Jump to content

Markarth thane quest setting itself to stage 200


Opalescentnanomachines

Recommended Posts

I've experienced a bug in several playthroughs where I can't become thane of Markarth. Google and experimentation tell me the quest to become thane (favor250) is setting itself to stage 200 and becoming stuck there. Setstage can't fix it, and neither can resetquest. The only option is going back to an earlier save and using setstage to complete the quest manually; it seems that the more quests I do in or around the Reach, the more likely it is to lock itself out, but even doing only quests from the hold steward doesn't prevent it, so by the time I've met the requirements to become thane, I can't; the dialogue for helping 5 people in the Reach will never appear (I can still get Vlindrel Hall, though). So far what causes it to set to 200 seems to be random; for example, fast traveling to Whiterun caused it. Once it's set to 200 the quest is impossible to complete and the Dragonborn can't become thane.

If this is a mod conflict, I can't find it, but if you need my mod list, let me know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Opalescentnanomachines, welcome to AFK! :)

The mod list in a spoiler tag would be nice.

From what I read, it's not looking good. Let's hope that it's just a mod that's causing it. One or more of the game variables has got out of whack. Have you ever used console commands in a previous unrelated situation prior to saving the game?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome :wave:

 

Gonna need more information. There are specific requirements to get to the "help my people" stage. Have you met them?

 

In order to receive this quest you must first aid the current jarl. If the jarl is Igmund, then you must complete Find Hrolfdir's Shield first. Note: in order to get Igmund to give you the Find Hrolfdir's Shield quest you must first do some mercenary quests given by both the Jarl and his steward. If the jarl is Thongvor, whether he was installed via Season Unending or The Battle for Fort Sungard then the completion of the quest that installed him is sufficient to fulfill the prerequisite.

Then you must buy the house. I have never once had an issue with Thongvor after winning the civil war for the Stormcloaks.

 

What "help" quests have you done that you believe the favor quest is becoming stuck? Are you helping people and the "x/5" count just isn't incrementing?

 

Have you ever enabled papyrus logs to see if it's throwing any errors? Post your latest log.

 

(also noteworthy; around here we cringe when people say they use console commands to bypass issues ;) )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for helping, all!

 

I don't use console commands routinely, except to check things (getstage, etc.) and to try last-resort fixes for seriously broken quests. I do not know how to enable papyrus logs.

 

Near as I could narrow down, as soon as I'd done any quest that would qualify as favor quests counting towards the 5 needed, it would either lock out immediately by setting favor250 to stage 200, or that would happen at any random point after that, following otherwise innocuous events (the aforementioned fast traveling to Whiterun). It first happened after I did the quest for the Sybil of Dibella and in the process "befriended" the priestesses. There's no outward sign that it's happening; I usually have to use getstage to monitor whether it's randomly set itself to 200 or not.

 

I have met all requirements for the thaneship quest, including purchasing the house. I tried going back to much earlier saves several times and just making sure to do those specific quests -- killing forsworn, getting Hrolfdir's shield, etc. -- with the aim of becoming thane. The issue is that the dialogue option that starts the thaneship quest never appears -- I can purchase the house, but I'm never given the "help 5 people" quest before or after that. It flat-out just won't appear despite that I've met all the requirements.

 

Here is a list of my active mods:

 

