This Mod alters the levels’ props, movement and perimeter around Colorado to make up more consistent cover for the level.
The motivation for this mod was honestly fairly simple.; it’s a pain in the backside to actually enter the compound. Once you get inside, the stealth grass does a good job of keeping you out of sight.
Here are all the list of changes (so far):
- Removed some unneccessary collision inside compound front entrance.
- Added a Vision Blocker to a closed barn window outside the 4x4 exit.
- Added a PFObject to a section of stealth grass near the haybaler. The guards will now avoid the grass by default, unless you distract them or provoke them (This was also back-ported into UCP) as a fix.
- Expanded the section near the haybaler; this adds three trucks and a lot of rubbish as cover, as well as moving the haybaler to the right-side, and adding haybales as some cover when cleaning up bodies.
- Added “safety cover” near the barn windows outside the 4x4 exit. This should encourage using those windows more to get around those two guards.
- Added cover outside the slurry pit that dictates a pickable gate and allows for observation of the drunk guard.
- Added extra “safety cover” that should encourage players to sneak past the barn guards outside the slurry pit.
- Minor cover changes outside the main barn perimeter.
- Added haywheels to provide cover when approaching the guards outside the main house.
- Added a truck, rubbish, and trailers to work as cover when going past the guard patrolling outside the back of the main house. This also extends the playable space, so you can have more room to breathe. A box has also been added to hide bodies further up.
- Added tree’s outside the orchard entrance.
- Added a logpile to act as proper cover outside the orchard entrance.
- Added some cover (subject to change) outside the orchard.
- Moved boat and added fishy props to act as cover outside the orchard.
- Added more cover around the bog area near the starting entrance.
- Added an explosive canister outside the barn. If you can see this, then you’re in range.
- Reworked a room in the Barn, and slightly altered a sentry guard’s view of the door leading into said room.
- Added Bananas and other melee items that can now be picked up.
- Added more cover around the house and the kitchen.
- More stuff I’m sure other players will find out.
This project took many weeks to accomplish and plan out, and has been on my
to-do list of changes I’ve wanted to make to the game since late-2022. So if you are appreciative of these changes made in this mod, or anything else I’ve made, then Consider donating to me via Ko-Fi! It would mean a lot =)
Have fun, and enjoy Colorado like you’ve always wanted to play it!
Thank you to @Invalid for helping me with PFObjects and @AtomicForce for help with understanding the murky world of NAVP and AIRG generation. This mod would not have released without them!
This thread/ post serves as a way to guage player feedback and other changes people would like me to make.
13 Likes
Wow! I love this! Sadly I wouldn’t be able to test this out myself anytime soon and though I can’t vouch for all of the changes, it’s so good to see a fan taking a crack at subtly improving an original mission while mostly sticking to the initial design.
I can already see how some of these changes would improve the traversal or the experience in general; like a new box in the barn that would be useful for a corner subdue on the roaming specops guy. I presume alterating the box corner near the kitchen is meant to make KOing and hiding NPCs in that area such as the cook safer and less visible?
Good call. A bit of a shame some of the new stuff was never added to older levels like they had done with the bushes etc. back in Hitman 2, nice of you to address that
For me, the biggest pain in the ass about Colorado was always an instant alarm in case of a lockdown. The very moment a target sees somebody get KOd or sees you aiming a weapon at them or gets injured with a non-lethal shot – sirens are going off across the compound locking down other targets and alerting all guards nearby, even if you kill that target immediately after the fact.
1 Like
This is basically every Hitman player’s dream at some point. Fortunately I have mastered Colorado, because I’m in a PS4, no way of getting mods
Nail on the head. I also added a visionblocker where the tree is because I deemed it sufficiently obscured to make NPC’s think nothing’s happening.
Good call. A bit of a shame some of the new stuff was never added to older levels like they had done with the bushes etc. back in Hitman 2, nice of you to address that.
For the curious, I’ve added four banana’s to the map, one car battery and several melee replacements (I.E, garden forks). I did consider adding a second car battery, but I decided against it for balance purposes – I can excuse adding an extra Gas Canister (the map justifies it; it’s a military compound and such things would be all over the place), but adding a car battery near each car, on a map filled with puddles, is not the best idea in my opinion.
Still though, not completely against item backports when the maps are considered carefully, and IO should definitely add more “functional” items to Colorado because there’s surprisingly few.
While I can change this, the context kinda justifies the need for it. A militia would probably be on high alert immedietely if any kind of shootout or if the principle was being attacked. Moreover, I was surprised how much of a non-issue it is, once you can actually run away more reliably.
Amazing mod, makes Coloardo much more bearable. Just one bug I’ve found - rake behind the main house cannot be picked up. It appears to be highlighted in instinct, but there is no prompt for picking it up. Just a small bug in otherwise great mod.
And special thanks for adding all those items around the map - I really wish IO would retroactively added stuff to Season 1 and 2 where it would make sense - like Toolbox in shed in Paris, Meat Fork in Sapienza’s butchery…
2 Likes
So this uses a fully new generated NAVP and AIRG? No side effects like have been detected in other projects?
2 Likes
Yes indeed! There is an odd side-effect of one NPC not liking hills. But other than that, it works as if it were made by IO. The caveat is that the AIRG/ NAVP must be patched to use custom hashes.
And even if it did work, I’d do that anyway, as it might cause other problems.
4 Likes
I created a video that better explains the process of making the edits, as well as the tools used!:
9 Likes
I prefer Colorado from 2016. Although the high grass helped with stealth, for me (as a master player of Colorado), i preferred the more challenging navigation it was from 2016 version. I liked the tension it brings, and not only with SA/SO, but even with disguises. If you fk up, you have nowhere to hide (in a sense). That’s what made that map so fun for me.
And also i preferred the sky from 2016 before the “pink sky” update. It’s better now but nothing better than OG Colorado, imo.
And now with freelancer, Colorado is my go to map for showdowns. So your mod will help with the more casual and intermediate players for sure.
3 Likes
