I first tried to solve the riddle it by myself - but I couldn't. Then tried to follow the walkthorugh - didn't work either.

I have a feeling it is simulated internally by some finite state machine that doesn't get properly reset despite displaying the message "SAFETY OVERRIDE. PROTOLS RESET. MEMORY ERASED" - if it were the case terminals behavior after the reset should be identical each time, it is not.

OK, to anyone reading this thread: once you connect to the terminal content of the flash memory is AUTOMATICALLY COPIED. You don't need to press the COPY button.

Problem is, the message telling you the protocol was copied is animated and removed the moment it is properly displayed, it makes it difficult to read, so it is easy to miss the action already took place.

Is there any clue that would lead to the solution. Or is it just trial and error?

I have to admit, that for some strange reason, this took me longer than it should have. For some reason it took me a lot of trial and error before I realised you had to copy the coolant system back, so I tried every combination of stuff from panel 1 to panel 2 before I finally realised that stuff you copy is simultaneously deleted!

So I was working on the assumption that there was simply some kind of order one had to place the items, so that the thing couldn't potentially go critical on the dodgy reactor's end.

It doesn't help that the terminal you copy stuff from doesn't look like it's actually attached to a reactor, so it didn't really make sense you had to keep that end stable or anything.

The idea that you are actually MOVING the files as if they were physical objects, as opposed to just copying them like you would in a real-world file system situation, isn't immediately obvious. It doesn't help matters that the game contains a few other computer systems where stuff is actually copied rather than moved, so this bizarre behaviour is kind of inconsistent with the game world IMO.

This is definitely not the first game to treat computer files as physical objects, but every time a game does this it kind of bugs me.

It would have been a totally different story if those components were physical objects that were literally being moved, either by buddy or via a crane or something, and not just code components.

Yeah that's what I thought it was doing - I didn't expect it to delete them from the place I copied them from, because that's not normal behaviour for software. It's also not obvious that the place you copied them from requires any of them to be there - the fact I could only copy a couple of them initially, I took as meaning that you had to have certain things (such as coolant program) in place at the destination first, because otherwise it might be possible to cause a meltdown if you for example mess with the control rods without any coolant program in place.

I guess it was possibly also a tad more annoying than it could be because buddy isn't the fastest bot around, and it seemed like I had to click a couple of times to get him to speed up, and even then he'd start slow, slow, then zip along covering most of the distance, then slow, slow... I can understand that after getting this wrong a few times, some people might get a bit frustrated.

I really love the game... indeed so much, that I bought it for myself and gifted it twice here on gog... but this puzzle is just stupid in my opinion xD Sorry for the rude words... what is a fox hen grain puzzle?! Just googled it... sorry, I guess we have something similar in germany... but not that I would know about... but how these programs shouldn't come along with each other on the flash drive?! WTF... xD how should you get a clue, when the programs come along well on the first terminal?! But not on the second?!?
...and the fact, that the controls (especially of Buddy) aren't very smooth or exact (due to a fix following camera) made this puzzle even more annoying.

I like the soundtrack and the whole atmosphere of the game... but a missing questlog gives me really a hard time knowing what to do in the game and not just running around and checking all maps for green markers (the questmarkers only made it better so little) ... when I don't play it a day or two, it's really hard to go through all the dialogues and get an idea of my objectives.

Sorry for the negative points I mentioned, it's just my opinion, others may like it. I play the game for the very interesting lore and great atmosphere as well as for the nice isometric graphics and the amazing soundtrack.

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Just encountered this, and I have to say: The thing about the Fox/Hen/Grain puzzle that *works* is that there is some human-discernible logic that explains why you can't leave the fox, hen, and grain together. That's what makes it solvable.

But there's no logic that explains why these programs can't be in the same proximity with each other. So that's why this puzzle is trial-and-error.

If there's some in-game explanation I missed that explains why coolant system programs and control rod programs can't hang out together, or what have you, then I'd love to know.