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EricBauman
Nov 30, 2005

DOLF IS RECHTVAARDIG
I just completed a tier 3 showdown silent assassin, which was a prestige objective, and completed the three other objectives, but I got literally zero merces as reward.
This is super weird. I spent most of my money in-mission, so I was down to 222. I expected a 6k payout, and I'm still at 222.

Has anyone else had this happen?

Edit: And just now, when I opened the reward crate and took out the reward (the yellow pistol) I suddenly received 10k. I'm fairly sure that can't be the reward for the objectives (1k per objective, 3.5k for SA and 1.5k for the showdown itself) and instead is just the amount that you get for a reward if there's no actual weapon reward.

I've prestiged once, if that makes any difference

EricBauman fucked around with this message at 18:48 on May 24, 2023

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Goatse James Bond
Mar 28, 2010

If you see me posting please remind me that I have Charlie Work in the reports forum to do instead

Mierenneuker posted:

The tanto [u]can[/b] be holstered and counts for the katana kill prestige objective.

but not for the achievement :argh:

Regrettable
Jan 5, 2010



EricBauman posted:

I just completed a tier 3 showdown silent assassin, which was a prestige objective, and completed the three other objectives, but I got literally zero merces as reward.
This is super weird. I spent most of my money in-mission, so I was down to 222. I expected a 6k payout, and I'm still at 222.

Has anyone else had this happen?

Edit: And just now, when I opened the reward crate and took out the reward (the yellow pistol) I suddenly received 10k. I'm fairly sure that can't be the reward for the objectives (1k per objective, 3.5k for SA and 1.5k for the showdown itself) and instead is just the amount that you get for a reward if there's no actual weapon reward.

I've prestiged once, if that makes any difference

Sometimes the game has trouble connecting to the server to confirm the objectives and payout. It's happened to me a few times but the money always showed up a few minutes later. That's probably what happened.

khwarezm
Oct 26, 2010

Deal with it.

You know, thinking about it, its really weird that Hitman has not one but two reasonably high budget hollywood movies spawned by the franchise, considering that the games themselves have always been niche.

Like how do you end up with 2 hitman movies before 1 Metal Gear movie?

Snowy
Oct 6, 2010

A man whose blood
Is very snow-broth;
One who never feels
The wanton stings and
Motions of the sense



khwarezm posted:

Like how do you end up with 2 hitman movies before 1 Metal Gear movie?

I’d guess they could do it on a much lower budget than metal gear

E- I guess 24 million isn’t bad but metal gear seems more like a comic adaptation’s budget to me

Snowy fucked around with this message at 20:31 on May 24, 2023

khwarezm
Oct 26, 2010

Deal with it.

Snowy posted:

I’d guess they could do it on a much lower budget than metal gear

E- I guess 24 million isn’t bad but metal gear seems more like a comic adaptation’s budget to me

I'm not one of those big city movie-makin' boys, but MGS1 seems like it could be reasonably doable without spending the GDP of a small country like Marvel does when you consider that it takes place in one location, and said location is basically a slightly futuristic military base.

Outside of that, I suppose the titular Metal Gear Rex would be most expensive thing to bring to life.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
The Mace is a weird case where I think it can't go on your back but, unlike the Baseball Bats, it can go back in a briefcase. It also counts as Rare Melee for the pacification objective. However, it is categorically inferior to the Concealable Baton and Tonfa (which are also Rare non-lethal melee), both of which are fully concealable. The Concealable Baton also might be frisk-immune, I forget, but who bothers to get frisked in Freelancer? Anyway don't buy the Mace regardless, as you can grab one in Sgail (along with quite a few Sabers). There's also a Sapper Axe in Mendoza in Don Yates's bedroom. They seem to have removed many free guns but left decorative melee weapons (as opposed to the ones in the deposit boxes in New York) intact as of the patch. Though the secret Sapper Axe in Bangkok is not there, but I don't think it ever actually was.

Google Jeb Bush posted:

but not for the achievement :argh:
Yeah, oddly enough it's the one exception and most of the challenges are quite permissive. Strelok lets you use any Druzhina variant (including the suppressed Arctic, which is much easier), High in Fiber and A Necklace to Die For allow any Fiber Wire (I believe), and technically Way of the Samurai lets you use any two-handed Katana. Just not the Tanto, which is a "katana" by category but not for challenge credit. I get it though, it'd be way too easy and they probably intend for it to be a pain in the rear end hauling around a katana.

