3
I will add any useful information that update the situation just after the text explaining the problem bolded and underlined, just like this sentence.
Now (8.11.2011 or November 8th 2011) all the fixes are incuded in the first post, along with the name of the person who posted it. If there is no name before it, it was most probably posted by me, especially if it has a title and a weird sense of humor in it. I will also add titles to some of the fixes here to make it easier to read it.
Updated the first post again (10.06.2012, I have updated it in between these dates as well, just didn't mention) to include all the fix suggestions. The ordinal numbers are off as the same number has been posted twice on multiple occasions. No big deal. Even if the last number is 75, it's really something like 80 at this point. I really hope the IO developers take a look at all the things the fans feel like need to be improved.
Yay! Good news!
Unfortunately I don't know yet which of these problems daniel.ben-noon was talking about, so I cannot put my dramatic bolded and underlined text below any of them. But at least we know some of them will be fixed!broadly speaking a good number of these will be fixed. of course some of them are considered minor issues and might not make it, or the feature would somehow affect gameplay negetively - like we wouldnt implement something that might be realistic but makes moving hitman sluggish - but instead prioritize the feel and flow of the game.
/daniel
1. Auto-reload
If you happen to be in a shootout, empty your clip, and then 47 starts reloading automatically. No switching weapons while being shot by ten guys with machine guns. Just reloading those guns as slowly as possible. What the heck? There should be an option to have/not have auto-reload. Also there should be a way to cancel the reloading animation somehow.
2. Animations that can't be cancelled
Just like reloading, many other animations can get you killed. There should be a simple press of one/two buttons to stop the animation. Obviously while jumping balconies it can't be done (except maybe in the start when he hasn't jumped, but the animation has started), but in all the other situations it is a must. Like when dumping a body in a box, a policeman finds you, shoots you, alarms the whole place and all. You should be simply able to cancel the animation, shoot the cop with a silenced pistol (some people aim for what a real asssassin would do, not the SA rating...) and then continue the animation where he left.
3. Not able to even press esc at certain moments
This applies to some cases, I'm not certain which. At least when reloading or in the adrenaline rush state (you know, when 47 is dying and everything slows down), you can't pause the game by pressing esc. How stupid is that? It was possible in other games, I think.
4. Auto-concealment doesn't work
47 conceals his weapon behind his back/whatever part of body so the weapon is hidden from the eyes of enemies and civilians. Unfortunately, this doesn't work at all. I have walked in an empty room to a guy who has his back at me, and my baller behind my back. I get his attention/he moves as scripted, he sees me, and in a second he realizes that I'm hiding a gun behind my back. Again, what the heck? Wasn't this tested? Couldn't they find how to solve the problem? Didn't they have time? Fortunately, for Absolution they have had time. Hiding guns behind your back is a simple but genious concept, and if it worked, it could create some awesome situations.
I don't think they are too difficult to fix by professional programmers.
Feel free to add more.
As requested, I will add all the "small fixes" on the first post.
5. Saving
I'm fine with unlimited/7/3/0 saves that are reduces in more difficult difficulties. But there's the thing that bothers me. In Contracts, I had dozens of saves in ToTT. I had no idea which one was the one with the balcony sniping spot, which one had me with the body of the ghost, which one was with some weird bug and which one had all the policemen with their clothes removed. In Codename 47 the profiles were good. For some reason it took them three games to get that back. But then they removed saving and introduced checkpoints (in BM, if you save and exit, the saves will disappear). That was a stupid move. I would like to be able to name the saves, like in Splinter Cells.
Checkpoint saving only in Absolution?? A VERY BAD idea.
6. Not stupid AI but...
You know, when you go trough a metal detector and pick the sniper case from the other side... The guards should ask "What the heck are you doing? Let me search that briefcase." And then he searches/frisks it. Also, if the metal detector beeps, they should check you more thoroughly. If they find nothing, would they let you go? No. Just like in airports, they should tell you to remove your belt and metal objects. Then they will x-ray it. If it beeps again, and you give them nothing, they will search every part of your body. Or, I don't know, I don't want to see a man with his hand in 47's ass. But I want it to be more realistic to some degree. I don't want to be shot because there's something metallic or even if there's a weapon in my briefcase/holster. I should be taken to custody, but before that my weapons should be taken away form me and I should be put on handcuffs.
edited to add this
7. Not compatible with all the PC's
Well, of course there will be some issues with some weird setups, but a lot of people have had troubles when starting a level. For example, I can't play A New Life. It just crashes to desktop every time I try to play it. First time I even saw the red loading line, but if I choose it from the level select menu, it crashes instantly. I had to download a savegame with all the levels on all difficulties unlocked to process n the game without going through A New Life.
So if there are compability problems, I hope IO bothers to make patches (I actually haven't tried the patch because I couldn't install it... But now I know how to go around the error. I will check if I can play that level with the patch, and report later) so people can play the game.
edit no.2: the patch worked! Now I can play through the levels, and especially A New Life!
8. Blood disappears when changing costumes
So first you have failed and got shot at multiple times, your suit is ruined as it is full of bloody bullet holes. Also there are bullet holes on your head (!). Or at least blood. But when changing to another costume, all the blood just disappears. Obviously there shouldn't be bullet holes in the next suit, but the blood on your face can't just disappear.
9. People who like to ruin your assassination
For example in House of Cards (fun level, it has replay value) there is the target, who goes between the bar and the toilet. The obvious place to kill him is the toilet. BUT, there is a man with an extremely weak bladder, as he goes to take a leak nearly every 20 seconds. If that wasn't enough, a piccolo comes through the staff room through the toilet, so it's really annoying to try to kill him. Of course it shouldn't be too easy, but why is that man the only person (excluding 47 and the target) who goes to the bathroom? I could imagine a Vegas toilet being full and having endless queues. Give me realistic reasons why it's hard to get the target, not just one man with a weak bladder.
