Log Entry not showing in game

[zjw001]

 

Hi, guys

 

I really think this issue is caused by the save file, and also our wrong way of tesing the working in progress new made quest. I'll write what I tried and what I had in these days, to proof what I said, hope this could really help you.

 

Encounting the Issue:

• At the beginning, I started a new TestMod01.esp file to do my first quest, and I followed the official CK tutorial which having 7 chapters to teach you all the Quest Design Fundamentals.
• I finished all the previous 4 chapters and I always tested them in the game step by step. (Which means I always enable TestMod01 in the mod manager, and then launch the game for testing.)

• Before I went to the next 3 chaperts, and also in order to test the quest conveniently, I did save the game in front of the quest giver NPC's home. (Acutally, you already defined 5 stages in your new made quest in the first chapter, but not finished any quest log and stage objectives yet.)

http://www.creationkit.com/images/1/1f/QuestStagesTabSection.png

• I tried to finish the next 2 chapter, so I could start to test all the intential logic of the quest, then I met the same issue like your guys. In the game, After I finishing talking with the NPC and started the quest, I could not see any quest log and I could not use the quest marker function, the button is always in gray. (Please notice, I'm still always enable my TestMod01.esp file when I launching the game and I used my previous save to test the game. Since I think all the new changed content of the quest will be dynamic changed, also I believed that since the save file I made is also before I started any quest stages.)
• I started to find the solution until I met your guys in this page. :smile:

Fighting with the Issue:

• At beginning I tried all of your solutions in this page, but none of them are working for me. I even tried to delete all the content I made for my quest and redo everything, but still nothing working. (During these trying, I'm still always enable the TestMod01. esp, and I used the same save file to try.)
• In the weekend, I back to my own home (previous steps I did them in my office computer), I started redo the whole quest on my home's PC, as my new trying, but this time after all the steps, everything is working. (Actually, I always start the test from a save file not having any new quest or the quest related content, alias, and reference. But at that time I still not notice that. The reason I suddenly changed the save file for beginning the test, is because I failed to sync all the save file from steam but I really want to start to work.)
• Finally, everything is working and I'm so happy, then I start to be patient to sycn all the save file from the office computer, and delete some old ones, and use the newest one to test the quest and play the game again. (And the newest one is the one I saved in front of the quest giver NPC's home, the cursed one.)
• Then the issue come back again, and I really feel shocked. And another bad thing is, I've already deleted another save file which was working just one minute ago. But I realized this issue maybe not caused by the .esp data.
• So I started to do these steps to save my work:
• I disable my own TestMod01.esp and I launched the game. For sure I received a warning message saying I may miss some content.

• I loaded the save file, the cursed one.
• I'm standing in front of the quest giver NPC's home.
• I saved the game again, without my .esp file and any quest / quest related content. And I quii the game.

• I enable my TestMod01.esp in the mod manager again, and I started the game again.
• I load the new save file I just made, and I'm in front of the quest giver NPC's home.
• I started to talk the to the NPC and I started the quest, everything working again. Great!!!

 

Conclusions:

• When you working on a quest, espeially when you tesing your quest step by step during the process, try to always use a save file which is not including any quest content or quest related content, like quest stage, quest log, quest stage objective, quest alias, related NPCs, and their dialogs.
• I'm still not sure what's the detail reason in the game system, but the result really showing some logic and reference you've already done in a quest will be saved in a save file. And these stuff won't be updated dynamically after you updated your quest in the editor. The game and world will consider this quest has no log and no objective for you to mark from you wrong save file.
• So you should always test your new made quest and all the related content by using a clear save file. Which means, we should always introduce all the new added NPCs, Items, Locations, Alias, your new quest with all these reference and logic to the game system (or the game world) together and at the same time.
• This doesn't mean you could not work on your quest step by step, or test it step by step. You just need to avoid save the game with any unfinished quest content, and then continue to test the new quest change content with your previous wrong save file.
• We should apply this working rule to all the mod working process. Even when you working on a dungeon, looks like you could dynamic add any new content even you already save the game while you are playing a finished dungeon. But maybe you already created and hided some bugs in your system by doing this. Before we actually and precisely know how the save system and plugin system working, we need to do everything clean and clear.

