just realized I’m playing version one… might restart on version two since I’m not really THAT far in… I guess. but if my problem is due to a bug that might be a safer route to go
I played all the way through on release 1, it looks like? I think the release thread said the bugs were mostly in the spell horror area.
I don’t have a save in the murder mystery, but there were a couple times I got seriously stuck and it turned out I just hadn’t examined something. The big one I remember is I didn’t look at Elen’s watch, which… might fit in with those clues? Can’t remember for sure but I’m sure mathbrush will chime in at some point…
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Hrm. I also don’t remember managing to get stuck in any of the statement scenes, so maybe that is a bug? Doesn’t look like it’s mentioned in the changelog for the new version though: Released: Never Gives Up Her Dead, an epic sci-fi parser game (version 2, bugfixes) - #37 by mathbrush
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I was away from my home computer.
I was thinking along Josh’s line at first. Looking closer at the code, it looks like you may have missed examining the receipt held by the dead man. That should give you a clue called Postal that you can link with unaware.
That sounds like a definite bug but shouldn’t cause any major issues. What happens is that every time you go in or out of a flashback, I just manually reset the position of each item and person one at a time. It looks like one of those were missed. It shouldn’t be important to your progress in the game.
I’ll check the code and fix any bugs I find for a future version 3. Thanks!
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ohhh that makes sense! I tried to do that but had a bit of a noun mis-guessing problem (trying to examine “paper” only led to being ask about the sketchbook pages in my inventory, so I thought it would be something I wouldn’t be able to look at until later. thanks so much!
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Glad to help!
Also, thanks for uncovering the bug. The code looks like this:
To reset-mari:
if mari-level is 0:
now currentswap is emrys-weaver;
now mystery-package is nowhere;
now bosstalked is true;
now fake-mari is in courier-office;
now the fake-cap is worn by fake-mari;
now the fake-satchel is worn by fake-mari;
now courier-boss is in courier-office;
now broken-hanger is on clothesline;
the problem is that it’s supposed to set bosstalked is false instead. I just made that change, and it will be in version 3. I’d like to add your name to the credits for people who found bugs; what would you like me to call you in the credits? (you can opt out of course!)
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Chloe A. would be great! Glad to help out 
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currently stuck in a shard puzzle: I can’t seem to figure out the right time to enter the red portal in order to finish the apple time travel problem. I’ve figured out that I need to put the red apple in the caramel and press the button to open the rift at 11:59, so by that logic I should have to go through the rift in the next turn, but whenever I do, I can see my future self and I’m sent back to the beginning of the loop. No matter what time I try to go through (I’ve been playing with it quite a bit), I can always see my future self, which seems weird? Is there something here that I’m missing?
Bah. I poked through my save list and I seem to have saved right after that. But I have a save not too long before…
OK.
-
You have to repeat the actions that you see yourself doing, at the exact time you saw yourself doing them. I believe the start time is randomized, BTW?
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1. start (push open button), 2. rift turns red, 3. enter rift with caramel apple. 4. dump apple, 5. enter rift (turns green), 6. rift closes, glass opens.
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There are 9 turns, so if you go 7. in (to glass area), 8. get apple, 9. dip apple, then the next turn takes you back to the start. What’s the first thing that happens?
- OK, now the real spoiler you have to wait one turn.
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Now you can just follow the steps.
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push open, enter rift, put apple in disposal, enter rift, push close.
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In theory, I was able to work that out, but those steps aren’t working because I’m apparently not entering the portal at the right time, despite trying to enter it right after opening it. I’m wondering if maybe there’s some sort of bug I’ve encountered somehow? I’ve included a transcript of me playing through from the very beginning of the loop until I get sent back in time so you can better see what I’m trying to describe.
The difference in time should be nine minutes, so if my past self is entering at 11:51PM (with the rift opening at 11:50), then I don’t understand why I’m not able to go through at 12:AM. I’ve tried entering at each minute after as well up to five minutes past the correct time, as well as just spamming Z like twenty times, and every attempt got the exact same result when trying to enter the rift.
Transcript (spoilers obviously!!!!!)
-z
You wait, taking your time.
A voice says, “The time is 11:49 pm.”
-z
You wait, taking your time.
A voice says, “The time is 11:50 pm.”
You watch as the rift turns red.
-z
You wait, taking your time.
A voice says, “The time is 11:51 pm.”
A copy of you enters through the rift. She stops, staring at you for a moment. She’s holding what looks to be a caramel apple.
-z
You wait, taking your time.
A voice says, “The time is 11:52 pm.”
The copy of you takes the caramel apple and puts it in the food disposal. The disposal whirs it away. She sneaks an awkward glance at you.
-z
You wait, taking your time.
A voice says, “The time is 11:53 pm.”
The copy of you disappears into the rift. It looks like she’s being swallowed whole. Once she is gone, the rift slowly turns green.
-z
You wait, taking your time.
A voice says, “The time is 11:54 pm.”
The rift closes, becoming black again. The glass opens, and you can enter the glassed area.
-in
You walk into the glassed area.
