I don’t know… the way he doesn’t even blink it annoys me… but I could use an another example: there are several shots of him driving, and in some he looks like either about to cry, or just straight up bored.
Also the loading screen after failing a showdown? That twitching makes him look like a psycho.
The airport one is looking like a mannequin had been put on a chair and is about to fall down… it doesn’t feel natural to me.
Ofc, this doesn’t apply to all, some of them are very good.
You can relax pretty well… I love to just watch 47 chop wood, sipping his wine or working on his bike… I feel immersed and as a someone that love the RPG elements of hitman I’m glad I can do that… it is true it will get old and I’m kinda sick watching hitman not sitting straight in his house (in missions it make sense since he has to blend in at look relaxed so the targets aren’t smelling fishes, but in his house he should be 100% himself and care about his posture), but better having that then no house at all. Besides, IOI are amazing and I feel like they will make the right desition to make it even better (not like removing the barbershop challenge in mumbai if I remember correctly 
)
8 Likes
I’m sorry if someone mentioned these before, I’ve lost track of this thread… 
In Mendoza, I ran into the issue of killed and stashed suspects still appearing on the mini map. Not sure if that’s what’s supposed to happen, it didn’t in my past showdowns, and it’s really confusing when trying to find the remaining ones (especially in showdowns with twelve suspects).
Another issue/question I have is that useful items found outside the safehouse don’t respawn anymore, starting with the coin and the mushroom, but it’s affecting all of them now. Are these supposed to be rare or one-time only?
1 Like
From my experience, the showdowns are not hampered by the lack of S/A. The issue with showdowns is that there’s too much going on that the player has to process, and it turns quite sluggish quite quickly, traipsing the map to check off targets, especially when the game outright cheats when none of the tells or looks match what Diana tells you. And that has happened in all but one of the showdowns now.
To add to this, evacuated suspects’ icons will still appear on the minimap.
I generally like the idea, but only if we could get it on our usual platform. It wouldn’t do anything for me on Steam, because I don’t own the game on Steam (and I’m not the only one who’s participating in the CTT who doesn’t).
2 Likes
For me it always matched, so I can’t confirm that, but it is true that some tattoos, necklaces etc. Are abscurly put (I remember searching for someone that just had a sooo long necklace I wrote them off not seeing it at first, so that is a bit of a problem)… fixing the issue would be to make the pics more clear and without the circle in the middle… other than that the showdowns are fun as heaven and I only hope that cheating doesn’t happened to you any time soon 
I think getting a printable poster or something in our IOI account would be more reasonable… or having free access to the (premium) stuff in the safehouse if it means what I hope it doesn’t
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Feedback, formatted but in no particular order:
Balance Stuff
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I actually like that the tools are lost after failing a campaign. They’re all very powerful and the added threat they’re under makes sense. Keeping the tools would be too easy, IMO. Maybe it’s unimmersive, but I prefer gameplay over immersion when you can’t have both.
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Some of the items found sitting around in the safehouse have capacity costs that don’t seem to make sense compared to the item’s usefulness. Most notably the wrench in the garage, which costs only two capacity, same as the buyable handyman’s wrench, and doesn’t get lost if you fail. For comparison, similar safehouse items cost one more than their buyable counterparts, like the emetic mushroom by the helipad being 3, as opposed to the buyable poisons being 1 or 2.
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The titanium crowbar costs 3 capacity, and the lockpick costs 1. This feels like it should be reversed. Lockpicks are much less likely to draw attention, as well as allowing opened doors to be closed again, blocking line of sight. This makes lockpicks more useful in most cases, and therefore more valuable.
- Reversing the numbers in particular would give a nice choice to players who have both: They can take the quiet lockpick for 3 capacity; or take the loud crowbar for 1, as well as another item costing 2. (as many items do) This would mean there is a strategic reason to use the crowbar over the lockpick. If you don’t have a lockpick, it would also let you bring the single-use rusty nail by the helipad + the crowbar for the same cost.
