"If hacking should have an element of player skill involved (which it should, you cant make combat certs twitchy and have hacking as a button-push idiot skill) then it should be centered around typing. Yes... typing. Maybe a palm sized computer that you plug in and tells you a specific keyphrase or alphanumeric code that you then have to type in on your keyboard.
I would go further to suggest that hackers should need to learn command lines for their different hacking programs, to navigate base file-structures and activate/deactivate what they need to. If bases were divided up into subsystems. Door control. Communications. Automated Defenses, all with their own modes, hackers would have much more flexibility to change what they want to. "
Hacking isn't really a primary skill, I think most players will be a X/Hacker. Not just a hacker. If you use this method, you'll never find a hacker.
However, this spinning disk thing reminds me of something. For those of you with Splinter Cell for the Xbox, remember how you pick locks? That system keeps you on the edge of your seat, yet anyone could do it. I think people could get really good at it and be more valued, yet joe blow could still have a shot.
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