Yeah, me too get this right now
2 Likes
Iâm essentially fine with the default Dubai outfit being locked (unlike the other two) because it makes sense given the situation, but goddamnit, it would be hilarious seeing 47 land (and start) on that skyscraper in the flamingo outfit.
Very happy about PZ Hokkaido finally allowing different outfits. Can put some of that winter gear to good use.
5 Likes
HITMAN - May Patch Preview
As we announced at the start of the year with our Spring Roadmap, weâre planning a patch for HITMAN World of Assassination on May 11th - hereâs what you need to know.
INTRO
Known internally as Patch 3.1.5.0, this update will bring more than 80 bug fixes, tweaks and improvements â with a focus on addressing many points of fan frustration for our new rogue-like mode Freelancer. Weâve also implemented a new location for Contracts Mode, with the ICA Facilityâs Freeform Training mission now supported for the first time, giving players more options to be creative.
Before we release the full patch notes next week, we want to give you a look ahead at whatâs coming up, including a new Prestige feature for Freelancer. Letâs start with that.
FREELANCER PRESTIGE
Weâre adding a new âPrestigeâ feature to Freelancer that will give you more reasons to play and earn elusive Safehouse trophies for your collection.
The âPrestige Laptopâ will be added to the Safehouse and will allow you to increase through five Prestige Levels. You can advance your Prestige Level after youâve collected all the weapons that can be stored in the Safehouse. At that point, three things will happen:
- The base Merces payout and XP gain for completing missions will increase
- Adds a Prestige trophy to your Safehouse for each Prestige Level (5 in total)
- All items in your inventory, all Freelancer gear, all weapons on the weapon walls and all Merces will be reset to 0, as if you were starting fresh. Your safehouse customisations will not be affected.
Prestige in Freelancer is all about risk/reward. Once youâve unlocked everything, you can start fresh with a higher base payout and XP bonus, earn the trophies for your Safehouse and show off your Prestige Level.
ICA FACILITY CONTRACTS MODE
Contracts Mode letâs you play missions, mark your own targets and challenge your friends and the whole community to perform the contract the same way that you did.
On May 11th, weâre expanding Contracts Mode to now include the ICA Facility location. More specifically itâs the Freeform Training mission that takes place on the yacht. Many of you will have spent hours and hours here in the HITMAN 1 beta back in 2016 and weâre excited to see what contracts you create here. Look out for some of them in the Featured Contracts section soon!
NEW UNLOCKS
With the May 11th patch, weâre rolling out a handful of new unlocks that will keep your inventories fresh.
The Black Bruiser Suit
The âHITMANâ Challenge tasks you with completing any Freelancer campaign on Hardcore Mode. We think youâll agree itâll be worth it. Plus, if youâve already managed to do that, the suit will be yours instantly when you launch the game after the patch. Get started now and claim it on May 11.
Exploding Pen
As the old phrase goes: âexplosions speak louder than wordsâ. Thatâs never been more true with the Exploding Pen you can unlock by heading back into the Patient Zero campaign and eliminating Craig Black under some specific and fitting circumstances. This item was previously an Elusive Target exclusive unlock in HITMAN 2, but weâre making it available to all World of Assassination players through this new challenge.
PATCH NOTE HIGHLIGHTS
At the time of writing, there are 87 individual fixes, tweaks and improvements ready to roll out in this patch. A lot of focus has been on player frustration around the Freelancer mode since launch, but there are also some more general fixes for the game in general that will keep things tight, but also have an impact on Freelancer indirectly.
We wanted to highlight just a few of them to give you an idea of whatâs to come ahead of the full patch notes next week. Take a look!
Freelancer HUD Options
Under Options>Gameplay, weâve added four new options for âFreelancerâ which allows players to customise specific HUD elements for this game mode.
The following HUD elements can either be toggled ON (default) or OFF:
Lookout Proximity Indicator, Assassin Proximity Indicator, Alerted Territory Indicator, Merces Indicator.
