My inner pessimist is expecting IO to just keep making roadmaps that use ET reruns as filler, in order to maintain the game as “Ever expanding. Ever dangerous.” at the low budget that WoA most likely gets at this point.
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Don’t forget the Deceivers that annoyingly enough only appear in the ETA with a forced lack of loadout.
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I love that they’re depicted as towers, because the UI is just trying to fit everything in.
Gives me some /r/crappydesign vibes (in the nice way!)
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The annoying part of it is that it didn’t have to be this way. There is unused Y3 variants of The Sensation, The Pharmacist and The Warlord in the game that they could’ve sprinkled in there to give us something.
But I guess IO wants us loyal players that have already played them all to go fuck ourselves instead. 
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That’s actually a fair point. I wish they’d do a few more ETA’s so all of them can be played with all loadout slots unlocked.
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The player base, generally, just wanted to play each Elusive Target as often as they wanted without having to go through all three targets to get to the one you wanted. Also, we didn’t want the restricted load outs. We wanted to play the same mission as was presented in the original Elusive Target but without the time limits. Elusive Target Arcade, while offering a version of most of the targets, did not deliver the experience the players were asking for.
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Just because players want it, doesn’t mean its the best way to present the content to players.
The majority of ETs are from the H1-era, they’re mostly empty with not a lot to do with them. Having them as a lot of players want them is just going to result in people eventually getting bored of them and never touching them again. Which is exactly what happened to the ETs that were turned into Special Assignments.
Never said it was, but that was what the players seemed to have wanted. I am on record in this very forum as saying that the elusive targets (especially, as you said, the ones from the first game) aren’t that great as stand along missions. The Offline Elusive Target mod makes them all available (as of version 3.12 at least) for PC and with a couple exceptions, they aren’t that interesting to just replay over and over.
But the player community didn’t ask for the arcade mode versions - they asked for the original, unedited and unrestricted missions as they were originally released.
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I’m aware of that. You’ll notice I didn’t mention ETA, however, and there’s a reason for that, because that’s not what I’m talking about.
No, it’s not, because that’s not what I’m asking for. I’m asking for each individual ET to be replayable at any given time, in its original format without the changes made by the restrictions found in Arcade mode. Arcade mode is its own thing that uses the ETs as the basis for its gameplay; now it’s time to just have the ETs themselves.
Some people may not, but other people do, so this statement is meaningless. I don’t care how unpopular it is, it’s part of the original lineup and it’s not mired by legal issues, IOI has no excuse for not releasing it in a fully replayable ET format that comes packaged with all the ETs together, and those who don’t like it don’t have to play it.
Then what are you trying to argue here?
It doesn’t ignore it in any way, shape, form, manner, or capacity, because ETA is not a fully replayable ET experience; you must play through other ETs, in most instances, in order to get to a particular one you like, especially if you want it without particularly hindering restrictions in place.
But we have not known whether they were ever even being conceptualized in any replayable format beyond their reactivation from IOI directly. Arcade mode showed us what a game mode of accessible ETs looks like, albeit not in their original formats and not selectable individually. Now that we know they can quite easily just put them all in a separate play mode from their limited release format, they just need to create a mode to put them in that has such individual accessibility.
Full agreement here. As far as we know, WoA is winding down, so what does it matter if it’s the best way to present them to the players as always accessible or not? It’s what we want and they’re running out of stuff to do with the game, just give us what we’ve been asking for before you pull the plug and we’ll live with what content we have until it’s time for the next game.
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Except for the fact that adding in perma ETs like you’re wanting would make the Arcade mostly redundant. That alone is enough to make it never happen tbh.
To be fair, the Arcade made the normal ET format redundant, but they still re ran them for the entirety of Y2 and 3 anyway. I don’t see why perma ETs and the Arcade can’t coexist
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Arcade is already redundant. Well, not redundant, but already irrelevant; it’s stopped, and Freelancer is now a thing. And people who want to play with additional challenges would still play it, just like the difference between those who follow objectives in freelancer and those who don’t, those who play contracts with additional requirements and those who don’t, those who play escalations and those who don’t.
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I can’t complain at that I guess, I love Freelancer! To be honest, I think once all the content is done and dusted, including the potential Year 4, I think Freelancer is what will tide most players over until the next big Hitman game arrives for consoles & PC.
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If they’re going to copy/paste the Y2 Elusive Target list again for Year 4, I would honestly rather they not bother and just have the seasonal patches/occasional new challenge with unlock instead tbh.
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I actually agree with that, a much better arrangement imo.
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That’s incredible to see all those Elusive Targets reactivated altogether 
You are right. Looking forward to the permanent activation of those ETs 
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This whole thing really has a ‘coming to an end’ type of feeling. 
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Yeah I agree. If that is the case, IOI might as well close off the Elusive Targets or make them all permanent in the game mode mode section, replacing Elusive Target arcade.
I know, I really don’t want it to end either! 
it’s just going to be such a long wait until the next Hitman game as well. I know we’ve got Freelancer to tide us over, but it’s still going to be a long wait.
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(Just for the record, I really want to see a return of The Fixer, even if he’s the polar opposite of a “fan favourite”)
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yaaaayyy one ET I can do! /s
The latter seems more likely to happen, but I do wish they’d do this. ET’s being on a schedule has gotten tiring and old hat, and I’d rather they make them permanant additions. If nothing else, it’d give them some cheap PR points. The timed nature could instead be how ETA does it (if you fail, you get locked out for a few hours), which still seems like a fair punishment.
And then you’d all complain that ETA is removed and H3 is missing more content, and how you all “suddenly loved it actually”. You’re (the collective, not you specifically) doing that with 2016’s escalations, despite many of them being flat-out badly designed (The Lupei Sensitivity anyone?). The two modes can absolutely co-exist, you don’t need to remove one to facilitate or replace the other.
I’d rather they announce a reworking of him, rather than a straight re-activation. They did this with The Deceivers, so it’s not a new thing. His presence will not be missed otherwise.
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