Public Commander Keen Forum

[Stealthy71088]

For some reason, the enemy that is always killing me in Keen 4 isn't the dopefish, isn't the berkeloids, or the rimrocks or arachnuts. It's the skypests.

Even when you know where they are going to be, they fly in such a random nature that its incredibly hard to avoid them. You wouldn't think that little flies like that would be the nastiest enemy in the game, but for me they are.

For example, look at the pyramid of shadows on hard. In the second section, there's a part where you have to hop from platform to platform over tar, dodging spears, shooters, and you guessed it, skypests.

Anyway, I was wondering, does anyone else find these things a pain? I've been trying to iron man keen 4, and its these things that always end my run. For me they're probably the biggest Keen killers in Keen galaxy.

[tulip]

I thought you said it was Poison Slugs back when you did those pacifist runs...

anyway it's always monsters like these I loathe the most: monsters that are dumb as bread but come in masses and annoy the crap out of you. Enemies that are really challenging I can get along with.
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You crack me up little buddy!

[Benvolio]

yeah exactly hence Keen3's jacks/red ball yokes, and the vortikids being the least likeable enemies in Keen. And the snowflakes in Keen5 are irritating despite being not a difficult enemy, cause there's little fun in them and they don't look high-tech.

the skypests always seem to leave me enough time to pogo onto them before they fly off again - i have only once or twice been killed trying to stamp one - this is their key redeeming feature.

[Keening_Product]

[RoboBlue]

They're also the one of the only enemies in Keen 4-6 that Keen can actually kill; the others being Slicestars and Bips.
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[Stealthy71088]

[Bubbatom]

I dont mind the skypest, it's fun to knock them around with bullets.
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Commander Keen : Suburb Shenanigans is getting there, should only be a couple months now.

[Paramultart]

Most of the enemies in Keen 4 are relatively predictable and easy to avert, but the skypests are like a wildcard that exists solely to inconvenience you into using the save function.

They've always put me on edge while Keening.
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"Father Mabeuf was surveying his plants"

[Keening_Product]

[Pokota]

It makes them start a new direction, though when I do it they usually pick the same one they had before.
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Funny thing about Homo sapiens, we tend to get so caught up in making sure we get the fiddly little things perfectly right that we miss the fact that the tower is now leaning.

[VikingBoyBilly]

[guynietoren]

[troublesomekeen]

Skypests have never been a huge problem for me, except when there's more than one of them in the same area. If there's two, any move I make is risky. I love it when the Skypest comes in for the kill and Keen ducks, barely leaving enough space above his head so as not to be bounced out of the level.
Low ceilings help. ^_^

Okay, so there's a few Skypests in Slug Village. I catch a glimpse of the Skypest flying upwards but never see it again. Do Skypests get stuck in the top of the level somehow? I looked and looked but couldn't find it!

[Stealthy71088]

Once enemies have moved so far off screen, except for certain sprites like elevators, they "deactivate" and freeze until Keen gets close enough to interact with them. This is done to preserve memory. This being said, Skypests seem to have a lot more space before they get deactivated

[Keening_Product]