Think I found the answer to the Ming door problem

Dreysander · Post by **Dreysander** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 12:09 pm

Well after reading the forums and finding out what different people said I reloaded over and over and the door still would not budge. Lucky for me I quicksave a lot so I went back to a save before I got down into the room with the water wheel. If you -do not- go through the front door to this room but instead take the hall to the right and go around, killing several of the guards (use sneak, it works best) and -then- go down into the water wheel room the door will open.

I found this happens a lot in this game, you have to do it in a certain order for things to work properly.

Since I couldn't find the original thread about this (I know there are a million) I thought I'd make a new one...

Helena · Post by **Helena** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 8:15 am

After a good headache I try to do what Dreysander say, and it works.

Falling down from the right side.

Just add one more thing: The wooden plank must be pushing with the body. So, just push, the action key is useless.

Celacena · Post by **Celacena** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 6:16 am

not so simple

there is a floor switch on the gallery level, but it doesn't seem to make the difference as to whether it will open as most times through I have not trod on it. as save/loading sometimes releases the bar, there is clearly a glitch.

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Tue May 31, 2005 3:50 am

Insidious Aggravation

I've been grovelling through the game scripts, and I think I know what triggers the problem with the barred door in the Waterwheel room. If you trip an alarm *twice*, the door won't budge. You have to get from the temple entrance to the waterwheel room with no more than one alarm tripped.

I'm still not clear whether or not making the guards paranoid constitutes an 'alarm'. I think an alarm is an event that results in an active hunt for your PC by anybody. Examples would be using Possession on an NPC, or engaging in any form of non-stealth kill. Ergo, from the temple front door to the waterwheel room, it's a mandatory stealth quest. It would have been nice if they'd bothered to make mention of that.

Now, the extra added bit. I suspect the game remembers alarms across saves. Therefore, if you save, trigger the second alarm, try the door, and it won't budge, then stopping the game and restarting from your save will allow the door to work as long as you don't trip an alarm on your way there. Similarly, stopping and going back to a save before you tripped any alarms should work as well. Of course, some routes may succeed where others fail, depending on whether or not you trip alarms on different routes.

This also explains why I didn't have any problems with it my first few plays, but now it never works. Initially, I was deeply paranoid, and stealth-killed everybody. Nowadays, I'm more experienced, and a lot more cavalier. It's the 'cavalier' that's stopping me.

MalaksBane · Post by **MalaksBane** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:56 am

What alarms? The traps?

And which right side, I assume as opposed to left, but looking from where?

Celacena · Post by **Celacena** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 5:03 am

wrong [probably]

I did Ming's entrance the other day having tripped just about every trap in the place, engaged in wholescale slaughter AND used possession many times to ease the fights. I walked over to the bar - opened no problem.

However - I also had been upstairs and out to get as many crossbow bolts as possible - if you go back to the guard rooms near the beginning, their chests have bolts, come back downstairs and the barracks' chest have them and by doing that a couple of times you are fully ammo'd.

as a bit of a cheat - you can also re-arm just before you face Ming - go back to the waterwheel room and jump on the potted tree near the gallery - jump up and you get to the ledge then up again and over the rail - from there you can get back to the beginning and arm fully from the chests. the only disappointment is the lack of gas cannisters, so don't waste flame on guards.

BTW
there seems to be a weird advantage to Tremere - when using blood-shield NPCs in battle areas often do not notice you even when they should spot you. I can't recall if I was still shielded, but dialogue with Ming does NOT make her spot you if you are crouched when you enter the swirly glyph. dialogue ends and you are still crouched/hidden. I sneaked behind her - launched a vicious char-grill attack and the life-bar on Ming didn't come up. I carried on grilling until I was out of lighter fuel and then attacked her with the Killmatic. Still no life-bar, but after about 3-4 clips of shots to the back of the head, she collapsed and I got the XP reward for killing her. Not a mark on me and no blood-packs wasted.

MalaksBane · Post by **MalaksBane** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:25 am

One reload seemed to work, it's still a pretty goofy procedure thoug, face the door, turn a bit left, then strafe right against the handle. Had to trepeat this a few times.

My vamp feasted on every guard in the building, or so I thought, so traps may not be an issue (tried to avoid the spike thingies though).

Celacena · Post by **Celacena** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 8:16 am

door

most of the time a single save/reload works.

I once sneaked all the way down there and there were no guards. didn't make any difference to the sticky-door problem.

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:09 am

Hey everyone, I think I've found a new mission.
If you can't get the door open then it opens up a new one in your quest log titled "The programmer that screwed up here must die!"
Basically, what it involves, is tracking down whoever made it so I can't get past a stupid door after having done every damn other thing in the game

*breathes*

anyhow, I was wondering if anyone can shed anymore light on this, because I have done everything that everyone said, gone thru the mission without triggering alarms, entered from the right, and yet still the door doesn't open for me. At first I saw there were no guards in the room, and I thought "huzzah", this must be it! but no, nothing...

When I get near the door sometimes it shows the little padlock symbol, tho clicking it doesn't appear to do anything, is this maybe something to do with it?
Please someone tell me there is a way out of this and I haven't wasted my money here?
I mean, where else but in computer games can the manufacturer get away with giving you a product that doesn't actually work, and then just shrug their shoulders and say they may release a patch? What a joke

Wrath · Post by **Wrath** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:27 pm

uh.. well that happened to me once... but just once, and one single reload was enought to solve this.. (still, I got there using a different way... I don't know which action corrected this bug...)

