Winter (2024) Roadmap Speculation

Although we may be a little early, there is nothing quite like a bit of good speculation and theories for future roadmaps! :wink:

Discuss below potential ideas on what you’d like to see, or what you might think we’ll see in the Winter roadmap? :snowflake:

On a personal note, as we’ve seen the Safehouse get new items and cosmetics as part of the last three roadmaps, I’m hoping this continues in the Winter roadmap and we finally get the Xmas themed items, including the Xmas tree and wall decor for the Safehouse that was shown in the original ‘How to Play’ Freelancer video

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The upcoming season would be a really fun time to pull the Wild Card out. Would live up to the name and everything. Just saying.

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For the Winter roadmap, I think there will be less than usual.

If I’m looking at the previous Winter roadmaps and making a prediction from them:

  • Return of Holiday Hoarders in early December (with an unlock).
  • Return of Hokkaido Snow Festival (no unlock?).
  • One or two batches of FC (or curated contracts?).
  • One or two challenges (with unlocks - perhaps Freelancer tools like antique sedative syringe).
  • Rerun of 2024 ET.

The only thing I could imagine new is a DLC “Christmas Pack” with Freelancer cosmetics or “Christmas-color-swap” of usual items (like a Christmas-themed crowbar).

I have very low expectations. I don’t even think about new Christmas mission or addition to Freelancer mode. Thus, I won’t be disappointed because I’m expecting nothing :slight_smile:

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The big question for it is: Year 5, or not?

And the smallest question is: “is IOI willing to produce new items/cosmetics/suits even if they are not paid DLCs / celebrETs?”


If there is no Year 5, and have pretty much ended production they would need to close the few remaining loose ends:

  • The Coin in Freelancer (hopefully with a last cosmetic in the basement mission control table for permanent pickup place)
  • Bug fixes
  • Maybe the Hitman 2016 exclusive items

And there would be some easy to add, meaningful in gameplay, already in the files items that would be welcomed by the community like the ones in the fall roadmap are:

  • Water Canister, Antique Sedative Syringe unlocks
  • Solstice Suit
  • Seasonal cosmetics for the Safehouse
  • etc

If there is a Year 5, and don’t start producing new items, they will quickly encounter the issue of not having anything good left to release. At best I think the game has two roadmap worth of good items left to make unlocks.
So they would quickly fall back into bad ones. Like Pinot Noir bad.

An undignified path. I would prefer the game to close than that.


If there is a Year 5, and have started producing new items. We might start seeing them appear in the roadmap starting this winter.
At least I would expect a new suit for Christmas. It’s kinda traditional.
And I hold holidays hopes of some new new items. You know the ones.
I will also confess some hopes for other surprises, maybe even good ones. It feels right to have them currently, if for diffuse reasons.


And if IOI wants an easy one to produce: white, slightly damaged version of last year Christmas Cozy Jumper suit. For Knives Out, Dartmoor reasons:


Finally, in general: ET galore, Holiday Hoarders and Hokkaido Snow Festival for starter pack. Featured Contracts. The usual are guaranteed by now.

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I sort of hope we get the Holiday Hoarders Crowbar/Fire Axe/Fire Poker, maybe Mysterious Gift (shovel) or Xmas Star, or the explosive Snow Globe. All just reskins of course, but still would make a nice loadout for Santa Suit runs.

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This definitely makes the most sense and I’m really hoping it happens! Imagine the Safehouse at night time with the Christmas tree lit up? Would be visually Awesome!

IOI could also include some of the items for Holiday Hoarders as part of the Xmas DLC pack perhaps? :slightly_smiling_face:

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I think there’s going to be one last celebrity ET. If the Wildcard ever returns they should make both Garys targets instead of just Busy to justify whatever they have to pay to bring Cole back.

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Yeah it would be interesting if we do get another Celebrity ET, especially after IOI have been looking for fan feedback on potential future ET ideas. It would be cool if is indeed a Christmas themed ET, set in Paris during Holiday Hoaders! :wink:

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Map

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While I doubt a new one, I would love if we got another winter variation map like HH and Snow Festival.

Maybe a stretch but I’m picturing one on Carpathian Mountains like the passenger train mod.
It’s already nice and snowy, just add a bunch of Christmas decorations (and let us use it for contracts).

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Whittleton Creek christmas bonus mission with snow and mission stories :raised_hand:

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While I don’t believe it to be a super realistic prediction, I would love them to add more Map Variations into Contract Mode like they added Holiday Hoarders and Snow Festival last year.

The H2 Section particular looks Incredible barren with no a single alternate map variation included in it and while I actually made a topic about that in the wishlist section a while ago, I actually have more to add to that now due to recent release dlcs.

How about adding a total of four new map variations to Contracts Mode, with two of them being free and two being paid. I could imagine it like this.

H2:
Isle of Sgail (The Disruptor) - Aviable to Owners of the Disruptor Pack or
Miami (The Undying) - Aviable to Owners of the Undying Pack
+
Mumbai - Illusions of Grandeur (Free) or
Santa Fortuna - Embrace of the Serpent (Free)

H3:
Berlin (The Drop) - Aviable to Owners of the Drop Pack
+
Berlin (Egg Hunt) (Free)

Not many alternatives for H3 sadly

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That would be pretty cool!! :grin:

Whilst I don’t think we’ll get anymore maps, I think it is possible we could get another Celebrity Elusive Target themed at Christmas during Holiday Hoaders.

