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Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
For those asking for user contracts to try out, you're in luck (if you're on PC)! I made this one after the ET and Pro mode got me thinking:


The Buddy System (Hokkaido): 1-10-0802305-02
Fiber wire three guards who are always with a partner.

Also since Landslide came out I've made a bunch of contracts for it just messing around with stuff:


Sapienza's Lovely In The Fall (Landslide): 1-04-6538264-02
Suit-only fall accidents with targets in mostly opportune locations.


The Lorenzini Liquidation (Landslide): 1-04-0348201-02
Suit-only assault rifle kill of Abiatti and a number of other seemingly public targets.


The Fire Down Below (Landslide): 1-04-4132721-02
Esoteric plate-juggling contract built around timing all the kills as tightly as possible.

And a speed challenge which is very silly:


Welcome To Warp Zone! (Landslide): 1-04-9032646-02
Blow up the plumbers and escape as fast as humanly possible.

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Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
If you don't care about it being kind of scummy, poison never kills anyone instantly and it's the injection that gets you spotted. Hover a finger over your menu key/button and the instant you inject check to see if you get Crime Noticed or other indications that you were spotted; if you see one, immediately go to menu and restart. Won't help if you already got one target, but for this ET the male target is the one that will get you spotted so the female should be easy as long as you watch for the patrolling guard and the people in the bathroom. If you get wallhacked I think it's entirely fair to restart; happened to me on The Blackmailer and since he hadn't died yet I could just try again and lure him into a bathroom the next time.

In general, though not for this specific ET, knocking out the target in an area nobody goes to and doing something like a breaching charge or a charge+extinguisher is better since you can set if off right before you leave the level and will retain the ability to restart until you actually commit to the objectives. The Warlord went a lot smoother by setting her up in the bathroom with a fire extinguisher accident and then using the other breaching charge on the safe; once you're sure you've got a clear shot and the evidence is erased, press the button and complete both objectives and make for the exit.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

Samopsa posted:

Just press escape and turn off wifi and you can restart the mission!
Quitting out to the dashboard on PS4 or alt-F4ing on PC also work but :ssh:

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

Jay Rust posted:

So if you poison a person without being seen, but someone finds their body, does that count against you or not? I'm never clear on these things.
No. A Poison Kill is not considered an accident (except in The Chameleon where it suddenly was), but the body is treated like it died in an accident. You will see Body Found, but it will not count against you in any way and you can still get SA if someone finds the corpse as otherwise 99% of Ingested Poison kills would make SA impossible to do.

You can get a Noticed Kill if someone sees you inject a person with lethal poison through a syringe though, but you'll also be spotted and probably in combat so you'll have other problems if someone sees you inject. You can be spotted poisoning someone's food/drink with a vial if you're not in the appropriate disguise but once you've actually poisoned the food/drink safely the kill once someone consumes the poison is completely safe (except on Professional where loitering near a poisoning victim will get the guards on you super fast, so book it).

EDIT: Note that Sedative Poison does count against you, which is why Sedative Poison is basically useless because it will just ruin your No Bodies Found score and someone will wake the person up immediately. Pretty much its sole use is knocking out Padre Francesco on World of Tomorrow user contracts so you can come back and kill him in the basement at your leisure. Emetic Poison follows the same rules as lethal but if you're not spotted doing it nobody will become suspicious of you tailing a sick person into a bathroom.

Nakar fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Feb 24, 2017

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

Mondian posted:

Tried out the quick ones so far, nice! Is that plumber one just dumb luck though? The obvious answer seemingly results in bodies found at random, despite nobody actually going down there.
You have to do it exactly right due to a bug that causes victims of the same explosion to find the bodies of the people who die a split second before them (basically, Mario has to die before Luigi). The only reason you don't notice this bug happening all the loving time is that it doesn't matter to accident explosions. The obvious way does work but yeah it's a little fiddly. I mostly made the contract as a joke once I realized that those two areas connect in that way.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

Pilchenstein posted:

How many attempts did it take you to get 2:14 on The Buddy System? I feel like I'm missing a trick since it's a coin flip as to which guard takes the bait of my distraction and two of the targets have their backs to a wall so you can't get them if their partner goes.
My ~4min run is a hint as to the unoptimized by "safe" route (essentially the route I used to make the contract). The slow/safe route is foolproof and will never distract the wrong guy, but to do it faster like Mondian is going to require ballsier usage of distractions. I have a couple thoughts on that but haven't gotten around to it.

