An overhaul mod for Need for Speed: Most Wanted

Installation

- Make sure you have v1.3 of the game, as this is the only version this plugin is compatible with. (exe size of 6029312 bytes)
- Plop the files into your game folder.
- Start the game, create a new savegame and start the career.
- If the game doesn't launch or has performance issues, try deleting d3d9.dll.
- Enjoy, nya~ :3

Disclaimer

Due to the current programming landscape, I feel that it's necessary to explicitly state that this project had zero assistance or any other kind of involvement from any sort of "AI agent" and it never will.
This mod was entirely built by hand, by a human being, and I believe that any project that cannot also claim this about itself is not worth people's time. The only acceptable amount of AI use is zero AI use.

Recommended mods

- Front-End Shadows - https://nfsmods.xyz/mod/3005
- HD Reflections - https://nfsmods.xyz/mod/3363
- Recompiled Vinyls - https://nfsmods.xyz/mod/629
- Xbox 360 Stuff Pack - https://nfsmods.xyz/mod/1200
- XtendedInput - https://github.com/xan1242/NFS-XtendedInput/releases/latest (only if you're using a controller!)

Incompatible mods

- Sun Set (fully incompatible)
- Widescreen Fix (crashes on startup with the latest version, use Xbox 360 Stuff or the widescreen fix version from 2023)

Features (in order of importance)

- Blacklist members no longer have a quota of races and milestones to complete, instead relying on a global counter of Rep points for both
- Rog is now a full Blacklist member, complete with his own objectives
- Boss skip has been implemented as a feature to improve the game's pacing, Taz, Big Lou, Kaze and Webster have been removed
- Rival challenges after Sonny now have your car on the line as well as theirs, you can lose your car if you lose against them
- Marker selection has been entirely removed, each rival after Sonny now gives you their pink slip by default, and some of them also give you an extra Junkman marker or cash reward
- The first few Blacklist rivals now award you with special race events from other Need For Speed titles, accessible through the Bonus Races menu
- Rival challenges are now way more difficult, with the opponents driving as fast as they should given the cars they have
- All cars and upgrades are unlocked from the start and their prices adjusted, adding a new layer of strategy into balancing your spending
- Added support for up to 4 vinyl layers
- The cash reward for having an Underground 2 save has been removed in favor of getting cash from Rog's races
- Collectibles have been added around the map in the form of graffiti, spraying over them grants you a discount on cars & upgrades
- Your car's heat level now only increases from taking down cops, no longer passively going up over time during a chase
- Pink slip cars now come with heat levels higher than 1x
- JV now drives a Corvette C6 for balancing reasons
- Razor now drives an M3 GTR with Ultimate NOS for balancing reasons
- Jewels now drives a much more upgraded Mustang GT for balancing reasons
- Ronnie now drives a fully upgraded DB9 for balancing reasons
- The endgame M3 GTR can now have junkman performance parts installed
- Cars lost by pink slip are kept track of and used by opponents in the late game
- Cops now have a higher chance to show up in a race (including in a rival challenge) if you're driving a car with a higher heat level, per-race cop probability has been removed
- Freeroam cops are no longer present unless your car is heat level 3 or higher
- Added overworld triggers for starting pursuits at specific locations if your heat level is too low for random cop spawns
- Ending a rival challenge with the cops on you now means you need to escape before continuing
- Cops on heat levels 1 and 2 no longer stop spawning after the first cop is destroyed, thereby making them actually viable for working on milestones
- The lane system has been removed from Drag races
- Added checkpoint races to some rivals, similar to Midnight Club
- Tollbooth races now have you racing against a ghost of each rival, representing their time for that event
- Most rivals now have a Special Challenge in the Milestones menu, requiring you to complete a pursuit with various gimmicks or prerequisites
- Circuit races have been toned down, with most of them having reduced lap counts
- Removed samey and repeated events in the rivals' normal races and their rival challenges
- All rivals' pursuit milestones have been changed, with some brand new types of milestones added such as immobilizing police vehicles or traveling a certain distance
- Speedtrap milestones have been removed
- Opponents are now more difficult (based on the Hard difficult in Quick Race, so it's still vanilla-like) and they instantly fire their NOS after the starting countdown
- Added basic support for crew races - some events have 8 racers, and Mia or Rog are your crew members and are able to win them for you
- Cops in the final pursuit are now a lot more difficult
- Some races now have unique characters as opponents, with their own unique cars just like in ProStreet
- Cops can now get destroyed if they crash into roadblocks
- The underpass at the roundabout in Rosewood is now open and has a hiding spot inside
- Fixed some pursuit breakers not having icons on the minimap or in the world
- Unused SMS messages have been restored, e.g. Vic now calls the cops on you
- The entire map in freeroam is now unlocked from the start
- Finishing the game now unlocks heat level 6 and enables the ability to redo milestones
- Circuit races with 1 lap now show a completion percentage rather than lap 1/1
- The game now autosaves way more often, negating the effect of crashes (which there are hopefully very few of)
- Each blacklist member now has unique flavor text on their blacklist screen instead of the same exact tutorial text but written differently
- Fixed Razor's challenge text being bugged and not showing up immediately
- Fixed a softlock in the beginning where the safehouse was not accessible
- Rival challenge intro cutscenes are now skippable
- Race lengths displayed in the menu are now consistent and accurate
- Racers can now show up as finished on the leaderboard
- Some rival challenges now start by playing specific songs on the soundtrack
- Collisions are now always loaded across the entire map, thereby reducing rubberbanding and making sure that the world can never unload and become non-solid
- The restart button after race wins is no longer usable, in order to prevent you from bypassing post-race pursuits
- Fixed the shadows moving during the photo finish screen and when the game is paused
- Fixed numerous grammatical errors and issues in the subtitles for SMS messages and FMVs
- The skip music track button now works in races
- World Level Of Detail no longer controls the density of props and pursuit breakers from the map
- EA Trax is now set to shuffle by default
- Game Moment Camera is now disabled by default
- (Part of CwoeeQOL) Borderless Windowed is now toggleable in the Video menu
- (Part of CwoeeQOL) Motion Blur is now toggleable in the Video menu
- (Part of CwoeeQOL) Subtitles are now toggleable in the Audio menu
- (Part of Open Limit Adjuster) Racers now no longer despawn after the race ends, permanently staying on the map through post-race pursuits
- (Part of Open Limit Adjuster) Traffic now has the same spawn rate in pursuits as it does in freeroam

Known issues

- Rog's third race has a misaligned minimap (vanilla game bug)
- The Eternity Pass bonus race has no prop collisions

Limitations

- The EA Trax menu has been disabled (if custom_music_player is enabled in the config)