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The Kalmer & Sieker currently cost the same as their equivalent modern syringe. Syringes are harder to use and are consumed after use, unlike the dart guns which can be used at range and refill with ammo after a mission. It seems like they should cost 3 rather than 2, especially since the modern syringes can’t be lowered without making the antique ones match.
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The rewards for completing a full campaign don’t feel much different than taking down a single syndicate.
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After having left my Ornamental pistol behind (intentionally, to see what would happen) I haven’t found another for a good while. If that’s not just my bad luck, I very much disagree with this. Having any item’s loss be entirely permanent only discourages use of it. If I lose my silverballer, that’s okay because I can get another. It will be tough to replace, but I can replace it eventually. If I never get another Ornamental pistol, I’ll never see that item again if I lose it. Especially if it isn’t unlockable elsewhere.
- Some people have said Mastery weapons should never be lost, even if 47 dies. I’d personally prefer them being lost on death but replaceable, but I don’t hate that idea either.
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At least one target seems impossible to kill without also killing bystanders or starting a gunfight. Romaine Loiselle, in Paris, stands at the bar and drinks wine, and that’s it. She also never puts down her wine glass, so you can’t poison it. She stands under a chandelier, but if you drop it it will kill another NPC standing right next to her. The only thing I can think of is the emetic briefcase, which I don’t personally like using. EDIT: Watching old CTT gameplay, and it seems like they changed the bar so that you can serve drinks to people other than Novikov, I just didn’t think of that. Nice!
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The “Melee Kill - Epic/Legendary” objectives don’t accept thrown weapons. I found this out when trying to use the Bat Shuriken, so I feel like that should change.
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More targets in general are needed for the non-showdown missions. I’m not sure how feasible this is this close to launch, but maybe in a later update?
Small Bugs
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Near the helipad, there’s a rusty nail. If you pick this up, it will use up two capacity and cannot be dropped. The only way to get rid of it is to exit to the menu and come back in, resetting your loadout entirely.
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The Assassin’s HWK21 Covert doesn’t light up in instinct when on the safehouse wall. I’m not sure about when it’s on the ground.
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Despite visually having a silencer, the Ornamental rifle is a loud gun.
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A few times, I’ve dropped a gun to return it to the wall, but it stayed on the floor and made a non- interactive copy of itself on the wall. Maybe I dropped them too fast?
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I’ve seen a lot of decorations around the safehouse that seem to correspond to Challenges, including ones I haven’t completed, for example the bust of Janus in the Vault. This seems to be a reward for Isle of Sgail, which isn’t even available in the CTT. Maybe this is just something with the CTT or I’m misinterpreting the Challenge images being random items, but I figured I’d mention it.
Other Stuff
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You only get a very small selection of suits, especially the fact that there aren’t any formal ones for Mendoza or Paris. Maybe this is a side effect of the CTT not connecting to my normal unlocks, or them unlocking later. Either way, I definitely want more suits!
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The lethal pill bottle is the black Hitman 3 version, but the other two are the white/blue Hitman 2 versions. This bothers my (genuine) OCD.
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Some kind of “abandon safehouse” option to start over from scratch would be kind of neat, if it’s not too hard to implement. Maybe another phone next to the welcome message?
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If the suspect camera could actually take pictures like the normal one, it would make identifying their appearance traits much easier. Especially the really small stud earrings some NPCs have.
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The sparkling sound from the random crates is a little annoying at times, especially if the crate is a floor above you and not easily opened.
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I really want to bring the kiwi squeaky toy home with me. It’s adorable and I want to keep it. A decorative one at least, please!
Although this is mostly the stuff I don’t like, overall I really love Freelancer so far! I can’t wait to play the full version in January.
1 Like
test
Evidence complications
1. Diagnosing the problem
When I started playing Freelancer mode, preparing for the mission was a lot of fun. Weighing the options, not having the best gear always available, preparing a “backup” weapon in case everything goes to hecc and I have to shoot my way out. For that purpose I would carry any automatic weapon in a suitcase.
