Commander Keen: Galaxy Reimagined (1.0.3.0 update released)

[banana]

Any hints towards the Gik?

You must jump on its back from behind. Walk up to a wall and jump/pogo before the Gik jumps. The Gik wil jump, hit the wall and turn around. Then you can jump on Its back and ride it across the spikes or whatever.

Thanks that worked. I'm missing something regarding jump height though. Impossible pogo jump doesn't seem to give me extra altitude in this game. In Xax Valley Woods I can't make it to the goplat even jumping from the Gik. And in Pyramid of the Curses I can't seem to get to the second Lindsey in the safe room, I just don't have enough jump height. Is there some trick like impossible pogo in this one to get a bit more extra height?

Edit: Figured out the secret in Pyramid of the Suns, thanks for the hint. Dang Pyramid of the Curses is evil, haven't made it through yet. I think I get how to do the Bloog Tower to but that one is very tricky to pull it off without losing all my lives.

Edit2: Made it a bit further in Pyramid of the Curses. I'm starting to feel what K1n9_Duk3 was aiming at. To me Pyramid of the Suns was still a fair level. That Berkeloid near the yellow door can get you stuck, but once you get that you are supposed to quickly go to the left from the goplats to grab the red key it's not a big deal. In fact, once you get to know the levels and figure out the tricks to the sections and the way to go most levels feel doable on normal. The four- and five-star levels (and Sand Yego) are occasionally quite challenging but nothing that feels grossly unfair. But Pyramid of the Curses is different. It is what if you take Pyramid of the Forbidden from the original Keen 4 on Hard difficulty, ramp up the difficulty and timing of dart shooters and mad mushrooms (red key room directly after the safe room) to absolute extreme levels, still put Skypests over dropping goplats above insta-death pits only this time you have to get past them three times and there are way more Skypests (green key room directly after the safe room), and it just goes on and on. Almost every single section of this level is designed to just kill you without any kind of mercy, and this is on Normal difficulty. I wonder if anyone other than some speedrunning Keen Gods who have truly mastered the Galaxy engine to perfection can actually green-flag this level without cheating, or even complete the level in the first place.

[namida]

Impossible pogo indeed doesn't give extra height (it just allows you to immediately take off at full height).

I've checked again and I can't seem to make that jump either. Which is strange, because I did completely test everything (on Normal, which is also where I re-tested now, and at any rate there's no jump difference between difficulties in this). Only thing I can think of is that I later made some minor fix to the Gik and/or Goplat collision rectangle, which would've been followed by testing common cases but perhaps not this uncommon one.

Looks like one more update may be on the cards after all; "people don't like something about it" or even "V1.0.2.0 still says V1.0.1.1 on the main menu" is one thing, but "the game actually has an issue that prevents 100% completion" is an actual problem.

And in Pyramid of the Curses I can't seem to get to the second Lindsey in the safe room, I just don't have enough jump height.

This one, assuming I'm understanding you, is not an issue. I assume you're talking about getting to her immediately after reaching that room? If so: After you place any two of the colored gems in this room, a goplat will show up that lets you get to her.

I wonder if anyone other than some speedrunning Keen Gods who have truly mastered the Galaxy engine to perfection can actually green-flag this level without cheating, or even complete the level in the first place.

I will fully admit that I didn't even try to green-flag or even complete-without-checkpoint it; but I did beat the level without cheating and with a full score (on Normal). The green gem room was actually one of the ones I didn't struggle too much with (once I was able to keep in my mind the proper order to do things in, at least); the yellow gem room on the other hand, now that one's a nightmare for me. The red one was mostly alright, aside from that part at the top-left which is very nasty. Blue, is basically a breather room by this level's standards.

Ultimately, all I can say on this one is - there's a reason it's a completely optional, secret, level, that's also the only level in the game ranked as 6 stars. There's also a reason it's called "Pyramid of the Curses" and the emblem on the world map for it is an SGA letter "F". (Even the other secret level is only a 5-star, although it is definitely the hardest of the 5-star levels. The distinction being that whereas the other one pushes the limits of what's fair, Pyramid of the Curses doesn't even pretend to be fair.)

[namida]

Released a V1.0.3.0 update which fixes that issue with Xax Valley Woods (by slightly enlargening the collision area of the Gik).

That aside, a couple of other changes too:
- Fixed the demos that were broken in V1.0.2.0 (Slug Village and Dome Of Darkness), or rather, replaced them with new ones.
- Babobba is now harmless when taking a nap on Easy (no change on Normal; and he doesn't take naps in the first place on Hard).
- Gik is a little bit less sensitive when it comes to triggering his attack. Key words "a little bit".
- Cave of the Descendants is now a 3-star difficulty ranking (no change to the level itself). (I did not change Crystalus or Sand Yego.)
- Added a few extra 1ups to Bloog Tower.

https://nv.wtf/GalaxyReimagined_1.0.3.0.zip

Can be extracted over the top of previous versions (V1.0.1.0 or later) safely.

[banana]

Thanks for the update, it fixed the Giks.

I guess I get your reasoning for Pyramid of the Curses. I can get behind the secret levels being insane, this is just a tad beyond insane and the most difficult Galaxy-style Keen level I have ever played in any official or non-official game and I'm not even playing on Hard. I still haven't made it through. I thought I was doing well on the yellow key room and managed to grab it only to miss a goplat by a fraction and die, this level really wants to kill you. Red key room I can't even imagine getting through, I'm pretty sure I'm missing a trick to get past the pairs of Mad Mushrooms where the second one is slightly ahead in its jumping cycle.

