BUG REPORT: Sandtraps Vortigaunt

[te47]

After killing the first Antlion Guard in Sandtraps, the Vortigaunt that's supposed to talk to the player, give you bugbait, and let you into the camp just runs up to me and stops. Says nothing, does nothing. It's a game-breaking issue. The only way to continue is to enable cheats and noclip through the door.

For the record, I consistently experience this bug in regular Half-Life 2 as well. No idea what's going on, but I guess it only happens for a few players. I was really hoping this was one of the many bug fixes in Update, but it's exactly the same. Any chance of a fix?

[Jonathan]

Seeing as this post is nearly a decade old I don't expect to get any answer at all, but did this bug always affect a new game?

[Filip Victor]

Originally posted by te47:

After killing the first Antlion Guard in Sandtraps, the Vortigaunt that's supposed to talk to the player, give you bugbait, and let you into the camp just runs up to me and stops. Says nothing, does nothing. It's a game-breaking issue. The only way to continue is to enable cheats and noclip through the door.

For the record, I consistently experience this bug in regular Half-Life 2 as well. No idea what's going on, but I guess it only happens for a few players. I was really hoping this was one of the many bug fixes in Update, but it's exactly the same. Any chance of a fix?

Never experienced it or my playtesters when making the Update.

The only issue I know is that vort tends to fall thru the ground after save-load as seen here:
https://youtu.be/UOtzc1eG6mg

However in the update I have increased the ground collision mesh so this would no longer happen.

But to have the vort coming out and make no action it never happed to me. Unless you play with a mod or something.

Let me know if you can replicate it.

[Filip Victor]

Originally posted by Jonathan:

Seeing as this post is nearly a decade old I don't expect to get any answer at all, but did this bug always affect a new game?

Thx for bringing this post up. I just noticed it :D

[Fairwater]

So any solution? I have tried verifying my files, each time I am greeted with 36 files that are missing. I have uninstalled all mods and tried that and it does not fix it, so it isn't the mods. I have no clue what is preventing me from completing this, but I'm losing my temper here.

[Filip Victor]

Originally posted by The Electric Lucifer:

So any solution? I have tried verifying my files, each time I am greeted with 36 files that are missing. I have uninstalled all mods and tried that and it does not fix it, so it isn't the mods. I have no clue what is preventing me from completing this, but I'm losing my temper here.

Please let me know if you're able to share the save files. You can find them in the steamapps/half-life 2 update/hl2/save directory. archive it and upload on some file sharing site.

[Fairwater]

It's a bit too late, I just cheated my way to the next load point, but I will be going back through to get the achievement for not touching the sand so I'll absolutely send the save your way if it happens again.

[Filip Victor]

Originally posted by The Electric Lucifer:

It's a bit too late, I just cheated my way to the next load point, but I will be going back through to get the achievement for not touching the sand so I'll absolutely send the save your way if it happens again.

Did you kill the antlion guard with the harpoon?

[Fairwater]

There's a harpoon? No I just shoot it until it dies, and then the vortigaunt opens the door and comes out, and he's supposed to give you the pheromone pod that lets you control the antlions. What actually happens is he stands there not saying anything and nothing I do makes him do anything. I encountered a similar situation with Barney toward the end of the game where he refuses to walk past a wall even after I removed said wall. I eventually pushed him to the next area and he started doing his thing again though.

[Filip Victor]

Originally posted by The Electric Lucifer:

There's a harpoon? No I just shoot it until it dies, and then the vortigaunt opens the door and comes out, and he's supposed to give you the pheromone pod that lets you control the antlions. What actually happens is he stands there not saying anything and nothing I do makes him do anything. I encountered a similar situation with Barney toward the end of the game where he refuses to walk past a wall even after I removed said wall. I eventually pushed him to the next area and he started doing his thing again though.

