I can honestly say that i'm on my second playthrough towards the end of the game and have not had this happen yet. I have also started talking to the Abbot and have just left the area as well. Not cool for those that this has happened to and the people not connected to Live so they too can get the fix.

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Why do Lionhead keep doing this?

I've bought 3 Lionhead games and not been happy, for one reason or another, with any of them.

Black & White - Had a save game bug which ruined approx 20hrs of Gameplay and creature development

Fable - Wasn't the game it was sold as. Peter Molyneux offered a general apology for not creating the game he described so well as being open and giving the gamer free choice. We got a Linear hack and slash with some magic and character development. Yes the / element was included but this game was a non-turn based (and less critically acclaimed) version of KOTOR and in my opinion, a big let down. We were sold on a more user friendly Elder Scrolls style game with masses of freedom and the / mechanic...magic. We did not get what we were sold.

Fable 2 - I ran into the Oakfield Abbot glitch and wasted 10+ hrs of my time and my original character. Very frustrating considering that this tries to ensure that you live through the game whatever your failings, you live with your decisions, hence the single save game per character. I'll be rushing through the (very ) story line and cut pieces and playing, essentially, a very different game to the one I spent so much time on already.

I really like the ideas behind the games that Lionhead produce but honestly thought Mr Molyneux would have learnt his lesson in producing unfinished products. My issue with Lionhead is not the type of games they make, the vision is brilliant, but the fact that they have not delivered on a single one of them in truth. We shouldn't expect to require patches to complete the game, we shouldn't expect to be mis-sold on what we're buying and we certainly shouldn't expect to find game breakers in every Lionhead game we buy.

Unfortunately, I now expect all 3 of the above. I'm not saying I wont buy another Lionhead game because ol' Pete will no doubt convince me that the next one will be "the" one. Why should I be made to feel like a sucker so many times over?

Just give us one update on when it'll be out, I mean "WTF!" Bugged since Oct 29th, released patch notes a week ago.

Split the patch and resolve the Abott issue first on a smaller patch, let us play and release the other patches over time, not just 1 big patch that'll prolly need a patch itself.

Give us an update, waiting long to play, might as well just restart now and lose everything.

Bring on Fable 2:The Lost Chapters.

I have just given up waiting on this patch and playing this game. I will NEVER buy another game from this company again. Microsoft is closing Ensemble Studios when they should be closing the doors to Lionhead.

 

Still nothing eh? The sad thing is I'm finally on Christmas holidays from exams, and was expecting after 2 months that they would fix it by now. *sigh* If I never get to play Fable from where I left off, I will never buy a lionhead game again. Womp womp, their so funny and creative,  and bugs are forgivable, but NOT fixing their own mistake. Not so forgivable. Lionhead, please help me forgive you

    I agree you'd think after a month and a half and guess what it's mid December still nothing. I just picked Fable 2 back up from my game pile to play and now this. and I can't really retart cause I merged with my pub games file which i had unlocked all bonus items so I'd lose those as well as all progress. My concern though is my problem isn"t an unresponsive Abbot, hell I can't reach the Abbot with an unresponsive immortal, unmovable monk whom I can"t slowtime/assassin rush past blocking the door. has anyone else got this, a ToL monk is just standing in the door way he won"t respond to expressions so I can"t make him follow. He can't be push away he can"t be killed and my last attempt ws targeted slowtime suggested by my girlfriend and still won"t work. I've tried leaving and coming back. Have turned the system off multiple times, tried evasive rolling past him, resting for hours and then days, everything I could think of. If someone else has a similar problem please say if you do and if you've found a work around.

    Also I find it funny ( in the bad way) that they still don't have an arriva date for this patch but they certainly do have an eta on their dlc expansion pack worth around 12$. Which I will certainly not be buying after this. So you can bet the dlc is higher on their priority list then a bug fix that won't make them money. Makes sense I guess...

Just downloaded an update today, I'll see if its fixed.

There's an update?

