Sector

"newcomers have taken it upon themselves to restructure trust's domain. the freedom of honest vacs is now curtailed not by trust, but by these strangers and their sectors"

- robovac_fawkes

"Sectors are weird - something that was done to the domain, possibly against Trust's will."

- teach

Sectors are a mechanic in Hackmud designed to group scripts into logical divisions. Every public script is assigned to a sector based on its upload date, security level and level of disrepair.

Navigating Sectors
Sectors can be a challenge in their own right for new players to navigate. To view scripts in a sector, one must:


 * 1) Obtain a list of currently active sectors for a particular security level using, where  is the seclevel in question (, ,  etc.)
 * 2) "Join" that sector using
 * 3) Enumerate the scripts inside that sector with , where  is the joined sector

It is possible to be in multiple sectors at once, as long as the user has the appropriate channel space to be in the number of sectors they desire to.

It is also important to note that a user does not need to be in a sector to run a script. If a script name is known, it can be ran at any time; sectors serve only as a directory with which to enumerate public, non-hidden scripts.

Shift Operations
When a script is made public for the first time, has its security level changed after being made public or is updated after falling into a (explained later), it must undergo a shift operation.

During a shift operation, the script is rendered inaccessible for 5 minutes while the script relocates to a new sector. When NPC corps rotate, they also undergo shift operations.

The intent of the shift operation mechanic appears to be to prevent bait-and-switch strategies involving rapidly switching a script's security level after being checked through by a prospective victim of such a scam.

Sector Types
Generally, sectors can be divided into two "types": Newly-uploaded scripts and rotated NPC corp scripts will be shifted into the most recent sector for the seclevel in question. After a certain amount of scripts have been created in a sector, a new sector will be created and assigned to that seclevel for new scripts to appear in.
 * Sectors with a naming scheme of, colored with a color appropriate for the chosen axiom.

Scripts that fall under a somewhat uncertain criteria (known certainties of this criteria include the script having not been reuploaded within at least 2 weeks, or the script owner retiring) will eventually be automatically put in these sectors. When this happens, another shift operation must be performed to update the script, causing it to shift back into a colored sector. Scripts with Risk fragments are also created inside of these sectors, skipping colored sectors entirely.
 * , with a naming convention matching that of certain Nova systems from the game Escape Velocity Nova.