Hacking [Fallout 3]

[Scarey Nerd]

Is there a good way to hack? I always have to guess until I get it, but I'd like to know a better way.

[Dogmantra]

Scattered around the gibberish are pairs of brackets with characters in between, something like <"")&_> or {*$%%}. If you click the first bracket, it will remove a dud or give you all your tries back, just make sure that it highlights the entire thing first; certain things such as starting a new line will make a bracket pair not count. There are more of these the higher your science skill is.

Other than that, it's like mastermind. It'll tell you how many letters are the same. I generally pick a word with some of the same letters to see which ones.

Finally, if you only have one attempt left and are completely clueless, you can just exit the hacking screen and go back in. All the words and your tries will refresh.

[Scarey Nerd]

Scattered around the gibberish are pairs of brackets with characters in between, something like <"")&_> . If you click the first bracket, it will remove a dud or give you all your tries back. There are more of these the higher your science skill is.

I didn't know that! Thank you! :smallbiggrin:

[Dogmantra]

I don't know how they expected you to work it out by yourself. Unless it's in the manual or something and I just forgot about it, I only found out due to spending large amounts of time on an Elder Scrolls forum (which, due to the developer, had a lot of people who were also fans of Fallout 3)

[Scarey Nerd]

I don't know how they expected you to work it out by yourself. Unless it's in the manual or something and I just forgot about it, I only found out due to spending large amounts of time on an Elder Scrolls forum (which, due to the developer, had a lot of people who were also fans of Fallout 3)

As far as I can tell, Fallout tells you absolutely nothing at any point. Maybe it's in the spirit of realism or something, but it gives you nothing.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

If you only have one chance left, quit and start the hack again. IIRC there is no penalty for quitting, you just gotta start the hack from scratch.

[Zevox]

Yeah, that was one of the more annoying parts of the game. Even with those little sections of code that eliminate wrong answers or restore your tries it can take several attempts to complete hacking something if you're unlucky. If you want to play the game, there's nothing you can do but put up with it.

Zevox

[valadil]

I don't know how they expected you to work it out by yourself.

If you're over a gibberish term the whole term highlights just like when you're over a legit word. That's how I found it anyway.

The problem with this puzzle is that guessing is faster than playing for real. I'd usually remove n-2 duds then click something at random. If the answer wasn't obvious I'd give up and try again. This got me through the puzzles a whole lot quicker than playing them as intended. I think the reset should only kick in after a number of hours have passed.

[Calemyr]

There are three keys I've found to hacking in FO3:

1) When you select a word, it tells you how many characters are in the right position. You can use this rule out other options. For example, if you get less than three from a word like "Hacking", you know that all the words ending with "ing" are invalid. Less than two on "Hacked" removes all words ending with "ed". Look for the combinations that would rule out the most options first, then whittle away until you have only one.

2) Junk data in any form of matching brackets (), {}, [], <> will either eliminate an invalid option or refresh your number of tries. As such, I tend to make three guesses to eliminate as many options as possible, then hunt for junk data in search of a refresh, then pick the one I think is right and have three more guesses if I'm wrong.

3) You can cancel before using your fourth attempt without any cost. Logging back in will give you a fresh set of attempts, albeit with a different list of words and a different password. If you can't solve it in three attempts and can't find a refresh junk entry, don't hesitate to step out and retry.

So I usually follow this pattern:
1) Pick a word with the most common suffix, see if at least that many characters pass.
1a) If less than that passes, all words with that suffix are eliminated.
1b) If that many or more pass, repeat step 1 with the least similar word with the same suffix (Hacked and Listed, for instance).
2) Look at the words and figure out which ones have the right number of characters in common with word you selected (Hacked and Listed have 2 in common, for instance, 'e' and 'd'. Hacked and Lacked have 5, all but the first character). Any without the correct number can be eliminated.
3) If it doesn't work, look for any words in the remaining list that have that number of characters matching the second word.
4) After three attempts, start hunting junk data. If you find a refresh, make three more attempts.
5) Log out, then log back in and start over.

Or, if you don't want to do that, you can always:
1) Log in
2) Guess three times
3) Hunt for junk data. If you find a refresh, guess three more times.
4) Log out.
5) Begin again at 1.

[SolkaTruesilver]

1) Log in
2) Guess three times
3) Hunt for junk data. If you find a refresh, guess three more times.
4) Log out.
5) Begin again at 1.

Or use the FWE mod, and simply use the auto-hack feature that is based on your skill.

[Triaxx]

There's also listing out the words on the screen, either by hand, or in a text program with a fixed width font.

Then pick one of the words at random and see how many otherwords match in. Pick one of those. If you don't get more matches, you're in the wrong direction. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes not. I've had more than once that my first guess was dead on. And once where seven tries had the eighth word be right.

The best way is just to SAVE first, then try. If you blow it all, reload. Unless you're playing under a restriction, then you're on your own.

[Avilan the Grey]

Sometimes, on easy computers at least (and sometimes on hard ones too) it is really obvious if you just look at the words:

(Simple example):
Pain, Gain, Rain, Smurf.

Of course most of the time it is never this obvious, but it happens.

[Tengu_temp]

I didn't even know about the brackets. Hacking is easy as long as you use simple logic - start with a random word, then pick others only if they match the criteria from all the previous words in this try, end and retry when you have only one attempt left. It might take a few tries if you're unlucky, but no more than that.

[DabblerWizard]

Even with a Science of 100, I'm still too lazy to actually guess at the words.

What I do, is pick the first three words in the list, and then restart if one of them isn't the right answer.

Eventually you find that the right word is among the first three... and you don't even have to use much brain power!

Switching between screens isn't so bad if you're only spending a few seconds on each.

[Avilan the Grey]

Oh and the best tip for hacking: skipping the animated sequences.