Suggestion

This is one of the greatest reasons for me being inactive so much...
Have always been hoping that the quests was more simplified, or better explained...

Unfortunately, our lead quest developer (DraconisRavenix) is going through some difficult times right now, and thus the public hasn't seen much progress in the existing quests. We do have a lot of improvements ongoing, but we are waiting until the work on quests is finished and we have a polished questing system to offer to our players before we update the system.

B) The wiki needs extremely detailed information on how to bypass these bugs.

You are welcome http://www.hackwars.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Apologies to the newcomers...

Here's a tiny history:
Hack Wars is developed by very few people who have regular jobs, family etc. It started as an idea to turn programming into a fun game. Quests were never thought of really. There technically isn't a "system" for quests in the engine, just a down'n'dirty API. Over the past few years Hack Wars has been slowly developed around the developer's free time. This is continuing today until further notice. In relation to the entire existence of Hack Wars, quests are still fairly new.

Indie Game:
Not only are indie games based on word of mouth, they are also based on a common understanding for those that adore them: "Independent Games" are created by small groups of people, not companies/corporations. They are also usually quirky to say the least, half the point to an "indie game" is breaking outside of the norm.
The developers of such games (like Hack Wars) usually have an entire life aside from their project. Such as regular jobs, family, sleep and food.

MMORPG:
This game genre seems to have the most misunderstood "behind the scenes" work load that it requires. Should look into the numbers behind large MMORPGs. The companies, number of employees, average starting costs and especially the time it takes to bring them to release. If I'm not mistaken a single simple MMORPG has an average cost of $5 million to start, 1-2 YEARS of planning/design and another 2-3 years of actually coding. Hack Wars has nearly $0, and several years of planning AND coding in SPARE time. This is all volunteer work for us. ;)

We've skipped the "time to bring Hack Wars to release" by letting players have at what they want DURING the process. What's this mean for you and every other player? Experiencing bugs! Removing quests completely isn't an option. Ask players who have played before quests were involved, it was REALLY dry. Wait... you can't, most got tired of just grinding. ;)

Hacker's World:
We have, since the creation of Hack Wars, attempted to let players' minds be free in their thinking. Read between the lines and solve problems on their own. This doesn't include bugs of course, however, most players found several ways around bugs. We're attempting to lean more towards a simpler style of things in the long run but, we also want to deliver some things from the "olden golden" days of hacking. "Real" hackers back in the 80s and 90s were major think tanks with an insane ability to multitask and even more crazy ways of solving problems. Not just finding solutions, finding clever solutions. Since the dawn of the internet, hackers and many others thought information and the flow of data should be free. However, in the long run, everyone has to fight for it. Believe it or not, some of the problems you have addressed are simple hints, clues and/or just plain text in the quest information. We actually thought people would read these in detail, as the "objectives" are just straight to the point of what's needed, no explicit information.

Gateways:
If going through the quest line that starts with Zahara, each NPC along the way gives some type of information. We've done the best we can to break it up a bit to allow players to lightly take it in as well as deliver it with more of a 'point to it all' via storyline tidbits. Information on Encryption Keys are in a few spots along the quests. One part within the chain, introduces "Xyphex". You should check him out. ;)

Patience and Understanding:
We are attempting everything we can to remedy it all for a wide variety of players. A good portion of our regular fans and players are usually highly intelligent "odd balls" (no offense to anyone personally). We've made some things easy which gives us a LOT of grief from these "elite geniuses" stating it was too easy. Then other players who just want to have fun and relax in a game (not saying they're not good but, they're not "elitists" like some of the others) complain about it being too hard or difficult to get the "point" to specific concepts. This is the major downfall to developing a MMORPG. Like others, we have "elitists" and "ordinary players" biting us from BOTH ends. It takes a lot of time which even multiple employed people don't have to create and ESPECIALLY balance such issues. This is any game really and like any game, the developers are hated and loved at the same time. What do indie game developers miss the most in this corporate day and age? The love... we're all emotards. Watch it or we may cry. :P

I'm kidding on the last part. We do ask for patience and understanding though. We've been patient enough to keep this thing going for a few years, knowing it's going to take:
forever +
3 miracles +
2 lotteries +
5-6 developers -
23 lives /
2 apocalyptic events *
3 interplanetary alignments -
a supernova /
space-time continuum collapse =
Hack Wars, an awesome game for all! ;)

(I'm awesome at math...)

