No, that’s not how the particle settings work. They also don’t exist in the main missions when you play them on the CTT build.
They went out of this way for this change. They didn’t fuck something up.
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Given that the CTT was a stand-alone application – that might be why or how they were to provide the locations that they did, yet have anything that was more “useless” or non-essential taken out.
If I remember correctly, someone was able to open up the files in the Closed Technical Test and found out it was the whole game, just with parts disabled or sectioned off - the install was still the entire game.
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Most of it isn’t even disabled. You can play the full campaign in the CTT. afaik the only thing that was preventing access to everything is the contents of the main menu that the server was sending to the game and that you couldn’t access anything offline.
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The CTT was a normal build, and it could’ve been sent out as an update to the base game if it wanted to.
It went through the same process. It was 60GB BECAUSE it was the full game, even though they could’ve gotten away with shipping less than that. They shipped all Freelancer levels in that build.
The offline menus were specifically edited to only show the Go Online tile (it takes 1 change in 1 file to get normal menus back). And the servers did only send that one tile. If you connected to a “normal” server i.e. Peacock, you’d access Freelancer in the Gamemodes tab (which was added by the client, not Peacock).
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The logic of the uploaded video is:
- IOI were fixing vulnerabilities in the Hitman game through updates and patches.
- Speedrunners are the greatest playtesters of Hitman content because they play the game the most.
- Players most likely taking advantage of vulnerabilities in Hitman are those who play the game the most which are the Speedrunners.
- Therefore it appears that IOI are purposing targeting Hitman Speedrunners because they reveal Hitman’s vulnerabilities and take advantage of Hitman’s vulnerabilities.
No.
IOI are not targeting Speedrunners.
IOI are wanting to fix / patch their game of vulnerabilities.
Speedrunners upload videos with high visibility on YouTube.
If the average player views Videos of these Speedrunners breaking the game with their moving out of the game boundaries with their muffin explosion “particle effect”, for example, it gives the impression to the average user that Hitman is broken and needs to be patched.
IOI does not want advertising that their Hitman game is broken and exploited for vulnerabilities.
Hitman is a puzzle game – IOI want Speedrunners and all other players to find solutions to their puzzle game within the boundaries of the game that they had conceived for the game.
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That would be the best compromise. Even if it gives one less tactic for speedrunners to make their gameplays, it would restrict potential cheating or glitching from other users through freelancer and the rest of the game while keeping the aesthethic intact.
And as said earlier, i guess that they will be clever enough to find new (and maybe better) strategies for their next runs 
Is Speedrunning in Freelancer even a thing!? Is there a timer? Is there a leaderboard!?
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Yes.*
No.*
*Based on the CTT
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According to what others have said, pulling your internet could help with doing a speed run on any target as the target location and description all stay the same.
But that is what someone else said and what was done with the CTT. Final build could change, of course.
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Without being able to seed the map isn’t speed running pointless though? You’ll likely never get the exact same map twice so two players may have different targets, different starting locations, different random NPCs… Wouldn’t trying to speedrun that for any purpose other than just being done quickly be pointless? There is no score, so other than just raw time, what would be the point?
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Since it’s stateful on a per-syndicate choice basis, this is absolutely doable with Peacock, though it’ll be a bit unwieldly as you’d need to exit and re-enter Freelancer after the completion of each contract tier so that Peacock can serve the game with the next round of config to speedrun.
On the other hand, RNG has never gotten in the way of speedrunning before, and I can definitely see categories appearing for stuff like fastest to X merces or fastest campaign completion
Randomness is inherent, sure, but the type of randomness that accounts for an event triggering after 3 seconds or 9 seconds or the type that causes an evil wizard to spawn in a certain place or not isn’t the same as the primary goal of the map changing, I’d think.
I would assume that valid speed running comparisons would depend on at least a basic level of similarity to keep an even playing field. I admit that I do not really know though. Just a curiosity.
Getting the best speedrun simply because you got the best RNG is perfectly acceptable if those are the rules of engagement in that category.
Minecraft is actually a good example of this; there was a huge uproar when it was discovered someone rigged the game’s RNG to obtain the fastest record. The Best Minecraft Speedrunner actually just cheated his runs - YouTube
I reckon Freelancer will be an excellent opportunity for speedrun categories because, yes, you are subject to RNG, but it’s also a big showcase of your adaptability as a player.
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Showdowns should showcase your patience as a player.
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No. Showdowns, just like everything in a game, should be fun.
It’s a single-player game. Nobody cares what your idea of fun is or how it should be played.
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Nearly every game looks “broken” when looking at any% speedruns. Doesn’t mean it actually is.
Elden Ring won goty, the skips and teleports used in the any% speedruns there are far more ridiculous and outrageous than particle boosting.
Point being: speedrunners will make nearly every game look like a broken mess. Doesnt mean it is, especially not for the average players who would never encounter those on their own.
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Counter to the video’s belief that IOI is purposely targeting speedrunners, IOI appreciates its most active players in its fanbase. IOI appreciate that every aspect is playtested and exploited for vulnerabilities to gain advantage for speedrunners. What IOI want to do is to ensure that everyone, including speedrunners gain advantage through puzzle-solving using the tools and mechanics that they provide in the game within the environment that they meant to create. When you have for example, a player boosting themselves outside the boundaries of the location map with a muffin explosion to gain advantage to snipe a far off target, it is not really an exploit that is fair. Creative yes, but not fair play within the boundaries of the game that was conceived. When an explosive phone is perfectly placed in the auto-repair area just above the cave to destroy the virus, this is creative and also fair play within the boundaries of the game as it was conceived.
Frote7, your amazing speedruns I have viewed appear to mostly involve carefully crafted exploits, perfectly timed that don’t appear as cheating – well, from what I can follow… because it happens to fast for me to follow exactly what you do…
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I’m sensing you took my post after your as… skeptical? Or in a negative way. I don’t think your reply was appropriate (and a less easygoing person might flag it). So I’ll assume it was a misunderstanding.
My experience with the showdowns seemed almost tedious, but I still felt a duty to keep at it… Yet, that might’ve been due to not knowing that I could just Alt+F4 out if I needed to. I mean, one Showdown took me around 45 minutes in Whittleton Creek. 
And I wouldn’t say I wasn’t having fun. It definitely held my interest!
But after so long and so many Showdowns… I’d imagine I’d have to choose my times to play when I have a lot more time rather than just going in casually for a 10 or 15-minute play session.
It was a statement of fact. Please elaborate.
It is a single-player game and nobody cares about opionated statements like “Showdowns should showcase your patience as a player”