Forum Mod Bakery Docs

Some Challenge Mod

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Your mod shouldn't forcefully require a music mod IMO. You should recommend it but not require it.
Um, last time I checked, it IS a main mod. It was like that for a long time now.
Never mind that part, that was a mistake.
So, I was playing my first "race" (milhouse's race) and it took me like 3 tries to get the route down, because I had no idea where to go (not a bad thing, I just ended up missing where I should get out to find them :P). Then, I was basically in shock when it said to return. I quickly hopped in the car, drove backwards, and made it with 2 seconds... then the game crashed. Tried it again, crashed again. Normal difficulty (whoops if you didn't see this before i edited)

Do you have a way for me to send you a crash report?
Strange, I didn't ever experience a crash when I beat that challenge. Which mandatory challenge did you complete before you started Milhouse's bonus challenge? (If you didn't complete any mandatory challenge yet, you must be at the beginning of Challenge 0, "Warm-Up Lap".)
I completed the first challenge (warmup lap). I went around in a way so that I went to the simpsons house first, power plant, and finished at lard lad (to give you a general route). I used the default car, normal difficulty (I edited the above because I whoopsed) and crashed when I assume the mission was over.

So far, I love the first challenge, because assuming nobody has played the original game or hasn't played in awhile, can give them a refresher on the lap of springfield. I liked Milhouse' challenge because of how well the timer was (it was literally within 2 seconds of fail before i got the last item) and the fact that you have to replay it a couple times to get some of the less obvious items easily. At this moment, I'm playing Ralph's challenge, and Ithink it's a unique idea that is fun but also tedious (that's the point I assume xD). Can't wait to get through more!

Edit: OK, so there's a collector card that's like a mile above the fire truck with the ladder jump. Is that supposed to be like that? I'll post a pic if that's not how it should be.
Hmm, I wasn't able to replicate the problem. Where exactly did it crash? When returning to the castle (when it fades out), when Patty talks to you, or after getting rid of the "Bonus Challenge Complete" screen? Difficulty in terms of optional challenges don't matter; those are unchanged.

And that collector card up there is intended to be that high up. (Hee hee hee...)
I Completed 5 of 7 Challenges , :) , in Hard ''Frustrating'' mode
when i Started , it was hard to beat even the Warm - Up Lap, but i just completed the Hard Street Races , purchased the cars and won it
Sr1 : it was really hard at the beginning , but then i did take another route , and beated it, hard still
Sr2 : at the beginning it was hard, but when i knew to control the Quad well , i did just beat it
Sr3 : this was hard , but eh , i just beat it
Challenge 1 : I Failed at first try ,but at the 2nd one i used Cops as Help to destroy the Donut Truck
Challenge 2 : this wan'st too hard at my SECOND attempt , and even the ''Nitro'' in the Limo after i hit it , did'nt work
Challenge 3 : My First attempts were failed, but when i used the Electaurus , i won the race , the Cops destroyed my car just when i finished the race
Challenge 4 : i beated it after over 9,000 tries (and in the initial release , not 1.0.1 one)
Challenge 5 : I beated it today at first attempt (after over 9,000 yesterday , and yes , in the initial release , not 1.0.1)
Challenge 6 : this is equal to the Ultimate Challenge, but you don't have forced car ,it wan'st too hard , because of me defeating the hardest version of this Challenge before , i beated it at Second Attempt , f*** the Police
Challenge 7 : this was Super Easy , i had 2 minutes left when i destroyed Smithers, he has such a Bad A.I
Ultimate Challenge : this took me soo many tries , the Electaurus wan'st too Resistant
about the cards i collect it later, i noticed one that seems Impossible to Collect imo, but wait.. if it was Impossible , how the **** did you get there ??
About Music, it does fit perfectly in all Missions , Good Work
Overall this is a Challenging mod (huh) just like the Name Promises , is overall good , but in Missions 4 and 5 i call it Really Frustrating , i just suggest you to put New Secret Cars / Rewards , but yeah , i think Handling/Stats in this mod are enough.
9.5/10
When returning to the castle. And I honestly don't see how the card is supposed to be possible without an infinite jump cheat...

Edit: I can't complete mission 6 no matter what. Even in the ultimate challenge, my car is almost never destroyed, but the enemy cars push me around so much that I fall away from the vehicle and fail the challenge. No matter what routes I try, the enemy cars have such perfect handling that no matter what I do they directly follow me and push me forward or backward, making it impossible to stay near bart.
Played a bit of this mod so far, so my opinions are subject to change, but I'm actually liking this mod a lot so far!

First off, let me start by saying that I really like the new purpose of the Buzz Cola cards, or "Fun Fact" Cards as they're now called. It's a neat idea to let the player have insight on design choices you made while producing this mod, and I really like how you drop the player near one of these cards so they instantly know what to expect from them. Excellent work on that design!

The car balancing isn't quite what I expected, but still works pretty well. The car controls feel a little slippery, but not so much to the point where I feel mistakes are the fault of the game but rather myself. I suppose that's what the "Warm-Up Lap" challenge is for, and I found myself getting the hang of the controls again real quick!

