Posted August 15, 2024
KeeperFX is a fan made addon for DK1 that adds many features to the game, most notably improving the game's framerate and adding DK2 style grid based room building instead of individual tiles. Unfortunately it also has its share of bugs and changes not present in the vanilla game that makes the switch somewhat double-edged. KeeperFX does not seem to maintain a shortlist of known bugs and changes without poring through every trivial issue listed in github so this post aims to catalogue game changing bugs and changes for those considering the switch or upgrading between keeperfx versions.
Current Keeperfx version: 1.1.0
Since this post seemed overly critical with just a list of bugs I'm also listing some of the many positive changes in Keeperfx:
* Higher framerate than the OG.
* Drag a box to build or sell entire rooms. Whereas in the OG you would build/sell one tile at a time.
* Sell entire rooms with one click using Shift key.
* Better computer AI can now imprison, torture and scavenge creatures.
* New creatures and rooms. Haven't tried this myself yet.
* A large selection of well made fan created campaigns.
* Possessed imps can now claim enemy tiles, rooms and reinforce walls.
* Possessed creatures show status effects. E.g. accelerate, conceal, etc.
* Much more info added to the creature info panel. E.g. research ability, workshop skill, etc.
* The accelerate bug is fixed. Where higher level creatures' speed spell would only last a few seconds.
Known Issues and Changes:
* Cursor issues.
** Creature pickup does not animate.
** Slap animation disappears when moving cursor. This makes consecutively slapping multiple creatures in a row next to impossible.
** Creatures in hand obscure the fight window. This makes it hard to see and pickup injured creatures for rescue.
** Spells do not charge when the cursor is over the fight window. So you have to charge that heal spell outside before moving over the fight window.
* Game music is broken. Music included in the GOG game version is absent. I followed Keeperfx's FAQ but was still not able to get it to work. The eery music is without a doubt one of the best features of the game.
* Game freezes/stutters frequently. This is more severe but less frequent than the OG on Dosbox; The issue is nonexistant if using OG+Dosbox-x.
* Scavenger room still broken.
** Scavenging takes an enormous amount of time. Although stated as fixed as of v1.1.0, scavenging still takes an eternity on Buffy Oak and other levels. (4 paydays = 1 successfully scavenged lvl 3 Bile Demon out of an army of enemy Bile Demons even though the enemy keepers had no temple to protect from scavenging.) This appears to be due to the AI robotically pikcing up scavengees, resetting the scavenge counter.
** Scavenge warnings buggy. I've lost many a creature to enemy scavenging without first being warned.
* OG levels are heavily modified. Many levels on the OG campaign have been heavily modified without reason. For example the level Hearth has Lava, Word of Power traps and Magic doors removed from the level with the reason cited as being "Workshop not big enough". The workshop was originally next to expandable space for this very reason and prioritizing the workshop and cordoning off your dungeon with lava was one of several viable strategies in a level that truly demonstrated the flexibility of playstyles.
* Computer AI needs work.
** Computer AI walls itself off. For example, on the levels Lushmeadow and Wishvale, which wasn't a problem in the OG. If you find yourself here you can only complete these levels by using the Wind-Corner bug/cheat.
** Computer AI starves its own creatures. KeeperFX taught the AI to imprison creatures. Unfortunately that means it imprisons its own creatures including Demon spawn and Bile Demons. I watched the AI on the level Tickle kill nearly its entire army from 30 strong down to 8 creatures just by imprisoning and starving them.
* Game balance severely skewed. Many creatures have been made OP and creature battles take around 1/4th of the time they did on vanilla DK as a result. You can teleport a band of mistresses to and destroy an enemy dungeon heart in <10 seconds, before the AI even has a chance to react making for some underwhelming wins.
* Temple sacrifices cannot be made in parallel. Troll > Fly > Mistress > Bile Demon gets you a horned reaper in vanilla DK but nothing in KeeperFX as no sacrifice is counted until an initial sacrifice recipe is completed. Dropping a lvl 10 Bile Demon was not a fun way to find this out so be warned.
