A bit late, I was busy last week, and since no topic has been made:
@Combatglue released a second batch of his picks for Featured Contracts.
This topis is, as usual, here to discuss the batch, post runs, and everything else related.
I can walk around some, but death may come at any moment. Actually, when the mission loads you might as well hear " Omae wa mou shindeiru."
Edit: Iāve got to say, the guy has a sense of humor. The 2 Chongqing ones really are (a) #2.
Edit2: I canāt say Iām mad (any more) for these being showcased. They do seem a bit cheeky though. Currently, it seems that about 36(?) people were able to get inside the waiting area. Iām very curious as to how one could grab and pull them through!
The Chongqing ones were definitely not playtested. Please, do not feature contracts that require glitches that the mayority of players would not be able to do or even know about their exitence.
I had to look up which one this was, I was on the starter pack version when I made it. This is a slow contract so speedrunners wonāt like it very much, but if you find a way to make him go faster Iād love to see it. Itās otherwise completely legitimate (no glitches).
Hmm I agree and disagree, seeing something weird makes me go āhuh? wow howād they do that?ā and look up new methods and strategies which I can apply to other maps. Not all contracts are for every type of player. This contract is for people like me, a silly little exploit puzzle.
As FCsā¦ There should be some boundaries they donāt cross. Having to get OOB (Out Of Bounds) is definitely crossing it.
Iāll admit, I wouldāve never even bothered trying to get OOB in Chongqingā¦ Especially after learning that IOI made those lower areas insta-deathā¦ But having (sigh) āwatched a video on itā - riding the moving props in the level is, Iāve got to say, kinda genius. But I donāt even know if that was the intended method to get to those 3 targets. Thereās also āboostingā near the exit, but I canāt say how many times Iāve tried that and it messed up.
The other one where you need to electrocute the one targetā¦ I wouldnāt say that crosses the line. Others might disagree. The gate to the waiting area acts differently on the right side than the leftā¦ In that you can actually throw things through the gap, you can even get melee lock-ons if an NPC is close enough to said gap. If anything it gets you to experiment. But I wouldnāt say itās any worse than Vatican Privelege. If anything itās slightly less troublesome.
Have to agree with @Tetrafish_21 going oob is going too far for FC imo. Contracts can have an interesting ātrickā to them that make you think how to approach it without requiring glitches. Like Bird Boarding Barred. Though I understand thereās an audience for them and they have a place in the game but featured should be a bit more accessible to appeal to a wider range of players I think.
Regardless though I wasnāt a big fan of this selection in general, I preferred the last combatglue picks. But I wish there was more map variety in both of them personally (I like Chongqing but 1/3 of the batch with 2 at the train station?) the recent Sohm and Street Surgeon picks had much more map variety. But maybe thatās just me.
It can definitely be speedran, I did it in like 2 minutes?
Summary
Just run towards the target, sicken the red cap guy whoās in the way (the target doesnāt enforce you for some reason), poison the bottle and leave (I bumped the target on the way out but I dunno if that actually skips his dialogue and makes him drink faster).
Totally agree, those 2 Chongqing contracts werenāt what Iād like to see in FCs. If Samir continues to select contracts I hope he wonāt do this again or select broken stuff like molotov contracts
Oh lol just goes to show, I can miss very obvious solutions
The way I intended it to be done was
get Craig Black into the basement to do the interview, once the Ghostly Fan has finished fangirling heāll head up to visit the hippy and smoke a bong.
I suspect people would hate it a lot more if this was the only way to do it, so Iām glad he has a nearby water bottle instead
Finished this batch the other day and here are my thoughts.
Electrocution Art and Train Heading to Hell
I made my thoughts know on these two in another post but to sum up, you can tell that @Combatglue didnāt play test this batch. I think going back to community selections would be best so this doesnāt happen again.
When the Bell Rings and Make Him Well
I enjoyed these two the most. Had to look on Hitmaps for the nearest oil barrel for Block, but working out the route was fun (the Constant was a bit of an issue so had to knock him out in the end). Whittleton was all about the timing on when to make people sick but once I got it, it was very satisfying.
Best Enjoyed High, The Trinity and A-rchetype Engine
These three were very simple, probably a bit too easy for my liking but good nonetheless.
Egg Heist
Iām guessing this should have been harder when this was first made back in 2022 but now that weāve got the Golden Shotgun in our inventory this was very simple.
Dropping Case and Casket
Originally tried shooting the guy into the grave with a Viper but this wasnāt counting as a Fall Accident so had to run to him with a Seiker and then kick him in the water.
Dancing was a Crime
This was a tough one. When I made her sick she would never go to the toilet, she would go out of the party and throw up in sight of guards so I couldnāt syringe her. In the end I had to gas Tamara and her guards (bumping her constantly to slow her down) before they entered the party so they would take up all those sick spots and then gas grenade the target so the only place to go would be the bathroom.
Summary
If they removed the two Chongqing contracts this would have been a solid batch but with them in this is probably a 2/10. Shame.
Nah, that Vatican thing was worse. Not only did you have to wait for the entire loop with Aviatti (or whatever his name was) and the priest, but sometimes the priest would land wrong and be inaccessible without some sort of glitch (which I refuse to use).
In my defence, it was submitted for an April Fools batch
Longer answer though - the inaccessibility of the priest was part of the contract, you are meant to snipe his body off the roof. Being able to glitch onto the roof, or the priest falling off the roof entirely, are the unintended parts
Also, you mentioned the entire Abiatti loop. While the dumb glitch part is āhow do you get the priest disguise without knockoutsā, the contract itself is āmanipulate Abiattiās routeā. This involves Siekering or otherwise interfering with NPCs that he talks to on his route, such as the sommelier, the surgeon, and the wife. I think my record is around 9 minutes but someone got it to 8. If you donāt do these things it takes around 14-15 minutes.
The downtime while waiting for Abiatti to take the priest upstairs is supposed to be used to complete your other tasks, namely getting an explosive set up next to the lawyer and getting in position with the sniper rifle to shoot the priestās body down.
Naturally no plan survives first contact and people found faster ways to get everything done. Itās always been considered a troll contract but itās actually a very slow speedrun puzzle (just a particularly awful one). Making contracts that rely on manipulating specific NPC pathing is a real challenge!
Dropping Case and Caskets made me rage the most out of all the contracts for this batch. I mean, in terms of rage level . Getting spotted by other NPCs, 47 not placing the coins for the undertaker, and the odd TIME LIMIT. It shouldāve been more even with a flat 4 minutes. I got it in about 4 tries though.
Re: Train to heck (OOB)ā¦ Earlier attempts were me trying to ride one of the gondolas, walking off, and landing on a roof. This was my limit and Iād always fall to the bottom of the map (thus, the first spoiled screenshot). This was before I used the violin alone and was using the briefcase (which wasnāt needed) near the start/exit. But every time Iād mess up it was a lower amount of rage and Iād feel it was my fault, not an outside force I couldnāt control like the NPCs being annoying, or (again) a time limit. Iād give up out of boredom with repeated failed attempts, and just try again later.
Edit: That probably sounded strange. Regarding āoutside forcesā it seemed more based on luck getting the boost trick to work.
. Getting spotted by other NPCs, 47 not placing the coins for the undertaker, and the odd 
TIME LIMIT. It shouldāve been more even with a flat 4 minutes. I got it in about 4 tries though.