Moraevik

I think sajuukkhar is spot-on, here. Remember that you can meet shout-using draugr in this game long before you have the ability, yourself. Fortunately, draugr aren't exactly masters of the Thu'um, and as sajuukkhar said, their elevators don't reach the top floor. Most of them even have petty or lesser souls, so they aren't really NPC-level at all. If the few shout-users in the game were truly as gifted as the Dragonborn, the world would be a very dangerous place for the normal people who come into contact with them, and many of the dungeon quests would no longer make any sense. As for combining shouts against Alduin, I was actually rather disappointed to find out that nothing would happen until I shouted, and then the other other three shouted ... whenever. It wasn't "combined" into a single super-shout at all. It was just four, disjointed shouts triggered in sequence by me pressing my "Z" key. Edit: Our posts crossed, Promiser. You're wrong about draugr only having Unrelenting Force. Some of them have other shouts, as well ... notably Disarm, which is particularly annoying because I've managed to lose several powerful and very valuable enchanted weapons because of that.

This is probably not mod-related, since it happens in the vanilla game all the time. My suggestion is that when you're following an NPC don't get too close. If you get within "contact range", they'll stop and wait for you to interact with them, and this can cause a well-known and long-standing situation where the AI stalls out. There are a number of solutions. Interact with them. Open your console and click on the NPC. Move off in the direction he's supposed to be moving. Just a short distance will do. Type "moveto player". Bump into them, repeatedly, if necessary. If you have the Unrelenting Force shout, use it on them. Be careful around cliffs, though .... Click on them in the console. Type "disable". Hit your <Enter> key. Type "enable". Exit the console. Click on them in the console. Type "resetai". Exit the console. Save your game. Exit to the main menu, or even quit Skyrim completely. Load up your new save. I've found all of these will jump-start stalled NPC AIs, but not each and every time for every solution. One solution I've never tried, but it might work as well is to click on them in the console. Type "recycleactor". Exit the console.

The trip on Odahviing is just a standard transition with a load screen. That's all ... disappointing, I know. You still need to inform us of your mod load order. Nobody is going to have a clue what mod(s) might be causing issues for players unless those players let us know what ones they have running. Probably over 90% of issues people report with Skyrim are mod-related, so including a load order listing should be considered standard m.o. for getting help with problems.

There's no way to fix it unless you give us a list (including load order) of the mods you have installed. Alternately, disable all your mods and make a clean save. Then do it right and enable your mods one by one, testing to which of them causes this glitch. Then contact the author of that mod for a solution.

It sounds like you've caught the infamous "brawl bug". I suspect you have a mod that uses a "cloak" to do something -- like head-tracking or something of the like. Check out the following mod for a fix: Brawl Bug Plugin Note that this might not solve the problem. The authors of the mods which use cloak-like effects must support this plugin or it does nothing, so it's up to them to support the plugin's features.

That about sums up the brain-dead AI in this game, Promiser. Good job on that one. Maybe ridicule, rather than griping, would get Bethesda's attention and get them to put a little more effort into crafting a better AI for the next ES game. It can be done. Look at modder-created followers like Vilja (Oblivion) and Cerwiden (Skyrim) for examples of what can be done without even changing the game engine code. Seriously, though, the AI in Skyrim, even more than in Oblivion, suffers badly from ADHD. Only the smallest thing can distract an actor from its appointed duties. How many times have you gotten too close to an NPC who was in "lead mode", only to have that person turn around to face you, and then forget what he was doing (namely leading you to somewhere)? How many times have you engaged a dragon, only to have the big lizard fly off and go aggro on something a mile away, and then fly off, never to be seen, again? The problem currently persists even with the "good" followers where the modders have put some effort into their AIs, since they still rely upon vanilla AI routines. I got my butt whipped recently when I pressured a Thalmor patrol into attacking me. My follower at the time was Cerwiden, arguably (to some, but not to me) the best-crafted follower in the game at this point. I needed her in the up-coming battle, but as soon as it started she discovered a nearby wolf and proceeded to run off to battle it, while I had three Justiciars chewing at my hind-fat. This is the vanilla AI for you: "Oh, lookie! A shiny. Must ... get ... shiny!"

