MINERVA - read-only archives

locworks: For all actual help requests, please go the forum. This thread is a meta-discussion about the puzzles and other difficult encounters in the mod.

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Something I imagine would interest our benefactor. Where did you get stuck and why?

The point where you have to grenade the four ports took me a bit, because my first conclusion was to get them to all be "orange" at once. Only after that did I figure out the key was to grenade them twice.

Beyond that, the only other time I can recall being purposeless was the end; I spent a good five or ten minutes running around the island looking for a rocket launcher, pursued by what eventually became an honest horde of fast headcrab zombies. When I finally found it, I immediately attempted to fire it and shatter the associated crates in hope of getting my health above the single digits. A stray fast headcrab detonated the rocket at point blank rage. Reloading and beating the game was fairly easy after that, and I found myself wishing for another gunship or two to round things out.

[edit: title]

The orb ports, yes, that caused me some trouble.

I spent a good ten minutes walking wondering how to get back up the broken glass lift - the large cargo lift in an open area. Only worked it out when I got the message from MINERVA about structural stability or something.

And of course the practically infamous 'pressure' puzzle about pipes. That took ages to figure out.

So, pretty much every puzzle. :P And of course I felt a complete twit once the solutions clicked. "Of course!"

Ah, yes, I was tipped off for the structural thing by the machine falling over, too.

The "pressure" puzzle bowled me over, though, yeah.

Still, it led me to an ending that brought a tear to my eye ...

The "Pressure" puzzle, for sure, but only because I couldn't find all the wheels to turn.

The structural integrity problem, though I solved that one right as I got the message.

The biggest one, though, was when you were to "do some damage" and close the portal. Spend a good half hour on that one, before seeing the plug to be pulled. It really needs more lighting.

Still, it was an excellent mod. Keep excluding barnacles, please!

Last pressure puzzle damn near made me blow a gasket...

A Zombine fell over the second valve that was upstairs. I had to die and reload to finally see it...

I had a lot of trouble realizing I needed to shoot that one support strut to make the destroyed elevator area passable. I also got fairly confused when I lost my weapons and kept running by rooms filled with rows of weapons, thinking I was supposed to find some way to break inside one of them per Minerva's instructions.

I gotta admit, I did a lot of swearing in the process of finishing it. I usually try to always play on hard, but I had to tone it down to get past some of the entrenched combine areas.

Still, it's pretty amazing in terms of quality, easily on par with portions of HL2 or Ep1 - the original soundtrack also adds a lot to the atmosphere.

I trudged my way through at the hardest difficulty- and had one hell of a time! Died only twice, each time by back peddling away from attackers only to fall to my doom.

There was always a nice stock of ammo around- so I took my time, took in the surroundings and always made sure I had an escape route.

I got stuck mostly in the 3rd map part. Just after the portal opened and you need to close it- I couldn't figure out how to get the combine shield down. Eventually I realised that knocking an above crate down into the power ball hole that i need to stuff more stuff in there.

Also, the sparking beam and walkway part got me pretty good. Its so strange how obvious these things are when you really think about it...

Amazing maps, amazing story.



amazing!