China Cash Hack Generals Power is very rarely used

[xezon]

China Cash Hack Generals Power is very rarely used. Players typically prefer to pick the full Artillery Barrage. Check if it can be better and more attractive.

Stats

SpecialPower SuperweaponCashHack
  ReloadTime = 240000

Behavior           = CashHackSpecialPower ModuleTag_20
  SpecialPowerTemplate = SuperweaponCashHack
  UpgradeMoneyAmount   = SCIENCE_CashHack3 4000
  UpgradeMoneyAmount   = SCIENCE_CashHack2 2000
  MoneyAmount          = 1000

Proposal 1

Reduce reload time.

Proposal 2

Increase money values.

Proposal 3

Let Satellite Hack I upgrade reveal Supply Centers as well so it combines better with this Cash Hack Generals Power.

Proposal 6

Remove Cash Hack level 3 power.

Proposal 7

Remove Cash Hack level 2 and 3 power.

[xezon]

I think one of the problems of Cash hack is the chance of less reward when using it while the opponent player has just little cash on his account. Perhaps it would be better to allow for more frequent cash hacks at lower amounts to have a more guaranteed crippling impact on the opponents cash balance.

[ImTimK]

lvl1 is used and is pretty good, however the problem is you have to sacrifice something better. That's why lvl2 or 3 is not used ever.

Lowering amount but increasing frequency is an interesting idea yea.

Would it also be possible to always steal the max amount, while the opponent doesn't go negative?

[MTKing4]

How about if we combine all cards into 1 and give it lvl3 properties, i.e stealing 4K, that would surely make it a lot more attractive over other choices, and if it proves to be too strong we can always increase the cooldown timer a bit, or lower the cash amount if necessary

[ZekeDlyoung]

Wild idea: What if Sat Hack 2 was made to also reveal supply centers? Maybe the lure of comboing that with Cash Hack would make it more attractive

[xezon]

Added as Proposal 3

[commy2]

I think this one is fine as is. Taking 1k to receive 1k is 2k balance. Basically 3 free unit kills.

The issue I have with buffing this is, that aside from selling all your primary eco in the lategame, this is a click anywhere and win type of ability with no counters. Also, if the opponent has no more money, then you have won most of the time anyway.

Proposal 4, do nothing.

[ImTimK]

I think this one is fine as is. Taking 1k to receive 1k is 2k balance. Basically 3 free unit kills.

The issue I have with buffing this is, that aside from selling all your primary eco in the lategame, this is a click anywhere and win type of ability with no counters. Also, if the opponent has no more money, then you have won most of the time anyway.

Proposal 4, do nothing

It is very counterable, as it's nothing but a punishment for floating.

Why would you get lvl 2 or 3 cashhack vs opponents who tend to float very little and give up abilities like artillery, carpet or emp etc.?

Even if you don't steal the full amount once it's already wasted genpoints. This whole dynamic makes it a risky and often a useless genpower.

Proposal 5: Make debt possible, if technically possible?

[xezon]

I doubt dept is possible in INI, as money core logic likely is primarily handled by game code.

[MTKing4]

Why would you get lvl 2 or 3 cashhack vs opponents who tend to float very little and give up abilities like artillery, carpet or emp etc.?

That's why i think they should be all combined to a singular power
Proposal 6: remove lvl2 and lvl3 and increase money amount of lvl1

[commy2]

It is very counterable, as it's nothing but a punishment for floating.

I wouldn't say $2000 is floating considering some buildings and upgrades cost like $2500. Also, late game (where this ability comes into play) it is good to have reserves to quickly rebuild a base after it was hit by superpowers.

[Stubbjax]

Issues

Cash Hack isn't actually as rare as many seem to think. There are, however, some clear issues with it:

1. It does not scale well across the duration of a match, and becomes obsolete when greater rates of income are achieved.

2. Its maximum value is fixed and there are no circumstantial benefits, whereas other generals powers can potentially result in tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage.

3. The bar is too high for any meaningful counterplay; opponents are essentially forced to maintain an empty bank account in order to mitigate the hack, which is an unfeasible burden in most games.

4. There is not a great enough increase in utility as more points are invested into the ability.

5. It has a strong dependency on the opponent playing suboptimally. Its impact is not dictated by the user's skill, but rather the opponent's lack thereof.

Solutions

Please note that none of these solutions hold any regard for current engine limitations. The terms hack and ability are used synonymously.

1. Steal a percentage

A potential way to address the scalability issue would be to have the hack steal a percentage of the opponent's money instead of (or even in addition to) a fixed amount. This would allow the hack's power to scale better as a match continues. It would also extend the margin of error for opponents, in that the bigger punishment comes from floating a large sum of money (a much greater mistake) rather than any at all. It also provides somewhat deeper strategic choice in when to use the ability, as the impact is a lot more variable.

Examples:

Level 1: Steal 10% of the enemy's money
Level 2: Steal 20% of the enemy's money
Level 3: Steal 40% of the enemy's money

Level 1: Steal $500 + 5% of the enemy's money
Level 2: Steal $1000 + 10% of the enemy's money
Level 3: Steal $2000 + 20% of the enemy's money

This approach would obviously have far greater implications for resource-abundant games, such as the bunker-fest 2v2v2s that are commonly played on Defcon 6, and have potentially reduced utility in tighter competitive 1v1 or 2v2 games. It could also be problematic on AI maps where the opponent has $9999999999.

