A lot of Netrunner players are torn about the status of the game’s card pool and how it should be handled:
“Should there be rotation and how should it work?”
“Should there be a Netrunner 2.0 reboot?”
“How should bans and restrictions be handled?”
“Which cards should be reprinted?”
…and many more. Everyone seems to have their own unique set of opinions on these topics, with their own reasons and motivations.
There is, however, one sentiment that I see held in common by many players: That many of the cards from the game’s early days are fun and have value, but could have been executed better given what we know now. They lament the fact that Criminal consoles always paled in comparison to Desperado (even though they think Desperado is fun), and that HB identities always looked silly compared to Engineering the Future (even though they like playing EtF). The game had a lot going right in its early days, but also had a lot of missed opportunities. Additionally, it had its share of broken mistakes: Did Parasite really have to only cost 2? Does Kate really need that Link? Why is Astro so much better than the other agendas? Why does Sansan cost so much to trash? … and so on.
Along with a small group of fellow Stimhackers, I have set out to right these wrongs with the Netrunner Reboot Project.
All of the information about the project is available in this spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J2rLDnDd800BjgxKfQffMU2Mg6Fdmzlg5vHuIfGfILs/
Keep in mind that this project is definitely in work-in-progress status, and everything is subject to change pending testing. The above sheet is the comprehensive and exhaustive description of the project, while this article is more of a hype-piece.
Rather than reiterating the information in that sheet, I’d like to use the rest of this post as a way to highlight a sampling of the sorts of changes we are making. Hundreds of cards are changing, so this is really the tiniest of tastes, but it should give you some idea of the direction we are headed. I recommend reading the Project Description and FAQ section of the above spreadsheet for context.
(Fonts and formatting are a work in progress, but steadily improving…)
Astroscript Pilot Program
The Astro train is dead, but NBN is back to 6 3/2s and the Astro counter is still powerful. It can be used to score a 4/2 from 0 advancements, do tricks with Breaking News, get a Beale up to 3 points, or in desperate times, save you a click and a credit. We hope this will help NBN embrace a new role as a never-advance faction.
Posted Bounty
Weyland spent the vast majority of Netrunner’s history as the forever-tier-2 faction. A big part of that was their lack of access to 3/2 agendas. Posted Bounty looks really silly sitting in a box next to most of the best agendas in the game (ABT, Astro, Breaking News, Nisei Mk 2, Hostile Takeover). This change should make Weyland a much more dynamic and scary faction.
Heimdall 1.0/Wall of Thorns/Hadrian’s Wall
Eli 1.0 aside, the taxing barrier was never really a thing in competitive Netrunner. Barriers have generally been used as cheap gear-checks and that’s about it. The main reason for this is that the larger barriers have been so over-costed. We think that these changes should make these big walls more playable in slower corp decks, giving them more options for taxing runners, and giving runners more to think about when designing their rigs.
Chaos Theory/NBN: The World is Yours/Exile
The concepts behind these IDs are cool, but the numbers were not pushed enough for them to be worth it over more straightforward economic IDs. By doubling-down on their abilities we think that they become compelling options for decks that can make use of their unique advantages.
There are so many more exciting changes, but in the interest of letting you keep a mind open for exploration, I’m going to let you discover your own favorites for yourself.
The most exciting thing about this project for me, is that one of our members has put in a ton of work to create a Jinteki.net mirror site where you can play with all of our changes fully integrated in both card images and implementation!
If you are interested in helping out, asking questions, giving feedback, or just messing around with the changes. All you have to do is send me a message (@TheBigBoy) on the Stimhack Slack channel (Stimhack.slack.com), and ask for an invite. I’ll invite you to our private channel where you will get access to all of our thoughts (full transparency!) as well as a link to the jnet mirror server.
I’m having a blast so far and I hope you’ll join us.
-TheBigBoy
Run the Net 