f$#*!@ Rikke (Infamous Civil War bug?)

[Looca]

Rikke doesn't seem to appreciate my continued efforts to capture Fort Dunstad. I've done that bloody mission five times now and while I do get the reward every time, Rikke won't give me any new objectives after that. The dialogue option "Reporting for duty" doesn't show up and the quest "Reunification of Skyrim" doesn't update.

 

Thing is, the fort quest itself isn't going according to plan either. I can never complete the objective "Join the Men Attacking the Fort". The guys are there alright, but they don't acknowledge my existence. Nevertheless I can go on ahead and kill all the Stormcloaks on my own, then the quest regarding Dunstad is completed.

And that's where I get stuck.

 

Load order.

 

 

Skyrim.esm

Update.esm

Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp

Dawnguard.esm

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp

Dragonborn.esm

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp

ClimatesOfTamriel.esm

No NPC Greetings.esp

SM_Sound_Cancel.esp

SkyUI.esp

LessIntrusiveHUD.esp

Immersive Weapons.esp

Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp

Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp

SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esm

3DNPC.esp

Killable Lootable Children.esp

Breezehome_Fully_Upgradable_DG.esp

BreastlessArgonianfemalesDawnguardDragonborn.esp

DerkeethusRetex+Combat.esp

No Dragon LODs v2 full.esp

DeadlyDragons.esp

Soul Trap Redone.esp

Brevi_MoonlightTales.esp

No Magic Ninja Dodge - No DLC.esp

The Paarthurnax Dilemma.esp

Dragon Combat Overhaul.esp

Dead Body Collision.esp

Civil War Overhaul.esp

Inigo.esp

ArtifactDisenchantingMerged.esp [the three plug-ins from "Artifact Disenchanting" merged into one]

BoundWeapons.esp [made by me to extend the duration of Bound Weapons just a bit]

MergePatch.esp

 

+ SKSE 1.7.1

 

 

 

What I've tried:

- use the cooking pot thing at the camp (apparently that's a thing that sometimes works for people)

- wait for 30 days in a different cell (Breezehome)

- attack Rikke until she goes down then talk to her

- attack Rikke then yield

- turn into a werewolf, run away, wait and go back

- un-install "No Permanent Essentials" as it supposedly doesn't get along with CWO

- load save from before the Dunstad quest

- exhaust all dialogue options with Rikke and (for good measure) Tullius

- talk to the quartermaster (who keeps dying)

- survive dragon attack (about 12 of them now, that place is apparently dragon country), wolf pack attack and Silver Hand attack

- clear nearby cave and return

- put on ridiculous Imperial armor

- click all the flags on Rikke's map

Console commands:

- "setstage cw 4" as suggested on the CWO page

- "setstage cwfortsiegefort 10/50/9000"

- "resetquest cwfortsiegefort"

- "disable/enable" Rikke

- "moveto player" on Rikke

- "setstage cwmission07 9999"

 

I googled, obviously. It would seem that this is a vanilla bug, though I suppose mod conflicts could be causing it as well. Or, I don't know, some higher power.

What I haven't tried is doing the quest "Season Unending" because I wanted to get the whole war business over with before dealing with the World Eater (naturally). "The Fallen" is active with the current objective "Speak to the Jarl of Whiterun", if that makes any difference, although I could complete the quest with the Stormcloak courier with that active.

Also, I didn't just leave Rikke be to do other quests for a while because I'd like to continue the war stuff and don't want to spend time doing other things on the off chance that it'll fix her.

I just hope I'm missing something simple here because I'm kinda close to punching a baby seal.

[Looca]

Addendum, I guess. I did now go and do some other quests (for lack of alternatives or solutions right this moment), find word walls, bounties, random deliveries, some Companion quests. About 3-4 hours of gameplay. Went back to Rikke to see if she'd changed her mind but no dice.

Still don't feel like going through Season Unending, a) because it's boring and b) because I shouldn't have to due to a bug.

 

It may be of interest that I had set my timescale to 10 via console but reset it to default (20, right?) to try and solve the issue. I'm not sure if it matters.

 

(Also, I realize that I can edit my posts but why not bump the topic while I'm here.)

[Looca]

I finally caved and started Season Unending to see if that would help at all since I'm slowly running out of other things to do.

So now I have created a new problem for myself, somehow: Ever since I told Ulfric to move his lazy parts to High Hrothgar, I'm getting loading screen lockups. Game doesn't crash, it just freezes for a few seconds and then goes on.

I am having so much fun right now I could explode into a ball of sunshine.

 

Edit: Freezes resolved by reboot.

...now Odahviing and the others are trying to kill me after my return from Sovngarde for some reason, why do weird things always happen when I'm surrounded by dragons.

