All targets are cowards

I was thinking back to the Blood Money era, and then I realised that all the targets in the World of Assassination trilogy (Hitman 2016-Hitman 3) are cowards. I can’t think of a single target that will attack you if your cover is blown. They all cower in fear.

I wonder why this is the case. In Blood Money, a lot of the targets would carry a gun and would attack you if threatened. Examples of the top of my head are Manuel Delgado, Skip Muldoon, Hendrik Schmutz, etc. Even Alexander Leland Cayne would start shooting you from his wheelchair. There were only a few targets did not attack you.

I miss this mechanic. It made the targets more dangerous. In Hitman 1-3 all targets are harmless, and the only thing you have to worry about is preventing them from finding a guard to help them. Hell, even Nolan Cassidy, a former Secret Service agent and gun enthusiast, cowers in fear at the sight of 47.

I would propose having targets that realistically would be armed attack you if threatened, but still seek out other guards for help instead of running after you. They would shoot at you, as long as you remained within line of sight, while looking for help, protecting themselves until they can find guards.

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technically all 11 targets in Berlin will attack you. that’s it (aside from the Sarajevo Six target, but we dont talk about them)

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My thinking is that the agents only attack you because they have “guard” AI and not whatever the real “target” AI is supposed to be.

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Yeah, there are only two AI selections - guards and civilians - and targets get the civilian AI.

I imagine that simplified, predictable AI is a consequence of us getting larger, deeply immersive levels in the WOA trilogy. NPCs that fight back when cornered is probably a mechanic that’s easier to pull off on smaller, less complex levels like what we got back in the old days.

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Yeah, true. Actually, the fact that the ICA Agents in Berlin acts as guards is very strange. It doesn’t quite fit. They should just shoot to kill instantly and not co-operate with other guards.

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I would say there’s technically 3, because targets act a bit differently from regular civilians - but yes they share the most with civilians.

There is no AI distinction between being armed and being a guard, if an NPC can shoot he is a guard. Without a rework, this would cause civilians to go to high profile targets to investigate weird sounds and would make a lot of targets trivial since guards will readily investigate dangerous situations. This is the same reason Berlin targets act as guards, though I would could defininitely justify them cooperating with guards as them maintaining their cover.

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We had an extensive discourse about this on the previous version of the forum but largely the reason is giving targets aggressive AI opens up a lot of weird behavior, such as the speedrun techniques in BM where people aggro a target, lure them away from their own security and then push them over a handrail.

Acting “realistically” isn’t as important as acting reliably in a manner that supports the security in place so targets running away consistently works best for level and gameplay design.

You have to remember AI can be superhuman at aiming etc but is really shit at “reasonable” decisions like fight or run, so aggressive AI is easily confused.

For example, wing Delgado Sr with a sniping attempt in BM and he will literally run all the way out of his mansion, past his guards, then around to the side to try to shoot you with his tiny revolver. I found that out by accident.

Which is, of course, pretty minor compared to more specialised attack patterns…

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Well, combining the two would be even better; have targets that realistically would be armed attack you if threatened, but still seek out other guards for help instead of running after you. They would shoot at you, as long as you remained within line of sight, while looking for help.

It doesn’t have to be just one or the other.

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At least Yuki Yamazaki will act bored if you hold her at gunpoint lol

I’m happy they spent all their AI script writing time on Diana tbh.

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To be fair the vast majority of them are 1%ers with legions of guards to rely on. If I had that kind of protection I’d run too and expect them to take you out.

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Yeah I’m not expecting a nerd like Francesca DeSantis to pull out a gun and start shooting lol

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Agreed but when you look at each target they all have the same personality traits, greedy, arrogant, selfish and they all think they’re untouchable so when they’re faced with death they’re all massively taken by surprise and least expecting it. That’s my take on why they act like they do anyway.

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Alexa Carlisle says hello.:slightly_smiling_face:
But yes,what you said is true almost all the time.

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One reason to hate Lucas Grey - he stole from us the only Providence operative who was armed and was willing to defend himself :joy:

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I really like what they did with The Constant where he just solemnly accepts his death. Some targets it really doesn’t suit their character to literally cower and beg for their life. But they also don’t need to fight back, because that’s also not in their nature. Especially if they know who 47 is they’d probably just talk with him and accept their death (Janus, Carlisle, Vidal)

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To be honest I can’t imagine another behaviour of Edwards’s part except accepting his fate, exactly because he knows who 47 is. And the way they set him, he hadn’t anywhere to run and ask for help from anyone.
Even if he managed to slip 47 once more somehow, the next their meeting would’ve surely taken place and it would’ve been much more cruel, I guess. I would make it one if I was 47 in this case

Or Soders.He cannot run anywhere,so when he sees 47 he has a heart attack.

That’s why the outcome of the detective mission story in which you show Carlisle proof that Zachary committed suicide and then you ask her to give you the case file is one of my favourite moments from the triology and from the whole franchise.

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We’re comparing an AI built for a game from 2006 with the AI from 2021 which is not really fair :stuck_out_tongue: . IO could have figured things out if they had the time and didn’t have so many troubles during development. Getting the AI to work flawlessly in these types of games takes longer than working on a level.

Maybe in their next Hitman game, boyos!

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Imagine you step into the operation room for One last time, Mr.Soders, and he opens his eyes, pushes the robot arms away to the sides, pulls out a gun from his cloth and shoots you. THAT would have been a surprise.

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A Surprise To be Sure, but not a welcome one. That’d just be weird though.

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