Storyline and Level Theme Consolidation

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Deltamatic
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Post by Deltamatic »

That would be neat for things like Keen peppering the Licks' meal or handing the lifewater to the Slug king.
levellass
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Post by levellass »

(For example, if we use the 32 level patch we can set the 4 items to put done markers on the map.)
I don't follow what this means...
It would mean that getting an item in a level (Not finishing a level) would unblock a location on the map. This is done by making an item (Pogo, ship parts...) use a level slot in the 32 level patch (So we don't interfere with normal levels.) Thus the bridge would be impassable until Keen got a sandwich or something.


Maybe it would be possible to make a patch fade out/in to a full screen bitmap during gameplay? I'm thinking if you hit a message tile in a certain level, it could call the preview screen procedure and display a unique image based upon the current level.
I have before made the Yorp message call the previews screen, sadly, after that the game crashed. It should be possible to do it, though I have little idea how.
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Deltamatic
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Post by Deltamatic »

Abridged and refined.

Commander Keen
-in-
MATTER OF TIME
Episode One: Interstellar Echo
The game's story file wrote:Keen's just finished his Neural Stunner and he dumps a Vorticon Hyperpistol into the trash. He's tucked in by his mom and drifts off to sleep. Then in his dreams he sees a sea of faces in a beautiful city begging for help. Keen wakes up in a cold sweat. It's an hour after he went to bed and there's a voice in his mind asking him to come to Gnosticus IV. Knowing a call to adventure when he sees one, he blasts off in his megarocket and arrives thirty-one and two fifths terrific games of Paddle War later at this distant planet.
Keen detects a city on the planet's surface and recognizes it as the one from his dreams. He flies down to it but, just as his spaceship is approaching, it stops midair with a sickening crunch. Keen realizes that it must be surrounded with some type of force field and he backs away--leaving the nose of his megarocket behind! He goes into a spin and manages to pull out by pushing the engine into overdrive. This only sends him across the sky like an ingenious eight-year-old meteor and before he knows it he's sprawled on the ground next to bits of flaming wreckage.
The first area is partitioned off from the rest of the world map with impassable blocks. It would have a sunset/forest in fall theme. Keen's in his pajamas, so point items are warmth themed (like blankets or hot cocoa). The pogo is a couple levels in, since it dropped from the crashing BwB (though that isn't explicitly told). A teleporter book leads to the next and largest area, a twilight/smoky themed plateau with a river running down it.
In this area there are four levels in a row on a bridge, each one with a patched Yorp statue as a Slug king telling Keen to go get something. These levels would not be done when the player reached the exit, but when the player got the item. Because the player would be able to infinitely repeat them, there shouldn't be any point items in those levels.
The first task is fetching a potent pepper so the Slugs can have sweet revenge on their prankster rivals, the Licks, since they poisoned the Slug well with some really bad soda. The only problem is that the pepper is in a reputedly haunted mansion deep in the marsh. Keen goes south along the river on the world map, goes through some marsh levels, and gets the pepper (patched ship part) from the "haunted" (probably just superstition) mansion. The first of the slug bridge levels is now flagged done.
Keen returns with the pepper only to be told that his braving of the mansion makes him the ideal candidate for personally delivering the pepper to a Lick banquet within fortress walls. Keen goes north to the waterfall source of the river, enters it as a level, goes past it to the Lick fortress and reaches his goal, a sequence of tiles he falls through. There's a patched Yorp statue, describing him peppering the meal. There's an invisible peppered-the-meal ship part, which unlocks the next bridge level. And then there's the exit.
So Keen goes to the next level along the bridge, and the Slug king is like, "Get me some immortality-giving lifewater, and I'll let you across." Keen goes southwest to a Gnosticene Ancient archaeological site and finds a lifewater container, which unlocks the next bridge level.
The slug king rejoices as his immortality and decides not to let Keen by after all. (This is to present a reason for why Keen uses the in-level teleporter, the only method I can think of for getting to the third area now that the main world map teleporter has been used.) Keen just goes to a nearby teleporter book and voila, he's across the bridge. The third area is dawn/misty themed. A few levels, and cue end sequence:
It cuts to Keen on the world map and gives a message about seeing a geese-drawn carriage descend from the sky and a girl stepping out--collapsing the mine shaft around them. It cuts to Keen and Lindsey (as opposed to the BwB) falling down the mine shaft (as opposed to flying through space). Then it cuts to a conversation scene between the two of them, don't know what to use the window for. This Princess Lindsey, as she introduces herself, acts in a pouting and begrudging manner, complains that princesses shouldn't need to walk about without servants, and tells her woes to Keen without him asking. She was sent to Gnosticus IV by her fairy godmother who had decided she was in need of character befitting a princess, and as such would need to develop it at opportune moments other than being waited on hand and foot by innumberable court staff.
It then cuts to Keen and Lindsey advancing into the mine (as opposed to flying up to the Vorticon mothership).

