Rework device scans to be temporary
A solution to the hoarding problem

The problem:

As things are, if you have a device scanned to something important then this is your access to that resource forever, it cannot be severed without getting ahold of the terminal.
This results in gameplay loop of: lets just get a single use device with access to this important thing, in case we need it in the future, and never move it out of a proverbial closet. And that makes perfect sense, as why would you ever risk that unlimited resource more than absolutely necessary? And there is no harm to hoarding all of them either, besides the constant short supply of quick terms.

This also makes any counter play relatively meaningless, as the attack window at the terminal is 24/7/365, and can be entirely unrelated to any planned operations.

The solution:

Flip the access gameplay loop from: secure it in case we need it, to: we have a plan that needs that access, so let's prepare everything and then get the scan. And to achieve it relatively simple: make the access limited by amount of time and uses.

How much of a time and uses you get can depends on decker skills of the person doing the scan, and I am throwing numbers that feel right, but I think a scale of: 1 use/1 day for someone with no skill, to 14 uses / 14 days for a A tier decker's feels right to me personally, with average to good decker being at about 5/5.

This would mean you build a plan, figure out what devices you need to crack to make it happen, and then can still either go the immie-sacrifice route to get the term, or if the goal is to get a repeated focused access, go with a bang and escort your high end decker to make the scan themselves. Think places where you will need repeated access to like weapon checks if they ever get grid-enabled.

I think that makes for a much more fun gameplay loop around access to all those devices, as now that's part of usually a bigger plot that can be discovered and foiled, rather than just a small time heist to scan a specific device without a bigger goal in mind.

The current connections could be converted to say above average scan to compensate for the loss.

(Edited by Froggy at 7:59 am on 2/15/2026)

I really hate the idea of expiring scans. Some scans are extremely hard to get and may take a long time to pay off the effort or for all of the other parts of the job to line up. (I can think of multiple cases where it was at least two months until scans acquired for a specific job could be used.) In general, I don't think that the solution to item scarcity is to make the item worse.

Even all the prep programs to figure out what is possible for a scan and how the device works can take days to compile and run. Imagine if you couldn't even get a chance to run probes before a scan expires. (and if it expires based on number of uses then every time you probe it would eat up those uses as well which is just the same problem from a different angle.)

For the gameplay loops this creates, it would also destroy others like being someone who has a high-value scan and can become the go-to for certain things.

I liked your other idea more of there being an even lower tier of term that is just for nodes and Gridmail. Or just to have some mechanism for transferring scans.

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The problem is not that Deckers are too powerful, so surely nerfing them is not the right solution. Deleting people's scans might wind up freeing up a few QTs (doubtful, IMO), but it'll also create other problems because utilizing device scans will be massively more difficult. And it already seems like it is often very niche.

(Edited by ikunaut at 12:57 pm on 2/15/2026)

Decking cuts both ways. How does one defend against a scan as a decker? If your job is to protect those devices, it seems frustrating right now.

Could it be possible that a remote scan has to defeat ice each time it wants to use it? I don't know decking, maybe this is in place, but the idea of gaining remote access that, if it doesn't expire, can still be thwarted in some way and required a skilled decker to exploit seems cool.

Or, if instead of expiring, one could hack devices that were scanned to another device, finding out where they are located, requiring them to be protected, thus encouraging higher end terminals to make it harder to be traced back after a scan, meaning you now have a hot potato you are pushed to use, but that it still feels like both sides have a role in it?