The "I've completed Minerva and I just HAVE to talk about it" thread (spoilers)

[Crispy]

So, just finished Minerva and I can't believe it's over. Before I go into a tirade of "wasn't this bit great" and "I love how AF did this", I should reinforce to the unaware that this thread contains spoilers, and since it has a massive tag in the title, don't expect people to use spoiler quotes.

In case you're wondering what Minerva is, go see for yourself (and while you're at it, download it, for great justice).

This thread also includes spoilers from sections 1, 2, 3, 4a and 4b, so if you've only played the first two parts you need to play the rest. Need.

---

First off I was very impressed with the conclusion. I'm sad it's over, but I do feel I've got palpable closure. There are still a lot of questions, I don't know where I'm going, but I know where I'm not -in a headcrab graveyard getting fried by a frikkin laser beam- and that's good enough for me!

If someone had told me before I played the last instalment that I'd be going back through the levels in reverse I would have frowned a little and cried 'boooriing'. But the way it turned out worked really effectively. The big thing is the visual differences between when you went in and when you came out.

I'd decided to play from the beginning (on Normal, Hard is doable, but just slowls down the momentum hideously as you pump cartridge after cartridge into every Combine you see), and I didn't regret it. I had the image of my descent fresh in my mind on the way back out and my god it works so perfectly.

First you have the obvious purity vs. destruction. There's fire and brimstone falling from the sky and rubble all over the place. Because the location is essentially the same you recognise it, but it's altered state is much more powerful than if you had taken a different exit route out that was also crumbling to bits. Basically I felt a bit more of a connection with the place, it felt a bit more real.

Secondly is when you emerge out into the open it's night! There are few games that ever go so far as to make me feel time has passed. I know they did it in Half-Life 2 with the sky textures spanning day and night, but it was so subtle I was never really aware of it. So the nocturnal theme meant you again recognised the terrain, but there was a major difference, and it intensified my duress from the slog I'd had through this labyrinthine Combine headcrab factory by reminding me I had been down there for hours. I remember thinking to myself "Have I really been down there that long? -Yes, yes I have!". In game terms, and 'irl' I had been gone a good few hours. Maybe it didn't have the same effect on everyone else but I certainly thought it was a very nice effect that really intensified the immersiveness.

As for the story, and the relationship between Mrs. FaxMachine and you (whoever you are), I can't really drawn any conclusions, I'm sure others have their thoughts. I do have to say I liked how Minerva(?) began to progressively melt -beginning in Chapter 2 and becoming less and less steely as it went on. She obviously has an emotional attachment to her 'bastard child', but every time she reveals a hint of this she hastily sweeps it to one side by pretending she doesn't really care after all. An intriguing character that I only hope AF does more with.

Ah well. I hope Adam Foster's proud with himself. After finishing Minerva I can happily say I will recommend it to every games player I meet, and I finally have good reason to find randoms to push my complimentary Orange Box copies of HL2 and Episode 1 onto . Why? So they can play Minerva, of course!

3 cheers to Adam Foster for the perfect marriage of his creativity and his free time :cheers:

 

[Iron_cube]

The fact that he used Ep1 enemies and music made this 300% even better.

I really hope he uses ep2 assets in future episodes.

 

[kineaesth]

Yeah, I've just finished. My god, it's just epic. I played all the levels one after the other, as well, and it was just awesome. I can't really properly express this without ranting, so, instead I'll just say

 

[kupocake]

(Bungied from Frontpage Thread)

Minerva Episode 3 is good enough that it makes me feel we must have been starved of good HL2 SP content when we considered parts 1 and 2 'the best of the best'. It's not as refined as the commercial stuff of course, but it's far more refined than those older episodes. Truly exciting stuff: Foster really understands what a combine facility should look like, but this isn't some prefab 'combine cliche house' that ticks a bunch of boxes... it really feels unique, a kind of logical spin-off from what we've seen, perfectly plausible. The 3rd Chapter is packed with brilliant vistas and some of them are so good as to be memorable. Quite an achievement for a mod.