You guys might try posting your mod load orders so we can take a look and see whether or not you might have some mod that is causing these problems. Both modded and un-modded, I've never experienced these issues with this quest. If you're missing parts of the environment, then your save game, if not your game, itself, is broken. Mods are usually to blame, here, although pirated games can be extremely buggy, too. My suggestion is to disable ALL your mods, load up your save game that shows that issue. Save the game, again. Quit Skyrim. Load up your newly-saved game. See if the problem persists. If it doesn't, then you can be almost certain you have a mod conflict. Then add your mods one at a time until you find the culprit and then talk to the developer of that mod about the problem. If the problem persists then your save game, if not your Skyrim install, is nerfed.

Short answer ... no. Long answer ... by being a user of Oblivion you have agreed, whether you knew it or not, to a legally-binding contract that states that you will not use any Oblivion-related material in any other game or mod. You may not import from or export to, any Elder Scrolls game resource. This is why, for instance, the game Nehrim, which was created by modders and runs on the Oblivion engine does not use ANYTHING from the original game of Oblivion -- no meshes, no textures, no scripts, no sounds ... nothing. If this seems a bit draconic, it really isn't. Not all the resources in an Elder Scrolls game belong to Bethesda. Some of these were licensed for one-time use in a specific game. Bethesda doesn't have the right to allow anyone else to use them in another game.

And now you know why you shouldn't grind smithing, echanting, and alchemy to level up. Be patient and use your survival skills, so they keep in pace with your character level or you'll find yourself being used as a punching bag by just about everything you meet. It's known in gaming as "efficient leveling" and is based upon avoiding those things which artificially level your character without also leveling up the skills you need to solve problem -- like a band of Forsworn intent upon adding your head to a trophy rack. I don't: Grind Smithing Grind Enchanting Grind Alchemy Use any standing stone that increases leveling with any skill Read skill books Use trainers Sleep As a result I keep my leveling down to a relatively slow crawl and my survival skills keep in pace with the strength of my opponents. Things still fall apart above level 30, though, but that's just because the game really doesn't deal well with levels in the mid-to-high range and the player will quickly become a killing machine relative to anything the vanilla game can throw at him.

You need to explain to your fiance that playing tricks like that can actually lead to broken games as the poor person the trick was played on tries different things in a desperate attempt to fix the "problem". If anyone screwed with my game like that, it'd be out in the doghouse for that person, and I'd invite the dog inside to live with me. At least he doesn't know enough to play practical jokes with my Skyrim install. Anyway, back to seriousness. The mod I'm using is Skryim Unlimited Rings and Amulets. It's been reported to have an issue dealing with multiple items of the same base type (such as two or more gold rings, even if they're enchanted and renamed), and your character doesn't actually display all of them. That could be an issue with the game engine. A similar mod in Oblivion had the same problem. Unfortunately, this mod may no longer be supported. It's been months since its creator posted to his comments thread, and questions and issues have gone unaddressed in that time. It does work, though, and seems to cause no conflicts with any other mods. If all you want is to be able to wear multiple rings and amulets, and you don't care that they no longer appear on you in 3rd person view, then this is a great mod.

I wonder if Dawnguard could be the culprit. I have no idea to what extent this DLC impacts the vanilla game, but I know it does add things. Perhaps the devs fiddled with the wildlife, too. Do an experiment. Disable Dawnguard and make a clean save. Go back to an area where you know you're seeing more than the expected number of bears and see if they're still all spawning there.

I had a similar problem, although it could be the reasons are quite different. I dis-enchanted the Robes of the Way, one of the items that comes with the mod "Way of the Monk". I put that enchantment on a Silver Amethyst Ring, and renamed the ring to "Ring of the Way". Upon equipping the ring it did, indeed, give me the full benefit of the original robe. I have a mod that allows me to wear unlimited rings and amulets, although I restrict myself to one amulet and five rings, just to keep things a little more "honest". I needed a different ring at one point and swapped out the Ring of the Way for it. Here's where it gets odd and is related to your problem. I always check in my active effects to make sure that something I just donned is actually giving me the buff its supposed to. When I did, the buff for the Ring of the Way was still there and active, but it was indicated as coming from "Silver Amethyst Ring". Experimenting with the situation, I put the ring back on. Now the buff appeared twice, both for Ring of the Way. Removing it left the buff there twice, but for Silver Amethyst Ring. I found that I could stack the buffs at least four deep before I got frustrated and followed a hunch. I unequipped everything ... stripped down to my undies. All buffs from items were gone. I've no idea what was happening with this, since I've never encountered anything like it before, or since. Anyway, you can rid yourself of the buff with the console. Type "help" followed by a space and followed by the exact name of the buff as it appears in your Active Effects. This should give you at least one line with an ID in it. If there's more than one, you're looking for a line that indicates it's a spell. Now type "player.removespell <ID>". That should get rid of it.

