Well, the iMac finally arrived a few weeks ago. It works very nicely, and is considerably faster at compiling maps than the old MacBook Pro. In fact, it's hardly had a chance to play at being a Mac - I installed Windows XP on it the evening after delivery, and it's been running the Source SDK almost ever since.
*cough* And occasionally the Team Fortress 2 beta...
Oh, and that 'MINERVA' thing? To be released on Monday evening, all going well. And all does appear to be going well!
You missed the 30th by one day?? The great god Lombardi shall smite thee down like a dog, as a penalty you must torture a room of screaming fans with an unrelated teaser video.
Oh please tell me that, finally, this is really it!
But seeing those Coke cans and that Coffee mug, I have a terrible fear that Adam may be suffering from Caffeine Mania, the symptoms of which can include the following:
" ... silliness, elation, euphoria, confusion, disorientation, excitation, and even violent behavior with wild, inanic screaming, kicking and biting, progressing to semi-stupor.”
http://caffeineweb.com/?cat=7
Please let me be in error, I can hardly believe that we are so near after so long....
HURRA!
Well Adam, if you release Minerva on Monday at last, you make me the most happy man of the world!
"Ho ho ho ho ho. HURRR hur hur hur hur. HRAAA hraa hraa hraa hraa. HRAA HA HA HA HA ..." *cue self-destruct beepy-noises ... no wait*
Orange Box and Minerva in the same month please be true so i can put my brand new Quad Core and 8800GTS through the paces.
What is that, I spy beside the iMac?
Could it be a Bird Of Good Omen?
Auspicious indeed!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auspice
Yesterday I was driving, lost in a shitty section of town. Everywhere I went burned out buildings and homeless people laughing. Laughing at me. I made turn after turn, onto sidestreet after sidestreet, desperately hoping to find my way from this rat's maze back to the highway.
I stopped at run-down Chinese restaurant to get my bearings, hoping I could find some light to guide me. I did not understand how I had gotten into this position, why I could not find my way. It was as if some maniacal force, some entity or deity had their on my shoulder, steering me into paths convoluted and dangerous.
And then I looked up.
And I saw.
And I understood.
I went back today, braving the deathly scene to capture a digital record for my fellow acolytes.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q192/MrHappy_photos/DSCN1048.jpg
been waiting so long this is gonna be one great spring for me
orange box and now minerva :D
Thank you.
Heh heh, nice!
(and what happened to our manly avatars?)
My 21st birthday is on the 3rd. Sir, thankee for a gift that cannot be surmounted! Now if only all those pesky essays would disappear...
Follow the sparking power lines.
Big sparkly power generator thing? Looks awesome.
All hail Minerva!
This release contain the titles tranlated to other languages?
Looks like we finally got the screen shot we asked for, although it has been delivered Minerva-style. Nevertheless there it is! Before long it won't matter though...Monday is release day!
The positioning of that glowing orb thingy in the background of the screenshot makes it look kinda like the SMG's being fired.
Always good to hear from my mst beloved mod! :)
That's a nice machine on your table there... I would like to have one of these things too. But, well Apple is very expensive but exclusive though. Maybe in near future!
And there's another nice device on your table (asuming that the Sony Ericsson K750i is yours...)!
Had this one too, but the cursor wasn't the best, so I picked up another Sony.
Hm, might be boring to read this message, huh?
It's just to prevent myself from going crazy staring at the clock waiting for monday evening to come...
So, please apologize my impatience!
I don't <i>really</i> think this counts as before the end of the month, but hey, we're all glad it's coming , heh.
Finally, the greatest MOD i've ever seen, (I like polished), releases a third and hopefully not a final episode on monday.
Go Belgium go :)
And I've asked this before, but are you a real Belgian living in Belgium? Or have you migrated from another country?
Because I can't believe somebody else but me gets it in his head to speak, and build sites in, the english language. Offcourse you get a broad audience but I just find it convenient.
