Well, here’s my two cents…
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The micro teaser is not as simple as just throwing it on the ground.
You actually need to find a pudle that the target will walk past.
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Looks like it’s time to teach him again that smoking kills. You’d think he’d have learned the lesson by now :x
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TIL that oocyanin is a pigment responsible for turning egg shells blue.
Cool!
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I have been meaning to get properly back into playing Hitman again, so this sounds like a perfect opportunity to by killing Mark Fabe again
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To be honest, I came onto the forum and noticed a massive wall of text from both of you and I didn’t dare dive in between it to be fair, so I couldn’t tell you what you were arguing about this time 
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Off topic, but coincidentally I believe this was Stormy Daniels’ nickname for Donald Trump.
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I don’t disagree, but that’s a good thing is it not? Just because coins are frequently found (and even then, I think that’s only true of the first 1-2 maps of each game, I do not think coins are literally everywhere) does not mean people will understand the full potential of their use. Finding them “sooner or later” still means the player is rewarded with knowledge for a potential future run.
It is always going to be relevant consideration until the game stops getting updates. Three weeks is a very…specific timeframe to choose? I’m curious to know how you got that number, because that seems mildly arbitrary. In my experience, even after three weeks, I still had no idea what I was doing. Hitman is not a game you can learn even 30% of in that short amount of time, it takes literal months to be even competent at this game, so I’m not sure if you’re trying to compliment and uplift newbies here, or downplay how complex to learn the games’ various systems are.
I don’t disagree with the advantage part, but IO can’t really do much about that, and to repeat, the game is designed to encourage that behaviour.
You’d be surprised how, when people see “Stealth-based Game” on steam or EGS or Xbox or whatever, they tend to try and keep quiet. The difference is, of course, is that they go loud more frequently because the either haven’t learned how to do things quietly yet, or just want to breeze through the levels. I’m sure the exact people you described exist, but I don’t think that’s a general rule of thumb or as common as you may think it is. People tend to buy games for a specific experience, not to go gung-ho crazy.
And something that’s gone ignored here is that, with perseverance, newbies will eventually get out of these patterns and focus on more refined stealth gameplay. It’s the way of the world of assassination.
And people said that about other items, and they too were abused to hell and back. Sure, I’d probably agree with you that newbies probably aren’t going to do this (because they don’t know the mechanics of what they’re seeing yet), but anything above that skill level (I.E, when the player has at least played the game several times through) absolutely would use this sort of item, as they do understand why it’s OP or broken because they’ve spent time with the games’ systems.
If you want an example of how OP items permeate throughout skill levels, then look at how frequently Youtubers recommended the E-phone back in the day (which, spoiler alert was a lot!). Hell, go back to October 2022, and see how many people used broken exploits with the Molotov, and see how many people here wish it would do accident kills again (myself included, though not in the way it was originally). Those items proved that if an item is simple or easy enough to use, and people get told about it, then they will use it, regardless of skill level. It’s as simple as that.
One of the earliest examples of Hitman: WoA nerfing is to the Breaching charges. Io changed their capacity from x3 to x1 between 2016 and 2, which continued with later re-releases of the weapon. This was changed because this item was very frequently used by players as a part of the “silent explosive” trick in contracts mode. Like with the above examples, it was reasonably common knowledge, and lots of people from all walks of skill level life did it, because it made the game easier. Note the compromise; you can still do this, but you have to sacrifice gear slots to take more breaching charges in, or interact with the level or target more. That’s what stops it from being so cheesy; you have to go through more effort or sacrifice something at the start to do it.
This is why IO balances the game around all skill levels, not just one subset of players, which is why conversations like this should probably reflect this mindset of the developers more than current; and I include myself in this too. Focusing solely on newbie players in conversations like this is just looking at one portion of the overall pie of your gaming audience. In fairness, I don’t focus on speedrunning tactics, but I’m not a speedrunner, and I don’t understand much of what they do, so my opinions would be useless to anyone if they were to listen to me.
In an earlier conversation, I did mention this as it stops the taser from being completely OP (that’s what I was alluding to with my comment on it not being balanced), but puddles can be found frequently in WoA (though I will fully admit this is very target-dependant), so in many ways, it’s actually specific to certain levels and niche by nature of target routines.
Wow, I may have actually convinced myself it’s not OP now.
Huh.
That’s probably fair (sorry).
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Yes, I didn’t say or mean to imply that it’s a bad thing.
100% arbitrary number I chose. You can replace it with three months, if you prefer.
I mean, yes, not everyone ignores the genre, but reading newbie complaints on Reddit (specifically that 47 isn’t as good in combat as [protagonist of whatever game they usually play]) also shows that people who at least try to play stealthily are not the only kind of people who pick up this game.
This isn’t exclusive to Hitman, you can also see this in other stealth games. I “fondly” remember someone streaming Thief 2014, attacking every single guard, and whining nonstop about how unfit for combat Garrett is.
