Game breaking bug not fixed since 2014

[HouseOfTheRat]

The briefing cut scene on the bridge never triggers. Stuck there forever. Completely game breaking bug in the first 5 minutes of the game that is known since 2014 and was never fixed. I can't even imagine how the rest of the game must be.

[HouseOfTheRat]

Reloading doesn't fix it, and neither does exiting and restarting the game. Your only option is to start the campaign from scratch and hope that it doesn't happen again. Or uninstall this crap and play literally any other game in the known universe that works better than this. Yes, even Wolcen. At least you could play Wolcen for more than 5 minutes before realizing the insane extent of a mess that it was.

[Dayve]

Originally posted by 2021:

Reloading doesn't fix it, and neither does exiting and restarting the game. Your only option is to start the campaign from scratch and hope that it doesn't happen again. Or uninstall this crap and play literally any other game in the known universe that works better than this. Yes, even Wolcen. At least you could play Wolcen for more than 5 minutes before realizing the insane extent of a mess that it was.

I'm pretty sure the bug is caused by your frames per second (fps) going above 60. Fps going above 60 often breaks games - it does it with pretty much every Bethesda title too. Basically it breaks some scripting stuff and causes bugs like this one.

I'd recommend playing the rest of the game, even though it is outrageous that this bug has been in since the game released and could (probably) be easily fixed. It really is an amazing horror game, easily the best game in the Alien franchise ever made, and if you lock your fps to 60 you won't really encounter any bugs besides the very rare, occasional handgun floating in mid-air.

[Oz Gaming]

Originally posted by 2021:

The briefing cut scene on the bridge never triggers. Stuck there forever. Completely game breaking bug in the first 5 minutes of the game that is known since 2014 and was never fixed. I can't even imagine how the rest of the game must be.

The briefing cut scene on the bridge works without any problems in my game on my PC. And yes the rest of the game works flawlessly too. I've played it from start to finish twice now.

[HouseOfTheRat]

Originally posted by Dayve:

I'm pretty sure the bug is caused by your frames per second (fps) going above 60. Fps going above 60 often breaks games - it does it with pretty much every Bethesda title too. Basically it breaks some scripting stuff and causes bugs like this one.

That makes it even more stupid if that's the case. I have also heard of this about Bethesda games but never had any such problem myself. Even played some Oblivion a year ago at who knows what framerate, no problems.

The "scripting" in this case is that an NPC needs to go to the bridge for the briefing to start. Literally just start walking. Imagine breaking something like that simple beyond any salvaging. And never bothering to fix it even if it is known since day one. Instead they are more than happy releasing tons of DLC and even a season pass for a survival horror game as if it was Fortnite lol.

[HouseOfTheRat]

Originally posted by Harli:

The briefing cut scene on the bridge works without any problems in my game on my PC. And yes the rest of the game works flawlessly too. I've played it from start to finish twice now.

Awesome, I am sure this makes every player who encountered the bug in the last seven years feel better

[Shakes]

Originally posted by 2021:

That makes it even more stupid if that's the case. I have also heard of this about Bethesda games but never had any such problem myself. Even played some Oblivion a year ago at who knows what framerate, no problems.

The "scripting" in this case is that an NPC needs to go to the bridge for the briefing to start. Literally just start walking. Imagine breaking something like that simple beyond any salvaging. And never bothering to fix it even if it is known since day one. Instead they are more than happy releasing tons of DLC and even a season pass for a survival horror game as if it was Fortnite lol.

More than likely it would require an extensive engine re-write. The whole engine is based around having windows of at least 16.666 ms between each frame, otherwise triggers and cues aren't guaranteed to complete by the time the next frame starts to draw, resulting in various issues like scripted events not working. In other games with this limitation (i.e., the Bethesda Fallout games), having shorter frametimes wreaks havoc on physics, though AI is thankfully not so reliant on realtime physics like that.

Let's make this clear: ALL of the game's functions are affected by this limitation, not just scripted events you might deem "simple". They didn't just break this one event and ignore the people complaining about it for seven years.

[Anejey]

I don't know about the fps stuff, and it may be true, but I fixed(?) it just yesterday by talking to Samuels first and then to Taylor.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say, is that it's possible to get around the bug by just reloading to the checkpoint you made in the room where you got your clothes. No need to restart the whole game. And even if you do, it only takes a few minutes to get there.

Also note, that this is one of the very few annoying bugs this game has. I have played through the game twice without encountering anything except the bug at the start.

[Dayve]

Originally posted by Anejey:

I don't know about the fps stuff, and it may be true, but I fixed(?) it just yesterday by talking to Samuels first and then to Taylor.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say, is that it's possible to get around the bug by just reloading to the checkpoint you made in the room where you got your clothes. No need to restart the whole game. And even if you do, it only takes a few minutes to get there.

Also note, that this is one of the very few annoying bugs this game has. I have played through the game twice without encountering anything except the bug at the start.

You didn't fix the bug by talking to Samuels first - it doesn't matter which of the two you talk to first. It just worked for you this time, that's all.

[StreamWhenGuy]

They buy beefy PCs and monitors, but little do they know about how most, especially older games, function and that they're better off not exceeding 60 FPS.
Refresh rate =/= Framerate btw, so you still benefit from that 360Hz monitor of yours you bought for 700 green americano dollarios. Just saying.

[Pink Lady Jade]

????? developer?

[Vzzdak]

Consider the years that have passed, we’re due for “Alien Isolation: Remastered.”

[Dayve]

Originally posted by Typharius:

I've experienced this same bug once in 7 runs of the game, I have no idea what caused it as my screen is fixed at 60hz and my setup set to it, but a restart of the game fixed it.

I've often suspected that it might be hardware-related (and perhaps also sometimes caused by fps going above 60). I've stayed active in this forum for many years to help new players with advice because new players tend to quit this game early due to how difficult it is, and I like to help them so they don't quit and can enjoy this amazing game.

For this reason I tried to get this bug for myself so I could tell people with certainty how to avoid it. I spent hours restarting the game and trying every possible combination of ways to go through the first part of the game to get this bug. I simply could NOT get it to happen for me - not even when I let my fps go way above 60.

That's what made me think it's somehow hardware related. But I don't know, I'm not an expert on computers beyond Googling my problems and following the instructions of experts to get them fixed.

[Vzzdak]

After escaping the nest in the reactor core, there’s definitely a hardware issue with an older brand of video card, where the superjoes don’t spawn, and some of the puzzles you need for advancement are inactive. Though this has already been discussed in previous threads, I’ll quickly state the solution was to turn the graphics down, in particular the anti-aliasing.

So that’s just to say, yes, there are old hardware-specific issues that clearly aren’t going to be resolved. Just not practical to do the software engineering work as a one-off. Would probably get resolved by “remastering” the game.

[Shakes]

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

After escaping the nest in the reactor core, there’s definitely a hardware issue with an older brand of video card, where the superjoes don’t spawn, and some of the puzzles you need for advancement are inactive. Though this has already been discussed in previous threads, I’ll quickly state the solution was to turn the graphics down, in particular the anti-aliasing.

IIRC this was nvidia-specific.

[Pink Lady Jade]