Haven't made it to the second secret level yet. I managed to reach the secret area in Bloog Tower, but I couldn't figure out how to reach that door, I could flip the switch to open that horizontal gate but then couldn't make it around to reach it, still need to figure out the trick there.

[namida]

I'm pretty sure I'm missing a trick to get past the pairs of Mad Mushrooms where the second one is slightly ahead in its jumping cycle.

Hint: Going under a Mad Mushroom is not the only way to get past it.

Even with the hint, it still takes a bit of practice to get it right.

[namida]

Uploading a second part of my playthrough now. This one covers obtaining all batteries in Bloog Tower, Bloog Mining Company and Bloog Alien Studies Academy; as well as the Gnosticenes in Crystalus, Lifewater Oasis and Three-Tooth Lake.

Playlist link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... o5PPsoQkj5

[יצחק]

I really enjoyed the videos! I saw each one several times and learned a lot! I can't wait for part 3 and 4 already. Don't ever stop! Thank you very much

[namida]

Part 3 is uploading now (EDIT: it's up), covering Pyramid of the Sun (Gnosticene), Maintenance Shaft, Crew Quarters (fuse) and Energy Support Systems (fuse).

I'll probably cover getting all the gnosticenes / batteries / fuses (rather than just "enough to reach the end"), possibly as extra post-game videos, but I'm not going to bother with 100% score. As much as I don't really want to play Pyramid of the Curses again, I probably will cover the secret levels... eventually.

[namida]

Part 4 is up too now; this covers Plasma Excitation Fusor (fuse), Security Bridge and the final level, Quantum Explosion Dynamo.

[banana]

Made it a bit further into the Pyramid of the Curses. I just can't do the mad mushroom section without losing like 7 lives, that bottom area where the red key is is so tricky and I lose so many lives there, it almost feels like chance to get past the pairs where the rear one is ahead in the jumping cycle, like you need frame-and-pixel perfect timing. The spacing doesn't allow me to jump over them either like with the pair on the upper level. Yellow key room by comparison felt like a breeze.
Now made it to the Berkeloid section, and that section is equally evil. Haven't managed to make it up to that pole there yet after pressing the switch, you need such precision in the pogo jumps and if you miss you quickly death-bounce all the way down. I think I'm getting close to the exit, but this level truly is horror.

Green-flagged almost every other level on normal now, only Bloog Tower left of the non-secret levels. I haven't been able to repeat the trick to open the door yet, it feels so random to make the bipships fly over the edge and descend. So I also haven't reached the second secret level yet. I don't think I'll try to get a green flag on Pyramid of the Curses, it's just way too hard and too long of a level to do consistently well and there are some points early in the level I don't even have a clue how you grab them. There are sections of the level I'm getting quite good at, but the entire level is too much.

[banana]

This level was a nightmare. Made it through in the end. Still have no idea how to get some of the points in the level. All that's left is Bloogtower and the second secret level, because no way am I going to try and green-flag this one or even achieve full score.

Btw what does this exclamation mark mean?

[namida]

That one indicates that the level contains a secret level unlock.

Congratulations on beating Pyramid of the Curses!

Regarding unlocking the door (and randomness in general), nothing in this game is truly random. Although RNG is used, it’s based on fixed seeds. Basically, each level has a “seed RNG” which has a seed calculated based on the tilemap; and each enemy (or other entity) has its own RNG, which use a seed chosen by the seed RNG; this is why enemies always follow the same patterns, unless Keen’s actions cause them to do something differently. In the case of an entity being spawned by another entity (rather than existing from the start of the level), the creating entity's RNG selects the seed.

Note that this does still mean some enemy behaviors can be highly chaotic. The Shikadi Master is an exceptional case - he actually works by having an invisible "Shikadi Master spawner" entity that, when Keen gets close enough to, it spawns the Shikadi Master. Like all cases, the spawner's RNG selects the seed for the SM himself; but the spawner's RNG constantly consumes (without doing anything with them) values from the RNG while waiting for Keen to get close to it - making the Shikadi Master actually random in practice, if not in theory (in particular, if you were somehow able to execute exactly the same inputs at the same times to reach him, he would then behave the same way due to having the same seed, so it isn't truly random, even by video game pseudorandom standards. The only way to achieve this in practice is by recording and playing back a demo). A more moderate case would be a Spirogrip, who will always follow the same pattern if left alone, but shooting him can cause his pattern to change due to a random check relating to the easter egg that sometimes happens after shooting him.

Regarding Bloog Tower specifically: The Bips won't turn around for a short time after they fire, and they are also more likely to go off an edge if Keen is within firing distance in front of them. Use both of these details to your advantage.

[יצחק]

כדי להשיג דגל ירוק, אתה חייב להביא את ארבעת האפרוחים הצהובים עם המטוס שלהם לקומת קרקע ובכך ייפתח הדלת לעבר השלב הסודי (ארבעת הנקודות האדומות יתחלפו כל פעם לירוק). מקווה שהבנת מה אני מתכוון.

[namida]

כדי להשיג דגל ירוק, אתה חייב להביא את ארבעת האפרוחים הצהובים עם המטוס שלהם לקומת קרקע ובכך ייפתח הדלת לעבר השלב הסודי (ארבעת הנקודות האדומות יתחלפו כל פעם לירוק). מקווה שהבנת מה אני מתכוון.

They've already figured that part out.

[banana]

Yeah, figured that part out. Just the part of actually getting to the door once I'm inside the secret area is still eluding me. I know the exit door is down there, but I just can't reach it. I already tried abusing the grace period and jumping from the electric barrier, but the electric barrier is one of those hazards that ignores the immunity period so I can't go back up after flipping the switch that way either.