Lollerich
Mar 25, 2004

The little doctors are back,
they want to play with you!
I've been able to put the baseball bat back in the case all the time now, unless they changed something today?

Are you actually sure about this? Did I maybe have a stroke?

Rythian
Dec 31, 2007

You take what comes, and the rest is void.





Sorry about your stroke, pal. :(

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
I believe the Broadsword is another large melee weapon that cannot go back in a briefcase even though it can come in one, but since you don't have access to one in Freelancer it's harder to notice. You can I think put it on the back though, not sure why baseball bats have to be special like that.

Discendo Vox
Mar 21, 2013

We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.
I've finished the 45 track one featured targets, and am about halfway through the track 2 set- they're easier and faster on average, in part because IoI seem to be accepting fewer bullshit contracts, and in part because the maps are so much simpler and smaller on average (although there's still plenty of bullshit-looking at you, Media Blackout).

If anyone else is going for getting through the track all SA, I can post a list of the 45 contracts I fulfilled with notes on any of the unusual or bullshit ones. Would that be of interest?

KillHour
Oct 28, 2007


Discendo Vox posted:

I've finished the 45 track one featured targets, and am about halfway through the track 2 set- they're easier and faster on average, in part because IoI seem to be accepting fewer bullshit contracts, and in part because the maps are so much simpler and smaller on average (although there's still plenty of bullshit-looking at you, Media Blackout).

If anyone else is going for getting through the track all SA, I can post a list of the 45 contracts I fulfilled with notes on any of the unusual or bullshit ones. Would that be of interest?

I would say post the ones you found particularly fun. I'm poking at them occasionally and I do like to go in blind. But having a short list of ones to do when I'm in the mood would be good.

jwalrus
Jul 27, 2007

Nakar posted:

I believe the Broadsword is another large melee weapon that cannot go back in a briefcase even though it can come in one, but since you don't have access to one in Freelancer it's harder to notice. You can I think put it on the back though, not sure why baseball bats have to be special like that.

I've found that I can put the bat back in the case, but only if I'm not holding the case in my hand. If I set the case down, it works fine.

Fake Edit: Just tested in Marrakesh, and I was able to put the bat back in the case even while I was holding said case. Did it several times, just to be sure.

Discendo Vox
Mar 21, 2013

We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

KillHour posted:

I would say post the ones you found particularly fun. I'm poking at them occasionally and I do like to go in blind. But having a short list of ones to do when I'm in the mood would be good.

Here's my list of recs, then, so you can go in blind without reading the below effortpost.

Jeff's Nightmare
Duck-billed Dollars
Resurrection!
The New Yorkian Bunny
Little Shop of Horrors
Checkerboard
I Never Wear a Rubber
Grand Theft Bosco
Ted Mendez Retirement

Below are Hitman Track 1 (so hitman 1 and 2 minus the prologue) featured contracts that I was able to SA as part of completing the unlock track. These are generally free of really horrendous requirements or weird exploits, although some are still a slog. Looking through the list, I started by trying to do the earliest contracts and quickly ran out of patience with the horrible interface, went to the most recently featured contracts and worked my way backwards. This means that there are three or four pages of contracts near the very end of the list that I haven't tried as much (that was the dark period of cheeseburger kills and tight time limits), so there may be some gems in there I missed (because god, tracking through the list every time is agonizing).

My memory of some of the earliest items on this list may be spotty, feel free to correct me if I've misrepresented any of them. Now that I'm through the required set of 45, I'd welcome recommended contracts from others!

Contracts with a :siren: were especially aggravating.
Contracts with a :swoon: were fun (not necessarily easy, but interesting to figure out).
When I call something a "kill-fiver", it means the designer maxed out the target count at five, and that there's nothing interesting to unify the chosen set of targets in theme or gameplay, so it's really just maximizing how much time the contract takes.

Vox's reviews, cleanly SA-able Track 1 featured contracts

Cleaning the Cleaners
A straightforward "kill the NPCs of this kind" contract. Like most such contracts, identifying which targets can be simplified by use of emetics will save you a lot of time.

It's Wabbit Hunting Season
A shotgun kill gimmick contract, so be sure to bring a silenced shotgun to simplify matters!