Edited January 6, 2015 by Looca

[AaronOfMpls]

Do you have the Unofficial Patches installed and loaded in the correct order? This sounds like the kind of thing they might fix.

 

You might not even need to start a new game, either, as long as the fixes involved aren't marked [NR ("Not Retroactive") in the changelog. The changelogs are long pages, though; Ctrl-F (your browser's "search this page" function) is very much your friend on those.

Edited January 6, 2015 by AaronOfMpls

[Looca]

Do you have the Unofficial Patches installed and loaded in the correct order? This sounds like the kind of thing they might fix.

Skyrim.esm

Update.esm

Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp

Dawnguard.esm

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp

Dragonborn.esm

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp

Not sure if correct order but there you go. From the beginning of this game, too.

Patch makers are not magicians, unfortunately. I'm getting the impression Bethesda was dead set on screwing this one up.

 

If I can get around all the hostile dragons on the TotW (I... don't suppose anyone knows about that?) I'll check Rikke and Tullius and everyone in the world again and then possibly throw myself off a mountain.

 

Edit: Alright, reloaded, defeated Alduin again and this time the TotW dragons didn't want me dead, yay. But then it was a full moon and I turned into a werewolf so I'll have to wait since I know Rikke doesn't take kindly to these kinds of shenanigans.

 

Edit #2: Oh FFS. It's still broken. I went and spoke to Tullius who was at least happy about the Rift thing but Rikke... argh. I... yeah, no. All I got left is incessant swearing and angry mumbling.

In other news, the Imperials aren't moving into Fort Dunstad either, even though that quest is marked as completed and Rikke gave me the reward for it. Nothing lives there now. Nothing and no one. It doesn't even appear on Rikke's map (should it?).

 

#3 Tried using the CWO MCM to just win the damn Pale. Okay, Rikke left the Pale Camp and went Shor knows where, Tullius congratulated me and made me Praefect, Imperials showed up at Dunstad (finally) and... my quest log still tells me to "Regain the Pale". Did I just make it worse? Quest marker is pointing to the Pale Camp but no one in particular and when I move Rikke to me, nothing. Just wanders off. Reach, I'm guessing.

(I did "setstage cw 4" after using the menu as suggested.)

 

I've come to the conclusion that I'm being incredibly stupid in some way but, since I'm stupid, I don't know how so I need someone to point it out to me.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Looca

[Looca]

Oh no. Just... no.

So here's what happened. Because nothing worked and I got tired of trying, I did this:

IF EVERYTHING ELSE FAILS

setstage cwoapollofixme 10

 

but that probably won't help.

It did help up to a point. It finished "Regain the Pale" automatically so sadly I didn't get to battle for Dawnstar but alright. Next I went to the Reach Camp and finally Rikke let me "Report for duty". Sent me to Fort Sungard. This time I could complete the objective to "Join the men", we stormed the place, quest completed and guess what.

 

She's doing it again. There must be something wrong with my game (or me), though I've tried finding something with TESVEdit and the only mods modifying the war - as far as I can tell - are the USKP and CWO (and if either of those were causing this, people would know, considering the popularity of both).

At this point it seems all I can do is use console commands to advance and that is not the damn point of installing CWO (which I did before starting a new game, btw, just in case anyone was wondering).

[DarkCheap]

Did you reported to your superior? like asked "How is the war going"? I had this bug as a stormcloak, and couldnt get more missions until i asked ulfric that topic like 5 times

Edited January 8, 2015 by DarkCheap

[Looca]

Yes. I think Tullius started questioning his decision to recruit me into the Legion after the 12th time but considering he likes repeating himself as much as I do, maybe it didn't bother him.

In other news (once again) I've given up, i.e. I started a new game, watched the cart horse turn into a goat and climb a mountain, then did the sensible thing and disabled most of my mods until after Helgen.
I have anger management issues.
Though I suppose if anyone knows a reliable solution, since this bug does seem to pop up every now and then, why not post it. (OP maybe also gives a nice summary of silly things to do to try and fix it. :| )

 

 

Edit.

 

Ahaha no. Stop it, Skyrim.

(At least Rikke is working in this new game of mine.)

Edited January 9, 2015 by Looca

[mozare]

Guys, any fix?

[QueenHollyAlice]

One of the most tragic things I've ever read... and experienced. For probably the 4th time (?) a game's progress has halted mid-civil war, right at the end of A False Front. I've tried everything commonly suggested short of Season Unending (only did that once ever, to experience it, and Tullius never stopped bitching about the compromises I made. Never again...). Mission-related console commands are becoming notoriously unreliable for other things as well, such as Thane quests, which also frequently get stuck. Half at my wits end with these devastating bugs in crucial parts of the game.