Curated Contracts: KevinRudd
@Kevin_Rudd
April 17, 2020 – HITMAN, News
Spring is here and so is the next Contract Curator. Our Curator for April is KevinRudd! He’s a well-known figure on Hitman Forum and Reddit. His 11 Curated Contracts are live now in HITMAN 2.
He’s a very creative soul and often creates humorous, mind puzzling contracts and shares stylish screenshots. But now, let’s take some time and get to know him a bit better, and find out more about where he gets his contracts passion:
KevinRudd! Nice to meet you.
G’day, mate!
Can you give us some intel on who you are?
Some may think of me as a former Prime Minister (j/k – or am I?), but to the rest of the HITMAN community, I’m that guy who keeps coming up with a buttload of contracts (First the Sniper series, now all sorts of interesting types) and posting them on Reddit and HitmanForum. I’m also that guy who keeps posting Ansel pictures on Reddit from the game. I like to think I have other contributions too.
We do remember your awesome sniper contracts quite well! – Where can people find/watch/follow you online?
You can find me as u/alban3se on Reddit where I’ve been posting something every single night this year, apart from a brief holiday, and as KevinRudd on HMF where I’m active in the contract, Ansel (picture) and other threads of people trying to get the most out of the game.
And we’ll get back to your Ansel skills later on, but first: When did you first stumble upon the Bald Assassin?
The first time I played a Hitman game was in either 2002 or 2003, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin at my brother’s house. Ever since then I was hooked!
We all are Can you tell us what Hitman game is your favorite, and why?
Would have to be the current game (HITMAN 2) with all DLC, truly a world of assassination; there’s always a reason to come back to each location; you’re not confined to just one mission, take advantage of the big maps and world that’s been crafted!
Excellent point, so talking about HITMAN 2, what’s your favourite location?
I have to mention that Sapienza is the best location in the franchise of all time, soz but it’s true. But for HITMAN 2… maybe Miami. Big and civilian-oriented are my favourite. New York is very polished and has nice music though, and Haven Island is a bit of fun. But the real question is when are we getting an Australia map?
Well, New Zealand is “relatively” close to Australia, wouldn’t you say? Anyways! – what’s your favourite moment, in HITMAN? Can be anything, from in-game to something you’ve seen, played etc.
Being picked as a Curator is pretty cool, almost as cool as winning an election. But I enjoyed the challenge of coming up with a sniper contract for every single map in the game; can’t wait to do it for H3’s levels, whatever they are.
Hint hint, developers, make sure every map has cool sniping spots
Quite an awesome collection of Sniper Contracts, and awesome pictures for them as well, tell us a bit about Where you draw your Ansel inspiration?
If I wasn’t a Prime Minister in this life (Not saying I’m not, but hypothetically if I wasn’t); then you could say I studied film and television and have a strong interest in that stuff. So I know a bit about composing a shot with a real camera, and if you get the Ansel Unlocked cheat on PC then it functions a lot like a real camera can (Except it floats magically in the air, so much better than real camera). There are some cool settings, interesting characters and humorous happenings to get shots of in this game, oh yeah and some of the glitches are funny too
NOW – Let’s talk Contracts!
Let’s start by talking about your Curator Batch. How did you go about choosing/creating/ finding the 10 / 11 contracts, what was your process?
I used detailed programmatic specificity and weeks of replaying old contracts (Thanks, COVID-19!) to come up with the final list.
If this batch has a theme, it’d be ‘variety‘; I wanted to choose contracts that covered every single aspect of this vast game (If that’s even possible), and I tried to spread it across as many maps as possible. Essentially all of these contracts come from the HitmanForum contract thread, it’s really the only place to go if you’re after contracts that aren’t killing the gate guard in the tutorial map. I also like contracts that have a premise to them beyond ‘ just kill these people lel’.
I’ve made it my mission to come up with a variety of contract types the past year, so I’ve also gone through my own to find ones which aren’t a very common category; the rest are from those who have their own types they’re good at making.
