Elusive targets after end of support?

Hitman 3 (2021)
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Does anyone know if Elusive targets will still be playable once the support for the trilogy has ended? I’m sure there are people who’ll buy the game after waiting for a sale or just for the entire pack to be out, who’ll miss out on ET’s simpluy because they didn’t own the game at the time or others who simply do not have the time to play them.

I know there’s the ETA but I dunno if you can get the same rewards from it or even any kind of progression. Besides, they don’t afford the same kind of freedom as the original ET’s.

Does anyone have any info on this? Would be nice to be able to enjoy them in the future, should they allow some form of rotation. Or perhaps the way to go is get one of those mods, but again, I don’t know if they let you unlock the rewards

Thanks

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Elusive Target Arcade will remain in the game for sure.
As for Elusive Targets as we know them right now - most likely not

3 Likes
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Damn. And there’s no other way to get the suits you unlock by playing them? Even through mods?

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At this very moment we have what we have.
I don’t know mods which allow play missions (Elusive Targets) in online mode.
All mods work offline

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They’ll keep adding more sets of Elusive targets in the ET Arcade and either stop the Elusive targets rotation (like heartbreaker 2 or the broker 2) or keep that on as well

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Most likely, before support ends, IO is going to provide an option for anything that is still available in the game (suits, weapons, etc.) to become available for anyone who decides to pick up the game for the first time after support has ended.

Whether this means ETs will have a permanent presence through Arcade mode down the road, or simply unlocking them through the completion of certain escalations or Featured Contracts is unknown.

Most likely it will be through Arcade mode, as ETs already presented in there are likely to get at least a second release with different complications so that players can choose which version they want, and unlock things that way.

Or IO may just make the remaining items unlockable through completing certain challenges already presented in the base game through an update, and those who have already beaten those challenges (i.e. reaching level 20 in a particular map) will immediately have those items after that update.

Hell, they may even give out one last DLC package of unlockable items all in one go for a purchasable fee. People’d be pissed, but it would be the final release for the game before they stop working on it, why would they care how mad anyone is at that point; take it or go without your precious suits forever, we don’t care anymore, we’re about to start making the next game. I doubt they’d do that, but the option is there.

Either way, eventually, I’m sure everyone will have access to everything that is still available in the game, or a chance to get access anyway. At this point, it’s just a matter of waiting.

The real question is: will IO make things unlockable in offline mode? If so, all of the above is possible. If not, that’s when it becomes iffy.

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Personally, I expect that once this game reaches end of support, which is not going to happen for years still, they will just shut off the servers and “fix” the offline mode.

I actually think they will not make certain unlocks available after the game reaches the point where the servers are shut down. If they haven’t permanently put all of the Elusive Targets in the game by that point, they are unlikely to when they shut off the servers. It would require some level of development at a point where they are terminating all support for the game, which I feel is unlikely.

That said, IOI are proud of this game. They put a lot of work into it over the last 6 years (plus the time they needed to develop it before it was released). This is not a game that is going to be shut down a year after it came out. It seems every couple weeks there’s a new thread here about what will happen when the game’s servers are shut down and the on-line support is gone. These threads all carry the presumption that this action is “imminent” as if next week the game will just disappear and become unplayable.

While I have no doubt that eventually this will happen, it will be a significant amount of time after the game stops receiving content updates. Despite some features like ghost mode or the co-op sniper stuff being shut down, this is not the same as the entire game being bricked. Barring some catastrophic outcome for IOI as a company, this game will be playable for a long, long time yet.

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Considering the amount of content that’s only accessible “online” I’m curious about how big the file size would be for this game with EVERYTHING available offline.

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The file size of the game would barely change. Just because you need an online connection to access certain content, doesn’t mean the data isn’t stored locally.

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Agreed. I doubt that the file size would change much at all. In the current build of the game all of the Elusive Targets are contained within the files - even those that we cannot play. Gary Busy, Sean Bean, all contained within the game’s files even though they will never release those targets again.

The stuff that is only available online is that way more because of leaderboards, tracking, timed availability, and unlocks. The actual content is already on your computer.

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I’m on console. Is it the same?

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I don’t know what the console file sizes are, but I can say that at no time in any mission, any challenge, any unlock, or any other interaction with the game have I seen anything downloading while I’m playing it. I think that all of the game’s actual play data is local to your drive and the only thing that is synching back to the online servers is the real-time status, leaderboard stuff, and some other minor elements.

I am not an authority on that though. Perhaps someone who is more into modding or digging into the game files like @Kevin_Rudd would know better.

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The majority (ish) is offline. The game fetches stuff such as your player data (inventory, unlocks, progession, etc), npc images, mission information such as objectives, challenges, and links to the briefing and name localization when you open a mission menu. Leaderboards are fetched when you attempt to load/change them. Pretty much all the mission stuff is either handled
a) server side such as the rating logic or challenge tracking
b) client side with text files fetched from the servers with very small file sizes
c) simply just client side, such as the location itself, challenge logic, briefing videos, localization, and so on.

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depending if there is a lot of support for unlimited ET chances. idk if it will happen but i hope rewards from the main story will stay. cause it is going to end at some point. not now but maybe in the future. hell they might do it like dark souls 1 on ps3 and have it be there for ages.