Alternate Start - Statue of Mara Stuck

[Isobel]

Statue of Mara makes the audio statement, but does not give the in-game interaction to initiate the game/life choice.

I saw another user had the same issue and I've been struggling as well. Wanted to see if it was user error or potentially a bug. I've tried the pre-November version and the post November version and neither worked. Downloaded from Nexus, and when that didn't work I then uninstalled and restarted with the one posted here (after reading the note that Nexus was no longer this modders hub).

I am using all AE compatible mods, and have been tracking updates religiously. This is my last wall in the way of me getting going after a fresh install and 3 weeks of trouble shooting my list. Not sure what I need to do. Is this a cache issue? Load order bug? I have a template for load order (with an example of where to place key mods, like this one) and I have this supposedly in the right spot.

Ideas on what and where to go next are welcome. I could start a game without it, but man does the intro sequence hate mods... 

Edited December 15, 2021 by Isobel
Grammar/spelling errors

[Pseron Wyrd]

1 hour ago, Isobel said:

potentially a bug.

I doubt that it's a bug.  I've been using Live Another Life all day today while testing mods for a new character (Anniversary Edition, all Creation Club content and about 40 mods) and I it's working flawlessly for me.   Do you have Live Another Life at the bottom of your load order?  If it's too high another mod could cause it to stop working properly.  Other than that, I have no idea what might be wrong.  I've never had any problem with the mod.  Hopefully someone else can come along with better suggestions. 

[Isobel]

19 hours ago, Pseron Wyrd said:

I doubt that it's a bug.  I've been using Live Another Life all day today while testing mods for a new character (Anniversary Edition, all Creation Club content and about 40 mods) and I it's working flawlessly for me.   Do you have Live Another Life at the bottom of your load order?  If it's too high another mod could cause it to stop working properly.  Other than that, I have no idea what might be wrong.  I've never had any problem with the mod.  Hopefully someone else can come along with better suggestions. 

I have it up top with my other mechanic changing mods. I'll move it down and give it a test. I meant to log in last night and post my load order but got busy

[phatbassanchor]

On 12/14/2021 at 12:26 PM, Pseron Wyrd said:

I doubt that it's a bug.  I've been using Live Another Life all day today while testing mods for a new character (Anniversary Edition, all Creation Club content and about 40 mods) and I it's working flawlessly for me.   Do you have Live Another Life at the bottom of your load order?  If it's too high another mod could cause it to stop working properly.  Other than that, I have no idea what might be wrong.  I've never had any problem with the mod.  Hopefully someone else can come along with better suggestions. 

 

5 hours ago, Isobel said:

I have it up top with my other mechanic changing mods. I'll move it down and give it a test. I meant to log in last night and post my load order but got busy

I did have one mod conflict with Alt Start pre-AE when testing a friend's beta mod.  But, I have yet to see any other examples.  It is possibly a mod conflict.  That may be solved by LO or may need a patch.  Apologies that I'm not able to offer better assistance, friend.

Adventure on, Phat

[Hana]

It should be loaded as low in your LO as possible.

[Isobel]

On 12/15/2021 at 1:59 PM, phatbassanchor said:

 

I did have one mod conflict with Alt Start pre-AE when testing a friend's beta mod.  But, I have yet to see any other examples.  It is possibly a mod conflict.  That may be solved by LO or may need a patch.  Apologies that I'm not able to offer better assistance, friend.

Adventure on, Phat

Still haven't gotten around to moving it, adult reasonsibilities have been kicking my butt 😢

But I promise to post my load order and update after I try moving it. 

[phatbassanchor]

5 hours ago, Isobel said:

Still haven't gotten around to moving it, adult responsibilities have been kicking my butt 😢

But I promise to post my load order and update after I try moving it. 

My best advice would be to disable mods one at a time, starting with the most recently added, then testing to see if Mara still glitches out.  If it's a mod conflict, that is the way to figure out which mod is causing the trouble.  This works as a first step anytime you suspect a mod conflict.  It's time consuming unless you get lucky but worthwhile to save your game from a terminal glitch.  If that fails to reveal the culprit then it could be a bug.  The nomme de guerre Bugthesda is an earned title after all.  However, it's always best to thoroughly test for potential mod conflicts before thinking it's a bug. 

I'm no expert, maybe a power user... which is shorthand for mod junkie.  Hahaha  I've tested well over two thousand mod files in the last four years using mods.  Not bragging... just letting you know that when I say, I've seen a lot of mod conflicts," you know that I've truly seen a LOT of conflicts.  hahaha  We all do our best to avoid them because sometimes the only fix is to remove the offending mod(s).  Even with the help of many dear friends along the way, I've made some grievous errors and seen horrendous glitches, errors and all manner of weird sh*t.  Trial and error... lots and lots of error... The trick is not so much in finding the error, that is fairly systematic.  The trick is not allowing repeat performances!  Haha   

Merry holidays, happy Christmas and a blessed new year my friend.  And, a quick resolution to your Mara problem.