With the theme of variety in mind, some of the categories you’ll find in this batch are: Infiltration, Puzzle, Sniper, Loud Gun, Freedom, Speedrun, Explosive, Non-Assassination Skills and Challenge. I don’t like elaborate restrictive contracts, although I put in one that sort of comes close for people who really want to be challenged.
I want the less adventurous players out there who haven’t given certain styles or types a shot to see this batch, play it and go “Oh, I haven’t done that before but I like it” and maybe even learn something new about how things in the game work.
Brilliant idea and variety as a theme is great!
We thought it would be cool to use KevenRudd’s Ansel skills, so we asked him to take a picture for his Contracts and write a little teaser for each:
I Never Wear A Rubber
Will you overcome breathing problems and make a lot of noise?
Which color has your collar?
What’s That Sound?
Knockout!
Sniper Assassin: Castle Mk II
Hokkaido Fastball
Grand Theft Bosco
Arrive, Hide, Leave
Wildcard
Eviction
Ripe For The Picking
Now – Let’s go a bit behind the screens here:
What is the one item you always take into a contract with you and why do you like it so much?
There isn’t any one item I take in with me every time, as I play a lot of puzzle contracts in which you have to figure out very specific items to bring; but 95% of the time I take at least either the Silverballer/Krugermeier or Sieker; silenced pistol is good for everything… kills, distractions, causing a panic, destroying cameras, and the Sieker is useful for getting people out of the way peacefully, but mainly is funny
The Silverballer, classic move Mr. Rudd. Please share with us what makes Contracts special for you?
Any game that lets its players come up with content is good in my books. I’ve probably spent too much time in Contracts Mode now (I pray it will be expanded upon in the next game?) but I like all the mini puzzles etc you can make for other players to figure out or have fun with.
Final question Mr Rudd: What makes the perfect Contract?
I dunno about ‘perfect’, but you’ve done a bloody good job if there’s something special or unique about your contract, but doesn’t require super special knowledge of a glitch that only 2% of players know about. Stuff like a contract which can only be done if you make use of the food server function, or makes use of special items/machines in a map like the crane in Mumbai you can drop on people or the air vents in various levels; or an excuse to use loud guns or bombs but still get Silent Assassin, because there’s so many items in the game but they’ll rarely get used because they’re not very stealthy.
Time is almost up KevenRudd, so now is your chance to share or say one last thing before you go. Have at it!
If you like the game but think you’ve run out of stuff to do (I’ve gotten 890 hrs, personally), consider custom contracts. It can hard be hard to sort though and find the good ones, but this thread has lots of tips on how to find them and a categorised list of contracts I like if you enjoy my curated batch, as well as other people’s picks.
Thank you so much for your time KevinRudd, and thanks for giving us and the community the opportunity to get to know you a bit better -!
Thank you, or as they say in Mandarin “Xi xi ni”, Mr Clemens; you’ve given me a fair shake of the sauce bottle and made an old prime minister smile :’)
Curated Contracts: Frote7
@Frote7
February 19, 2020 – HITMAN
2020’s Second official Contract Curator is here! He was given the task of picking 10 contracts for you to enjoy! Many of you might know him as one of the Speedrunning-Connoisseurs from all over the HITMAN community. He’s fast, he’s funny and he’s Frote7.
Now, let’s get a little closer to this fast-maniac and find out more about him and the Contracts that he’s chosen to be featured – they’ll be live in HITMAN 2 on Thursday February 20.
Hello Frote7!
Hi IOI friends! Hope you are doing well.
We’re great – and happy to have you as a Curator. Can you give us some intel on who you are?
THAT is Frote7, the clown. Supermodel turned spymaster, turned pirate, turned clown. Quite the resumé.
Quite . Before we get into more details, where can people find/watch/follow you online?
You can find me streaming on Twitch. I upload all my runs to YouTube. Besides that you can find me on Twitter.
OK. First things first: when did you first stumble upon the Bald Assassin?
Watching a friend play Codename 47, did not have a PC myself at the time, but the game looked awesome. First Hitman game I owned myself was Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.
What about your favourite Hitman game, and why?
Has to be HITMAN 2016. Simple reason is that it’s the game where I had the most fun with, and put the most time in.
A solid choice. What about the most recent game; what’s your favourite map from HITMAN 2?
