I posted a YouTube comment on someone's playthrough of Some Law Enforcement Mod about tons of trivia about it. But every time I edited the comment to add or fix stuff, I was forced to re-type in those f****** newlines. Every. Single. Time. To reduce the chance of me losing my vocal cords, I've moved that whole list into its own post here.
EDIT: It seems YouTube fixed that bug. This would've worked better as a forum post anyway.
Because I don't want the developer cards to go to waste, I don't mention all the things that were said in them. So go collect them.
General
- My first plan for SLEM was that it was only going to parody the police mods. Only a few missions would be actual parodies while the rest would've been "totally unique" missions that made fun of cliches and other similarities in those mods and possibly other things from non-police mods. I guess the latter idea evolved SLEM into what it is now.
- The new main menu was because I was too lazy to make a brand new interior for it.
- The main menu music was going to be the on-foot music. But music scripts won't let me start the theme with a fade-in and play it where it stops.
- The HUD and mission briefing background were untouched for the most part because I felt I was doing too much for a mod mostly consisting of parodies.
- The coin sound was not originally going to be in this mod. I only did this in attempt to fix an audio bug that happened when completing missions.
- The message noise before starting of each mission was going to be the original one but in various pitches. Then I discovered how often Road Rage's Sunday Drive theme is used.
- The idea for the mission briefing images is that they took place BEFORE you looked at the computer.
- The police car's stats are slightly different than vanilla SHAR's. I was trying to tweak the stats to give the car a bit of the RAT's mobility from Metal Arms in Springfield to make missions more fast-paced. Though I didn't want it to be too much like the RAT for those who are used to the normal vehicle physics.
- The changed H&R warning sound was to make the actual H&R seem more intimidating.
- The chasing limos did not originally have the little warning texture nor make that noise. But without them, I could hardly see them. I brought that texture over from Metal Arms in Springfield. The sound they make was to make the chases more thrilling.
- One of the first things I made in this mod were new AI paths. I was getting sick of how the AI doesn't take paths commonly used by players. I also unintentionally fixed a car reset exploit at the expressway. Take that, cheesers!
- The new explosion sounds were because I loved them so much when I was recording a video about an unfairly harder Full Metal Jackass that I wanted to add it to this mod.
- The location of the cards were untouched because moving them wouldn't add much. I only moved one of them because of the breakable Jebediah statue that you could no longer climb. Also because I originally didn't want to include new region files in the mod to reduce file size. The old regions would be modified with a Lua script that would remove their wrenches and convert the cards into Level 1 cards. But this led to the game hanging for a few frames when it starts to load them. This brief pause eventually aggravated me to the point where I decided to forget the script (which is still in the mod, just unused) and use new region files. I guess I overestimated how big they really are.
- There are more references in this mod than just the missions. I don't think any of you know about them. Some of them are well hidden.
- A lot of the missions were re-ordered from their originally planned slots. M6 was the biggest example of them all.
- I used a specific way to choose which mods to parody for each mission. One big mod per creator. I generally used mods that had at least 7 missions made (not including optional ones). I wouldn't have made a mission parodying Storm Over Springfield or Night-Mod because their respective creators already have a mission about one of their other mods. The only exceptions to this rule are M3 and Protest.
- The voice of Gordon White came from this.
- I also used the Cocky voice for the host of the Lawnmower mission.
- Gordon White's grounded kick animation was planned to be a punch animation to fit with his "Hope you like the taste of my knuckles" line. The punch idea was moved to his ground pound so that the line would still make sense.
- The different engine noise from the police car was because I accidentally used the wrong sound for it in the FMV's. I didn't realize this until after all the FMV's were complete because I hadn't done any gameplay ever since I got started on them. So I was forced to change the engine noise ingame.
- The only FMV I never planned from the start was the intro sequence. I originally planned to do an ordinary attract-mode-esque movie with some clips of gameplay. That's why there's a developer setting to fix Spy Cam view. Right after making that setting, I got the idea to animate the intro with a concept so stupid that it would hopefully lower people's expectations with SLEM's overall tone.
- The credits theme was going to be this but the MIDI is reversed (not the actual theme reversed). But as I've said in the linked post, I had a feeling no one would know I made that remix. I didn't want to mention that I made it in the credits either. Otherwise, the surprise wouldn't be as special.
- Say, maybe SLEM will encourage others to play the original mods. The experience is greater that way if you ask me.