Spoiler

Some inspired gameplay choices too. Ever since Half-Life 2 Episode 1, i've been wondering what it would be like to play in the citadel sans Gravity Gun. That's in here, as well as a sizeable, but in no-way unfair unarmed PC section when the Weapons Confiscator inevitably fails to... fail. Just by sticking with it and thinking about your surroundings, it is easy enough to play through and there are enough items around to keep it all fair.

I felt the 4th chapter was perhaps a little weaker visually, because it didn't quite feel as intense as the Citadel chapters from Episode 1, but again, you've got a new gameplay twist in seeing Zombies inside the burning Combine structure, just as later you set up turrets to fight zombies. It is also a joy to get out the way you came in, and to see familiar locations suitably knocked about and plunged into darkness.

Very good stuff, suggesting a maturing talent. Looking forward to a sequel

 

[Cargo Cult]

If someone had told me before I played the last instalment that I'd be going back through the levels in reverse I would have frowned a little and cried 'boooriing'. But the way it turned out worked really effectively. The big thing is the visual differences between when you went in and when you came out.

I'm really happy that nobody's complained about this vaguely Halo-esque reuse of maps.

It's actually why I included the fourth chapter with the third - I thought people would think a separate episode with rearranged maps would be considered 'cheap' - and also partly why this release has taken so long.

For some reason, I thought that applying some damage and adding some zombies to existing maps would be an easy task - but it turned out to take ever-so-slightly longer. It wasn't a Bungie-style, straight control-C, control-V in the end...

As for the passage of time - you may note that the tide has gone out slightly too. Verisimilitude FTW!

Regarding Ep2? I've played with Hunters. I wish to continue playing with Hunters. Through the snowy, deserted streets of a city on the coast... <sigh>

 

[Iron_cube]

Dectecting high-levels of win in Sector M.

 

[anamnesis]

Maybe I don't belong in a thread for people who've completed Minerva, but I beat the previous releases and I'm pretty close to finishing this one, but I have some questions. I seem to have encountered a problem finishing the third chapter. Presumably after you've activated the plasma buffers via the controls on the suspended platforms surrounding that downlink, you're supposed to continue ascending in the elevator, right? You know it's time to proceed when the elevator light turns green; the doors close automatically and you ascend. I returned to it after covering everything in the area, multiple times, and it wouldn't ascend. I went back to the armory to check the terminal and the button was still activated. The force fields nearby that terminal in the armory don't allow access through the center of the armory. Are we supposed to go through there instead of the elevator, and if so, how do you take down the force field? I don't usually don't have too much of a problem figuring this stuff out, but I can't seem to get past this.

As a result, I simply moved on to the fourth chapter and got pretty far into it, just past the point where two reprogrammed turrets have been set up to hold off a horde of zombies coming up from below. Beyond that, there's a busted hallway area full of zombines and a grenade stash. A force field at the end of this hall prevents any progress, but the zombies keep coming up from below, they break through the turrets, and it's obviously a race against time to find a way through the hall because you can't keep fighting them off. Are you supposed to escape through the broken floor or what? :rolling:

 

[Naudian]

Maybe I don't belong in a thread for people who've completed Minerva, but I beat the previous releases and I'm pretty close to finishing this one, but I have some questions. I seem to have encountered a problem finishing the third chapter. Presumably after you've activated the plasma buffers via the controls on the suspended platforms surrounding that downlink, you're supposed to continue ascending in the elevator, right? You know it's time to proceed when the elevator light turns green; the doors close automatically and you ascend. I returned to it after covering everything in the area, multiple times, and it wouldn't ascend. I went back to the armory to check the terminal and the button was still activated. The force fields nearby that terminal in the armory don't allow access through the center of the armory. Are we supposed to go through there instead of the elevator, and if so, how do you take down the force field? I don't usually don't have too much of a problem figuring this stuff out, but I can't seem to get past this.