10. Everyone is a bodybuilder
This has been a problem since at least Contracts, maybe SA or even C47. When you take someone's clothes, he is left in his underwear. But every single person you can take clothes from is a top-class bodybuilder. I can believe if some big cops have big muscles, maybe hang members, but all the cleaners, limousine drivers, every single man is pumping iron 12 hours a day. Well, some of the targets aren't but you get the idea. I'll have to check Graveyard Shift from SA if the office nerds have 6-packs too. Although I know, when drawing comics and stuff, it is easier to make a realistic bodybuilder than a realistic average person. More details, more shadows, looks better. Just some variation, please.
This is going to be fixed in Absolution!
11. People are still clones from each other
Who is tired of seeing the same person 10 times in a level? I doubt it would be difficult to have some kind of a random face generator. Also shirts and pants could be randomized. It would make the game so much more realistic. I thought Flatline was an awesome level, having patients in same looking outfits, and I thought I had to check the photos of the targets, then get close to every patient to see which one is the target. Of course I could have checked the map, but what's the point when all the targets can be distinguished form other patients by different colored robes?
Why not a level featuring an special agent as the target, so the target will appear to be as normal as everyone else. You would have to go through lots of faces to identify him. Or you could just check the map.
This is going to be fixed in Absolution!
12. People are ghosts
At least in the way they just go through doors. If you politely/accidentially open a door for a NPC, he will then close it and just go through it. Maybe you could hold a door like in ToTT's sauna in C47 where Fuchs dies like an insect? That way the NPC on the other side can't enter, and would perhaps go away.
13. Blood (not that important)
Finally NPC's notice blood, that's a good thing. The bad thing is that there's no way to clean up the mess. Like when in House of Cards I went to the target's room, killed all the guards without alarming anyone, threw all the bodies over the balcony railing, and went to even pick their weapons. But the room was a bloody mess. I don't remember if the guy reacted or saw the blood, but hey, why can't we wipe the blood away? And if we walk on the blood, why won't we leave bloody footsteps on the floor?
Thanks to Abeg, who is apparently a better cleaner than I am. Blood is very hard to clean from carpets/floor/anywhere. So it wouldn't be realistic to get rid of blood stains. But leaving bloody footprints isn't an unreasonable thing to ask. No info from IO yet, but nobody has asked them either.
13. Doors close on their own (apparently 13 comes after 13... I can calculate probabilities, some vector stuff and derive to some degree but I can't count from 13 to 14...)
How annoying is it when door closes on your nose on its own? Especially if you are sniping Vinnie from the garage, and the door closes every ten seconds. Or when you are ambushing a guy, and just when you shoot, the door closes. I can understand those slide doors in malls, but normal wooden house doors that close on their own? Come on. They are one of my worst enemies, always doing everything they can to make me fail my mission. Quite impressive from a door that can only close itself and do nothing else. I have no idea why is it like this, but make it at least so that they stay open if you are close by.
14. Civilians steal my guns
You know when you are in a rush and know you will be frisked, so you will throw away your weapons somewhere hidden. But when you get back for them, some old woman has already stolen them! Once I inspected it more closely. The civilian will just look "oh, there's a gun over there. I'll just take it." and continue their routines. Why don't they tell the security? Why do they even touch them? If I take a weapon form the ground, I will get shot. Why won't the cops just tell me to drop the weapon slowly and put my hands in the air? Another example of a good feature (NPC's see guns and react somehow) which was half-implemented. I hope in Absolution the civilians will take the guns to the police or at least go tell them there's a gun on the ground, which is a lot more realistic.
15. Silencers
I'm not a gun expert, but from what I've read, silencers don't really silence guns that much. If a pistol produces 120 dB unsuppressed, they will produce around 100 dB suppressed. That's still a HUGE (for some reason I have to type it with caps lock) noise. The idea of suppressors are to reduce muzzle flash so it's not as easy to tell where the shot came. And the silencers just make it slighly less noisy, and make it sound liek something else.
In Contracts the silenced Silverballer was pretty loud but sounded a bit like what you'd expect a silenced gun to sound like. In BM there was nearly no sound at all. Like I said, I'm not an expert so all this might be wrong and overlooked.
And of course for gameplay reasons there should be a benefit for having a silenced gun. So it doens't really matter, just some thoughts.
16. Over-suspicious people
No, I don't mean the "HOLY SHIT THERE'S A MAN RUNNING IN FRONT OF ME!!! DIEEEE!" from earlier games. You know, you could get yourslef shot for jogging in front of the lobby guards in ToTT. I don't mean that. I just mean that in every single game every single person is so damn interested in me they have to follow me with their eyes and check behind them all the time. In C47 it was acceptable I guess, at least in China, where 47 doesn't really fit in the lot. Ok, 47 IS a scary man and for gameplay reasons it can't be that easy to sedate/chloroform(god that was impossible in SA)/strangle people, but seriously. This is especially bad in BM, where they have to stop and turn around to stare at me if I'm walking behind them. Every single person. This is ridiculous.
There is going to be a better AI in Absolution.
17. Reporters always know it was an assasination (there are no news reports in Absolution so ignore)
I completed the Chilean vineyard mission with nothing but accidents (father fell from the balcony after investigating a coin, son was under a piano or something which fell down, then some people around the plane so I would not get seen). And still on the first page it says: "Silent Assassin wanted!!!!" Come on! They were all natural deaths! Accidents! I even read from a game magazine, that the title "Mobster fell down the stairs and broke neck, son got crushed by a piano" was better than "Psychopath wanted! Killed vineyard owner and son!" because the first one is a lot more professional, since it looks like an accident. Still, mirageously, the reporters just know it had to be a murder. I thought Accidents Only was a step forward from Silent Assassin as the ultimate rank the hardcore gamers were trying to achieve, because you couldn't just shoot everyone with a silenced Silverballer. There really is no reward for getting the targets with accidents. Not even a too different newpaper article.
Please, if there are any newspapers (I hope so, they were still fun to read) in Absolution, fix the newspapers. I had a hard time getting Accidents Only, and it would be more realistic to see "Friday the 13th: Famous tenor X was accidently shot as the prop gun was somehow mixed with a real one. When politican Y went to check the situation, he was crushed under the weight of a chandelier."