So. How does this thing get approved or disapproved? Will another poll thread be started, or is it based on reactions in posts? How will the final plot be decided?
lemm
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Post by lemm »

The first task is fetching a potent pepper so the Slugs can have sweet revenge on their prankster rivals, the Licks, since they poisoned the Slug well with some really bad soda.
So that's why they breathe fire. haha... I think that's clever (would also explain why the licks are perpetually pissed off in keen 4)

I also like the idea of being sent off for a couple of missions, and then having to return to a central spot. You don't see that in many mods. It does give more of an RPG style to the game as well, which is new and exciting.

I guess I'm not too particular on the haunted mansion, first of all because I hate Halloweeny stuff in general, and plus mansions are usually some indication of a modern civilization, not exactly shadowlands material. I would opt for a mezoamerican type stone temple/altar... it could still be spooky. I do like the lifewater idea as well, along with the sunset themes. I think the skies could be a little more detailed than they are now.


Is this roughly what you had in mind, leaving out the non-necessary levels?
Image

except... the mansion isn't floating in water and the lifewater is to the southwest?
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Deltamatic
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Post by Deltamatic »

Point, I hadn't really thought about the mansion thing. I think the ancient civilization themes should be saved for the Gnosticene Ancient archaeological site, though, but now we have a lack of spookiness. Ah! It could be a cemetery. Then you wouldn't even have to say it was haunted, there would be enough spook factor just in mentioning it. As for its location, I thought it would be in the middle of the swamps/estuary, so Keen would have to go through some swamp levels before reaching it.
The archaeological site could be placed wherever, as long as it's in the main area. Though now that I think about it, it would be better for it to be where you have it. That way things would be less crowded to the south, since it has the swamps/estuary/cemetery.
Lindsey is included only in the end sequence, though there could be some distant-carriage-in-the-sky tiles on earlier levels. Maybe getting closer as the levels go on?
lemm
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Post by lemm »

I like cemetery. We could put a bunch of interesting obelisks and some creepy trees.



Okay, other earlier points from this thread:

1) Make map BIG. We can used transporters to get from "zone to zone."
2) Keen crashes in badlands?
3) Has to make it to city, which is blocked by mountains


So... is this map a step in the right direction?
http://files.commanderkeen.org/users/omp/map.pdf


Actually, it's really similar to this one posted by scizor in another thread, except I drew a few more teleporters to spread things out a bit. Levellass mentioned separating the map into "zones"
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Deltamatic
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Post by Deltamatic »

Yeah, I was wondering about the in-level teleporter--with the 32-level patch and multiple slug village levels rather than one convoluted one, an additional exit wouldn't be needed for it.
Badlands: hey, interesting! What sort of place would they be? Maybe Yellowstone-like, with canyons, thermal algae pools, geysers and whatnot?
The island would be neat for a secret area. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think somebody posted that sprites can be changed from level to level along with tiles... [edit: still unknown] would come in handy for making enemies look unique. Idea for island: a meteor crashed into it, there's a crater with the still-smoking space rock, some radioactive sludge that it sprayed off lying around.
I think the mine shouldn't just be a mine, but more than one mine connected with a cave system. How about the first episode is actually west of the Shadowlands, and the second episode goes under it? The cave/mine system would have to extend further than the Shadowlands, though, since we want it to reach from the mine shaft at the end of episode 1 to the floating city.
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Deltamatic
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Post by Deltamatic »

My map sketch.
Image
levellass
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Post by levellass »

Brilliant!

Should we start drawing up some map tiles?
lemm
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Post by lemm »

I vote yes.
Kdash
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Post by Kdash »

I vote for the in-game map looking exactly like Deltamatic's sketch. :p
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CommanderSpleen
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Post by CommanderSpleen »

Rofl, seconded.

I think we have enough confirmed map content to start work on the map tiles. Remember of course that we have an entire tileset we can allocate solely to the map world, so go crazy(ish)!
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Deltamatic
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Post by Deltamatic »

The Lick plateau seems too sparse compared to the southern area. I'd squeeze it vertically, giving more room for over-river themes.
Either the swamps need to squish to the right or the tropical island should be smaller so the player won't see it when he walks left in the swamps area.
The estuary level needs something to visually show it's crossable--rocks in the water, anyone?
The mine shaft is actually within the woods and rocks theme.
Those green things in the moat look like plants, but my idea was that they'd be reptilian monster things, a collection of animating hazard tiles.
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doomjedi
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Post by doomjedi »

I like the arctic idea. The desert can be cool as well.
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Deltamatic
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Post by Deltamatic »

I don't see any arctic areas on any of the map propositions. :?
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