And now I'm rambling (worked an entire day). So I'll just shut my mouth.
Niet waar Adam? (Als je dit kan lezen zonder babelfish dan geloof ik dat je een echte vlaming bent :-) )
Went to Velvet Revolver last night, met the band, front of the Mosh Pit and now I find out that I can expect Minerva on Monday? Will wonders never cease! :-)
I wonder if Portal's aforementioned "simplified" level editor will include the software they used to make the electronic voice-over (assuming it's entirely electronic, and not just someone talking funny and then getting their speech modified).
Not, of course, that you won't be able to just cut and paste words/sentences together on your own without worrying about it sounding "unnatural." ;)
I'm practically speechless. Yes, I'm disappointed I won't be playing this weekend, but that's all irrelevant now. So long as Adam doesn't miss this release date, all will soon be fine. Oh, and let's hope we actually get some answers on who Minerva really is.
That screenshot looks promising - I for one will be making sure I have no plans for Monday evening, because unless I miss my guess, we're in for one wild night.
There is a note in the TF2 developer commentary that says the same person does the announcer voices in every game in the orange box, so i assume that means the portal voice and overwatch announcer.
Of course, like all the acolytes, I am happy to hear such an imminent release. However, I will play the devil's advocate on this situation and make a comment...
So much good luck on one day, promises a sort of karma overload. Omens that point one way can just as easily point to another.
How does this have any relevance? All I'm saying is that with such an expenditure of luck, I'll be nervous of next week. Personally, I believe the higher you go, the more likely you are going to go low. People will likely ignore this in their euphoric stance on MINERVA's imminent release, which I do not blame them for in the least. Yet, let not my weariness dampen your spirits, merely, be wise, be safe, be aware...
(Especially you Creator...)
First of all -- I'd say that goes both ways -- maybe all the bad luck that's been holding back this release for over a year is compensated by this final, sudden, imminent release.
Second of all: "be wise, be safe, be aware"!? I knew it! Sirc is actually Dr. Breen in disguise!
I just pre-ordered the orange box on steam, which is something I don't like doing. I want a box, with stuff in it. I'm just oldschool that way, I guess.
I was curious though -- will you ever (be allowed to be Valve) release a purchasable version of all three MINERVA releases, with pretty manuals and whatnot?
I love manuals with backstory.
Oh, hello - it seems to be light outside. And I'm hungry. Time for breakfast? Or a nap?
Been sorting out vital stuff like menus, chapter images, fuzzy backgrounds and all sorts of other packaging-related items. It's looking quite smart.
All I need now is to let the last few maps finish compiling, tidy up the titles.txt, zip it all up and send it out to the testers as a release candidate.
Then tomorrow evening, all going well, the installer gets built, I upload that somewhere suitable, get it mirrored - then release.
Woo.
I'm guessing that a Combine portal generator is through the Mysterious Door, given the fact that they require a vast amount of power (i.e. the massive beam of energy being shot down from space) and the fact that the installation goes about as far down as a Citadel goes up.
But thats just a thought I had when I was bored, so it's likely to be wrong, or that someone else has said it.
Personally, I don't particularly want to speculate on what's behind that door at this late stage. We're most likely going to find out tomorrow. =)
Hmm, looks like I'm going to have to resurrect my WinXP partition so I can play some Minerva. Hmm a job for tomorrow =)
News in HL2Spain about your mod and the release
www.hl2spain.com
Regards!
PS: Your mod is the best GAME that i've play ever! Congratulations! ^^
mwahhaha hahahahahah
aaaahhhhhh hah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah haaaa
...wait... monday evening for you will be nearly tuesday morning to me.
i have to work on tuesday...
@%*#$&#*&%$@*&%#*$%*@&#%$*#$*@&#&&#&&%@*%*@&#%$*&#%$*&#%$*%@*&#%$*&%*@&#&&$*%@*#&%$$*@**@*&#&&#$%@*$%@*$&@@%$*@$%*@&#$%!!!!!!!!
oh well. close is close i guess.
sorry folks...
don't mailto my excessively long curse word...
