Interesting topics for discussion; I have only two comments:
In case of superfan outfit I believe it will be a suit, not a disguise.
In case of topic around ICA E. Phone, Molotov cocktail and Oil canister it need a deeper explanation.
In my opinion, the problem lies right at the beginning of the entire Hitman series. When IOI allowed two things crossed - accidents and devices. It is well seen with explosions. When a target is killed by an explosion device and body is found the SA turns off. However, if there is an accident with something explosive on the map (propane flask, oil drum, gas canisters etc.) and a body is found then SA is still on (as with other accidents).
If we were to look at tasers through the same lens, then all tasers would fall into the group of electrocution ādevicesā.
And here is the main problem. The IOI has allowed some devices to fall into the accident category. Without this cross, problems around the ICA Electrocution Phone (electrocution device) and also Molotov cocktails (fire device) will not exist.
I guess it will be good to keep accidents and devices separate in the next Hitman game.
Accidents - everything that can be staged by Hitman on the map.
Devices - everything Hitman can bring at mission.
Poisons are in different category but it also holds some questions for example around sedatives.
The easily movable propane tank is also a question.
As it stands, theyāre giving us an unlockable propane tank. If you shoot it or blow it up (ie with a breaching charge) its an explosive accident.
Youād think after the electrocution phone and the molotov, theyād stop for a second to have a quick think about whether the current state of an item that generates an accident kill is OP or not before attaching it to a challenge.
For me, just having it able to start a fire is a big thing. Iām still annoyed that IOI added a non-serious contract I posted that basically required the Molotov, and then changed how it worked so it wasnāt possible. Now itās absolutely possible again, and I hope we see some runs showing how to use it in a cool way.
Will probably be a double emetic with it poured on the route to the bathroom, but stillā¦
Well, theyāve only ever really nerfed such things after people complained about them being OP. Maybe theyāre hoping nobody cares anymore and just enjoys finding ways to use it. I know am.
If/when they remove the explosive accident part from it, Iām fine with it as an unlock because the fire part of it is something neat to have. But just shoving it in as-is with the ability to be an explosive accident is just a bitā¦ odd as there is no risk to using it in that way.
Aside from The Chameleon, itāll remove any/all challenge from ETs which was partly why the elec phone was killed off.
You still need to isolate them or be very cautious because otherwise the blast will often kill nearby NPCs. And itās not really different from getting propane from the map and dropping a briefcase + breaching charge near it. You just start with the āpropaneā instead of having to find it so all it does is making you faster at setting up the explosion.
Besides the various fart bombs already remove most of the challenge from ETs anyway so itās not like a pseudo propane is gonna shake the meta :x
Maybe itāll come with the Winter Roadmap, since snow and ice are made of water.
Aww man, imagine shooting a water puddle with the Iceballer or throwing the Icicle on it and it freezes so targets/NPCs slip and break their necks on the ice.
Yeah, wonāt ever happen, but manā¦
Honestly it wouldnāt make much sense to release one without the other.
And since we got the proxy micro taser I suppose weāre also gonna get the Antique Sedative Syringe at some point to complete the set.
(But what would make me really happy would be getting an āICA Lethal Pen Syringeā and an āEmetic Syringe Mk3ā as those have been mismatched since the release of H3 >_<)
I would say the oil canister is less OP, esp. since itās a large item, if not for the accident explosion partā¦ itās a propane tank you only have to shoot once and works just as easily with the breaching charge + propane (AKA ādrive-byā) strategy. ETs are already easy enough to just cheese by finding a propane and dropping it + breacher by them and insta-detonating, but now you donāt even need to find the propane, you can just bring it.
That AND the fire ability? Iām surprised this is so warmly received compared to molotov (pun unintended but appreciated).
Removing the accident explosion aspect and making it explosive weapon would fix it. Itās still a somewhat easy source of free fire kills which used to be one of the more elusive kills in the game that required manipulation of NPCs to specific places to achieve. At this rate falling objects will be the only one of those kinds left. However thereās definitely plenty of creative fun and interplay between items by using the oil canister and I would hate to see it nerfed in the same way as the molotov by removing accident properties completely - but maybe it should at least be illegal to carry in a non-guard disguise also.
EDIT: Thinking about it, just making it illegal to carry would partially solve the way it can be used as a free propane too unless you spawn in a guard disguise.
best method for easy SA / SO is just head down from the main entrance, make your way down to the bar , not the bar on the last level down, the one above it where the dancing naked guy usually is from the main mission.
head towards the back, and what I like is normally one guard from the main mission walks back and forth from where the 2 bikers are on guard to the guard looking over. that roaming guard now stays with that guard that looks over.
now where those 2 biker guards are is where Vegas is.
there is a computer and a cooler. turn the computer off and the girl will come over. knock out put in cooler. followed by 2-3 other guys and finally the target.
drag the 2-3 people out of the way and then eliminate target put in cooler.
Starting location: Biker Hangout
Equipment: Any silenced gun
Smuggled item: Sieker, also in the Biker Hangout
Get up, grab the motorcycle key, grab a propane flask.
Avoid the enforcer and grab the Sieker
Go upstairs, shoot the CCTV recorder, just in case.
Go all the way downstairs, shoot the lone enforcer with the Sieker.
Throw the propane flask at the ground near the pit.
Get to a good spot close to the railing with the tree and wait.
Shoot the target with the Sieker when heās looking at the crowd.
Bump into the bodyguard a couple of times.
Run ahead of the target and hide next to the open door.
Shoot the propane flask when the target is close to it.
Go upstairs to the Biker Hangout.
Exit via motorcycle.