Dragons Shout with Voice

Guard Dialogue Overhaul
Immersive Skyrim Thunder
Understandable Draugrs
Drinking Fountains of Skyrim
Northern Bathhouses
Perfect Whiterun
Breezehome TNF
Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions
Hearthfire Everyone Sleeps
Marriage Mod - To Have and To Hold
My Home is Your Home
Faster Mining
General Displays
General Stores
Hotkey Your Gear
Lanterns and Candles
Haven Bag Campsite
Khune - Redguard House Family Edition
Capeless Nightingale
Dwemer Goggles and Scouter
Hedge Mage Armor
Improved Closefaced Helmets
Weapons of Mara - Mara's Loving Touch
Wearable Lanterns
Golden Vendors
Increased Bounty and Guild Rewards
Colorful Lights - No Shadows - More FPS
No Menu and Loading Smoke
Remove Exterior Fog - FOMOD
Skyrim Performance Plus (Aspen Leaves FX, Pine Needles FX, Rainfall FX, Snowfall FX)
Catlike Khajiit
Ethereal Elven Overhaul
SG Female Eyebrows
The Eyes of Beauty
Use All the Hair Styles
Atlas Map Markers for Skyrim
Dragon Priest Mask Quest Markers
Multiple Custom Markers with Notes
Stones of Barenziah Quest Markers
Better Gold
Better Mammoth Cheese
Book Covers Skyrim
Interactive Clutter
Jess' Naming Tweaks
Jess' Scroll and Staff Crafting
Jess' Jewelry and Armor
Dark Brotherhood Tenets Restored
Female Underwear Retex
LeanWolf's Better Shaped Weapons
LeanWolf's Improced Enchanter Candle Meshes
Lind's Robes Revamps (Black, Brown, Court Wizard, Grey Wizard, Monk, Necromancer, Red Wizard)
Roadsigns Redone
Cloaks of Skyrim
Bandanas of Skyrim
Blindfolds of Skyrim
Blade of Eplear
Bandoliers - Bags and Pouches
Bosmer Armor
Crossbows Basic Collection
Circlet Replacers for Women
Elven Rogue Armor
Flower Power
Heavy Armory
HN66's Earrings
JewelCraft
Leather Backpack
Lefthand Rings
Maty's Mithril Armor
Ogre Killer
Sicarius' Refuge
Silver Dragon Armor
Silver Knight Armor
Aetherial Crown Replacer
Soul Gems Glow When Full
Unique Booze Bottles HD
Unique Uniques
Whiterun Trellis Redesigned and HQ
Animated Dwemer Life Load Doors
Feminine Females
Player Headtracking
Pray at Shrines
Windcallers Pass
Path of the Divine
Calling Card Fence Lite
Acquisitive Soul Gems - Dawnguard
Auto Unequip Ammo
Bookshelves Updated SKSE Script
Bowlegged Jump Fix
Brawl Bugs Patch - Compatibility Edition
Civil War Repairs
Dragon Stalking Fix
Enchantment Reload Fix
Immersive Detection of NPC
Lower 1st Person Weapons
No Magic Ninja AI Dodge
No Spinning Death Animation
Realistic Crime Radius
Safety Load
Transmute Mineral Ore - Choose Which One
Unofficial Patches (all except High Resolution Patch; not using High Resolution DLC)
Vanilla Mannequin Script Fix
Boethiah for Good Guys
BadGremlin's Great JarHunt
Farmers Sell Produce
Hearthfire Homes Don't Respawn
Honed Metal - NPC Crafting and Enchanting Services
Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul
Immersive College of Winterhold
Mine Owners Sell Ore
Pipe Smoking
Simple Cow and Goat Milking
Simple Taxes
Skyrim Wayshrines - Immersive Fast Travel
Skyrim's Unique Treasures
Take Notes - Journal of the Dragonborn
Taverns
Dragon Soul Relinquishment
Perks Unbound
Pickpocketing Chance Caps
Azura Shrine Temple
BFT - Carriages and Ships
Hold Border Banners
Lanterns of Skyrim
Point the Way
FPS Counter
Jaxonz Positioner
Jaxonz Renamer
RaceMenu
SkyUI