However after finding some suppressed weapons (suppressed pistols from various npcs) and even getting a full-sized Druzhina semi-auto rifle with a suppressor, the game difficulty completely flattened. I was just ploughing through missions as I would play any player designed contract (if I did not care for the optional conditions). Then the only difficulty was on the syndicate leader missions if the alarm goes off, and the target flees.
Basically once you get suppressed weapons, the player is an unstoppable terminator where almost any difficulty in the mission is a speed bump.
2. How to balance it without making guns unrealistic?
So I thought of how to organically and realistically balance difficulty without nerfing firearms so it becomes unrealistically hard to use. Here is a few ideas. Notice some of these might seem very harsh, so they could possibly be added as an extra difficulty setting.
3. Evidence complications after the mission
Some of you you might have played hitman blood money (2006) might remember the newspaper articles after a mission referencing things from the mission. Like guards who survived wounded would be mentioned as being in the hospital, how often the player was spotted would result in witnesses describing him more accurately, and the amount of shell casing that were found.
So I thought how about implementing something similar:
First, I would like to add a new resource to the game, called “complications”. I will explain in a moment what that is.
3A. Ballistic tracing of the gun
If an npc (any npc) was killed by a gun, it would cause a “complication” where the gun would be known to law enforcement by the profile left on the bullet by the barrel. If the same weapon would be used in the next mission, they would find a match, and it would cause negative complications (more on that later in the post). The only way to remove that complication would be to get rid of the gun completely so the stacking of complication stops. Also notice this should be the only complication that can never be erased. So killing with the same gun will eventually stack
3B. Shell casings
Each shot would leave a casing, with the same complications as above, perhaps with a lower amount of “complication” per shot, because killing a person is a lot more serious to law enforcement than firing 10 shots that hit nothing.
3C. Being spotted
Every time the cover is blown, and there is a surviving witness, it would create complication, the same for being spotted on cameras without erasing the tape.
So in abstract numbers:
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1 npc killed by a gun: 10 C, + 20 for the next and +30 and so forth.
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1 fired shot (left shell casing) 1C.
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1 being spotted 30C.
1D. What does complication do?
It would be a negative currency, the more of it you accumulate the more difficulty the next mission would be. An easy fix would be to just reduce Money income, however that does not have much of an effect, because when you have a suppressed pistol you can plough through missions without the need for money.
So the best way I was thinking of was that at a certain tresshold, the game will add special undercover agents to missions who know exactly what Tobias looks like.
They would basically be lookouts and assassins combined, with a higher range of vision and good aim, so they would be able to spot the player from a distance. Imagine them being actively on the hunt in the mission, knowing Tobias is here and they have a picture of his face.
So if a player is reckless with complications, then later missions would be packed with these agents and if they patrol in patterns that cover the entire map, it would recreate the feeling of being a hunted spy, imagine a john wick movie before the shooting starts. Imagine trying to get to the exit on Marrakesh while going through large crowds with agents closing in.
Why?
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Because I think it would preserve firearms with suppressors as very viable weapons to complete a mission, however it would also sort of box the player in to using them like a silent assassin, as in having to work hard to be covert.
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And it would entice players to play more without guns if the situation in a map is too complex to set up a good shot. (Because currently if there is a mission in Mendoza, I always take a sniper rifle, even if it is a non-suppressed one, and then just run away, because the consequences of not being stealthy are not very big.
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And I think it would be sort of easy (I am using this statement carefully here) to implement, as assassins and lookouts already exist in the game, they could be cloned, and the evidence complications screen would be an additional screen after the scoreboard. I think it would preserve firearms while still giving players a hard incentive to be stealthy and explore a lot of the other gameplay options without firearms.
2 Likes
A list of feedback I have from playing so far.
Great stuff:
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It is a very high quality game mode and we get all of this for free.
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The syndicate leader missions have a nice recon gameplay where you have to narrow down the target out of a selection of targets, and this sometimes leads to 3 targets all matching the description, and that is great because leaves a certain uncertainty that makes it really roguelike.