Give me that Old Time Religion :siren:
A great example of "gently caress you, here's five unrelated finicky kills" contract. This time around, the surprise worst one being the civilian, who is stationary at a dock next to another civ. The scientist target is another one-chance timed stalagtite kill. The requirements involved basically mandate bringing a sniper rifle, sieker and at least one breaching charge (much easier if you've got both!)

3 Middle Initials +1
The Paris Polychotomy
Mega Comp 10

These are part of a set that I assume are intended for speedrunners, so the targets are all relatively accessible and no complications apply.

The Naughties Termination
Another straightforward assignment simplified by use of one or more breaching charges.

R.I.P Hans, Christian, Andersen
A couple straightforward embassy kills as the janitor, then a straightforward if somewhat finicky jaunt to the market roofs.

Jeff's Nightmare :swoon:
In the patient zero mission, kill Jeff (the suicidal former cult member) with the Striker. Nasty enough, but with the added twist that you're suit only, so the entire map is hostile! My recommended approach is navigate the outside of the complex, go in through the garage and wait for jeff in his room, then shoot him on the balcony a la the original Striker escalation

The Vengeance of Count 47
Not as bad as you'd think- iirc all the targets are in the attic area, and there's nothing keeping you from doing other knockouts or trickery to get them alone.

Roses in the Sky :siren:
This map intends you to do something tricky with the truck gascan event to bomb your targets in the panic room, but I was never able to get it to work reliably. The alternative involves a lot of waiting to isolate them and use a breaching charge (and an additional wait for the third target, who is most safely lured back to the house with an abandoned gun).

Terminator Exterminator
A semi-interesting contract that requires getting a shotgun from The Hammer and killing the sheriff. I found no reliable way to do this without knocking out everyone in that corner of the map and using a suitcase to lug the shotgun across. There's probably something I'm missing with luring the sheriff elsewhere though.

Modern Pirates
A contract that's less bullshit than it seems- there are no convenient places to hide the bodies of your targets, but they're all isolated so they can be left pretty much where they fall.

Walk the Plank of Shame
Hijinx on the relatively underused castle ruin. Lots of luring NPCs one at a time with coins, since there are so many enforcers here.

Man in the Grandfather Clock
A sniper assassination mission, so as with pretty much all such missions, you gotta lug a briefcase to and isolate each of your targets. Thankfully these ones are pretty fair. The only available escape is the executive exit, so you will need to knock Athena out too- thankfully she's relatively easy to isolate.

Tuk-tuk Bang Bang
Another "kill these characters who are all wearing the same outfit" contract, but these are all tuk tuk drivers in relatively crowded areas. Each can be lured either somewhere isolated or near an accident, thankfully- no seikering needed, but be careful of weird sightlines.

Duck-billed Dollars :swoon:
As with all of this set of rubber duck contracts, the ducks aren't what you want to use. This contract has a very clever solution to resolve the impossibility of its requirements.

Rubber Ducky You're the One
Simple, easy, bring breaching charges and a micro explosive.

You've Been Served :siren:
I never actually finished this one fully- you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get the cook outfit, and then it's way too easy to impulsively kill one of your targets while wearing one of the other outfits you'll be using to get them into place. Long retry time plus touchy requirements mean I'm warning you about it even though it's not on my list!

Resurrection! :swoon:
Just a clean, clever back-and-forth contract. Lots of interesting alternate approaches here.

The New Yorkian Bunny :swoon:
If you know the location of the gun you need, the rest of this very clever puzzle contract will fall into place. The kills and exit are much cleaner than you'd expect!

Cult Classic
If you know how Jeff works, you know this contract won't be too bad- but there is some waiting involved.

Feature Dream
We're in the embrace of the older featured contracts now, but this is just a straightforward "kill five targets all over the map" one.

No Vest for the Wicked :siren:
Half of this contract works great- the other half involves really touchy sound luring or, failing that, coining and knocking out half of one of the most populated spaces in the map. I might be missing something here.

Black Sparrow
A kill-fiver, but they're all at the house, so not bad.

Boatexit?Whynotambulance?
Another remarkably straightforward kill-fiver. I believe the targets are all concentrated in the same area.

It's Too Early!(remix) :siren:
It's downright remarkable how much of a timesink this particular kill-fiver contract is. The target with the sniper rifle kill requirement is the escort for the scientist who starts at the church; he can be a pain to deal with.

Little Shop of Horrors :swoon:
Some very clever but not too finicky luring and navigating in a very enclosed space.