There are some rusted harpoons scattered on the sand near the house/rocks area. Using the Gravity Gun to kill the guard with one of these will instantly eliminate him and prevent the Vortigaunt from spawning. I’ve patched this issue to some extent, but if you mentioned that normal gunplay allows the door to open, it means the scene was triggered. However, something may still prevent the Vortigaunt from resuming its sequence. I’m not entirely sure what causes this, as I’ve never been able to reproduce it consistently—it seems to be a rare occurrence. This issue still persists in the 20th Anniversary Update.

As for the Barney issue, I’m not familiar with that one.

If you manage to trigger it again, that would be helpful. However, even after playing it 100 times, you might not encounter it again. :\

[Fairwater]

CSceneEntity lcs_getgoing unable to find actor named "!Target1"
CSceneEntity lcs_vort_interrupted unable to find actor named "!target2"
CSceneEntity lcs_vort_interrupted unable to find actor named "!target2"
CSceneEntity lcs_vort_interrupted unable to find actor named "!target2"
CSceneEntity lcs_getgoing unable to find actor named "!Target1"


This was the error showing up in console when I commented on this. As for replicating it I still haven't gotten the chance to play, but I was smart enough to send the console errors to my friend over discord. I'm sure it'll help more once I can send my save though.

[Filip Victor]

Originally posted by The Electric Lucifer:

CSceneEntity lcs_getgoing unable to find actor named "!Target1"
CSceneEntity lcs_vort_interrupted unable to find actor named "!target2"
CSceneEntity lcs_vort_interrupted unable to find actor named "!target2"
CSceneEntity lcs_vort_interrupted unable to find actor named "!target2"
CSceneEntity lcs_getgoing unable to find actor named "!Target1"


This was the error showing up in console when I commented on this. As for replicating it I still haven't gotten the chance to play, but I was smart enough to send the console errors to my friend over discord. I'm sure it'll help more once I can send my save though.

vort_intrerrupted reffers to the scene where the 2 vorts are chatting and would say something if freeman steps between them. It's not from the main vort that would start the scene when guard dies.

However seems someone just posted this bug on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/HalfLife/comments/1heic6j/why_doesnt_the_vortigaunt_talk_to_me_after_i_kill/

I have inspected the map file and seems this "go to player and speak" scene activates when the door if "fully opened". There are some following posibilites here:

-Door might not get fully open and bump into something?
-Too may save-loads via player death and entity forgets the player entity location thus no longer recognize the player on the map?
-Has the player gone back to previous map, and back then back again?
-Radom code bug?


Having a save file I would be able to check if that scripted scene was activated or not. However from the previous reddit video it seems vort have been walked out a bit and stopped. Even if using mods it should not be relavent since script is activated to "go to player and start speaking > the freeman must follow".

If someone can replicate or break the scene let me know.

[Fairwater]

Looks like they encountered exactly what I did. Vort just stops and cannot be interacted with further.

[Filip Victor]

Originally posted by Fairwater:

Looks like they encountered exactly what I did. Vort just stops and cannot be interacted with further.

Just like I have mentioned above:

if you're able to share the save files. You can find them in the steamapps/half-life 2 update/hl2/save directory. archive it and upload on some file sharing site.

[Fairwater]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AdmpzICTbpuvDkmXsy2pW6Z0AckEtkEe/view?usp=sharing all of my manual and auto saves from this chapter. Like I said I was gonna go back to get the keep off the sand achievement. So even just starting a new game from the start of the chapter the glitch is still persistent.

[Filip Victor]

Originally posted by Fairwater:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AdmpzICTbpuvDkmXsy2pW6Z0AckEtkEe/view?usp=sharing all of my manual and auto saves from this chapter. Like I said I was gonna go back to get the keep off the sand achievement. So even just starting a new game from the start of the chapter the glitch is still persistent.

Thanks for the save files, I have somehow find the issue relaying in the physics system that affects all entities. The only fix is to use game console and input the "restart" command to restart current level. One of the ragdolls burned corpse model also look distorted and if you shot at him game will crash. So probably something failed to load properly on the physics side that affects entities. Not sure how i can replicate it, unless you did something specific on this map or previous map/s :\