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 4:57 pm

Maybe there is something fundamental I am missing?

You have to move the wooden bar by walking into it, correct?
And the best method is side-stepping into it?

Also, when you say you do a save/load, does that mean that you save the game after the problem has presented, and then reload into the game after the problem has presented, and that this then means the problem no longer presents?

Does it actually matter if you slaughter everyone or sneak in with no kills?
I mean, this question doesn't matter tho, cos I've gotten there both ways..

I guess I'm going to go back in and try again...

mr_sir · Post by **mr_sir** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:26 pm

i've never managed to do it without killing anyone cos of the way i play lol but when i last had a problem with it i walked right up to the door and saved then reloaded. if you save away from the door it doesn't work, at least it didn't for me. it does not matter if you have saved after encountering the problem as i did this.

MalaksBane · Post by **MalaksBane** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:49 am

Megatron wrote:Maybe there is something fundamental I am missing?

You have to move the wooden bar by walking into it, correct?
And the best method is side-stepping into it?

On the right of the bar is a handle. Face the door and bar, walk close to it, then sidestep right pushing against the handle of the bar.

Also, when you say you do a save/load, does that mean that you save the game after the problem has presented, and then reload into the game after the problem has presented, and that this then means the problem no longer presents?

In this case, yes. It's more common to go to reload a game from before a problem, but in this case, you save after the problem occurs.
Sometimes I've had to to the save/load while the bar had already moved halfway. After the load I could continue

Does it actually matter if you slaughter everyone or sneak in with no kills?
I mean, this question doesn't matter tho, cos I've gotten there both ways..

No, or, I usually slaugther everyone, or almost everyone, and this does not seem to influence the door. Nor does setting of these spike traps.

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:46 pm

Thanks, turns out save/load near to the door wasn't enough, I had to be exactly in the spot for pushing the bar.

Gangrel Hound · Post by **Gangrel Hound** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:37 pm

Never had this problem, but...

I've never had trouble with the door, but wouldn't it be easier to use the "noclip" option in the console rather then reloading a Save Game? If it's obvious you are glitched, this is not a cheat, but a work-around. This was necessary in Morrowind with the House Telvanni Promotion glitch.

Edit: It just occurred to me that this door might be a "porter", if so, there is a teleport command in the console, but I can't remember the command. I'll try to find it again.

Wrath · Post by **Wrath** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 5:19 am

[QUOTE=Gangrel Hound]I've never had trouble with the door, but wouldn't it be easier to use the "noclip" option in the console rather then reloading a Save Game? If it's obvious you are glitched, this is not a cheat, but a work-around. This was necessary in Morrowind with the House Telvanni Promotion glitch.

[/QUOTE]

Yep, in this case you can't say that's cheating.... I did something alike when I was at Society of Leopold

Thehunger · Post by **Thehunger** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:44 pm

Ming door Problem!!!!!!

I've read everybodys opinions on the problem with Ming's door problem and did all of the recomendations, when that failed I downloaded the new patch and still nothing has helped the problem.

Whats weird is when I used the Toreador it worked, unforunately I had problems with not having enough blood to kill Ming so I gave up and started over with the Malkavian. Now I've I can't get the door's wooden seal to budge. What am I to do?

Please Help!!!!!

Mister_T · Post by **Mister_T** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:21 am

Yeah I had this problem too and I stopped also playing the game because of it

... But I tried one last time recently and the door opened

!! The trick that worked for me was the one that you should go to the door try moving it and if it doesn't move then save to that point (and make sure you are close to the handle... and just to be sure be sideways to the handle). And once you have saved then reload the savepoint. After the reaload I sidestepped the door open... I was thrilled!! And now I'm playing the game again. First time was with a brujah and now with a gangrel.

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 8:47 am

[QUOTE=Mister_T]Yeah I had this problem too and I stopped also playing the game because of it

... But I tried one last time recently and the door opened

!! The trick that worked for me was the one that you should go to the door try moving it and if it doesn't move then save to that point (and make sure you are close to the handle... and just to be sure be sideways to the handle). And once you have saved then reload the savepoint. After the reaload I sidestepped the door open... I was thrilled!! And now I'm playing the game again. First time was with a brujah and now with a gangrel.[/QUOTE]
I'll be go to hell. It worked. I've been noclipping that door for a year now, but this worked. Specifically, walk up to the door, stand next to the handle, bump up against it sideways to make sure you're RIGHT THERE, save, quit, start, load, and the door opened no probs. Weird.

Jhereg · Post by **Jhereg** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 7:37 pm

I think I may have solved it - completely. **Possible Spoiler**

The business about walking up to the door, saving, quitting, re-starting, re-loading, and moving the bar has never worked for me. Neither has anything else. I think I finally found out why. The generally accepted rule is to go in on the right side, correct? After all, that's where the last upper-level guard is, anyway.

I found a short-cut. When you get into the basement, the first door on your right has a lock icon, but if you just try it, it will open without any fuss. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I use it all the time.

This time I stopped my (almost) reflexive use of that short-cut. I acted as if it were actually locked, and went the long way. Ta-daaah! The bit about saving, quitting, re-starting, and re-loading worked perfectly. That might just be the very last fly in the ointment - not taking advantage of that short-cut.

Any of you that still can't get that door open despite all of the tricks, are you using that door? Don't. I'd be fascinated to hear from any who routinely use that short-cut and still no-clip the door. Try it without the shortcut, and let us know what happens.