Item Unlock Identification (Freelancer)
Weâve added a small objective marker to the gun wall to help players find and identify a newly unlocked item.
Spycam Toggle (Freelancer)
Weâve added an option to âHide UIâ when using the Spycam. This was in response to player feedback that the UI elements can make it difficult to identify the finer details of a character with the elements permanently visible. For example, seeing whether a suspect was wearing earrings.
Perfect Shooter Tweak (Freelancer)
Weâve made a change to the âPerfect Shooterâ objective (Do not miss a shot, you will fail if any shot misses a person), that will make an exception for security cameras or recorders. The objective text has also been updated. In short, you can now shoot security cameras and recorders and still earn the Perfect Shooter objective.
SA Recorder (Freelancer)
Weâve updated the Prestige Objective description for SA/NF and SA/SO to mention âDestroy Surveillance Recorderâ if the player gets recorded. Previously, this wasnât mentioned and the objectives would be failed on mission completion if the player was recorded but didnât destroy the recorder.
SA Reward (Freelancer)
Weâve adjusted the Payout objectives and Prestige objectives to make Silent Assassin / SA Suit Only (SASO) and Silent Assasin / No Firearms (SANF) objectives more rewarding.
Puddle Paradise
Weâve done a huge sweep across many, many (many), puddles and water so that they can be used to electrocute NPCs more reliably. This was triggered by a change we made to how the game registers pacified NPCs that are placed on an electrified puddle.
Along the way, we found inconsistencies with puddles or areas of water that look like they should be electrocute-able but werenât. Now, there should be fewer cases where this issue occurs.
Neon Outfit
Weâve toned down the excessive lights of the Neon Outfit to be more consistent across all locations and areas, dark and bright. This should remove the absolutely overblown blinding effect in some dark areas.
Speedrunnerâs Delight
Back in the January Patch Notes, we made a mention of the so-called âMuffin Trickâ being inadvertently patched out of the game. As it was an unintended change, weâve remedied that so that it will function as it once did.
Carpathian Laboratory
Weâve removed the disguise restriction on the Laboratory Starting Location in Carpathian Mountains. This will allow players that have reached Mastery Level 2 to play the mission with any unlocked disguise, but will still enforce the default (and narratively thematic) disguise for first-time players.
Patient Fox
Weâve also removed the forced disguise restriction on the Club Entrance Starting location in Berlin for the main campaign. Same goes for the default starting location of the Patient Zero mission in Hokkaido.
By Travis Barbour, Communications Manager
22 Likes
I hope I was allowed to post the patch preview. Looks like some good changes, though Iâm able to gloat that I made to level 100 âthe hardcore wayâ without prestiging. Also, I never knew Travisâ last name before today!
8 Likes
To be honest, not a huge fan of this particular one. I suppose this is one of the ways they are making Merces meaningful in an ongoing way but losing every weapon and tool may be going a little too far?
2 Likes
Two exciting things that stick out to me.
Perfect Shooter Tweak (Freelancer)
Weâve made a change to the âPerfect Shooterâ objective (Do not miss a shot, you will fail if any shot misses a person), that will make an exception for security cameras or recorders. The objective text has also been updated. In short, you can now shoot security cameras and recorders and still earn the Perfect Shooter objective.
Shooting at cameras is probably the most common way I fail objectives in Freelancer. Most of the time I just completely forget about the objective mid run 
Thank you for changing that!
SA Recorder (Freelancer)
Weâve updated the Prestige Objective description for SA/NF and SA/SO to mention âDestroy Surveillance Recorderâ if the player gets recorded. Previously, this wasnât mentioned and the objectives would be failed on mission completion if the player was recorded but didnât destroy the recorder.
Itâs heartbreaking when you get recorded without noticing and therefore fail the objective. I can fathom why IOI decided to remove the green guns indicator, but the inconsistency around getting recorded and whatâs shown on screen always baffled me. How did this even get through playtesting?