Pulling Weeds
A simple gardener gimmick contract in mostly the same part of the map.

How to Hitman :siren:
An especially frustrating kill-fiver requiring a lot of equipment constraints.

Crash situation :swoon:
A clever, straightforward use of lures in another part of the map not used too often.

Red vs Blue (Red team attack #1)
Very glad I'm doing the red team attack and not the blue one! A relatively simple killset.

From here on out my coverage gets spottier. A lot of the contracts on the list past this point were especially terrible, or I didn't try them after seeing the objectives. We're also starting to get into mandatory, do-or-fail requirements here.

Checkerboard :swoon:
I think someone posted a video of doing this one- this sort of criscross target layout works very well, and it's enjoyable to route without getting too touchy or painful.

A Mansion to Keep Clean!
Another switched set combo of targets and outfits, without too much else going on.

Bug off Bang
A simple explosive device combo means more bringing breaching charges.

Clean Up your Act
Nastier than it seems...unless you realize frog is an option! I did not, so I wound up heading to the jungle, which seriously impacted my attempt times.

Cleaning the Cat House :siren:
You will have to carry a broadsword into the mission, which means you're going to have to go to the suitcase and retrieve it. This added to my frustration considerably.
fake edit oh my god you can carry a briefcase with an item in it at spawn, this would have saved me so much loving time, arrrgh

...well, I feel like an idiot, but on review this would only have saved me time in a few of these. I...wish I'd realized it sooner.

I Never Wear a Rubber :swoon:
What's with some of these names? Anyway, this is a clever use of the soundproofed, invisible lab and the console that lets you temporarily make it safe to walk through. I still recommend stashing a silenced shotgun in a convenient briefcase, though.

Knockout!
A sequential kill-fiver that is functionally SOSA. Quite well-routed, though. This illustrates why it would be helpful for Contracts mode to let the player lock in a spawnpoint or other loadout options.

Grand Theft Bosco :swoon: :swoon: :swoon:
The greatest contracts mode contract of all time. I don't know why they kept featuring contracts after this one, it has everything! This marathon assassination contract abuses exceptions in the code to up the bodycount and push the game - and the player - to their absolute limit.

Ted Mendez Retirement :swoon:
A perfectly fair self-contained killset with an outfit and area that otherwise don't see much combined use.

Greed for Speed
Another pretty fair contract, with no very notable features. Not sure why it was featured, other than the not-very-interesting coach target.

Love and Death
Illustrating the one-off suicide script in Landslide, but this one's easy enough to trigger just by messing around in the area that I think it's fair. The other target effectively forces the player to not interrupt or break the suicide target's scripting setup.

Not on my lawn!
A straightforward killset with no conditions.

Bonus: A Movie-ing Target
Basically a question of identifying where in this target's route he can be seikered.

Closure
Another simple matter of emetic-ing.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 09:58 on Jun 18, 2023

Hedgehog Pie
May 19, 2012

Total fuckin' silence.
Not going to lie, a part of me yay'd a bit when I realised showdowns on Haven have the storm.

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

Thanks for that list of contracts to try! I want to do more of them but as you said a lot of them are bad and the UI is even worse

Discendo Vox
Mar 21, 2013

We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.
I'm probably not going to do this for track 2 because there would be 70 of the drat things to write up, and even if there are still a lot of bullshit contracts, at least you're not scrolling as far back in the interface to get to them.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 21:53 on May 27, 2023

Lollerich
Mar 25, 2004

The little doctors are back,
they want to play with you!

Lollerich posted:

I've been able to put the baseball bat back in the case all the time now, unless they changed something today?

Are you actually sure about this? Did I maybe have a stroke?

Rythian posted:

Sorry about your stroke, pal. :(

FYI, I just tested it in Freelancer and you can in fact put the baseball bat back in the suitcase.

I would record it but for some reason Shadowplay doesn't work on my computer. No idea why and the fixes you can read about on google are all nonsensical.

Rythian
Dec 31, 2007

You take what comes, and the rest is void.





Was I the one having a stroke all along?!

Ghostlight
Sep 25, 2009

maybe for one second you can pause; try to step into another person's perspective, and understand that a watermelon is cursing me



They changed it in the May patch.

Rythian
Dec 31, 2007

You take what comes, and the rest is void.





Phew, I'm safe.

Shooting Blanks
Jun 6, 2007

Real bullets mess up how cool this thing looks.

