Problem caused by 1.4 patch: Elizabeth Dane

Shellhead · Post by **Shellhead** » Mon May 23, 2005 8:17 am

I don't why I even bothered with this 1.4 patch, my game has been working just fine since the 1.2 patch.

Anyway, here's my problem. I recently started over with a new character, as I wasn't enjoying the huge battle with the Sheriff, since my Gangrel was just a little too well-rounded and not specialized enough for combat. So now I'm playing a Tremere, and I'm taking on the Elizabeth Dane mission.

As soon as I get on board, I'm sneaking, and that guy Johansson is supposed to call me over to give me a clue. As I approach him, he stammers and the dialogue symbol and dialogue choices flicker on and off my screen. Then he starts shooting at me, while floating away (no animation of legs moving) from me.

If I ignore him and continue the mission (a little difficult at first, since he and the other guard in that area are both shooting at me), I can get view the sarcophagus on camera and then grab the ship's manifest, scoring the XP, but when I try to leave, I'm just stuck in the little boat, going nowhere. By the way, all this time, no matter where I go on the ship, Johansson keeps whispering at me to start our scheduled dialogue... "Hey, buddy, is that you?" over and over again.

If I shoot the traitorous Johansson, or drain him dry, he stops attacking, floating and whispering at me, and I can continue on to get the manifest and view the sarcophagus, but I'm still trapped on the boat and can't leave.

If I go wild and kill everybody on the ship, look at the sarcophagus up close, even do a little dance on top of it, plus grab the manifest, I still can't leave the ship.

The 1.4 patch seems to be the cause of this problem, as I was able to complete the Elizabeth Dane mission without this kind of difficulty the first time that I played.

Do I need to reinstall the game and the first two patchs and then not bother with the 1.4 patch? Or will I just need to patiently await the 1.5 patch?

Anaximander · Post by **Anaximander** » Mon May 23, 2005 9:03 am

This problem existed before the 1.4 patch. The Dane has always been buggy in my experience. Not every time I go there, but every now and then I guess the game screws something up when it loads the zone. I witnessed every bug you mentioned here before I patched to 1.4, so I'm sure it's not the patch.

If you have a game saved before the Dane, try loading it and doing the Dane again. Chances are you won't get the buggy version of the Dane twice in a row.

Shellhead · Post by **Shellhead** » Mon May 23, 2005 9:52 am

[QUOTE=Anaximander]This problem existed before the 1.4 patch. The Dane has always been buggy in my experience. Not every time I go there, but every now and then I guess the game screws something up when it loads the zone. I witnessed every bug you mentioned here before I patched to 1.4, so I'm sure it's not the patch.

If you have a game saved before the Dane, try loading it and doing the Dane again. Chances are you won't get the buggy version of the Dane twice in a row.[/QUOTE]

I hope you're right, but I played through the Dane four times yesterday. With the three do-overs, I started back at my previous saved game, which was in the parking garage near the beach entrance. Should I go back to a save before that?

Celacena · Post by **Celacena** » Mon May 23, 2005 10:34 am

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

My only problems with this were leaping off the ship into a crash...

anyhow - the patch hasn't added any new problems to my PC - but as for the Dane mission - perhaps the following may help :

remember the problem with Beckett in the end-game? if you move at the wrong time/pace it freezes? well I have experienced crashes all over the place due to moving at just the moment the computer wants to freeze/move the character. when I have obligatory dialogue, I make sure that I do NOT try to move as i'm being drawn into the conversation - doing that has saved me from situations where I have previously experienced crashes.

I did have another problem though - on the way back having got the manifest etc - the guard is very difficult to sneak past. good job it just says that it is a no-kill mission rather than a no-spot. you get your extra points in the transition between Dane and Beach. ding - 2 up.

Anaximander · Post by **Anaximander** » Mon May 23, 2005 3:09 pm

[QUOTE=Celacena]
remember the problem with Beckett in the end-game? if you move at the wrong time/pace it freezes? well I have experienced crashes all over the place due to moving at just the moment the computer wants to freeze/move the character. when I have obligatory dialogue, I make sure that I do NOT try to move as i'm being drawn into the conversation - doing that has saved me from situations where I have previously experienced crashes.[/QUOTE]

Excellent point, and I'm glad you brought that up. On the Dane, I've found that approaching the first guard too quickly can cause the dialogue bugs described in the original post. You need to wait until he says "Psst, pally! Over here!" and beckons you over before engaging him in conversation. If you're too quick about it, he bugs out.

Shellhead · Post by **Shellhead** » Tue May 24, 2005 2:45 pm

Hmm, I will try your suggestions. I played so carefully the first time through this game, with lots of caution and sneakiness and figuring out things for myself. So I have been moving quickly and confidently through some of these easier early encounters, and that may be the problem here, moving towards Johanssen instead of waiting for the cut to a dialogue.

Shellhead · Post by **Shellhead** » Wed May 25, 2005 9:11 am

Thanks for the advice, you were right. It's funny, because what was messing me up was the guy whispering at me, psst come over here, so I would start moving over there and that was interfering with the start of the dialogue. So the next time that I played this scene, I stopped moving as soon as he started whispering. Then I chose the wrong dialogue choice and he started shooting me, but that was an honest mistake. And the reason that I couldn't escape was that I forgot about the police report and had to go back and get it.