If we are strictly speaking HITMAN 2 maps: Miami, closely followed by The Bank. If we are including Legacy, then Paris is still the best map by far.
What’s your favourite moment about the Hitman franchise? This could be anything from in-game to something you’ve seen or made etc.
If we’re talking about in-game, it’s the first time playing Paris. I was so impressed and overwhelmed, felt like a kid in a candy store. Outside of the game it’s getting invited to IOI HQ & the HITMAN 2 event at Gamescom in the summer of 2018. But my upmost favorite moment was: meeting Adoria (my girlfriend ) via HITMAN.
A true Hitman love story. Speaking of other community members, we know that you’ve set-up a “Speedrunning Community”. Tell us more.
It started out as a one time thing: I wanted to organize a Speedrun Competition with some prizes. MulletPride then offered to help me by setting up a Discord for me and making some artwork. The response was so overwhelmingly positive that I was highly motivated to continue. In 2019, we’ve had 3 big Speedrun competitions, 1 Ghost Mode tournament and a bunch of weekly competitions.
Now in 2020 we’re stepping up our game: The year is divided in 4 seasons, each season consisting of 3 months. Each month will have 1 big competition (including prize money), 2 mini-competitions and batch of our own featured contracts made by previous month’s winners. We also provide lots of live commentary for our big events.
We’ve had the Roulette Rivals event in January, Ghost Mode Tournament 2 is currently underway, and we got Speedrun Competition 4 coming up in March. This week we reached 500 members on our Discord, which is just incredibly awesome!
And the best thing of all? Participating in our events is completely free! So if you want to put your Hitman skills to the test, learn a lot about the mechanics of the game and meet cool players from a very active and friendly community: Join our discord!
We’re obviously happy to see such a popular community take shape – and it’s about speedrunning. Can you share why speedrunning is so great?
This is a very good question, and one that i thought about quite a lot. Is it the competitive aspect? The sense of satisfaction when pulling off a cool run? Getting to truly understanding of the game’s mechanics? The pure joy and entertainment of watching a run evolve over time? A mix of it all? Well, I found this video that touched on some very good points, and explains it better than I could.
But in short: It’s simply very, very fun.
NOW – Time to talk about Contracts!
Can you share your secret on how you went about choosing/creating/ finding the 10 contracts, what was your process?
I started the process by looking at [REDACTED]. In my opinion, when selecting contracts you always have to take [REDACTED] into account, because else you will run into [REDACTED]. Once that is done, I look at which [REDACTED] would add a lot for [REDACTED]. It’s not a long or difficult process, but it’s very important to not forget about [REDACTED].
Aha, guess not – fair Then can you tell us about the contracts you’ve chosen/ created and why you chose them?
It’s a mix. I’ve picked several from our speedrun competitions since they are simply very good contracts. I also wanted a good Fiber Wire Suit Only contract in there, and finally picked some quality contracts from masters like Urben and Euler13. Despite people was expecting me to have picked 10 Paris contracts, no go, each map only gets featured once haha.
Smart move! Okay, final question: When you normally start a contract, what is that one item you always bring – and why do you like it so much?
None. It all depends on the contract i’m playing and what I need for that particular one. But the silenced pistol is still the best item/weapon in the game, it’s just so versatile.
Versatile and a classic, love it. Okay, we know we said the final question, but this is the final final question – why the Clown suit?
Haha I feel like it represents my personality + I think it’s the best out of all the suits. And at this point, me and that particular suit has become inseparable.
That was the all the questions Frote7, so now is your chance to share or say one last thing before you go. The floor is yours!
Want to start by giving a huge shoutout to my admin team: MulletPride, Adoria, Fuzk, Scroobi & Karma! Our Speedrun Community would not have been what it is without your help. Love you guys.
Shoutout to the people helping us to promote our competitions, and to all the great runners! Special mention for my bro Mendietinha
Last but not least, make sure to tune in for the Ghost Mode Tournament 2 Grand Finals this Sunday (February 23 – 2020) There will be live commentary for all 3 finals on my Twitch channel.
Hope to see you all there!
On that note, Thank you for your “time” Frote7!