...i don't know who it is, and i don't want them to get spammed with acolyte emails!
Vecima's post just gave me an idea. As far as I know, Adam lives somewhere in Europe (no offense intended if I'm wrong - I just remember reading that somewhere). That puts him relatively close to GMT, timezone wise. My living North America means that his evening is my early afternoon. And a one-hour lunch break means I could get a real head start on M3 before I even get home. This just gets better and better. :-)
The whole time zone thing occurred to me now as well - I may be playing M3 sooner than I think!
For those who didn't notice, he even put up a time on the steam group page; 2:00pm "Time-zone should be vaguely European, and is somewhat approximate anyway." For those of us more vaguely American, that's 8:00am EST Monday Morning! Ready for work everyone?
Awesome news, Adam! Best of luck!
Please remember to set up a torrent as well!
I put in an estimated 8pm on the Steam Community thingy - and apparently it *does* do time-zones correctly. So the time you see on there should be your local time. No earlier!
As for downloads - there should be numerous mirrors and a torrent, like last time. I'm expecting this thing to be fairly popular...
MInerva's approximate release in your time zone:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=10&day=1&year=2007&hour=13&min=0&sec=0&p1=64
oops, sorry about that, listen to Adam, not me. (..obviously..)
I don't know whether this has been asked before or not, but could we (I) get an approximate length time wise of the new MINERVA?
I can't believe I'm having a test on saturday, monday and thursday next week. I. can't.
Just delurking to let you know how much your work is appreciated, before the storm of post-release adulation hits.
And I have a bugger-all night shift on monday...
The anticipation stress is starting to get to me. I theory, I should have my long awaited answers within 24 hours. But then, I once though I would have my answers before Bioshock was released. And then on September 3rd. And then in September.
What if, arriving home to my computer, I find that every mirror requires a registration or payment? What if they're all so busy that I can't get my hands on a stable download? What if, when I do finally get it downloaded, the file is corrupt, or some other miserable little thing goes wrong. For literally months, it seems that the universe itself has conspired against Metastasis 3, inflicting sickness, computer problems, and general obstacles to it's completion. And now, when it seems so close at hand, it seems only logical to believe that it's just as far away as ever.
Wow... I really must be going insane. In any case, like weirwood said, a thousand thanks to Adam, who through the myriad problems life threw him, continued to work valiantly on his latest work of art. Here's hoping that all is still going well, and continues to do so.
What with one thing and another, I get out of bed two hours before M3's announced release. :)
please excuse my ramblings above. apparently for a bit there i forgot which way the world turns...
...i was under a lot of stress you know? ... the iraq ... south africa ... U. S. Americans ... edge you cajun!
Must play... must... play-*snore*
It's great to hear that things are finally moving along Adam.
I'm looking forward to playing Part 3 and seeing what you have instore for us all.
Good luck with the release!
omg!!!!!!!!!!!
only 6 more hours till its released!
Alas, i will not be able to download it until I come back from tae-kwon-do practice which is at 9:00 PM and tomorrow I have to do shit stuff until 2:00 PM *sigh*
No, this is not an announcement, I want to say something about announcements. Mr. Foster, please do an announcement when you release this thing. I don't want to have a tab with your blog and another one with the Minerva site pressing F5 every minute. Pretty please?
I can't believe it is finally happening. Too bad I won't be able to download it until probably Wednesday (barring a brave attempt at an all night downoad session over my speedy dial up connection!). I am guessing that this release will include all 3 chapters of MINERVA together, right? Also, for those of you who get to play it before others...please please please no spoilers on the blog! :) I would hate to have the experience of discovering it myself ruined by an unrestrained spoiler entry on the blogbeast.
*HUGE SPOILER*
-near the end, one main character dies.
Oh, wrong trilogy...
