Mort 1: Doomship Dilemma

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Levellass
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Mort 1: Doomship Dilemma

Post by Levellass »

Aaaaannnd... it's done!

After months of wrangling over who was doing what levels (Resulting in chronic level shortage I might add!) I have completed my take on Doomship Dilemma, Dr Villain's Mortimer-themed mod.

I built on his graphics and patches, and me, Levellord and others did the levels, eventually. (Oh yeah, I did the sounds too, me, me, me!) It is a project in conjunction with Szemi, who is making Episodes 2&3 with minimal input from me, which will be released soon.

If you hate the levels, don't blame me, LL did (most of) them, yes they ARE all completable.

Get it here and stroke my ego: http://levellord.toxicsheep.com/MORT.zip

(This is also a test of my KeenSound program, if you are interested, mail me, I need beta testers!)
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ZidaneA
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Post by ZidaneA »

Oh, I really like this! Kinda reminds me of Commander Keen 6.

But I think I installed it wrong, because the game is pretty buggy. Could you just brief me on how I should install it?
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Post by KeenRush »

Wow, a new mod again? I really have some playing to do when I get tuit... :bloody Anyway, Dr Villain's Mort beta was one of my favourite mods, so this ought to be good. :garg
My newest mod - Commander Keen: Sunset: viewtopic.php?t=8568 | codename H.Y.E.N.A.
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DaVince
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Post by DaVince »

MAN. These levels are HARD. Or I'm just not that experienced a Keener, maybe. The purple blobs in the second level above Keen's ship are the most annoying things ever, constantly bumping me off the platforms! >:

EDIT: ARGH INVISIBLE PLATFORMS OVER A FIRE. That's just MEAN.
EDIT: I actually didn't forget to get the Pogo in level 1 this time. Much easier! :)

...Right, after having played a good deal of the levels (well, 5, anyway), I'll have to say this: the levels themselves are very well-made. But there are some choices in there sometimes that were better off not being done - for example, being able to plain miss the pogo and finish the level in level 1, you probably wouldn't want to do this unless it was really supposed to be a secret you don't need to finish the game (but then how would I finish the level above it?). Also, invisible tiles like in that level above it are nice, but don't let them make people get into unneccesary surprises. This might be Keenish, but from a design perspective, it's weird and confusing and will probably just annoy people. And the purple blobs replacing the Yorps at the right area here are... REALLY frustrating, especially since they all move into eachother's ways when you try to jump to the next platform. You could fix this a lot by adding one more tile onto one of the platforms, I think.

Then there's random things like automatically being pushed to the left in that level with the eyeballs near the beginning - doesn't make any sense whatsoever according to all other of these same platforms. I can pogo my way up where I can skip a whole key door in this level, too. In the level with the warps, blind drops are never a good idea... but I guess I'll know it next time, anyway. Random warps are annoying in combination with getting the right switches though... ;_;

Other than these weird design choices, I'm having a Grand (Intellect) Time! The big block dropping as you walk past the cable is a neat trick, and the actual level designs next to above mentioned are very decent - not being able to shoot certainly poses a challenge, too! And the graphics are very nice.
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tulip
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Post by tulip »

DaVince wrote:... being able to plain miss the pogo and finish the level in level 1 ... Also, invisible tiles like in that level above it are nice, but don't let them make people get into unneccesary surprises. This might be Keenish, but from a design perspective, it's weird and confusing and will probably just annoy people. ...
You haven't played many Levellord mods before. Welcome to the world of LL.
For example I spent hours in Harvey's mod 2 trying to get a pogo behind a door, when I realized that it was just plain impossible, and the pogo was to be found in a different level!
Last edited by tulip on Wed Jul 15, 2009 16:39, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Syllypryde »

tulip wrote:You haven't played many Levellord mods before. Welcome to the world of LL. For example I spent hours in Harvey's mod 2 trying to get a pogo behind a door, when I realized that it was just plain impossible, and the pogo was to be found in a different level!
I have not played any of Levelord's mods yet, so I am guessing this mod might throw me for a loop. Then again, it might not. If I were to ever to create a mod, I would make one that is more tricky rather than hard or even ridiculously difficult. I would want to make a mod that makes the player have to use his/her brain as well as have fun. I will give this mod a go, but not today. I have things to take care of today.

Patrick
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Grimson
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Post by Grimson »

But I think I installed it wrong, because the game is pretty buggy. Could you just brief me on how I should install it?
I have the same problem, and have had it on other Keen 1 mods before. Keen can suddenly fall trough floors and is unable to access key areas for some reason. Oh and he can walk in the world map where ever he wishes to go, even outside the borders :dead
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Post by tulip »

It's interesting how after all these years this still happens.

TO PLAY A MOD RUN THE *.BAT FILE NOT THE KEENx.EXE!!
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Grimson
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Post by Grimson »

I did run the .bat file, but as I do, I get the following error message (in DOSShell):

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ZidaneA
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Post by ZidaneA »

Grimson wrote:I did run the .bat file, but as I do, I get the following error message (in DOSShell):

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I get exactly the same error message.. :/
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Post by Commander Spleen »

You need to get a copy of UNLZEXE, put it in the directory and run 'unlzexe keen1.exe'. Then it'll work.
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Post by Levellass »

LL told me it would be so much easier to include an illegal copy of Keen 1 in my zip, why didn't I listen to her?
- for example, being able to plain miss the pogo and finish the level in level 1,
Dr Villain's level, I didn't want to alter it too much, in theory you shouldn't be able to get across the jump to the exit without it. *Sigh*

What I regret is that my level design team dropped out halfway, leaving me with many only half-finished levels. That, and LL did about half of them, which is depressing on its own.