M0
- The Bandit icon is actually from my first mod, Some Challenge Mod. It's the ONLY custom icon that isn't original.
- The part with going to Lard Lad's was never intended. I only added it to explain something in M2; but at the same time, I did want Snake to be sent to jail and inexplicably escape to rub in the cliche of Snake always making a notable appearance in other mods (not just the other cop mods). The problem with making Gordon White celebrate at Lard Lad's is that it's very out of character for him and it's too one-sided. Then again, his costume-specific idle animations were also out of character.
- For those of you who expected this mission to be a challenge on harder difficulties, tough s***. This mission isn't replayable without starting a new game. It only makes sense that this mission is the least challenging on Elite difficulty.
M1
- This mission is parodying the demo version of another mod. But since its 1.0 release got rid of the concept I made fun of, uh... I don't know how to feel about this. The mission was made before the original mod was finished.
- I was originally planning to make the drunksman icon look cartoony. At one point, I went back to find that image of a creepy pedestrian in the dark I uploaded back in March. I decided it was funnier to use the already creepy 3D render of it.
M2
- Text dialogue sucks, so my new solution was put to action.
- The animations for Gordon White and Ned during their conversation are unused in vanilla SHAR.
- For the part after you "crash your car," I was going to move Wiggum up a little further ahead. When I saw him get run over, I just had to leave it as it is.
- Yes, I know you don't actually capture the right guy. But that's the joke.
M3
- A developer card explains some stuff about this one.
- This is one of the two missions that is not a parody (the other being Protest). It's making fun of the amount of restoration mods that were made or planned.
- You originally had to stay close to the truck. You'd be glad I got rid of it as a last-minute change for this mission.
M4
- I was originally going to make fun of a different mod for this mission. The target mod wasn't a mission mod, and I felt SLEM was getting too many original missions, so I scrapped the idea.
- Parts of the scrapped idea made it to the final one like how most of the mission took place in the expressway and how the battle took place in the middle of it.
- There were supposed to be visible, tangible barriers when you fight that van. However, video textures didn't work when I used Custom Trigger Actions to change their texture to completely invisible and back to visible. This was repurposed for the Arena mission. I know I was able to load and unload in stuff in M6, but this was before I did so. Doesn't matter anymore. There were transparency issues with M4's barriers.
- While this mission is one of the least accurate of the parodies behind M7, I had to make it the way it is for gameplay reasons. So the race is gone and the van fights back instead of cowering.
M5
- A developer card explains some stuff about this one.
- I was concerned about making this mission. I didn't actually want to do this because of..... reasons. But I was running out of ideas. As a result, this became one of the very last mission ideas for SLEM.
- This was originally M6 before I started moving missions around.
- The second truck wasn't originally there, but I added it to better accurately parody the mod I was making fun of here.
- I knew about the "hitpeds" objective, but I decided to use the "hitandrunrage" one instead to prepare them for the way back. I made a mistake for that part. I actually wanted the player to get H&R instead of getting close to it. Eh, I guess this works better.
M6
- A developer card explains some stuff about this one.
- The music was originally going to be Vox Nerduli to make those traps seem more threatening. I instead chose Blind Big Brother to make the player feel less rushed and also because of how I portrayed the caged man.
- The time limit was originally much longer. Even Slacker mode's time limit is smaller than the original time for Novice. I was consistently finishing the mission with over a minute left and felt that keeping the generous time limit would make subsequent runs less enjoyable.
- The electricity on those traps were originally blue. It was changed to red to look more intimidating and better match the color of the obstacles from the mod I was parodying.
- The trap placements in the tunnel were meant to encourage players to take a different path when returning from the hospital.
- The very narrow path next to Town Hall was made to be a much riskier but faster option intended for Elite difficulty. The challenge in making this was to ensure players would know which path is the easier one but also not be misled into taking the path with that little opening past Town Hall after rescuing the caged man. I could've moved that opening a little closer to Town Hall so players can easily decide between the two paths; but if players took the hard path on the way back, they wouldn't think that that's where they get out. And I believed the opposite would happen for players doing the easier path where they would think that's the exit without a look at the true exit.
- At one point, I was planning to arrange the traps to accommodate for each difficulty setting. After a while, I decided against the idea because I didn't want players to have to learn a completely different course when they transition to a harder difficulty.
- The cage was going to be a bit more detailed, but I felt I was doing too much for a parody.
- The Pizza Man in the icon was supposed to look worried. But given what he did in the mission, it made more sense to make him look angry.