Inside it is a bench. This bench, attached to the floor, seems utilitarian, but it has a few unusual features, like a food disposal and a vat of caramel. An Open button and a Close button are attached.
The rift is here, colored black.
A voice says, “The time is 11:55 pm.”
-put red apple in caramel
You dip the red apple into the caramel, rotating it until it comes out evenly coated, a perfect caramel apple. You can’t tell what color it was originally.
A voice says, “The time is 11:56 pm.”
-z
You wait, taking your time.
A voice says, “The time is 11:57 pm.”
-z
You wait, taking your time.
A voice says, “The time is 11:58 pm.”
-press open
You press the button, and the rift opens, changing to red.
A voice says, “The time is 11:59 pm.”
-enter rift
You enter the rift.
You are engulfed in a red haze, losing all sense of direction. Slowly the haze clears.
Spherical Space (in the glass walls)
You are in a vast white space that curves in on itself in bizarre ways. Everywhere you look you see distorted reflections. There are no exits.
The pedestal is the one of the few solid things you can see. The platform it is on is marked in concentric lines.
An area surrounded by a glass wall is under the pedestal, supported by pillars. Prominently displayed inside it is a bench with an Open button, a Close button, a vat of caramel, a food disposal, a yellow apple, a green apple and a red apple on it and a red rift leading inside.
You can see your future self here.
The haze clears. Your former self is here, outside the glass. (note from Chloe while writing this post - the haze already cleared, so this is slightly redundant. not sure if that’s human error or evidence of my problem being bug-related)
You enter the rift, but it must have been at the wrong time. Everything warps around you.
Time resets in a whirl. You’re back where you were at first.
You are engulfed in a black haze, losing all sense of direction. Slowly the haze clears.
The pedestal shakes and rises further out of the ground, rising on columns. Underneath the pedestal is an area surrounded by a glass wall. Inside is a black rift, as well as a bench, on which are several apples, a vat of caramel, and two buttons (labelled Open and Close). You can’t reach any of them from outside of the glass.
A voice says, “The time is 11:49 pm.”
-transcript off
Hopefully that clears things up! I really feel like I’m not doing anything wrong at this point, but maybe I’ve missed something?
Oh geez, that definitely looks like a bug. 
What it should be doing is zapping you back as soon as you do an action at the wrong time which was visible to past-you. So if it lets you open the rift, the rest of the actions should work in sequence. And if you open the rift at the wrong time it should zap you back immediately, not wait for you to enter it.
here's me opening the rift too early
> push open
You press the button, and the rift opens, changing to red.
But you seem to have opened it at the wrong time! Everything
warps and crumbles around you.
Time resets in a whirl. You’re back where you were at first.
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Yeah, I do get zapped if I open the rift at the wrong time, but as long as it’s opened at the right time, it’ll wait for forever for me to enter it. I’m assuming I’m supposed to get zapped if I waited after opening it at the right time, but that doesn’t happen either.
I’m really going 2 for 2 on breaking games this week - not sure if you’ve seen my struggles with getting Prince Quisborne to work lately 
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Someone else had a time-based bug before where scenes weren’t working right around 11:59. My guess is that Inform thinks that 12:01 is before 11:59 instead of after due to numbering conventions. According to the manual, time of day is supposed to ‘roll over’ at 4:00 am, but I’m not doing direct comparisons of times, I’m doing weirder calculations.
So it’s very likely that this is unsolvable unless you restore to a save and then wait until it’s past 11:59 before starting the puzzle at all.
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sounds good! I’ll try that and see how it goes
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New time was 8:45PM and it worked just fine! Thanks so much 
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Man, maybe I should make a weird barrier that blocks players from entering time-based puzzles between 11:30 and 12:30…
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That’s hilarious, I love hearing about weird bugs like this.
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Yeah, it’s pretty funny. I might be able to fix this overall but it would require a big restructure and likely introduce more bugs. I’d have to invent a new time keeping system (maybe just tracking turns?) and make sure it syncs up with time of day at important points that use it
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Yeah, Inform by default tracks both the turn count and the time of day, and the turn count is monotonically increasing (it never goes backward), so it’s a good thing to use for measuring the time between two events. The time of day is better for anything that’s supposed to be cyclical, like sunrise and sunset.
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in horror caves now 
I actually completely missed this area because the foreboding feeling you get from the south area of the lowest level made me think I wouldn’t be allowed to go that way. whoops. so now i’ve done every other room and gotten all the shards lol. ANYWAY i’m unfortunately stuck pretty early on, and I’m not sure what to do right now:
the spells i have are exfil, dirox, telox, denox, mallox, and exklip and I have the bookmark as well. I was able to activate the monitors in the security room, but since I don’t have the camera activated in the burning room, i’m not sure those are super helpful right now. I’m pretty sure I’ve explored all the rooms accessible to me at this point.
I wanted to try to get the lantern but even with the bookmark that doesn’t seem possible? I feel like I’ve missed something obvious since I’ve not gotten as far enough for the hints for this area to be relevant yet. Like another scroll?? idk.