As a result, I simply moved on to the fourth chapter and got pretty far into it, just past the point where two reprogrammed turrets have been set up to hold off a horde of zombies coming up from below. Beyond that, there's a busted hallway area full of zombines and a grenade stash. A force field at the end of this hall prevents any progress, but the zombies keep coming up from below, they break through the turrets, and it's obviously a race against time to find a way through the hall because you can't keep fighting them off. Are you supposed to escape through the broken floor or what? :rolling:

If I'm thinking of the right places you describe then in the first situation I think you have to throw objects into the plasma buffer things on the walls. Grenades will do it.

In the second one I'll just say you have to find a way to make the pipe in the floor explode. And it has something to do with some boarded up doors.


Anyway, I was blown away by the quality of this mod. Everything is just perfect, the story, the sounds/music, mapping, puzzles, and the gameplay the whole way through. It fits so well into the HL universe too!

I can't believe there's gonna be more of this mod!!

 

[soulslicer]

HELP! How the hell do I bring that damn structure down at the part where you just see the zombines. I keep having to noclip up..

 

[kineaesth]

Shoot the big pieces of corroded metal supporting it.

 

[Crispy]

I'm really happy that nobody's complained about this vaguely Halo-esque reuse of maps.

It's actually why I included the fourth chapter with the third - I thought people would think a separate episode with rearranged maps would be considered 'cheap' - and also partly why this release has taken so long.

I think you were definitely right to bundle 3 and 4 together for those reasons. 4 wouldn't provide any truly new areas to explore on its own, but as an extended final instalment I think it gives people who have played 1 and 2 a great finale.

As for the passage of time - you may note that the tide has gone out slightly too. Verisimilitude FTW!

Now that is just pure attention to detail. The difference would probably be more noticeable if seen in better light, but nevertheless a nice touch.

Regarding Ep2? I've played with Hunters. I wish to continue playing with Hunters. Through the snowy, deserted streets of a city on the coast... <sigh>

Confirmation of AF's neverending commitment to furnishing us with more awesome? I think it was!

---

Gonna be a bit risque here and say that there was a weak side to the last few chapters, being the obscurity of the puzzles. There are probably 3 changes I'd make just so the momentum of the last sections (and indeed the whole experience) isn't staccatoed by underdeveloped waypointing.

1. 1. Once you descend down the long elevator in C3 and you're ducking and diving past Stalker beams, the door you reach at the end gives you no indication it will open. It doesn't open that quickly, so with Combine on my heels I instinctively turned back to look for another route, going up to the balcony with the suit charger to look for some sort of button or clue that would open the door. If the door did give me any indication it was now open it wasn't very evident, and by that point with no weapons but having been told I NEED to get my hands on weapons from an armoury (which I'd already passed), I was convinced I'd somehow missed something else. So I restarted and thought it might be a crowbar in the wooden crate, so I jammed it in the door and waited for it to close, but a weapon was not my reward.
   
   Now, to save players this frustration I'd probably either put a spotlight or strong light source over the door when it opens (visible from the balcony), or add a loud audio cue (risky as it might not be perceptible from other parts of the map if a player has gone back), or a message from your 'mother' on the ol' V.92 somehow letting you know this door would open if you just stuck around long enough, as perilous as that may seem.
2. My next gripe is fairly minor, but again the platform in the camera room does not give any easily perceptible indication of its changed state. Since you approach it from the other side after pressing the button it's very easy to miss. I ran straight past it into the loving arms of the Combine and got a thorough spanking for my troubles.
   
   Again, an audio cue throughout the lowering or lighting change could solve this. I'd personally prefer a sound effect playing as the platform lowers slowly to heighten the tension and make you sweat as the Combine footsteps trudge, trudge, trudge towards your position.
3. Finally I didn't really recognise the power node thingies as something I could interact with, or even that they were the things I needed to destroy. At first glance they seemed like part of the furniture. In the first encounter, even when the box fell into it I never jumped to the conclusion that I needed to chuck things in to power it down. Perhaps a custom 'console readout' texture displaying the power node as, indeed, a power node, or else a simple clue from Minerva would do the trick.
   