- The FMV was the first one I made for this mod. And THEN the intro happened.
- The pizza man wasn't originally planned to escape. That was before I started making the FMV.
M7
- A few developer cards explain some stuff about this one.
- I was considering parodying one of my own mods for this mission combined with the one I did use. Though, it's not as funny if I make fun of something I made.
- Uh..... I totally don't know who that bus driver is.
- The internal name for the bus driver is "Joras." A developer card hints why.
- That cigar lighter was supposed to be a match, but the cigar lighter made the scene more intimidating. I wanted to use the match because otherwise it would've made the inspiration too clear.
- The number of the bus was originally "7734." Elementary kids at school will understand why.
- The cell phone cars were from the original M4 before it got cut. They actually had nothing to do with the bus driver. Without them, the fight was too easy and dragged on for too long. That's when I tried mixing things up after a little while.
- I wasn't actually planning to use the music I chose for this mission. But I kept listening to it when I was designing this and the other missions before I got started on the music choices.
- The music was intended for the Metal & Scrap Coliseum. Since I ceased development for it, this is where it will shine.
- The doughnut that bus driver hits the player with was supposed to be an item from another mod. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything worth using that isn't from a mod that SLEM already references, so I stuck with the unfunny Doughnut gag.
- Obviously leaving the bus driver to die in the fire would've been WAY too harsh given the circumstances. That's why I added the fire truck at the end.
BM1 (Lawnmower)
- A developer card explains some stuff about this one.
- The vehicle I was making fun of was slippery as hell. I wanted the lawn mower to be difficult to steer but not slip out.
- The lady you had to rescue was made dead just for comical reasons. She was never planned to be alive.
- The last two time limits weren't originally going to be there. But I didn't want to risk people knocking Burns off the building without kicking him.
- Burns' scream was a pitch-scaled and drawn out version of his "Ha-HA! Who's wearing the cat's pajamas now?" line from Road Rage. Specifically the second "HA!"
BM2 (Museum)
- A developer card says this already, but I planned to parody a different mod here. It was still in the planning phase, so no scripts are available for it.
- There were so many "destroy" objectives already in the mod that I tried to mix things up with the target. I made him fast regardless of difficulty setting.
- It was too funny to remove Agnes in the target's car.
- The AI will bug out when the sedan reaches the middle of the highway by suddenly driving to the left side of the road. Road nodes piss me off, and these problems are in vanilla SHAR too. The garbage truck in Never Trust a Snake is a victim of this by turning the wrong way at the first detour sign then later correcting itself.
BM3 (Armored trucks)
- Like BM2, I tried to mix things up by making the target heavy and slow but lose control when hit (unless it's on a harder difficulty; otherwise, it's just heavy and slow).
- The 2nd truck originally took the shortcut right before the main path.
- The original mod did not use the same truck drivers; the last two trucks had no drivers. I only assumed that's what the creator would've done if they caught that.
Arena
- I was about to use the developer card information for this mission, but then the scrapped M3 happened.
- The announcer is from Fuzion Frenzy. One of the reasons for his inclusion was to ensure that returning to the main menu from this mission won't break the normal police car and the traffic.
- This mission is not affected by the difficulty setting. It's sometimes based on luck, so it wouldn't make sense to make the mission harder when there's a chance that you get a crap tier vehicle against top tier opponents, an already impossibly difficult combination.
- Actual Simpsons characters have a higher chance of appearing as opponents than generic pedestrians.
- Nearly all of the code for this mission was made for my Coliseum mod.
Protest
- The first idea for this mission was yet a-f******-nother Steamed Hams mission.
- My original plan was to have two unique vehicles chasing you throughout the entire mission (which explains the two other kids next to the host of the mission). Then I feared how the enemies would easily get stuck, so I stuck with endless H&R instead.
- I tried to design this mission so that you could go both ways and they each have their fair share of pros and cons. It's like something I made in Some Challenge Mod. Ugh. This proved futile on harder difficulties, which was one of the very last things I did for SLEM.
- There was a 30th sign between the two signs at the expressway from the Monorail station. I removed that to prevent players from glancing over the one right before it if they happen to go right instead of left at the start. It was also to better encourage players to take the shortcut at the expressway if they took the left path.
- The reward for beating the mission was supposed to unlock Arena Combat. I forget why I didn't try to get that working. All I know is that setting the reward to be something other than a vehicle won't work.