The Pirate Mod

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.
Bernie
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Post by Bernie »

thanks for considering it anyway ;)
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Syllypryde
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Post by Syllypryde »

Actually points mean more now because in the original, official games and the mods based on them, you could get high scores just from repeated deaths so basically the people with the highest scores are people who died the most. In this mod if you die your score resets to whatever the score was before you started the level. You are only rewarded with points when you complete a level. So this way, the more points you grab, the less you die, the more levels you complete, the higher your score, which is how it should be. If Lass handled the extra lives in the exact same manner as she does the scoring, that would make extra lives valuable, too.

This mod is awesome. Graphics are great, patches are top notch, enemies are very creative and the game play is cool.

Likes (besides the previous mentioned):
The Galaxy style box before the level- I like having names for the levels

The Galaxy style shooting where you can shoot in all directions

Additional levels added instead of the original 16

Secret areas (which has been done in Vorticon mods before)

Music (which has been done in Vorticon mods before)

Dislikes:
F3 is now save game- I do not like not being able to change the controls because it is difficult for me to play using Ctrl and Alt because I have 2 keys in between them. Not only does that cause the problem of hitting other keys by mistake (which in life or death situations causes death!), but the finger span between the 2 keys creates discomfort in my left hand. I could use the right-hand Ctrl and Alt keys but since they are reversed on that side I was constantly hitting jump instead of pogo and vice versa, not to mention there is a key between them. So it is a major inconvenience to not be able to change controls (then again I am sure if I really wanted to I could go into the patch file and change F3 back to default).

Rather buggy when you enter and finish levels (not to mention the garbage level bug Lass has already mentioned)

No 20,000 point extra lives, but that is a minor gripe and something I can easily live with.

All and all, a good mod, and despite being a Galaxy Keener, I have played and still play dozens of Vorticon mods.
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Levellass
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Post by Levellass »

The change controls window is destroyed and cannot be restored in any way here. However you can simply copy your key settings from another copy of Keen 3 via copying the ctlpanel.ck3 file. Should I note this somewhere in the mod?
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
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Syllypryde
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Post by Syllypryde »

Levellass wrote:The change controls window is destroyed and cannot be restored in any way here. However you can simply copy your key settings from another copy of Keen 3 via copying the ctlpanel.ck3 file. Should I note this somewhere in the mod?
Thank you anyway. I have chosen to use the Ctrl and Alt keys after all.
Last edited by Syllypryde on Thu Jul 25, 2013 16:13, edited 1 time in total.
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Fleexy
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Post by Fleexy »

LP time!

Episode 1: Interesting Noise

You can always get the latest on my LPs over at my thread.
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troublesomekeen
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Post by troublesomekeen »

By jove, you used the Shining Force 2 raft sprite after all! Jolly!
(I would just like to add that I heartily encourage playing Shining Force 2, a very fun tactical strategy game with town-wondering, elves, dwarves, beastmen, birdmen, demons, devils, centaurs, and all sorts of mythological creatures, complete with high-tech devices and campy humor in a medieval setting.)
Image
Commander Keen in... Canteloupe Quest!
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szemi
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Post by szemi »

Not a bad mod, but...
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Syllypryde
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Post by Syllypryde »

How much of the game has everyone completed so far?
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Fleexy
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Post by Fleexy »

I can't progress beyond the first blocking level; it won't get marked as completed.
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szemi
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Post by szemi »

Fleexy wrote:I can't progress beyond the first blocking level; it won't get marked as completed.
(And then somebody has jaw to say my Keen 4-6 mods have bugs... well, this mod has some bugs)
Ceilick
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Post by Ceilick »

I've completed most of the levels, as well as completed the game (although I never found the pirate lord Keenrush on my first play).

I really enjoyed Xky's pirate flotilla, one of my favorite levels. I also really liked the final level; great level design, great boss, and I enjoyed the dialog.

I found the end game sequence, while cleverly implemented, just a "what?" moment. Very lackluster.

I also didn't really care for the aimless world map or the extra levels, primarily because the atmosphere of levels got old really quickly.

