Advanced factory hacking

[trillioneyes]

So I was looking over the hacker's tools and found the advanced factory hacker, which seems... really strong. The tooltip says that it allows you to build mark 4 fleetships from your normal space docks. I have a few questions about how it works:

• Does the ability to construct mark 4 ships persist after the advanced factory has been destroyed?
• If you unlock a mark 3 fleetship after performing the hack, can you still build its mark 4 version from your space docks? What if you no longer control an advanced factory?
• Do you gain the ability to produce mark 4 ships immediately on completing the hack, or do you still need to capture the factory?

My interpretation of the tooltip seems too good to be true. Is there some kind of drawback that I'm missing?

[Kron]

While we're at it, hacking an ARS doesn't give you Mark 2 fleetships of the design you unlock automatically. Isn't it supposed to?

[Oralordos]

I haven't played in forever, before the hacking changes were put in certainly. I can guess from the change-notes that I did pay attention to though. Just don't count on accuracy.

After the factory is destroyed, you will continue to be able to produce mark 4 ships.
I... I actually have no clue on this one, but I would guess you continue to be able to produce mark 4 ships of the type you researched.
It should be right after completing the hack, no need to spend the AIP to capture the planet.

Hacking an advanced factory is nice, but if you can keep hold of it without hacking it, then it's probably more worthwhile to spend your hacking points elsewhere.

[Vinraith]

Advanced factory hacking is extremely HaP expensive, time-consuming (15 minute hack!), and dangerous, but it gives you some sizable advantages if you can pull it off.

Yes, the advantage of hacking the advanced factory is that you are no longer required to keep it alive (in fact, you don't actually need to capture it at all). Once the factory is hacked, you can build Mk IV ships for the rest of the game. If you unlock a new Mk III ship, you'll get access to its Mk IV's as well, just as though you were currently holding an advanced factory.



@Kron

ARS's haven't unlocked Mk II ships in a long time. All you get from an ARS is Mk I's, whether you pre-hack or not.

[trillioneyes]

Doesn't it still show the mark 2 icon in the ARS after you capture it though? Maybe it doesn't and I'm just misremembering...

[Toranth]

Vinraith covered it - Hacking an Advanced Factory is very powerful, but also very expensive and rather risky.
Risky - Even at 10 AIP and positive HaP, that 15:00 hack will probably spawn somewhere between 1500 and 2000 ships, IIRC.  As AIP goes up, so does the number and Mark of ships spawned.  A poorly timed Hack can easily hurt the player, even if successful.
Expensive - It costs 100 HaP.  That's 5 planets worth of accumulated Hacking Progress.  With that same 100 HaP, you could:  K-Raid for 7500 K;  Hack 2 ARSs;  Hack 3 Fabs;  Download or Corrupt 2 designs; or get the first 85 points of AIP reduction from a SuperTerminal.
It is not uncommon where it is simply easier to just capture and protect the Adv Factory, and use the HaP elsewhere.

Doesn't it still show the mark 2 icon in the ARS after you capture it though? Maybe it doesn't and I'm just misremembering...

I think it does do that, but there's probably a bug report out, and it'll be fixed one of these days.

But for the nonce, capturing and ARS gets you the Mark I and 500 Knowledge, that's it.  If you already have the Mark I, you get nothing.  Same with Downloading - Already got it?  Get nothing.