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If that's your actual load order then I'm not surprised you're having issues. Simple example is that you have 3 Mods in there for Hearthfires, but you heven't listed Hearthfires itself, or the UHFP? I think you need to post the true load order for your current game - installed mods are not necessarily active mods - and if that IS your real load order then you have real problems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whoops. No, that's not the actual load order. I posted while tired (apologies, I'm chronically ill). Here is the actual 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
GeneralStores.esm
GeneralDisplays.esm
GeneralDisplays - DB.esm
GeneralDisplays - DG.esm
Lanterns Of Skyrim - All In One - Main.esm
ColorfulLightsNoShadows.esp
Dragon Stalking Fix.esp
moredeathreloadtime.esp
ocarina of time.esp
Soul Gems Glow When Full.esp
HonedMetal.esp
Atlas Compass Tweaks.esp
Auto Unequip Ammo.esp
draugrEnglish.esp
BarenziahQuestMarkers.esp
UseAllTheHairStyles.esp
saturationboost.esp
Chesko_WearableLantern.esp
PBGearRings.esp
TakeNotes.esp
Headtracking.esp
No Magic Ninja Dodge - No DLC.esp
CollegeOfWinterholdImmersive.esp
Book Covers Skyrim.esp
Brawl Bugs CE.esp
Immersive detection of NPC.esp
Increased Bounty & Guild Rewards.esp
JaxonzRenamer.esp
JaxonzEnhGrab.esp
Perks Unbound.esp
Perks Unbound - Dragonborn.esp
Perks Unbound - Dawnguard.esp
dD-No Spinning Death Animation.esp
Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul.esp
Taverns.esp
Northern Bathhouses.esp
ethereal_elven_overhaul.esp
Dwemer Goggles & Scouter.esp
whiterun spruce by revan1199.esp
randomthunder.esp
imp_helm_legend.esp
Guard Dialogue Overhaul
lanterns.esp
LFox Pickpocketing Chance Capts at 100.esp
marriagemod - alpha v3.esp
Catlike Khajiit+ NPCs.esp
Civil War Repairs.esp
JessRenamingv1point1.esp
BFT Ships and Carriages.esp
MilkSomeCows.esp
PipeSmoking.esp
RaceMenu.esp
RaceMenuPlugin.esp
SimpleTaxes.esp
Realistic crime report radius.esp
SGEyebrows.esp
pickpocket 1 minimum chance.ckm.esp
SkyrimsUniqueTreasures.esp
maraslovingtouch.esp
MineVendors.esp
Feminine Females.esp
Hearthfires Everyone Sleeps.esp
HearthFireHomesNoReset.esp
HearthfireMultiKid.esp
HearthfireMultiKid_LastName.esp
Point The Way.esp
Atlas Legendary.esp
Dragon Soul Relinquishment.esp
RemoveExteriorFog-AIO.esp
SkyUI.esp
Custom_Markers_with_Notes.esp
sOverEncumbered.esp
transmute.esp
Unique BOOZE Bottles.esp
WayshrinesIFT.esp
Farmers Sell Produce - Skyrim.esp
hearth fire house mod.esp
EliRedguardHouse.esp
Drinking Fountains of Skyrim.esp
PathoftheDivine.esp
BadGremlinsJarHunt.esp
GoldenVendors.esp
CWIDawnDragonPatch.esp
Acquisitive Soul Gems.esp
AzuraShrineExtra.esp
HoldBorderBanners.esp
CallingCardFence.esp
DragonPriestMaskQuestMarkers.esp
Hedge Mage Armor.esp
PrayAtShrines.esp
PP_WindcallerPass.esp
AK- Boethiah Alternate.esp
HavenBag.esp
TheEyesOfBeauty.esp
My Home Is Your Home.esp
JessCraftableScrolls.esp

 
This also takes into account the uninstalling I just did yesterday of a bunch of equipment mods. Testing says I'm still having the same problem so it wasn't any of them. I've been using LOOT to manage my load order; I re-ran it after uninstalling stuff.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That looks more like it. The first part (Skyrim itself, the DLCs and the UPs) look ok to me. The rest - most I've never even heard of let alone know what they do or what issues they could cause.

Cue a member of the team, I think...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like Hana - I haven't ever had a problem completing this quest with either of the Jarls. Also I don't see anything there that stands out as being the culprit, but I'm not familiar with a lot of those mods either. Loading up your mods in TES5Edit and checking to see if any of them modify the Markarth Thane quest(s) in some way may be one way of figuring out what is to blame. Also, anything that modifies the radiant quest system in the game could also be an issue since the quests to become Thane are radiant quests.

 

This also takes into account the uninstalling I just did yesterday of a bunch of equipment mods.

You may already be aware of this, but uninstalling mods on an existing game (and continuing) is never recommended. It can leave behind orphaned scripts and often causes other undesirable problems in your game save, so if you have by chance been doing that it could possibly lead to problems with quests like the ones you mentioned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Indeed on the uninstalling; I'm basically trying to eliminate stuff to see if it corrects the problem, and I use the Save Cleaner tool anytime I do to remove orphan script instances and whatnot. I will probably reinstall before resuming play (haven't played since I posted the thread).

 

I appreciate the suggestion of using TES5Edit to look over my mods for the problem, and will do that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Right, then I'm a little confused to what you're experiencing.

 

It should go like this; (for Igmund)

 

- complete quest Find Hrolfdir's Shield

- choose dialogue topic "My Jarl, is there anything else you need?"

- He will respond that there's room in his court for a Thane, and that you need to 'be known throughout his hold' and purchase the house.

- When you accept with "It will be my honor" you should (going by memory here) get the objectives to purchase the house, and help the people of the hold. Once you purchase the house from the steward you then need to go visit your house at least once.

