Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Here is where to post about the latest Commander Keen fangame or modification you've finished, a new website you've made, or another Keen-related creation.
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55Aavenue
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by 55Aavenue »

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you enjoyed it. Nice job getting a perfect score on the points! As far as I know, you're the first person to do that.
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by stayfrosty »

Love the Faith No More reference in Coco Caverns :lol
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55Aavenue
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by 55Aavenue »

A few things still bothered me about this game so I made 1 more update to appease my nagging perfectionism. Download link on the first page has been updated to v1.5

Change log:
  • Screen update code by K1n9_Duk3 added to patch file (fixes jerky motion and flickering sprites)
  • More new songs added; soundtrack is now completely original with 16 different tunes
  • Tile property changes to a section of Pyramid of Darkness to reduce the chance of skypests getting stuck in a pole area
  • Elevator near switch A in Pyramid of Darkness can no longer push Keen off the pole and clip him out of the level
  • Graphics improvements throughout
  • More spelling and grammar fixes
  • New and improved I.T. Technician messages and replies (Now that I know how to do proper text patching and pointers I wasn't restricted to making each message the same length as the originals)
  • Changes to Mountain Bypass to improve level design and smarter tile use to reduce memory load (Insufficient memory for music error should no longer happen on this level, even with its new longer song)
  • Lifewater flasks are now worth 20,000 points but do not give an extra life (unless its a points extra life) With the galaxy save system as it is, I felt Lifewater flasks before were a little pointless (pun intended). They are the most elusive point item to find in this mod so they should have value.
  • A few changes/improvements to Secret Castle, including a new secret area
  • Total points in game (perfect score) has increased from 767,500 to 1,311,400 mostly as a result of Lifewater flasks now having value
  • High Scores table now shows what a perfect score is
Short Circuit Oracle is now finished (for the 5th time).

P.S. The sequel, The Armageddon App I hope to have done by this coming Keen Day (2020)
banana
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by banana »

55Aavenue wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 3:33 A few things still bothered me about this game so I made 1 more update to appease my nagging perfectionism. Download link on the first page has been updated to v1.5

Change log:
  • Screen update code by K1n9_Duk3 added to patch file (fixes jerky motion and flickering sprites)
  • More new songs added; soundtrack is now completely original with 16 different tunes
  • Tile property changes to a section of Pyramid of Darkness to reduce the chance of skypests getting stuck in a pole area
  • Elevator near switch A in Pyramid of Darkness can no longer push Keen off the pole and clip him out of the level
  • Graphics improvements throughout
  • More spelling and grammar fixes
  • New and improved I.T. Technician messages and replies (Now that I know how to do proper text patching and pointers I wasn't restricted to making each message the same length as the originals)
  • Changes to Mountain Bypass to improve level design and smarter tile use to reduce memory load (Insufficient memory for music error should no longer happen on this level, even with its new longer song)
  • Lifewater flasks are now worth 20,000 points but do not give an extra life (unless its a points extra life) With the galaxy save system as it is, I felt Lifewater flasks before were a little pointless (pun intended). They are the most elusive point item to find in this mod so they should have value.
  • A few changes/improvements to Secret Castle, including a new secret area
  • Total points in game (perfect score) has increased from 767,500 to 1,311,400 mostly as a result of Lifewater flasks now having value
  • High Scores table now shows what a perfect score is
Short Circuit Oracle is now finished (for the 5th time).

P.S. The sequel, The Armageddon App I hope to have done by this coming Keen Day (2020)
Sounds very nice. I'll download and try to get that full score again
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by Roobar »

55Aavenue wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 3:33P.S. The sequel, The Armageddon App I hope to have done by this coming Keen Day (2020)
Oooooooooh! You've dropped the bomb right there! I didn't knew you were working on a sequel already, considering how many patches this one gets (hopefully now this is the final patch). But I like that you like to polish things. Others just leave their releases as is. I also like that you added the K1n9_Duk3's patch. Maybe there's a need to be added a sub-category in keen wiki that filtrates mods with that patch criteria. So this is the second mod to feature this patch? I'm not sure. I don't get why you disabled the life water flasks ability to give you lives. I know you can save and stuff, but it feels weird. If they don't give you lives, then change them as well. Make them purple or other item.
Will your next mod be a Keen 5 mod? Will it use completely new graphics or will it feel more like a level pack as this one? Will it feature all new tracks as well?
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by banana »

55Aavenue wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 3:33
  • A few changes/improvements to Secret Castle, including a new secret area
I'm getting a game crash with this one. Touching the Dopefish causes the game to crash and immediately quit. DOSBox returns

Code: Select all

RF_PlaceSprite: Placed an uncached sprite:313
My guess is that the game doesn't know how to animate the walking version of Keen (as in, the one that doesn't swim in the wetsuit) being eaten by Dopefish.
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by 55Aavenue »

banana wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 19:01 I'm getting a game crash with this one. Touching the Dopefish causes the game to crash and immediately quit. DOSBox returns

Code: Select all

RF_PlaceSprite: Placed an uncached sprite:313
My guess is that the game doesn't know how to animate the walking version of Keen (as in, the one that doesn't swim in the wetsuit) being eaten by Dopefish.
You are correct. How dumb of me to miss that. Its fixed now. Link updated.

