Need for Speed: Most Wanted/Pursuit system

Most Wanted features a far more sophisticated pursuit system and police AI than its predessecors. This section aims to provide you with the information needed to face police pursuits and end them.

Initiating a purusit
In career mode, you run the risk of facing the wraft of the police if you had committed traffic offenses, including, but no limited to:


 * Property damage
 * Traffic collisions
 * Off-road driving
 * Speeding
 * Racing

Warning of police presence will be given to you when police radio chatter is heard of you committing traffic offenses, from which you will need to watch out for closing police units using the upper radar that tracks the location of a nearby unit and proximity to it. Once a police unit acquires visual contact you car, the camera zooms right into the police unit to indicate where it is and a pursuit will begin.

Heat levels and police tactics
The aggressiveness of the police depends on the "Heat", or wanted level, of your car. Heat is collected during pursuit, when you are seen committing police offenses or continuing to engage in police pursuits.

While in chase, the police will refer to yours "Heat" level as a "Condition". There is a total of 7 Conditions in the game.


 * Condition 1, when district police will chase your car using Ford Crown Victoria-like police cruisers
 * Condition 2, when district police will chase your car using black, unmarked Ford Crown Victoria-like cruisers
 * Condition 3, when the state police will take over and use Pontiac GTO police cars against your car.
 * Condition 4, when state police will chase your car using black, unmarked Pontiac GTO cars
 * Condition 5, when the federal police will take over and use Chevrolet Corvette C6 police cars against your car.
 * Condition 6, when the federal police will combine black, unmarked Corvettes with the use of Rhino SUV's.
 * Condition 7, when the police will only use Heavy Rhino SUV's against your car. This condition is only available in the Black Edition of Most Wanted, within in a Challenge mode mission.


 * The district police will start using roadblocks against your car at condition 2.
 * The district police will start using light Rhino SUVs against your car at condition 3.
 * The state police will use heavy Rhino SUVs against your car at condition 4.
 * The state police will start using spike strips against your car at condition 4.
 * The state police will call in a police helicopter to supervise the chase at condition 4.
 * The federal police will use the police helicopter to try and block off a part of the roads or hit your car at condition 5.

The Police will use several types of roadblocks against the player.


 * Up to 4 Police cruisers will try to block of the road.
 * 1-2 Police cruisers and a semi-trailer with logs will block of the roads.
 * Some Rhino SUV's will block of part of the road.
 * Rhino SUV's / Police cruisers and the police helicopter will block of most of the road.

Heat levels can be reduced by changing the physical appearance of you car in a parts shop, or using another car you are owning to race while storing the other car in your garage (each completed race using that car will reduce the heat level for the other car in storage).

Infractions
Requires content


 * speeding-
 * excessive speeding-
 * property damage- running through destroyable scenery, including signs and lightposts
 * ramming a police vehicle- coming into contact with a police vehicle
 * driving off road- driving your vehicle out of the lines bounding the road edge
 * resisting arrest- continue driving after police attempt to pull you over
 * hit and run- hitting another car and simply driving away

Pursuit Breakers and Speed Breakers
The game introduces two new pursuit-related features: Pursuit Breakers and Speed Breakers

Pursuit Breakers, marked as triangles in the city map during pursuits, are road-side objects which are designated to collapse when you use your car to knock down its support, damaging or disabling following police cars. This feature is the best way to cut down the number of police units chasing you, as it is far more effective than evading the police units with speed, which will not always work. However, take note that you will need police units to be close to you and behind you when using Pursuit Breakers. Obviously, police units in front of you may not be affected by the collapsing debris, and police units far behind can easily avoid the falling objects. Each Pursuit Breaker can only be used once for each race or pursuit session, and will only be available again after completing these events. On a side note, Pursuit Breakers may also be use in the same way to crash racing opponents.

The Speed Breaker is basically a bullet-time mode that slows down time and allows you to control your car quickly for a limited time. This feature is best used to find a weak point of a roadblock, or avoid in coming Rhino SUVs. Speed Breakers are also useful during fast-paced races, where you are required to avoid traffic (particularly in drag racing), maneuver tight corner or realign you car to take a shortcut. Each steering turn using a Speed Breaker, however, sends the car in a drift that could slow a car down.

Pursuit status bar
An crucial indicator to take note of during police pursuits is the pursuit status bar, located at the bottom of your computer screen, this bar helps you indicate the current status of the pursuit, the number of police cars in pursuit, the amount of time before the next back of backup arrives, and the risk of you getting arrested.

The time remaining before backup arrives, obviously, indicates the amount of time before a large group of police units joins in to chase you. When this time runs out, you will see additional units waiting for you ahead, in addition to Rhino SUV units attempting to stop you. This counter will reappear again after the pursuit party is reduced to a small number of police units, whereby they request for back up again.

During pursuit, the meter will indicate the risk of your being arrests or the chances of you evading the police. If your car stops close to the presence of the police, the meter moves to the left, with the bar turning red, indicating that you will be arrested; driving your car away at a minimal speed will lower this risk. If all pursuing police units are far away from your car, or have lost contact of your car, the meter moves to the right and turns green, indicating that you will be evading the police.

The bar also indicates other information about police units: The number of police units disabled, and the number of police units which had a "exchange of paint", or physical contact from you car.

After evading the police, this bar will switch to a "Cooldown bar:, which will be explained in the next section.

Cooldown
Upon evading the police, you are still required to avoid the police for an allocated time, known as a "Cooldown" period, until they give up and cancel search. Cooldown periods will be indicated in a bar where the pursuit status bar was. In this period, the police will still initiate search of your car; thus it is usually required that you avoid police units to avoid another new pursuit. In order to endure a Cooldown period, you will usually required to stop at an area that will rarely or never be seen by the police, usually off roadways and in covered spots. Cooldown spots are also provided in the map; driving into these zones will speed up Cooldown time and shorten the Cooldown period.

Under higher heat levels, however, Cooldown periods will be longer, while more police units will be searching for your car, and cars with over 4 heat levels will be seek by police helicopters, which are capable of finding your car easily if you are not under a cover.

Arrest
Requires content

Milestones
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Bounty
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Rap sheet
Requires content