   I noticed a spanner in the room with boxes and barrels and thought "You're going to have to throw a spanner in the works" could work well as a prompt to the player to chuck things into the power source. If you think is considered too much of a spoiler, you could set it on a timer so it only occurs 60 seconds after you enter the room, or 60 seconds after the box falls, so cleverer players than I have some time to digest the information and arrive at a solution.
   
   This also carries over to throwing grenades into the power nodes in the central shaft. I think just one sparking power node on the same floor would give the player enough of a hint at what to do. We've already seen from this thread people struggling at this, and in my opinion Minerva is so much more wholesome and experience without interruption to ask for clues or solutions.

---

Thinking about those minor inconveniences unsurprisingly reminded me of another facet to the winning Minerva formula. The whole time I was told I needed to get a weapon, so I'm scurrying through the level feverishly uttering my "Gotta get a gun, gotta get a gun!" mantra, and being teased and taunted at every juncture. I kept running up against glass walls with rifle-bedecked armouries gloating at me from the other side, and every time I came to an ammo crate I was certain I was going to be given some grenades to play with, until I ended up cursing every ammo box I came across with indignant vitriol.

But this is so tremendously flipped on its head when your insertion route becomes your escape route and every ammo crate turns from nemesis to saviour! At one point I'd just finished the last guy on the ramp with my final flurry of bullets and just managed to reload a fresh magazine from the ammo crate upstairs literally as the next batch of troopers stormed into the room ahead of me. Great moments.

 

[soulslicer]

Chronoclasm

Foster has hinted that the next chapter of the MINERVA series might be called "Chronoclasm", and has promised "some freakish gameplay additions...". [8]

Foster has also hinted that he would like to set Chronoclasm in "a snow-dusted coastal town, complete with its own Citadel." The film Twelve Monkeys (1995) may provide some influences in the design of this urban area.

YES! 5char

 

[anamnesis]

Naudian,

Thanks for the hints. I passed right by that barred door ... in the panic of being pursued by endless waves of the two most gruesome varieties of zombie, it's easy to overlook that solution. Usually you get a bit of time to figure things out, but this is one of the first examples of a "puzzle under pressure" that I've ever seen, perhaps with the exception of the sentry gun standoff in Nova Prospekt. Frustrating, nerve-wracking, but fantastic just the same.

I haven't gotten around to replaying the last bit of the third chapter where you have to damage the plasma buffers. As before with the wrench, I had a similar thought that perhaps shooting some grenades into them would do the trick, and I did just that originally, as you suggested. It didn't seem to have an effect though, so I abandoned the idea. I guess I'll have to try it again.

Mr. Foster really ought to be working for Valve. He's got both gameplay and story ideas that even they could stand to learn from. This is fanfic at its finest ... just imagine what he could come up with if he were getting paid to do it full time.

 

[TychoCelchuuu]

I noticed a spanner in the room with boxes and barrels and thought "You're going to have to throw a spanner in the works" could work well as a prompt to the player to chuck things into the power source.

It did this, actually. Play it through again if you don't believe me.

 

[Asknoone]

I enjoyed the last two maps; the gameplay had more tiers to it in certain areas which I think the release before it lacked, and the portal opening was neat and not something I expected. The third map, I felt, was slightly sparse in areas and that was down to the approach to doing the maps which I'm not entirely sold on just yet; I felt the first release was more contained and directed than the rest, in that sense, and I preferred the minimalist approach as opposed to the larger areas which at times feel somewhat redundant.

The final map was great, despite it being a re-tread. I loved the opening scene, and although it lacked the intensity of the Episode 1 Citadel chapters the Zombine madness was just pure love. It's really exciting to take on an absolute horde of grenade wielding lunatics, and I enjoyed fighting them en-masse here. A headcrab facility falling apart is a great idea, too.