 

So if you can already purchase the house, you must also have the second part. But you're saying you don't have the second part? (cuz that would make no sense at all)

 

What is your current status of the Civil War quest? Something possibly might be interfering.

 

It may also help if you can upload your save file somewhere for someone to take a look at it. If you can, one from before you talk to the Jarl and one after.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It goes like this:

 

- complete quest Find Hrolfdir's Shield

- Igmund tells me I may now purchase property in the city because I have honored his father

- there is no dialogue topic "My Jarl, is there anything else you need?"

- there is no objective to purchase the house, but the option is now available with the steward

- once house is purchased, objective to visit the house appears

 

I've actually not started the Civil War questline; I have the miscellaneous objective Join the Imperial Legion, but that's it.

 

I'll see if I can upload the save file? What format would be good for compressing it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's no quest to talk to the steward because Igmund tells you "talk to my steward when you're ready" (or similar, that's not an actual quote). If you have the "visit the house" objective, do so. Run around helping ppl, eventually you'll notice you have a "Return to Igmund" objective. I have one right now - had it for ages - will doubtless have it for more ages (along with ones for for the Jarls of Riften, Solitude and Morthal - I'm not a fan of HouseCarls).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not concerned with there being a quest to talk to the steward, I'm concerned with having well above the 5 people helped in the Reach and never, ever getting either the 'Help 5 People in the Reach' or 'Return to Igmund' objectives. The dialogue option that would give me those objectives, which is "My Jarl, is there anything else you need?", does not appear. Like, that's the whole problem -- that quest will not trigger. And because it won't trigger, I can help as many folk as I like, and still can't become thane. I will not obtain the housecarl, I will not get Axe of the Reach, I will not have the option of a one-time out with the guards. No thaneship. When I check the thaneship quest -- favor250 -- it's stuck on stage 200, and as far as I can tell, this permanently prevents me from completing it -- or, really, from starting it at all.

 

Edit: I realize that all sounds rather snippy; I apologize. But I'm here on this forum because I've more than met the requirements and still can't get the quest to work, not because I haven't bothered to look up what the requirements are.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, we're talking two different quests here.

 

What I described is favor250. What you describe is favor157 - find the shield and that's it. Which yes, also offers you the house afterward. You have not yet even started favor250 as far as I can tell.

 

I would suggest leaving the city for awhile. Go do something else way far away out of the hold. Return to him in a week or so and see if he offers Thaneship.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm honestly trying to be super clear: the issue is that I can't get favor250 to trigger and have tried a great number of things to see if it would help, including waiting and doing other quests and etc. When I check favor250 using getstage, it's at stage 200, even though I've never gotten the dialogue offer and as far as I can tell, never will. I've done several playthroughs and spent literal out-of-game days of gameplay doing other things and periodically coming back to see if he would offer thaneship, and only eventually researched online and discovered that someone else had had a similar problem and recommended to try using getstage to see what stage it was at. The dialogue involved -- "My Jarl, is there anything else you need?" -- never appears so the quest never starts, because as far as the game is concerned it's already done, hence it being at stage 200, except that it never happened so I am not thane. This has happened on several consecutive playthroughs in which I reached over level 50 without being able to get the thaneship quest.

 

Basically, favor157 is as far as I can get. I cannot get favor250 to start because it's randomly setting itself to stage 200 and therefore being impossible to trigger. It's never at stage 15 (Help 5 People in the Reach) or stage 20 (return to Igmund). It skips to 200 but doesn't actually make me thane, and it seems to be doing so on its own, in response to a combination of doing favor quests in the Reach and other completely unconnected events such as fast travel. It often does so before I complete or even get favor157.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We'd definitely need to see that save. If Favor250 is listing itself at stage 200, the game believes you've completed it already. Stage 200 can only be called when you've returned to the Jarl and told them you've helped the people. You have numerous mods that many of us, myself included, are not familiar with that may be messing with things.

 

In the vanilla game, Favor250 cannot advance past stage 0 without talking to the Jarl after Favor157 is done because that's when the relationship value increases to allow Favor250's dialogue to run naturally.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have the saves compressed into a zip file, but I can't figure out how to add file attachments? I'll see if I can host the file somewhere else and link it.

 

The Temple of Dibella save is from before favor250 set itself to 200; the Markarth save is from after. They're from the same playthrough. Both have been cleaned with the SaveTool cleaner.