I think the thing is that I genuinely don’t care if someone who is less skilled at a game manages to kill a target while maintaining SA without having to put in the hard work and hours to hone their skills and map knowledge. I have ~2,500 hours in the trilogy now. I don’t lose my sense of accomplishment when someone with 25 hours is having an easier time with an ET. But to be fair, I also don’t care about the leaderboards at all.
Back to the taser duck, it wouldn’t be a free Silent Assassin kill switch like the electrocution phone was (and even there I think, so what? If someone really thinks it’s more fun to do that than to try and figure out how to isolate the target or cause an accident, let them do it). It could only be used under very specific circumstances.
But we’re not the devs, and it’s not our responsibility to balance the things we suggest or wish for to include players of all levels. Good devs don’t just add everything the player base wished for, just as they wished for. I expect the devs to figure out how to balance a new item (while also keeping in mind that Hitman is a single player game), because they know what they’re doing. We’re just sitting at the table, asking for ice cream for breakfast.
And to not focus on newbies so much: I like ducks and I’d love to play around with a taser duck. I’d also love to play around with an emetic duck, which would be equally OP, wouldn’t it? It’s basically the emetic briefcase without the need to find a quiet place to take the illegal item out of the briefcase and put it back in again.
Would I exclusively switch to using those ducks? Probably not. I also don’t use the emetic briefcase or the Sieker with every single ET or syndicate leader.
fixed some typos…
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Why is this a problem, though? It’s a good thing that when something works, people use it. That’s the entire point of having a thing. Why is it an issue that people use it? How does that ruin your gaming experience when other people are using something? I can go back and watch YouTube videos of people using such items, yeah; that’s what those videos are there for, to watch them being used. That’s the point of having them; to use them. Why does this bother you so much? Know what else there’s a lot of videos of, released around those same times you mentioned? Videos of people not using them. That’s also in there. So how does someone putting up a YouTube video of themselves using an “OP” item affect your gaming, or your life in any way? What, because you saw someone else using an item you don’t like, now you’re required to use it? You’re not. Don’t use the item they’re using, don’t watch the videos of them using it, and guess what: the entire “problem” ceases to exist for you.
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I’m gonna try and be brief here:
I don’t use these in Freelancer or the base game all that much because they trivialise the game, and i’m not the only person to notice this. Part of why Collector Edition Freelancer Tools have dart guns is due to their own balance mistakes. IO can’t remove them because people like using them too often (and they do have logical places where they wouldn’t be OP, like on targets with short, very public, routines). They’re kind of put in a corner there.
Completely agree. Nothing much else to add here.
Well the emetic duck can’t kill anyone, so no, not really. It’s OP in other ways, however. As you elaborated, it would make the fartcase redundant as that would be easier, but that’s arguably already the case with the Emetic Vial from Ambrose (which is semi-illegal to throw, unlike the emetic grenades which are illegal to throw). I find the fartcase too finnicky, and it’s not something I often deploy because there is simply better emetic weaponry for most situations.
I feel like this angle of “let people have their fun” ignores many principles of game design for the selfish purpose of doing something you want to do. This also ignores the fact that there’s other ways to have fun in the game, but that also usually goes unmentioned too. This mindset would be fine if you’re making this a mod (I’d actually expect that, to be honest), less so by the developers who need to try and make everybody happy. And the sad reality is; IO won’t be able to. The game should not let you do it as it teaches bad habits to new players, discouraging them early on from using anything else. Going for easy solutions instead of more complex ones, no matter how little the difference, also tend to age better and are less likely to get changed. As I mentioned, I already do this with the emetic vial (which to repeat, I don’t like using unless I really need to) for this reason, and I only just noticed this fact a while back.
…anywhere with a water puddle. Which, yes, is not everywhere, but many maps or targets do either go near, walk over, or just outright have water puddles in the level (in fairness, H2/3 maps have made a bit of an effort to avoid this), though I do concede this is more an issue with Freelancer and Contracts Mode and ET’s rather than the base game. I don’t disagree that this would be a balancing factor, but it’s not the one thing that would balance out a very easy accidental kill.
This is slowly getting off topic again, isn’t it?
None of this is for you to decide, and your reasons for being against it are just as selfish as what you claim the opposite position is. You’re basing it on what you think should be the guiding principle of what goes into the game, not realizing or accepting that other players are not concerned with that philosophy.
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I guess it’s really a case of me not seeing the point in expecting people of all skill levels who are not me to play a single player game according to my self-imposed rules. I don’t lose out on fun when others decide to take shortcuts, and it doesn’t invalidate my own playstyle.
Yeah, it’s probably a good idea to agree to disagree before we enter electrocution phone discourse territory again. 
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I really really REALLY hope in whatever potential update comes this roadmap, we get that dang Untouchable “choose starting outfit” unlocked! There’s been no word on it since that tease and removal over 6 months ago! 
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the fact the the setup challenge has the codename 47 suit in its picture makes it more annoying for me I just want to wear a nice coat on the train
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And full loadout!
20 ways to kill the constant
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I use the Sieker and Collectors Sieker quite often during Freelancer, so here’s to a future emetic green duck for Freelancer!! 
It needs to happen
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