They realized it could piss off North Korea, as the target was explicitly stated to work for the State Security Department (NK’s intelligence agency), and that the clients were the intelligence agencies of China, Japan and South Korea putting a joint hit on the target. Needless to say, NK might not appreciate such detail, and although they’re the “good guys” of the mission, anyone who understands the, shall we say, unpleasant history those three nations have with one another, showing their intelligence agencies working together even against a shared enemy might not be well-received. Which is a shame, because it’s one of the most interesting backstories for a target we’ve ever gotten, and one of my favorite examples of a mission based on government espionage with actual implications for the global intelligence community. Figured they could have at least changed the target’s origin to Khandanyang to fix the controversy.
This is weird, I’ve always thought Khandanyang is a Cencored version of NK. Also, the Game is not available in China or NK so I don’t know why they cut that part of the briefing
Just because the game is not available there doesn’t mean the governments of those countries don’t know about it.
Khandanyang is the game’s equivalent to North Korea, but it didn’t really get established as such until H2, at which point I think we’re supposed to assume that North Korea doesn’t exist in the Hitman universe, at least not anymore, and that Khandanyang has taken its place.
I associated Khandanyang more with Myanmar, but I don’t remember why 
.
There is now an speedboat key in bookshelf on top floor in Paris. However, since speedboat key is now illegal to pick up (@lukefsje reported on this bug), it’s completely useless, as the bookshelf is overlooked by two bodyguards.
Yeah, this whole picking up things that don’t belong to you being illegal is pretty stupid, especially since it still applies when you’re in disguise or picking up something that none of the NPCs around you could possibly know is not yours.
I thought this whole thing was only about making NPCs use extra voice lines, is this making them spot you?
I wouldn’t call that useless, you should be able to throw a coin behind the guards and make them look away for a second.
Yep, unfortunately invalidating the speedboat exit in Landslide when wanting silent assassin (presumably also including other keys/keycards than these two speedboat keys that are pointless now).
This isnt the new feature, only these two keys so far are illegal. The new feature is just that NPCs react to theft if different lines than just generic enforcer ones. What is probably happening is the Paris Enforcer Effect, where IO shows off a feature via introducing a place where it is obvious in the first map
It isn’t invalidated, there is a crowd around the key which is if you crouch you immediately blend in and picking up the key becomes completely invisible. I’m to guess they probably edited the key to be illegal to have players make use of the crowd blending feature
The opportunity might not always be available, but if a panic were caused, would that allow for picking up (strange) items, like the speedboat key?
What the shit, that’s a horrible change! IOI just flat out breaking my preferred role-playing run in Landslide, it seems, for no good reason at all - I’m actually genuinely pretty pissed to learn this.
Maybe this will be the catalyst for me to get into modding, because this shit cannot stand.
Did no one read what I said
Your suggestion is no good for a role-playing run (which is my preferred way to play) because the requirement to quickly crouch ruins things.
The change remains a fucking stupid own-goal, IMO.
Crouching while in a crowd? You didn’t have to crouch before to blend in. They’re not reeds of tall grass.
Edit: But… This is okay. It makes sense in regards to picking up the key. “Maybe I just need to fix a shoelace, oh what’s this? Speedboat keys? I don’t mind if I do (yoink).”
if you’re holding a large legal item (e.g. shovel, kali stick, driftwood, propane, etc.), can you pick it up without being seen like you can with weapons? because the item is immediately holstered rather than held openly
It’s the way this specific crowd works in landslide, it’s not a large enough crowd to conceal you immediately
That’s fine to think that, IOI should just make it legal or make the crowd more demse, but you’ve never bent down to pick something up?
You shouldn’t have to. It’s a key, laying out in the middle of nowhere, with absolutely no reason for it to trigger an alert by any of the witnesses around. If Abiatti himself sees you pick up his key to his boat, that would make sense.
I’m guessing it’s one of those cases where they changed it for some other map (maybe Paris, like you thought, or maybe just for testing the new reactions) and didn’t realize that it would affect Landslide too. Reminds me of how sniper rifles were made illegal even for guards in H2 but then re-legalized for certain disguises in H3, presumably because of the Berlin, Chongqing, or Mendoza sniper nests, or how the torch in Sgàil used to be illegal to pick up but is legal now because the same torch is used by the chefs in Mendoza.
RP-wise it’s not unrealistic to imagine you need to crouch for a second to grab a key that’s on the floor though?