You can also just add this to the patch file to avoid having to re-download it

Code: Select all

#Eaten by Dopefish Keen
%patch $32520 $00A3W $00A3W 
%patch $3252A $0000W        #Animation speed
%patch $3253E $FFFFW $FFFFW #Invisible, wait a bit before level restart
%patch $32548 $00B4W        #Animation speed
Roobar wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 11:53 don't get why you disabled the life water flasks ability to give you lives. I know you can save and stuff, but it feels weird. If they don't give you lives, then change them as well. Make them purple or other item.
Hmm ok. I'm curious what other people's opinion on this is, as this is what I was planning on doing with Keg o Vitalins in The Armageddon App. I definitely want them to give 20 000 points as they are going to be a rare and hard to find item, but would people prefer they still give an extra life every time as well?
Roobar wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 11:53 Will your next mod be a Keen 5 mod? Will it use completely new graphics or will it feel more like a level pack as this one? Will it feature all new tracks as well?
It is a Keen 5 mod. Its not going to be completely new graphics, but will be more heavily modified than this one was. Part of the game takes place on the surface of Korath III so I did have to make a tile set for that. It will have all new music tracks, and in fact, there will be no repeats, every level is going to have its own unique tune designed specifically for that level
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by banana »

55Aavenue wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 20:10 Hmm ok. I'm curious what other people's opinion on this is, as this is what I was planning on doing with Keg o Vitalins in The Armageddon App. I definitely want them to give 20 000 points as they are going to be a rare and hard to find item, but would people prefer they still give an extra life every time as well?
I like them giving points too, combined with the points reset upon death. I don't really mind one way or another of them giving extra lives as well. Maybe it's an idea to always have them give 20000 points, but make it dependent on difficulty setting on whether they also give extra lives or not. Like, 2 extra lives on Easy, 1 extra life on Normal, and no extra lives on Hard. I don't know if that's possible, I'm not a modder, but the stunners giving different numbers of shots based on difficulty setting leads me to suspect it should be possible.
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by Nisaba »

like Roobar already mentioned it's great that you've polished your mod once again!
I've just uploaded v.1.5 to our wiki server and updated things

quick question:
you've mentioned graphics improvements throughout as well as some level design updates. Can you name the levels in question, please?! this info would help me a lot so I can update the level images (@keenwiki)
out now (link) : Image
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by banana »

One more thing, I think there's something off with the Perfect Score calculation. I finished the game and got 1,336,400 points. I'm not sure if I missed anything, maybe a couple of thousand here or there, but it's definitely a higher score than what is listed as Perfect.
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by 55Aavenue »

Nisaba wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 14:38 quick question:
you've mentioned graphics improvements throughout as well as some level design updates. Can you name the levels in question, please?! this info would help me a lot so I can update the level images (@keenwiki)
I think the only levels with differences enough worth the trouble of updating the images would be Secret Castle, Mountain Bypass and Sunset Nightclub
banana wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 15:11 One more thing, I think there's something off with the Perfect Score calculation. I finished the game and got 1,336,400 points. I'm not sure if I missed anything, maybe a couple of thousand here or there, but it's definitely a higher score than what is listed as Perfect.
This is odd, I just went through and recalculated all the points again and I'm still getting 1,311,400. Not sure where that extra 25000 is coming from...if it was just 20000 off I would say I'm just forgetting about a lifewater flask somewhere, but the extra 5000 would have to be from normal points items, which shouldn't be wrong because Abiathar calculates that amount, taking my poor math skills out of the equation. You're so good at this game it seems your better than perfect!
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by Nisaba »

Mountain Bypass, check
Sunset Nightclub, check
Secret Castle, not quite sure which level you have in mind
out now (link) : Image
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by 55Aavenue »

Secret Castle is level 14.
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by Nisaba »

Secret Castle: check
out now (link) : Image
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Re: Short Circuit Oracle (My Keen Galaxy modding debut!!)

Post by Syllypryde »

Nisaba wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 22:15 Secret Castle: check
The entry text for this level used to say, "Keen doesn't know what this place is......" I used to just call it This Place. As for the new secret area, it is near impossible to make it past the Dopefish without having him eat one or both of the schoolfish. 99.9% of the time Keen is invulnerable as he goes through the door. However, the Dopedish can still eat Keen even then. Many players might decide going after the points in this area might not be worth it.
.niarb ym fo
snoitulovnoc eht tuaba
selbbarcs ssensuoicsnoc
rehgih a ekil smees
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