I sometimes can't see what's on the first shelf, so enjoy your view from above, hex77x. I'm currently playing as a Khajiit female and have a mod installed which adjusts NPC (and player) heights according to race and gender. I think I probably have one of the shortest adult characters in the game, so I'm not experiencing the issue being discussed here -- with this character. I have seen this with other tall characters, and as Dan said, this is the way almost all games handle the 1st person view -- by moving the eye level to the center of the chest. It's wonky and I really don't understand why modern game engines can't handle a true first-person perspective, but we just have to live with it.

Potential spoiler follows.

I've never had this sort of problem with no mods installed that affect the spawning of wildlife. I suspect you have a mod that (a) increases the spawning rate and/or numbers of animals in the wild, and (b) levels them to the player (which is why you're not being overrun with skeevers and wolves).

The Helgen issue has been endemic to ES games since at least Oblivion, where an entire city (Kvatch) was laid to waste and never rebuilt, even though it had a history of rebuilding after disasters. It was up to the modding community to come up with mods (two, I think, although there might have been more) that rebuilt Kvatch. The Temple district of Imperial City was left in shambles after the Oblivion Crisis, and the Bruma Mages Guild burned forever. Bethesda simply doesn't bother to "clean" up after these things, apparently thinking that players won't ever go back to those places and wonder why nobody has done anything about them. Beth didn't learn from Oblivion. It's back in Skyrim. Helgen never gets rebuilt. None of the cities impacted by the Civil War ever get rebuilt. Modders are fixing these issues, and I use a mod that restores the cities that come under siege. I even think there's at least one project underway to rebuild Helgen. In a way I can see how the developers might shy away from a "Helgen Rebuilt" project, since to make it make any sense it would have to be done over time, with little things being fixed at appropriate intervals. Just deleting the destroyed city and dropping the (almost) complete initial version into the game would be immersion-breaking for sure. Plus, much of "intact Helgen" really isn't functional, with some of the buildings just being props, rather than actual buildings. It's still a start for an enterprising modding team, though. The Kvatch mod I use in Oblivion was a huge project with the player involved in various quests related to the rebuilding of the city. We need something like this for Helgen.

If you're on a PC, just navigate to your save game folder, create a new folder with the name of your old character, and move all the save games for that character to the new folder. When you start your new character, the save games won't overwrite or even overlap in any way and you can always restore your old character from the "archive". I have eight of my previous sets of save games (out of twenty or so play-throughs) saved in this way so I can revisit those old characters at a later date.

Well, Dawnguard uses the same game engine as the main game, so I doubt that mesh and texture replacers are going to cause any problems unless Dawnguard writes information to the Mesh and Texture folders that overwrites or is overwritten by any mods you use. That would be a stupid way to install a DLC, but ... OK, I won't say it. Same with clothing mods. In fact, any mod that works all by itself with vanilla Skyrim should be OK. I really don't know how much of the vanilla game that Dawnguard impacts. Perhaps none of it, but if it changes even a little tiny thing this is going to conflict with mods that use that thing -- or change it, themselves.

