Comment by leetcrew | Hacker News Reader

Comment by leetcrew | Hacker News Reader

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ymmv of course, depending on the platform and what you consider "game breaking". I haven't given up on the game yet, but I am growing more frustrated.

five hours in, I killed a security guard and his body (which carried a key needed to advance the mission) fell through the floor. I had to load a previous save and be extra careful about where the body landed. honestly this kind of thing isn't so bad. it's obviously a bug and I know how to fix it.

the worst are the cases where I can't tell if it's a bug, a stupid dev choice "working as designed", or simply me being an idiot. I just finished playing the clouds mission, which is a club with a main area, a VIP area, and offices behind the VIP area. once I got in, I just started wandering around. I saw a guard telling some other NPC that he wasn't allowed in the VIP area, but I tried going in anyway, since he didn't say anything to me. no warning, all the guards open fire on me and I have to reload the checkpoint. okay, guess I'm not allowed in the VIP area. I talk to someone in the main area who sends me to sneak into the VIP area to talk to someone else. this time, the guards don't react, although nothing in the dialogue indicated I had permission to be there. maybe the areas just get unlocked when you have a reason to be there? anyway, I talk to my next contact who sends me to talk to the manager in the back office. since it's now fine for me to be in the VIP area, I assume it's fine to also go in the back office area. the next guard I run into shoots me. what the fuck?

Yes the security guard that comes out of the elevator with the card you have to loot, can fall down the elevator shaft (800m down actually!). Classic! :)

This is one of the (relatively few) documented bugs that I'm sure they've already fixed. Doing continuous level-saves is needless to say a necessity in any game you invest dozens of playhours in..

Still, to manage to have as few bugs like that in comparision to the sheer size of the game is amazing. Once you play a bit longer than this, you'll see the game opening up in so many ways and with so detailed side-jobs and side-plots that it's just jawdropping. That they actually pulled this off at all is a benchmark effort for future mega-games I'm sure.

> Doing continuous level-saves is needless to say a necessity in any game you invest dozens of playhours in..

Clawing at true straws much here? This is literally not how you are expected to play modern AAA games at all.

doesnt make it not a necessity xP

If it's a necessity, then the game should inform you that you should save every 5 minutes to recover from game-breaking bugs.

Ironically, it has "autosaves" that seem to happen (in theory) each time you use a drop point, and at various other triggers. Finishing a quest seems to be one in some situations at least.

Not that it always works though. Grrrr. :(

I'm not sure how it works right now, but nobody has time for Sierra type BS anymore (things like the game lets you go a long time without a needed item and oh now you need to replay half of it because you didn't get that tiny key hidden somewhere at the beginning)

"Welcome to the grittier future" - Sierra's ghost

(I hadn't realized just how much modern users would freak out at * Quest-style hoops to jump through)

My guess is the group of people they have designing missions and scenarios are manhandling the game world for their use-case without any care for the overall consistency. Just think about how many developers "fix" bugs by addressing the symptoms instead of the foundational issues in the code.

Probably goes something like this: we can make these easy-to-use mission designer tools and hire a bunch of interns to crank out content.

Then such a huge mess gets created it takes over a year for the more senior developers and designers to untangle it. Your VIP mission absurdness is buried under a list of 10k other issues.

Hitman level design is probably at the other end of this spectrum.

I had the same VIP area issue, on reload I watched the guard conversation and then another guard goes to the bathroom where you can jump him for his keycard. There were a few different ways to do it I think.

I had a weird “is it a bug?” moment yesterday, later on there’s a mission where you hack a parade float. I stole a delivery van to drive in.

Once inside nobody saw me as a threat though which was odd. I was wearing an arasaka vest so maybe that’s why?

I was able to just walk past everyone and do the mission easily.

> I had the same VIP area issue, on reload I watched the guard conversation and then another guard goes to the bathroom where you can jump him for his keycard. There were a few different ways to do it I think.

yeah I ended up playing through it a few times. part of why it was so confusing was that I actually went straight to the manager the first time I went in the back hallway area. he seemed a little surprised to see me, but wasn't too upset. I had to reload because I threatened to fight him if he didn't spill the beans and I lost the fight. the next time through, I ran into someone else who just shot me on sight.

> Once inside nobody saw me as a threat though which was odd. I was wearing an arosaka vest so maybe that’s why?

if that's the actual reason, that would be pretty cool! I'd actually love a more implicit/nuanced system for "where am I allowed to be". the thing that really breaks the immersion is wondering whether I am solving a puzzle or troubleshooting a bug. in general, I only do the latter for pay :)

>I was wearing an arosaka vest so maybe that’s why?

Unfortunately I don't think any such logic is in the game. For whatever reason that game just automatically flags you as non-hostile if you drove the van through the gate. From that point on the guards will just ignore you, no matter what you're wearing (I was wearing some random shirt and no arasaka gear and got the same result).

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