The best things about this mod is the level size and difficulty, the sprite patching (Vizards are amazing, and Lass' and Lemm's combined work on the pirate shark turned out pretty well), and the amount of text packed into this is fantastic--both in the form of level entrances and the pirate lord dialogue boxes.
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Syllypryde
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Post by Syllypryde »

Fleexy wrote:I can't progress beyond the first blocking level; it won't get marked as completed.
From Levellass earlier in the thread:
Levellass wrote:......For the crash, try replacing\deleting the scores and ctlpanel files. Sometimes they get corrupted when the game crashes......
For this solution she is referring to the game crashes, but it also works for the black screen right after 'one moment' and it works for the skulls that will not appear when you complete a level. Besides both of these bugs, I had also ran into a problem when I loaded a saved game skulls would appear on levels I had not even played yet. I even went as far as to report the bug here and then sent Lass a screenshot in her Dropbox directory. But the above solution solved that problem. In addition, I got to Door Gorge and was stuck and because it blocks the path to 14 remaining levels, I could not continue. Again, I went as far as reporting this as a bug and again sending Levellass a screenshot in her Dropbox folder. Hours later after reading the list of enemies, it hit me there was no bug, only a trick I needed to do. So then I was able to continue from there.
Ceilick wrote:I've completed most of the levels, as well as completed the game (although I never found the pirate lord Keenrush on my first play)......

......I also didn't really care for the aimless world map or the extra levels, primarily because the atmosphere of levels got old really quickly.

The best things about this mod is the level size and difficulty, the sprite patching (Vizards are amazing, and Lass' and Lemm's combined work on the pirate shark turned out pretty well), and the amount of text packed into this is fantastic--both in the form of level entrances and the pirate lord dialogue boxes.
I have only completed 18 levels so far, but I plan to finish the game in the next few days hopefully. It is understandable that you felt the levels were getting redundant because for the most part we are used to playing Keen with half the levels. I agree with everything you say in the last paragraph, but my all-time favorite thing in the mod so far, is the air cannons found on the pirate ships that shoot Keen in the air. Those were really cool.

One question, Ceilick, when you abandoned this mod, how much work did you do before she picked it up and finished it?
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Ceilick
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Post by Ceilick »

The pirate vorticon, pirate shark, vorticon wizards, and cannon squid graphics are by me. Keenrush did the little fish with the sailor hat. One of the levels resembles to a large extent the only level I had previously done. Most of the tiles I had done weren't used here, although some of both mine and Keenrush's can be seen.

The mod, as I left it, can be downloaded here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3654819/Keen/Pirate%20Mod.zip
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Levellass
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Post by Levellass »

Updated the release with a hints document and a few stability tweaks that I hope will at least reduce the incidence of bugs. Re-enabled my lives patch (You're supposed to start with 10 lives, not 4!) that I'd accidentally removed for beta testing.

I found the end game sequence, while cleverly implemented, just a "what?" moment. Very lackluster.
That's a pity, what do you think would make it better?

I also didn't really care for the aimless world map or the extra levels, primarily because the atmosphere of levels got old really quickly.
Yeah, I was wondering about eliminating the world map entirely and just having you progress through 16 levels one after the other. Fortunately you don't have to do most of the levels. I mean seriously, the map is the only thing I think needs some serious work. Had Lemm helped me with the tile patch I wanted it would have been a different story. But the man's a busy guy.
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
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Syllypryde
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Post by Syllypryde »

Levellass wrote:Updated the release with a hints document and a few stability tweaks that I hope will at least reduce the incidence of bugs. Re-enabled my lives patch (You're supposed to start with 10 lives, not 4!) that I'd accidentally removed for beta testing.
I liked it better with four lives, much more challenging.
Yeah, I was wondering about eliminating the world map entirely and just having you progress through 16 levels one after the other. Fortunately you don't have to do most of the levels. I mean seriously, the map is the only thing I think needs some serious work. Had Lemm helped me with the tile patch I wanted it would have been a different story. But the man's a busy guy.
I can see why many may not like the huge world map, but I like it better than progressing through 16 levels one after the other like Keenrush did in Extinction and Shikadi did in Keen T. I can see tweaking the world map a little bit, but other then that I like it the way it is. Other then a few bugs here and there, I like the mod the way it is. I am wasting my breath, though, because I know you will do what you want, and since this is your mod, that is your choice.
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