They’re already nerfed compared to what they were during the CTT (they used to be a lot more numerous and alerted all targets instantly), which is kind of a testament to how annoying they are.
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Could be nice for mods put suspects more intresting
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One problem, though, is that you can’t hide subdued non-target suspects’ bodies unless you kill them. And I often need to subdue one for their phone. So if I want to not be sloppy and hide their body, there’s no choice but to take the penalty and kill them.
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I really like this idea. It’s so easy to be spotted by lookouts even when you’re paying attention. Once they’re alerted it can often make any sort of recovery impossible. The consequences feel totally disproportionate.
I hate this. It means you end up doing really stupid movement patterns in public spaces as you try to identify the target while avoiding lookouts. It kills any sense of immersion for me. It’s no longer the slick, freelance assassin experience. Instead I feel like I’m dodging obstacles like I’m playing Flappy Bird.
Exactly. Your post has helped me to appreciate that lookouts are by far the main factor which is spoiling my enjoyment of showdowns. I think it would vastly improve the experience if some of the tweaks you propose are implemented (although I wouldn’t mind if they were just removed entirely).
Another interesting suggestion.
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Lookouts are super annoying to deal with, and just don’t work in the ways you’ve described better than I can here.
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Great idea! Not op but realisitc as well as a gameplay improvement.
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I don’t know about that last part. They need to be altered in some way, but definitely not removed entirely.
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Ya that’s dumb cuz if you have SA as a prestige objective, then you can’t kill them to get a phone.
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I am mastery 55 now and have yet to be spotted by a lookout. I also play with no mini map so I’m not sure what you guys are doing to get spotted so often that it becomes annoying. I don’t find them annoying at all cuz I just wait for the suspect to walk away from the lookout.
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I don’t get spotted very often. I’m at mastery level 90 in Freelancer. I’ve completed most of the challenges. I think I’ve only been spotted on two or three occasions by lookouts during that time.
That’s what I find so annoying about them. They don’t pose any real challenge whatsoever. It’s easy to avoid being spotted by them. But the gameplay is just so bloody boring.
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Then what are you complaining about? I’m confused.
It’s not only there for challenge, but also to prevent the player from killing the suspect (that could be the wrong one) in front of them cuz if you do and that’s not the target, the lookout causes communication to initiate a flee.
So there’s more than “just being in the way” purpose for them.
You do not need to be spotted by a lookout for the lookout to cause everyone to flee, though. Read my post for a fairly comprehensive list of other things that cause lookouts to alert suspects.
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Just read what I’ve written already…
The same system could exist without lookouts being enforcers. It’s specifically the gameplay experience of dodging lookout viewcones which I find boring and irritating.
Can you direct me to that please? Other than being spotted, if you cause any danger in a lookouts area, that will cause a flee as well.
Their purpose is to FORCE the player to not just throw bombs at every suspect or snipe them from a far.
I’ll read whatever else you said.
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Don’t be surprised if an update has the death of non-target suspect automatically fail any Prestige Objective including those that were successfully completed that way anyone who opts to swallow the 1,000 mercer penalty in order to hide the body would lose more then that.
Is there a fail safe method to identify a boss among the suspects?
Generally, while playing, I still didn’t work out how to identify a boss, so I just kill every suspect and then when game registers the boss, I restart the mission.
This is a silly and unintended method of course. I’m looking for an intended one
The fail safe method would be to find a suspect, that perfectly matches the target’s description, which consists of 4 visual clues (looks) and 3 behavioural clues (tells).
The target can have additional looks apart from the ones you’re given. But they don’t show any additional tells. One of the tells will always be a meeting. Every suspect goes to a meeting, but there are three different types of meeting (secret chat, handover, business meeting) and you need to make sure the suspect goes to the correct one.
The suspect camera is very useful to keep track of suspects. If you see a mismatching tell or a missing look, you can rule that suspect out. If a suspect has all the given looks, I like to mark them as a prime suspect, until I’m able to verify their tells. Using the camera to tag suspects like this will also change their icon on the map.
If you have a showdown on an alerted map, then suspects will enforce the suit and any guard disguises, which makes it difficult to get close to suspects. However, civilian disguises (cook, gardener, medical staff, …) are not enforced.
Sometimes you get objectives like “distract a target” or “poison a target”. Completing these objectives will be instantly registered during the mission, but only for the real target and not for suspects. This mechanic can be very helpful in identifying the target as well.
Depending on the map it might take a while to find the target but you’ll get there eventually. 
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The ‘target music’. It is played whenever the real boss enter your field of view. It works in most maps, I usually choose haven or wc as showdown and I must remember to turn off the music otherwise the hunt isn’t fun.
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Don’t be surprised if IOI retroactively remove your [and only your] Aluminium Travel Briefcase, ICA Coin and The Undying ET Rewards, whilst leaving everyone else’s untouched.
…oh, sorry, I didn’t realise we were in The Suspects Thread, everyone. Think I must have replied to a post in the “Weird-Stuff-That-I-Would-Personally-Like-To-Wish-Into-Existence-Despite-There-Being-No-Evidence-Whatsoever-To-Suggest-It” Predictions thread and it ended up in here by mistake, apologies!
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