The news reports are removed in Absolution.
18. About NPC's toilet behavior. Scroll down the page if you want to read. There's going to be a better AI anyway in Absolution so it isn't that intelligent to improve the toilet behavior separately.
19. Make the suspicion-notification-arrow-wheel optional
This new feature has been in at least Splinter Cell Conviciton. It's the white circle around you, and it has arrows pointing at people who have seen you. If they become hostile, the arrow turns red. While this is not a bad feature, it's rather annoying, it blocks the screen, and looks stupid. I don't think I need anything like this, but someone else might like/want/need it. So I suggest making it optional. You should be able to turn it off on difficulty or game settings. Because it's an option, not a complete removal, it will make everyone happy.
According to Angry Joe, it can be disabled.
20. Picking up -animations
We have all seen the gameplay scene where 47 sneaks in the darkness and then picks up a statue head and bashes it on a cop's head. And we have all seen the statue head disappear in the second the pick up -button is pressed. The first Hitman, Codename 47, had the best picking up animations I've ever seen. But then they were never seen again. So we are getting fancy graphics, but last-gen animations? Of course that was just a demo, but I said it just to be sure. I don't know how difficult is it to program it, but it would sure look a lot better and realistic than what we've seen in the past games.
Going to be fixed. But will it be as good as in Codename 47?
21. Showing invitations
You know how in Invitation to a Party (great level) you can steal the invitation from a quest before he enters the building? There's a guard who says you can't enter without an invtiation. But even if you have it, he won't let you in. Why? Because how the hell is he supposed to know you have an invitation in your jacket pocket somewhere? Of course you have to show it to the guard! But in Blood Money, take as an example 'Till Death Do Us Apart. You can't enter the house without an invitation. But if you have an invitation, you can come and go freely. The thing is, this time there's no need to show it to the guards. Because somehow psychicly they know you have it, God knows where. It's a very small thing, but adds to the realism very much. So if there are invitations in Absolution or the game after that, please make it so that we have to actually show the invitation to the guard.
22. Using Instinct powers on pro
I think it's an awesome feature to be finally able to eat donuts to deceive cops. I think it's the same as pulling your collar up to reduce suspicion. BUT, the ability is only available with Insinct, and on pro there's no Instinct. Why aren't the most hardcore people allowed to deceive guards in these new ways? That's like removing the ability to hide bodies in boxes in harder difficulties on Blood Money. Nonsense, I say. Removing Instinct should mean removing the Superman-vision from 47, not the great abilities he's learned after Blood Money.
We want to be always able to remove suspicion in these new, great ways. I don't know how should it handle on pro, should there be a timer to be able to use this Insinct power or what? Of course it shouldn't be possible to spam the button and pull the collar so up nobody could identify 47, not even Diana. Which leads to the next fix...
47 doesn't eat, the donut, he challenges it to a staring contest! What an interesting decision. But it's pre-alpha (the favorite word of devs these days) so it can change.
23. Insinct energy refilling only by killing people with silent takedowns
They say Instinct energy can only be filled by doing "Hitman-like actions". By this I've understood we should go into Jason Bourne -mode and kill some innocent (to me everyone except the target is innocent. Well, Sturrock's brother might not be innocent) people in close combat. I don't think this is anything like Hitman. The energy should be filled by doing HITMAN-type of stuff, like syringing people, stealing clothes, making accidents, NOT KILLING anyone...
And even if "When you kill for money, nothing counts except the target" line is one of my favourites, I don't want 47 to become a blood-thirsty serial killer that has to kill innocents to gain the super powers of a Kryptonian and the ability to eat donuts (and hopefully every food available).
So please, if I'm playing on medium with Instinct on and still trying to get Silent Assassin, I don't want to go outside and break a gnome statue on someone's head just to gain the ability to eat whatever the fridge has to offer. I want to get rewarded for stealth. And I'm sure many other feel the same. Not everyone's up to the challenge of Pro, but still want to get the glorious Silent Assassin ranking, you know.
24. Manual saves
In short: with manual saving we can save in funny moments (I entered invisible mode in Traditions of the Trade in Contracts, knocked everyone out and stole everyone's clothes. I had a couple dozen of guys running in their underwear, and boy was I laughing
) and get back to them, we can save just before Fuchs appears from the pool and snipe him, and the best of all, if we fail and die, we can come back in the point we saved in. Not from miles away, having to do the same things over again once again.Please, add manual saves. It doesn't take anything away from the players, vice versa. It adds a lot to the game.
I even included this one twice and made a thread about whether they should inculde manual saves and the map in the game. We'll see if IO notices. Also, there's a funny fake conversation about this on the second page just below fix number 24. Read if you want.
25. Mark & Execute
Seriously. Do you want to add another thing in the list of "Things copied straight from Conviction"? Do you think the players are so bad at aiming? Why is there only one game in the universe that has this feature? We don't want the game to do the aiming AND shooting for us. You can't make a game that has heavy emphasis on stealth and still in the same time have a working Mark&Execute system. You would have to make two separate games. The previous Splinter Cells didn't need it, the previous Hitmans didn't need it, so why do these new titles need such a feature? And at what cost? Conviction was made entirely around Mark&Execute. I don't think Absolution is made around its own Mark&Assassinate or whatever they decide to call it. I probably wouldn't use it.
But when Blood Money introduced a separate button for picking up things, we lost one stealthy button, the sneak button. But Instinct takes one button, back to wall/cover takes one button, mark takes one button, and execute takes one button. That's total of four buttons wasted on new and useless stuff (except the cover system and the blend-in feature of Insinct). On PC that isn't a problem. But this isn't a PC exclusive game, so we are going on consoles' terms. On consoles there are about thwelve buttons, just enough for the old Hitmans. I wonder what four actions are going to get removed. Map is removed (yeah, we got mini-map, hooray. Ok, the lack of blueprints/satellite maps is ok with the fugitive theme). I would say crouch is also removed. BUT, like said in some interview, pressing the cover button will make 47 take cover even in the middle of th room with no objects around to take cover behind. There are still two buttons to get rid of. Come on. We can't afford that. What are they going to take away this time? Dropping items? Reloading?
