacking skills that make the DNC quiver with fear.