[MOD] Mk2 Retooled Pack

Hitman: World of Assassination
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@BlossomFox and I are happy to bring you the Mk2 Retooled Pack mod.

This mod aims to replace the Mk II gear and weapons in the game with new items.
Those new items have original gameplay and new models.
(The Briefcase Mk II, having a unique mechanic, history, and aesthetic is kept as is)

15 items in total.
They are intended to be useful, playful, or intriguing enough to imagine and make runs around them.
While not being so powerful that they could cut clean through the Gordian puzzle boxes that are the Hitman missions.

The mod also brings an optional suit replacement, an optional briefcase retexture, and options to integrate some of its items into Freelancer.

@BlossomFox :cherry_blossom: made the new textures for the Bartoli Dragon Shotgun, and cleaned up the ones for the EMP.
She also helped on, and host, the updater.
She gave invaluable pointers, feedback, and critic as the mod was created.
She has all my thanks, and should be seen as co-creator of the mod. :cherry_blossom:

https://www.nexusmods.com/hitman3/mods/1407

The Gear - 8 items

  • ICA 60 Seconds Fuze Explosive

    • Replaces the ICA Proximity Explosive Mk II.
    • “A modular explosive device designed by the ICA. Detonated by a delayed fuze 60 seconds after activation. Highly suspicious if noticed.”

  • Dr Popp Firebomb

    • Replaces the Proximity Explosive Rubber Duck Mk II.
    • “A soda can concealing an incendiary payload in an underlining glass canister. Set off on break. Less powerful than a Molotov cocktail, but more discreet to transport.”

  • EMP “RuggedBook” Case

    • Replaces the Lockpick Mk II.
    • “A case containing a powerful EMP device. Requires a few seconds to power up after activation before delivering its effect. Made to resemble a Mitsaki RuggedBook.”

  • ICA Lure Phone

    • Replaces the ICA Audio Remote Distraction Mk II.
    • “This device is equipped with an audio app, allowing you to attract anyone nearby to your location at the push of a button. Anyone answering the phone will be sedated with a dermal toxin.”

  • ICA Micro Breaching Charge

    • Replaces the Remote CX Demo Block Mk II.
    • “A micro explosive device designed to breach doors by the ICA. Detonated remotely. Will destroy the lock when detonated. Too small to notice, and relatively quiet.”

  • RFID LetterParcel Bomb

    • Replaces the Proximity CX Demo Block Mk II.
    • “An innocent looking parcel. Will explode when armed, and in proximity of the corresponding RFID tag.”

  • Atlantide Sedative Bottle

    • Replaces the Emetic Syringe Mk II.
    • “A bottle of Atlantide modified to contain a single dose of sedative poison hidden in its cork. Do not expect to be able to poison food or drink discreetly with it.”

  • ICA Micro Sedative Tripwire Mine

    • Replaces the ICA Remote Explosive Mk II.
    • “A device that releases a sedative gas upon activation. Activated when a laser tripwire is interrupted. Do not let its habitual look deceive you, this tripwire will not attract any attention when placed.”

The Weapons - 7 items

  • ICA19 ClassicStriker

    • Replaces the ICA19 SilverBaller Mk II.
    • “A tactical magnum pistol. Custom slide with suppressor. Body piercing rounds. Low rate of fire, and very high damage. Arrives with a single magazine of seven bullets.”

  • TAC Dart Rifle

    • Replaces the Tac-SMG Mk II.
    • “A modern submachine gun modified to shoot darts. Loudly, one per magazine, but with excellent precision. Will sedate anyone it hits”

  • Bartoli Dragon Shotgun

    • Replaces the Enram HV Covert Mk II.
    • “A U.S. produced pump-action shotgun. Loaded with incendiary ammunition.”

  • Ether Tracker Dartgun

    • Replaces the Lethal Syringe Mk II.
    • “An Ether made dartgun, created for “delicate corporate situations and containments”. Its darts inject their targets with a tracking device.”

  • TAC-4 Marksman

    • Replaces the TAC-4 AR Auto Mk II.
    • “A modern bullpup assault rifle. Custom parts for high-precision. Semi-automatic, accurate, and stable with excellent damage.”

  • Sieger 300 Shockwave

    • Replaces the jaeger Mk II.
    • “A custom variant of the Sieger 300 bullpup rifle. Designed to forgo subtlety with its magazines of shockwave ammunition. Use carefully on the range.”

  • Momendi Toy Pistol

    • Replaces the HWK21 Mk II.
    • “A Momendi-made toy replica of a classic pistol. Silent. Almost inexistent damage. Can still be useful for distractions and other sabotages.”

The (optional) Bonuses - 1 suit, 1 briefcase

  • The Jumper Suit

    • Replaces the Lucky Ducky Suit.
    • “A simple knitted jumper, dress pants, and worker boots. Practical.”

  • The Arepo Case

    • Retextures the Arctic Tool Box.
    • “A versatile transport case. Could survive running into a burning building.”

Freelancer Options

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The mod possesses separate options to integrate some of its items into Freelancer, with new rarity, prices, and inventory capacity.

