Contracts Mode Update Suggestions

[Tony_Stark]

I would love to see contracts mode receive an update to really make it something special. Its already really fun, but I could see a tiny few more things added to really spice it up.

Now, I’ll be realistic here, I know personally that they wouldn’t add anything like making custom Escalations or making kill conditions mandatory (As fun as that would be) so I won’t suggest it.

Here are a few things I could see being implemented hopefully.

1. First of all, the ability to create contracts on the ICA Yacht. It might not be the biggest level, but it can still have some fun contracts. Especially a Kill Everyone contract. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, as I bet this one has been requested a lot.

2. Second, if we can’t get custom escalation support (I don’t think it’s ever been specified we won’t, but I’m trying to be realistic with what we have) We could possibly get the ability to link contracts to one another. So, when you finish one, it asks you if you’d like to play the next in the link, or not. This would help tie them together more easily, or if this sounds a little weird. Maybe, we could create “Collections” so not only does it help escalation creators, but it can also be a good thing for people who create contracts following a pattern.

2.5 Forget to mention this one until I had finished writing the others. But a few more kill conditions for the more fun unique kills, like the cannon on Mendoza/Haven. Vehicle Explosions instead of Accident Explosion, (Which could be used as the broad kill term). and maybe the Garden Shredder, since it isn’t a super unique kill like Mendoza’s grape press or Chongqing’s brain frying machine.

3. I also think we should be able to edit a target’s info in the pause menu. Vanilla base game targets have custom images and a brief description of backstory. Custom images are definitely off the table, but we should at least be able to give them a little backstory.

4. More complications! Maybe even have it possible to choose from any available currently used complication. There’s a lot of great ones we can’t really replicate like “No Parkour”, “One Pacification”, or all those unique ones where you must retrieve an item before leaving. One I specifically want is the Mumbai one where it makes majority of the strong disguises a onetime wear, and guard disguises are only able to be worn for 60 seconds, and also onetime.

5. Lastly, and the least realistic, is we should see the addition of contract deletion, being able to playtest a contract before publishing it, and simply just being able to edit title and description after it’s been published. This can help cull the number of contracts named “Test” or something along those lines, where they’ve been simply published just to be play tested. Even the contract creation guide we have on the forums here suggests you do this. Which, in my opinion doesn’t sound very efficient. Sure, it gets the job done but it also means a now cluttering contract is published and might even be more enjoyed than the main one if it takes off.

These are some hopefully simple suggestions we could see coming to contracts mode. I think these final changes would really solidify contracts mode. There’s obviously a lot of un-realistic things I could suggest like adding NPCs such as bodyguards to protect a target, adding items or weapons to a map without it (Like placing a battle axe on ICA Facility) Or even editing the map itself. But i don’t really think we need these, they’d be amazing. But it’s not required.

Let me know your opinions on what I wrote and anything you’d like to see I didn’t mention.

[Switcher]

Why was this flagged? Theres nothing wrong with this thread

[Charlie_Farmer]

I agree, it is a perfectly good thread, i wasn’t me.

[ZeroGravitas]

Where are you seeing that it’s been flagged? It looks perfectly normal to me.

[Kevin_Rudd]

Here’s mine from an earlier, broader thread

Contracts mode on Freeform Training, but….

I know it would take two minutes to add contracts mode to Freeform Training, because I already did it in H2

But should they make it official, I think it would be beneficial for them to add in the CCTV cameras from the Escalation on that map, as well as the knife from that escalation so there’s at least one melee option for contracts. Ideally they’d place in a couple lethal items around the map, like a screwdriver down with the mechanics, but then they’d actually have to lift a finger and let’s just keep things simple.

Improved Kill Methods in Contracts mode

They’d have to put more than a few minutes work into this sadly, but still overall on lower-effort scale of things from what I can tell. By improved kill methods I mean make it so we aren’t forced to choose between melee or thrown kills… let the player decide! Also, instead of just “Shotgun”, let us hit F to choose “Unsilenced Shotgun”, the game already keeps track of if a silenced weapon was used, may as well make it an option. Would also be great if we could make kill methods mandatory but I won’t push my luck

Improve exits/entrances in some maps (Contracts Mode)

They’ve sort of already admitted this one is a good idea by unrestricting the default start in Mendoza for the ETs, and adding in the car exit to the Hawke’s Bay ET Now just… make them available for contracts that won’t only be played once ever.

