Cannot start or force "The Break of Dawn" to progress

[Night Thastus]

You can start the quest "The Break of Dawn" not only by finding the Beacon, but also by just walking up the steps to the shrine. (You can see this yourself on the UESP wiki)

However, this does not work for me.

As a matter of fact, I cannot even set the stage of the quest.

If I do:

setstage DA09 50

and then do getstage, it still shows up as 0, and my journal does not update. I cannot force the quest to progress.

I'm going to narrow this down for you as much as I possibly can:

• It does not work, even if I set my level to 50 (so level requirements are not a concern)
• It does not work even if I wait 7 in-game days in an inn first before arriving (so I don't think it's a timing issue)
• It does not work even with no mods (excluding USSEP)
• It does not work even with no mods (including USSEP)
• It does not work on a brand-new character
• I have already re-verified by steam files, they were fine. (excepting the exe, which I explain below)

I'm going to tell you some other things. I don't think they're relevant and likely will just cloud the discussion, but I'll add them anyways:

• testing was done on a new profile in MO2, v2.1.5
• OS is Windows 10 Pro
• I was using SKSE 2.0.7, with the old executable of Skyrim which I retrieved using the steam console (download_depot 489830 489833 1298692161422189837) I am doing this because several of my mods when playing normally have SKSE plugins, which are based off the SKSE 2.0.7 executable (and haven't been updated yet)

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[lmstearn]

You are level 12 or greater? Else a mod might be playing funky with one of the boss chests containing the beacon in the quest.

First thing to do is to go back to a saved game some time before Player enters the cell with the Statue of Meridia. Does the same thing happen?

Mod list in a spoiler would help as well, thanks.

[Night Thastus]

6 hours ago, lmstearn said:

You are level 12 or greater? Else a mod might be playing funky with one of the boss chests containing the beacon in the quest.

First thing to do is to go back to a saved game some time before Player enters the cell with the Statue of Meridia. Does the same thing happen?

Mod list in a spoiler would help as well, thanks.

Please read the post before responding. Please? I'm not going to repeat my whole post because you didn't read it.

 

[lmstearn]

I read it, and yep, I'll repeat the question: are you level 12 or greater without using any console commands. And further, a mod list will still help as one of us might be able to ID the mod(s) that have affected your game save.

And your question is: you want help,- so there's a couple of things above to consider as well.

But when starting out a brand new character or brand new game, do you do anything with the console to get to the location quickly? That won't work in most cases. The whole game has to be played  through.

However, there is help here, @alt3rn1ty may have a prior save to this quest- if he's around he can pop one in here for you.

[Night Thastus]

10 minutes ago, lmstearn said:

The whole game has to be played  through.

Source?

No, my tests were done with console commands, though I'm not sure what difference that would make. Unless you can objectively show that "hey, this quest trigger has X requirement shown in xedit/CK that needs the player to have X experience" or something.

I'm not sure how a mod list would help, this problem occurs with a completely vanilla install. (A new profile in MO2. Tested both without USSEP and with USSEP just in case USSEP was the cause)

The way I did the test was by creating a new character, setting them to level 50, waiting in an inn for 7 days and then COC'ing to Miridia. Then, I'd jump down, walk up the steps and repeat a couple times to test it. No luck.

However, for sake of thoroughness another person who was working through this with me tested by walking all the way there, and had the same result. (Though oddly enough, they were on Classic, not SSE)

 

 

[Arthmoor]

Source: The game engine.

Console commands bypass all event checks, whether they be change locations or level up events. You do indeed have to PLAY the game in order for things to run correctly.

Not only have you bypassed the level check by consoling yourself to level 50, you also bypassed the change location event by COC'ing to where you need to go. It's an urban myth that waiting anywhere for any length of time will accomplish anything other than passing time.

This sort of thing btw is why we don't provide support to people who use console commands. It's a great way to break your game and there's no turning back once it's happened.

[Night Thastus]

6 hours ago, Arthmoor said:

Console commands bypass all event checks, whether they be change locations or level up events.

Ok, I wasn't aware. I wish I had a little less of a wish-washy answer (something more technical and specific) then that, but I guess I'll just need to accept it. Could have done with out the attitude though. I've sunk over 800 hours into the game and don't use console commands unless I'm just testing to see why something isn't working. It's not like I just cheat myself to 50 and then start playing or randomly progress quests for the fun of it.

I have a level 19 character that this was failing for. However, I wasn't sure if it wasn't occurring due to my level (as Requiem might have been restricting the trigger it to level 20+, but I couldn't be sure if it only restricted the beacon or the stair trigger) or if the game itself was borked. When it failed when I set my level to 20 (one higher) I went on to test and see what else could have been the cause. Now that I know that setting my level to 20 there was the reason it wasn't triggering, I can move on with my playthrough and organically level once again and test.