Absolutely launch the game with no mods the first time. It's actually a good idea to disable mods when starting a new character, too, since some mods can play badly with the opening scenario. That said, I don't do it and haven't had any problems with new games. I can't speak for anything Dawnguard, because I don't have it, and will not be getting it until Bethesda get the worst of the bugs ironed out in post 1.5 patches and Dawnguard, itself. SKSE -- yes SkyUI -- yes I can't imagine running Skyrim without those. ScriptDragon -- I'm a little leery of this one. It doesn't get updated as promptly as SKSE and this can cause problems, as it did for me. I'm currently not running any mods that require it, to my knowledge, although I have an older version of it. Body Replacers -- of course, except I can't really find one that suits my taste -- normal proportions on both male and female characters, not slighting the beast races, textures without bad neck seams, proper nipple placement on females (one of my pet peeves with current mods, since they make female characters look ... deformed). Where is Robert? Your body mods for Oblivion were so awesome! Apachii Sky Hair -- most certainly. Re-meshes and re-textures are going to be OK of course. I can't really recommend any because I'm not currently using any. I'm still looking for a magic overhaul that doesn't go overboard and unbalance the game in favor of mages. Anything that gives you craftable arrows, if you're going to be an archer (like I usually am). I'm currently playing with Way of the Monk, and I'm having a blast with it -- unarmed and unarmored and carving my way through Skyrim. You can't do that in the vanilla game -- at least not for long. At this point just about anything else could conflict with Dawnguard, especially any sweeping remakes like the magic overhauls. I'd be very cautious, make sure the mod has been tested for awhile with Dawnguard, and even then only install one mod at a time and thoroughly test it with your setup.

It might help to post the load order on your mods (not just a list of the mods, but the actual order that the game loads them). Otherwise, nobody is going to have a clue what's wrong.

Those. Also you might click on him in the console and then type "resetai". The simplest (and safest) solution is to save your game. Exit Skyrim. Start it back up again, and then load the game you saved. This refreshes all the AIs and will usually jumpstart a stalled NPC.

Nope. You don't have to stealth your way through the Boethiah quest. Heck, just for grins I took Barbas on that one in one play-through. No stealth with him -- or pretty much any follower, for that matter. Anyway, AnkhAscendant, you're right about the DB quests. If the boss lady wasn't such a douche, and if we had more information about the contractors, themselves, I might do that one more often. As it is, I generally opt for the "Destroy The Dark Brotherhood" quest. I still get some shrouded gear (arguably the best light armor in the game) and the quest-locked word wall, and those damnable random assassins quit pestering me on the road. I do miss Babette. Cute girl ... um, old lady, rather. The thing about the DB quests, at least most of them, is that, as you said, avoiding a bounty can take some thinking and some real planning. Timing can be critical, and you sometimes need a Plan "B", because Plan "A" might not always work. These quests are, I think, the most challenging of the game if you're actually playing a sneak-assassin, rather than a tank-assassin. I think I've done the entire DB quest-line six times, maybe seven -- I don't remember exactly. I can't say that every mission went without a hitch, but I've never gotten into trouble with the Law because of one of them. It takes patience ... sometimes scoping out your mark for a couple of days to figure out the best place and time to strike. That's a breath of fresh air in the plethora of charge-in-kill-loot-plunder missions that make up most of Skyrim's quests. Some of the Thieves Guild quests were well done, too, I think. The one that most strikes me as suitable for sneak-thieves is when you have to tail the Argonian (Gulum-Ei). That one can be a real challenge, especially if you're aiming for a "surgical strike" without being detected and with minimal bloodshed.

Brandy, when you have a situation where an NPC's dialog is broken you can try two things from the console: (click on character then type ...) resetai If that doesn't work then, (click on character then type ...) enable disable One of these will generally jump-start a stalled AI. If they don't, then just make a save. Quit your current game. Load the save you just made. This forces the NPC to "respawn" and usually sets him back on-track.

No, you don't get to kill the various jarls during the Civil War campaign -- well, except for Ulfric, and you don't have to do the dirty deed, yourself. My guess is this is to insure that you get snide remarks whenever you get near them -- something which irks me to no end. You'd think they would be in exile, yes? Like not even in Skyrim. But, no. They're happily (or maybe no so happily) sitting at the table and stuffing their faces full of food in what is actually a hostile environment, seeing that they are now living peacefully among the victors of the war, but should really be treated as traitors because they actively supported the losing side.

Sorry none of those ideas helped you. It's really odd that setting the stages didn't work, but I've seen bugs just as odd (and even more odd) crop up in Skyrim. A lot of them aren't repeatable, so chalk it up to Uncle Sheo playing mind games with us. I didn't realize that entering the cave prematurely will start the quest. I'd be interested to see if you can complete it normally by doing that. I can't speak for the situation regarding the thaneship. Like you, I've only done this quest before becoming thane -- not out of any real priority, but just because it becomes available to me before that and I hate having quests queue up in my journal. I really can't imagine how that would affect the quest, though. Good luck with your solution. Consoling my way into a quest-locked dungeon would be my very last option, because it can nerf things up pretty badly in some cases.