They meant unused by them during play.
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ooooooohhhhh…Okay.
Yeah, that makes a bit more sense now. Went a bit too literal there, sorry for that.
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Yeah I worded myself poorly.
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I rarely play Master mode so I forget its rules until I come into Hardcore Freelancer.
The disguise one is a lesson I’ve learned the hard way.
However, to clarify and further add to your point: Drowning an NPC will prevent you from taking their disguise. As I would not consider this blood-letting, it’s worth noting.
(Fiber wiring them, which again is not blood-letting, will not ruin the disguise.)
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Thanks, I’ve updated the top post.
As for combat mechanics. I also have no problem with them. However, my go-to strategy is to immediately find somewhere that has one point of entry and kill-funnel the guards until their resources are exhausted. If I can readily flee then I’ll opt for that instead.
Now, whilst combat feels perfectly reasonable to me. there are occasions where the reason for entering combat seems wrong - such as panic contagion where everyone’s “turning orange” (in instinct) because they just know you’ve done something.
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100% this. The mandatory, un-rerollable POs are what’s keeping me from switching permanently.
I don’t even mind most of them, but sometimes you end up with one impossible PO (open safe when you only have safeless maps, or perfect run when your normal objectives don’t work with each other or for the amount of targets) and have to choose between two time-limited ones, which I consider just not fun. There’s challenging gameplay, which is fine, and stuff I just don’t enjoy and don’t want to do.
Boring normal mode it is. If they added a re-roll option or a forth PO to choose from, I’d probably never look back. I enjoyed the rest of hardcore mode.
Had no idea that drowning ruins disguises in hardcore, btw. Have I really never drowned anyone whose disguise I needed??
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And the biggest difference is: basically most of the NPCs can see through walls. HC is hard enough as it is, but with that bullshit it borders on unplayable.
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After extensive play, I’ve developed what I believe is at least a somewhat accurate representation of the AI state machine - so I’ll first discuss that and then explain how Master mode/Hardcore fits in.
The primary purpose of this is focused around combat since changes to what does or doesn’t get enforced in a given state is already well-documented.
There appear to be 5 discernible states with escalating levels of trouble for the player:
- Business as usual.
- Distracted
- Alerted
- Panicked
- Terrified
States 1 and 2 are of course self-explanatory so let’s focus on the remaining 3.
The Alerted state is caused when an NPC detects something untoward like a bullet impact or hears an explosion. This puts civilian AI into a somewhat “dumb” state and they stop enforcing things like trespassing. Guards may start enforcing you, there seems to be a threshold criteria.
The Panicked state is caused when a crime is witnessed - e.g. someone getting shot (dead) or blown up. This creates an “AoE of blame” which, providing you aren’t in it, is fine. This is generally a given for explosions so it’s mostly ballistic weapons which will give you cause to get out of the area ASAP. Should you be found within the AoE(s) by Guard AI, they will begin combat.
The Terrified state can only be reached via the Panicked state or a VIP fleeing under escort, though the terror is limited to the escorts in that situation. Once you cross a threshold of having caused enough death and mayhem, everyone who is at least Alerted blames you on sight no matter where you run and enforcer dots are rendered irrelevant. The game will continually attempt to unwind this state by sending guards to the place where you committed your atrocity - if they are allowed to investigate and clear it, the hivemind of terror will end. You can also change disguises unseen as this state will only target the disguise you wore at the time.
If it was caused by a VIP escort, you need to avoid the escorters. Depending on how you caused the VIP escort, their guards may end up magically becoming hostile (orange in Instinct) to whatever disguise you happen to be wearing at the exact second the escort is resolved, no matter where you are on the map.
Now, in Master Mode/Hardcore the crucial difference seems to be the threshold for going from Panicked to Terrified - the vast majority of actions that would have caused Panic under normal difficulty will now Terrify instead. Combining this with the much greater hearing sensitivity and view distance gives you situations where your attempt to deal with one person who simply spotted you goes straight into Terrified mode.
By understanding this principle, you can tackle Hardcore with much less difficulty. Either by ensuring a rapid escape where you can safely flee to an unpanicked area, a single entry room to conduct a shootout, or something you can hide in.
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So that is why I get a lot of witnesses after the suspects escape whenever I shoot the leader unseen.
do you know when part of the target net is allerted if the assistant voice tells you if also the target is leaving the area too (as in the normal mode)
Or do you risk to fails the entire campaign because one or to suspect leaves and you discover after one of them was the target?
Thank you!
There are no changes to the mechanics for fleeing suspects, works exactly as it does outside of Hardcore mode.
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Has anyone mentioned what causes suspects to be enforcers in HC?
Basically if you don’t start “blending in” or inside a trespassing zone the suspects will never be enforces to you until you enter a trespassing zone at which at that point will all become enforcers.
Also does anyone know why sometimes you don’t get the “perfect run” xp bonus at the completion of missions even though you completed all 4 objectives? That one really baffles me.
I believe you also have to get all safes/couriers in the level (if any) to get that xp bonus, but I’m not completely sure
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I go for perfect run every time and I get the xp bonus 95% of the time so I don’t think it’s couriers, because I’m sure I’ve missed one more than 5% of the time but you might be onto something with the safes.
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I think it’s certain optional complications that cause this.
I saw your post 2 days ago (then couldn’t find it later) and was curious so I went to check my own history (I take a screenshot of the detail page) and yes, I’m missing the “Perfect Run Bonus” sometimes. Every time it’s missing, I’ve had the “Hide Target Bodies” optional complication although it shows as completed in the screen with the four boxes (3 optional + 1 prestige), there’s no bonus in detail.
Someone posted (perhaps not hmf) that completing “Hide Target Bodies” provides additional XP than simply the equivalent to a single optional complication so there’s an oddity with this optional complication.
Best regards.
PS: I was trying to reply to a May 2023 bug report on this “Perfect Run Bonus” topic since that player was on Xbox and I’m on Steam, but I kept either getting an error 500 for attempting to “like” it and a “this post has been flagged” and basically that I should not reply to flagged posts as it can incite continued unwanted behavior…?
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I just did a run today and “Hide Target Bodies” didn’t give me the PR xp bonus. I think you nailed it. It definitely isn’t safes.