Snape kills Minerva
Oh, and also, the character who dies is... Combine Soldier # 3,562,033. The main character kills him. :)
Adam, I hope you're happy knowing that your sure-to-be-fantastic release will significantly decrease my ability to study today. ;D
In case any testers are wondering where RC0 and RC1 went - they were both broken. I discovered so myself *after* uploading!
Pre-installer, it's 150MB. Yes, dear Minerva - your bum does look big in that.
hi.
awsome work & many grats
dont know if any1 else got same problem running the mod
i have full HL2-EP1 and HL2-Demo (not full version)
after mod instalation it didnt show up in game tab
i looked up another mod files HL2-Riot Act which run without any problems
by comparing both mod gameinfo.txt files
i altared Minerva file by changing
SteamAppId 220 to 215
and after steam restarted Minerva mod was
wisible in game tab, but after trying to start
it gave an error of some file not being found
back again to analyse gameinfo.txt files
and added another line in SearchPaths section
just after Game hl2
Game sourcetest
and Minevra mod started to work
hope it helps
For reference, the latest MINERVA episode uses Valve's spangly Episode One. So now is a good time to buy the Orange Box if you dont have Episode One already!
grox: You should be fine with this new release.
Cant wait to download this. 150mb? Thats a lot more then the previous chapters. Of course thats a good thing.
Woo, been waiting for this for ages :p One question, I haven't really been following the site, but does this installer contain the first two parts.... in HDARRRR?
Wow...I don't think I'll be trying that overnight download over dialup anymore. It would take *much* longer than merely overnight at those speeds. I'll have to wait and either download it at the local university using their high speed connection or maybe good ol' Mom and Dad's broadband connection when I go to visit this week...
i get off work around 4:30... 10:30 your time, i believe.
all i can say is this... by 11pm your time you'd damn well better cut it out with all this R2D2 candidate crap and let the fat lady sing!
I, personally, will be occupied more or less the entire remaining hour and a half. (And without any reasonable access to the internet for another hour after that.) Strangely, I feel as if I get the better deal. ;)
"No, this is not an announcement, I want to say something about announcements. Mr. Foster, please do an announcement when you release this thing. I don't want to have a tab with your blog and another one with the Minerva site pressing F5 every minute. Pretty please?"
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/115
no clicking F5. I just let it autoreload every few minutes. Keeps the web monitoring software at work busy also :)
7pm GMT (Daylight savings inkluded)
<unlurk>
where can we download it?
will idolatry be updated?
<lurk>
The release candidate is being poked at by a team of highly-trained gibbons, and none have yet found any problems - a link was also sent to the Hallowed Creators Of The Installer, but nothing has been heard back so far.
So if it's a few hours late, it's not my fault. ;-)
Probaly more like fifty though. I need an oil change.
This is exciting though, it's been years since we started on this little adventure and this chapted in our journey is about to find a close.
Suggest you go to get something to eat, or whatever, and come back later. We're running on Valve Time now!
(Why oh why oh why did I say 8pm?)
Heh. What was Valve time for "it will be released at this specific date and time"?
Somthing will always pop up at the last possible second, it is the way of the world!
I started the preload. XD
then i'm going to ram my finger down my throat, upchuck my lunch, and go home for the day, unless of course you don't say go for another two hours... in THAT case, i'll just go home without the oscar worth performance.
Adam, don't you know that it's only forgivable for Valve to run on Valve-time?
Geez ... :P
j/k Patience is key fellow grasshoppers...
He's waiting for an installer from Valve... So it's completely forgivable. :)
i don't think the installer is being put together by valve.
Last night, my roommates disconnected our router without warning me. Because I got the release time off of the Valve group and compensated manually, I had thought the release would be at 3 in the morning (I live on the US west coast). Needless to say... I was displeased with my roommates. I just reconnected everything myself (I had to wait for someone to leave, so I could get into their room) Seeing now that I was misinformed, and that the package is running a tad late anyways, I'm glad I didn't stay up. = )
I hope it goes without saying that I await your newest work eagerly, Adam. Godspeed.