There's still no word about this.
By Hitman93:
26. NPC's get suspicious for carrying garden tools
Why does all people think that im going to kill someone when walking around with hedge cutter or hammer in blood money? It shouldn't be too suspicious! Maybe I just bought hedge cutter in store and now I'm bringing it home or maybe im just poor gardener who is going to repair his roof? I hope they fixed this in Hitman Absolution. I agree to many suggestions from Black glasses. It's really annoying when all AI's are staring at me! They always trouble me when i'm trying to put loop on someone's neck.
By me:
27. The map
Please give us the map back. I have a very poor sense of navigation, so that would be very helpful. The map wouldn't have to include any other information than an ordinary map does. It could be like the Far Cry 2 map. Or the Arma map. wouldn't care if it didn't show the target, enemies, guards, civilians or points of interests any more. I just need a proper map to use. What if I go to the end of the map just to remember I had forgotten something on the other end, but to make sure it IS in the other end, I could just check the map and not run back and forth like an idiot.
With a map I can feel like a professional killer: I can plan my route to the target, I can plan my backup plan before I even enter the building, I can check where is this restaurant someone talked about. Why remove what isn't broken? I have a bad feeling that the lack of a map is due to more linear level design.
28. Good point. But what if the guards run out of ammo? What would they do? If there was no more ammo in the level, would the guards just hide or come as a mass with batons at 47? Or in a firefight, what if the enemy runs out of ammo? I guess they should try to surrender or escape.
29. Looking through keyholes is unrealistic
This one is ridiculous. You can't see through modern locks. But what is the alternative to seeing what's outside a door? An Assassin's Creed/Batman/Conviction -type (holy shit, it forms ABC) sonar vision? I guess so. I think Instinct simulates (surprise surprise) 47's senses! When 47 hears a person walking to a certain direction behind an obstacle, it is represented to the player visually.
Numbers 28 and 29 look like replies to previous posts... Which don't exist. But I think you can get the idea from my replies here.
Also, since Instinct is here, it's possible looking through keyholes is removed, as said by me and Watson on the next page.
30. Mines(small bombs)- If you see a guard checking you for weapons(and you have a mine in your inventory), you might have noticed that mines can get past both metal detectors and frisk searches without being detected. But mines are made out of metal.
Hey hey hey, what is this, a conspiracy or am I going crazy? This time I had quoted the guy, Silent Pro so I guess he did exist. Maybe he was banned. If so, then why were all his posts deleted, even the sane ones? I'll answer that myself: the mods don't havge enough time to go through hundreds of messages one person sent so instead they just removed all his posts. Luckily everything important was (hopefully) recovered through replies and quotations.
30. Ammunition- I noticed this one while playing hitman contracts. So imagine you have a pistol without anny 9mm ammo. And then you went to collect some 9mm ammo, and if you go back to the gun you'll notice how 47 can fire with it without having to reload the gun. He should be reloading the pistol so that it has ammo inside it, not just 47 holding the ammunition. This might have been fixed in blood money, I wasn't sure about that.
This time the counting was done (and failed) by someone else than me, namely "One - 77", a new forum poster who didn't know number 30, that had been deleted, existed. Also, a comment by Johnny Drama, which could have been number 31 (which should be number 33 actually):
"Magic doors is not the worst thing. In BM when 47 pick lock the doors and they suddently open themself! FRUSTRATING. I can open my god damn door my self
"Two fine and well written points by Choronzon:
31. Security tapes
While this is not something "wrong" in the true sense, I think it's at least open to improvement where possible. When you steal security footage in a private residence (for example, Don Giulliani's mansion, or Beldingford Manor) this should be CD or DVD - instead of data tapes (all uniform in the current 4 games). If we're infiltrating in military compounds, government installations or other such similar things, tapes should, of course, be tapes. Military, government, etc all probably work with room-filling servers, computer systems, etc - they have tons of data to store, so in that sense big data tapes would be fitting to steal in order to secure agent 47's anonymity. However, in the smaller, much more urban/civilian areas and locations, I assume the security detail works on a much, much smaller scale, not having the resources as government/military buildings have - thus storing security/CCTV footage on DVD and discs, rather than actual tapes, would be much more logical and fitting in that kind of scenario.
32. More ways to avoid automatic surveillance
Related to the security tape issue of above. I can't remember too much missions where there's another way to bypass electronic/automatic surveillance, besides stealing the tapes/physical evidence. In Silent Assassin, there was this great little thing in "Tubeway Torpedo". Once you enter the underground military bunker (to kill the general and rescue agent Smith), you'll have to bypass camera surveillance before you can reach the interrogation/observation chambers. There, instead of stealing the tapes (evidence), you have to quite literally shoot the computer server, thus voiding the electronic surveillance. Another great example was the Hidden Valley/At the Gates combo, whose entire objectives dealt with bypassing electronic security to reach a certain area/target... Why can't we have more options like this?
Suggestions:
- 47 disables (whether to sedate/kill is the player's choice) the guard near the biometric security system. Use his fingerprints to "unlock" the system. (cutscene or animation)
- 47 incapacitates the computer system/security mainframe. Depending on the player's choice you could either temporarily or permanently disable its functions. Permanent disablement would leave evidence.
- 47 plants a computer bug on the camera surveillance system, making him "invisible" - the cameras still work, but the guard at the station sees a calm, undisturbed corridor/room/vault/whatever. (functions as a disguise, compromised upon firefight or discovery of committing unsavory acts in the "protected" area.)
- A general bigger focus on having the right ID/security clearance to reach "secured" areas of the location. Past games already did this to an extent, but they were never integral to mission completion/success.