EDIT: Also the route I used to make the contract can be done Suit Only. It's not necessary however.

Nakar fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Feb 25, 2017

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
Syringes in general seem prone to the x-ray bug in the same but opposite sense thrown objects don't. The action is way louder and way more visible at a distance than it appears or reasonably should be, as opposed to like subdual which in many cases is much quieter and harder to see than grabbing a person from behind and choking them out on the ground ought to appear. Unfortunately due to the way the syringes work there's not really a good workaround for it, and the door glitch that affects subdues and fiber wire doesn't really apply very well so you can't wait on it or anything. The syringes are also bugged in that NPCs react to them as if you dropped something so I think they're noisier than they're intended to be due to a glitch or something.

Mondian posted:

e: That one was quick, I spent an embarrassing amount of time on the Lorenzi Liquidation to no avail though. Am I missing some way to get the rifle from the safehouse to the other side of the map? Because I feel like the time gap I've got is about as much as it takes to ferry it across in a guard outfit and double back for the suit again.
If you just want a hint: Try multitasking. If you want to see how I did it (despite loving it up, I have a lot of room to improve it), here's a SO/SA run of The Lorenzini Liquidation that explains my thought process.

Here's a SO/SA of my contract The Buddy System, since the fastest route you guys figured out was as a Surgeon. Morgue start isn't vastly slower.

Also a run of somebody else's sniper contract in the underused night Marrakesh mission. It's technically SO/SA but there's really no reason to even use disguises for it.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

Mondian posted:

Yeah I tried that a couple of ways and watched the rifle make its way to the bathroom behind the stage so I gave up. Guess I should have kept trying. I'll give it another shot sometime.
I try to replay for consistency and I've never seen that particular guard take it anywhere but the church. It's probably proximity-based which box they take it to but I never had an issue when it got spotted at the bottom of the apartments. It's only marginally slower to KO Guido Manna, take his Bodyguard disguise, and smuggle the gun that way. There's also probably a faster way to deal with Abiatti, or at least to call him to the graveyard sooner so he's alone and ideally pissing since then he can be shot from the beach. Or just go around that and figure out a way to lure him somewhere isolated, maybe in the church or when he's talking to the brain surgeon.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
The virus has to be shot EXACTLY dead on which is hard to explain because you can actually get hit markers when firing the pistol at it despite not actually hitting it or the hazmat scientists inside. If it's any help, I've noticed that the guys who are YouTube superstars don't use Steady Aim on the Silverballer even though they could. It might give you a degree of generous auto-aim or something if you're not trying to pinpoint shoot. It may also just be doing runs enough to know exactly where to shoot from. Either way, everyone I've seen do it consistently has done it from the shotgun guard ledge; I've also accomplished it from the platform where the dongle-operable laptop is. I've never successfully shot the virus at any lower angle no matter how clear a shot I appeared to have.

Pilchenstein posted:

I finally managed to post a Silent Assassin run of less than 3 minutes on every pro level and what's weird is, only Hokkaido was slower than normal - Paris was exactly the same and the other four maps were faster on pro. :confuoot:
Pro made you better at the game, go run Normal again with ballsier routes. I went back to Normal after maxing my Pro Mastery and cut all my times down by like 1000% because you can basically do anything you want on Normal. It's apparent that people can't hear for poo poo without footstep reactions enabled, but Pro's tighter spotting windows also train you in where you can just crouch-run through an area where people are looking right at you so on Normal you can just blitz rooms that you didn't think you could just go straight through.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
Colorado contracts are hard to make interesting or fun (and Aim For Accidents was already made, objectively the best Colorado contract) but I'm trying.


How'd You Even Get In Here? (Colorado): 1-09-7100437-02
Blow up targets in the farmhouse and barn as the cook, who has access to neither area.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

double nine posted:

do propane tanks count as explosive devices?
They count as explosion accidents, not sure if they also count as devices. Normally "Explosive Device" specifically refers to a proximity or remote explosive. "Explosion" applies to either.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
The Pro unlocks are dumb prestige poo poo, which is how it should be. Real useful items should not be locked into the mode where everything needs to be in play.