Downloading now. Should be playing in a couple of minutes!! OH JOY!!!
Still need to put the torrent up.
A Zip file rather than an installer for now, but it's a start. ;]
* LOOKING LONGINGLY AT 750ml CORKED BOTTLE OF DUVEL *
You crack me up, vecima! LOL You are SO dramatic about having to wait for the release one would think you might die if you don't get it soon...BTW I frequented your forums today too...so go read my posts to pass the time.
Everybody else can go too...we need to drum up some support for vecima's mod. Check out the media, it looks awesome! You can find it at: http://phillymod.type3studios.com
I guess this means I have to buy Episode One now ._.
Zip file's fine as long as i get my Minerva! :D
I'm opening an Orval and starting the French translation...
where do i find the download link???
http://www.hylobatidae.org/minerva/phosphenes.shtml
Bottom of page
HDR looks awesome in carcinogenesis! Looking forward to the rest! woohoo!!
Hi all, I thought thatI might just start posting here now that Meta 3 is up... I 5 minuted left in the download. So close!
I 5 minuted? I'm pretty sure I said I had 5 minutes until the download was done... Oh well. No edit button, so double posting is the only method of correcting that.
(started playing) I thought the Citadel was big, but THIS THING !? (and the elevator goes down and down and down...) Puh!
I'm seeding from a nice, high bandwidth server. Free bits for everyone! Go, go!
Yes! The Creator has bestowed us with the Gift!
Odd, getting a lot of textures not working. Got episode 1 and whatnot... Anyone know what could be wrong on my end?
Also, looks bloody amazing so far. Despite the flashing ERROR signs.
Make sure you've fully removed the old metastasis folder before unzipping the new one, and RESTART STEAM! after adding the new one.
You're probably not playing an Episode One mod as an Episode One mod.
i get home form work, and you release M3 just after i pass out for a much needed nap!
next time, i'm giving you my cell phone number -and i don't care if i'm at the pope's funeral-i want to be disturbed.
oh well, just finished downloading... be back later.
Extracting now, my god if this doesn't work I'm going to go on a killing spree. Just 5 minutes left, according to Vista.
Adam, thank you so very much. Even if this makes my computer die of sheer excitement, your time and effort are appreciated beyond words. On behalf of your acolytes, I thank you. And now, I'm off to vibrate in my chair from stress while Vista extracts the fruits of your precious labor.
Warning Spoiler !
I'm in the room with the three crates an the power-shield. Ok, i managed to find out what to do. And now i'm stuck. Combines attacking me an the worst of all - i have no weapon, nothing...
Gameplay is a bit disappointing and confusing atm...:(
For all help requests, please consider going here
http://www.hylobatidae.org/minerva/forum/viewtopic.php?t=65
This will keep the blog spoiler-free.
Downloaded. Played. Completed. Loved it.
Check your systems. I downloaded the torrent to my drive and clicked it to start bittorrent and got a trojan warning from AVG.
Completed it.
This is a serious masterpiece!
"Oh... my... god! Thank goodness it's over."
That will be all.
When I fired up the first map, I didn't get the HEV suit upon landing from the helecopter, just the SMG. When I paused the game, went to new game, and started the first chapter again, I got the HEV suit and the other starting weapons. :\
Is there a proper place to report bugs and glitches to?
Only Horsemen of the Apocalypse (mods) can post there. Not much use for the vast majority of us :P
Download fasterrrrrrrr..
Also Drakkel will being doing a Lets play of Someplace else and Minerva soon, that should be good.
As said before by kast:
"Sorry, but only horsemen of the apocalypse can reply to posts in this forum."
I'm DETERMINED not to rush this as we've had to wait so long.
I am still on the first part, I think and wanted to post some response.
Adam, you could well have expected praise from those that have been loitering on your blog for the last year-and-a-half, but I must say, in all honesty, this is truly brilliant.
This is indecently, almost embarrassingly good.