Still, this is my first real mod, I appreciate criticism!
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ZidaneA
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Post by ZidaneA »

Now it works. Thank you, Commander Spleen!

It really love it! But it's so hard, I'm amazed.
I love all the references to Keen 6.

I found a bug. When walking into a wall when on the ice, Mortimer gets stuck. It's easy to get away, but it's pretty annoying.
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Post by Syllypryde »

Levellass wrote:Dr Villain's level, I didn't want to alter it too much, in theory you shouldn't be able to get across the jump to the exit without it. *Sigh*

What I regret is that my level design team dropped out halfway, leaving me with many only half-finished levels. That, and LL did about half of them, which is depressing on its own.

Still, this is my first real mod, I appreciate criticism!
Hello, Levellass! Congratulations on your first full mod. I have played all the levels, but so far I have only completed 8. I intend to finished the game, but I wanted to give you some input, both good and bad. First, I will start with the good.

1) Difficulty is a high point here. The levels are challenging. Other than 2 or three levels, most of the levels are not tremendously hard. There is one very challenging maze and at least two levels were there are dozens of teleports and switches, making a great challenge in store for those levels.

2) Graphics for the most part are a high mark here as well. I enjoyed the monster replacements and the tiles and background are very good. I like how most of the tiles retain the Keen 1 feeling. Switches for bridges give a Keen 2 feeling. Black tiles that can be passed through, the orange force arrows, and the numerous teleports (in-level instead of the world map) give a keen 3 feeling.

3) Level design is also a definitely plus. The levels are designed very well, especially the more difficult levels.

4) The beginning story is creative and definitely Keenish (or Mortish!). Since I have not completed the game yet, I have not seen the end story yet. But I would be willing to bet it is as good as the finishing story. I also found it amusing that when the game is over, it calls me a loser!

5) The new sound effects are great. I found it refreshing that you decided to change the sounds, rather then using the sounds from the original Keen.

6) Doomship Dilemma definitely has re-playability. It is a mod I am sure most Keeners will play more than once.

Now for the bad stuff, most of the things I am going to discuss now are bugs or possible bugs I have come across:

1) Possible patch bugs: While I was playing the game, out of nowhere, random sections of the levels would all of a sudden start blinking, as if they were trying to convert back to their original tiles.

2) As you make your way on the world map, there is a level with five trees on the right of it. Below it is a single level by itself. This level is one of the teleport levels. There is a bug in one of the teleports. When I entered the teleport I got stuck. The only way to get unstuck was to start the game all over.

3) In the same level, when I go through a few of the teleports, the entire screen turns to the orange tiles and the patches blink, just like I mentioned in #1. When Mort moves a few steps, then the level reappears. This is annoying.

4) In the same level, there is a section that seems unreachable. There are two orange force arrows. On the right of them are 4 green soda pops, 3 (or more?) pizzas and 3 (or more?) teleports in single file. I could not find a way to reach this area. Was the bugged(?) teleport supposed to lead to the area? Is there a secret passage (I found all the others) that is supposed to lead to this area? Was this area made unreachable intentionally? Or was this one of those half finished levels you mentioned and this area was not finished accidentally?

5) There is another level where at the very beginning you have to flip a switch to extend a long bridge. Once you get past the 2 orange doors, pass the book and the tank robot replacement, you get to a green lava pool with 2 donuts above it. Is it possible to get to these donuts without dying?
If you hate the levels, don't blame me, LL did (most of) them, yes they ARE all completable.
6) I beg to differ with this. On the world map there is a level shaped like a teleport. I found 2 bugs in this level. First, there is a keycard bug. When I grab the orange keycard instead of collecting it, it gives me points for it. It even makes the same sound it makes when you grab a point item. Because of this I cannot open the orange door. Since there is a purple keycard and switch behind this door, this bug makes the level unsolvable.

Secondly, for some strange reason, on certain switches, when I go to flip them, it will exit the level instead of turning the switch on and off. This doesn't always happen with those switches. It happens randomly. This is another reason the level is unsolvable.

7) Above your name on the world map there is a single level. The whole upper right of the level seems unreachable. Is there a secret passage I do not know about, or is this one of the half finished levels you mentioned?

Overall, this was a good mod and I intend to finish it. I would like to hope you will fix the above bugs.

Patrick
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selbbarcs ssensuoicsnoc
rehgih a ekil smees
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Post by tulip »

Syllypryde wrote:2) As you make your way on the world map, there is a level with five trees on the right of it. Below it is a single level by itself. This level is one of the teleport levels. There is a bug in one of the teleports. When I entered the teleport I got stuck. The only way to get unstuck was to start the game all over.

3) In the same level, when I go through a few of the teleports, the entire screen turns to the orange tiles and the patches blink, just like I mentioned in #1. When Mort moves a few steps, then the level reappears. This is annoying.
I can confirm these bugs.
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