 

Edit: link to zip file

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your save data clearly indicates Favor157 has not been done. You don't meet the level requirements for it with this character. Favor157 requires you to be >= level 20 before it will start. Both saves you supplied are for level 17 characters.
 

	sqs favor157
		Stage 0: 0 
		Stage 10: 0 
		Stage 15: 0 
		Stage 20: 0 
		Stage 200: 0 

Further, according to the SQS output for Favor250:

    sqs favor250
        Stage 0: 1
        Stage 10: 0
        Stage 15: 0
        Stage 20: 0
        Stage 25: 0
        Stage 200: 1

You manually skipped ahead to stage 200. NONE of the intervening required steps were run, which is simply not possible in a vanilla game.
 
Evidence more or less suggests you've been using the console to bounce quest stages around. Which is why Hana commented that we get awfully twitchy about things like that around here. These are precisely the kinds of problems abuse of the console results in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I honestly, truly haven't been using the console to skip around. Flat-out. Haven't. Only gave it a try with this particular quest to see if it would work after all else failed -- saved first, didn't save after. Whatever is doing it, it isn't me using the console to skip quest stages, because I did not do that. Not once in an actually saved save, not for this quest or any other, definitely not in either of those saves. I find it immersion-breaking at the very best and have been cautioned as to its deleterious effects in any case.

 

The quest is doing that by itself. Which is the problem. The reason I gave you those saves is that the Temple of Dibella one was the most recent save I could find that didn't have favor250 set to 200, and the next save after that was the Markarth save. I only knew this was the case because I was running getstage on that quest for each save, looking for the most recent one that had it still at stage 0. If I had been using the console to skip stages, I would have said so when Hana brought it up in reply to my mention of trying setstage, and I explained why I tried setstage in the post just below. I don't want to skip the quest to the end, I want to be able to do it the regular way, and I can't.

 

If this is impossible in a vanilla game (ergo, can't be a vanilla bug), I'm going to assume it's one of my mods that's causing it, and keep looking with TES5Edit/uninstalling them until I can narrow it down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gain the 3 levels first then because you have to do Favor157 before you can do Favor250. The data in your save is crystal clear that Favor157 has never been run because you don't yet meet the requirements for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Um, yes?

 

The point is that I haven't even gotten favor157 in that particular save, and the game is for some reason setting favor250 to 200. By itself. Even though I'm not even at level 20 yet. I was asked to provide two saves -- one before the quest setting itself to 200, and one after. I had to go back to a save from when I was level 17 in order to find a save where favor250 wasn't set to 200, because that's when it did it in this playthrough. It's locking favor250 out before I even qualify to get it, which is something I already said.

 

I have played through several times past that, and can provide more save files, past level 20 and all the way to completion of favor157, and favor250 is still set to 200, and I didn't set it there myself, and because it is set to 200 it can't run any of the intervening stages, and therefore favor250 doesn't work and I can't become thane. Which means I can complete favor157 but can't even start favor250 because favor250 thinks it's already done, and it starts thinking it's already done before I've even completed favor157.

 

I apologize again for my tone, but I am becoming frustrated at repeating myself. I am honestly trying to be clear about the issue and what I have and haven't done. I wouldn't be here if I hadn't tried everything I could think of and everything hours of Google searching could suggest to me.

 

Edit: here's a link to another save in the same playthrough after completing favor157.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You asked for our advice. We've given it. The conclusions are pretty clear. If you aren't the one doing it via the console, then one of your other mods is messing things up and needs to be dealt with, and a bug report file with its author when you find the one causing it. Given how ignorant some authors are, you should be prepared to get a lot of blowback from them on it even if you bury them in evidence.

 

Since it involves incorrectly setting a quest stage, your issue is going to be coming from a script and you may not be lucky enough to have an esp associated with it that edits Favor250 in an obvious way. You'll need to pay close attention to the "Referenced By" tab in TES5Edit to see which mods in your load order contain references to the quest since they will require it in order to act on it. Provided whatever mod did this hasn't been written in some daft way to avoid being detected.

 

You also said you used a save cleaner on the save, and while that's generally safe when used properly, it's also entirely possible to corrupt the data with it if something goes wrong or you're using an outdated version. Or worse, using one that's never been safe to start with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Understood. I definitely appreciate the advice; I was only becoming frustrated that some of it kept being clearly predicated on information that wasn't applicable when I had already communicated that.

 

I will continue to hunt for which mod is the problem. I'll also take a look at my save cleaner and see if it's up to date and generally in the safe range.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...