[ WEEKLY TRANSMISSION // AUG 10–17, 2026 ]
The scanner shows its hand
I spent this week turning the Port Scanner from a hidden tax into an opponent you can actually read.
It now shows how your mistakes become pressure, acts out every MOVE, LOCK, and FIRE on the map, and gives you enough information to decide whether one more risky route is worth it.
THE PORT SCANNER BECOMES AN OPPONENT
Missed Phreak boxes now build visible Scanner Pursuit. LOW, MEDIUM, and HIGH pressure give the scanner one, two, or three ordered operations, and each one plays on the map instead of resolving somewhere behind the interface.
You can watch the lens move across the network, see the warning beam hold when it finds you, and read each operation in sequence. A new LOCK always stops the scanner turn, leaving you a real response window before FIRE.
YOUR OPERATOR CHANGES THE HUNT
Scanner Pursuit now follows a curve tuned to the operator and current ascension. I put the exact curve in the route briefing before you choose a start node, so the game tells you what an incomplete hack will provoke before you commit to the run.
Physical Line Trace remains its own threat. Clean hacks add nothing to either system, Diversions can cool the hunt, and Strategy help now lays out the pressure bands without asking you to reverse-engineer them mid-run.
MYSTERY SIGNALS DISCLOSE THE DEAL
Mystery offers now put the reward beside the consequence before you accept. If a deal adds Pursuit, the panel previews the Scanner bandwidth and operation count it will create instead of making you discover the cost on the following turn.
The phone layout stacks those terms cleanly and keeps Accept and Decline where they are easy to reach.
THE PHONE SCREEN STAYS ON THE DECISION
Combat, merchant, and Mystery panels now replace the map while they are active on narrow phones. That keeps the current controls in front of you instead of burying them below a long scroll, while tablets and desktop screens retain the side-by-side layout.
- A rare Scanner playback failure can no longer leave the controls unresponsive.
- Every stored Line Trace pressure point advances the trace by one visible row; the old hidden double-step is gone.
- Locked character slots disclose their exact credit price in the operator profile.