Store Page
Grey Hack
All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos Workshop News Guides Reviews

Grey Hack

Store Page
Grey Hack > General Discussion > Topic Details
PNill 12 Jun @ 11:02am
Little disappointed in the search / immersion of the game
So I've only started the game in single player, but I'm disappointed in the search functionality of the fake 'google'.

I search for specific tools and get no results. I was aware that specific tooling existed just from either reading reviews or seeing something online, but wasn't aware of how to obtain said tooling. I missed a 'hint' in the initial email I guess I was supposed to search for and the tutorial didn't call this out either.

So instead I flailed and took on jobs and had no clue what I was doing. Ended up super lost as a result because the one place you're given after completing the first mission doesn't have all the tools the place you're supposed to view has before hand.

Trying to be intentionally vague as to not spoil anything for anyone, but finding a 'site' shouldn't be entirely reliant on you following a hint in an email and should also return the same site given you search for the keywords of tools available on that site with the exception of a 'hidden' one like the one you find/are given from solving the first mission I suppose. But the tooling available there is public (the site you're supposed to find from the hint) not 'secret' or 'hacker' tools.

It's less immersive to have to exit the game go watch some tutorials and then revisit it with some pre-existing knowledge and makes the whole experience a whole lot less fun.

The tutorial should ultimately catch if someone doesn't visit that first shop or be a little more hands on in the beginning letting people know they missed a tool or offering to give them more hints in where to find it so they don't end up just entirely lost by the time they're able to accept jobs, especially if they don't come and visit steam discussions/workshops.

Similarly with the reverse shell later on, it didn't seem to advertise a port when installing the service and the provided code didn't provide the port either how was I supposed to find the port? I only found it searching these forums and a response from a developer not from in-game again not immersive. So port forwarding that was a nightmare.

I've only played for a combined like 30mins now with my kid watching, I do Cyber stuff professionally and have for about 18~ years. This was recommended to me by some of the people I know in the industry and so far my experience hasn't been great. The main thing though that was off-putting was the limited ability of this 'search' system and lack of further guidance for concepts where someone with experience knows the tooling they might want but can't even find it because they missed a hint that honestly, makes no sense to search for and could be why I glossed over it, and didn't take a second look because the site you're ultimately given after completing the first mission is also the same keyword. Meaning one could determine oh, that's why they mentioned that is because that's what you get access to after the fact. Because of that, you can end up fairly lost with the ability to take jobs but not a ton of direction beyond it.

TL;DR:
There seems to be a lot of reliance on outside guides if players miss something with no real provided additional guidance in-game, or spot checks so they don't end up lost or confused.

Search doesn't function how one would expect (ability to search for tooling vs just a specific site keyword).

The only other complaint I have is, I type too quickly for it and it sometimes doesn't catch commands I'm typing or glitches out as a result when I'm in a terminal. I'm used to quickly doing cd / then some other thing like ls and etc... and this falls behind starts telling me 'd' doesn't exist because it misses 'c' and etc.
Last edited by PNill; 16 Jul @ 12:26pm
< >
Showing 1-14 of 14 comments
Doc0dean 12 Jun @ 6:06pm 
IMO this game it went from script browsing. To figure out which exploit. Will run to success.
To scripts never being what you want. So you have to learn how to recreate it to your advantage. The searching tool is the least helpful.

Esp for single player. There is a shop/mail/bank/"Mailed IP". Thats the only function for search that i have found. Unless there is more to it. Its pretty fun for learning script commands such. GL
#1
PNill 12 Jun @ 7:47pm 
My complaint was more so about the fact I couldn't just search 'nmap' in the search and get the initial shop page, instead of knowing I had to search 'shop'. I should be able to find the shop searching for nmap like I could on.. you know the real internet.
#2
Xephael 12 Jun @ 10:12pm 
A lot of this type of information is in the ingame manual in addition to the bit you glossed over in the tutorial. The current tutorial is placeholder until the game is more finished, but in this particular case it is information included in the tutorial.

