Quest items not appearing - not being given - not being recognized

[kadath]

Ok, I'm at my wits' end, and I hope someone here can point me in the right direction. Sorry for the wall of text, but I'll try to be as detailed as possible, as the problem really seem quite odd (and I'm a TES player since Daggerfall, I'm quite used to bugs :laugh: ).

I had a relatively issue free game 'till now, ~100 hours mainly spent doing the various city quests (I'm keeping the faction storylines, MQ and DLCs for last) and messing around with the added content from mods. However I'm beginning to notice that several quests are becoming glitchy for me: it's always related to quest items and how the game handles them.

At first it was the Gauldur Amulet fragments: the game didn't recognize I had picked the second one up and the quest didn't advance. Those fragments are known to be glitchy however, so I wasn't worried. Then the quest from the Khajit caravan guard to recover the Moon Amulet in a cave: no quest marker to the cave, and guess why? Because the amulet wasn't generated in the chest and thus the quest marker had nowhere to point to. Even Mehrunes' Razor quest was a bit odd, with the quest markers pointing back to Dawnstar after I recovered the first piece, and the quest objectives not updating when I recovered the other two before coming back: it all went fine though, although in the end I had those other 2 quest items stuck in my inventory (nothing new under the sun for Skyrim).

Now, however, I'm encountering the same kind of issue in several of Riften's misc quests: Alessandra's Dagger, for instance, isn't given to me after the dialogue in the Hall of the Dead, when I find Reyda's body in Ivarstead the game doesn't recognize when I pick up her amulet from her satchel, and the second quest for the Temple of Mara is just like Alessandra's: Yngvar doesn't give me the "Love Poem" book, although the quest does advance and points me to Faleen; adding the poem via console lets me continue, but then again, Faleen herself doesn't give me her letter to Calcelmo.
Wylandriah's items had a similar issue: no quest markers on the map (the objectives did appear in the journal though, and all three of them could only be activated or deactivated together, don't remember if that detail is how it's supposed to be), and the quest didn't update when I picked them up. Bringing them back to her, however, still worked.

EDIT: Just noticed the same happened with the Lexicon from the Unfathomable Depths quest too: the disturbed argonian gives me the quest but not the actual lexicon item. And this seems like a bad one, since the receptacle at the end of the related dwemer ruin won't activate with a lexicon added via console. :confused:

 

While some of the aforementioned items are known to give similar troubles from time to time, usually when picked up before taking the actual related quest (the Gauldur fragments, Wylandriah's items, Reyda's Amulet), for all the other ones there's no mention of recurring bugs of the sort in any online wiki.

 

As you can see, the issue is always related to quest items, either not being generated, given by an npc or recognized by the quest when picked up. So as first thing I looked into Tes5Edit to see if those specific items or related quests had some conflicts between my mods (I obviously suspected item and quest related mods, like the crafting overhaul or cutting room floor): several had no conflict at all and others are at worst green "conflicts" (usually with the unofficial patch).
I then saved just before bringing the poem to Faleen and went the old route of disabling mods in chunk to see if I could spot the culprit. Nothing. Now I've even tried to disable every plugin, DLCs and unofficial patches included, made a clean save (as clean as such a save could be anyway, still I also removed all the orphaned scripts with the save editor) and tried again (with and without SKSE, and even starting from before the whole quest is taken): no luck.

I really don't know what to try next: given the aforementioned behaviour, I guess it has to either be a script issue (It's lingering in the save, even after being cleaned) or somehow a vanilla bug that's not - as far as I could find - well documented online (which seems quite unlikely though). The only similar thing I found were bug reports from 3 years ago about an issue caused by the Cidhna Mine quest not completely closing, which isn't my case (I still verified just to be sure).

Please note that this doesn't always happen (although it's gotten worse now in the Riften area): I pretty much cleared every unaligned city quest except for Riften, which I kept for last, and I'm also the thane of every other city (except Windhelm which needs faction quests). So I've had many similar quests working fine, recognizing the items, giving them to me when intended and so on. Most of these cases are easily - although annoyingly - solvable with the console, but as they begin to happen a bit too often for my tastes, and during quests that usually (AFAIK) don't have common known glitches, I'm worried some longer questline might break where the console won't be able to help.

