"failure to prevent time-critical sequence" at Dark Energy end of game

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Politics

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In the final Dark Energy section of the game, I am finding that the program gives me a time-out stating "failure to prevent time-critical sequence" a few seconds after I fire successfully an energy core at the Dark Energy Reactor, or
if I wait and engage the 2 gunships first, I receive this same time-out message after firing maybe 4 energy cores.

I just downloaded the current version of the program a month ago and left it on the default Easy mode.

Even some of the Walkthroughs available seem to differ on this sequence at the end of the program, indicating that perhaps it has been tampered with, maybe several times, since original release.
Does the current version have an insurmountable new bug in it ?
 
That message means Breen gets to the top of the reactor before you could stop him. You're taking too long. If you're running out of time no matter what you do then you took too long to get to the top and your safe file is too far along. Load an earlier save or restart the chapter.
 
ríomhaire said:
That message means Breen gets to the top of the reactor before you could stop him. You're taking too long. If you're running out of time no matter what you do then you took too long to get to the top and your safe file is too far along. Load an earlier save or restart the chapter.
Click to expand...
When I reach the top, only 1 of the 2 Gunships is slightly visible, vaguely.
You believe that moment is much too late ?
I would have thought the software should timestamp on the moment the player reaches the top level, and then start the final timer from that moment.
If not, then the software should make clear to the user when that final timer begins.
 
It's nothing to do with the gunships or reaching the top. It's when the bubble that Breen is in reaches the top. The timer starts as soon as he starts ascending (which is as soon as you leave the elevator and enter the reactor room).
 
ríomhaire said:
It's nothing to do with the gunships or reaching the top. It's when the bubble that Breen is in reaches the top. The timer starts as soon as he starts ascending (which is as soon as you leave the elevator and enter the reactor room).
Click to expand...
It has been about a week since I was on the ground floor. I do not remember any elevator, unless you are referring to the sequence of external rising platforms, and skips and jumps between them, to be an "elevator".
When I see the first gunship, I am on what I would describe as a platform or balcony, not in a "reactor room".
I see no bubble or any bubble with him in it.
I assumed that he was in one of the gunships.
 
You seem to be misunderstanding what's happening in that chapter. When you exited the elevator down into the core you would have seen Breen in this big orange bubble. Once you begin making your way up Alxy will mention something like 'Oh no, Breen has started his accent. Hurry Gordon before it's to late' Once she says that the timer has begun. Make you way to the top ASAP. Once at the top if you are struggling for time ignore the gunships, Breen is not in them. Instead focus on destroying the reactor the big spinning thing in front of you, it takes a few hits before it's destroyed.
 
PimpinPenguin said:
You seem to be misunderstanding what's happening in that chapter. When you exited the elevator down into the core you would have seen Breen in this big orange bubble. Once you begin making your way up Alxy will mention something like 'Oh no, Breen has started his ascent. Hurry Gordon before it's to late' Once she says that the timer has begun. Make you way to the top ASAP. Once at the top if you are struggling for time ignore the gunships, Breen is not in them. Instead focus on destroying the reactor the big spinning thing in front of you, it takes a few hits before it's destroyed.
Click to expand...
Again, this does not seem to describe the reactor core that I am seeing. When I hit this core, a circle of guard plates rise up around it, some sort of alarm goes off, and then I have to fire in numerous more energy orbs in its direction to destroy those guard plates.
In the middle of doing that, the Gunships escape and begin to fire, then the time-out occurs and the ""failure to prevent time-critical sequence" is displayed, and I have to start again.

I am surprised that this error message does not show up on this forum, when a search of the messages here is performed. With the years this program has been out, I cannot imagine no one else has encountered this problem.
Unless the program has been changed recently.
 
You chase Breen with Alyx into a room with a bunch of computers. Breen is talking to an advisor (the alien slug) on the computer screen and then drops the gravity gun and escapes down an elevator. You take the gravity gun and after a bit of dialogue with Alyx go down the same elevator. You step into a new room with Breen in a bubble in the middle, which will slowly start to move up. You then move up the, as you said, sequence of external rising platforms, the point of which is to beat Dr Breen to the top and prevent him from escaping through the portal. If the bubble reaches the portal you fail.

As PimpinPenguin said Alyx tells you several times you have to hurry and stop him getting to the top. Half-Life isn't the kind of game that's going to put a timer on your heads up display so you're just going to have to deal with the fact that that's the only warning you get.

And for reference, here's the bubble I was talking about:
800px-Breen_Bubble.jpg
 
ríomhaire said:
You chase Breen with Alyx into a room with a bunch of computers. Breen is talking to an advisor (the alien slug) on the computer screen and then drops the gravity gun and escapes down an elevator. You take the gravity gun and after a bit of dialogue with Alyx go down the same elevator. You step into a new room with Breen in a bubble in the middle, which will slowly start to move up. You then move up the, as you said, sequence of external rising platforms, the point of which is to beat Dr Breen to the top and prevent him from escaping through the portal. If the bubble reaches the portal you fail.

As PimpinPenguin said Alyx tells you several times you have to hurry and stop him getting to the top. Half-Life isn't the kind of game that's going to put a timer on your heads up display so you're just going to have to deal with the fact that that's the only warning you get.

And for reference, here's the bubble I was talking about:
800px-Breen_Bubble.jpg
Click to expand...
That is the first time I have seen that graphic of the bubble, to my recollection.
Maybe restarting the ascent and going faster is the solution.
Maybe I will try that.
 
Politics said:
When I reach the top, only 1 of the 2 Gunships is slightly visible, vaguely.
You believe that moment is much too late ?
I would have thought the software should timestamp on the moment the player reaches the top level, and then start the final timer from that moment.
If not, then the software should make clear to the user when that final timer begins.
Click to expand...

Alyx actually says when the timer starts. I'm pretty sure the timer starts somewhere during the ascent, I'm pretty sure it's trigger based.
 
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