To be fair, i completely agree with what your saying in that it is QUITE powerful however I also feel like itās not more powerful than say making a propane flask an unlock. Is there no reason for it to be an accident kill? Yeah, Iād say so, but I also dont think itās more OP than the fart case or the durian. I think those will still end up being the go-to for ETs which I think is how IO balances things: they nerf stuff if it becomes THE best way to beat any level. I still miss the molotov and its wallbang properties, I actually to this day think if it wasnt an unlock it would never have had to be changed
I also have to say on the Drop pack while I am disappointed that thereās no Drop playlist (seems like a no brainer to me) hopefully that can be made into an unlock by just suggesting it in the challenge ideas thread and manifesting it. What I actually want to comment on is a bit of critique of the cosmetics for any future packs: what I liked with the Undying and Disruptor packs is the furniture was segregated to its own unique rooms. I really enjoyed that about those, so you could have an Undying room and a Disruptor room. Unfortunately the Drop pack shares the gym with the Disruptor pack and I feel thatās a shame because that leaves less of an option to have distinct, ET themed rooms. However I still think the choice to make the gym have the option of becoming a decked-out recording studio is an inspired one, I just think if they do, idk, a Busey-themed pack they could use a different room like say the garage to put in some of the cool new unlocks
I also think that the cosmetics packs theyve done so far every since Freelancer came out (technically these ET packs arent cosmetic but here me out) have missed out on having the unlocks be unlocked via the gameplay. I get why they did this dont get me wrong, itās hard to enforce some unlocks like the Eyepatch suit would be rewarded to people for free if it was part of the Arcade match since the match is already free to begin with for the first month. However I think that since you can enforce the ownership of specifically the safehouse cosmetics even if you unlock them, like for example even if you reach top mastery the soundtracks tied to those levels arenāt unlocked until you buy the Deluxe pack AND have already reached the level. I think future unlocks could do with putting a bit of exclusive gameplay in there for us who love Freelancer and want an excuse to play it. Like even if itās something like āWin a Showdown in Miami/Sgail/Berlin while wearing only the suitā in order to unlock the cosmetics of the respective ET
Come to think of it, that couldāve been a great way to enforce unlocking all the items of a specific ETA target: have the DLC give you the suit and then have beating the ETA in that specific suit unlock the items. Because then you arenāt given all the items off the bat, which leads to clutter and is a bit OP. I felt this same way about the trinity, makeshift and concrete packs, sometimes i started on a vanilla save and used to have to earn briefcases and snipers but all these packs give you a briefcase and a Sieger Ghost reskin right off the bat. Ofc. itās too late to change now and you can always ignore it (not that im even complaining about the option, it can be fun to do a Sniper SASO āfirst timeā on Dartmoor) I just think itās something to keep in mind that sometimes itās more fun to make players jump thru hoops, which is why locking the Deluxe items and suits behind the first level of those respective escalations was a good move
That would be pretty awful for Freelancer though. Like if you have any objective with large weapons and a burning kill, you wouldnāt be able to bring the weapon and the can without getting instantly spotted (as the weapon would be in a briefcase and the can in your hand)
There could be musical rights at work here, that IOI only got for the mission and not for the safehouse?
I actually like what you get when you mix and match these two sets (aquarium / guitars from the Drop, and body building stuff from the Disruptor) but maybe Iām in the minority here :x
Easiest way to SASO no KOs him is to fart bomb him when heās near Gestur (the naked guy) and poison him while he pukes in a corner lol
I donāt think making the oil can illegal to carry is the solution to the problem. I donāt even think thereās a problem at all, if Iām honest. All this unlock does is shave a bit of time off somebodyās run. Propane flasks are easy to find and not that difficult to acquire, and they give you the same easy Silent Assassin as long as you keep all other NPCs (and yourself) out of blast range.
I donāt care if someone else is able to finish a mission two minutes faster.
In Freelancer you get a grace period of a few seconds before anyone can enforce against you anyway, leaving enough time to get clear or drop it and come back as a guard.
However who says the item has to work exactly the same in campaign and Freelancer? They could fairly easily duplicate the item and change the properties for the unlock - maybe give it a different skin to signal the differentiation or something.
The last ET rerun I bothered doing just for the sake of it was The Ex-Dictator and I wanted a quick way to just get it done and get out. Emetic is slow and unreliable - I have no idea where an emeticād NPC will go before trying it and it takes a good minute or two to even check. They could go somewhere in public view or into a trespassing area, plus Iād have to emetic both of them and their guards would follow anyway and have to be dealt withā¦ plus VIP guards love to stand RIGHT behind their targets while they puke in most cases. Emetics were even more well balanced before IOI caved to everyoneās demands for targets to go to toilets more often and disabled half the bins in most maps from being puke spots, but theyāre still not guaranteed wins and have many drawbacks.
What I did was started security and used a flash dart on Richard to make him stop still for 10s, then I grabbed the nearby propane and with that and a breacher I could take them both out at once easily. 0:25 SA completion. This was too hard to do without the flash dart to stop them in place because they would already be well and gone without it by the time I got to them with the propane, which would be no problem if I could spawn with itā¦
Gasoline can may not necessarily outweigh that in that specific case because I would assume/hope you canāt spawn in a disguise start with one as it should probably have to be brought in a briefcase, but 100% propane (and by extension this gasoline can) is WAY more powerful than emetics for just getting a quick easy kill IMO. There will definitely be good cause to spawn suit with a gasoline can if it saves having to route a propane into the run, which may again be hard to reach and/or require trespassing to acquire, such as in Hokkaido or Chongqing where there is only one propane.