-Blade



Ghostlight posted:

They changed it in the May patch.

Only for Windows 10

EricBauman
Nov 30, 2005

DOLF IS RECHTVAARDIG
I think there's a new bug or just one that I haven't encountered before:
if you're carrying one big weapon on your back and a rifle, shotgun or large SMG in your hands and you're going in to subdue someone, the weapon you had in your hands disappears.

I've had it happen twice yesterday. The first time I figured I'd just made a mistake and dropped the rifle somewhere, but then it happened again. I know sometimes weapons fall through the floor, but it'd be too much of a coincidence for that to happen in these exact same circumstances.

Or was this always the case?

SubponticatePoster
Aug 9, 2004

Every day takes figurin' out all over again how to fuckin' live.
Slippery Tilde
This certainly didn't go the way I thought it would: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y0OOn9Lx6I

First target I look at, lol

If the quality is lovely it's still rendering to HD.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum

EricBauman posted:

I think there's a new bug or just one that I haven't encountered before:
if you're carrying one big weapon on your back and a rifle, shotgun or large SMG in your hands and you're going in to subdue someone, the weapon you had in your hands disappears.

I've had it happen twice yesterday. The first time I figured I'd just made a mistake and dropped the rifle somewhere, but then it happened again. I know sometimes weapons fall through the floor, but it'd be too much of a coincidence for that to happen in these exact same circumstances.

Or was this always the case?
There was a fix related to accidentally eliminating with the dart guns, maybe it hosed this up.

Ghostlight
Sep 25, 2009

maybe for one second you can pause; try to step into another person's perspective, and understand that a watermelon is cursing me



SubponticatePoster posted:

This certainly didn't go the way I thought it would: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y0OOn9Lx6I

First target I look at, lol
:nice:


i'm off to paris, wish me luck! (despite these being recorded four months ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxQrxMtBiRY

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

The voice isn't quite right, but even so:


:allears:

SubponticatePoster
Aug 9, 2004

Every day takes figurin' out all over again how to fuckin' live.
Slippery Tilde

Ghostlight posted:

:nice:


i'm off to paris, wish me luck! (despite these being recorded four months ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxQrxMtBiRY
I need more garish clothes to do SASO runs in. I was religious about doing ETs in the first game, but fell off after that so the only super stupid outfits I have are Santa and clown. Although Santa is fun, I did an SASO freelancer this evening on Hokkaido and Yuki said "stay away from me, Mr. Claus" as I passed her in the hallway. :v: Also the guards asking for shotguns because they were good this year.

Your video makes me wonder if someone has done a series along the lines of "Agent 47 Fucks Up" where they still manage to get SA but leave a large trail of unconscious people, broken things, and general mayhem along the way.

Jerusalem posted:

The voice isn't quite right, but even so:

:allears:
This is art.

Ghostlight
Sep 25, 2009

maybe for one second you can pause; try to step into another person's perspective, and understand that a watermelon is cursing me



my first SA was mumbai, and i distinctly remember spending like 40 minutes painstakingly dragging an entire floor of guards down the stairs with coins just so i could garrote dawood completely uninterrupted. i only developed advanced techniques like "make him sick so he goes to the bathroom where nobody is" later.

i think you'd effectively have to plan an entire route of 'mistakes' to showcase, given how just one mistake almost guarantees you lose SA and there's basically no way to recover the rating once you've lost it.

Discendo Vox
Mar 21, 2013

We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.
The Lee Hong Derivation in Chongquing might be the most busted escalation in the game, and that's saying something. I've got no idea what the devs were thinking with this one- a sniper shot on a target in an occupied room that's virtually guaranteed to break SA, leaving the player to hope the AI is panicking in the right way due to a nearby explosive target kill. It's like the mission was structured entirely around twee callbacks and not around one ounce of playability.

On the bright side, I've finished off the ET arcade, I've got only..."only"...35 featured targets left, and just, uh, about 40 million points to grind out in sniper assassin's Siberia level. Progress!

edit: complaining online did the trick! Now I'm curious though- is it just a general unresolved bug that killing the last target on Chongquing will unleash a 150 decibel BWAR through your speakers?