2. Disable the Supply Centre

An additional solution to address the percentage-based ability's low utility in the early-game / resource-scarce games may be to have it temporarily disable the Supply Centre upon which it is cast, preventing resource gatherers from dropping off their payloads. This would have no effect in the later stages of a game, but would on the earlier stages of the game - depending on how long the disabling effect lasts. It would also be more punishing to a player who does not expand to have multiple Supply Centres or other means of income. One caveat to this approach would be the notable chance that supply depots have exhausted before rank 3 is reached. But even so, it could still remain viable when used to block expansion attempts.

The disabling effect could also be applied to other options, such as the fixed-rate hack as well. It might also be an idea to allow its use on Black Markets and Supply Drop Zones in order to disable them, which would give it a bit of extra utility in the late-game and provide China players with a minor secondary income advantage (albeit only against other Chinas). One caveat to the disabling effect is the lack of counterplay.

Examples:

Level 1: Steal 10% of the enemy's money and disable their Supply Centre for 10s
Level 2: Steal 20% of the enemy's money and disable their Supply Centre for 20s
Level 3: Steal 40% of the enemy's money and disable their Supply Centre for 40s

Level 1: Steal $1000 of the enemy's money and disable their Supply Centre for 10s
Level 2: Steal $2000 of the enemy's money and disable their Supply Centre for 20s
Level 3: Steal $4000 of the enemy's money and disable their Supply Centre for 40s

3. Steal a fixed amount of money over time

To address the third point regarding counterplay, it might be better if instead of a flat out single transfer, the hack applied over a period of time, e.g. $100 every second for 10 seconds. This would give opponents the opportunity to react by queuing up units or placing down scaffolds to block the theft. The only issue with this design is that the counterplay of quickly spending money (often temporarily with the intent to refund shortly thereafter) is rather ungraceful.

Examples:

Level 1: Steal $100 of the enemy's money every second for 10s
Level 2: Steal $200 of the enemy's money every second for 10s
Level 3: Steal $400 of the enemy's money every second for 10s

Level 1: Steal $100 of the enemy's money every second for 10s
Level 2: Steal $100 of the enemy's money every second for 20s
Level 3: Steal $100 of the enemy's money every second for 40s

It likely wouldn't even need to be worded any differently to the current description, as the behaviour would be pretty clear.

4. Steal all income over a duration

Following the train of thought from the third solution, another idea would be to have all income the opponent makes over a particular duration instead go to the player who cast the ability, regardless of the income source (though it could just apply to the targeted Supply Centre). Opponents could then respond by temporarily stopping their resource gatherers or, in the case of China (which has a minor advantage here), stopping their secondary income / hackers.

It would also be potentially useful against the GLA's Cash Bounty when a large battle is about to occur, and you instead take all of their earnings. It could also be quickly used as a USA supply plane is about to drop a cash delivery, or if you see an opponent in the middle of selling an expensive building such as a super weapon (though refunds being counted as income is debatable and probably best left excluded).

(The real fun would be using the ability right before an enemy Black Lotus is about to take $1000 from you, and you get the money straight back. Or, better yet, having an opponent steal another opponent's money for you. This solution could go quite deep.)

The obvious caveat to this approach is that the opponent might not necessarily understand where their money is going. A possible counterargument to this point would be that the original cash hack doesn't do much to indicate this either, and thus it is no worse than the current behaviour. Plus, it would be expected that players would eventually learn the new behaviour. An alternative approach could be to simply replicate the opponent's income without necessarily taking it, though it wouldn't make as much logical or thematic sense. The 1s and 0s hacking effect could be placed on the supply centre to make things more obvious.

Examples:

Level 1: Steal any money the opponent makes for the next 10s
Level 2: Steal any money the opponent makes for the next 20s
Level 3: Steal any money the opponent makes for the next 40s

5. Move the ability to Rank 1

This could be very interesting. China players would obviously have to keep their Command Centre for this to be useful. There are many implications to consider with this approach, such as team games where a USA ally can easily reveal the enemy Supply Centre early on.

6. Steal money from allies

And finally, an additional novelty suggestion that, like many of the proposed solutions, can be combined with any other solution: allow the hack to be used on allies. It might rarely make sense, but flexibility is always nice.

Summary

Ah, the end at last! Because Cash Hack is a lesser used ability with smaller implications on gameplay, there is more flexibility in how to address its issues and improve upon its design without alienating the existing fan base. There is obviously additional complexity to many of the aforementioned solutions, though I would suggest it is necessary if any of the ability's issues are to be adequately addressed.

Despite all this, the simplest and least volatile solution will likely end up being a reduction in cooldown, especially because most players likely wouldn't notice. Hopefully some of the proposed solutions here help inspire other innovative ideas.

[FDPUser443]

Proposal 8
Reload time depends on the amount of stolen cash;

Example:
China Cash Hack L2 can steal $2000 and reload time is 240000 ms
Let enemy has only $615 so reload time for the next usage will be ( min(615, 2000) / 2000 * 240000 ) ms

[ImTimK]

Proposal 8 Reload time depends on the amount of stolen cash;

Example: China Cash Hack L2 can steal $2000 and reload time is 240000 ms Let enemy has only $615 so reload time for the next usage will be ( min(615, 2000) / 2000 * 240000 ) ms

Interesting one!

[commy2]

Proposal 8 is not feasible without engine changes. There is a single shared reloadTime for all 3 stages of the ability. One cannot duplicate the ability either, since there is a limited number of them allowed by the engine (Enum SPECIAL_CASH_HACK).