2 by Dev J Chand:
33. Disguise animations
I know this is hard to implement, but I would like a proper animation for disguise changing. What I mean, is that 47's suit can be shown being removed, after which they could show him wearing the guard/civilian/ V. Important Person 's disguise slowly in steps. Also, some more things could be done with disguises. They could be moved around, and left in obscure areas for use later.
34.Fibre wiring
Fibre wiring has always been an integral part of the stealth game play. One big disadvantage of the fibre wire, though, is that it has no use from the front or the sides.
So, I think one feature could be added: the fibre wire should be made usable from the front. One way to do this, is to make 47 tie the wire around the enemy's neck, and choke him if he is close. That would allow for a quick execution, especially if 47 has only the fibre wire equipped. One advantage of this over other methods of taking down enemies is that it could be a lot less noisier, and cleaner if done right.
By Frank Fuchs:
35. Carrying two cases at the same time.
Would have loved to walk out of The Murder of Crows, carrying my snipercase on my other hand and a suitcase of diamonds in another without anyone even knowing I was there. Mission accomplished.
Two very good ones by One - 77:
36. Sniper aiming - Ever since the first hitman game 47 has never had anything to stabilize his sniper aim. This means the player has to be accurate and aim carefully with the crosshairs moving around. So how about a tripod stand? Or a pile of books? Or even the edge of a window(Though it is unprofessional to leave your sniper rifle sticking out the window)?
37. Removing weapons - I can remember playing hitman Contracts, and I was looking at how guards remove your weapons after frisk searching. However, they don't seem to do this properly. They only move their hand across - and suddenly all my weapons are gone. There should be a proper animation showing the guard taking the weapons from my pockets.
And the weapons they collected ceased to exist the moment the guard took them. There was no way of getting them back. This should get fixed.
Two by Choronzon:
38. A wolf among sheep... Getting up, close and personal with The Target
This has been explored to a minor degree in the past games already, but it was only available as a novelty. There's far and few missions where you are able to get 47 up close to his designated target. Refer to missions such as Contracts' "The Bjarkhov Bomb", "Beldingford Manor" or Blood Money's "A House Of Cards" and "A New Life". In these missions you are either able to impersonate The Target ("Bjarkhov Bomb", "A House Of Cards") or someone close to The Target such as the security detail ("A New Life") or part of the staff ("Beldingford Manor"). The point is, most typical Hitman disguises are those of guards and armed personnel - instead these could be opened up to include more potential persons, such as personal assistants, lawyers, mediators, butlers, other contacts, etc.
One way of the ways to infiltrate Contracts' "Rendez-Vous in Rotterdam" is to impersonate an investigator/journalist. But so far, these chances have been mission-related and individual to those locations. I suppose there are ways enough to reach a target, but each of the chosen disguises should have their own set of limitations (only access to certain areas, not being able to carry any weapons, etc) - this would force the player to make crucial, tactic decisions and carefully weigh the possible outcome of said strategy.
39. Gun sound FXs
One of the biggest complaint, and rightly so, is that the sound effects for guns in this franchise have always been uniformly weak. This should be the one franchise were IO could really make a difference, differentiate themselves from other game studios. As Hitman (at least canonically) encourages stealth and subterfuge, using guns should always be a kind of last resort solution. Therefore, IO need to make guns actually sound like real-life guns, and not some impotent sounding plastic prop. There should be a clear and distinctive difference between the various types of guns and their sounds.
- handguns/pistols: loud, but not exceedingly so, since it is still a light type firearm.
- assault/sniper rifle: louder than a handgun, less loud than a shotgun.
- shotgun: louder, deeper sounding than the assault rifle and handgun.
- mines/explosives: louder than any of the guns listed above.
In relation to those sounds, a suppressor ("silencer") should just make these sound less obvious, but not mute them entirely. In that department the past games have been somewhat guilty, muting the guns almost entirely. A suppressor is a tool to make a gun less noisy, but it does not silence them entirely.
There is already one about this, number 15.
By Dev J Chand:
40. The whole problem in that mission (Bjarkhov Bomb in Contracts), though, was how no one else used the toilets. It took off from the realism. I have an idea, why not be able to lock a bathroom or any other room containing something from outside? In this case, it wouldn't help, as the room is a public toilet, but if you take a disguise, or hide a weapon like a huge sniper rifle, a 50. cal one used in The Motorcade Interception that couldn't be hidden in a suitcase, was bulky and drew lot of attention. It would be bulky in real life of course, and I can't think of it being concealed in a suitcase, but hiding it in a room, or some other low populated location could help.
41. Also, why not make some personal communication systems accessible? In the new game, we are supposed to improvise based on the information we have. So, why don't they make a few objects, like laptops left open, mobile phones of the target, and answering machines usable by the player? They could provide slight information about the rest of the location, the remaining targets, and the objectives, and also add depth to the mission. It would feel a bit more like an actual functioning world location.
By One - 77:
41. (learn to count people) A glitch when you shoot someone in the head when he/she is in the middle of an animation, he/she will fall on the ground unconscious should be fixed.
I had to say it in my own words, because a direct copy&paste would have not made any sense.
42. How many bullets does it take to kill someone? 2? 3? 4? I'm not sure about this myself, but in one of the games (Contracts, I think) they seem to take about 5 shots while playing on the Professional difficulty. And if you're playing on the easy difficulty, they take less. It seems that the higher difficulty you're on, the more shots it takes to kill civilians and guards.
I'm not sure if this is a problem at all. But a comment by Watson makes it a thing that should be fixed:
In Blood Money you can kill someone by shooting at their feet if you do it several times - this could really be fixed as I don't think I've ever heard anyone die from bullet wounds to the toes.
By One - 77:
43. There's also a problem with the way NPC's fall over, just clutching their stomach and not the place where they're hurt. If I shot them in their foot, they shouldn't hold their stomach. It just isn't right. But is it even possible to program all those possible animations? This probably won't be fixed, I'm not sure.
As abeg pointed out, it is possible, notable examples are Rage and some old James Bond game (I would also add Perfect Dark). But we don't know if IO will decide to finally implement location-based damage. I hope so.
