 Forced Friendship |
Mastermind: Controller | Tier 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Basic (1 pt): Increases your supply of cable ties by 4. You can cable tie hostages 75% faster. | ||
| Ace (3 pt): You and your crew gain 0.5 damage absorption for each hostage you have. This effect stacks with up to a maximum of 8 hostages. Note: This skill does not stack with other players Forced Friendship skills. | ||
Mechanics
Player can tie down civilians, and civilians only, by interacting with them while standing next to them. Civilians must be intimidated into lying down first by shouting at them or making noise with Stockholm Syndrome. Tying down a civilian takes 2 seconds without this skill and 0.5 seconds with the basic version owned. You also gain 4 extra cable ties.
The basic skill also has an unmentioned effect, listed for Stockholm Syndrome; It increases the time civilians stay intimdated by 50%.
Acing this skill makes every hostage you have add 0.5 damage absorption, up to 4 damage absorption for 8 hostages. Law enforcers converted via Joker do not count, but dominated ones do. This does not stack for multiple users with the same skill, and its low cost and placement in the skill system requires teams to check whether or not more players lack it, wasting skillpoints.
Strategy
This skill is useful in two circumstances.
Public heists done in stealth mode; having a large number of cable ties may allow the team to tie down all the civilians on the map. This removes the need to have someone nearby to intimidate the civilians on a regular basis to keep them from phoning for help and setting off the alarm. However, in such heists where civilians are close together, keeping them suppressed is typically easily done. The usefulness of additional cable ties in this case depends on how many civilians appear in areas outside the main area, such as on the street or in back rooms.
On loud heists, it allows getting a much larger number of hostages and moving them to an area where they are not easy for law enforcement to free. This can considerably slow attacks by assault waves, making defense much easier.
To summarize, this skill is of particular value when:
- One is not playing with a full party (bots can't use cable ties), especially solo;
- When there are large number of spread-out civilians to keep track of (Mallcrasher, Nightclub, Jewelry Store, Diamond Store, GO Bank);
- When full control without constant attention is desired.
The alternative to the skill is simply to kill the civilians, especially with Sixth Sense aced to reduce the cleaner cost by 75%. This offers several advantages: it is done instantly, can be done at range and allows the body to be bagged and moved to a less visible location (as hostages often do not follow the heisters to their exact location), which is useful for stealth. The only disadvantages here are the cleaner cost (even if reduced with the aforementioned skill) and limited supply of body bags. When players first start playing, they have very little money compared to what they need to buy weapons, mods, etc. Low-level heists also offer little reward and comparatively big cleaner costs. However, as players move through levels, the money problem becomes much less of an issue especially on heists with high payouts.
Thus, this skill may be of use to starting players who do not wish to cut on their income by killing civilians and often try to complete any of the establishment-robbing maps stealthily, especially when they do not have a full party or are playing solo.
While the recent addition of collecting cable ties from ammo bags might make this skill sound less useful in loud situations, the 4 extra cable ties, plus the faster tying speed, will allow a player to tie up enough civilians in order to delay the first assault wave. Additionally, if you collect enough hostages with your crew and have the aced version of this skill you will be better prepared for that first assault. Its addition usually makes little difference in stealth, with a limited amount of ammo drops from killed guards before stealth is broken, requiring this skill if keeping civilians alive is desired.