I'm still not 100% sure what's the really precise reason of this issue. Maybe the stuff I wrote here is still super wrong, since maybe your guys encounter this issue by other reasons or steps. But at lease it's already working for me. I'll do more test and some new quest, in order to find the real missing reason or proof what I said to more real.

 

Thank you very much indeed. :smile:

you are a genius!!!! your post helps me a lot!!!Appreciate！！！

 

It's really happy that this could help you :)

[dysphorya]

I know this is an old post, but I wanted to add some additional information. I just replied to ZunaSW's post on the same issue (http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1012633-quest-script-log-entry-and-quest-objectives-not-working/).

 

I'm having exactly the same problem with my mod, which is quest-heavy. The first two quests work fine and queue from one to the next. They are dialog-heavy, and I've never had a problem filling the aliases or running the dialog ingame.

 

My third quest worked great for a while -- as I continued to edit it and approach the finishing pieces, though, it would reach a point where it would load exactly like your screenshot, above (empty Quest Log). About five times over the course of a week, I'd revert to an earlier version of the mod to start with a working copy of the quest, but each time I continued to edit it, it'd come to the same point where it would load with an empty Quest Log. To clarify my reply to ZunaSW, I didn't strictly repeat the same order and type of edit while testing where the quest would break: sometimes I hadn't edited anything in the Quest form or its Aliases, Objectives, Stages, Scripts, etc. I finally deleted the entire quest from my mod and recreated it. I just loaded it in game and even the brand new version is loading with an empty Quest Log. Note that I had recreated it with identical Quest Data, Quest Stages, Quest Aliases, Quest Objectives, and Quest Dialogue as the last working version (I ensured this with screenshots and pasted text file copies).

I forced the quest to advance through its stages to see more details (in console, "setstage [questname] [queststage]"). I discovered that my Global Variables weren't loading, either. Since the variables store counts of aliases, it looks like the aliases didn't load -- exactly what one of the earlier posters had identified.

Some Q&A I've found suggested that either the ESP or the quest form could be corrupted. Since I've tested my mod by (1) reverting to a clean, working version as well as by (2) fully deleting and recreating my quest and found the empty Quest Log in both scenarios, it doesn't seem like a corruption issue.

I'm going to test setting my aliases to optional to see if I can determine what was the root cause for my empty Quest Logs. If I can figure it out, I'll reply / edit this post.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE: I just set all aliases to optional and ran the mod (off a clean starting point save, as usual). Here are the results:

 

1. The problematic third quest's Quest Log populated!

2. The third quest's Initial stage Quest Dialog did not initiate.

 

I don't have any additional time tonight to troubleshoot, so it will be a few more days before my next update (hopefully, identifying what the root cause and ultimate solution was). I'll be sure to leave a final update to my post with the resolution that worked for me.

Edited December 5, 2013 by dysphorya

[RHodeidra]

if anyone is looking for an answer, this whole "optional aliasses thing" seems to work.

Hurrah !

[KiokothePirate]

Ok, so I was having many of the problems that have been discussed in this post. The log for my quest was blank, there were no quest markers, and an initially disabled NPC that was supposed to appear at the start of the quest was no where to be seen.

 

I've made the aliases for my quest optional and it corrected the blank log entry problem. However, there are still no quest icons and the npc refuses to appear.

 

Has anybody found solutions to the missing quest marker issue?

 

Edit: Not sure if changing the aliases to optional was the cause, but my game suddenly started crashing not long after beginning my quest. And I mean crashing hard, like have to cut power to the pc hard. But, the reason I'm not sure if the aliases was the cause is after removing the optional bit from the aliases, the crashes continued. And of course the log is now back to being broken.

Edited March 2, 2017 by KiokothePirate

[Hildigard]

Yes! Thank you!! That 'optional alias thing' worked for me either. I was struggling with that 'bug' for a quite long time.

Little advice - as above - don't spend XXXX hours working on your mod on one save

Peace!