 

[okidoki]

I've been waiting a long time for this and now I remember why. Mr. Foster does not disappoint. Not many mods have included ep1 resources, but there's plenty here. The plasma core room was just gorgeous. And the backtracking through familiar places that have changed is perhaps better than revisiting the trainstation in HL2. The fact that you don't get paid for this caliber of work is an outrage.

I found the comment by MINERVA "I know that place" as well as her increasing vulnerability most provocative. "I need you." "I know they can get to me now and that makes me afraid." What was that place and what is MINERVA's experience with it? Is she not as omnipotent as she intially seemed?

The only aspect I would question is the "obscurity of the puzzles" as mentioned earlier, but it's much better than being too easy. Perhaps we're spoiled by modern games' focus on playtesting to make solutions more transparent. I know you do playtesting and the answers were not completely arbitrary, it just took some creativity and trial-and-error.

Overall, this is hands-down the most entertaining mod I've played. I should play from the beginning as I feel I cheated myself out of the complete metastasis experience by starting at depth charge.

 

[Dr0ndeh]

an excellent and very polished mod. i was really expecting it to end when 'she' did the first attack on the facility. i was very pleasently surprised when your suit rebooted and you stand up to see the place wrecked. i did find a couple of the puzzles take more than a few minutes to solve, but some i did know exactly what to do immediately (for example the genius 'spanner in the works')

i agree with okidoki, games these days hold your hand through puzzles and make them far too easy. im half expecting to absolutely breeze through portal. this was a breath of fresh air.

 

[Crispy]

It did this, actually. Play it through again if you don't believe me.

Ok, yeah I'm just stupid.

i agree with okidoki, games these days hold your hand through puzzles and make them far too easy. im half expecting to absolutely breeze through portal. this was a breath of fresh air.

In my opinion puzzles in FPS games need to be treated with a bit of care. The pace in Minerva can be pretty relentless, and the places the puzzles I mentioned (apart from the spanner - my bad) all occur during high-octane sequences, when you don't really have time to sit down and ponder over the solutions.

When you add in puzzles during, for example, a chase sequence, you need to make them very intuitive so they don't slow the average player down too much. It's not necessarily about dumbing down game puzzles, but when you add in obscure puzzle-solving at a point in the game where the player is expected or necessitated to also engage in something else, like flight or fight, it has a detriment on the natural flow of the pacing.

This also stands for puzzles that the player is given when they are given a timelimit or an inferred sense of urgency. Even if urgency is, in reality, inconsequential, and in terms of the game mechanics they can take as long as they want over it, if they have been told they need to escape quickly, the game shouldn't throw tricky puzzles at them, because not all players will be able to think clearly under perceived pressure, and because players who take a very long time over the puzzle will actually end up either feeling a sense of failure, or the game illusion will be shattered as they come to realise that you haven't got only minutes to escape, but hours, "hell take as long as you like, this is only a game".

So yeah, I agree some games dumb down puzzles to the extent the player is simply going through the motions instead of actually having to dissect and process informational stimuli, but there's also a time and place for difficult puzzles, and it's not when you're low on health with bullets whizzing past your ears and Overwatch hot on your heels.

 

[Edcrab]

Reinstalled EP1, just for this. Couldn't resist any more.

Completed it, and it was awesome. Chronoclasm (or whatever Adamn Foster decides to call the follow-up) can't come fast enough as far as I'm concerned.

Sometimes I had to think more than twice about what I was supposed to do, but I suspect that's got more to do with my unfocused play style than any misses on the part of the creator and his testing team. Level design was fantastic and thoroughly atmospheric: but just as I commented when the first part came out, I'm not sure whether the purely textual messages are an integral part of the style, or whether it'd work better/be ruined by hiring a voice artist.