44. (actually 46 thanks to a few counting errors) Walking on stairs and climbing ladders animation
It always looks unnatural when 47 walks up/down the stairs or uses a ladder. Even making it just a tiny bit better would enhance the overall realism. The legs don't hit the steps on stairs and the hands don't touch the ladders. In Contracts, if you walked directly to the stairs, it would look almost natural. But if you had a "wrong" angle to the stairs, it would look unrealistic.I haven't played BM in a long while so I don't remember if it had any better animations. Does anybody else remember?
45. Adding "weight" to bodies
This is something I've noticed many times in every Hitman game: When 47 drags a dead/unconscious body it can have the tendency to jump around and perform like an elastic band. You don't really get the sense that the body is "heavy", but rather it behaves as if it only weighs a few kilograms. The same can occur when you shoot someone, there have been plenty of instances where an NPC is shot and they jump up in the air or are thrown several meters backwards as if they were in some sort of invisible slingshot. This is also seen when bodies fall to the ground, there have been instances when I remember the legs bending as if they were made of rubber and the whole body slightly bouncing when it hit the ground.
46. Snipers - Guards armed with sniper rifles don't use their sniper scope to acquire their target (you). Instead, they can spot you without using their sniper scope. They only use their sniper rifle when they're trying to shoot you. (I'm talking about those guards in hitman contracts, armed with sniper rifles.) For realism they should aim around with their sniper scope so they can actually see you.
47. 47's stamina - 47 can run for long periods without getting tired. Probably because he's a clone. Or because he's had a lot of training. Anyways, this should be fixed for realism. There is already a topic about Stamina, so maybe IO will notice that and fix this.
As you said, 47 is a super-human clone with A LOT of training, so it is plausible he can run around the levels without stopping. Especially if there's someone chasing you, I bet everyone would find some energy to run with..
48. NPC's opening locked doors - NPC's can open any kind of door. They don't even need a key, they can still open the door, even when it's locked. This has been in all of the games I think, or at least contracts, however Absolution seems to show promise for realism.
By Choronzon (and the counting problems continue, and I'm too lazy to change almost every single number to the proper one. People, check the last number carefully before posting a new one. Although it doesn't matter, it's just a list):
48. Locations: props, set design and the "feel" of an environment. In the PS2 era the Hitman games were fairly forward-thinking in this department. However, in the current generation the competition is stiff. One of the great things about a Hitman location is the sheer amount of things to see, the different sights and atmospheres to absorb. Whether this be the props to be found within a level (interactive/static ones), the set design or just the "feel" that with which a level oozes - anything and everything of the above, really. Given what we've seen of Absolution this has been worked on, but it is always open to further improvement. Look at any of the levels in of the current three Uncharted games, that's the way levels should be dressed, decorated and generally designed, in the artistic sense. These places should look like the people (NPCs, targets, etc) actually live and work there. This is more of a general suggestion, since the locations are individual to the targets and vice versa. I don't want to walk around in a cardboard cut-out, that is my main point.
I just want to feel like I'm actually there, not that I'm walking around in a video game level.
Levels that do this well, in the PS2 era:
Silent Assassin: Gontranno Church (Hideout), Invitation To A Party, Tubeway Torpedo, Kirov Park Meeting, Tracking Hayamoto
Contracts: Asylum Aftermath, Beldingford Manor, The Bjarkhov Bomb, Traditions Of the Trade, The Meat-King's Party
Blood Money: A New Life, You Better Watch Out, Flatline, Requiem, The Murder Of Crows
Not that the other levels are truly "lacking" but they certainly miss the feel and the amount of insane detail the above mentioned levels display. Of course, as I say props, I don't expect every one of these props to be manipulable by the player. Just the ones that could be used as a tool, or weapon - or both. My point is these locations should breathe life, even if there's no one there. I, as a Hitman player, want to feel I'm intruding on someone's life, that I'm invading some shady character's opulent villa, a government building or a para-military compound led by an iron-fisted warlord/criminal kingpin. The location should tell you something about the target - and the target description (the one you classically got from McKee-Diana in the past 3 games) should reasonably indicate what you can expect from the location/environment. There are a good bunch of levels where this is the case already (mostly mentioned above), but such thing should beconsistent through out the game.
By One - 77 who apparently can't count:
50. Bulletproof windows
I've tried sniping a few of my targets while they're in a car (I was still playing contracts), and it looks like the windows on the car were bullet-proof. The glass on the car windows wouldn't let the bullet pass through. How is that possible? I've tried sniping from all sides, but nothing happened to the glass. If you look closely you'll see a small dot where the bullet hits the glass, but it fades away soon.
By Dev J Chand, another person who is messing with the order:
49. Entering sewers
In every Hitman game, entering sewers has been a hard task, as the game physics forced you to either backtrack towards the ladder, or fall into the sewer hole. Why not fix this, by making 47 enter the sewer hole as soon as he walks towards it and reaches it? Or, maybe an option could be included to automatically enter the sewer hole, although it would need to appear accurately.
50. Commands and option selection
In previous games, the options for interacting with objects weren't accurate. They needed walking right upto the object in order to use. I think this can be fixed by making the options appear faster. Also, why not show some signs of which object can be manipulated, by turning 47's head for instance, while selecting an option?
Two By Choronzon:
51. Reload mechanism -guards need to reload too.
While I canunderstand that - for gameplay reasons - the enemy AI has infinite ammo (andthe player has finite ammo), there should be some consistency between theplayer and the enemy AI on other aspects of weapon usage. I remember I once gotinto a firefight above the heavily crowded dancefloor in Contracts mission"The Meat-King's Party". The guards just stood there, neatly in line,firing their guns indefinitely and without exception - without ever needing topause to simply reload or grab new ammo from their pockets. I'm just advocatingfor some semblance of reality, I can live with the fact that enemy AI is givenunlimited ammo, that's part of the game. What I don't like is that they don'tever need to stop and reload. It's a small thing, but it breaks the immersionfactor to a considerable degree. Not only would this "pause andreload" animation add realism to the enemy AI, it would also give theplayer a brief window of tactical advantage in the resultant firefight. Thisshould be consistent with all type guns (handguns need to be reloaded quickerthan assault rifles, shotguns need a reload quicker than assault rifles, etc),unbound by what type guard they are wielded.