EDIT2: Eeeeyup, happens with the main quest too. When I get to Delphine after looking for the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller the quest does advance and points me to bring it back to the Greybeards, but I don't receive the actual horn from her. Yet everything worked fine just a bit earlier with Klimmek's supplies (which are received through the same dynamic, although something under the hood might be different) while doing The Way of the Voice. I begin to suspect I'm screwed. :dry:

 

My game is indeed heavily modded (~200 plugins + a few texture/model replacements), but carefully LOOTed, BASHpatched and so on, based upon the STEP core guide and maintained with Mod Organizer, with a few additions here and there, mainly followers (and AFT), houses, outfits, the usual body, armor, NPC, animation replacers et similia. The only major additions to the STEP core are a couple things like Immersive Creatures, Climates of Tamriel, Deadly Dragons, no real big "overhaul" when it comes to gameplay mechanics, locations or quests. I do have a few NPC replacers, but they don't touch the mentioned quest givers/receivers.

 

In the spoiler, more walls of text the load order:

 

Skyrim.esm

Update.esm

Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp

Dawnguard.esm

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp

HearthFires.esm

Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp

Dragonborn.esm

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp

Skyrim Project Optimization - Full Version.esm

ApachiiHairMales.esm

MFVM.esm

ApachiiHair.esm

ClimatesOfTamriel.esm

Lanterns Of Skyrim - All In One - Main.esm

FoxHome_X.esm

OblivionHairPackAIO.esm

Obl-VB hair.esm

ApachiiHairFemales.esm

RaceCompatibility.esm

Skykids.esm

SK TheEyesOfBeauty.esm

SK Drow Child Race.esm

SK Monli Race.esm

Cutting Room Floor.esp

DD_Dragonborn Additions.esp

RaceMenuPlugin.esp

Disease Descriptions.esp

DreamBurrowFloralHeadAccessory.esp

Auto Unequip Ammo.esp

BTRH_Ysolda.esp

KarliahArmor2.esp

AsharaPrinceOfTheWoods.esp

VioLens.esp

ClimatesOfTamriel-Interiors-Warm.esp

SK OblivionHairPackAIO.esp

Sovngarde Steel Armor and Weapons.esp

Brows.esp

BTRH_Muiri.esp

BTRH_Elisif.esp

BarenziahQuestMarkers.esp

Northgirl.esp

DD_Dawnguard Additions.esp

ClamsDropPearls.esp

DeadlyDragons.esp

UNPetite - Leather Clothes.esp

SK ApachiiHair.esp

ClimatesOfTamriel-Nights-Level-2.esp

The Eyes Of Beauty - Elves Edition.esp

Chesko_LoreBasedLoadingScreens.esp

DYNAVISION Dynamic Depth of Field.esp

When Vampires Attack.esp

DawnguardRuneWeaponsFXSReplacer.esp

Dead Body Collision.esp

ClimatesOfTamriel-Dragonborn-Patch.esp

Dual Wield Parrying_SKSE.esp

Elwyn - YuiH StandAlone Follower.esp

MBWSYNFollowersAct2.esp

BTRH_Sorine.esp

BTRH_Camilla.esp

ProperWeaponScale.esp

KS Hairdo's.esp

HentaiVoidArmor.esp

CalienteVanillaArmorTweaks.esp

DK_Armor_By_Hothtrooper44.esp

83Willows_101BUGS_V4_LowRes.esp

Slightly Reduced Distance NPC Greetings.esp

AFT_NoFriendlySpellDamage.esp

SPTConsistentOlderPeople.esp

monli preset2.esp

NonEssentialChildren.esp

Elemental Staves.esp