EDIT: Some new contracts that I'm mad about because the custom contracts are bugged but gently caress it.


Running A Tight Ship (Paris): 1-02-1383968-02
Speed contract to fiber wire three auction staff on the top floor. Two are easy, the last not so much.


Explosive Communion (Landslide): 1-04-9358110-02
Speed contract to kill the priest and a woman in the Sanguine shop. THE CONTRACT IS BUGGED; poisoning her wine glass doesn't work because this game is a buggy piece of poo poo and doesn't recognize her death as poison despite saying Poison Kill afterward. If they fix it it'll work but for now it requires a syringe.


This Party Sucks (A House Built On Sand): 1-07-6168839-02
Drown a bunch of people at Kong's party. A test of map knowledge and game mechanics but there's still a lot of speed improvements possible I suspect.

Nakar fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Feb 27, 2017

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

Brofessor Slayton posted:

Did anyone else Emetic the ET dude and watch him run off to find a bin to throw up in... which was literally next to the toilet in the restroom?
This behavior also rendered my intended "poison a shitload of peoples' wine and drown them all in toilets throughout Landslide" contract worthless because they all go to bins in perfectly usable bathrooms instead of toilets. The emetic logic in general is strange as you'll see things where people divert from whatever path they were on and turn completely around to go elsewhere based on some kind of target selection. I think they search for the nearest vomit spot but are supposed to override if a toilet is within a certain distance and available, or a special location is provided for them; Caruso will walk up the steps before rerouting himself to the cliff for the opportunity and I'm fairly sure he was initially going for Francesca's bathroom (as it's the closest to where he eats the spaghetti) before his routine manually forces him to the cliff instead. Likewise try emetic poisoning the wine glass directly behind you when you start Landslide and watch where the drinker goes.

The problem with the vomit logic is it doesn't always work right at a certain distance. I can consistently reroute a person in the Marrakesh shisha den to one of the two toilets if both are in use by killing whoever is already there, but I suspect that only works correctly because both toilets are very close and there is no bin in one of them. Too many bins fucks up the pathfinding logic in some fashion I haven't puzzled out.

Pilchenstein posted:

Just to be picky, this is technically incorrect. It's true that discovered bodies of people killed by poison don't count against your rating, but poisonings don't count as accidents, so any challenge or contract requiring an accident kill can't be completed by poisoning. Also, if you've set up a poisoning and are just waiting for it to happen before you leave, be aware that the body counts as spotted until you see the words "Unnoticed Kill" come up in the top right and leaving the level before that happens won't give you Silent Assassin rating. (The same is true of explosion accidents, except that the magic words you need to see then are "Accident Kill") :science:
This is a new bug, by the way, and also seems to cause situations where explosive and poison kills just plain don't register. I've discovered a few reproducible ones -- several wine glass kills on Landslide don't count as Ingested Poison even if the game says they do -- and explosions also have the Body Found glitch. Because of that and the annoying issue with syringes being nowhere near as stealthy as their animation suggests I would just avoid poisoning people unless a challenge requires it and don't use non-accident explosions at all. Feel free to use a duck or breaching charge to set off a propane tank or fire extinguisher, but make sure it's the tank/extinguisher that actually kills them.

There is only one consistent way I've found to always get safe, stealthy Explosive Device kills that always register and to avoid the Body Found glitch, but it's slow and stupid so doing a FE drive-by is still the best method to explode things.

where the red fern gropes posted:

novikov is very happy with his codename of cobra
I was always under the impression that Novikov was Peacock for some reason. When you think about their respective roles it makes more sense to me that way I guess. Also it's male peacocks that are the fancy ones.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
The issue with Colorado mastery is too many challenges focus on Sean Rose. Also the lack of verticality.

It's an amazing map for poison challenges though. Lots of water bottles, two sets of pills and a lethal syringe on map.