Adventure ever on, Phat

PS/Update:  Hoping you can simply adjust your LO to fix this.  But, you may need a patch.  Some mod conflicts require a patch mod to fix.  I've even had mods cause errors that required a full reinstall of SSE and all my mods to fix.  So yeah... I'm hoping you can avoid needing more than an LO tweak.  Cheers

[Isobel]

5 hours ago, phatbassanchor said:

My best advice would be to disable mods one at a time, starting with the most recently added, then testing to see if Mara still glitches out.  If it's a mod conflict, that is the way to figure out which mod is causing the trouble.  This works as a first step anytime you suspect a mod conflict.  It's time consuming unless you get lucky but worthwhile to save your game from a terminal glitch.  If that fails to reveal the culprit then it could be a bug.  The nomme de guerre Bugthesda is an earned title after all.  However, it's always best to thoroughly test for potential mod conflicts before thinking it's a bug. 

I'm no expert, maybe a power user... which is shorthand for mod junkie.  Hahaha  I've tested well over two thousand mod files in the last four years using mods.  Not bragging... just letting you know that when I say, I've seen a lot of mod conflicts," you know that I've truly seen a LOT of conflicts.  hahaha  We all do our best to avoid them because sometimes the only fix is to remove the offending mod(s).  Even with the help of many dear friends along the way, I've made some grievous errors and seen horrendous glitches, errors and all manner of weird sh*t.  Trial and error... lots and lots of error... The trick is not so much in finding the error, that is fairly systematic.  The trick is not allowing repeat performances!  Haha   

Merry holidays, happy Christmas and a blessed new year my friend.  And, a quick resolution to your Mara problem.

Adventure ever on, Phat

PS/Update:  Hoping you can simply adjust your LO to fix this.  But, you may need a patch.  Some mod conflicts require a patch mod to fix.  I've even had mods cause errors that required a full reinstall of SSE and all my mods to fix.  So yeah... I'm hoping you can avoid needing more than an LO tweak.  Cheers

So, funny story, I updated to the recent Skyrim update posted 12/13 and.... now SKSE isn't running for me. It was prior to it. Anyways, I'm in the middle of fixing that. will post once I get past that issue

[Pseron Wyrd]

1 minute ago, Isobel said:

So, funny story, I updated to the recent Skyrim update posted 12/13 and.... now SKSE isn't running for me. It was prior to it. Anyways, I'm in the middle of fixing that. will post once I get past that issue

SKSE needs to be updated each time Bethesda updates the game.

[Isobel]

1 hour ago, Pseron Wyrd said:

SKSE needs to be updated each time Bethesda updates the game.

Turns out it was Racemenu that wasnt up to date with Skyrims and SKSEs most recent versions. But now the game is taking for ever to start :/

[phatbassanchor]

58 minutes ago, Isobel said:

Turns out it was Racemenu that wasnt up to date with Skyrims and SKSEs most recent versions. But now the game is taking for ever to start :/

I'm currently typing a reply to a dear friend who I've been coaching on how to use mods in game.  She accidentally overlooked my warning and how to steps for setting up the game to avoid updates and has been frantic with one issue after another since she accidentally accepted the AE update.  Racemenu never quite worked right regardless of updates/fixes installed.  Those extensions are broken for AE.  The mod itself will likely need to be updated before it will function properly again.  She could access her earlier character saves but had no slider control when attempting to make new characters or edit her existing characters in Racemenu.  The issues stacked up like so much dung behind a bull and she finally made use of the downgrade mod and all is well in her Skyrim SE once again.  I just read this in her latest reply today...  this is the mod she used...  https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/57618  She also installed SKSE 2.0, the latest non AE version. 

If you want the AE content, it will be a while before all the mods that require SKSE can be updated to work with it.  It's the same thing every time CC updates.  Some mods never get updated and are lost.  Something as integral as Racemenu will eventually get updated... eventually.  But, I'm not accepting the AE update.  I'm not a fan of CC content at all.  That's all I'll say about that here in polite company. 

