That’s exactly how I do it. Try the current route again. Or find a new one.
That would be nice. Best idea expressed so far…
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So what? Why would you care about 4 digits next to someone else’s score? Even when you’re first, you don’t win anything. It’s a game. Even when they’re “save scumming”, why would you care about how others play a game that’s de facto a singleplayer? If you disapprove this approach, and would rather go full purist you could always restart the contract after getting spotted.
I completely don’t understand this race up the leaderboard, I thought people played games for fun and immersion. Especially such beautiful, detail-focused games like Hitman.
And for people who aren’t willing to spend hours everyday playing the game the ability to save would make a massive difference.
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Exactly. Even if this would be an either/or-Situation, gameplay should always have priority over high scores and leaderboards. Especially in a single player game.
But as said before, if this really is an issue, seperate both okay styles or mark runs with saves somehow.
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People have fun at competition.
If some stuff is too hard to do 5 stars SA without saving, that is okay. Just note that “Why do you care for score?” can be easily turned to “Why do you care for SA rating?”. If 4 stars is the best one can do without saving, that is not so bad. What counts is fun. 
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That’s a good point and a counterargument to what I said.
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Because the game is still a game about skill and the score without saving should reflect that, IMO.
If they add saving to contracts they can add complications to limit saving. Some contracts are so tedious adding saving would be better than no saving (Vatican Privilege)
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Fun is subjective, and people can have fun/ find enjoyment in different ways, speedrunning being one of those ways. And hitman with its freedom of approach is (imo) the most interesting game out there to speedrun.
How does not being able to save in escalations and contracts = gameplay not having priority? Strange and false conclusion imo, it’s a design choice.
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If we were to add saving to Contracts mode and Escalations, we could implement something that encourages people not to save. For instance, every time a save is loaded, a certain amount of points could be subtracted from your score.
This way, people who don’t care about score can use the save function, while speedrunners are forced to do a playthrough from start to end to get on the leaderboard.
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Automatically add complications that limit saving to all old contracts and escalations. Then future contracts can have it as a choice. That means we get to have our cake and eat it too, the old contracts are still hard but the new ones have the choice of saving the game
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It is a design choice, yes. But my text you’ve quoted only compared high score vs gameplay feature and there I think that gameplay should have priority.
About the design choice: Yes, it is, and this thread is about asking iO to rethink this choice (and to hear other’s thoughts about it).
One might argue that SA is required for some unlocks. Still, you are correct! That’s why one of the ideas I found to be a good solution would be lesser score in exchange for saving, exactly because this would differentiate between those just wanting to complete escalations without endless repetition and those wanting to achieve the best scores.
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Scoring is just as much a gameplay feature as saving is, so that’s just a strange conclusion imo.
Make up your mind
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The only saving in escalations that would really make sense is that in 7DS and possibly DGS because how they have extra challenges attached to them, but even still most of the challenges in the escalations so far already involve restarting the escalation.
Contracts also wouldn’t make sense, due to the point of contracts is them being difficult, saving doesn’t make contracts less difficult.
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My go-to example for why I’d love saving on escalations is the Mumbai Escalation The Hirani Evacuation. This is the one set in Rangan Tower where you need to eliminate various targets on various floors and dump their bodies down the elevator shaft, with the added complications that you can’t change your disguise and if anyone sees you doing something illegal it’s an insta-fail.
At first I tried to do it Silent Assassin, but every time I got spotted I got more and more frustrated until I decided to just kill anyone I could and make a mass grave in the elevator. Even then, after 20+ minute long attempts I would still get spotted by someone I couldn’t see and fail. I would then work my way back up to where I was again and tried to figure out who it was that spotted me and make a minute or two more progress, but then I’d get spotted by someone else. With every 20+ minute playthrough where I got spotted and failed, it felt to me that I had just wasted 20 minutes of my life because I barely had done anything more, sometimes my timing would be off and I’d get spotted earlier, meaning on those runs I didn’t make any progress at all.
At the end I wasn’t glad that I had managed to do the hard challenge all by myself without looking up a guide, I just thought “thank God it’s over”. It took me over five hours just to complete the third level of the escalation, only about 1 hour was actually me exploring and figuring out what to do, the other 4 hours were repeating the exact same routes and actions over and over and over again, those hours could have been completely avoided if there was a saving system. I’ve found my enjoyment of escalations doesn’t depend on how much/little they change a level, how hard/easy they are, or even how long it takes me to figure out what to do, it’s whether I’m able to do it on the first try or not. For example, it took me an hour to figure out the secret admirer my first time through The Lust Assignation, but I enjoyed it a lot more than the final level of The Sloth Depletion which took a lot less time to figure out but also took me an hour to do since I failed and had to restart several times.
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Seems pretty clear to me that autofails are the problem, and not being unable to save.
Also no one is forcing you to complete a contract/escalation. If i don’t enjoy a certain contract/escalation, i wouldnt spend 5 hours on it. Just skip it, it’s no big deal.
If you load a save it’s not first try anymore.
Don’t mean this in a bad way, but that’s kinda on you no?
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One of the problems with Hitman 3 for those who are new to the game or didn’t transfer progress, The Escalation track challenges can be quite demanding for all unlocks. I think end of each track looking at least 90%-90% of escalations which leaves little for choice by the end. And when left with the more insta-fail ones it can get frustrating pretty fast.
With featured contracts if there are few what are frustrating least can wait a fortnight or so to get some new ones.
Think Escalation track should adopt there same with just challenge set which all escalations can contribute to. That way then it offers far more player choice in what they enjoy.
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My main point with that whole mini-essay is I hate it if I have to replay the exact same thing over and over and over again, especially on escalations where different levels already have incredibly similar routes which just compounds on repeats from failure. If on the Hirani Evacuation it took me five hours to figure out what to do, but I never had to do the same thing over again, I would think it was fine or even good. Saving would just save time so I don’t have to play the 19 minutes I know how to do flawlessly just to replay the 1 minute I don’t know how to do.
Also, I’m aware nobody’s forcing me, but I’m a completionist by heart and I’ve developed a mental urge to 100% whatever game I play, even if I’ve played it 15 times already like the Batman Arkham games. BTW, I wasn’t even responding to you, I was trying to explain to ColdDayInHell why I personally give a f*ck about saving.
Again feel that the instafails were the main issue though.
I know. But it’s a forum meant for discussion
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You have your set of opinions and I have mine. Neither of us will change each other’s mind, so I don’t see much point in continuing to debate into infinity. The only reason I made the first reply to you is because of my deep-seated desire to be proven correct (like everyone else on the internet). So I’ll wish you good day, maybe we’ll have a conversation about something else in the future