Lobok posted:

Thought I had the Himmapan Horror axe challenge all tied up but something about the Body Found logic just didn't work. I laid out all my axe kills in a neat line in the linen room and then lured in one of the staff. With him and several guards coming in the room and passing through all bodies should have been found to give me the challenge (and I was wearing the right outfit the entire mission) but it never registered. I eventually got it by arranging things so that each victim's body was spotted by the next victim but i don't know why my first method didn't work.
The linen room has a shitton of obstructions to sight that don't look it. What I had to do was put everyone in a pile next to the laundry room door and keep opening it until someone ran in.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
Alright one more, this turned out a bit better than I anticipated:


The Ekbom Insurrection (Marrakesh): 1-06-2433136-02
Kill a guard in the consulate courtyard in your suit, then an officer in the basement as the guard, then the consul upstairs as the officer. The kills are easy, but avoiding Body Found is going to require either detours, accidents, subduals, or a gutsy route and raw speed.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

Pilchenstein posted:

Doing this quickly was annoying as gently caress. The fastest way I could do it involved throwing breaching charges and just gently caress those things and the lovely loving physics they bounced all over the place in on. :v:

I'm curious to know if we used the same route because it seems like there's definite room for improvement on mine (I got 2:10 but got spotted) but I just cannot be hosed to keep running it until I get the breach charge to bounce just the right way to distract the guard on the stairs. I'm uploading a video of my route now, I'll link it when I get home later.
I haven't tried it but if you have the right angle you might be able to just shoot the frisk guard and run past him. It sometimes works, as long as nobody sees you shooting. The fastest possible route is probably something like what you did. Ignoring all objectives about the only way to do things faster would be to start as a Consulate Janitor and set up Olander with an extinguisher+charge, but doing that guarantees you can't get the Ekbom objective, which was intentional. Also the way I initially did the contract involved accidental explosions for both the officer and Olander, but I decided it'd be more interesting to have Any Method for them. Which turned out to be a good thing as trying to propane tank the officer quickly is an exercise in futility due to the way thrown objects bounce randomly, as noted.

That said, the contract can be completed pretty fast with the default loadout (ICA19, Fiber Wire, Coins). The only distraction needed is your own imagination... and a car... and a very versatile gun. You can also grab the keycard or just go up the middle stairs and come down the back stairs and blow the doors open with the propane tank sitting there. My 2:27 run did the latter and the recorded run is 2:28 so account for my general lack of dexterity and it's probably about the same. You've both still handily beaten any par time I could set so no reason to keep running it forever as it's not like anyone else is going to beat your times unless I end up getting a contract featured which I don't even know how they do that.

But bear in mind I try not to make things too fiddly, other than This Party Sucks which is a little fiddly but in a way that can work in your favor. Insane breaching charge distraction throws are solely there for the sake of bleeding edge times and who gives a poo poo about that on a user contract.

Mondian posted:

Also, Tight Ship is a good contract, but Nakar's route is undeniably the best so nothing to do there except run it endlessly hoping to shave off a few seconds.
I'm curious what you think my route is. Here's how I did it, and also how I set it up: Wire the first guy at the door, the second guy as he comes up the stairs, throw a distraction (I used the phone) to turn the guard in Dalia's room's head, baton throw KO and stash, phone in the corner before the faraway guard gets close (otherwise he's distracted instead of the auction staffer), wire target, stash and switch clothes, run down to an exit. It's admittedly a bit restrictive in that sense as the other ways of dealing with the second guy are all either too slow or he just inexplicably won't respond to distractions (seriously does anyone respond to them from Dalia's room to the auction room?). I was initially planning on using the second floor or first floor whatever Europeans call it instead of the top floor, but I found it pretty boring since there's the big room with only one guy in it that makes it trivial to avoid detection. I also intended to make the suit requirement 47's Signature Suit, as I've seen contracts requiring it, which would prevent an Auction start (it'd just require a Garden start and KOing the guy right next to you though), but I couldn't seem to allow for it so I just said gently caress it and did a top floor one.

I'll try coming up with a better Paris contract eventually. Would be curious how to require the Signature Suit to force a non-Auction/Basement/Tech start on that map though.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
Here's another but you will need to have completed Himmapan Horror for the second Lethal Syringe:


Double-Crossed (Bangkok): 1-08-6717627-02
Riverwalk contract requiring the poisoning of two targets as Ken Morgan's bodyguard. There is a nasty surprise baked into the contract that anyone serious about running it will probably never run into.