You may need to return to the earlier version of Skyrim SE too.  I leave that ball in your court as each person's game is a very personal thing.  There is no wrong way, just your preferences.  Whatever you decide, I wish you a speedy recovery of your preferred gameplay options.  It just sucks when the game won't play the way we want it to...  So, I fully empathize with you.  I've been there, done that, hoping not to return.  I'm always a "wait and see" person with SSE updates and have been since a huge crash after a CC update in March of 2018 that urged me to run off and play Fallout 4 for six straight months.  I hadn't allowed an SSE update again until I reinstalled it on 11/8/2021, just before the introduction of the AE stuff.  I'm still awaiting my CC opt out button Mr. Howard...  Now that would be a great idea IMHO...  Happy Christmas, merry new year and blessed seasons greetings all around for all.  Have some joy in the journey and as always, dear friends...

Adventure ever on, Phat

[Isobel]

12 hours ago, phatbassanchor said:

I'm currently typing a reply to a dear friend who I've been coaching on how to use mods in game.  She accidentally overlooked my warning and how to steps for setting up the game to avoid updates and has been frantic with one issue after another since she accidentally accepted the AE update.  Racemenu never quite worked right regardless of updates/fixes installed.  Those extensions are broken for AE.  The mod itself will likely need to be updated before it will function properly again.  She could access her earlier character saves but had no slider control when attempting to make new characters or edit her existing characters in Racemenu.  The issues stacked up like so much dung behind a bull and she finally made use of the downgrade mod and all is well in her Skyrim SE once again.  I just read this in her latest reply today...  this is the mod she used...  https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/57618  She also installed SKSE 2.0, the latest non AE version. 

If you want the AE content, it will be a while before all the mods that require SKSE can be updated to work with it.  It's the same thing every time CC updates.  Some mods never get updated and are lost.  Something as integral as Racemenu will eventually get updated... eventually.  But, I'm not accepting the AE update.  I'm not a fan of CC content at all.  That's all I'll say about that here in polite company. 

You may need to return to the earlier version of Skyrim SE too.  I leave that ball in your court as each person's game is a very personal thing.  There is no wrong way, just your preferences.  Whatever you decide, I wish you a speedy recovery of your preferred gameplay options.  It just sucks when the game won't play the way we want it to...  So, I fully empathize with you.  I've been there, done that, hoping not to return.  I'm always a "wait and see" person with SSE updates and have been since a huge crash after a CC update in March of 2018 that urged me to run off and play Fallout 4 for six straight months.  I hadn't allowed an SSE update again until I reinstalled it on 11/8/2021, just before the introduction of the AE stuff.  I'm still awaiting my CC opt out button Mr. Howard...  Now that would be a great idea IMHO...  Happy Christmas, merry new year and blessed seasons greetings all around for all.  Have some joy in the journey and as always, dear friends...

Adventure ever on, Phat

I did not "accidentally" update. I did so purposefully, and I have no complaints.

As I told a person on Nexus for the unwarranted complaint about AE, I didn't ask for help with AE. I don't care that some people are mad with AE. I know I lose access to certain mods using AE.

I'm also not new to modding. I started modding skyrim last fall and had a working list of 235 mods with out a game failing. The only issue was that my computer started to have some issues and I had to have the guts replaced under factory warranty and the oporating system reinstalled. Because of the mod work I lost, I simply took a break.

Am I an expert? No. But I know enough that prior to AE I was doing just fine. And I'm fine with waiting for Race Menu to finish updating. Expired confirmed on their patreon, the only place currently to get the AE version of Race menu, that he would have a new version put in the next couple of days since the December 13th Skyrim update and SKSE updating in response to it. When the .dll file is updated I'll be all good to get back to figuring out my Alternate Start mod issues.

Anyways, game was taking a long time to load cause a mod I have relies on Racemenu, and another one relies on that. Yippy the domino affect.

[Uncus]

Had similar issues after spending my 19 euros on the new content, stuff that worked fine does not work anymore. Its taking longer than usual to catch up this time, at least it feels that way, but we will get there in the end. For now I’ve gone back to Oldrim, most of my mods are still there and some old friend's that never got ported to SE. I’m good tilll this all gets sorted.

[phatbassanchor]

1 hour ago, Isobel said:

I did not "accidentally" update. I did so purposefully, and I have no complaints.

As I told a person on Nexus for the unwarranted complaint about AE, I didn't ask for help with AE. I don't care that some people are mad with AE. I know I lose access to certain mods without AE.

I'm also not new to modding. I started modding skyrim last fall and had a working list of 235 mods with out a game failing. The only issue was that my computer started to have some issues and I had to have the guts replaced under factory warranty and the oporating system reinstalled. Because of the mod work I lost, I simply took a break.

Am I an expert? No. But I know enough that prior to AE I was doing just fine. And I'm fine with waiting for Race Menu to finish updating. Expired confirmed on their patreon, the only place currently to get the AE version of Race menu, that he would have a new version put in the next couple of days since the December 13th Skyrim update and SKSE updating in response to it. When the .dll file is updated I'll be all good to get back to figuring out my Alternate Start mod issues.

