Let me preface this by saying that I have 1100 hours in WoA, of which 600 were in Freelancer mode. It is my favorite game mode and I’ve played it through and through, including challenge runs (no loadout, SA/SO campaigns, melee only etc.) If you’re curious, some of my gameplay can be found here.
While playing through the FL, I noticed many areas of friction. While not necessarily game-ending, removal or rebalance of certain aspects would make the game more appealing for both new and experienced players. I will primarily focus on aspects that would improve the QoL without making the game itself easier.
Prestige Progression
Grant +1 carry capacity for each completed prestige level, up to a maximum of +10.
Players who prestige frequently are encouraged to use sub-optimal gear while rebuilding their arsenal. Common weapons often require more carry capacity than their Epic or Legendary counterparts, creating an additional penalty on top of restarting from scratch. Extra inventory capacity wouldn’t affect your performance ability, but rather expand your options and serve as an incentive to grind for the prestige points. At the same time, players who do not wish to prestige aren’t going to miss out on much, since they retain legendary/epic gear that takes up fewer inventory slots.
DLC Reward Toggle
Add a toggle near the weapon collection wall: “Receive DLC items as rewards.”
Players pursuing prestige completion currently need to collect DLC items on top of the Vanilla FL ones, before becoming eligible to prestige again. This unintentionally turns DLC ownership into a disadvantage, or “pay-to-lose” if you will.
Prestige Objective Rebalance
Replace/Rework the following prestige objectives:
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“Unsilenced Pistol Kill: Epic” with “Unsilenced Firearm Kill: Epic”. There is only a single unsilenced epic pistol (El Matador), but there are more options if it were changed to unsilenced firearms, as it would include Shashka A33 Gold, Golden Sawed-off shotgun, Splitter SMG among other things. Most of those are two-handed weapons, so the player would need to commit more.
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“Icepick Kill” with either “Knife Kill” or “Fiber wire Kill”. There is only a single icepick in the entire arsenal of 47’s safehouse. The prestige objective becomes dead on arrival unless you specifically got lucky enough to purchase it from a supplier early on. Meanwhile there are much more options in terms of knives and fiber wires, which are a signature weapon of agent 47.
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Rework “Timed: get disguises” to work with disguises you’ve already used prior. There is no reason for “Timed: hide and seek” to work with the same containers, but for the disguises to not. Players would still have to go out of their way to return to the secluded area for changing disguises every now and then.
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If none of the maps in the available mission pool have a safe, “Open Safe: Explosive” should not be offered.
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Add an additional prestige objective “Specific exit”, to make-up for the loss. After taking it, one or two specific exits would be highlighted on the minimap, which must be used at the end of the mission for it to be complete. Those would include exits that require specific keys (such as motorboat keys, sports car keys) or disguises (medic for ambulance exit, garbageman for garbage truck, investor exit etc). It would exclude easter egg/meme exits.
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Add the ability to re-roll the offered prestige objectives (NOT available in Hardcore mode). You’d only be permitted to do it twice, with each time incurring a -50% penalty on Merces payout. Designed for those focused on XP-grinding, scoring those “perfect run” bonuses.
Regular Objective Rebalance
Add a toggle “Receive guard kill objectives” for every syndicate except Arms Trafficking. Killing 3 guards with SMG or Sniper Rifle directly conflict with several regular and prestige objectives, such as “silent assassin” (and sub-types), “kill only targets”, “no firearms”. They also conflict with the intended playstyle of every syndicate except Arms Trafficking, where they fit perfectly thematically. Players who toggled that setting on would instead receive “pacify 3 guards unnoticed” or “destroy 3 cameras” tasks. Those are arguably more difficult to pull off, so players could pick “Silent Assassin” prestige tasks without feeling guilty about not scoring a perfect run.
Rework “Perfect Shooter” to not fail when shots connect with chandeliers, propane flasks, fire extinguishers, electrical outlets, oil drums etc. Those shots are not “missed” in conventional sense, as they served a direct purpose. If anything, it punishes players with creative approach that attempt to set up an elaborate trap or chain of distractions.
Economy & Supplier Improvements
Fence rare loot - on certain maps that include the following items, 47 would have the ability to turn them in to the supplier NPCs for a small profit:
- Cloud Serpent Necklace (Isle of Sgàil) ~2,500 Merces
- Pearls (Haven Island) ~700 Merces
- 1945 Grand Paladin bottle (Mendoza) ~3,500 Merces
- Cocaine brick ~200 Merces
- Gold bar (Dubai only; would break New York) ~1,500 Merces
- Gold idol (from loot crates) ~800 Merces
- Ornate Scimitar (from Sheikh in Dubai) ~2000 Merces
- Doubloon, Commemorative Token (Haven, Sgail) ~500 Merces
Other items could be considered for the list. The main interest here is to spark extra gameplay loops that reward player for exerting effort on actions that are not just killing targets. Similar to how players can rob the bank vault or crack safes, this would give them more reasons to linger around and explore (which in turn increases amount of hours played).
Ship to safehouse - holding SHIFT while purchasing items from the supplier would send them to the safehouse directly at the end of the mission. Purchased items are delivered only if the mission succeeds. Merces are refunded if the mission fails. A lot of the time the main friction point comes from the inability to carry more than 2 large weapons out of the mission, even if the player has enough to cover the costs of the items. Additional “service fee” could be included to pay for the convenience (anywhere between +10% to +50% extra of the item’s cost).
Safehouse Improvements
Add a single briefcase spawn in the safehouse. It could be a toolbox in the garage or a black leather briefcase in the dressing room. Sometimes you just want to bring an empty briefcase to the mission, be it to hide an explosive or smuggle out firearms. It could even have 1-2 inventory capacity cost and players would still take it.
Move the coin spawn to the vault room. It is a thematic fit + players will thank you for not having to scavenge bird nests in the forest and along the shoreline.
Add an item-version of a hatchet in near the tree stump. Players can already get their hands on 2 fiber wires (statoscope, fishing line), 3 knives (letter opener, grape knife, scalpel) and even a shuriken (starfish) while they have an empty weapon rack. At the same time they cannot get an axe to fulfill “axe kill” objective. Those don’t spawn on all maps, but you can get a task to fulfill it. The hatchet could even have a 4 inventory capacity cost and would still be considered in certain missions. Furthermore it cannot be holstered, forcing the players to commit to a briefcase.
Loot Crate and weapon rework
Certain weapons that are already in the game would be a seamless fit for the FL mode.
Black Almond’s Dagger - legendary melee slot. Worthy of the tier, especially because it doubles as a consumed lethal poison source.
The Golden Dragon and The Majestic - legendary (or epic) sniper rifle slot. It would also spark curiosity in the DLC content among the players, inciting them to explore side missions.
Druzhina 34 ICA (from Hantu Port achievement) - rare sniper rifle slot. None of the players would complain if either of the unsupressed Druzhina variants were replaced by this one. The Kashmerian’s Druzhina 34 could occupy the other slot.
My full sniper rebalance for FL mode can be found here.
Cherry Blossom/Floral ballers - epic pistol slots. The artist team did an outstanding work on the design of those and it would serve justice to have more players appreciate the beauty of the work.
Finally, there is also an entire proposal regarding the rebalance of the mid-mission loot crates (the ones that include either the choice of 1 in 3 items, a rare weapon or merces). It is a lengthy post that I already submitted and it can be found here.
Hope you enjoyed the long read. Comments, further proposals, inquiries and extended discussions are most welcome.