Mondian posted:

e: Wait, you had the wire, phone, and baton? When did you have time to run to a stash during that run? I ended up grabbing the bust while I waited for the 2nd target to path into the attic to speed up the guard takedown
There is a stash location in Dahlia's bathroom, on the toilet ("Upstairs Bathroom" I believe). Put one of the wire or phone there as the Baton is too large for a small pickup spot. Throwing the phone then the baton is slightly faster than the radio lure I think. You have lots of time to grab the Bust or a Screwdriver in the attic so anything works really.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
Last one for a while.


Cleanup Quadrifecta (Bangkok): 1-08-6721056-02
Kill the four Hotel Staff cleaning the room on the floor with the security room. Since three different large weapons are required, only one can be smuggled in. Just how loud is an unsuppressed shotgun? You might be surprised.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

Mondian posted:

Is the nasty surprise all the bullshit x-ray vision zones in front of the hotel? :argh:
There should only be one person who is capable of seeing the kills, although I wasn't trying to blitz the hell out of it either.

The surprise is that an NPC will eventually find Ken Morgan's bodyguard even though he appears to be in a completely unnoticed spot, so the mission is on a clock of about 3 minutes before that guy paths through and/or Ken Morgan comes back. Like I said, something you're almost certainly not going to ever have an issue with because I doubt you'd take that long.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

Mondian posted:

I really liked this one, but it was frustrating to test out permutations, because people climbing stairs from lower elevations have hosed up x-ray vision and that one piece of poo poo standing next to the bar can see through the shed walls. Anyway, curious if this is how you set it up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyJ_P5UPZo0

Similar, but slower in a few areas. Here's one I'm hoping you might find a way to optimize as a certain NPC is giving me trouble:


We're Extremely Bad Bodyguards, Honestly (A House Built On Sand): 1-07-9997675-02
Garrote a trio of folks who are being closely monitored by bodyguards. Easy and short, I'm just trying to come up with more Marrakesh stuff.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

MeatwadIsGod posted:

Playing Bangkok in the white yukata is hilarious because everyone bows at you :v:
If you wear the Casual Suit on non-Bangkok maps people also tell you to enjoy your stay, Mr. Rieper.

The reactions to Santa are definitely still the best, followed by the Requiem Suit and the Winter Suit.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

where the red fern gropes posted:

santa suit dialogue is great, as is "ps4 preorder suit". how does winter suit react? i think i have... two more SAs to get? i sorta lost track
People just fawn over how great your suit is. It's similar to the signature suit lines but I think I've heard one or two that are heaping even more praise on 47's appearance than usual. It's basically the prestige suit, so it makes sense. You seem to get way more voice lines for Santa than most other disguises though.

The joke disguises also have a lot of dialogue on maps where the disguises aren't hostile to everyone. The Vampire Magician and Plague Doctor are especially funny in public places. In addition, the description of 47 when someone reports him to a guard or a guard calls in to command are often hilarious if you were seen in a joke costume. There's a good 4-5 different lines regarding how the person won't believe them but the culprit is some kind of vampire or magician or something.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

Pilchenstein posted:

I assume it's this route:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auFnxTk_ZsU
I doubt you can make it much faster than that though.
More or less. A couple refinements I can see: You can stand closer to the woman in the carpet shop door and just run straight up the stairs; crouching isn't necessary. I think dropping the second breaching charge right at the door is faster so the merchant who hears the first one sees it sooner, but your timing worked out regardless. Also if you grab an extra brick you can KO the guy bringing the breaching charge upstairs from behind by standing near the hiding spot and just run down without needing get in and out of a bin. If my timing is right the woman should be just leaving by then which gives time to wire the guy and just book it like you did. Given all that, I'd imagine ~2:10 is possible.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uqNEY3lDbM

It won't last, but I got #4 on a Featured Contract! Best I've ever done. It helps that most people don't know about the ICA Space Program thing; also based on this I've discovered that the impact of falling bodies against surfaces does, in fact, generate sound... unless perhaps it was the coins ricocheting off the wall at five hundred miles per hour.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
You have to do the steps in order: Disguise as the headmaster, look at the paintings, kill Zaydan as the headmaster.