* Grenades have been nerfed. Grenades are a possession exclusive spell and strategically spamming them down a narrow corridor was one tactic that made it possible to complete some high difficulty fanmade levels like in Ancient Keeper. Now they take about 5x longer before you can throw a 2nd one.
* Treasure rooms hold less gold. While the OG had an intricate system for calculating room efficiency, Keeperfx mostly just demands a 5x5 treasure room surrounded by fortified walls and doors. Treasure rooms hold less to begin with and there's no way to increase capacity in tight, non-uniform spaces for e.g. by surrounding it with a guard room or increasing the number of tiles.
* Sounds constantly cut each other off. You'll hear "Your creatures are<WARLOCK CASTS SOE SPELL>elves". By the time I figured it out, the fly I'd been waiting for was murdered in its lair with the perpetrating spider blending innocently among the others.
* Boulder traps nerfed and buggy.[/n] Boulder traps can now kill just 8 enemies/imps instead of the OG's 11. When mowing down large groups, many units bizarrely make it past the rolling boulder unharmed while those at the back continue to get crushed by it.
* Imp corpses disappear and can no longer be used to generate vampires.
* Skeletons cannot be forcefed chickens to heal. This is problematic on many levels where the heal spell is unavailable.
* Anger management issues.
** Creatures become steadily angrier for no discernible reason. Training demon spawns have no reason to become angry but do on some levels without temple access.
** Creatures cannot be bribed with gold. Combined with the above this makes for some frustrating levels where the only option is to restart and hope it doesn't happen again.
** No way to resolve missed paydays. A creature that momentarily loses access to a treasure room during payday becomes permanently angry since they cannot be bribed. Vampires for e.g. should become happier while sleeping but this doesn't appear to resolve it either.
* Vampires cannot be placed in the temple. This means no curing chicken or disease effects and no momentary relief from scavenging for vampires. You can force it if you have must obey available but the vamps will instantly become angry and refuse to continue praying. Without the ability to bribe that means eventual defection.
I'll update this list as I find more bugs and changes. Please share any notable game changing bugs you find and include the KeeperFX version for other users and for the KeeperFX devs to take note of..
Last updateed 2024/09/06
Current Keeperfx version: 1.1.0
Since this post seemed overly critical with just a list of bugs I'm also listing some of the many positive changes in Keeperfx:
* Higher framerate than the OG.
* Drag a box to build or sell entire rooms. Whereas in the OG you would build/sell one tile at a time.
* Sell entire rooms with one click using Shift key.
* Better computer AI can now imprison, torture and scavenge creatures.
* New creatures and rooms. Haven't tried this myself yet.
* A large selection of well made fan created campaigns.
* Possessed imps can now claim enemy tiles, rooms and reinforce walls.
* Possessed creatures show status effects. E.g. accelerate, conceal, etc.
* Much more info added to the creature info panel. E.g. research ability, workshop skill, etc.
* The accelerate bug is fixed. Where higher level creatures' speed spell would only last a few seconds.
Known Issues and Changes:
* Cursor issues.
** Creature pickup does not animate.
** Slap animation disappears when moving cursor. This makes consecutively slapping multiple creatures in a row next to impossible.
** Creatures in hand obscure the fight window. This makes it hard to see and pickup injured creatures for rescue.
** Spells do not charge when the cursor is over the fight window. So you have to charge that heal spell outside before moving over the fight window.
* Game music is broken. Music included in the GOG game version is absent. I followed Keeperfx's FAQ but was still not able to get it to work. The eery music is without a doubt one of the best features of the game.
* Game freezes/stutters frequently. This is more severe but less frequent than the OG on Dosbox; The issue is nonexistant if using OG+Dosbox-x.
* Scavenger room still broken.
** Scavenging takes an enormous amount of time. Although stated as fixed as of v1.1.0, scavenging still takes an eternity on Buffy Oak and other levels. (4 paydays = 1 successfully scavenged lvl 3 Bile Demon out of an army of enemy Bile Demons even though the enemy keepers had no temple to protect from scavenging.) This appears to be due to the AI robotically pikcing up scavengees, resetting the scavenge counter.