You can add to the list the car/gate exit in Mendoza (Isn’t it a bit odd all exits require you to trespass except for Diana dance?), and an exit for Berlin like fixing the manhole exit

Add “No Loadout” complication to Contracts Mode

Not as quick and easy to figure out as some of the above suggestions, but it would be great for contracts and the longevity of the game as suddenly it would open a world of new puzzles (And would really make a difference when post-launch content for the game finishes up next year, not to mention make better Featured Contracts each month). Hokkaido’s doors without electronic key hackers, being made to steal a particular weapon for a kill, having to use a gun but only unsilenced ones are present on the map, etc.

Should probably also come with a “No Agency Pickup” complication for best effect.

Mandatory entrance… sort of

The game makes it so if a mandatory entrance is specified (by IO or mods) it let’s you pick that entrance, but also the default entrance of the map. It’s not perfect but could allow for more puzzles and challenge to allow creator restrict the contract to the entrance they picked (+ default; and if they picked default then only one entrance will show in total)

On top of that, the usual being able to edit title and briefing etc

[Switcher]

I guess it’s not flagged anymore

[schatenjager]

@Kevin_Rudd

better Featured Contracts

Not sure I agree with that. All complications on a featured contract should be optional and restricting the load out or starting location makes for a non-optional complication. Regardless of what the creator intended, featured contracts need to remain more accessible.

Regular contracts, you bet, restrict them with loads of mandatory complications.

[Kevin_Rudd]

That’s an opinion and maybe a bunch share it, but it’s a fact that if someone had a nice puzzle in mind where there’s one spawn that would totally bypass the point of it, then you’re saying even well thought out ones should be ignored for selection just because some people may dislike them (When in the current system people already don’t like most of the choices ), leaving the balance of FCs in favour of ‘ha ha just kill these 5 random people with random-yet-specific methods in these outfits I picked’

I’m biased but I think it’s nice Boom Stick was selected, which didn’t allow you to pick the biker start, meaning you had to find a way into the hideout and figure a way to get the gun around the map without a guard disguise (on that particular occasion, would’ve felt even less restrictive if disguise complication wasn’t present); and I’d love to see what thought puzzles someone like Urben comes up with for all players of the game to try out when a batch pops up. There’s a reason a lot of IO’s escalations have had restricted start points even though some dislike them (admittedly they shouldn’t make all of them do that, but neither should all FCs be one type or another, it’s just another option to have for variety in a batch).

@schatenjager

makes for a non-optional complication

From what I’ve read, the part people absolutely hate is instafails. Huge difference between a bunch of actions you do resulting in a big “MISSION FAILED”, and something which… well doesn’t do that. Nothing would stop people grabbing any weapon they can find (or just running up, punching target in the face and snapping neck) while being in the wrong disguise and being caught and not disposing of the body, if they want to just rush through FCs for unlocks

But this thread is about just contracts mode itself, and I can feel the old ‘someone can use it in a shit way therefore it shouldn’t be considered at all’ argument coming up so I’ll leave as just an opinion I have

[schatenjager]

Nah, that’s a lazy and bad argument (the “if someone could do it that way, it shouldn’t be allowed at all” one). Slippery slopes are sometimes fine for political discussions, but not for games.

I come at this discussion from being bad at puzzles like that. I rarely, if ever, figure out what the designer of a contract intended and almost never play normal contracts. I think it’s pretty impressive what some players and creators have managed to achieve with their contracts even if I have no hope of actually completing them as intended myself.

There are quite a few featured contracts that I’ve had to cheese my way through but my days of being some sort of elite gamer are decades behind me at this point. If a contract requires things like gun lures, peek-a-boo types of actions, fruit kills, bullet distractions, or hopping on top of broken muffins, I’m never going to manage it the way the creator intended.

I don’t think anyone should stop making great contracts, I just would prefer to see the actual IOI promoted stuff be more accessible.

