Minerva Mod Episode 1!

It seems a few people can't see the onscreen text, somebody said they have the same problem with HL2. Is this a common bug? Do Valve know about it? Bit worrying really...
 
Excellent mod~! By far the best single player experience I've had since Das Roboss (not that there has been a lot of SP content out there yet, but still).

I'm really excited about this whole episodic content idea. It seems to me as long as the content providers keep up their end of the bargain by releasing episodes in a timely fashion, this sort of gameplay could be quite fulfilling. I would hate to have played the first two episodes of a game only to find out that the team releasing them just got up and quit, leaving me never to find out what happens next.
 
It's an excellent Mod and the episodic approach is a very sensible one to take. I think there is a tendency for people to shy away from the SP gameplay when it comes to making a mod because they feel that they have to produce something that is as grandiose in scope and scale as HL2, whereas in reality people aren't expecting anything of the sort. Professional SP games are epics, their 3 part acts play out over a number of chapters. If your making an SP mod no ones going to berate you if your acts are the chapters if the mod is well made and rounded. GJ and looking forward to the rest.
 
dogboy73 said:
Is that because it's difficult or have you just taken your time to perfect? I'm asking because I'm up for having a crack at this map making lark myself using Source. But I'd like to know what I'm getting myself in too! I on't want to attempt anything fancy - Just basically use whats there to build some SP content that I think would be cool map to play.
Click to expand...

The development of the first MINERVA map took about seven months because the Source SDK documentation was initially pretty hopeless (that's luckily changed with the Valve Developer Community), because I'm a bit of a perfectionist and because I did choose a rather difficult subject for a first map.

It's pretty easy to build simple rooms and place props and monsters once you get your head round to the right way of thinking, and I'd highly recommend everyone has at least a play round with Hammer to see what they can do. If you catch the mapping bug, so be it!

With regard to the invisible text messages for some people, I'm really not sure what's happening. In an attempt to find some common link between them all, could anyone suffering from this problem please provide their operating system version, graphics card model (and driver version) and some basic system specs? I suspect it's some as-yet unfixed HL2 bug, and would like to provide Valve with a bit more in the way of details...

Thanks again!
 
i finished it today and it was amazing, I never played someplace else so I just downloaded it today. Wow i find it so much more challenging, because there is like no health anywhere and those gargantuons are so difficult with the starting arsenal.
 
This map f*cking blew my mind.

Serious quality starting to come out these days.
 
I really liked the "layered" design of the map which eliminated in-game loading completely. Amazing work, really, professional quality mapping.

What I'd like to see in the next episodes is some more own, custom props and gimmicks not seen in HL2. Shaders, textures, models etc. Even though not using your own material makes the mod size relatively small, it's a bit dull to explore new places when you've already seen all the textures and design several times before while playing the original HL2. It's repetitiveness felt a bit like playing Halo. (Except that this was fun.)

Anyways, I hope that you will continue the story and not get bored doing what you do, forgetting your new fans. :)
 
TheAmazingRando said:
Why would Valve care about a bug in a player made map?
Click to expand...
It's not, it's a bug in all Half-Life 2 maps (for some of us). I fixed it by doing a total re-install of Steam + all valve games.
 
My guess is that it is the same entity/being/person as in "someplace else." She seems, and speaks very much like a human, unlike a Vortigaunt or whatever race the G-man is.

She was a little off when she mentioned that the Vortigaunt slaves had "little chittenous minds," but other wise referred to them respectfully.

As far as the mundane object that's out of place, I'd say the crowbar would be it. While it's very usefull, it's totally out of context. The Marine expeditionists had their weapons, ammo, and stimpacks, but where did that crowbar come from???

A little help Cargo cult if this is the clue you were talking about, if not, I'll have to go scour that station again for another clue.

BTW, both of these maps are freaking awesome in terms of difficulty, flow, music, and definitely presentation.
 
My guess is that it is the same entity/being/person as in "someplace else." She seems, and speaks very much like a human, unlike a Vortigaunt or whatever race the G-man is.
Click to expand...

She says "it's one of the few perks when you're something like me."

What was all that business about a soldier. Maybe it was Adrian Shepherd and she's the G-Man! :upstare:
 
Sigh.

When I go to 'new game' there is nothing in the grey box (I was expecting images) so if I click 'engage' **** all happens.

Any ideas? I've installed it twice over and it's still not fixed.

Dave
 
Cargo Cult said:
Speculation? Ooooh. But still nobody's noticed that Very Important Thing in Someplace Else yet - it's in plain view in normal gameplay, but nobody's ever commented on its peculiarity...
Click to expand...

As in the giant plasma beam of death?
 
jondy said:
As in the giant plasma beam of death?
Click to expand...

He's talking about an object in the HL1 mod/map "Someplace else".

It is very similar to Minerva in that there is a "voice" in your head, and it takes place entirely in Xen.
 
wow.. just awesome!
fantastic map design and awesome music. can't wait to see the sequel. this is by far he best sp mod i've ever played concerning tension, design and atmosphere.

keep up the excellent work! ^^
 
When is the second one out?
Loved it, quick and fun...
 
very nice, and much, much harder than vanilla hl2 (though that's not saying much)

I really enjoyed the 'dulce et decorum est pro terra mori'... perhaps those rebel corpses were cramped 'in death's extreme decrepitude?'
 
I have three official DoD 1.3 maps and your map work makes me cry it's so good. If you're open to travel I'll bet the boys at Valve would bring you on board.