** Scavenge warnings buggy. I've lost many a creature to enemy scavenging without first being warned.
* OG levels are heavily modified. Many levels on the OG campaign have been heavily modified without reason. For example the level Hearth has Lava, Word of Power traps and Magic doors removed from the level with the reason cited as being "Workshop not big enough". The workshop was originally next to expandable space for this very reason and prioritizing the workshop and cordoning off your dungeon with lava was one of several viable strategies in a level that truly demonstrated the flexibility of playstyles.
* Computer AI needs work.
** Computer AI walls itself off. For example, on the levels Lushmeadow and Wishvale, which wasn't a problem in the OG. If you find yourself here you can only complete these levels by using the Wind-Corner bug/cheat.
** Computer AI starves its own creatures. KeeperFX taught the AI to imprison creatures. Unfortunately that means it imprisons its own creatures including Demon spawn and Bile Demons. I watched the AI on the level Tickle kill nearly its entire army from 30 strong down to 8 creatures just by imprisoning and starving them.
* Game balance severely skewed. Many creatures have been made OP and creature battles take around 1/4th of the time they did on vanilla DK as a result. You can teleport a band of mistresses to and destroy an enemy dungeon heart in <10 seconds, before the AI even has a chance to react making for some underwhelming wins.
* Temple sacrifices cannot be made in parallel. Troll > Fly > Mistress > Bile Demon gets you a horned reaper in vanilla DK but nothing in KeeperFX as no sacrifice is counted until an initial sacrifice recipe is completed. Dropping a lvl 10 Bile Demon was not a fun way to find this out so be warned.
* Grenades have been nerfed. Grenades are a possession exclusive spell and strategically spamming them down a narrow corridor was one tactic that made it possible to complete some high difficulty fanmade levels like in Ancient Keeper. Now they take about 5x longer before you can throw a 2nd one.
* Treasure rooms hold less gold. While the OG had an intricate system for calculating room efficiency, Keeperfx mostly just demands a 5x5 treasure room surrounded by fortified walls and doors. Treasure rooms hold less to begin with and there's no way to increase capacity in tight, non-uniform spaces for e.g. by surrounding it with a guard room or increasing the number of tiles.
* Sounds constantly cut each other off. You'll hear "Your creatures are<WARLOCK CASTS SOE SPELL>elves". By the time I figured it out, the fly I'd been waiting for was murdered in its lair with the perpetrating spider blending innocently among the others.
* Boulder traps nerfed and buggy.[/n] Boulder traps can now kill just 8 enemies/imps instead of the OG's 11. When mowing down large groups, many units bizarrely make it past the rolling boulder unharmed while those at the back continue to get crushed by it.
* Imp corpses disappear and can no longer be used to generate vampires.
* Skeletons cannot be forcefed chickens to heal. This is problematic on many levels where the heal spell is unavailable.
* Anger management issues.
** Creatures become steadily angrier for no discernible reason. Training demon spawns have no reason to become angry but do on some levels without temple access.
** Creatures cannot be bribed with gold. Combined with the above this makes for some frustrating levels where the only option is to restart and hope it doesn't happen again.
** No way to resolve missed paydays. A creature that momentarily loses access to a treasure room during payday becomes permanently angry since they cannot be bribed. Vampires for e.g. should become happier while sleeping but this doesn't appear to resolve it either.
* Vampires cannot be placed in the temple. This means no curing chicken or disease effects and no momentary relief from scavenging for vampires. You can force it if you have must obey available but the vamps will instantly become angry and refuse to continue praying. Without the ability to bribe that means eventual defection.
I'll update this list as I find more bugs and changes. Please share any notable game changing bugs you find and include the KeeperFX version for other users and for the KeeperFX devs to take note of..
Last updateed 2024/09/06
Post edited September 06, 2024 by narbarel
