They have confirmed that Hawkes Bay will not be in the final version of Freelancer.
Locations
Firstly, the CTT will only feature 9 locations from the World of Assassination (i.e locations from HITMAN 1-3). The full release will include support for 19 locations (with only ICA Facility, Hawke’s Bay and Carpathian Mountains not supported in the full release).
Sourced from: https://www.ioi.dk/hitman-3-road-to-freelancer-2/
That’s why he said it would be a surprise; that they decided to include it after all. Frankly, I wish they would have.
It would be strange for them to go back on a very definite statement like that. They would have to make massive changes to Hawkes Bay to make it viable for a Freelancer location, which is way out of scope for this as all the other maps have minimal changes, not drastic ones.
They definitely trialled Hawkes Bay, that much is clear from the game’s code and the March version of Freelancer, but it probably just wasn’t meant to be in it’s current state.
The Year 2 Reveal trailer also confirms it. NZ has a location white dot on it (just wasn’t active on that particular campaign).
They’ve done it before. Not saying they’ll do it now, but there is precedent.
Yeah, I thought it did. I would’ve booted the March version but that’s slightly more work than it’s worth.
That’s why I put ‘could have’ in my above comment 
I’m not saying IOI will, but I was just using it as a possible example of one of the surprises IOI might drop as part of launch. Although it’s unlikely, they could have found a way to make it work? I guess we’ll see.
I would really doubt it.
The announcement of “surprises” and of “Hawkes bay, ICA, and Carpathian don’t work and are out” were at the same time.
And from the way the whole surprises bit is brought up, they are implied to be about the larger progression and gameplay of the freelancer mode.
The CTT was focused, about the base loop, the base economy. So everything larger would have been cut (partially to have them as surprises, partially because they would have interfered with what IOI wanted to have feedback about).
Hardcore mode is certainly an example. Maybe also some of the higher mastery level unlock.
At best I could see some bonus mission type (akin to xcom). Maybe patient zero versions of the maps, but that’s the higher I would go.
Outside of that, the only change we know about from the CTT is the removal of the ICA iconography. Which was a large talk on the forum.
If they went with some other lore feedback, maybe we will have the main targets removed.
The rest will certainly be economy tweaks, and difficulty tweaks.
Yeah, I have a feeling IOI won’t lock DLC weapons from Freelancer, and if they do, it’ll only be for that mode. It’d be a very strange design decision.
I was not talking about the suits, I was talking about the items.
As I said in my previous comment before that:
I’ve literally just edited it. I realised the moment I posted.
No problem, just saw the edit.
I want you to have this engraved on a metal plate on your wall 
My absolute favourite surprise (and I’m fully aware how improbable this is) would be Diana living in that safehouse too.
I’d probably just die on the spot, but I’m willing to take one for the team here. 
Yeah that’s a good point to be fair, didn’t even consider the removal of the main targets from the launch version of Freelancer.
Would be cool if this happened, but it could prove to be difficult though as other NPC’s interact with them, unless IOI found a way to make it work? 
So many issues with this.
I’ll have this engraved into my forehead with a soldering iron if that’s what it takes for people to get it.
And I need to hear none of them
But it would also be nice marketing - you would only get them rarely and they would be single use, so it would work as a teaser to buy the DLCs and get them with free unlimited usage
Okay, I feel like my comment has been misinterpreted (my fault, I was in a rush to rewrite it after misunderstanding @AnthonyFuller ); what I meant was what you’re saying here; that 7DS/ DLC weapons could show up. The “strange design decision” I’m referring to is barring weapons off from other players who don’t have the DLC but those who do have it can use it if they get found in Freelancer. It’d be easier and simpler to enable it globally in Freelancer if they ever do such a thing.
Honestly, I don’t think it’d work as advertisement all that well. People know how good the goldbrick is by reputation already (it’s commonly cited as a reason to get Sloth), but 7DS’s reputation never changed despite this information, so a lot of players just didn’t buy it.
Of course, it being merged into the deluxe edition solves the problem somewhat, but still.
