Problems with Counterfeit Monkey ...Bugs? [Maybe SPOILERS!]

Hello all,

I’m having a few problems with Counterfeit Monkey, two of which I’ve got through but which still seem like bugs, and one of which I still need help (a tip) with. I cannot believe they could really be bugs, as they surely would have been noticed before now (they’re not at all obscure), so I suppose the problem is at my end, though I can’t think how that could be (probably the nut behind the wheel; it so often is ).

I’m using the Zoom interpreter on an Intel Mac Pro running OS X.9 Mavericks.

The problem which I’m still stuck on is this:

If I create the car anywhere but next to the farmer, I can’t persuade him to come and help me when I go all girly and helpless about putting oil in the car, so I can’t go any further. (Wouldn’t this render the game unplayable? I certainly couldn’t get any further, though that doesn’t mean much ) Then, even when I do create the car next to him, and he does help, I get this result repeatedly:

give oil to farmer
You get the attention of the farmer.

“Will this work?” We hold out the oil.

“Should do,” he says. Rolling up his sleeves, he goes to work on the car. There is no small amount of banging and muttering, but finally he stands back and announces that he believes it is now in working condition.

After that exchange we find we still have the oil and the car still hasn’t any oil in it and consequently won’t start. Also, you can keep typing “give oil to farmer” over and over again and get the same response, and still wind up holding the oil.

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Transcript:
——————————————————————

enter car
We get into the car.

start car
Though the engine does briefly turn on, there’s clearly something wrong with it, from the unpleasant noises and the flashing lights on the dash. Perhaps it needs oil.

i
We are carrying:
some oil
a May
some asparagus
a lime
some plans
a letter
a roll
an arm
Guidebook to Anglophone Atlantis
a jotter
a backpack (open)
a tub (closed)
a flash drive
a monocle
your S-remover

give oil to farmer
You get the attention of the farmer.

“Will this work?” We hold out the oil.

“Should do,” he says. Rolling up his sleeves, he goes to work on the car. There is no small amount of banging and muttering, but finally he stands back and announces that he believes it is now in working condition.

i
We are carrying:
some oil
a May
some asparagus
a lime
some plans
a letter
a roll
an arm
Guidebook to Anglophone Atlantis
a jotter
a backpack (open)
a tub (closed)
a flash drive
a monocle
your S-remover

give oil to farmer
“Will this work?” We hold out the oil.

“Should do,” he says. Rolling up his sleeves, he goes to work on the car. There is no small amount of banging and muttering, but finally he stands back and announces that he believes it is now in working condition.

ask farmer about oil
The farmer thinks for a moment, then apparently decides not to answer.…

The other problem I had, seemingly a bug (and which I circumvented by getting the oil), was that I didn’t have to exit the car to start walking, and the command ‘drive’ made me start walking (instead of making me drive, or throwing an error). If I get into the newly-made car and then type “drive car to counterfeit monkey”, instead of saying something about needing to start the car, it lets me walk there without even getting out of the car, and I get stuck behind the protesters at High street as usual.

I got past this problem myself by typing “start car”, which is fine, but still I can’t help wondering if it’s a bug. Has anyone else noticed it?

==================================
Transcript:
————————————————————

enter car
We get into the car.

drive
What do we want to drive?

the car
What do we want to drive the car?

drive car to counterfeit monkey

Then we have a quick walk out of the cocooning silence of the wealthy streets and back among the fair booths over to High Street.
Unfortunately the sidewalks, which were never very wide to start with, are so blocked by the mass of protesters that it’s impossible to get by. Besides, if we associate with them, we might wind up getting arrested on minor charges anyway. We need some kind of automotive transport.

High Street
Hustle, bustle, dirt; ugly American chain shops; lots and lots of people. There seems to be a large organized protest in progress: protesters completely cram the sidewalk to the southeast.

The curb is lined with garbage.

To the west, the street turns into a monumental staircase leading to the old fortified area; a cross street heads southeast towards the main roundabout.

From a loudspeaker nearby comes the electronic sound of simulated bells ringing the hour after noon. It’s later than I thought. We’d better get a move on.

l
High Street
Hustle, bustle, dirt; ugly American chain shops; lots and lots of people. There seems to be a large organized protest in progress: protesters completely cram the sidewalk to the southeast.

The curb is lined with garbage.
/
To the west, the street turns into a monumental staircase leading to the old fortified area; a cross street heads southeast towards the main roundabout.

go to car
It’s an invigorating climb up the Monumental Staircase, with the view of the sea getting better and better as we go (but of course looking requires stopping to gaze back over our shoulder).

Next we make the quick walk away from the crowds and the fair and over the top of the old walls.

Hesychius Street
As the street names make obvious, this part of town was laid out in a different political age, when it was considered more important to commemorate linguistic richness than to standardize practices.

On holidays like today, this street is often host to a farmer’s market; though it is now late enough in the day that most of the farmers have given up and gone home, taking with them their twenty-three varieties of pickled olives, their loganberry jam, and their pigs’-feet-in-aspic.

One remaining farmer lazes here, watching his stall.
Our car — a sub-sub-compact that looks like it might be outraced by a kid on a scooter — is parked illegally nearby.

================================

Does anyone have any ideas or comments about these issues? Especially the one I’m stuck on?

Lachlan

Ah. The bug here is that it shouldn’t be possible to give the oil to the farmer; you should be seeking out a different source of assistance.

Re the second thing, it is automatically making you get out of a car that doesn’t work. This is confusingly described, I agree.

It might be worth noting that if you create the car in the wrong place, you should be able to uncreate it and carry the necessary materials to the right place where you can create it again.

Another source of assistance … hmmm … I’ll have another poke around then.

Thanks for replying,

Lachlan

edit: Well, I’m stuck and I need a hint from some sympathetic soul.

I’m feeling exceptionally dense at the moment, not being able to get past this point. I’ve tried creating the car in every spot I can think of, outside the parents’ place, next to the protesters, even in the church and the youth hostel (which last was amusing; the desk attendant was transmogrified from female to male in order to get under the bonnet of my car with his sleeves rolled up). However, I am still + one tin of oil and - one working car.

Everybody tells me to look in the guide for garages, but I’ve searched unsuccessfully for them under the names: garage, service station, petrol station and also (and I don’t really know what Americans call them, so I’m guessing here) gas station, auto station … and I’m sure it must be a red herring by now.

Without undoing? I thought you could only remove letters with that remover thingy, not put them back again afterwards. I shall go and try that out directly.

Lachlan

edit: Well, it seems you can’t put the letters back with the remover thingy. How on earth can you uncreate it? Do you mean by saving before you create it and then undoing?

You should have a tub of restoration gel – that’ll undo any changes you’ve made as well as changes that got made before the game started.

In response to your other question: The word you need is “garage.” Go around looking carefully looking for something, anything, you could turn into a garage.

Restoration Gel, of course! God I feel like an idiot. Thanks very much for the tip.

Lachlan