Thieves Guild quest 'Speaking with Silence' renders player blind, but only in 2.0.2

[IncKursion]

Completing the quest Speaking with Silence blinds the player permanently (cue 'and in the game!' jokes). This only occurs in the newest 2.0.2 patch, not in 2.0.1a.

 

The quest features a dungeon crawl through Snow Veil Sanctum with Mercer. At the end of the dungeon, the player is incapacitated by Karliah, which is followed by a scripted scene in which the player is stabbed by Mercer. When the player is stabbed, a unique 'fade to black' visual effect is applied. After a loading screen, the player is sent back to the outside, and their vision is returned to normal.

 

In 2.0.2, a few in-game hours after the quest is completed, the 'fade to black' visual effect replays without ever fading in again, leaving the player blind. I tested this three times; I played through the quest in 2.0.2, and then skipped ahead 24 hours. Within a minute or so of the game resuming, the player is blinded. This happened in all three tests.

 

I then rolled back to 2.0.1a, played and completed the quest, skipped ahead 24 hours, but no blindness ensued. I again tested this three times, all three times the quest ended with eyesight intact.

 

There was one change I noticed between the two versions (which may or may not be related). When the quest ends, Karliah is talking to the player in a small camp next to Snow Veil Sanctum. Once the conversation is finished, in 2.0.1a Karliah remains at the camp, but in 2.0.2 Karliah walks back into the sanctum. Could Karliah's re-entry into the sanctum be causing the visual effect to be re-applied? A dodgy quest stage trigger? This would seem to correlate with the time delay between the quest ending and the blindness setting in; it takes time for Karliah to walk to the end of the dungeon. (From memory, having played this quest 2+ years ago, Karliah is meant to remain at the camp and not go back into the sanctum, but I could be wrong).

 

I noticed there were a couple of Karliah/Mercer references in the 2.0.2 patch notes, so I'm not sure if fixing one bug has caused another? I'm not very good at looking through the scripts I'm afraid. I can work around this issue easily enough by using 2.0.1a, but hopefully the above will let you track this issue down.

[Arthmoor]

It would hardly surprise me that fixing one bug uncovered another that was lurking. It's happened before, though in this case I can't find a reason for it. Nothing should be sending her back in there at the end of TG05 like that. All of those quests should be stopped by that point.

 

We're going to need to see the save game for the one that fails so that we can track down what might have happened here. You can upload that into the "Files for Fixes" area, and we'd also recommend posting an actual tracker entry for this as well to go with that so that it won't get lost in the churn on the forums.

[Arthmoor]

FYI - Hotfix for 2.0.2a is up now which addresses this issue.

[IncKursion]

Wow, thanks for the quick response! I was just getting ready to get the save file together, but I assume since it's fixed you don't need any more details. I'll be playing through it again with the new patch, I'll post here if anything goes awry. Thanks again!

[IncKursion]

Just replayed this quest - no blindness now, thanks again! However, during the cutscene in the sanctum when the actual intended blind effect kicks in, there's now text in the top left stating 'Still boned? Sucks don't it!'. I admit, it made me smile

[Arthmoor]

Oh, really? Crap. I forgot to remove the debug text

[Nico coiN]

Let's call it a humoristic easter egg !

[alt3rn1ty]

Just replayed this quest - no blindness now, thanks again! However, during the cutscene in the sanctum when the actual intended blind effect kicks in, there's now text in the top left stating 'Still boned? Sucks don't it!'. I admit, it made me smile

Oh, really? Crap. I forgot to remove the debug text

 

Aha, thats what that was .. I didnt catch it quick enough, I saw BONED and thought WTH! 

 

No blindness going on here though so another confirmation of the fix 2.0.2a

[Incohatus]

Oh, really? Crap. I forgot to remove the debug text

 Oh so that's what it is then. I thought it was another mod (enhanced blood textures to be specific, not sure why I thought of that though). By the way, I have the 2.0.2a and haven't experienced the blindness.

[NightStar]

The debug message was removed with USKP 2.0.3 which is currently in beta.

[Dazric]

Does the update fix the bug even if I've already finished the quest?

[tyrel68]

does it really matter after the quest? it should never show again

[Arthmoor]

Yes, the update fixed the issue even after the quest was over. Considering that's the only way you'd even know you were affected