Yeah, last time I played the QED on Normal, the lone Shikadi Master was hardly a threat. It only confronted me like once, in the room where you get the green gem, and I slipped past him very easily.StupidBunny wrote: ↑Fri Nov 12, 2021 13:22The teleporting enemies (treasure eater and Shikadi Master) both got shafted I think. I mean I guess it's reasonable that the Shikadi Masters only appear on the final map, but I always felt that, for how terrifying and threatening they could have been, the one or two on the QED weren't enough to really enough to demonstrate the full power of their quantum electric wizardry, and I always found them a bit too easy to slip past in the one or two locations that they actually teleported to. I feel they could've flourished in a more open environment like the Neutrino Burst Injector, although that level may already have too many electric things trying to kill me. But here I go talking about Keen 5 again...Toomuchsparetime wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 1:07 This isn't a strike against the level itself but I think those smirking treasure-eaters should've been in at least another couple of levels. They have a GREAT design and their loot-pilfering is a rare mechanic in platformers (at least platformers of the time AFAIK).
Actually as an aside, does anybody know how the teleporting for the treasure eaters and Masters actually work? I've always wondered about this, and whether it's completely random or whether there's designated teleport spawns somewhere. Especially since I've only ever seen either character spawn in a handful of the same spots (and never seen a treasure eater spawn over a pit of tar for example, however hilarious that would be).
KeenWiki explains how the Treasure Eater's teleporting works:
I couldn't find any info on how the Shikadi Master's teleporting works, though.Treasure eaters will only take another hop if they see four consecutive tiles to their immediate right or left that are top blocking. If they cannot make another hop twice, then they will teleport to the next piece of Candy. They will search for candy and lifewater, and if it has all been collected, then they will disappear. They always select the first piece of candy that they see in the sprite list, (which is generally the top-left most piece of candy remaining).