Elusive Target #21: THE EX-DICTATOR (Year 4: August 9-19 2024)

Hitman: World of Assassination
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What I do (like many folks) is set gameplay limitations on myself (NL SA SONKO), then figure out how to solve the puzzle with the best “flow”, then do my best to succeed at that type of run.

Sometimes like for my Gunrunner run, waiting in silence in a box is sort of part of the flow of the run.

Sometimes, like for The Deceivers something goes wrong with NPC pathing or with how I’ve anticipated movement, and I end up waiting in a bathroom for four minutes. Not ideal but that run was so annoying that I didn’t redo it.

Here, for the Ex-D, they’re both supposed to blow up on the couch. Why she was spared an explosive death, I can only attribute to the Mad Flukes of IOI AI.

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That PT can be tossed into the corner where the floor meets the wall and Richard lighting up will still be close enough (I’m pretty certain) to blow them both up.

Guess I’ll get into ETA and verify, and report back with a confirmation.

Edit: No. That’s not close enough. If it’s about where Inez sits then it should be okay.

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Oh, I’ve done it many times. That is what my video will be when I get around to it. But it was VERY weird when he flew up to the ceiling and she just stood up and went :scream_cat:

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Right, I may as well share the videos I’ve done on them:

The second video listed above is slightly outdated due to the May patch seemingly applying more toilet fixes.

Anyway, The Ex-dictators are still one of my least favorite targets in the trilogy when it comes to gameplay. Their routine is actively detrimental to the player and changes to follow Richard, and abusing emetic items feels outright necessary unless you wanna rely on a gas canister’s really small lethal radius, which I find to be inconsistently consistent.

The contract is just not all that fun, and I found them to be way too restrictive and linear (a similar issue to that of The Warlord, The Food Critic and The Fixer), as they often force players to play a specific way, negating the whole “play how you want to” aspect of WOA. I’m fine with a “correct” solution, but it should’nt be enforced as hard as it is here.

I want to live in a world when these targets are fun to assassinate, not be frustrated at their super-enforcer guards and unique setups that stop me moving around so freely (I can go near Richard as a bellhop, but not as a security guard?)

I did this out of obligation, more than anything.

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Blooper:

Edit: The 2nd video isn’t previewing right and I’m getting playback errors… don’t know why. Video works on YouTube.

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Before, I would toss something like the Shaman Powder at the ceiling from the stock room below where they would sit at a table to blow up a PT. This time I tossed the emetic impact (thing… the asset from Absolution). The lady went to 47’s suite alone, while Richard went to the Rm next door. Very annoying that his guards follow him right into the bathroom, but I brought a tranq gun to cover that.

Started as a guard with the hut video security machine mod. :sweat_smile:

I know there are other, easier/quicker ways. But it’s nice to mix it up a little once in a while.

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You did the exact same thing as me, except I brought the emetic device inside 47’s briefcase and triggered it as they were coming up the stairs. Both of them went to be sick in separate rooms, then it was a SilverBaller shot to the back. Both guards were tranquillised as well :wink:

5 Star Silent Assassin!! :raised_hands:t2:

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And something I’ve wanted to do aswell. I would have thrown durian while they were sitting down before entering that private suite, and then follow them.

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Just to reiterate, I didn’t make them sick directly. It was tossing it below them and the gas going up through the floor. :nerd_face:

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Wow, this was by far the easiest completion of this ET that I’ve ever had. Only had to restart once, and that was just because I got spotted by someone I didn’t expect. Second try, nailed it with no issues.

Started off at the usual Bangkok starting spot, dressed in the signature suit with gloves, armed with my Silverballer and fiber wire of course, with coins ready, and the throwable emetic canister in the restaurant bathroom hidden stash. I take the usual path of following the staff member up to my room, then wait for the guards on the balcony below to go inside and climb down to the balcony. I set a coin on the railing on the far side of the balcony, away from the occupied room, and drop the other two coins in the next room that Richard Ekwenski goes into to make a phone call. I hide behind the door where he can’t see me when he goes in, let him follow the trail of coins to the balcony, and push him off.

I had to duck out of sight quickly because one of his guards walks right through that adjoining door a few seconds later and it’s easy to get spotted. Avoiding that, I head down to the hidden stash and get the emetic canister, picking up any other coins I come across; I will need at least two for this next part.

I head back into the room Richard goes into, out to the balcony, and while crouching and adjusting the camera angles as necessary, wait until Inez walks into sight and toss the canister at her feet from an angle where she can’t see me. I immediately head up to my hotel room and hide in the bedroom until Inez is in the bathroom puking and her guards are flanking her in there. I then place one coin on the table in the center of the room, and another halfway between the table and the bathroom door, go back into the bedroom, and wait.