The idea of each "Challenge" being rather short is something rather neat and a nice break from the longer missions you typically see in other mods. It's neat, means each Challenge only has one main goal that you're expected to do, and this works in favor of SHAR's rather small mission objective scale. They're all varied enough based off of what I've played.

Keep in mind that I'm a wuss and ended up playing on Normal Mode by mistake. I forgot to check the difficulty settings, so what I'm writing only really applies to Normal Mode:

Mission 0 is a pretty fun tutorial mission that works rather well.

Mission 1 (Donut Hell) wasn't too bad either. Getting rid of Wiggum in the Donut Truck was pretty fun. I feel like maybe Lou and Eddie should also try to assist Wiggum on Hard mode by trying to knock you out, similar to the Black Sedan seen in Mine, Mine, and Mine.

Mission 2 wasn't too bad either. Definitely a step up from the difficulty in Mission 1. No real issues here.

Mission 3 felt a little easy compared to the other missions on Normal Mode, and the finish line's locator seems to be a bit "screwy" for a lack of a better word. I completed the mission before I ever touched it, but I was still pretty close. May I recommend changing the Trigger size or copying the finish line from another mission that requires you to race to the Power Plant?

Mission 4 was where I stopped. A pretty fun and challenging "follow and collect" mission, but I noticed Snake doesn't actually appear to be in the car. I know the NPC is part of the truck here, but could you perhaps give Snake another car and add him as a workaround?

On a related note, I also noticed this mission is a bit similar in concept to my "'Lil B******" mission from Donut Mod's Level 3 (if you're unaware, I was responsible for every mission in that Level). I recall reading that you were "disappointed" with the "tediousness" of my Level, and you mentioned a lot of hate for "Lil B******" in particular, but this seems pretty close in concept to my mission and seems to drag out longer, with much more items to collect. I understand some were annoyed by the difficulty of that mission, so I ended up turning it down, but may I ask what makes my mission more "tedious" then what's seen here? It'd be useful for future tweaks to the mission.

For reference, I found this in your YouTube description which includes a playthrough of the missions:
i.imgur.com/7nKNwkb.png

A couple of other thoughts:

The Good:
- Nice "one stage only" missio-er, challenge, concept
- Car stat changes are a nice touch considering how touchy SHAR's cars can be. They're a little slippery, but you strangely get used to them not long after.
- Easily the most fun mod I've played made by a user. Congratulations! Definitely will follow this later on when future updates come out.
- "Fun Fact" card concept is genius and well executed.
- A good variety in the missions that I've played so far.
- I appreciate the use of Road Rage's Frontend SFX in the Main/Pause Menu. I've also had some nostalgia associated for those sounds, and I appreciate that small little change.
- Homer's new dialog for when starting a mission is all really well chosen.

The Not-So-Good:
- The Custom Music mod being required to play the mod is kind of lousy, sorry to say. I find that the tracks you've picked so far really don't match the vibe of SHAR as much as the original soundtrack, and there seems to be less variety in the music track genres. Not to mention it's bundled with the mod itself rather than being a download link, which is also kind of unfortunate. Seconding Loren's suggestion, I'd really just recommend removing the "RequiredHack" line for it, include it in a separate link, and tell people it's "highly recommended". They really shouldn't have to have that enabled just to enjoy what is otherwise a fine mod.

- I noticed you replaced the "Mission Complete!" horn SFX with Road Rage's "Head to Head Mode - Winner!" track. Again, I appreciate the nod to good 'ol Road Rage, but it's usually drowned out by the other "Mission Complete!" jingles for each mission track to the point where it really doesn't sound too pleasant. I'd recommend just changing it back or have your mod get rid of "Mission Complete!" jingles altogether by replacing them with blank RSDs.

- The difficulty might need some tweaking, at least on Normal. I found "Ready, Set, D'oh" (which I completed on my first try) to be a lot easier than "Waste of Time" (which I failed a couple of times before quitting - sorry, College life!). I'd recommend either nerfing "Waste of Time" on Normal, or try to make "Ready Set, D'oh" a little harder by having Smithers cheat a bit (perhaps have him start closer to the Power Plant?).

Minor Thoughts/Suggestions:
- I noticed with "Waste of Time", there's sort of a plot to the mission. ("Uh oh! Snake took the waste because he's a bandit! Get it back!") I think having this kind of "small plot" in the other mission briefings would kind of be interesting. Say for instance, "Mine, Mine, and Mine". What if the Mission Briefing gave some small backstory/some plot to it? ("The mafia, being the jerks they are, mugged Homer of all of his cola! It's time for payback! Help Homer hit the limo and collect his cola, and avoid the mafia's "associates"). This isn't really required considering the goal of the mod (Just challenges), but it feels like it would give the missions a little more context.

- The SCMM add-on has a completely separate icon (your old icon) rather than the "Upside Down Homer" icon the main mod includes. That inconsistency mildly irks me. May I suggest changing it to Upside Down Homer, but adding a musical note over him? That way you can the mods apart right away, but there's still some consistency.

Overall, I'm really liking the direction this mod is going. It's unique in it's own cool and really fun way, and I honestly can say it's the best mod from a user I've played on this site. It's lacking some things here and there, but considering the main focus is on the Challenges, I really can't complain! Well done! Please don't let my criticism discourage you, because I hope to see this mod completed sometime soon!