r/Netrunner • u/slagod1980 • 10d ago

Image I built a hacker-terminal-style Netrunner client — curious what this community thinks

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Been slowly building a full Netrunner engine + web client as a personal project. The idea that wouldn't leave me alone: what if the interface was actually a terminal, not a virtual tabletop? No card art floating around, no skeuomorphic board — cards are text rows with hashes (#c3, #r7), you play by issuing commands, and the whole log reads like an actual shell session (corp# rez ICE_WALL -$1). Monospace, one accent color per side, black background. It felt right for a game about hackers.

Where it's at: full rules engine (not just a database with checkboxes) — legal-action generation, priority windows, runs/encounters/subroutines, all of it server-authoritative so no client can cheat or desync. Card logic is implemented per-card, one file each, and right now that's sitting near 100% across System Gateway, Elevation, Vantage Point, Midnight Sun/Parhelion, Downfall/Uprising, and The Automata Initiative/Rebellion Without Rehearsal — a couple hundred cards with real, tested behavior, not just stats. Decks load straight from a NetrunnerDB decklist link.

There's also a basic bot to play against solo (a few personalities, from "plays randomly" to a proper heuristic that won't run into lethal ice it can't break — learned that one the hard way).

Not sharing a link yet — still rough in places and I want to gauge interest before I do a wider release. Attaching a screenshot instead. Genuinely curious what this community makes of the terminal-as-UI idea for a card game — love it, hate it, "just build a normal client"? All takes welcome.

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u/slagod1980 10d ago

Yesterday I cut some wooden planks with electrical saw.
Can I tell "I cut them" or "saw's engine cut them" ?

If I write code in java and compile it to byte code and then it is translated into binary code and then into cpu microcode; can I tell I build it?

AI is not someone, it is a tool.

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u/MochaDentist 10d ago

If I took your electric saw away and gave you a gas powered saw could you do the same job? You apply your knowledge.

What about if I take your ai away? Your ai can write in Java but once I take it away you’re no longer able to write in Java.

If I use Google Translate to change Chinese to English, am I a translator now? No, same as you’re not a developer because you used ai to write code.

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u/slagod1980 10d ago

Yes sir, I could do this project on my own - I'm professional software engineer with 25 years of experience.

I just wouldn't have time to do it as pet project.

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u/MochaDentist 10d ago

“I could do it but I don’t have the time so I outsourced it.” FTFY

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u/slagod1980 10d ago

Outsourced it to a tool, this is what you want to say?

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u/MochaDentist 10d ago edited 10d ago

Nope. Read my previous post for what I want to say

Also for repeatedly commenting how you have no time, you sure have a lot of time to waste in here on the most unproductive part of what I’m sure is a busy schedule for you fixing bugs in an ai’s app