ORM-Arvak.esp

KKSDrBWeightFix.esp

UNP Boots 04.esp

Merta Assassin Armor.esp

Paralyze.esp

Point The Way.esp

HearthfireChimneys.esp

BTRH_Lisette.esp

SkyKids - NPC Replacer DB.esp

BTRH_Valerica.esp

RaceCompatibilityUSKPOverride.esp

Traps Make Noise.esp

RaceMenu.esp

RaceMenuPluginXPMSE.esp

Rainbows.esp

RealisticWaterTwo.esp

Skyrim Immersive Creatures.esp

Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp

Weapons & Armor Fixes_Remade.esp

Weapons & Armor_TrueOrcish&DaedricWeapons.esp

Clothing & Clutter Fixes.esp

KKSDGWeightSliderFix.esp

ADS.esp

NoldorArmor.esp

Complete Crafting Overhaul_Remade.esp

Poet.esp

HearthfireMultiKid.esp

MFVM_Hearthfire_Patch.esp

RV markers.esp

HearthfireMultiKid_LastName.esp

FCO - Follower Commentary Overhaul.esp

AmazingFollowerTweaks.esp

SBF All In One + DLC.esp

BTRH_Jordis.esp

BTRH_Iona.esp

BTRH_Ingjard.esp

BTRH_Aranea.esp

BTRH_Rayya.esp

BTRH_Serana.esp

BTRH_Brelyna.esp

BTRH_Frea.esp

BTRH_Lydia.esp

BTRH_Mjoll.esp

SK ApachiiHairFemales.esp

SkyKids - NPC Replacer.esp

SkyKids - NPC Replacer HF.esp

ClimatesOfTamriel-Dawnguard-Patch.esp

AOS.esp

DeadlySpellImpacts.esp

IHSS.esp

AOS2_CoT3_1_patch.esp

AOS2_DSI Patch.esp

AOS2_RealisticWaterTwo Patch.esp

BTRH_Beleval.esp

SamuraiArmor.esp

Serana No Hood.esp

Soul Gems Differ.esp

ShootingStars.esp

UNP Boots 02.esp

BTRH_Delphine.esp

SkyUI.esp

Skyrim Immersive Creatures - DLC2.esp

RealisticWaterTwo - Legendary.esp

Run For Your Lives.esp

RiversideLodge.esp

MammothManor.esp

LeafRest OnePiece.esp

Elisdriel.esp

Ayfertehuis.esp

TrissArmorRetextured.esp

HillHouse.esp

SofiaFollower.esp

The Paarthurnax Dilemma.esp

Gildergreen Regrown.esp

R18pn - Shanoa Armors.esp

Gwelda Armor Pack.esp

Light Elven Armor.esp

R18Pn - Eisen Platte Armor.esp

Appropriately Attired Jarls Redux.esp

Sotteta Necromancer Outfit.esp

Tembtra Thief Armor.esp

TradeBarter.esp

UNPetite - Fence Net Body Set.esp

Unique Uniques.esp

AOS2_WAF Patch.esp

Ursine Armor Pack.esp

YuiH StandAlone Follower - Merura.esp

Companion_Ari.esp

SBF Serana v2.2.esp

Sara.esp

Sotteta Huntress Armor.esp

dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp

AOS2_EBT Patch.esp

Improved Combat Sounds v2.2.esp

dD-DG-DB-Immersive Creatures EBT Patch.esp

dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Realistic.esp

dD-No Spinning Death Animation.esp

fFastTravelSpeedMult_4.esp

fox29 Armor.esp

iHUD.esp

imp_helm_legend.esp

Kamille.esp

My Home Is Your Home.esp

JaxonzEnhGrab.esp

Ish's Souls to Perks.esp

Emfy Cleric Robes.esp

WestWindMisfit.esp

NightsWatchArmorLight.esp

TheEyesOfBeauty.esp

sandboxcylinderheight.esp

_Imokko.esp

Osare Culort Outfit.esp

Amiella Outfit.esp

GDZZJJDH.esp

monli preset1.esp

monli preset3.esp

Bashed Patch, 0.esp

SK Armor Swapper.esp (It's ok for this to be after the bashed patch, it's an armor patch to ensure the various vanilla clothes are converted to fit the non-potatoheads kids)

So, before I get a well deserved arrow in the knee for this obnoxious wall of text, is anybody familiar with this kind of issue and has suggestions on what might be the cause?