He's mentioned that he maps based off actual architectural needs rather than "event boxes" as seen in many other games, and it certainly shows. Passing through the

Spoiler

Headcrab processing facility

early on, I was still surprised when I returned and

Spoiler

lo and behold, said facility has been ruined by the blast and ACK ZOMBIES EVERYWHERE.

I really got the feeling I was stuck on some secretive island base rather than a string of loosely-connected fights in vaguely appropriate environments.

MOAR I SAY!


Incidentally, hallo, HL2.net.

 

[Chabo]

This also stands for puzzles that the player is given when they are given a timelimit or an inferred sense of urgency. Even if urgency is, in reality, inconsequential, and in terms of the game mechanics they can take as long as they want over it, if they have been told they need to escape quickly, the game shouldn't throw tricky puzzles at them, because not all players will be able to think clearly under perceived pressure, and because players who take a very long time over the puzzle will actually end up either feeling a sense of failure, or the game illusion will be shattered as they come to realise that you haven't got only minutes to escape, but hours, "hell take as long as you like, this is only a game".

What about something like Super Metroid, where it's like "I have 3 minutes to escape this facility... if I take my time I'll make it out in 2 mins, and if I rush it'll take 55 seconds." Personally, I thought that gave a good sense of urgency without making it impossible.

 

[Crispy]

What about something like Super Metroid, where it's like "I have 3 minutes to escape this facility... if I take my time I'll make it out in 2 mins, and if I rush it'll take 55 seconds." Personally, I thought that gave a good sense of urgency without making it impossible.

Where were the abstract puzzles in this example?

 

[prob101]

I'm really happy that nobody's complained about this vaguely Halo-esque reuse of maps.

It's actually why I included the fourth chapter with the third - I thought people would think a separate episode with rearranged maps would be considered 'cheap' - and also partly why this release has taken so long.

For some reason, I thought that applying some damage and adding some zombies to existing maps would be an easy task - but it turned out to take ever-so-slightly longer. It wasn't a Bungie-style, straight control-C, control-V in the end...

As for the passage of time - you may note that the tide has gone out slightly too. Verisimilitude FTW!

Regarding Ep2? I've played with Hunters. I wish to continue playing with Hunters. Through the snowy, deserted streets of a city on the coast... <sigh>

How easy is it to do snow falling with source?

 

[97AndyMacK]

Oooooh. This mod is soooooooooo good. Reccomended to everyone I know.
Having not played the prequel yet (not got hl1 installed yet), I would surmise that Minerva got sucked into a machinetypethingy (on Xen?). Therefore this big portal would lead to some previously unforseen planet (or Xen ) that has this machine on. Maybe Minerva was a human scientist (part of the group sent to Xen bu got massacred?)
The player was almost certainly a Stalker/Mostly a Stalker with somekind of brain implant.
I loved the bit without any weapons. I found it a challange
In my own head, I regard Minerva:Metastasis as part of the H-L game series.

 

[Tuskin]

The Player has a HEV suit on, if you read the text at the top left after the explosion on the last chapter.

 

[Iron_cube]

You know it right at the beginning of the second map.

I do beleive the player is an ex-combine agent or something.

 

[Crispy]

How easy is it to do snow falling with source?

Very easy. You just make rain and colour it white, there's even a custom tool for making it, check the Valve Wiki.

 

[delusional]

Very easy. You just make rain and colour it white, there's even a custom tool for making it, check the Valve Wiki.

Ya, but rain goes down fast, snow kinda glides down, and doesn't go in a straight line. I think Adam is going to create it himself or something.

 

[Crispy]

Ya, but rain goes down fast, snow kinda glides down, and doesn't go in a straight line. I think Adam is going to create it himself or something.

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Func_precipitation

 

[314URBLOC0017]

As for the passage of time - you may note that the tide has gone out slightly too. Verisimilitude FTW!

Really? I could've sworn that it had come in, and I had to wade through water on the way out where earlier I had walked over sand...

 

[delusional]

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Func_precipitation

Oooh forgot about that snow option for rain.

 

[Narvi]

Does Source snow allow for footprints that fade away?

