getting esf to work

hey i'm having a problem so here it is.
i downloaded the esf mod 1.3 for half life right and i ran the copy of half-life and it never reconises it (the cd key i used for my steam account back in 2004 is different to the normal cd i ran because my mate got me another copy of the original half-life with a new cd key because i lost my original one if that would effect anything) and any ways when i run earths special forces from the icon it just redirects it to counter strike and says "preparing to launch counter strike" but the esf dosnt show in my steam games either or in the original cd of half life somone help me. i really want to play this game.

Hmm, so you are trying to get esf openbeta 1.3 to work?

First make sure it's installed in the right place...

ESF 1.3 should be in a folder named esf_openbeta inside [noparse]Steam\SteamApps\connor\half-life[/noparse]

Is it installed there?

It seems you installed open beta into Counter-Strike instead of Half-Life. Just copy the esf_openbeta folder into your Half-Life folder and it will work.

lol i can't find my half life folder anywhere

Are you sure you downloaded Half-Life and ran it once? By your first post I see you have bought Half-Life. Try running Half-Life once, exit, and then try to find your Half-Life folder in Steamapps/your account/Half-Life. It should be there.

Earth's Special Forces / The Open Beta cannot be played with the Counter-Strike version. If you are unable to download Half-Life through Steam, it means you are only have the Counter-Strike / Condition Zero Package. How ever, if you can download Half-Life through steam, download it and run it once. Once you have done that, you are able to Install Earth's Special Forces without even setting a directory, because ESF's Installation should automatic find the Half-Life folder within the steam folder.

Uh, he is trying to install Open Beta, which doesn't have an installer yet. He would have to extract it to his Half-Life folder.

dan_esf_fanatic said:

Uh, he is trying to install Open Beta, which doesn't have an installer yet. He would have to extract it to his Half-Life folder.

Click to expand...

Heh, that is true. That slipped my mind for a sec, but I am rather curious if he can play Earth's Special Forces v1.2.x. Either way, he said he has no "Half-Life" folder, and that it runs "Counter-Stike", so I am thinking he has the Counter-Strike Package, or he never installed Half-Life before through Steam.

Maybe the installer pointed him to Counter-Strike because he didn't download Half-Life or just didn't run it yet. Connor, if Half-Life indeed isn't in your games list, or if it is and it says "pre-load complete" then you haven't bought the game yet, or the package your friend bought you doesn't contain Half-Life. In any case, you need a copy of Half-Life to play, but it online via Steam if you haven't already.

in my games list half-life has been 100 percent downloaded just like counterstrike but i will look for steamapps and copy my esf beta into it i will tell u how it goes (that is what i have to do isnt it?)

Yup, you have to copy the Open Beta (folder) in your Half-Life folder. Then, restart steam and you should see the Open Beta in the game list.

i copyed esf open beta to my half life file cuz i finally found it but all it did was uninstall my counter strike now i have to install the whole bloody thing again and esf didnt appear

So, when you copied all the things, you see this?:

"Steam/Steamapps/username/Half-Life/esf_openbeta" <-- something like that.

i see exacly that

dude first of did you run hl 1 for 2 min play it on singal player after you do that then you can do what they said abouve

copy the file in the esf called esf_openbeta to steam\steamapps\half-life\past it here restart steam and try it again double click on ESF OPEN BETA not lunch game or pres right click propetis on open beta and try to add there -game esf_openbeta (it sould be -game cstrike)

in propertis do where about do i put esf_openbeta on the actual folder or the game icon. in the game icon the target says "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\frontwardshi\counter-strike\hl.exe" -console -game esf. and above that it says target location: counter-strike

Aaah, you make no sense... there's just so many things to explain... and you probably still won't understand.
Someone should make a video of themselves installing ESF, or atleast a heavily picture laden tutorial...

OK, well first we need to know some more information about your problem...

1. We know you have Counter-Strike, but do you also have Half-Life 1 on Steam?
Your Half-Life folder should be - [noparse]C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\frontwardshi\half-life[/noparse]

2. Where did you download esf_openbeta from? (which website page? file name?)

3. What opperating system are you using? (Windows XP? Windows 98? ...won't ask if it's Linux... )

If you can answer those 3 questions, it will be much easier for us to help you.

Also...
-Change your ESF Open Beta shortcut... it should NOT be -game esf, it should be -game esf_openbeta (like john said)

-If you have Half-Life installed where I asked, then change that target to this (copy-paste if you want):
[noparse]"C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\frontwardshi\[/noparse]half-life[noparse]\hl.exe" -console -game esf_openbeta[/noparse]

I doubt that will help you yet.
I don't think you have installed ESF Open Beta in the correct place.
Please answer all three questions if you can. :smile:

1. yes i do have half-life 1 installed on my steam account

2. i downloaded esf beta from esf world or it might have been forces one or the other

3. i'm on xp home edition

and i copyed and pasted that thing to my target now it loads half life instead of counter strike when i double click the esf icon

Thanks.
So you downloaded a zip file? (should be called something like "esf_openbeta_2_18_07.zip" if from esf-world.com)

I should have also asked a couple of other questions:
1.Did you downloaded the full version of the open beta, or the patch version?
The full version = 259 MB
The patch version will be more like 10 MB
You need the full version.

2.Did you "extract" the esf_openbeta folder that is inside the .zip file you downloaded? (do you know how to "extract"?)

yeah it was the full version its got a heap load of files and folders with maps and stuff when i unziped it. and it did come out like this esf_openbeta_2_18_07.zip when i downloaded it. do u think i should redownload it from somwhere and you take me through each step sorta like start from scratch