Edited February 5, 2015 by kadath

[kadath]

Sorry for the shameless bump, but this time checking the papyrus log after having one of these issues (mentioned in the second edit, when Delphine should have given me the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller) right before quitting the game I might have found a good trace. Scripts are a bit beyond me though, as such I hope someone will be able to point me in the right direction.

[02/05/2015 - 10:56:05PM] ERROR: Cannot call Enable() on a None object, aborting function call stack: [MQ105 (000242BA)].QF_MQ105_000242BA.Fragment_57() - "QF_MQ105_000242BA.psc" 
Line 418
[02/05/2015 - 10:56:05PM] ERROR: Cannot add None to a container stack: [ (00000014)].Actor.AddItem() - "<native>" Line ? [MQ105 (000242BA)].QF_MQ105_000242BA.Fragment_57() - "QF_MQ105_000242BA.psc" 
Line 419
[02/05/2015 - 10:57:09PM] VM is freezing...
[02/05/2015 - 10:57:09PM] VM is frozen

Seems like the vanilla quest script is failing to identify the needed quest item, which returns as a null object, and obviously can't be added to the player inventory in the next line. As for the reason why... :ermm:

Edited February 5, 2015 by kadath

[Edsh0t]

Sorry for necroing this post, but I'm having a similar problem, in which quest items simply won't spawn in my world. It started straight away in Whiterun, with the missing Argonian Ale and that guy's sword. NPC's can still give me quest items, but items out in the world simply won't spawn. Maybe its the immersive weapons or immersive armors?

[RevolverCC]

Not sure how much value I can add to this but it sounds like a scripting issue. I've experienced intermittent scripting issues due to too many mods that overhaul the scripting system. It MAY be worth modifying your Skyrim.ini file with Cheskos recommended Papyrus memory tweaks to see if they resolve the issue (they helped my scripting system at the very least)

 

First, try using the default settings, if they have been somehow changed.

[Papyrus]

fUpdateBudgetMS=1.2

fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=1.2

fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0

iMinMemoryPageSize=128

iMaxMemoryPageSize=512

iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=76800

In order to increase the amount of CPU time and memory given to the script system, you can try the following. This may increase performance.

[Papyrus]

fUpdateBudgetMS=800.0

fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=800.0

fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=2000.0

iMinMemoryPageSize=256

iMaxMemoryPageSize=512

iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=153600

If that does not seem to fix the problem, you can try this as well. This is mostly a default configuration, with extra time given to the Update Budget values.

[Papyrus]

fUpdateBudgetMS=20.0

fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=20.0

fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0

iMinMemoryPageSize=128

iMaxMemoryPageSize=512

iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=76800

 

 

Source: https://sites.google.com/site/skyrimsurvivorseries/frostfall/troubleshooting

Let me know if it helps.

[TheBxushis]

i have completed the Gauldyr amulet Quest, but when i try to use it, it is automatically removed from my inventory, but any follower can use it normaly. can someone with time help? thanks and sorry for my bad english.

[SunshadowSniper]

Anyone found a fix for this? I am having the same problem checked papyrus log and showing the same exact thing.

 

Edit: Also adding said quest items (the blank lexicon and the sphere from septimus) the sphere works but the lexicon receptacle will not take the lexicon so I can't do the puzzle to get the scroll

[01/09/2020 - 03:00:45AM] Error: Cannot add None to a container
stack:
	[ (00000014)].Actor.AddItem() - "<native>" Line ?
	[DA04 (0002D512)].QF_DA04_0002D512.Fragment_2() - "QF_DA04_0002D512.psc" Line 184
[01/09/2020 - 03:00:45AM] Error: Cannot add None to a container
stack:
	[ (00000014)].Actor.AddItem() - "<native>" Line ?
	[DA04 (0002D512)].QF_DA04_0002D512.Fragment_2() - "QF_DA04_0002D512.psc" Line 185
[01/09/2020 - 03:01:13AM] VM is freezing...
[01/09/2020 - 03:01:13AM] VM is frozen

Edited January 9, 2020 by SunshadowSniper