Really? You just couldn’t resist huh? Haha
Curated Contracts: Urben
@Urben y 21, 2020 – HITMAN, News
The May Contract Curator is here and ready. He’s a well-known figure and Mod on Hitman Forum and Discord. He’s a very creative soul and often creates humorous, mind puzzling contracts and shares hilarious and complex videos. This also results in some very interesting ways to take out Elusive Targets. You can play his 11 Curated Contracts now in HITMAN 2.
But now, let’s take some time and get to know him a bit better, and find out more about where he gets his crazy ideas from:
Urben! Nice to meet you.
Hey! Glad to be here!
Can you give us some intel on who you are?
You already summarized me well for what I do at HITMAN so let me add something more personal:
I’m from Germany and currently try to find my place in the software industry. I am an analytic, yet also a creative mind who likes to put that into use not only in gaming but also programming. Let’s see where this leads me to.
I am eagerly using the Internet to find inspiring things, interesting people and also use it to learn. I do that since I was a kid which made me appreciate the value of the digital sphere. Because of that I am also involved in some political activities when I see this space in danger. I also try to inform others from time to time as you can easily miss these things.
If people want to see more of what you do, where can they watch/follow you online?
I am most active on Hitmanforum but also on Discord like the Official Hitman one or the Discord of Frote7’s Speedrun Community. You can find all my creative videos on my Youtube Channel.
Great! Now let’s go back in time: when did you first stumble upon the Bald Assassin?
My first HITMAN game was Blood Money. I did not play it as much as the recent games, but I played through it multiple times with joy. The level I remember the most is “You Better Watch Out…”. Vertical maps are always special and I love to climb or sneak my way to an advantage point and pull off kills from multiple levels below or above.
It’s also a classic! But let’s circle in on the games, what is your favorite Hitman game, and why?
The current ones by far with HITMAN 2 taking the lead. I think the formula was there quite much in older HITMAN games, but with all these ways to interact, multiple starting/exit locations, pickup locations, items and so on… I can only say this is a huge lethal holiday simulator sandbox that I cannot imagine to find in any other franchise.
So keeping it around HITMAN 2, what is your favourite map ?
Everyone saying it is Sapienza is boring, so I go with Isle of Sgàil. While it feels a bit too much as the fortress it actually is, I already said I love vertical maps and this surely is one of them. And the atmosphere is just beautiful.
Now we’ve talked about your favourite game and map, but what in general has been your favourite moment, in HITMAN? Can be anything, from in-game to something you’ve seen, played etc.
Hard to say as I did and saw so much. It almost became regular business. But what really stood out was being invited to the Gamescom to meet you and some cool players from the community to test the upcoming HITMAN 2. It even topped having the studio creative director of IO talking about one of my videos as one of the most creative kills that he has seen so far, right there at the E3. I still wait for my medal by the way.
Also, finding myself in Haven was very special.
Finding once self is always special! – So Urben – You create many awesome videos for HITMAN, if you should point out one of your personal best – which one is it?
It is the Weaponized Parrot Kill on the Revolutionary. It is not only about the idea but also the presentation. And I think I reached a peak with both of them there.
An older one that is also nice to watch is The 250,000,000 Pound Sterling Big One Throw where I throw the Big One on a propane flask. The explosion accelerates it to another flask where the target stands. The music, the slow motion and the fact the target must see the Big One coming for him nails it.
Complexity seems to be a theme here, what’s the most complex thing you’ve done in HITMAN?
There are many complicated things I did. I know you want my answers to be short but you literally ask for it with this one!
I did this sniper double kill in World of Tomorrow. The same bullet kills Franny and later Silvio in his plane. (At 7:30min in the video) The shot was very hard to do as the travel time of the bullet made it impossible to guess when to shoot. I always missed the plane so I had to apply some science!
What I did was pausing the game when his plane was where I want to hit it and made a screenshot of the map so I have his position. Then I looked for a place for 47 on the map to shoot a not-moving object that is equally far away. There I did a test shot on the object, also in slow motion, recorded it, went to my video editor and measured the time from trigger to impact. I applied the same time to a recording of the actual point of view of the kill to see where Caruso has to be on my screen to hit the trigger.
