Wow…thank you for posting this. I literally had no idea that permanent shortcuts would be a thing in this game until just now. Very interesting.
Hmmm… Whiskey Bottle. Does that mean we could make a Molotov Cocktail? Or pour it somewhere to set a fire?
3 Likes
I haven’t pre ordered. That’s the problem. Lol
I think it is an empty bottle or a full bottle for an opportunity.
2 Likes
Sadly yes. It would be so cool if we could bring/collect different liquids. Like set up a water puddle to let someone slip or electrocute a target. Flammable stuff to set things/people on fire.
2 Likes
more instances of per-person AI tweaks and/or attention to detail for starters. Probably most notably for special characters and targets, but also for NPCs here and there. It hits me in the face when I play sometimes how everyone on each of the few AI groups has the same “stock” AI and reactions
The example that comes to mind again is the busker in the Miami level. If you take the coin from his cup he doesn’t care, if you toss a coin into the cup he gets real bothered by that. That kind of thing really bothers me , perhaps even disproportionately. Is he not really a busker, is he just posing? Is everyone just posing, like The Truman Show?
The injured biker , when you scare him he turns into stock AI and gets up and runs off . I can maybe get past it because you could say it’s adrenaline? But doesn’t he then walk back and lie in the same spot ? 
Liking the persistent shortcut idea so far … seems interesting , especially if there could be some super hidden or secret ones to open up.
5 Likes
Having multiple AIs would be nice, but probably too much to ask for in such huge levels. I honestly appreciate it more to have the stock AI being improved and gets bugfixes here and there than having glitchy AIs all over the place because for the next level they had to come up with new ones instead of improving the one every NPC uses.
If you played very old Elusive Targets in H2 (like the two in Sapienza who came as a pair this time) you will notice the guards behave differently. They behave like they did back when they were new. It was quite interesting how much worse it was compared to the other guards who were always upgraded.
2 Likes
I wouldn’t say that, based on Dubai’s Shortcuts atleast, since they are Ladders, which you can climb up or not climb up or not climb up. It’s not like it affects how the NPCs behave or the Game forces you to use them. The only downside I see is Contracts Mode, where, for Example the Staff Member outside of Ingrams Room would make a pretty good Target on the first Playthrough, so after that? I don’t know. (Luckily, he seems to be a Clone anyway, if I remember right, so it could be worse 
)
Everything @Beldingford said plus, you do know that Hitman 1 and 2 Maps are supposed to be played in the Game, right? How is a more “realistic” AI going to work with everything done before? Also, the AI has improved from 2016 to 2 with Mirror Reflection and Guards using Flashbangs.
This would literally make the Game unplayable, if you aren’t avoiding any kind of Guard in the entire level or become one yourself.
3 Likes
All i can say to this is BRUH
1 Like
I have.More weather diversity(like rain and snow) were pretty requested.
As a person who kept track of the wish lists on the old forum,this part of your post is laughable. 
It was actually one of the most requested features lmao.
8 Likes
i want both.
4 Likes
Drops bodies and sends filled elevator up
Target opens door
quack quack now Duck
1 Like
Back in the 2015 Beta if you fired a weapon guards would come over then frisk you.
They removed that feature for a reason
2 Likes
It’d actually be kinda cool because then you could avoid being spotted and voiding SA by dropping the gun somewhere.
1 Like
I suspect the actual purpose of these shortcuts is to make first approaches to the maps more guided and cinematic without permanently ruining the start location.
Dubai forces you to the camera window and the dressing room, but I’ve seen screenshots suggesting the Skydiving Suit start can lead to the helipad. If a permanent shortcut allows this, all it’s doing is making it so you can’t go too far offscript the first time while allowing those starts to be subverted and messed with on later runs.
It’d be like if Paris started off with velvet rope preventing you from going anywhere but straight inside to see Novikov’s entrance, but then in the basement was a phone to call the Velvet Rope Corporation to come remove the ropes, permanently turning the default start into the one we know. Mildly annoying the first time for people who don’t want to be guided, and a complete non-issue once opened. It has potential to allow them to funnel people into a setpiece that shows what the map is all about without shackling them to that experience in contracts or replays. Granted, mastery unlocks do this too, but the default start shouldn’t be one that nobody ever wants to do again and this feature lets them have it both ways.
17 Likes
Yes, I’ve also come to the conclusion that this is the first and probably only intention of those permanent shortcuts. They are a way to nudge players to follow the story route for the first playthrough without narrowing down the sandbox permanently.
2 Likes
Might be too nitpicky, but I feel like this yellow lock might come off a bit unnatural for the map design if it’s the same on all maps.
I hope it disappears completely when you open it.
5 Likes
I had this hope aswell, when I saw it, but some Dubai gameplay showed people using opened ladders, and the yellow, “broke open” lock keeps laying around.
2 Likes
Seems like IO forgot this while making Hawkes Bay. 
3 Likes