When Inez comes out, she sees the coins and makes her way up to the table while picking them up. When she stops for the one on the table, once again using careful angles out of site and camera adjustment over the shoulder, I shoot the chain on the chandelier over the table and it’s lights out for her. I close the bedroom door and wait again until one of her guards drags her body out. The other one must have glitched, because he just stood there and never moved away. However, he isn’t an enforcer, so I’m in no danger exiting the bedroom and collecting my coins. From an in-story point of view, I’m just the room occupant recognizing that an important figure with security protection walked into my room and I stayed out of the damned way by hiding in my bedroom, only coming out after they perished in a terrible accident.

I then walk out of the room, out of the hotel, and extract via the boat on the river. Only two tries, SA, SO, no KO, two accidents, all in accordance with the HPP, on possibly the most troubling H1 ET to get that combination on. It was a thing of utter beauty. :smiling_face_with_tear:

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This has got to be the worst ET in the game right? I really dislike some of these H1 ETs. But it just goes to show how much a dev team can learn and grow if given the opportunity.

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There’s an interesting debate about what’s worse when it comes to ETs. Everyone is going to have their own opinions about what makes a good or bad ET.

What about The Food Critic who is stationary most of the time? What about something like The Warlord or The Broker who have secondary objectives far away from the target themselves? At least The Ex-Dictator targets are generally always close to each other, The Deceivers have two targets who are isolated, one of whom has a totally randomized route. What about The Politician, someone you can SASONKO incredibly simply? Or The Stowaway, who will willingly isolate himself for you? Or The Liability who can be done in literal seconds? Is an ET being too easy worse than an ET being too difficult?

How about The Disruptor, which thinks the player is too dumb to find where the target is themself so camera control is taken away from you twice? And it has a mission story which explicitly guides you on how to do the mission Silent Assassin and even gives you an instant exit. At least the mission story in The Undying was just to get you to the target’s area, you still had to find a way to kill him yourself. A person could justifiably argue that The Disruptor is on the lower end of ETs, and it’s the one with the most experienced IO ever making it.

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Warlord is the worst because the USB stick is in the damn security office. imo.

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I’d even welcome ‘The Fixer’ back - if for anything, the ET Arcade. They can forego having him be a ‘Live’ ET since :baby: don’t need no stinking briefing, “LEROY JENKINS!!!” and, oh look, you failed. How unfortunate. Maybe grow a couple more brain cells before you pick up the controller next time.

Not you. Just whiners about that particular ET. But yeah. The Warlord due to the USB. That whole level should be reworked to redirect the HVAC airflow… Like how you can poison the butterfly lobby (there’s a name for it - I can’t recall) to the security Rm. But it’s far too late for that.

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Personally I kind of like the secondary objectives (except Disruptor because it was pointless), it gives you something to do at least when most ETs, including Ex Dictator, can be done SA so trivially, in a minute or two max. I wouldn’t mind more having them.

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Is that really because they think the player is too dumb, or is it because the jerk Mr. The Disruptor was based on has such a huge ego that he demanded the camera lock onto “him” (and the unskippable cutscene pretending he didn’t die)? :wink: I don’t think we’ll ever know.

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Eh, close enough to be the same thing.

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Can be a way to implement “The Fixer” in H3 game without the frustration of the “hidden” objectives.
Something like a 3-levels Arcade:
1st stage: Kill Xander Haverfoek only (no restriction). No other objective.
2nd stage: Track the courrier first, then kill Xander Haverfoek.
3rd stage: Track the courrier, retrieve the bag of diamonds, and only then kill Xander Haverfoek. Something clear like “don’t kill Haverfoek before retrieving the diamonds”.

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This is why he should be in the Arcade. Certain players can choose to ignore the briefing video and likely fail. They can fail as many times as they can stand before they make the conscious decision to wonder what the heck it is they’re missing. If they screw up they can wait 12 hours to try again.

Since IO has tweaked some of the other ETs, there’s no reason they couldn’t do that with this one. Don’t make it an insta-fail. It’s still possible to find the right merchant, KO them, and get the diamonds that way. It’d be even more riskier than doing it the right way. You could get compromised and gunned down… Just to make it way more interesting. :joy:

If they can’t have new voice lines for Diana, then change the objectives.

:blue_square: Find and subdue the merchant that has the diamonds

Come to think of it, was this ever an objective?

:blue_square: Trail the (mule) but DO NOT KO until he has the diamonds.

And the moment you witness him get the diamonds the objective will clear…

Then again, you might not witness him get them. So it wouldn’t clear. But, he doesn’t go to the school until he has them. :thinking:

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Insert one million brainless Reddit posts later

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