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Maybe this time we get

• Some typo and phrasing fixes:


The possessive its doesn’t have an apostrophe.
Doable Scope
Every other challenge says “a sniper rifle”.

“KRONSTANDT”… What the hell, Allan, that’s the wrong detail! It’s not even a detail! It’s a letter, Allan! A letter!

• 47 blinking in the Freelancer loading screens, he only does it in the jet as of now.
• a silenced Ornamental Pistol. Every other ornamental weapon has a silencer.
• male target suits? Maybe? At least the very unique ones?

I mentioned these things in the last speculation thread, but that was a day before the update. :person_shrugging:t2:

Here’s some more, starting with a big one:
:raised_hands:t2: Customization :raised_hands:t2:, because “Christmas Time”:

  1. Ballistic Weapons:
    Silencer or no silencer - Self-explanatory, restricted to weapons that already have a silencer.
    No silenced El Matador or Shashka A33 Gold for you, sorry.
    Changing perks (with restrictions) - E.g. the Goldballer can have Subsonic, but then it can’t have Steady Aim, so you can choose something like Extended Magazine instead.


    (This was a quick edit, don’t look at it too closely.)
    Weapons that got their silencer removed can’t have any silencer-related perks, so there’d be other options as well. Weapons that don’t have a silencer by default can’t have silencer-related perks at all, duh.

  2. Suits:
    Gloves - Leather Gloves? Driving Gloves? No Gloves? Maybe the rings from the Greek Fire Suit? Diana’s nail polish- What!?
    Accessories - Tie or no tie? Sunglasses or nah?
    I’d really like to remove the hat from the Tactical Gear.
    Also, The Sandman with a hat.
    “PeAcOcK dOeS tHaT aLrEaDy!” - “ThErE’s A mOd FoR tHaT!”
    Good for you, I’d like to have those options without needing a mod.

Easier access to Freelancer:
Right now it’s Play Freelancer → Safehouse → Play, and I’ve lost count how many times I clicked on one of the introductory videos instead. You can replay those in the Safehouse and its menu, so just putting something like Enter Safehouse with Freelancer as a subtitle or vice versa on the main menu after watching them for the first time would be quite neat.

New York and Haven cinematics:
I doubt that I have to explain this.

Silencing Diana:
An option to turn off her commentary would be such a godsend.
I’m always lucky enough to have her tell me about the target when I’m eavesdropping or when I’m approaching them directly, like in The Undying. I enter the room, Faba starts talking and Diana butts in. I can’t listen to two different people at once, and I’m quite sure I’m not the only one.
Also, restarting an ET, be it Live or Arcade, can be a nightmare.
Minigame - Guess the mission: Your TARget and her DOUBle…

Inventory overhaul:
The Melee tab is an atrocity with a colorful mix of non-lethal and lethal melee weapons, with knives and sabers all over the place. Either non-lethal items first, lethal second, organized by size or “Lethal Melee” and “Non-Lethal Melee” tabs would make it easier to navigate.
All of the ballistic weapons tabs are also a hot mess. If you’ve unlocked all pistols, it starts with the El Matador. The Striker and Striker V3 are almost at the end of the tab.
Another example: The Ducky Gun and the Scrap Gun are quite at the end of the tab, the Custom 5mm and Custom 5mm TDI are at the beginning. They’re all concealable guns, yet they are separated like that.
It’s all in alphebetical order, I know, but it’s not helpful when you have 41 pistols (enough space for 6 more, IOI, just saying) and you also have to keep in mind that some of them have a “The” in their name. Heck, the Ducky Gun would even be next to the Custom 5mm guns if it wouldn’t have the “The” in its name.
Maybe a Favorite button or letting the players organize things themselves would make even more sense. Drag and drop, y’know.

That’s all that comes to mind for now.

This is more wishful thinking than speculation, but sometimes IOI know how to surprise people.

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This is such a good idea, especially now when the Inventory has so many items.

I also think IOI can help the problem even more by having the Lethal Melee and Non-Lethal Melee like you said, but have another category for Garrote Melee weapons.

Here are all the Garrrote weapons currently unlockable in the Inventory:

  1. Earphones
  2. Fiber Wire
  3. Fiber Wire Classic
  4. Fishing Line
  5. IO Elite S2VP Earphones
  6. Kronstadt IOI-1998X Surround Earphones
  7. Measuring Tape
  8. Quickdraw
  9. The Disruptor Resistance Band
  10. The Strait Jacket Belt

Putting those 10 items in their own category would reduce the clutter of the Weapons - Melee Inventory category even more.

Another thing I personally would do in regards to the Melee tab is to move the three items, the Banana, Violin, and the Blueberry Muffin under the “Gear - Melee” tab instead of the “Weapons - Melee” tab. The Banana because it’s a fruit, and would then be grouped with the Durian, and the Blueberry Muffin and Violin because they are typically used by speedrunners and are rarely used as a Melee weapon (as far as I’m aware).

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You think they’ll add some earphones? :smirk:

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Next Twitch drop will be purple earphones. Mark my words.

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You know, if they do, this will be my surprised face. :neutral_face:

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I’d honestly be fine with those just being at the beginning of the Lethal Melee tab.
I also just thought that ballistic weapons could be separated into silenced and non-silenced.
Maybe sub-tabs? Nah, that’d be counterproductive… A simple Favorites tab, though, that’d at least fix the problem a little bit, I think.

Nah, it’ll be a Purple Sieger 300 Advanced Ducky Edition which will play Ave Maria but the singing is duck noises.

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Don’t threaten me with a good time!

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