You can find the port of any service you're running by nmapping your own lan ip, there's also a help page on the router admin panel that lists default ports.
#3
PNill 13 Jun @ 9:14am 
Looking at a manual isn't intuitive for things that are common sense like using a 'search' capability. I re-checked/re-enabled the tutorial and did navigate the manual, nmap is there rshell is there I don't recall the port being covered in either of them or the shop being mentioned specifically.

I expected crap to simulate real-world a little better is sort of my point in that regard. nmaping yourself is nothing short of unrealistic, for a lack of better or choice words, when it comes to finding ports open on your own system, especially when you could have a netstat interface or tcpview equivalent that would show open ports.

A lot of this feedback has to do with real world experience vs what you get in the game, and how I personally feel it's lacking. Intended for improvement if the developer cares. Not what people have gotten used to.

I skimmed the help page of the router as someone with experience in port forwarding, and firewalls I didn't think it was relevant. I don't recall seeing a default port for rshell there either. The other thing about that is the social engineering payload allows the specification of a port but the base rshell doesn't allow for configuration of the listening port, another discrepancy with real world where a reverse shell service would absolutely be configurable.
#4
{F.S.L} ΕΤΑGαmerPC 13 Jun @ 1:00pm 
the default port for rshells are 1222. also in this game you kinda have to read player made guides and actually ask people for help and figure out the little things that are different. :GDNormal:
#5
PNill 13 Jun @ 1:53pm 
Originally posted by {F.S.L} ETAGαmerPC:
the default port for rshells are 1222. also in this game you kinda have to read player made guides and actually ask people for help and figure out the little things that are different. :GDNormal:
Again, the point of my post was that reading guides outside of a game is less immersive... and constructive criticism for improvement. The response regarding rshell was a direct response to person posting prior to that stating that it could be found in manuals or the router help.
Last edited by PNill; 13 Jun @ 1:54pm
#6
Xephael 13 Jun @ 3:46pm 
Originally posted by PNill:
Looking at a manual isn't intuitive for things that are common sense like using a 'search' capability. I re-checked/re-enabled the tutorial and did navigate the manual, nmap is there rshell is there I don't recall the port being covered in either of them or the shop being mentioned specifically.

I expected crap to simulate real-world a little better is sort of my point in that regard. nmaping yourself is nothing short of unrealistic, for a lack of better or choice words, when it comes to finding ports open on your own system, especially when you could have a netstat interface or tcpview equivalent that would show open ports.

A lot of this feedback has to do with real world experience vs what you get in the game, and how I personally feel it's lacking. Intended for improvement if the developer cares. Not what people have gotten used to.

I skimmed the help page of the router as someone with experience in port forwarding, and firewalls I didn't think it was relevant. I don't recall seeing a default port for rshell there either. The other thing about that is the social engineering payload allows the specification of a port but the base rshell doesn't allow for configuration of the listening port, another discrepancy with real world where a reverse shell service would absolutely be configurable.
It looks like the router help page was updated at some point to be a description of how port forwarding works and the default ports are no longer there. nmapping your own device isn't unrealistic, it's actually done quite a bit for security testing, but it's not done for this purpose irl because there are other options and nmapping is a bit overkill. Ingame it isn't overkill however, it's instant and there's no reason not to do it if you don't know a default port. (Notably that router help page mentions nmapping your lan ip to see the service)
Last edited by Xephael; 13 Jun @ 3:49pm
#7
xjulep 13 Jun @ 7:48pm 
Isn't the main point of search to show you player sites to hack or visit? IDG why so many people play singleplayer fr fr.

When I was starting I got the source of nmap right out of the manual from the button that says "source code" on the page about nmap. Honestly it felt like cheating but it also showed me how the code editor works pretty much right away.
Last edited by xjulep; 13 Jun @ 7:51pm
#8
PNill 13 Jun @ 9:12pm 
Originally posted by xjulep:
Isn't the main point of search to show you player sites to hack or visit? IDG why so many people play singleplayer fr fr.