  • The Freelancer Tools options allow to replace some of the tool from the tool box.
  • The Freelancer Weapons options allow to either replace the Street Art weapons in the themed panel, or weapons in the appropriate main weapon wall panels.

Both also have a “Custom” option, for those ready to tinker directly with the mod folders.

KNOWN ISSUES

  • The EMP “RuggedBook” Case and the Ether Tracker Dartgun only behave in the loadout screen as, respectably, a container and a concealed weapon only in offline and on Peacock.
    As a consequence the EMP Case can cause issue if brought in along a suitcase, or the Beatdown Boombox.
  • The ICA Micro Breaching Charge cannot be brought in via a stash. This is an issue from its original item, the Remote Demo Block who likewise should, but cannot be stashed.
  • Swapping between Freelancer options can cause crashes on Freelancer launches as it implements itself. Once done, crashes should stop.

SPECIAL THANKS

@BlossomFox co-author of the mod, who created the art of the Bartoli Dragon Shotgun, gave me pointers as I started modding, and has a keen critical eye when needed.
@Luiluix who sent me the Electrocution Phone texture from Hitman 2 for the Lure Phone.
@magicdave94 and @linux_penguin who tested the mod and gave invaluable feedbacks.

This is my first mod, having only obtained an actual PC last month, and I hope everyone enjoys it.
Cheers everyone!

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The HITMAN Screenshot Thread
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But, you might be wondering, isn’t there 16 mk2 items, 17 with the briefcase? Yes.
The Remote Explosive Rubber Duck Mk II is still present as it is.
And it is not to conserve it as a piece of history, under the guise of what harm could one more duck do.

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It’s because it will become the Agora Duck.

That you, the forum, will decide on, and design. If you so desire.
I will then later, create it, and add it to the mod.

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Design a duck! That is a surprise to me too!
Thank you so much for being so wonderful and talented, it’s been great to help out. I’m also doing some art for this mod which should be done soonish. :cherry_blossom: :pink_heart:

I’d have to suggest a rainbow duck that shifts through colours! I’m pretty sure it’s someone’s Twitch emote and I thought it was pretty funky. Maybe a smoke one that creates low visibility?

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Goddammit, why can’t these items be brought into the actual game. I want that tracker gun, I want that outfit, and most of all, you incorporated the Bloodballer that I’ve been waiting years now for!

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I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say but…
One of the items is coming in the next roadmap! :pink_heart:
(arti told landirt hehe)

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Let me guess, it’s gonna be the damned soda can.

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My moneys on the tracker dart gun tbh

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Would certainly be useful for ETs, and even Freelancer showdowns, if it is brought into Freelancer.

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:grinning_face: :+1: Can’t wait to check it out in Freelancer in particular!

First vendor visited sold me the Dragon shotgun and the next mission had the Epic Shotgun prestige objective! :slot_machine:

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It’s an excellent thing that the only balance issue I have with any of these is the micro breaching charge (basically a legal breaching charge and another viable explosive for the silent explosive trick).

Other than that, excellent work all-round here! These all seem very well-thought-out!

Yeah, same. It sounds precisely like something IO would make for use in the base game to keep track of notable NPC’s.

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Tracker gun seems likely since they already added tracking with the bowtie duck, and they probably don’t wanna keep that exclusive to a twitch drop.

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The tracker dart gun has always been in the game as cut content @Dribbleondo!

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Fun as that might be, I’d prefer the suppressed pistol (been waiting literal years for that one), and that suit (the perfect casual suit for usage around the safehouse that I’ve been waiting for).

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Wooow, wow impressive stuff! Very interested how these items would change things in Freelancer.

How difficult was it to “create” or modify some items to basically make “new gameplay” elements? Like, we’ve been wanting IOI to experiment a bit with new items for a while now, but they’ve usually been just reskins of existing items.
Like, shotgun that has incendiary damage? Neat

No idea how mods work when communicating with the servers or through Peacock. Does Contracts mode even work with mods installed? How the heck would the server classify shooting someone with the Incendiary shotgun? Fire kill, or Shotgun kill?
Very very cool though, looks really neat, I need to get on trying to install mods to my Steam copy…

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Problem is, absurdly loud weapons are usually not desirable because they’re loud. It’s a stealth game, so quiet weapons and tools are gonna be the most helpful to have. It’s a cool item, for sure, but i’m not surprised IO do as many reskins as they do of existing items, they would rather the items that they released were used and have some utility, or were so novel that they were not meant to be taken seriously. This is why we have so many melee items and so many variants of ducks, and even those are getting more mechanical changes.

Having an incendiary shotgun is fine in a mod like this, but if the devs released this officially, we’d rightly say that it’s kinda pointless, because it’s not exactly useful to most players.

This is why the Level IV Access dongle so appealing, and why that was such a surprise to see. Not OP, shakes up the gameplay, and is generally quite useful in most runs for most players.