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 15:05 on May 30, 2023

Hedgehog Pie
May 19, 2012

Total fuckin' silence.
Having a bit of a disaster on alerted Marrakesh, t-posing, seeing through walls, etc. A bit unusual for me, not sure about everyone else?

pthighs
Jun 21, 2013

Pillbug
I just noticed that Summer Games Done Quick has a Hitman 3 Freelancer campaign on the schedule for tomorrow (5/31): https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule/43

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
Earrings still seem to be buggy in Freelancer. I dismissed a suspect because he didn’t have earrings, but it turned out to be him once I’d shot all the other viable targets.

Lollerich
Mar 25, 2004

The little doctors are back,
they want to play with you!

Hedgehog Pie posted:

Having a bit of a disaster on alerted Marrakesh, t-posing, seeing through walls, etc. A bit unusual for me, not sure about everyone else?

I got a lot of stuttering and repeated crashes on Marrakesh. On a whim I decided to upgrade to Win 11 and that unfucked it, apparently.

However, I would not recommend going that far.

Discendo Vox
Mar 21, 2013

We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.
Vox's Escalation reviews/tips: Chongqing
Play enough in Chongqing and it becomes painfully apparent how tiny the map is- its escalations load further onto this issue because, like Dubai, all of them have the player navigating the same set of pathways, in this case across the rooftops.

The Jinzhen Incident (not a clue- there was an instance of racially motivated attacks on Chinese people by a homeless person in 2021 where one of the witnesses was named Jin Zhen, but that seems unlikely as an inspiration)
An excellent escalation that does several unique but entirely fair things to teach the player to think laterally about navigating several areas of the map, throwing new curveballs with each level that never rely on a map-specific gimmick, and which aren't laid out such that the player is taking the same path every time. Not much to say here- I wish all Hitman 3 escalations were like this!

The Lee Hong Derivation (named for Lee Hong, the target of the first, and lengthiest, series of missions in Hitman 1, remade in Contracts- and for being “derived” from the whole set combining all the different parts into one challenge)
This Deluxe DLC escalation is a remarkable combination of callbacks to specific elements from a lengthy series of missions in the original Hitman whereby the player manipulated different factions to gain access to, and ultimately kill, triad leader Lee Hong, “the man without a conscience”. This escalation nets the player a custom sniper rifle (a reskin of one that’s unlockable for clearing other sniper assassin challenges), a changshan suit (a direct callback to a required disguise from the classic missions) and yet another briefcase. I’d rather have gotten Hong’s poisoned sword, but oh well.

While the references are impressive, the heist itself is probably the least pleasant to play of the deluxe escalations, and one of the worst in Hitman 3. To get SA on Levels 2 and 3, the player has to figure out a workaround of some sort that circumvents the “intended” kill on every single target, because all of them break SA if done as "expected". All of this is made worse because the sniper rifle you're using, the "reward" for this escalation, blows. As is the case with all the worst escalations, there’s a series of finicky, uncertain, janky actions capped off by a final step at the very end of the run that's heavily RNG-dependent. At least attempts on this one are pretty short- the 5 minute timer on the last level is actually quite generous.
  • Mogwai Tzun: Do not shoot this guy from behind; guards will be drawn by the gunshot and inevitably find his corpse, and there's nowhere you can hide it in time. Instead, if you shoot him from the bridge between the apartment building roof and the complex roof, the guards will be unable to identify where the gunshot came from and won’t go looking. To make this easier, I recommend knocking out the guard who moves around on the roof of the apartment complex- if you let the mission start animation play out, he’ll be in a safe spot to pacify and several other actions will be timed well. Poison this target's soup, then go take care of the police captain before taking the shot with the captain's pistol.
  • Blue Triad: This kill can be carried out from several angles, but the easiest spot may be to do it from the same bridge where you kill Mogwai. Shooting out the back window area of the limo will lead this target to a spot where you can safely shoot the explosive on the limo’s front wheel. Performing this lure will ensure the vehicle, not the bomb, kills him, preserving SA. You can also get him with the nearby motorbike from his other pathing position, but this is a trickier pair of shots.
  • Red Dragon: This guy's very obviously a hack implementation, he's practically T-posing in the car. Note his hitbox is seemingly huge (possibly the size of the whole car) to make the shot easier. Don’t sweat getting a timing window to kill him from where you get the sniper rifle; when you return to the roof with a sniper guard near your spawnpoint, you can nail him from the back edge of the roof.
  • Lee Hong: As a real gently caress you to the player, there’s a cook on patrol in the restaurant who will instantly see Hong’s body from most angles. Save this target for last and check the left side of the restaurant window to make sure the cook is nowhere in sight before killing Hong. Take your shot from the rooftop with a sniper guard in the main story, then immediately book it through the nearby exit before your run is screwed by forces beyond your control!
Vox escalation post links:
ICA Facility, Paris
Sapienza
Marrakesh
Bangkok, Colorado
Hokkaido
Hawke's Bay, Miami
Santa Fortuna
Mumbai
Whittleton Creek
Isle of Sgáil
New York, Haven Island
Hitman 3 generally, Dubai
Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Dartmoor
Berlin, Lust
Chongqing
Mendoza, Carpathian Mountains
Pride, Gluttony, Envy

