A mod being worked on may change people’s opinions
Looks like some people feel similar to me that Chongqing has potential with its streets, stores, apartments, yadda yadda. However you just know IO is gonna put most of the Freelancer stuff in ICA Facility and Hush Block
Not sure how I feel about the pie graph results, hard to tell what’s the most voted for, at least at this early stage
I think it looks cooler, tho I also cant change it after the poll is made I checked, but heres some forum patch notes I added another poll that does use bars, is single choice and forever and will be quite interesting
Damn, those are some really hard choices to make, since I’m looking towards every single map to see how they play in Freelancer. And requiring me to pick only one favourite alternate time of day is a crime.
The only question I didn’t hesitate much on was the maps I’d prefer to avoid. I really like doing SO (with minimal amount of KOs too) whenever possible, and both Colorado and Sgail aren’t that friendly for that. But maybe the latter will be improved by Freelancer potentially picking targets further away from the keep.
(From title) What locations are you looking forward to playing most in Freelancer?
New York, Sgail, Chongqing. Both NY and Sgail are very vertical maps with tons of hidden passages and shortcuts and I’d love to put them to use. Chongqing I didn’t like much during the main mission, but for contracts it’s actually an amazing map so it’s probably going to be the same in Freelancer.
What locations do you think will benefit most from Freelancer?
Sapienza, Miami, Mumbai, New York, Chongqing. I already mentioned NY and Chongqing before, very good maps for contracts. Sapienza and Miami were pretty fun to play during the CTT, and I was actually pleasantly surprised by Mumbai (as long as Rangan Tower’s not involved).
What locations, if any, are you going to try to avoid in Freelancer?
Colorado, Mendoza. Colorado’s well, Colorado. I generally don’t enjoy contracts in Mendoza and it was the same in the CTT, the map’s far too big and it takes too much running around to do anything (although the new car exit did help a bit). Still a bit torn on Haven, I love the atmosphere but it suffers from the same problem as Mendoza, too large, too few shortcuts.
What bonus mission location/skybox would you want to show up in Freelancer?
Night-time Marrakesh, it’s my favorite map in the game <3 But I’d love to see Landslide / Author Sapienza as well.
What locations are you looking forward to playing most in Freelancer ?
Santa Fortuna. It’s a map that I know quite a bit, but never really played in. Most NPCs can become interesting targets, not too public, not too easy, but with identifiable opportunities. The map is diverse, with quite a lot of interesting situations.
I remember playing a featured contract that was centred on the bar patrons, and another one made around the fishermen in the shanty town. Both were really engaging to play.
But it will depend on how the randomization work. If the missions become “one target in the mansion, one in the construction site, and you randomly start in the jungle” then no to all that I just wrote.
What locations do you think will benefit most from Freelancer ?
Mumbai and Santa Fortuna are two very large maps where many locations were unique, but empty, or with a single use, in the main mode. So them.
What location will you try to avoid in Freelancer ?
For the takedown mission, I don’t think I will truly try to to avoid any. But I don’t think I will jump from joy for Colorado, especially if we always start in a suit in a random location.
For the showdown, it will certainly be less a question of “which I will avoid”, and more a question “which will be the best”. Whittleton Creek, with the house for sale, many empty spaces, and public spaces to observe the suspects is on my radar since I saw how the meeting and burner phone mechanics works.
What bonus mission location/skybox would you want to show up in Freelancer ?
Night-time Bangkok, Night-time Sapienza, both from patient zero. I always like the atmosphere of "most people are sleeping, the location are half empty but still busy for the night staff.
I will say that during the CTT, I never got a target in Caruso’s lab. Maybe my luck is just weird (it is, I also got the bracelet showdown clue exactly once) and maybe I just happened to never get one, but if it’s actually the case that none spawn down there it seems likely that the same is true for the facility.
Not surprised to see Colorado and Isle of Sgail leading the vote on locations people will avoid, but playing all the locations with the mod on the CTT build that enables them - these are actually the ones that are most fun to play on imo. I’m actually glad when I see them pop up as options.
Sgail, Haven, Dubai and Chongqing: I stuck to maps we could not play in the test
Mumbai, Berlin, Mendoza: picked these not because I don’t enjoy the maps but with showdowns in mind. If the suspects are spread across too large an area and with too many NPCs around, the risk of one mistake alerting them and me not being able to intercept them in time seems too high
Chongqing most definitely, as long as they place these Syndicates around the city itself and (mostly) stay away from ICA Facility and the upper floors of The Block.
The laundromat building, the stairs behind the laundromat, the board member’s apartment, the arcade part of The Block, that building with the drones on the rooftop, the many alleyways and walkways, the two small corner shops, the streets themselves.
These are all interesting areas but they’re underused and out-of-focus in the main mission, it’s the Marrakesh problem where the city parts feel like mere set dressing as you travel from one blocky target fortress to the other. Can’t wait to see new targets, guards and suppliers roaming the urban parts of the map and what new opportunities we can get there.
Other than China, I also think The Bank and Haven Island will benefit greatly from Freelancer. Both maps as a whole had very minimal post-release content, they only ever had one Escalation each and no Elusives or seasonal events, so Freelancer adding new stuff to do in them is something I’m very hyped to see.
I think all four ToD variations for Sapienza would be great to see, I feel Sapienza would be one of those maps where seeing the same sunny weather on Freelancer everytime would just make things feel stale. Same with Miami and Whittleton Creek. Hope they consider implementing random skybox changes to Freelancer for real.
Other than that, there was that night-time Miami mod that looked absolutely stunning. Not official lightning but it made the map look much better, the colors and lights in that map looked more interesting at night than than in that weird bland gray-ish daytime look that IO went for…
Then I guess you just got bad RNG. There are 3x coins valued from 10-15 and the server rack unit which is randomly 25/50/75/100.
However, I suggest you rob the vault dressed as the bank robber to do the easter egg. You’ll get something to take home. And be sure to loot all the safe deposit boxes, that’ll be 2 more take-home items.
