Is My Game Bugged?

[Dasher]

For the last few days, I have been trying to complete the Barlowe Square Escape mission.
Sometimes I play LAN with my wife; so far I have been unable to create a game that any of my friends who also own the game can join. (And is it really "Listen" Server? Is that a brand name?)
Anyway, we always grind our way to the Subway... we have learned to get there while conserving our ammo and most of our health (The lack of medkits is odd; we have been trying to complete the game on Easy and have NEVER found more than ONE medkit on the entire map).
Once we get there, the mad scramble begins to turn on the generators... Not all activate, maybe not all need to be activated, but tonight I had finally had enough and went into God mode.
With zombies pounding on me to no effect, I activated every single generator with an "ON" button that could be activated. Then I ran back to the control room, to find that there was nothing there to activate which would open the gates. Nor could I find any such switch anywhere else.
I re-visited every single generator, every electrical room (though why the gate controls would be anywhere but the control room is beyond me), checking that all geenerators which COULD be activated WERE activated. By this time I was bludgeoning zombies with a wrench, having long since run out of ammo, just to clear a path through the corridors.
Whatever the activation item might be which opens the gates to the platform, it was not to be found by me anywhere on the map.
After TWO... HOURS... of fruitless searching, I used the "Noclip" command to go through the gates and down to the platform. Turned "Noclip" off and entered the train and voila!, "Dasher Escaped"!
I know the game is new, and I am trying to enjoy it, but I cannot believe that it is functioning as it is designed to.
The paucity of ammo and health kits we have seen would be proper for Normal or even Moderate difficuty, but I will never know, because if this is "Easy", I will never even bother to try the game at any harder level.
That is assuming there is ever any way to get the Mystery Generator(s?) running and some switch can be found to open the gates at all.
I have tried uninstalling and re-installing the game; same problem.
Looking for help online, I enter "Contagion Barlowe Escape Tips" and get ten hits for "Cheat Happens" to install a patch that apparently the whole online community thinks is necessary just to play the game at all.
And that's a shame.
Because I hate having to use stuff like that. I want to enjoy the game as designed. I realize bugs are inevitable and the game is still in development.
But there are some elements of the game that need to be addressed to make it not just playable, but WORTH playing; which is to say, "fun".
The first of those elements is that it must be clear what we are expected to do in order to succeed; the second is that once we accomplish that task, the game functions in such a way that we actually CAN succeed.
I have no doubt this will happen eventually, and in time I think Contagion will be the best zombie FPS out there, displacing even the venerable L4D series.
But I won't say it "has a long way to go", because as of right now, it needs to travel the very short distance between frustrating aggravation and tense challenge... and it needs to do that by things like
1. Overhead maps tht can be called up during play
2. Clearly defined objectives with countdowns or profound environmental changes to show when the required number have been achieved
...and, for heaven's sake,
3. MORE HEALTH KITS ON "EASY", on the order of TEN TIMES MORE.
If the game doesn't provide these things, people are just going to develop hacks to provide them anyway, if they haven't already.
Because even if today's initial players memorize all these things initially, latecomers are not going to want to bothered to play catch-up with the "experts", and the "experts" will have no patience for the newbies.
And then it will be just another L4D, because that's EXACTLY what playing that game is like, these days.
And Contagion could be better.
Just my two cents.

[[AUS] Midnight]

Your game is NOT bugged.

When you activate the generators in the subway, you will get a phone message telling you how many are left to do. After you have activated the LAST generator, the gate will open and you will be able to escape via the train.

The maps do take quite a while to learn and remember the pathing, especially for escape.

First Aid Kits are meant to be scare, as well as ammo, firearms and melee weapons.

Barlowsquare does have "You Are Here" map signs which are designed to help new players.

Your phone will give you details of objectves and the distance to the next objective.

Please note that there is NO HAND HOLDING in Contagion, spend more time playing the maps and learning them.

I wish you all the best with the game.

[Knappy]

Originally posted by Dasher:

For the last few days, I have been trying to complete the Barlowe Square Escape mission.
Sometimes I play LAN with my wife; so far I have been unable to create a game that any of my friends who also own the game can join. (And is it really "Listen" Server? Is that a brand name?)

Listen servers run in the same process as a game client. They otherwise function like dedicated servers, but typically have the disadvantage of having to communicate with remote players over the residential internet connection of the hosting player.

[Tatsur0]

Here is me beating CE_BarloweSquare on Hard Solo using the Generator/Subway escape that may help - http://www.twitch.tv/tatsur0/c/4338409

[Knappy]

Originally posted by Tatsur0:

Here is me beating CE_BarloweSquare on Hard Solo using the Generator/Subway escape that may help - http://www.twitch.tv/tatsur0/c/4338409

Objection: Bias

[Tatsur0]

Was my 4th-5th time playing the map at all :(

[Knappy]

Originally posted by Tatsur0:

Was my 4th-5th time playing the map at all :(

The man builds the map, builds the world, knows where every button is, and it's only his fifth time.

:-þ
<3

[Tatsur0]

Others were strongly involved hehe and with all my work I don't get to play Contagion as much as the rest of you :(

[xCoiotex]

Well I can't get this mission too, seems that some generators are not working properly, some have interactive button while others don't have.. it's been 7 years man since i first played and can't finish this mission properly

[Tiniestkuriboh]

Originally posted by xCoiotex:

Well I can't get this mission too, seems that some generators are not working properly, some have interactive button while others don't have.. it's been 7 years man since i first played and can't finish this mission properly

This thread is 7 years old - better to start a new one. I've played the map several times recently (as in the last week) and it has been running fine.

Not all the generators active - its random to which ones do which makes the ending a little less repeatable and ultimately a little harder. Once you hit all the generators (remaining count is on your phone) one of the gates will start to open. There used to be a chance you would escape by truck instead of train, but I have not had that escape path in months so I don't know if that has been removed or not, and I have not bothered to double check the map file itself.

[Reborn]

Originally posted by Tiniestkuriboh:

There used to be a chance you would escape by truck instead of train, but I have not had that escape path in months so I don't know if that has been removed or not, and I have not bothered to double check the map file itself.

The truck escape is still possible, I had that route once while attempting the achievement run on this map. If you really want to be sure it's there or not, you can open the map scripts for Barlowe Square and look for anything that mentions the truck escape route from the Bank.