When I was starting I got the source of nmap right out of the manual from the button that says "source code" on the page about nmap. Honestly it felt like cheating but it also showed me how the code editor works pretty much right away.

Because I don't care to be competitive, and the search is suggested to be used for other things. For instance how do you make an email without it? How do you get a bank account without it?

Anyway, I didn't see nmap source in the manual or I would've built from that... but I do cyber crap all day every day for 18~ years don't care to play a game and compile 'code' in it as cool as it is which is also why I didn't care to be competitive and just wanted to get a feel for the game in single player. I like recommending games that have real world value to students, kids and etc when the opportunity arises so checking this out was partially seeing if it was something I could recommend for learning purposes.
#9
xjulep 13 Jun @ 10:59pm 
Yea for me it's like, I play hitman and stalker to do things that are very illegal in real life. So this game is the same idea. Think of it as a crime simulator. I think maybe you have a more security orientation and less of a breaking and entering mentality
#10
PNill 14 Jun @ 12:54am 
Originally posted by xjulep:
Yea for me it's like, I play hitman and stalker to do things that are very illegal in real life. So this game is the same idea. Think of it as a crime simulator. I think maybe you have a more security orientation and less of a breaking and entering mentality
Ironically; I actually do physical penetration testing, offensive security, CNO, and Reverse engineering as a profession. So I do have the 'breaking and entering mentality' this just doesn't simulate it well compared to real world.
#11
{F.S.L} ΕΤΑGαmerPC 14 Jun @ 11:12am 
Originally posted by PNill:
Originally posted by xjulep:
Isn't the main point of search to show you player sites to hack or visit? IDG why so many people play singleplayer fr fr.

When I was starting I got the source of nmap right out of the manual from the button that says "source code" on the page about nmap. Honestly it felt like cheating but it also showed me how the code editor works pretty much right away.

Because I don't care to be competitive, and the search is suggested to be used for other things. For instance how do you make an email without it? How do you get a bank account without it?

Anyway, I didn't see nmap source in the manual or I would've built from that... but I do cyber crap all day every day for 18~ years don't care to play a game and compile 'code' in it as cool as it is which is also why I didn't care to be competitive and just wanted to get a feel for the game in single player. I like recommending games that have real world value to students, kids and etc when the opportunity arises so checking this out was partially seeing if it was something I could recommend for learning purposes.
why is code in quotes? greyscript is as real of a language as python, c++, javascript, rust, etc.
Last edited by {F.S.L} ΕΤΑGαmerPC; 14 Jun @ 11:12am
#12
PNill 14 Jun @ 5:48pm 
Originally posted by {F.S.L} ETAGαmerPC:
Originally posted by PNill:

Because I don't care to be competitive, and the search is suggested to be used for other things. For instance how do you make an email without it? How do you get a bank account without it?

Anyway, I didn't see nmap source in the manual or I would've built from that... but I do cyber crap all day every day for 18~ years don't care to play a game and compile 'code' in it as cool as it is which is also why I didn't care to be competitive and just wanted to get a feel for the game in single player. I like recommending games that have real world value to students, kids and etc when the opportunity arises so checking this out was partially seeing if it was something I could recommend for learning purposes.
why is code in quotes? greyscript is as real of a language as python, c++, javascript, rust, etc.
It's not, but not something I'm going to debate on either.
#13
{F.S.L} ΕΤΑGαmerPC 15 Jun @ 12:28pm 
Originally posted by PNill:
Originally posted by {F.S.L} ETAGαmerPC:
why is code in quotes? greyscript is as real of a language as python, c++, javascript, rust, etc.
It's not, but not something I'm going to debate on either.
scripting is a form of programming you know but if you would not like to debate i will not continue.
#14
< >
Showing 1-14 of 14 comments
Per page: 1530 50

Grey Hack > General Discussion > Topic Details
Date Posted: 12 Jun @ 11:02am
Posts: 14

Discussions Rules and Guidelines