You don't have to stay the headmaster, just have changed into his disguise once. You need to also be him when Zaydan dies. You can KO the headmaster, box him, take his clothes, switch back, knock out Zaydan and drop an explosive on him, go back and change to the headmaster, then detonate. You can also look at the paintings, leave and poison his food, then swap back. All the game checks is your disguise when he dies.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

WindyMan posted:

https://youtu.be/9YRWT5u7hNg

Marrakesh Pro SA/SO in less than 5 minutes. I discovered a way to take care of Strandburg without having to enter the consulate. I didn't have to go into the school, either.
Slick. Depending on Strandberg's position you can do this even faster by using your pistol, but with the same strategy you devised. When he's near the windows in the consulate just shoot him in the chest once; this sends him into lockdown same as the fire alarm, and he'll start to flee. The area near Zaydan's food is ideal for the shot, so your strategy basically never has to go anywhere but the shoe shop area. I don't think there's a way to get an angle on a fire alarm panel with the pistol so that's about the fastest way (there are fire alarms in the courtyard too, so even without a gun entering the consulate is not necessary).

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
The fastest I can think of would be a janitor start, but that's not SASO. And the garage start isn't available on Pro. Poisoning Zaydan is convenient but has to be timed right or he won't eat until about 7:30, so you need to wake the waiter right away. Even then I'm sure the super speed runners know a SA method for Zaydan that's faster. I'm thinking it's the code word and intercept him en route to the tunnel after extinguisher bombing Strandberg.

edit: An explosion would be more likely to trigger an alarm if you threw it into the consulate doorway and detonated. You need to panic enough people and the guard shed is empty.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

MeatwadIsGod posted:

Is the Bangkok challenge where you have to kill Ken Morgan in the basement broken on Professional? He tells his bodyguard to wait outside, but then the bodyguard comes right back in after a couple seconds.
I suspect the bodyguard AI on Pro is told to stay closer to the subject and this breaks Otis's routine, but yes he does come back in almost immediately. It's still possible if you huck a fire axe at Morgan and bin him immediately but easier is to make a noise in the back of the room; Morgan will call the bodyguard to investigate and you can quickly kill him then throw something to knock out Otis.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I've finished doing runs of all Normal missions with SA/SO, no loadout, default starting location, and no Instinct. I also did Paris Professional with the same restrictions but might switch to default loadout for the other Pro missions because they're not terribly much fun (or different) without at least a silenced pistol for utility. Might bend the rules in general to do more interesting things like Accidents Only w/ Sniper Rifle on Pro Colorado or somesuch.

Also the March content schedule is out. Escalations in Marrakesh and Bangkok but only one Elusive Target this month, in Colorado. Still looking for another Marrakesh ET myself but we do know one is coming for A House Built On Sand (supposedly a clown, of all things, according to a developer interview). Won't be coming this month though, apparently. And more Featured Contracts; the last batch was pretty good.

EDIT: And two more contracts made around the same basic concept, plus a silly speed contract.


The Soders Exploder...s (Hokkaido): 1-10-1899705-02
Blow up three surgeons with an accident. Finding an accidental explosive on Hokkaido is just the first step.


Nick Laurent Is Dead (Hokkaido): 1-10-7431091-02
Inspired by The McVeigh Mishap, kill the Chief Surgeon with a falling object.


How Hot Is That Water? (Hokkaido): 1-10-4118971-02
Speedy sharpshooter's contract. All I'll say is that I have personally verified that SA is possible.

Nakar fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Mar 6, 2017

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
For Chameleon a good way to cheese it is just to see if there's an NPC wearing an outfit you've never seen before, save, knock them out or kill them, change into their outfit (as long as you don't get immediately gunned down), and reload. You don't need to do Chameleon in a single run or even on a single mission; the game remembers if you've changed into an outfit before. Of course, that won't get special costumes that are only found hidden in the map, but it should cut down on situations where you're pretty sure you have every disguise but have never actually turned into a chef before or something. Also, your own suit counts for Chameleon, so at least once in every level make sure you change back into it (changing into a disguise, changing back, and then changing into the same disguise again should work).

