Whittleton Creek Pest Control trickier to do SA in ver 3.20?

Hitman 2 (2018)
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Platform: Steam (mouse and keyboard)
Game version: 3.20

Yesterday, I dressed 47 as the pest control man, fetched the insecticide from the construction men’s container, poured it into the fumigation machine, subdued the back area patrolling guard then waited for Cassidy and his bodyguard to enter the kitchen (garage door being open would not be a concern). When they were in position, I activated the fumigation machine and everyone inside the house was sedated… but ~2 seconds later, after I had turned off the machine, the guard, Jonathan Credle, outside the fence along the creek shouted in alarm and walked to the back gate, entered the house, saw the unconscious people, and silent assassin status was lost. Additional guards from Wilson’s house and the park came running and entered the house through the front door.

I have encountered this change 5 times in total since version 3.20: twice in Freelancer (showdowns) and, as tests, three in story mode.
Variances that have no impact on SA:

  • Cassidy (and bodyguard) entering via garage or front door; front door must be closed after they enter but before fumigation triggered since people have sight lines into the house from pavement or across the street. Garage door need not be closed as long as the pair are in the kitchen.
  • Guard Keven Body patrolling back area being inside the house at the time of fumigation, or unconscious before house is fumigated. He must inside the house when fumigation machine is triggered or subdued before entering house as his patrol includes regularly entering and leaving the house;
  • Guard Jonathan Credle (outside fence guard, who talks with gardener man about frogs and story Clue about something buried) having the Clue revealing dialogue triggered or not triggered, or his position relative to the house (after dialogue, he will walk to the house fence and stand with his back to it; before dialogue, he is standing near the creek while facing the house).
  • Upstairs guards being near windows of the house
  • Story mode vs Freelancer (alerted or non-alerted)
  • In story mode, starting as fumigator or other starting point.

Factor that guarantees loss of SA:
Guard Jonathan Credle (outside fence guard) being conscious when fumigation machine is triggered. Regardless of what he is doing (talking, walking or standing), he will notice Cassidy having fallen and will walk (never run nor stalk with gun drawn) to the back door of the house and see unconscious people, ruining SA.

If Credle is unconscious before fumigation machine is triggered, SA is maintained although other people will rush to the house and enter. Such people will be rendered unconscious if fumigation machine is still active; otherwise, they will wake unconscious people. Either result follows the “found sedated bodies” rule where SA is not ruined.

As a side point, the front door can be closed, but when people are sedated via fumigation machine, guards from elsewhere (excluding Credle) will run to the house, open the front door, and enter. Cassidy, his bodyguard, anyone originally in the house, and anyone entering the house due to alarm can be seen from outside (door can become stuck open due to people sedated too close to it) without triggering SA fail. This was a change from when “Hitman 2” was released in 2018; I believe it’s related to the “discover sedated body” rule change as front door being open used to fail SA the moment someone simply on the pavement passing the house.

I have used the fumigation machine sedation since “Hitman 2” [2018] was released and last used it without Credle ruining SA in August 2024. The only variable has been the ground floor front room guard, Micheal Desilets, sometimes not being sedated soon enough and ruining SA (I have had that anomaly since game release); it occurs infrequently so while it can be annoying, I haven’t reported it as a bug due to its inconsistency.

Before reporting as bug, in case someone informs me that this is intentional or that I overlooked a behavior or game rule.

Best regards.

Edit to add platform.
Edit 2 on 20240922 to change “Their sedated bodies can be seen from outside” to be more specific: “Cassidy, his bodyguard, anyone originally in the house, and anyone entering the house due to alarm can be seen from outside”…

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The only type of sedation that can be applied to Cassidy and not lose SA once he is found (assuming he’s the target) is from a dart gun.

As for guards that keep coming from other areas, that’s likely due to a sedated body in front of a camera. Whoever is watching a monitor will send someone to get the body up, but if the body stays down they’ll keep reporting it. I believe that’s what’s happening with that. So you may want to disable the camera recorder before messing with the fumigation machine.

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Yeah, basically what Tetrafish said. Make sure that:

  1. Cameras won’t see any sedated people or are destroyed/disabled in the first place
  2. Cassidy’s (or any other target’s for that matter) sedated body is not seen by anybody during fumigation or after
  3. The backyard patrolling guard won’t enter at a wrong time and see Cassidy
  4. There are no other kinds of distractions inside the house luring people from outside

And it should be fine?

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Thank you; I did not know that Kalmer vs any other form of sedation (insecticide, chloroform on other maps such as New York or Hawkes’ Bay, banana, gum, egg, syringe or vial) has a different rule regarding SA and “found sedated target body”.

Specific to Whittleton Creek and the fumigation machine sedation method, anyone (Cassidy’s guards, civilian-dressed guards, non-guard civilians such as jogging woman) seeing any body (target or non-targets) wasn’t a concern for me in the past because discovery of any sedated body never failed SA many times (30? Probably more; I don’t remember) that I used this method when playing this map in contract / story, escalations, and Freelancer.

The exception or variable previously, which was infrequent (fewer than 5 times), was ground floor front room guard, Micheal Desilets, not being sedated promptly and seeing Cassidy’s sedated body before Desilets too falls unconscious. I suppose if I deactivate the camera recorder before fumigation, Desilets won’t be a factor either?
It’s odd because if Cassidy and bodyguard enter via garage, I trigger the fumigation machine when the pair enter the kitchen; neither the kitchen guard nor beige coat-wearing Green sees a sedated Cassidy (when he’s the target), has caused SA fail. Only Desilets might cause SA fail because he becomes sedated a few seconds after everyone else.

Now I have the guaranteed SA fail if guard Jonathan Credle (outside fence guard) is conscious, as noted in original post.

I will do as both of you said, and eliminate the camera before triggering the fumigation machine next time I test this scenario, but admittedly, I still find it strange that Credle causes a guaranteed fail while other people opening the door, or if door is already open, enter the house, and see the sedated target and other sedated bodies do not fail it.

Hotel_Pollisya, I always removed backyard guard Keven Body as a factor, if nothing else because his patrol includes entering the house; usually I subdued him so his body would be hidden in the shrubbery at the SE exterior corner of the house (sometimes I would drag him there, or if I was in the house and already had removed the kitchen guard, I place Keven Body in the (closed door) garage’s box).

The only other lures to the house that I occasionally trigger is the upstairs weapon display case alarm, and that was >5 minutes after the final person arrived and was sedated by the gas (I initially turned off the machine after the final “investigator” person entered, but in the past 2-3 years, it’s advantageous to leave it running unless I’m running SASO and must enter the house afterwards; I try to pick up Clues before fumigation).

Two side questions:

  1. Why is Desilets able to cause SA to fail? He’s in the same room / area as other guards at the moment fumigation machine begins pumping; it is not as if he is the front porch guard.
  2. Why is the front porch guard never alarmed by a sedated target Cassidy until someone else from outside opens the front door due to (camera seeing sedated target, probably) alarm while Credle is alarmed every time now when fumigation sedates target Cassidy? Allow me to emphasize that Credle does not cause SA failure until he opens the house’s back door and sees sedated target Cassidy; Credle is alarmed when picture-in-picture shows Cassidy sedated, but SA is not failed at that time. I tested this by subduing Credle after he is alarmed, but before he opens the door and SA did not fail.

Best regards.

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