PDA

View Full Version : Tihocan Centaur bugs - possible solution at last


stellalune
12-30-2008, 05:27 PM
I know there are about a million centaur threads here and elsewhere. The adrenaline dodge has been described and screenshotted and game-videoed to death, but people still seem to struggle with the bug in which Lara will not grapple or pick up the shields and/or the subsequent bug in which the player loses control of Lara and has to shut down the game.

I'd like to put forth a potential solution to both bugs. This isn't my discovery. It was sent to me by a PS2 player named Janine. If you've experienced either of these bugs, I hope you'll try this out and let me know if it works for you.

I paraphrase what she wrote here:


When fighting the centaurs normally, I could not grapple either shield. So, I tried the alternate method—getting a lock on one centaur, swimming down the underwater tunnel and waiting for its health bar to disappear completely. This happened very slowly, but eventually the first centaur did die.


I then swam up to the surface and found that, although centaur 1 had disappeared, I could not pick up its shield. So I began to attack centaur 2 by avoiding his green ray and adrenaline dodging him.


At this point, the fight music had stopped, and centaur 2 was still making a throwing motion at me but with no fireballs being discharged whatsoever.


I found that if I stood near centaur 1's dropped shield, centaur 2 did not seem to harm me (charge me, run me over, etc.). So I did all my 'fighting' with centaur 2 while standing on centaur 1's shield. Doing this both protected me and avoided the 'loss of control of Lara' bug from occurring.


When centaur 2 used the green ray against Lara, I stayed near the shield and crouched to avoid being petrified by the ray. At first I thought the loss-of-control bug was activated when centaur 2 turned Lara to stone if you didn't crouch quickly enough, but when I used the strategy of staying near the shield, I did actually get turned to stone once and was able to break free without activating the bug. So I think the key is where Lara stands.


When adrenaline dodging centaur 2, it was enough to stay near the shield. The shield was on the left part of the arena near the corner in the back (as Lara gets out of the water and faces the flames) and I think staying in the left corner generally means you can play on without the game freezing. I think moving to the centre or right side of the arena (as Lara gets out of the water, facing the flames) might activate the bug that causes Lara to freeze.


I thought that, seeing as I wasn't able to grapple centaur 1's shield, I would not be able to grapple centaur 2's shield. This was not the case. As long as I attacked centaur 2 standing on or near the first shield, I was able to attack normally and grapple the second shield, eventually killing him.

I've never experienced either bug in the PC game. So I eagerly await your feedback.

Ol.a
12-31-2008, 10:02 AM
I had no bugs defeating Centaurs, so I can't really have an opinion.
The trick of hiding in the underwater tunnel didn't work for me either,
because after 20' minutes in the cave, the Centaur's health bar was stuck in the middle and it just stayed there, no more moving..
So, I gave up and went to fight the Centaurs face to face.
(Sorry about my english).
Good luck with this..! :)

Love2Raid
12-31-2008, 05:12 PM
Hi Stella! :)

I have got only the pc version of TRA and have beaten those centaurs quite a few times. I have never encountered a bug when fighting them though, but I must say I have never tried the 'hiding in the cave' technique......:hmm:

Hope this helps in any way!

stellalune
01-01-2009, 07:06 AM
Thanks for the replies. I'm glad neither of you had trouble there, but I'm primarily interested to hear from people who have encountered these bugs, in case this work-around may help them.

I'm not too worried about PC gamers, since I don't think these bugs even occur on the PC, and it's easy enough to just load someone else's save file if you're unable to do the adrenaline dodge. My hope is that Xbox 360 and PS2 players who can't grapple the shield and/or experience Lara freezing up so the game has to be rebooted will read this and find it helpful.

__________________
Regards, Stella

Stella's Tomb Raider Site
The definitive, highly detailed and fully dressed TR walkthroughs!
http://tombraiders.net

stellalune
10-21-2009, 01:23 PM
I've got another update on this, in case anyone's interested. Again, this is not my discovery but comes from another player, pArTyb0y, using the Xbox 360 game. He said that even though he was using the correct controls, he was not able to do the adrenaline dodge succesfully--not here and not previously when fighting the T. rex.

So, he asked around and someone on the GameSpot forums suggested that he go back to the beginning of the City of Vilcabamba level, where the adrenaline dodge is introduced in the tutorial with the bear, and instead of just fighting the bear any old way, be sure to actually do the adrenaline dodge. pArTyb0y tried it and, sure enough, when he got to the T. rex, the adrenaline dodge worked as it should. He played on to Tihocan and was able to use the adrenaline dodge to beat the centaurs as intended.

This is actually a very old discovery that I'm ashamed to have filed and forgotten. :o But lately I've been replaying this section and came upon my old notes. This isn't exactly the same problem as the grapple issue, but hopefully it'll help someone.

Lawrence Croft
11-06-2009, 03:47 PM
Wow,

"THE" actual Stella has graced us with her presence, Awesome!

Pleased to finally meet you.

Those Centaurs were a pain even without any bugs so I won't waste time commenting on them except to say the cave trick works, although not quite the same way as depicted in the walk through.

When Centaur #1 died, I saved the game. After re-loading the saved game, Centaur 2 had its own health bar, but I had to go back to the surface, then return to the cave at which point Centaur #2 eventually died.

Weird.

I could not defeat them using regular method unless it was in easy mode.

---

Guess what.

I went back and fiddled around with that scenario again and sure enough, Lara got turned to stone, and when I "broke out of it" the program lost control of Lara, none of the keys worked except for Pause and Inventory.

I was standing pretty close to the center of the lawn when it happened, if that's of any help.

Had to Quit and restart the level.

I could see where that would seriously P some people off.

stellalune
11-07-2009, 08:34 AM
Hey, LC. Nice to meet you too. :D I actually lurk here quite a bit but don't post much unless I've got questions...or answers. Lately there hasn't been much going on.

In any case, thanks for your centaur feedback. May I ask which system you're using?

Lawrence Croft
11-07-2009, 06:17 PM
PC.

I played TR1 on Playstation many moons ago, and have been on the PC ever since.

You have like all 3-4 platforms? Is that right? Must be nice to be able to cross reference all that info.

Yeah, kind of quiet around here between games. I heard Lara is on holiday and was last spotted water skiing in Canne, but you can never be sure :)

Nice work on the web site. You are like the guru of TR.

stellalune
11-08-2009, 05:55 AM
Thanks again. :)

I don't have any type of PlayStation, PSP or Macintosh, but I've played all the classics on PC and the newer games on PC, Xbox 360 and Wii. Plus, people with other systems are always sending me their feedback. That helps a lot.