EDIT: Also, and this is important, undercover starts don't count for Chameleon. If you've unlocked the Palace Staff disguise on Paris but never actually took a Palace Staff disguise from someone you'll think you've ticked off that costume but you haven't. The game is tracking actually changing into a disguise on a person or the floor, which is why your own suit has to be manually changed into.

It's annoying that it isn't tracked, but I kind of understand the logic: They don't want you seeing certain disguise names as they might spoil things.


It's StalaCtite! Remember: C for CRUSHED (Sapienza): 1-03-6445612-02
Drop stalactites on four Ether employees.


Questionable Catering (Marrakesh): 1-06-4820382-02
Kill three targets with Consumed Poison as a Food Vendor. There are only two vials on the map, so you'll need to bring one. The routing is the trick here.

Nakar fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Mar 10, 2017

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

HelixFox posted:

Eehhhh, they could easily show a spoilery disguise as "?????" until you find it.
I'm not saying it justifies it or that there's not a better way, just that I can vaguely understand why they wouldn't list things. It'd be nice to have the list appear unless you select Minimal for Challenges though.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
You can rush past. They'll warn you but if you exit immediately you shouldn't get caught.

As to the route to avoid cameras, there are only three or four along this route even on Pro; just avoid the lobby and go upstairs via the restaurant entrance and stairs instead and cross the roof. The only new cameras of consequence are the two in the lobby and one on the roof in an area you have no reason to go to anyway. The others are there even on Normal, and are easily avoided or destroyed. The ones to look out for are just above the unlocked door to the roof, which you can dodge easily, around the corner on the other side where the two roadies are sleeping, on top of the other roof door near room 208, and in the basement overlooking the basement exit if you don't exit via the speedboat.

If you're not trying for SO/SA, the best disguise for crossing the roof is probably Abel De Silva, as he's allowed on the band's side of the hotel and possibly the roof (I forget if it's only when Jordan leads you down there) and you can get his disguise without running into any cameras; it's super easy if you start in your suite.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
If you can get the cake topper you can also ignore basically all of the band side by luring Jordan Cross down and smothering him. Only the roof cameras are an issue then. Getting the topper and placing it is hard to do Suit Only but it's not impossible even on Pro.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
I think at one point they claimed there would be enough ETs to allow people who got the game at retail launch to unlock all the suits, which means at least 15 or so (to unlock the Signature Suit w/ Gloves). They also usually release an Escalation or two a month and push popular community contracts as Featured Contracts. It may be slowing down a bit, but it seems like they'll keep doing it for a while.

In the meantime, here's a contract that turned out pretty well, and I'm curious how much time can be shaved:


On Walkabout (A House Built On Sand): 1-07-8951081-02
Kill three guards near the edges of the map with three different accidents.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

Mondian posted:

Also that roadie drinking a beer by the door is real trolly with his head-turns, making placing the topper a dice roll.
A method I saw a streamer use was to distract the beer guy and wait for him to return to his beer which apparently fixes his head turns or at least times it accurately where you can get to the cake and back to safety unspotted.

