Public Commander Keen Forum

As the topic title says. Why did I not know this before? (If I ever did, I've completely forgotten, and now discovered again.)

In Keen 1-3, when you're in a level (not world map), and move, press up key and hold it. Keen keeps the direction and the speed drops a little. If you're standing, and press up and keep holding it, then just tap left or right, and you'll be strutting with slowest speed and can approach dangerous tiles and edges easily. You can keep running (holding up key) and decrease or increase your speed with left and right and Keen just keeps moving if you hold up (but you can't reach maximum running speed this way, it seems). This thing is like totally changing my gameplay.

ROFL! I actually did notice this when I was a kid playing Keen1. I was directly reminded of the ice (the slow one obviously) tile, although i think the movement whilst pressing up is more rapid than the movement on the ice in Keen1. But I don't think anybody's ever discussed it on forums. I never incorporated it into my keen playing techniques. But then again I am terrible at playing all video games! I can see how it could help with precision positioning, although a player can learn to move precisely fairly easily without using this technique.

Perhaps this function contains code that is moddable... (CC Levellass et al)

Oh yes, this is a result of how the game treats arrow presses, specifically the difference between 'direction arrow pressed' and 'no arrow pressed'. Some similar setups have been used, for example, in KeenRush's aimable shot patch.

Benvolio wrote: ↑Sun Sep 24, 2017 19:17I can see how it could help with precision positioning, although a player can learn to move precisely fairly easily without using this technique.

Yeah, that's what I've done all this time. But this really helps. And most importantly, it helps to keep the flow -- instead of stopping movement, when waiting for an enemy to pass for example, one can just inch forward all the time; it just looks good. (This gives me an idea for a mod where stopping kills you. To the end of the idea list...) It's an artform.

"KeenRush's aimable shot patch" ... meaning lemm's aimable shot patch, I'm sure.

I use this fairly often, mostly absentmindedly and not usually for a particular gameplay purpose as far as I can recall, mainly for capturing action screenshots. I was only aware of it working with the down key and never thought to try up.

Thinking about it now, I have no idea how it came into my awareness; whether it was from reading about it somewhere or just happening to press the down key and noticing the effect. I don't even remember a time that I specifically didn't know about it.

It could have been an instinct carried over from Jetpack, where the down key allows you to fly at a fixed height.

Not even sure if it really has any major strategic usefulness, though it certainly could be an interesting mechanic to design a mod or levelpack around somehow.

Woah. I'd never even thought to try the up/down keys in a level before. It's not really any more precise than just lightly tapping the left/right arrow, but it does look nicer. But looking nicer doesn't really strike me as useful from a gameplay perspective, at least not enough to deter the average player from tapping to adjust their position. The only way I can think of this being useful for modding is, yeah, if it's impossible to stop moving, but that changes the core mechanics of the game anyway.

Maybe if you had two slow-moving columns of hazards that Keen had to stay between for a while, things like that.