Idea about stealthy eliminations in crowds and possible pickpocketing mechanic

Thought about this when in Berlin and saw Chamberlin’s routine when he was going across the dance floor crowd. I think that in a future title (with a different rating system so this mechanic would be more useful) it could help the crowd mechanic if 47 could pull off certain eliminations in crowds without getting spotted/witnesses (obviously new animations would be needed for this, thought I would emphasize that).

I’m thinking it would be much in the style of “hidden blade” eliminations in assassins creed games, where if 47 was walking by somebody with a certain weapon already equipped (either hidden or openly equipped), the player would have a small window where they could have a button prompt to take out the target with the weapon. This would work best for melee weapons like knives and poison syringes. I don’t think this would work with guns like some people would want, because shooting somebody with a silenced pistol still a. Makes a lot of noise and b. Is certain to cause the bullet to go through the target and into someone else.

However this elimination mechanic could only really work in certain crowds (Paris’s crowd members would certainly notice something like this, but a crowd like Berlin’s dance floor, Mumbai’s crowded market, or an actively distracted or celebrating crowd like Miami during the race end / awards ceremony or Isle of Sgail’s crowd during the Phoenix ceremony).

However this also lead me to my next idea of a possible of this acting as a variety or extension of a different pickpocket mechanic where 47 could “pickpocket” something off of a target (like a key) or onto a target (like a small remote explosive). If he brushed by them and hit a precise button prompt, with 47 having to brush or “accidentally” run into certain sides of the NPC to get certain items (for example getting a key ring in someone’s left pocket versus their ID card pinned to their chest). This button prompt would would be very narrow (about a 1 second window), and failure would cause suspicion or even compromised or an arrest state depending on the NPC: thus emphasizing that it was a high risk process, but had a high reward, having to avoid knocking out an NPC or getting an item of importance or access much more naturally or quickly than having to find one around the level

Another way a pickpocketing mechanic could be used is if the player stealthily went behind an NPC and hit a few (maybe 3) button prompts in a row to be able to go through their pockets unnoticed (however this second method would be openly an illegal action, effectively requiring the NPC to be alone), and require 47 to either keep up with the NPC’s movement simultaneously or for the NPC to be standing still.

I think these two variations of a pickpocketing mechanic would both be useful in different situations, and would be much stealthier and logical than what we have currently for getting what’s in NPC’s inventory (making me think of the entertainer elusive Target and Orson Mills keycard)

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