NG++

NG++

New Game++ for Going Commando: eight more tiers for every Going Commando weapon, past its last version, for OpenRAC's native port (NTSC-U, PAL and NTSC-U v2.00 discs). The game keeps its own versions: NG++ adds its tiers on top of each weapon's last one and keeps its own level per weapon, so the game still sees its last row.

With the mod off, the game is the PlayStation 2 game.

Playing

Install it from the launcher's Mods tab (Add from a link: https://github.com/OpenRAC/openrac-mods), switch it on and play.

Buy, then level, as the game's own Mega purchase is followed by V4 by experience: once a weapon is at its last version, the vendor sells its next tier; once that tier is levelled with experience, the vendor sells the next.

| Level | Name | How | Price | Experience | Damage | Most ammo | Vendor's text | rac2.text.by_id (func_00288FB8): "Mega" under the tier's icon (text 0x325F, while rac2.vendor.draw_list draws its row) and the Mega's name in the dialog and preview become the tier's, written into the port's text slots; optional | | Tint | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | V5 | Alpha | bought | Mega x1.5 | | x1.25 | x1.10 | lime | | V6 | Beta | experience | | 8,000 | x1.50 | x1.20 | cyan | | V7 | Gamma | bought | Mega x2.5 | | x1.75 | x1.30 | emerald | | V8 | Delta | experience | | 12,000 | x2.00 | x1.40 | teal | | V9 | Epsilon | bought | Mega x4 | | x2.40 | x1.50 | violet | | V10 | Zeta | experience | | 16,000 | x2.80 | x1.60 | magenta | | V11 | Eta | bought | Mega x6 | | x3.30 | x1.80 | crimson | | V12 | Omega | experience | | 24,000 | x4.00 | x2.00 | prismatic (cycles through all the tints) |

The damage and the most ammo are times the weapon's last real version's. The experience is the game's own weapon experience (what the quick select's bar counts), from the last tier on; the first time the mod sees a weapon at its last version it sets that count back to 0, so what a save had with it before (from before the mod, or past games) never takes a tier at once. The weapon's experience bar (the weapons screen and the quick select) fills toward the next tier's experience, or toward the 6,000 a bought version needs before the next purchase; it shows full only when the next tier is for sale already or none is left.

The prices follow each weapon's own Mega price (its Mega row's, 150,000 to 1,500,000; at least 150,000, so the Bomb Glove's 1,000 Mega counts as 150,000), times 1.5, 2.5, 4 and 6, rounded to two and a half digits (562,500 is 565,000), each above the one before and above the Mega. A weapon with no Mega (the Clank Zapper, the Sheepinator) starts from 1,500,000: 2,250,000, 3,750,000, 6,000,000 and 9,000,000. Lancer and Chopper (Mega 150,000): 225,000, 375,000, 600,000, 900,000; Gravity Bomb (1,500,000): 2,250,000, 3,750,000, 6,000,000, 9,000,000.

• Four-version weapons (Lancer, Chopper, ...): Alpha is for sale as soon as the weapon is V4.
• Two-version weapons (Bomb Glove, Visibomb Gun, Decoy Glove, Tesla Claw, Walloper), and the Zodiac: their last version is bought, and the game has no experience step after it, so Alpha goes on sale after 6,000 more experience with it.
• Clank Zapper: Alpha is for sale once it is V2.
• Sheepinator: as the four-version weapons: Alpha is for sale once it is V4 (it has no Mega, so its prices start from 1,500,000).
• RYNO II: first Heavy RYNO II by 30,000 experience (x1.4 damage, x1.5 ammo, orange), then Ultima RYNO II at the vendor for 1,500,000 (its price 1,000,000 times 1.5; then Alpha 2,500,000, Gamma 4,000,000, Epsilon 6,000,000, Eta 9,000,000) (x2.2 damage, x2 ammo, a black and red tint), then Alpha (after 30,000 more experience) to Omega, each adding its gain to Ultima's. The RYNO II levels five times slower than the other weapons: its Beta, Delta, Zeta and Omega need 40,000, 60,000, 80,000 and 120,000 (WT_RYNO_EXP_SCALE in src/tiers.c).

The tier takes the place of the version in the weapon's name: "Alpha Lancer", "Beta Lancer", ... ("Heavy RYNO II", "Ultima RYNO II", "Alpha RYNO II" for the RYNO II), with the game's name of the weapon's first version. A tier reached by experience comes with the game's own level-up popup and line (as for a weapon levelled out of hand: func_00288508), naming the weapon at its new tier; a bought one with the vendor's own purchase feedback. The name shows at the top of the screen when you take a tiered weapon in hand, and everywhere the game prints the weapon's name: the ammo pickup's message, the weapons menu, the quick select and the vendor. A name text two items share is left as the game has it.

In the vendor's list, the next tier's entry carries that tier's tint, and the weapon's own entry carries the tint of the tier it has.

Tougher enemies each new game

The tiers make weapons far stronger, so the enemies keep up across challenge mode's new games. The game itself counts its challenge modes (its save's counter, +1 at each new game in challenge mode) but only tests whether one is on: it doubles ammo pickups and nanotech orbs' health there, and its bolt multiplier grows with kills; it never scales enemy health or damage by the count. From the second challenge mode on, the mod does:

The health follows the expected tier's damage, so a weapon at that tier takes about as long to kill an enemy as V4 did in the first challenge mode. How much tougher scales what the curve adds (0.5: x1.25 health at the second challenge mode instead of x1.5).

With the difficulty mod: both apply and multiply. Its "damage dealt" and "damage taken" sliders scale the same hits as this mod's curve and tiers (the difficulty mod's on the hit an enemy reads and on Ratchet's hit, this mod's where the hit is posted and on Ratchet's hit), so with damage dealt x0.5 and a Beta weapon in the second challenge mode a hit is x0.5 x 1.5 / 1.5. Switch Tougher enemies each new game off to leave the enemies to the difficulty mod alone.

The tiers are kept with each save: the mod's data folder has a tiers.txt with the tiers at each save the game made (by the save's own clock), and each new tier is written there at once, so a restart or a new version of the mod loses nothing. The game stamps its clock again as a loaded save's level starts, sometimes before the mod has seen the save's own; a clock the book does not have, right after the title screen, takes the record written last. A record with tiers is never written over with none. Nothing is written to the memory card or its folder. The launcher's save editor shows each weapon's tier for the save opened while the mod is on (the manifest's save_data), and saves a change into that file; close the game first.

It works with the item randomizer (they take none of the same hook points) and with the difficulty mod (its prices and max ammo are the base the tiers multiply). In a multiplayer party everyone plays with the host's tiers.

How it works

Through OpenRAC's rac2 hook points of SDK 1.14.6 (the addresses are NTSC-U v1.01's):

Not yet:

• The HUD's weapon icon draws its own colour and keeps the game's.
• The vendor's upgrade entry is the game's own kind of entry: its icon is the game's. Its label and name are the tier's ("Alpha" under the icon, "Lancer V4 Alpha" as the title) with an OpenRAC that has rac2.text.by_id; the label under the icon only on NTSC-U v1.01 (the one disc with rac2.vendor.draw_list), and the RYNO II's and the Zodiac's titles stay the game's (the game has no Mega row to name them by).
• The weapon's name in the game's own menus is the game's; the tier's name is the line at the top.
• Damage scales by the weapon in Ratchet's hand: a Synthenoid's or a turret's shots scale by the weapon held when they hit.
• No fire rate change, and RYNO II Ultima's split volley is a follow-up: Ultima is the damage boost.