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 08:59 on Jun 8, 2023

Spinal Pap
Jun 24, 2007

uh-
I recently picked up a PS4 to gently caress around with some games since I haven’t played any games since GTAV on the PS3. But this Hitman thing is a bit confusing. I know that World of Assassination is a thing and that. But can I buy a used copy of Hitman 3 and claim the free upgrade? Or do I just have to suck it up and get WoA directly?

site
Apr 6, 2007

Trans pride, Worldwide
Bitch
in case anyone cares, freelancer is being run on https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick right now

site fucked around with this message at 23:46 on May 31, 2023

Discendo Vox
Mar 21, 2013

We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.
Continuing my horrifying effort at full SA completionism, I've just finished a 2-hour run of The Farewell in which I got both Brother from another Brother and The Talented Mr. Rieper, SA. The actual time it took to do this is probably closer to four hours. For those not aware, the event in Mr. Rieper pulls from the entire pool of bodyguard-type guards to replace any unavailable bodyguards for the confrontation, so either you do an annoying many-part object lure, or you do what I did- walk around the map knocking out every single bodyguard in the place. After that, finagling a place where I could silently snipe Tamara from the silos was practically trivial. I am now agonizingly familiar with most of the map.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 09:43 on Jun 1, 2023

Blowjob Overtime
Apr 6, 2008

Steeeeriiiiiiiiike twooooooo!

Archive of the Freelancer speedrun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz1nAy6y-KM

Definitely worth a watch. He talks a bit about his strategy picking which syndicate to go after based on the maps, especially on the last round where there isn't anything ideal. Whittleton Creek being the prime showdown map made me laugh, but it's a little different when your strategy is to shoot everyone and bounce instead of strategically seek out the leader.

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Hedgehog Pie
May 19, 2012

Total fuckin' silence.
My favourite showdown maps are Sapienza, Miami, Dartmoor and Berlin. Sapienza has a variety of areas, ones that are also fairly easy to access, where you can isolate suspects pretty easily (thankfully, I've not yet had any suspects hang around the lab if that's a possibility). Miami has the underground tunnels that are handy for taking people out. It's very easy to get overwhelmed by lots of lookouts in Dartmoor, especially in the gardens, but I like the map in general anyway, as I don't usually feel overburdened in it. Berlin can be a bit problematic if the suspects are all cramped into the biker hangout, but otherwise, I like making my way through the club to do my research - it feels like the original mission in a way.

Paris and Haven aren't usually too bad either, in my experience. New York is okay, but it suffers from not having a disguise that lets you freely poison food/drinks (the only map without one?). Dubai and Mendoza aren't bad, but the crowds make me nervous, and the suspects often end up very spread out in my experience. The one I try to avoid like the plague is Hokkaido*, which is claustrophobic and often difficult to access. I've steered well clear of Marrakesh, Colorado, Santa Fortuna, Mumbai, Whittleton Creek and Sgail on the advice of this thread. I don't think I've done one in Bangkok, Chongqing or Ambrose (could be wrong) yet but I imagine they might be tricky too.

* speaking of Hokkaido, it's probably the map I've changed my opinion on the most when it comes to Freelancer. I like the aesthetics, as well as the original mission and Patient Zero, so the map is probably a top five for me overall. Having a stationary target is a fun twist, and while Yamazaki feels a bit tagged on like some other targets (Ken Morgan, Nolan Cassidy, etc), there are at least a bunch of fun, memorable ways to take her out. Letting the virus spread in Patient Zero and doing damage control takes me back to when I used to try and kill everyone in the Christmas level in Blood Money. In Freelancer, I feel the restrictions much more and it often feels like there's a lot more work to do for better or worse. Thoughts?

Hedgehog Pie fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Jun 1, 2023

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