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Possibly the best addition is the lookout npcs, they are enforces that have no white circle, and they remove the deterministic stealth from the game. Because you can often bump into, he blows your cover, the target flees and suddenly a campaign stack of up to 18 missions might fail, and you have a few seconds to fix it. This creates very intense gameplay.
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Losing a lot of money when you die in a mission is great, because it adds to the roguelike stacking of risk.
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(As long as you do not have suppressed weapons or siekers) the often very random constellation of the situation you find the target in creates room for improvising.
Stuff I would like to tweak:
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Firearms, especially suppressed ones dominate the gameplay experience and flatten out the gear selection once you acquire them. Here is a list of suggestions on how that could be tweaked:
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https://www.reddit.com/r/HiTMAN/comments/ylu7n0/evidence_complications_and_idea_to_realistically/(it is in a separate thread as it is a lot of text)Basically it is about adding a negative “complication” currency so players who reuse guns used in previous missions for kills would accumulate complications (because the cops traced the gun ballistics) which then would lead to interpol agents (assassins + lookouts combined that agressively patrol maps knowing how Tobias looks like) being spawned.
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The “non-syndicate-leader” missions feel a bit boring compared to the high intensity of the leader missions. In leader missions, when a target is spooked (or one of the potential targets) then it will attempt to flee. This creates a fail condition which instantly ramps up the difficulty and the intensity. This is very amazing. However the other missions without that fail condition lack the intensity.They just feel like playing a player made contract without any hard fail conditions.
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I think normal missions without leaders should get extra fail conditions where the target runs away to an exit because the drop in intensity of gameplay is very noticeable after a syndicate mission.
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More item retrieval should be added as a second objective, like retrieving items from randomly placed safes, and when a guard guarding the safe notices it was opened it would tell the main target to flee.
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The supply loot crates you find in missions feel a bit gamey, instead the game should place randomized loot in shelves or on tables of which quality depends on the location in the map. This would entice players to actively look for items in an organic way, instead of chasing the loot box that has a visible icon visible through walls (I play with instinct and minimap off)
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The loot crate between missions undercuts the value of tool items. because the game gives away for free so I never have to buy tools myself.
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The reward crate after a mission often gives gamebreaking powerful items, like a dragunov rifle with a suppressor.
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Firearms should come with an extra smuggling cost because it would logically be hard to get a gun and ammo into these places.
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The mission challenges rewarding extra money feel gamey because they entice players to not play as a silent assassin. I usually skip them, also the extra money is not really an incentive once you have suppressed guns.
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Make it possible to swap out paintings on walls
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It would be nice to add an extra difficulty level, where health does not regenerate in a mission and where 1-2 shots mean tobias is down. Because an experienced player will have no problem clearing out 50 guards if he has ammo and cover. The only hard incentive for players to not do it is when targets flee to an exit.
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Generally the game should have more hard fail conditions, because currently only targets fleeing gives me a sense of tension that I have to be careful. (This could be part of a different difficulty setting)
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The biggest problem I feel is the suppressed guns being too useful and the low difficulty for non-syndicate leader missions.
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The game should add more random difficulty spikes in missions that are not finale missions. For example, in L4D2 (the zombie game by valve), the game does not “hold back” difficulty in the early missions of a campaign. It might completely flood the players with difficulty 5 minutes in, or not do it at all, so I think random lookouts, without a warning of them being there on screen should be mixed randomly into normal missions
- Or perhaps add a separate difficulty level which would include:Lookouts and assassins in all missions (without indicators on screen)More damage (tobias dead after 2 hits without regen)Targets fleeing in all missions
1 Like
The game mode is super-amazing.
However there is a strong difference in intensity between the syndicate leader missions and the normal missions:
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In syndicate leader missions, as a player it is very engaging, because I have to recon the right target without blowing my cover to not spook the targets, and the assassins provide very hard enemies that kill quickly, so it can go from easy to campaign over in 5 seconds. (And that is awesome).