By One - 77
53. Gun maneuverability
All of the guns in any game seem to have the same amount of maneuverability. It doesn't matter if a gun weighs 670g or 18.8kg, they're all equally maneuverable. You can aim a minigun in the same amount of speed as you can with a Desert Eagle. At least that's what it seemed when I played it. Realistically, the guns should be movable based on their weight.
54. Finding dead bodies
If a guard or civilian comes across a dead body, they normally run straight to the dead body - right in the center of danger. Maybe that's what a civilian would do whilst being unaware, but guards should be properly alert and draw their guns, run to the nearest cover, call for backup etc. If they run straight to the dead body they might also get killed.
55. Mission Stats
At the moment we have accident deaths, innocents killed/wounded, guards killed/wounded, shots fired, covers blown and bodies found. There should be more to this.
The mission stats (given to you after a mission) should be more specific about the deaths caused in that mission, like whether they were caused by you or someone else, traces of evidence, traps (like poison) and animals killed. Then the player could learn from those mistakes. Also the animal deaths don't count towards your silent assassin rating (where you don't kill anyone other than the target). That could be fixed.
By various people
56. One suggestion I'd like to make, why not make the mission stats viewable during a mission? It should list all the basic things you've done since the mission started - people killed, bullets fired, alerts and so on. During a mission, the player could see those stats, next to the objectives or something. This way it would be easier - if the player doesn't do anything wrong, they can save there and continue. If they did mess up - no loss. They would still have the chance to load up the previous save or restart.
57. Limited movement and actions when 47 is injured / low on health (could be implemented even thought there is regen health this time).
58. Pistol whipping
This is where you have a gun in hand, and you hit someone on the head with it to knock them out. In hitman games this has been ineffective on guards; they take about 5 hits to the head before going down. And when they do fall down, they wake up within a very short period of time. In Blood Money this was fixed a little, but it needs to be improved. I've seen hitmen that can knock anyone straight out with an accurate hit to the head with a gun(for example the movie 'Taken'). In blood money you had to grab them from behind before you could do this. 47 should be able to do it normally, he's a clone with alot of training, remember. To fix this, 47 should be able to do it from any angle, and there should be a realistic amount of time before they wake up.
Guards might have good reflexes, so maybe they should be able to take those hits when they're aware of you. But if they're unaware, if they don't know you're trying to harm them, then they should go down with one hit to the head.
59. People regaining consciousness
Like I said, people that are knocked out from a hit to the head can wake up in less than a minute, sometimes even 30 seconds. How unrealistic is that? In real life, people can be out for several minutes. The same kind of thing applies to sedating people; they wake up within about 7 minutes. But there is a bit more to it. In Blood Money, they would never wake up throughout the level. And it doesn't even count to your stats as violence, as long as no one sees you. They all need to be fixed.
60. I do not know how to put this but I think people should be able to call the police...eh, what I mean is that in almost all of the levels in hitman you can kill every single AI, and the area you are in will stay untouched by police or bystanders, its like the whole world forgot about it, there should be respawning police or SWAT teams whenever a situation as such happens.
61. Loading screens, it maybe my opinion but I wanted them to bring back the cool artwork loading screens from the first 3 games, I didnt like those "Look at the target" ones from Blood Money.
61. 47's holstering animation
You know the animation of 47 holstering/unholstering his weapons. It works nicely with the suit, but with disguises it becomes problematic. He just takes his weapon from nowhere. Even with the suit it doesn't look that good. He just puts his hand on his heart, and then a gun appears. It is a minor tweak, but it would make the game look a lot better. And I don't think you can have one of those shoulder holsters with every set of clothes: the gun could show through some clothes. So maybe 47 should hide the gun in his pants or in an ankle holster, if the situation calls for it.
The situation can be seen especially well in C:47, Traditions of the Trade if you changed to swimming trunks. You could still holster all the weapons like usual. Maybe 47 hid the weapons under his armpit? Must be painful to walk with a couple of knives, a fiber wire, binoculars and five pistols in there.
On the King of Chinatown videos we can see that the holstering animation is missing altogether in the current build. Hopefully they will manage to make a realitic version of holstering before the game is released.
62. People lose blood from punches
In Hitman Blood Money you were able to attack people with your hands. This was good. However, people lose a lot of blood from these attacks, more than necessary. It's a bit unrealistic how much blood comes on the floor after a punch or a headbutt.
63. Getting caught on camera
Hitman Blood Money introduced cameras, where the security records anything suspicious on tape. If you walked in front of a camera and got caught on tape, the mission rating is affected. This even happens if you were walking like a normal person, not doing anything suspicious. I don't see how this could happen if you're wearing a disguise. Why should this count towards your stats if you didn't do anything suspicious? I can understand it if you were carrying guns, or spotted without a disguise, but I don't see why it should count if there's nothing suspicious to record on camera.
64. Another glitch in the game is that when someone is unconscious, and you shoot them anywhere, even in the leg, they die. You can test this glitch out yourself; just syringe a civilian and shoot him once in the leg. He will die from that shot, this needs to be fixed.
65. Witnesses: Please tell us when we have been witnessed. Maybe I completely missed some way to figure this out in Blood Money aside from watching the suspicion meter like a hawk all game for a tiny bump, but there were several times where I got through the whole level thinking I'd been flawless, only to find out that some jackwagon apparently witnessed something way back somewhere. And for the love of God, no more animals as witnesses. I'm cool with dogs barking at your presence to warn people or barking because they saw you whack someone, but when you kill someone and no person sees it like in "You Better Watch Out", it ain't like the animal can somehow after-the-fact impart to the police what happened. "What's that, Lassie? De Havilland got pushed off the balcony?" Seriously, please fix this.