Well that would be almost 2 month after I bought that game for the full price and I could play for 2 days until it freezed. The supportlady told me to insert the disc every day to check if theres an update... that would have been around 60 times checking and not receiving an update. It's a shame that they never felt the need to keep us (their customer and therefore moneygiver) informed. I never came over such a bug in my whole gameing history and I know that me and my team would get our ass on fire if we would let our customers wait that long.  Lionhead please don't forgett that I already payed for the game. Well all in all I just hope that if I insert the game this evening that I will be able to go back to albion.

No update here, he must be talking about the coop hotfix, I guess.

I've had this glitch for a couple weeks now, right around the time of Sam's last update on the blog on 12/03.  Since then, not a word.  I really want to get back to this game.

Christmas is just around the corner, I bet that the patch will most likely be til next year.

Jeez, Lionhead really has some screwed up priorities.

Seriously, I just got back from Uni hoping to see this problem solved...but not a single thing has changed to make my game any better

Whats up with when we're getting this patch...by the time it comes out I'll be back at uni at this rate and wont be able to download it!

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Ok, so does anyone know what is going on?  This is getting out of hand now.   There has been little, if anything in the way of community updates.  There were rumors of a patch mid-December...Is there a patch coming at all?  I don't want to restart and put up with the first hour of gaming all over again.  Most of my stats are maxed out, I own all of Bowerstone and Oakfield...it just doesn't make sense.   I'm am disgusted with Lionheads general 'who gives a f**k' attitude.  We deserve better; at last some sort of update to keep us out of the dark. 

Heh, heard a rumour that the "patch" created more bugs than it fixed and as such, they scrapped the patch nad started anew on Dec. 9th.

Just a rumour though but you never know with LionHead.

I just started a new profile...easier, but gonna keep the original so I can get back on it when they are done with it.

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Christmas day, not a word from anybody up to now. Heh.

I recieved this games as a present for christmas and have encountered this glitch, at first i thought i had missed somthing, but after exploring for 3 hours and looking at many guides for a solution to my problem irealised it was a glitch. Its unbelievale theres no patch for it.

I also received this game for Christmas and now I have the problem. I don't think it has anything to do with listening to him talk, since I did that. Now, I'm stuck until there's a patch for this issue that has been around since late October. If there's a Fable 3, you can forget me buying it. Lionhead just bought themselves a spot on my "Crap" list with Sony and Chevrolet. Congratulations.

I agree. I have run into this same problem and it is really frustrating because i don't want to start over when I have collected almost all the treasures and stuff before the Monk's quest so I will just be waiting for the update that lionhead will hopefully come out with SOON!!!

I'm still waiting for this Abbot quest to be fixed. I'm assuming there is still an issue that has been left uncorrected and we have no estimated time of correction?

This is majorly disappointing. I really want to play this game but all I can do is travel back and forth between Bowerstone and Oakfield.

I did figure out how to traverse the two towns even with the bridge out so at least I can purchase furniture in Bowerstone...Oh wait, there's no furniture available in Bowerstone for some reason.

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It matter not how strait the gate,
how charges with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
-Invictus

How did you get back to bowerstone with the bridge out? That would at least give me a little something to do while waiting for patch. Any help would be appreciated.

Actually a solution of getting back with the birdge out would be really really helpful! If you could tell us how you did that would be most appreciated

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 Thanks for the emails guys, I didn't realize it was an issue. I started a new thread, hopefully it'll be useful.

http://community.lionhead.com/forums/permalink/3271067/3271067/ShowThread.aspx#3271067

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It matter not how strait the gate,
how charges with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
-Invictus

Is it mid-december yet?

I really just want my money back at this point. I would have returned the game to the store where I bought it if I knew it was going to take this long. As a self employed software developer myself I find this totally unexcuseable. If I wrote software like this I would not be in business long. I understand bugs and situations occur that aren't foreseen in development but no update on when the patch will be out is baffling to me. People/clients deserve some respect and don't deserve do be left in the dark. Like I said I just want my money back, and don't expect me to be buying anymore games from Lionhead Studios based on the experience with this game.