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However in normal missions, there is none of that, no hard fail conditions like targets fleeing and no recon. It feels like playing a normal contracts mission and the issue is that you know how to play it after looking at the map at mission start. You just work through it and it is very predictable.
The devs should add some of the recon mission stuff into normal missions and mix in some hard failure conditions (like targets fleeing), or perhaps new mission types, like having to knock out a target without killing it to steal and item, while it is protected by bodyguards.
Because currently I tend to skip through the normal missions as quick as possible to get to the syndicate leader missions.
Hello , thanks IOI for giving me a key to try out the new Freelancer mode.
Frist, I think it is a really good idea to try out new things and i enjoyed my time very much
i didn’t experience a lot of bugs except the one before you start a mission the challenges pop up as if you just finished a mission…
or another one which i was shooting at my syndicate suspect from between the objects but my shots wasn’t going through and the dude was almost freezed up in its place , until i moved and headshoted him
i think where you pick up the items when you’re inside of the safe house , is a bit weird if you try and select the item from your collection with mouse and keyboard together , its like the mouse sensitivity is too high
the biggest problem i had with this mode was that in the showdown mission the target is so hard to recognize from all the possible suspects all 6 of them move everywhere and they all look exactly the same , i think there should be at least a way to make it more identifiable if you’re gonna check out all 6 of them.
everything else was good but i hope if you guys are making such a big way of grinding it then you add some very nice rewards to keep in the game like the elusive target suits ( something like that )
anyways thanks again for giving me the chance to try it out and i love all the detail that you guys added to make it look like the real 47’s way of living experience and you guys should keep going but make it more interactable and fun to spend time on
thank you and have a great day.
2 Likes
I see your point, but think about the others and the fact that always being underpressure is not fun… it is a game after all and some (not me) have jobs and just want to have some good time
Again, I see your point, but crowbars are also good distarctions and most of the time open doors don’t matter… I understand not everyone see it that way, but when I started freelancer I basically took with me only the crowbar because it is so ridiculously OP in my eyes and the only item worth always taking with you
Yes
Why ?
3 Likes
For those who have played, I saw on a YouTube video of a showdown that the optional objectives were to make an unsilenced pistol kill, a silenced firearm kill, and eliminate 3 guards with a sniper rifle. The player killed the three guards with a sniper rifle, and the sniper rifle was silenced, and they then used that same sniper rifle to kill the target, and it showed the objective for a silenced firearm kill completed, and the unsilenced pistol kill failed. Does this mean that the game gives you two kill objectives for the target and you must pick one, and whichever one you pick, you fail the other and do not collect the Merces it offers? Basically, is it set up so that you sometimes can’t complete all optional objectives because you can have two differing ones and must choose which one to do?
1 Like
Could we get a link ?
Yes. There are sometimes conflicting objectives. There are also prestige objectives which may conflict with the normal mission objectives.
4 Likes
IMO SA is a challenge, and should remain that way. Players should be rewarded for doing SA runs instead of punished for not doing them. The SA / SO prestige objectives are a good start, although I’d prefer them to be a bit more prominent - currently they’re buried among all the others and it’s kind of a shame not to have them available when the mission objectives would go well with a SA run for example.
Honestly I think both of those guns are way, way stronger than any other tools so 3 capacity for them is peanuts. Even 6 would be a good deal.
You have a curious definition of “intense”. Personally I think losing all your progress because you got spotted by some random enforcer that turned the map into a living hell in half a second is more infuriating than “intense”.
5 Likes
I agree, but right now we’re being “punished” for every approach we can’t take or choose not to take (as in, there’s no base payout for the mission). You don’t have a sniper rifle to kill three guards with, no flash grenades and you can’t poison the target? Too bad, no Mercer for you.
2 Likes
When you’ve been in the end game in these sorts of things, you sometimes get so powerful that it stops being fun. The option to refresh from the start, with the smaller loadout and less equipment, would help keep things… fresh. 
That’s my experience at least, so I figured I’d mention it in case it was easy for IO to do.
1 Like