PS: Strange that now Travis Barbour is credited as the author, when it was Marcin Cabaj in the screenshot that Dinozafr shared earlier 
9 Likes
Yep, best way of handling it. Orson is gonna get killed by a clown soon.
Iâm glad PZ is getting suit options; time to pick the Tactical Turtleneck over the Recon Gear 
8 Likes
No, I meant when he walks through the wardrobe curtain. Make it so whatever suit you select from the skyscraper starting position is what he changes into.
2 Likes
Ah, ok. Thatâd be probably difficult to implement though.
3 Likes
Hold the hell up there: for the main campaign? Does that mean the main campaign only, as in playing the Liability as a regular ET or in Arcade Mode, or trying to start there in Contracts Mode will still have the locked disguise? Or does âmain campaign,â in this context, mean anything outside of Freelancer, in order to match the fact that this is possible within Freelancer but nowhere else? Better be the latter, because if the former, this makes no difference to me at all.
2 Likes
What about Paris auction 
9 Likes
Back in the January Patch Notes we made a mention of the so-called âMuffin Trickâ being inadvertently patched out of the game. As it was an unintended change, weâve remedied that so that it will function as it once did.
16 Likes
That looks really interesting.
I will be honest : I lost interest in Freelancer once I had finished the mastery 100, and even then the most fun I had was during the first 10-15 first campaigns as I collected the weapons. (ah the memory of making the freeloader list).
The last four challenges (50, 100 campaigns, 500 leaders, 2500 members) were too far away and boring to be immediate motivation.
The first campaigns, the weapon wall collection was when merces were useful, missions had a bit more flavour, and progress was visible. I then played with purpose.
So having the prestige objective to do it again 5 more time is genuinely the best thing for me. And will make me replay Freelancer (and to be honest Hitman). Good decision here.
And if my maths is correct, the 5 prestige level should guide me from the 33 campaigns I currently have (what I needed for mastery 100), to high 80/90 campaigns done. By which point I will see the 100 campaigns / 500 leaders as close enough to be motivated to do.
I do hope that the prestiges will arrive with some unlock. But more as a optional bonus to be honest.
Finally @Clemens_IOI @Travis_IOI : is there any news about The Coin⢠?
(Please make it a permanent drop in the safehouse basement, always spawning next to the map, ready to be taken. Why not as a reward for prestige ?)
10 Likes
Many thanks for providing us all with this new information preview for the upcoming patch. Iâm looking forward to reading the fixes and improvements to Freelancer. Iâm excited about the prospect of what Prestige Mode can bring to the table!
Fingers crossed that they have added Freelancer-only exits to the main campaign missions - Bangkok riverside exit for example.
3 Likes
Some interesting stuff, especially the part talking about bugfixes and improvements.
Also the freelancer tweaks that are very welcome 
Looking forward to the next update!
3 Likes
And Mendoza view of the winery
4 Likes
I like the addition called FREELANCER PRESTIGE.
I welcome the addition of elements that make me want to play again and again.
If further additions are still allowed, since the freelancer mode has the concept of money, I think more elements could be added.
For example, as was the case in âHitman Blood MoneyââŚ
âPower up and customize weaponsâ
Elements that make the best weapons out of weapons that have no characteristics, such as pistols, SMGs, sniper rifles, etc.
âEscape with the default suitâ
An element that requires you to escape in your initial suit when you escape.
âBribes to lift area alerts.â .
Element that the area alert can be bought with money to return to normal status.(normal mode only)
Freelancer mode has the potential to be more fun.
8 Likes
Patch updates sounds great to be fair.
Iâm liking the sound of the Prestige laptop, however, the grid for all the weapons again will be a killer, especially with reset Merces 
3 Likes
Do you guys think the missing coin in the Freelancer tools briefcases is linked to the new Prestige feature?
Maybe it shows up as a reward?
3 Likes