From a mappers perspective: Excellent use of the grid...the entire go-round-the-island and then into the island and then the use of interior levels is a perfect way to cram all that detail into one map (I'll bet the portal work was fun). You also managed to tweek the artistic vision of HL2 into your own look...did you have an art director of sorts or did you handle the overall design and coloration? Timing and pacing was spot on. I didn't see any displacement gaps and only a few texture alignment issues (inside the lower part of the building on the topside where a few combine shot at you from upstairs). Most of the official HL2 levels have far more errors in them (you must have QA'd the crapola out of this). Wonderful work...just fabulous work.
 
FuzzDad said:
From a mappers perspective: Excellent use of the grid...the entire go-round-the-island and then into the island and then the use of interior levels is a perfect way to cram all that detail into one map (I'll bet the portal work was fun). You also managed to tweek the artistic vision of HL2 into your own look...did you have an art director of sorts or did you handle the overall design and coloration? Timing and pacing was spot on. I didn't see any displacement gaps and only a few texture alignment issues (inside the lower part of the building on the topside where a few combine shot at you from upstairs). Most of the official HL2 levels have far more errors in them (you must have QA'd the crapola out of this). Wonderful work...just fabulous work.
Click to expand...

Cheers!

It's mainly down to months of polishing - the MINERVA 'team' is just me, a couple of friends for playtesting and someone working on music.

Absolutely no paper sketches or external concept art, either; I usually make draft versions of things in Hammer to see how an idea in my head looks when more properly built, and then work from there.

For example, at the moment I'm sketching out the ****** of an ******* ******* in Hammer, which will play a vital ****** in the later ****** *** ******* *****. ;-)

I tend to start with a rough outline of the map in my head, then make things up as I go along. It's a very odd, unprofessional way of constructing maps, but it seems to work...

Oh, and for all you speculation fans, there's a few more fragments of plot up on the MINERVA site. Ready, steady, go!
 
Woo, better rush down there...

And talking of sketches, your ********* sounds pretty *******. Do you ***** your ***** in order to best ***** your ****? Oh, **** it, I don't know what I'm talking about, do I...?
 
Felt I had to post...

Great stuff, a bit lacking in eye candy. Oh and (although, I must say it's probably simply my fault for being the type of gamer which usually looks for "Don't go here unless you've done this" signs) lacking in direction :D

Music change was awfully abrupt.
 
Fantsastic stuff - really great!

Loved walking around the island and gradually finding my way in and then down. Some nice surprises and challenging AI too - a really top job :D
Thankyou!
 
Bah, when I saw that it had been bumped I honestly assumed there was news of the next release :sleep: Don't get my hopes up like that! :p

...hmm, and I've probably done the exact same thing to the next bloke who comes to read this. Hah! Sucker!
 
I came here because I thought a new one came out also... and the next guy will thing the same thing and come here... its a loop, man.. a LOOP! A NEVER ENDING LOOP! WE ARE ALL DEAD!
 
When something new gets released, I won't limit myself to a mere forum thread... ;-)

In the meantime, go explore the MINERVA site or something. It does change, you know?
 
Yeah, I saw "Minerva mod.." And thought huzzah, episode 2! How wrong I was :( :p
 
Cargo Cult said:
When something new gets released, I won't limit myself to a mere forum thread... ;-)

In the meantime, go explore the MINERVA site or something. It does change, you know?
Click to expand...

By change, are you referring to the stuff that you can find by going through the part that so blatantly says "UPDATED" in big bold capital letters?? :cheese:

Or is it something else and I'm just stupid....

Oh and by the way, I really enjoyed the first episode, can't wait for the next one. :D
 
Cargo Cult, you can't just give a very informal estimation on the release date? (Please don't say "When its done")
 
BaconIsGood4You said:
Cargo Cult, you can't just give a very informal estimation on the release date? (Please don't say "When its done")
Click to expand...

How about "it'll all be over by Christmas"? ;-)

Oh, and have a news update!
 
its the magic man^
:D welcome back
so looking forward to installment no. 2
new setting i hope and not just the island forever
 
Hey can someone help me out here?

I have just downloaded Minerva and followed all of the instructions for installing the game. However Steam dosen't pick up on it when it lists my playable games. Does anyone know what I should do here? Email me if so at [email protected]. And thanks for making my week!
 
Cargo Cult said:
Speculation? Ooooh. But still nobody's noticed that Very Important Thing in Someplace Else yet - it's in plain view in normal gameplay, but nobody's ever commented on its peculiarity...
Click to expand...

Here are the following things in which I find are a possible source of speculation:

1. The crowbar lying in the middle of nowhere(as someone else mentioned).
2. The upside-down maps of Earth found on the last section of the structure.
3. The weird logo found on some of the screens on the top "floor" of the structure.
4. The computers where you calibrate the teleporter look much more human-like than any other device you see in the mod.
5. The weird symbols found on switches and the like(one of which is in the Cargo Cult's avatar).
6. The similarity between the metal the structure is made out of and the metal the Combine use to build their things.(Although SE was released in 2002, a year before HL2 was even announced...)

That is all I could think of, really. Oh, and both SE and MINERVA rule. Can't wait for Metastasis 2. :D
 
Cunni said:
I extracted it to C:/Steam/SteamApps/SourceMods/ and its not showing up in my play games list.
Click to expand...


Same here, anyone got any advice?
 
Restart steam?

also, make sure Minervas the base folder, the extract might have put it one level further in than it needs to be.
 
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