66. Live stats report: Expounding upon this, how about a live version of the post-mission stats report on shots fired, shots hit, accidents, kills, witnesses, etc. that can be accessed in-game via the pause menu? It doesn't seem like it would be particularly difficult to do, and it would let players know where they stand so they don't waste a half-hour completing the level after being seen without their knowledge, only to frustratingly learn of it after the fact. Also, it would be helpful to have it simply list if SA ranking is still attainable, and if not, listing the highest rank that's still on the table. That would be huge, and it's a simple addition. On top of that, it would simply be fun to be able to track in-game stats.
This seems to be implemented in the game. Whether it was because of your post here or not doesn't matter. By agreeing the terms of use in the Hitman forum, the IO staff can use anything you say in these forums in any of their games without giving you the credit.
67. Sneak speed: I'm sure this is a bit of a personal preference thing, but sneak speed is a big deal in a stealth series. IMO, H2:SA was way too slow in sneak speed to where NPCs would quickly distance themselves from you. Contracts was too fast and it made it pretty easy to run down NPCs from behind. With H:BM, it slowed down to almost the exact same walking speed of NPCs, and I chased some guys for WAY too long. Somewhere between BM and Contracts would be perfect. Also, rushing someone who isn't looking at 47 should work better. Reaction times just aren't that quick, especially if someone's behind you. If 47 is within 5 feet of a guy who's walking away from him, he should generally be able to rush and grab, wire, human shield, syringe, etc. the NPC before they can react. It shouldn't always work, but NPCs shouldn't have super-hearing and awareness to immediately turn around if 47 takes a fast step their way, either.
68. Throwing objects in first person: Throwing objects was a cool addition. Unfortunately, it forced a third-person view every time. I know it's a third-person game (I love that it is and I use it 95% of the time), but this didn't exactly work if you had 47 backed into some corner to where the third-person camera was useless, and then when you tried to throw an object from first-person, it would switch to third-person, throwing off your aim to who knows where. And while I'm on this subject, how about a little more arm strength from 47? The guy should be able to throw a coin more than 20 feet.
69. Close-combat takedowns: Can we make these a little more consistent? Syringes seemed to work great in Blood Money, but human shield and fiber wire were always a little dicey. It's been mentioned here that fiber wire mechanics will supposedly be improved for fewer circles of shame, but it would be nice to not get screwed over so much when you sneak up behind someone because the fiber wire glitched or because the human shield didn't pop up. And if you're taking on someone head-on in hand-to-hand combat, can we get a couple of new animations instead of headbutt, punch, punch? I don't know about y'all, but I loved taking on guards with the bum-rush disarm. Still, this should make the player feel far more badass than it does. How about the ability to do a close-combat pistol-whip or butt-stock KO with R1? This would be especially useful and fun if you steal an NPCs weapon from them in close combat and KO them with it.
Hand-to-hand combat has been improved in Absolution
70. Picking up objects/changing clothes: Having to hold a button, then selecting from a drop-down list of MP9, Suit, Keycard, Briefcase got me caught/killed more than once. This process needs to be cleaned up. Maybe make one button pick up guns, one button change clothes, and one button pick up objects. I'll happily adjust if it spares me the drop-down. Another option is to keep the drop-down, but have time stop while the drop-down is up, much like with the X button's ability to sort through your concealed objects. Getting caught or killed whilst trying to select an action from the drop-down is annoying. Please fix this.
71. Throwing people over balconies: I always found it kind of dumb when you have a person in "hostage mode" and you walk them up to a balcony to toss them over with the shortcut prompt. The hostage who is still alive, goes limp and allows you to casually dump them over without a fight. I know you could avoid this by throwing them out of hostage mode and having them fly over the rail, but the prompt mode I think should be better animated to have the victim kicking and flailing as you throw them over.
72. Ensure all ledges/rails can be tossed over : Can you tell I enjoy throwing people over rails? One of the things that bugged me in blood money was that not every single cliff, rail, balcony allowed you to throw a person over. Here's hoping that every time there is any rail that you can throw or push someone over it to their death.
73. Drowning in pool: While I found it comical, it sure is pretty lame when you toss someone into a pool that they drown instantly. I guess if they landed head first at the bottom of the pool this would make more sense, but to just shove someone into a pool or spa and have them die instantly was always kind of silly.
74. The animations need to be toned down
If you look at the cutscene at the end of the King of Chinatown mission, you can not only hear 47's new voice, but also see new animations. Mostly they are good, especially just as 47 walks in and says "I need inormation" but when 47 says "at a price, of course" the animation is way over the top, 47 looks like he's overacting or as if he was in a Pixar animation where every movement is exaggerated. It doesn't look realistic, nor does it fit the character. Here's the cutscene I'm talking about. At 2:00 you can see the "overacting". http://www.youtube.c...WQJD0v5P8#t=74s
75. The lines don't fit the character
This is just an opinion, but many people share the same one. In the same cutscene I mentioned in #74, 47 has some dialogue with Birdie. It just doesn't seem to fit the character of 47. There are two lines that stand out because of how unfitting they are. First is "Girl named Victoria. The Agency wants her bad I need to know why." It sounds so informal, so unprofessional that it doesn't sound like something 47 would say. No matter if he's on the run or trying to find a girl he doesn't know. 47 should maintain his level of professionalism no matter what happens. He is cold and calculative. And he just spits out the last two sentences with no pause or "and" in between them. I would suggest something like this: "The Agency is after her. I want you to find out why. You will get paid well for this (favor)."
76. Removing clothes from sleeping people
Self explanatory really. Agent 47 can take clothes from some people that are dead or unconscious, but when they're sleeping the game kind of acts as if they're unconscious. You can still take items off their pockets, and remove their clothes, and they won't wake up.
Maybe it could work so that you can still take items from their pockets, but if that's possible you would have to do it carefully.
Edited by Black glasses, 23 June 2012 - 11:24 AM.