[Melusca]

I’d really like a no-loadout option for contracts too. It could probably even be possible to make it optional by having some kind of check for the presence of items on mission start, failing the complication if any are found (but I don’t know if it’s possible to do in the game’s engine).

[47Agent]

Regardless of the particulars (that’s a separate debate) I think all Hitman players can agree, Contracts Mode needs some attention.

[schatenjager]

No doubt about that. It seems that a contract creator should be able to do everything that IOI can do in terms of complications, objectives, targets, load-outs, etc.

[LandirtHome]

Agree with all that was said here.

And yes on the “mandatory entrance complcation”, I tried a few time to create contracts with a infiltration/disguise entrance coupled with a no disguise change complication to enforce a few, but it’s far from perfect. Entrance are just too good at flavouring an entire contract to be left out.

---

I will add one thing :

keywords / categories

I think the mode needs a list of curated, pre-made keywords or categories you can apply to your contract. By the creator, or by the players (via a voting system).
This would immensely help identify the contracts you wish to play amongst the sea of them. The current way, using the elimination condition, frankly does not work.

A few examples :

• puzzle
• speedrun
• story
• challenge
• explosive
• sniper
• loud
• open-ended
• one solution
• …

[Vortigern]

Yes, I do find the contracts are very limited. It would be great to add/remove cameras too, as well as add special objectives like “collect an object” to bring back. Wouldn’t mind activating or deactivating certain NPCs too (to add extra guards from Master level in some areas, or make certain NPCs enforcers or not - though this could be finicky on the back-end).

[Gates57]

Apart from the complications, for which there is another thread, I’d like to be able to find good contracts. Featured contracts exist for that, but I’d like to be able to have more tools. For example the ability to filter according to the creator would be very useful. I could go in my History and have a button which says From the same creator. Also a rating system would be helpful.

The rating system could be improved but that is complicated. For example a flaw now is that if the author adds a complication which already affect your standard rating, like no body found, even if you satisfy all other objectives you get penalized twice. Also when the author does not specify some complication, like no body found you may satisfy the conditiion if you killl the person who saw the body. These and other things make difficult to understand the result.

Also it would be nice for the creator to be able to mark the contract as an elusive target so it can be played only once.

[Patrick_McColloch]

Speaking of cameras, having a security terminal be OOB would certainly add to the challenge.

[Tom-Kannaduki]

This is a very pleasing thread to me.
Although I do enjoy the current contract mode.
I am looking forward to more updates to the contract mode.

My wish list for updates is as follows
Of course, we do not believe that all of this is feasible.
This is just a list of features that would be nice to have.

・Contract play for other models.
・String search of contracts by user name.
・Search for a range of contracts by creation date and time.
・Tagging of contracts and tag search functionality.
・Re-edit or delete the title and description of a contract by the creator.
・Creation of contracts with a master difficulty level.

・Load-out equipment specification. (play only with specified equipment)
・Designation of starting point. (play only at the specified starting point)
・Designate a starting outfit. (Santa Claus, Clown, Ninja, etc.)

・Assassination method with a firearm name.
・Add double kills to assassination methods. (or fast killstreaks)
・Add indirect kills to assassination methods. (assassination by NPC action)
・Add restrictions that can be found in escalation (fast kill streaks, no actions, no opening doors, not letting go of certain items, etc.)
・Add objectives for obtaining items. (must be taken back).

・Fine-tuning of clear times. (only add to clear time, add in 1 second increments).
・Limit the number of disguises. (specify the number of disguises, e.g., no more than n disguises).
・Only certain disguises can be changed.
・Limit on the number of times an item can be acquired. (e.g., n times or less).
・Restrictions on dragging bodies (n times or less for dragging bodies, etc.)
・Restrictions on the use of map gimmicks (map gimmick operations are limited to n times, etc.)
・Restrictions on elimination of certain NPCs (e.g., cannot be stunned, cannot be killed, etc.)
・Target invisibility by instinct. (As with elusive targets.)
・Addition of target’s escape (If the target escapes, the mission will fail.)

・Addition of Carpathian Mountains