Hopefully you didn't take my thread the wrong way. I was simply trying to make suggestions until the situation could be dealt with entirely. I know exactly how it is to work on a project in your spare time and have people bitching at you about the most minor things. Problem is, the quest system is not really a minor "thing".

@Silverlight Half the bugs aren't even documented in the wiki, nor are their work arounds. Thanks for trying to be witty, though!

@DraconisRavenix The problem wasn't necessarily the Zahara quest chain (Well some parts are extremely bugged like the Shade portion).

The major wall I ran into were the quests for the gateways themselves. Lets look at SubNet gateway's quest for example. It tells you to get two different types of network cards, but has absolutely no information on where to find them. This is a major offset for most new players as, from what I've read, gaining access to the gateways is a crucial part of the game. This ends up leading to a disastrous roadblock for new players. I imagine you have a large player drop off rate due to this and other quest related problems.

I'm not asking for immediate results, nor do I think anyone else playing the game is entitled to do so on a project like this. However, finding a solution to the quest problems is only going to help the game grow. As it stands right now, you're going to lose a lot of new players who are just starting out. As you said yourself, these indie games spread through word of mouth. I cannot justify recommending the game to any potential new player(s) if I know for a fact they are going to deal with the same problems I'm having right now.

Mux, for gateway quests, see Xyphex.hw > Shop. End of problem with all gateway quests. (this was mentioned in the Zahara quest chain)

Also, the point of silverlight mentioning the wiki is that any member of the hackwars community can edit it. If there's something you want to see in the wiki, you could put it in when you have the time ;)

Most of all the quests are very clearly explained in various NPC descriptions. Also check the wiki. Reading between the lines, and reading when given words, is absolutely vital. because of a lack of 'quest system', quests are very unorganized. (You can't recheck hints, sometimes can't get certain files, etc.) This merely requires some more careful attention.

I will admit there are certain issues, like some quests are 100% broken, and when a file is lost, it can no longer be re-obtained. Some of these issues are crippling, true. However, the Zahara quest chain is working fine IF you carefully play it out, and try not to speed through it.

The wiki and game are both completely open. You may add to the wiki whenever you choose, and you may help develop the game via the wiki's suggestion page (simple ones, try not to add more than 2~3 sentences to keep the page clean, link to a separate article if you really need it) or, if you have skills in Java, you may directly contribute by coding parts of the game.

Because of our disorganization and relatively small group of indie devs, we are incapable of contributing too much to the wiki and game code all the time, and much is often missing/broken. The experienced and new players both must contribute their views, because many aspects of the game are lacking.

Appreciate HackWars's relative longevity and complexity. The quest system, in fact, is a minor issue. (Not because it's not vital, just because the very few amount of unique quests -- beginner quests are unnecessary, and gateway quests are all the same, only network card quests are important/difficult) The lack of community help and game completeness is annoying and frustrating, but at a certain point, you will no longer think about anything except possibilities in HackScript, and ways to maximize your damage/stealth. Remember, the newbie stage is the hardest to overcome. Those who leave early from sheer impatience are mostly people we don't want in our small game community.

In terms of such new/old player cooperation, when you encounter difficulty or a glitchy seeming part, feel free to write it down somewhere or put it all in a thread. Later on, older players can see what kinds of things newer players are missing out on, and contribute. The issue with this in the past is the lack of a large player population. Not enough active players were on to help, so players were often on with no idea what to do, and maybe one or two unhelpful people online with them. Once we can get down some basic ideas of what slows down newbies, we can create a better beginner guide. Sound good?

He's complaining about the infamously glitchy, broken, unsound Zahara quest chain. Obviously there's more to the game than this, but don't forget that every new player has to run these quests before they can:

Get commodities
Farm anything bigger than a Noob
Deal with people who use network-hopping defensively

And seriously, how is he supposed to contribute to the wiki with information he doesn't have? That's just ridiculous.

Make a new account sometime and run through the questline again, see how annoying and crappy it is. See if you remember all the tricks to get bugged tokens to show up and et cetera!

I understand the frustration. However, the situation is not helped by complaints. Exact suggestions or requests on specific issues, in an organized list, would help us solve the issue. I'm also pointing out that all of us here went through this at one point, and we're all still here. We have not made this quest line clear in the wiki either. I'm suggesting that he gets through this by asking us about each issue in a separate thread, and that we later add some guide about the quest line to the wiki.

I recall no problems completing the Zahara quest line (although I'm unsure of current issues). I finished in about 2 days, starting from the first week or so that I had been playing. Obviously, I'm not 'allowed' to create a second account. But that's a different issue entirely...