Once you have the distract down getting the topper from the kitchen is relatively trivial, but it's the room full of party dudes that's the problem. Still, if you manage to get the topper on there and hide in the crate you're golden and have the easiest escape.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
There are a number of ways to the top floor, all with their own particulars:
  • Find an invitation, either lying around a bathroom or on an NPC (the Garden start puts one guy directly to your right who has one). Go to the side door in the garden area, show your invitation, and follow the stairs up. You need to be in your suit for this.
  • Go past the door to the invitation check, go right and vault into a trespassing area, then sneak to a pipe you'll see on your left and climb all the way up to the terrace where everybody's drinking. You need to be in your suit, an Auction Staff disguise, or a CICADA Bodyguard disguise; regular Mansion Staff, Tech Crew, and Security Guards are not allowed and there's a guard who will catch you, but he doesn't care if you're in a proper disguise.
  • Get outside in the back somehow and find the pipe to the right of the doors back into the mansion (if looking from the outside). There's a pipe there that goes all the way up to the terrace of the auction. If you're in your suit, you can just go right in. If not, sneak to the end of the terrace and there's a CICADA Bodyguard with his back turned who can be subdued for a disguise. As long as you don't make a ruckus or trigger the fireworks, no one will find him.
  • Go out behind where the fashion show staff are preparing outside to the area with the shed and two Mansion Staff on break. From the diorama go into the back hallway and left. There's a pipe here that goes all the way up to the terrace behind Dalia's assistant's office. This one is tricky because the suit is trespassing at the bottom of the pipe and three people are looking at it, and the office terrace is trespassing to basically every disguise except Auction Staff and CICADA Bodyguard. However, there are ways to distract bodyguards out onto the terrace and subdue them for a disguise.
  • Go down into the basement under the stairs Novikov starts on, sneak to the stairs in the kitchen and up to the second floor. Work your way around through the large empty room to your right and once you're outside in that stair area you're fine if you're in your suit. As a bonus you've bypassed all invitation checks, but not the frisk (you can bypass that by jumping out the window next to the frisk point and climbing the pipe to your left). You can also KO the one Auction Staff guy in the big empty room for a disguise.
  • Do the same basement run to the second floor, hang a left, go straight to the end of the balcony tech area, and hang a right and enter the room with the vase and the office beyond that and climb into the attic. Take a CICADA Bodyguard disguise from somebody up here or sneak all the way around and to the right. Once you're out of the attic you should be fine. If you took a bodyguard disguise, you can enter Dalia's room.
  • Do the same basement run to the second floor but hang a left and work around to the Sheikh's room, or lure the Sheikh downstairs. He has access to almost all areas of the map and can go right up to the auction without being checked for an invitation or frisked. He can also go up the main stairs near his apartment that are normally not allowed, and I believe the back stairs up to the auction floor. They'll also let you into Dalia's room even if you're uninvited.
  • Be Helmut Kruger. Like the Sheikh he can run right upstairs without anyone asking questions, and he can go into Dalia's room.
  • Find a way to subdue Novikov's bodyguard (such as poisoning the sushi in the kitchen that Kurt sneaks a snack from) and take his disguise. He's a CICADA Bodyguard so he can go upstairs, but watch out as a number of bodyguards will be enforcers to it including one guy at each staircase. Just climb a pipe or go up to the attic to get in.
You can also do something to lure Dalia to another floor, such as triggering the lockdown.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
That does work too, but you'll want to be careful dragging the body if the door to the food prep area is open. You also have to make sure to lure the enforcer, but as you said he's the one closest to the statue and should be the one who checks the sound. You also need to make sure to hide him and either take his weapon or leave it behind the statue. While not as many people path through that room as the other staircase (which has another bodyguard milling around near the cabinets and an Auction Staff member who goes up and down), there is one Auction Staff member who comes down and Dalia's assistant and her guard may come down through that area if you trigger her script.

I'd say easier than that is knocking out the Auction Staff guy in the empty room since you don't even need to distract him and the bodyguards don't enforce, which is why I mentioned it. It's kind of one or the other; the CICADA Bodyguard disguise gets past frisks but has more enforcers, the Auction Staff goes almost totally unnoticed but gets frisked at the stairs.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
Also we both forgot the actual easiest way:

Raise your Mastery and just start in the auction.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

A Difficult A-sign-ment (Marrakesh): 1-06-2997112-02
Kill four sign-carrying protesters in full view of a dozen soldiers and a crowd of non-NPCs. I am 100% certain Silent Assassin is possible, though it might be a little random and I haven't managed it yet. Be very careful if you try to snipe.

shut up blegum posted:

EDIT: Oh yeah, I also have a helpful tip. If you want to expose electrical wires in a puddle, make sure you aren't standing in that puddle when doing so. Ask me how I know :downsgun:
Hey speaking of that, did you know the sparks that come out of a door hacked with the electronic bypass scramblers will detonate a leaking propane tank? :byoscience:

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Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

where the red fern gropes posted:

jesus christ

do the sparks come out constantly or just when you hack it the first time?
Only the first time. Imagine you're carrying a leaking tank and you swipe the lock.

The tank will drop out of your hands.

Then the lock sparks.

:smith:

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