 

[DynamiteHeaddy]

Who's played Someplace Else for Hl1? It's connected to Metastasis.

 

[Iron_cube]

Does Source snow allow for footprints that fade away?

Yep, obsidian conflict did it.

 

[Crispy]

I guess that would be built into the material.

 

[Narvi]

Awesomesicles.

Including the player's footprints?

 

[Apocalypse89]

Well, I've only just finished it, a bit late due to both schoolwork and my insistence to finish Blue Shift again before going on to any other game.

And I have to say, this game is a masterpiece, which IMO matches and maybe even beats Valve's work in some aspects. I'm especially a fan of the music...both the original sounds, and the way you used the stock HL tracks. And the ending was goddamn intense. I have a feeling that from now on, the Combine will try to stop placing headcrab production facilities above everything else....

I'm only afraid that because of playing MINERVA, it will destroy some of the novelty of playing Episode Two and Portal tomorrow...Portal in particular, seeing how GLaDOS will be competing with MINERVA for the "Best invisible female AI" award.

BTW, any of you which have HL1, should really place Someplace Else if you haven't already...it's a predecessor of sorts to MINERVA, and provides some background as well as good quality GoldSrc gameplay:

http://www.hylobatidae.org/minerva/parallax/someplace-else.html

The metallic structures in that mod are eerily similar to Combine architecture...and remember that it came out a while before HL2 was even announced!

 

[Azner]

Minerva was awesome.

 

[Narvi]

Finally finished it.

It was awesome, but the level design was rather obtuse in places. Occasionally got stuck, but that was what noclip was for.

I must admit that the playing style is remarkably different without the gravity gun. All new Valve levels are designed with the gun in mind, but Foster's work has made me use different tactics and playstyle than normal. It's much more fun and challenging, rather than "throw grill at zombie". Mind you, I missed it occasionally, like when I wanted to build a barrier against the zombie hordes.

The final battle against the gunship was just perfect. It really felt like shit was happening around you; dozens of fast zombies running around, Combine reinforcements on their way. It was little touches like you using the earlier machine guns against fast zombies so they wouldn't bother you while fighting the gunship that made this epic for me. The music that played while you fought the gunship was very well done; I applaud the name I can't remember from the credits who made it!

Minerva also has a really awesome hard mode. I applaud it.

 

[Cargo Cult]

The music that played while you fought the gunship was very well done; I applaud the name I can't remember from the credits who made it!

Joseph Toscano - he has a website. And a guestbook. Be sure to congratulate him!

Minerva also has a really awesome hard mode. I applaud it.

I test it on 'hard' - basically if it's still fun the millionth time I have to play the damned thing, I'm probably going in the right direction.

Puzzles are, admittedly, a slightly weak point to test - playtesters are only effective once, and I'm still learning about how many hints are really necessary. The answer turns out to be 'lots'!

 

[Narvi]

Joseph Toscano - he has a website. And a guestbook. Be sure to congratulate him!

Have done so.

I test it on 'hard' - basically if it's still fun the millionth time I have to play the damned thing, I'm probably going in the right direction.

I know exactly what you mean, you did that very well. I could have been socializing with people, but noooooooo, those ****ers just kept killing me.

Even when you set me against over a dozen soldiers, and I kept dying, it didn't feel cheap. I just had to reload and kill them all again, use the orb properly this time... use cover, throw their grenade back at them, (it's quite unique feeling desperate enough to actually do that without the gravity gun,) retreat to the higher levels in a desperate bid for more ammo. Awesome.

Btw, do you plan to include a gravity gun in your next release? I would prefer if you didn't, since the Minerva playstyle doesn't really fit very well with the Gravity Gun, but from what I've heard about Hunters it would be difficult to face them otherwise.

Puzzles are, admittedly, a slightly weak point to test - playtesters are only effective once, and I'm still learning about how many hints are really necessary. The answer turns out to be 'lots'!

Yeah. I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to get past the broken confiscation field.