But there was another problem: I did not find an object to shoot at for the test, even from edge-to-edge the map was too small for that distance. So instead I shot at a bell of the boat that is related to the Kraken Easter Egg. But that one is not marked on the map! How do I find out it’s position?
I aimed on the bell from multiple positions on the map so I could use the direction indicator of 47’s position symbol on the map to draw the lines of sight. Where the lines crossed was the position of the bell on the map. With that knowledge I found out that shooting the boat’s bell from the church’s bell (oh the irony) is pretty much the very same distance I was looking for. The rest was the described math with my video editor.
NOW – Contracts time!
Share with us howd you went about choosing/creating/ finding the 11 contracts, what was your process?
I began collecting contracts way before you asked me as I am slow at this. I had a short list of people that are quite creative so I tried to include a contract from each of them. But that was not enough. So I went through the HITMAN 2 contract thread on HMF. Yes, all 3k posts. But I still had not enough! So I reinstalled HITMAN 2016 and went through the contract thread for this game. Yes, all 10k posts. Luckily this way I could also include other creative people that are less active these days. That also made up for me turning down the offer to become the last HITMAN 2016 curator.
I also tweaked some contracts, labelled as REMIX. I want that to be understood as a collaboration, a new concept that makes the batch more special. Not as some attempt to fix something. I wanted the cool ideas to fit better in what I tried to accomplish with this batch.
Legacy, Remix and Mashup – this is awesome! Your 11 picks are now playable in HITMAN 2, can you tell us about the contracts you’ve chosen/ created and why you chose them.
Every contract offers multiple solutions. For example in “The Accidental Gardener“ (Santa Fortuna by Kent) you can either infiltrate the tunnels or set up traps when starting there undercover.
Every contract can also be speedrun, which means there is always a way to spend time usefully. “Bookend Beauties” (Paris by Euler13) kind of requires you to not waste too much time as you cannot KO the targets and need to keep them isolated before returning with the required axes.
Still every contract should be enjoyable if you take your time. You don’t even need Mastery for any of them… in theory.
Although, I could not resist to include a narrower contract that really tests your creativity: “Perfect Shooter Puzzle” (Miami by WhiteHalf).
And as a finish, you get to… uh meet me in Haven in another tricky contract I made myself. Please be gentle~!
Let us go a little behind the screen here:
Preparation is key. What is the one item you always take into a contract with you and why do you like it so much?
I often have my pre-set loadout contain stuff from my last Elusive Target, so I happen to start contracts often with the Big One or Laser Tripwire in my pockets. I am more than happy if I am able to make use of them in the most obscure ways.
Haha Laser Tripwire in pockets – you play a dangerous game Urben! If you should sum up: What makes Contracts so special for you?
The maps, the tools and the ways to combine them is my main enjoyment in these games. I loved Lego as a kid and I kind of do the same here now. Please keep on making unique pieces I can put together!
If it exists, What makes the perfect Contract?
The perfect contract offers a puzzle to solve. And a way to bypass it with more effort if you don’t like that. It can also be done fast, but does not push you if you don’t want to. It limits you to become creative, but is still open enough if you want to do things your way. And you come back to it because after finishing it you have new ideas, new knowledge you want to try out.
What I personally try is to wrap that up in an appearance that makes the contract look easier than it is. According to Munga I am successful at this.
We’re almost at the end Urben, so now is your chance to share or say one last thing before you go. Have at it!
If you like contracts and missed out my featured ones in HITMAN 2016, you are in luck! With the help of MulletPride the best of them are ready to be played on all platforms.
Or if you want to get into contract creation yourself, let me help you with this huge guide that contains many tips about what makes a generally enjoyable contract. Join us whenever Clemens is asking for submissions for Featured Contracts!
And finally I thank all people who follow my videos and leave comments, even to old ones. It wouldn’t be half the fun if I could not share them with you! This community in general is very positive, it is nice to be part of it!
Thank you Urben, and thanks for giving us and the community the opportunity to get to know you a bit better !
Thank you as well! What could I want more?
No seriously, where is my medal?