As I said above, the only weapon I take issue with in this mod was the micro breaching charge, because that’s just a flat-out better version of a weapon that already exists that is already fairly powerful. It’s textbook power creep, and both IO and mod devs alike have to avoid that.

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The firearms were the most straightforward to make.
Most of them are changes of values and list of properties to pre-existing ones.
IOI is Danish. So it’s very Lego like.

The Dragon Shotgun, as the last object made, I had some more fun with.
Creating and injecting brand new impact templates, ammo config calling it, magazine config calling the ammo, and weapon calling the magazine.
(I was also unsatisfied with its predecessor, the auto-shotgun)

The items were more complex.
I have pages of notes on the “runtime entities”.
(the runtime is the internal properties of the items, its actions, what each sounds like, its “events”, its logic links between them, polls, keywords, dramas…)
And I had to reverse understand how they work, talk, and interact.

I presume IOI has a visual tool that allows them to create the internal logic of the items as visual diagrams.
The tool might then automatically put everything in the engine structure and language of the “runtime” by making each part or logic link into an “entity”, putting them together with cross-references, and throwing everything into one large list, in alphabetical order.

In mods, it’s manual adds, rewrites, changes, or removals on each of those entities.
It frequently causes ripple effects to the ones they are referenced with/to.
The most complex items have three dozens of them or more.
From the essential “corenophys” and “itemart”, to the humble boolean value and polls.

Amusingly enough, finding the logic, entangling the apparent mess, categorizing and separating groups, etc… reminded me of the game itself. :slight_smile:
Hitman and how you can approach its missions.

The Ether Tracker Dartgun is indeed the only “unused item” of the mod.
It still has a new model, more ammo after feedback, and modifications to some of the impact template visual effect.

Fun fact: it doesn’t work like the tracker bowtie ducky at all.
I’ve looked at it, and the duck works by acting like a briefcase.
You know how when you drop a briefcase it appears on the minimap?
The exact same logic is used for the Bowtie Duck.

Every other items of the mod was fully created.
Some from scratch.

Some fun facts about the mod:

  • The Lure Phone background is an edited picture of Haven Island, the album cover is from Berlin, and there is an easter egg in the music playlist.
  • For most of its time it used the sound of a breaking bust, before going for a more phone-appropriate sonar-like sound. I listened to hundreds of possible sounds to choose it.
  • The Arepo Case was first created for the EMP Case, before going into another direction.
  • The “Mitsaki RuggedBook” look and name is inspired by the real life Panasonic ThoughBook line of laptop, but by a preexisting Hitman universe brand.
  • The EMP “Ruggedbook” Case and the 60 Seconds Fuze Explosive delay mechanic was inspired by the often forgotten Wristwatch Alarm item you can find in Hawke’s Bay and New York. They even use its ticking sound when active!
  • The Momendi Toy Pistol is manufactured by the brand you can find on games consoles props on the maps, Momendi.
  • The Jumper Suit is the first mod I created, as I read through the glaciermodding website documentations. The jumper is from the Hokkaido bodyguards, and is also used in the Christmas suits.
    I wanted to create a casual-day-to-day version of the training Tactical Turtleneck suit.

The hardest part of the mod to make?
The inventory images.

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Something I really appreciate about these items is the descriptions. They match really well with the base game items and as much as some of the newer items they’ve added have some entertaining jokes in their descriptions, I like that these have professional and no-nonsense descriptions.

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For science: Used the shockwave sniper in the safehouse shooting range. You can aim and shoot at the edge of the table and it will take 47 out. I was then stuck in a loop of the death animation, I guess the game doesn’t know what to do. No worries though, after restarting, it was as if I had come back from the last mission.

But I assume the ammo can take you for real out during missions, so don’t use it in close-quarters combat :sweat_smile:.

Edit: Just noticed there’s warning in the description :distorted_face:.

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A quick update about the mod.

The new roadmap contains an “ICA19 Spider Lilly”, which is in effect the ClassicStriker from the mod. :collision:

As a consequence a new item will be made to replace it. (1)

And for the record: the ClassicStriker was not an unused content sneaked in the mod.
It was fully created from the ground up.
But before it was my habitual wishlist on the forum.
And convergence happened…

@IOI_Artjoms and to the devs.
While testing and asking for balance feedback, the classicstriker was highlighted as quite powerful, and continuously given less and less base ammo. Ending at a single magazine of seven bullet.
It almost received a unique ammo type to disallow gaining more in level.
So I am quite curious to see how much you decided on.

(1) the current plan is to reassign the Ether Tracker Dartgun from the Lethal Syringe mk2 to the Silverballer mk2. The new item will then be assigned to Lethal Syringe. This will allow the Tracker Dartgun to properly behave as a concealed weapon in the loadout.

The tentative new item would be the Kronstadt-Ether Electrocution Syringe.
If we manage to make it work. Syringes runtimes are a doozy.

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If I could make a suggestion if the electric syringe doesn’t work out, maybe make the antique sedative syringe replace the lethal syringe? That may run into a similar problem because there is a chance they could introduce that officially, but just an idea since its the only antique syringe that’s not unlockable.