Anyways, game was taking a long time to load cause a mod I have relies on Racemenu, and another one relies on that. Yippy the domino affect.

Never said you were or had to do anything.  I was merely presenting you with options based on my own experience.  Racemenu isn't working so you will have to chose between reverting to the pre AE SSE to allow it to work again OR you can uninstall or at least deactivate Racemenu and the mods that require it until they can be updated to work in AE.  The choice is yours.  Racemenu will be updated eventually.  But, if you keep trying to load it with broken extensions you'll continue to have issues.  It was never my intent to offend.  Apologies if you took anything I said that way.  It sounds like you have the situation under control now.  So...

Spock out... Live long and prosper...

[Isobel]

On 12/15/2021 at 4:21 PM, Hana said:

It should be loaded as low in your LO as possible.

SOOOO I cant even get the game past the loading screen now *insert angry laughing crying face* I'm so bummed. Here's my LO

[Hana]

One thing that jumps out is your version of CBP physics isn't updated. Switch to this one and see if that helps.

If you're now crashing at the main menu you may be missing a master file for any of the patches you have. Check all the mods that indicate a conflict. Have you run LOOT? It would tell you right away.

[Isobel]

1 hour ago, Hana said:

One thing that jumps out is your version of CBP physics isn't updated. Switch to this one and see if that helps.

If you're now crashing at the main menu you may be missing a master file for any of the patches you have. Check all the mods that indicate a conflict. Have you run LOOT? It would tell you right away.

I ran loot but it doesn't seem to show any issues. The only issue was that I have the version of xp that needed racemenu, but I fixed that

[Hana]

All good now, or are you still having issues? Did you switch to CBPC?

[Isobel]

7 minutes ago, Hana said:

All good now, or are you still having issues? Did you switch to CBPC?

Haven't switched yet. Probably will tomorrow (we're watching s2 of Witcher tonight) 

 

[Dunoh12]

I have been having this issue for days I had to uninstall xp32 and that was it it’s working for me again 

[Isobel]

On 12/18/2021 at 1:21 AM, Uncus said:

Had similar issues after spending my 19 euros on the new content, stuff that worked fine does not work anymore. Its taking longer than usual to catch up this time, at least it feels that way, but we will get there in the end. For now I’ve gone back to Oldrim, most of my mods are still there and some old friend's that never got ported to SE. I’m good tilll this all gets sorted.

 

On 12/18/2021 at 8:57 PM, Hana said:

All good now, or are you still having issues? Did you switch to CBPC?

 

On 12/23/2021 at 2:57 AM, Dunoh12 said:

I have been having this issue for days I had to uninstall xp32 and that was it it’s working for me again 

So I had to do a complete reinstall of everything, yadda yadda, when I had time, only to discover that Complete Crafting Overhaul is no longer AE compatible lol

but I'm back to figuring out my game and will hopefully have a point where I can trouble shoot this specific issue again tomorrow.

[Isobel]

On 12/18/2021 at 8:57 PM, Hana said:

All good now, or are you still having issues? Did you switch to CBPC?

Alright, Everything else in the game is in working order again. I moved it to the bottom and the same problem remains.

[klassix]

On 12/28/2021 at 12:50 PM, Isobel said:

Alright, Everything else in the game is in working order again. I moved it to the bottom and the same problem remains.

Are you using the Legend of Dragonborn patches? I get the same error as you do, only when the patches are enabled.

[SS-Enhanced]

I used to have the same problem and what fixed it was not the updated version of ASLAL 1.6 instead of the 1.4 (currently on Nexus), it was not the very few mods loading after ASLAL, but that I used to configure the MCM settings for 50+ mods BEFORE activating the statue of Mara...I don't know which mod(s) or for what reason(s) but since I have postponed the configuration until AFTER moving out of the cell never experienced such issue again.

As a side note, neither the teleportation console commands worked out since my personal character was returning back immediately to the cell.

Hopefully will help some

[Hexstar]

I had a similar serious problem like above, Alternate start would only give the voice and not the options, books and notes were mostly blank, shopkeepers and tavern plus quest people would not give me option to buy or progress quests and mostly ignore me. Finally sorted it out after a long evening of testing each mod (whilst skipping all early mods up to November. as it was ok before then)  It turned out to be the Unofficial Skyrim AE patch file, once I removed it  ASLAL worked fine and books can be read and full dialogue options appear when speaking to people.  I am overjoyed after over a week of misery, hope it solves other peoples problems.