I actually experienced vertigo at one point, and my mouth is slightly dry as it was hanging open in amazement at all the things I was seeing.
The sheer scale and ambition on show just put it in a class of it's own. The battle sequences, on hard, are challenging and exhilarating.
Then, of course, there are the plot developments....hmmm, so far a very tasty titbit....hmmm.......
I envy those playing for the first time, landing on the island and getting to plumb these dark depths all in one adventure.
To those who are stuck, look again at your surroundings, this game makes you work a bit, no easy tools to hand at first....
All this gushing and I'm probably not half way through yet!!!!!
I'm taking this masterpiece, a sip at a time, taking everything in, and savouring it.
Well.. Damn... I mean, damn. (Sorry, I seem to be a bit verbally paralyzed at the moment.)
I loved the beginning especially, it was nice for a while to not run around, guns blazing and so.
And I loved the fact that Minerva seems to actually have some kind of humanly feelings (though might as well be misinterpretation.)
(what I didn't like was the (endless?) hordes of parasites near the end, but not so much that I can't infiltrate the island again and again ;-) )
Anyways, awesome job there sir, as always. I can't find words to thank you enough, so I think I'll just stay quiet.
(oh and hello everyone)
I know my day got a whole lot better when I got back from the University Engineering lab after a couple hours of head banging and I see 'Minerva 3 Released.'
Truly there are just and sweet gods out there.
Just finished on normal... I don't beleive that could have been done better.
I was expecting somthing good, I just was'nt expecting somthing THAT good, honestly ive paid for far to many games that dont have this kind of mapping quality, pacing. subtle delivery of story and switching styles of gameplay that this has.
The first real stump moment for me was in the room after the 'ooo pretty' scene, where i was a little confused and managed to get myself killed by stalkers (i suck) then when i acctully read Minerva's message the second time, all became clear, so simple and funny, it made me chuckle.
I would also like to give a shout out to the provider of your music, what starts as a subtle theme early on, gains quite a dramatic emotional connection at the end.
thank you Mr. Foster, for teaching my PC how to love.
i've been playing for several hours. that's innacurate, i've been playing for several minutes at a time, for several hours while also trying to entertain a four year old. were it not my own spawn i might have considered sedatives.
anyway, absolute brilliance. you've beaten down my expectations. you've taken them into the town square and beaten them before their peers, later pantsing and, accordingly, humiliating them to the point of suicide.
Well played, Mr. Foster. Well played.
i was stuck near the end, and hadn't actually finished when i posted before.
having completed i'd have to say this is the worst mod ever.
i kid i kid. during the final moments with less than a minute left my lips were trembling.
kudos.
I guessed right about what was down there!
*Spoiler (kind of)*
----------------------------
Interesting to see that the other side was fleshed out, as I could see Antlions running around there
I use a 15" macbook pro
ATI Radeon x1600 graphics card
1.8 ghz and an intel core duo processor.
How would you say Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 run on these? I'm trying to get the best gaming experience possible for Half-Life 2, without going bankrupt.
(I'm in high school, so I have no money to buy an iMac.)
Please reply in an e-mail to the address I posted under.
Thanks,
That One Guy
Article is now closed for commenting.
revert - flickr - interesting things - modmatic - blogsheep v2.0 - afoster@hylobatidae.org |
1. Gah, why do you taunt us so...
Posted by Esvandiary at 7:49PM, Friday September 28 2007
... and why did I even bother to ask that question? You exist solely to infuriate and ring the aforementioned bell so us canine acolytes can drool some more... Food, we want FOOOOD!!!
Ahem.
Anyhow... Now I have to rely on Valve to start the Ep2/Portal preload before Sunday, or the Bristol University's Excessive Bandwidth Usage SWAT team will be kicking in the door by next weekend.
(And since Sunday is two days away and tomorrow isn't a working day, that seems distinctly unlikely, unless they're going to flick a switch 5 minutes before they knock off work for the weekend...)