[LE] Quest no longer starting

[staalo18]

This issue is still unresolved. Please see my new post below. The original post was moved to the end of that new post to make the reading easier.

Edited November 27, 2022 by staalo18

[staalo18]

I have to come back to this issue. I have some ways to work around it, but none is reliable. Any help is much appreciated!

 

The issue: When I load my fully functional ESP into the CK, and then save it without edits, one of the quests will fail to start (it even cannot be started via console commands). In another variant of the issue, one of the other quests is still starting, but the aliases do not get filled.

 

I have used xEdit for debugging - here are my findings:

 

When I copy any (or all) of the FormIDs from the broken ESP into the functional ESP, the functional ESP continues to be functional. Except if I copy any of my quests from the broken ESP into the functional ESP. That breaks the functional ESP.

 

FYI here is the procedure I use for copying entries from the broken ESP into the functional ESP:

 

 

• Load the functional ESP into xEdit.
• Select "Compare to" (right mouse click on ESP), and compare to broken version of the ESP.
• Select formIDs in the broken ESP, right click and "Copy as Overwrite (with overwriting info) into..." the functional ESP
• Confirm Overwrites
• The resulting ESP will continue to work in all cases, except if any of the quests has been copied

 

 

 

As I said, in case I copied any of the quests, the ESP will start to show the issue I described above. But, when I compare this modified ESP with the original one ("Create delta patch" in xEdit), they are absolutely identical - xEdit shows me no differences!

 

I understand that they are identical. After all, I copied a quest into the ESP which was unchanged between the ESP versions (the broken ESP was generated via saving the functional ESP in the CK without edits).

 

But I do not understand why in the original ESP the quests work fine, while in the new version the aliases do not get filled.

 

For your reference, here is the content of my original post:

 

 

I am currently working on a mod, and I've met a strange issue which so far I was unable to debug successfully. In short, my mainquest no longer works after I load the ESP into the CK, and then immediately save the ESP without any edits.

As said, after this "Non-Edit", the mainquest of my mod is no longer starting. It used to start when the player reads a certain note in the game. That does no longer work. The mainquest also no longer starts when I try to start it via console with 'setstage mainquest 0', 'startquest mainquest' or 'resetquest mainquest'. In all these cases a "getquestrunning mainquest" yields '0.00'.

I did not have this issue until a few days ago. And the mainquest still works as long as I do not do any edits of the ESP. But once I load and re-save my esp in the CK (without any edits!) it stops functioning.

 

Surprisingly, when I make another edit, the mainquest works again. In this "Edit" I am removing a script from a quest alias (not an alias of the mainquest!), and then add the script back to the alias (ie final state is identical to initial state).

To repeat what I observe:
- ESP "Version_N": mainquest starts normally. Also behaves normally after "Non-Edit".
- ESP "Version_N+1": mainquest starts normally. After "Non-Edit" the mainquest no longer starts. After "Edit", the mainquest start again.

I compared 'Version_N+1 - Non-Edit' with 'Version_N+1 - Edit' with TESVEdit (via "Create Delta Patch"), and they are essentially identical. The only difference is in some bytes (in a category named "Unknown") of some object references and packages. I think these differences may be unrelated to my issue, because I've also made the "Non-Edit" in earlier versions of the esp, which do not show the issue, and I see these byte changes also occuring there.

Now the real challenge is that my latest version actually is N+2, and so far I was not able to find an edit which would fix the non-starting mainquest issue. The "Edit" I describe above does not work for Version_N+2...

I am completely at loss at what might be screwed up here, as the corresponding esp's are almost byte-identical.

Does this ring a bell with anybody here?

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by staalo18