DING
Video
Shopping
Operating System

Guard Frequency Episode 106 | Neutron Flow Polarity

Written by Lennon on . Posted in Podcasts

Greetings Citizens and Civilians, you’re tuned to episode 105, of Guard Frequency — the best damn space sim podcast ever! This episode was recorded on Friday 5th February 2016 and released for streaming and download on Tuesday, February 9th 2016 at GuardFrequency.com [Download this episode]

Lennon is unfortunately absent this week saving the native yellow-billed sasquatch from extinction on the moon, but luckily we have Jayce with us so we can still bring you the Best Damn Space Sim Podcast Ever!

To kick us off, in this week’s Squawk Box we discover how the chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, literally has her finger on the pulse of the universe. On the Flight Deck we see what news from your favourite space-sims has landed as we cover:

and then Jayce gathers Tony and Geoff’s thoughts on Electronic Warfare and ship-to-ship hacking. This week, we strap Chiv into the Sim Pod as he reviews Descent: Freespace; and finally we tune into the Feedback Loop and let you join in on the conversation.

This Week’s Community Questions

  • Firewalls, Hacking the ‘net and backtracing it — an interesting gameplay mechanic or just something that gets in the way of the pew pew?

Let us know your thoughts by commenting below!

We got patches!

Join us in-game!

Priority One Productions are always looking for new team members that have a passion for space sims. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well known outlet for your work. If you have a particular skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to squawk@guardfrequency.com

You can also follow us on the social media sites! We’re on Facebook! Head over to www.facebook.com/guardfreq and say “hi!”, or check us out on Twitter via @guardfreq for details of our show times and other fun stuff.

Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below, Contact Us using our handy web form or leave your comments on the Roberts Space Industries forums!

Thanks to Ronald Jenkees for his permission to use his music in our show.  Visit www.ronaldjenkees.com for more of his work! Enjoy the show!

Trackback from your site.

Comments (7)

  • seannewboy

    |

    Wonderful show everyone good job.

    As for hacking, it should be in the game, but with a high difficulty.

    Reply

  • Ostron

    |

    Despite “Warfare” being in the title, I think the best place to integrate Electronic Warfare while making it a compelling mechanic is outside of combat. Passive EW systems could still be involved with radar signature and detection like it is in the real world, but I think the more active hacking and intrusion elements should be used for scenarios like trying to access a derelict ship’s systems so you don’t have to blow through the hatch and damage the ship. Or those comm relays in crusader could be disabled due to a virus and to repair them you have to connect to the computer, remove the virus, and/or beef up the electronic security to prevent further tampering.

    Reply

  • Amontillado

    |

    Yes it’s an interesting game mechanic.

    While we don’t know a great deal about how it will be implemented in Star Citizen, I’m confident that CIG is aware of it’s potential to wreck other parts of the game and will engineer things to avoid that.

    Something like requiring a missile hit to make the hacking ‘connection’ is a good start.

    Reply

  • Galenrick Lotherine

    |

    Great Show Guys,

    Electronic warfare a a mechanic is fine as long as its implemented properly. It should be possible to hack and disrupt just about any system if given enough time. And time is the real important factor in my opinion. Yes you should be able to take down my shields on my 325a as long as you are able to tail me for long enough without being seen and without me noticing sighs of my system being compromised.

    This is why EW should normally only seen in larger fleet battles as the perpetrator of an Electronic attack can either work from one ship hiding among a sea of ships or sitting a a dedicated station on a well defended capital ship, both these options provide a secure safe (relatively) location where a EW officer can have the time needed to perform his/her task.

    Ass opposed to trialing a ship by yourself in open space, where as soon as the target ship notices a attempted hack (panels turning off, HUD flickering, etc) they will either light up all their active tracking technology to try and find you and blow you out of the sky, or they will actively run away out of range (jump etc).

    Just my thoughts

    Reply

  • Saoldian

    |

    Great show guys. Hacking and EW should definitely be a part of the game as long as it’s balanced and incentivized for those who use it and counter it.

    Reply

  • Cyril

    |

    Great show as always!

    I am very interested to see how EW gets implemented. I agree with a lot of your comments such as radar jamming etc. With having 3 ways to detect targets (IR/EM/CS) this could be a fun mechanic to balance by only allowing any single system to jam a single aspect.

    I do have to say that you are likely grievously wrong about how safe the EW ships would be in a large battle. The reason all the EW ships worth using in EVE had super long range jamming was that as soon as you were in range of enemy weapons, you die. It many instances a single EW platform can reduce the combat effectiveness of many ships all at once. If you can only bring 1/2 of your damage output to a practical use due to a single ship it is a much more important target than any other single ship in the enemy fleet.

    To go along with this I recently played a squad battle in AC that had a glitch that made everyone lose lock very frequently. While yes you can still shoot if you don’t have a lock, and if you are good enough you might get a hit or 2. It is nearly impossible to get a kill without target lock. You jam that system and all the guns in the world are worthless.

    Reply

  • BrckWallGoalie

    |

    If the future promised to us by Gene Roddenberry and Joss Whedon or the historical documentary by George Lucas are to be trusted, then EWAR will play some role in combat, and I think “the game we’re building” should reflect that. As Tony has said though, it should not be an instant win button. One way to make EWAR a compelling aspect without making it necessary is to make its utility scale with the size of the combat theatre. In a small dogfight between 3-5 snub fighters per side, it’s utility should be limited to EM flares or the like. Could you attempt to jam the opponents sensors or mess with their missile tracking systems? Sure, but you’ll likely get blowed up real good while you’re doing that instead of flying and shooting. In a larger scale fight, then you can bust out all the cool toys.

    As Ostron said, making it compelling out of combat is important too. Something like “slicers” from the Star Wars Expanded Universe (or Legends or whatever the f*** their calling it now) could fit this bill. Slicers are INCREDIBLY illegal bits of computer tech that can rip information from the target’s computer rather than taking it offline. This info could be anything from cargo manifests, to navigational logs, to grandma’s secret cookie recipe.

    Just remember, EWAR isn’t necessarily hacking and massive EMPs, it could be as simple as “Cry baby, cry. Make your mother sigh”

    Reply

Leave a comment