ClockworkPenguin

That's happened since PoE1, especially if you have cheats enabled (IRoll20s activated). You can mostly circumvent this simply by leaving/turning auto-saves ON and just changing zones before you exit the game. The issue/bug only seems to affect hard saves, but I've never had any problems with auto-saves vanishing. Hope that helps.

I've experienced this multiple times myself. It also happens with containers sometimes as well.

Updated: Added 14-16 Number 13 has about 16 threads about it already, it's everyone. The main character will also lose out on Trainings that cost 3k each, they just get deleted. Also, most Hirelings have a problem just on creation. I have created multiple now that started at level 3, without me being able to give points at level 2 or 3. It created them at level 1, then magically they were level 3 without any points put in, and I could go from there or throw up my hands at how stupid not having 2 levels is. Ah.. Thanks. I just hadn't noticed any other threads about it. At least not pertaining to hirelings. Thanks for the heads up.

Updated: Added 12 and 13

3.) Update: After fiddling with a few things, I realized that the massive boost to Power Level on Plague of Insects is tied to Alchemy level. I'd set my Alchemy to 100 just to test if there's any change in the quantity or quality of alchemy items crafted (there isn't, its strictly based on the users skill - a minor healing potion crafted by a 100 skill character will still only heal the base amount on another character with 0 alchemy skill), and then never bothered to set it back since I never really use potions, beings as my main character is a healer anyway. Seems any skill or ability with "Counters: Antidote" set in there description get this same bonus. THAT would have been nice to know earlier, since I'd have built a few other characters very different - mainly Fessina - but, at least I know its not a bug. Any skill with "Counters: Antidote" gets +1 Power Level per rank of Alchemy. ^~^

Same thing happens with Xoti's sickle, if you let anyone else use it but her. Eder had a really nice +5% bonus damage for quite awhile. Try resting (as in, actually camping and using food) and then getting into a fight. I think that's what fixed it for me. You could also try removing that person from your party and then resting/camping, since it seems to clear all buffs and effects from the inactive party members. If its on your main character, I really don't know what else to suggest. Hopefully its a good effect!

Updating this to make it easier to read and so it isn't just a big wall of text. Note: I will only be adding things to this list that I have personally experienced or have been able to replicate, unless enough people confirm that they have also experienced an issue I haven't added. It's my thread, so it's my credibility on the line (for what it's worth). Also, this thread is not for typo's, there's already a pinned thread for that. AI Customization: Cheats: Combat: Creatures: Gameplay (General): Gameplay (Naval): Items and Equipment: Skills and Abilities: Visuals: Quests: Resolved: Requests/Suggestions: Updated 5/26

Pallegina: When asking her how she's been the last five years, when she states that "they stripped me of my breastplate and scrubbed the suns from it", verbally she clearly says "Suns", and that fits her lore (Paladin) wise, but the text says "stars" instead. Legacy choices involved: Pallegina - Disobeyed orders Souls - Strengthen Dyrwood

Aloth is available to join your party as soon as you kill the two groups of enemies - the panthers by the cage door and the group of young wurms and boars just up the stairs from the cage. Just clear those two groups, open the cage and you can recruit him. After he's in your party, rather than walk down to the sub-arena, either walk back to town or use the various other entrances at the digsite and then use the AreaTransition console command I listed above. You may want to set the games graphics to there lowest settings, and set MSII sampling to between 1-4, as many others have reported that this helps as well - you can set them back to your preferred settings right after the area loads in with no issue. I even tried it on my super old laptop that technically doesn't even meet the games minimum requirements and it still let me in, albeit with a slightly longer load time (about 3-4 minutes). Sorry if this doesn't work for you, I'm just trying to give other players some of the workarounds that have worked for them, and/or myself. If worst comes to worst and it still wont let you in, you can always just use AreaTransition to teleport yourself to the next town so you can at least experience more of the game's content. What worked for me to do so was just use "AreaTransition A" and then keep hitting the Tab key until you see an area called "The Hole". It'll be "AreaTransition A<long area name_The_Hole> South1 0". This will transition you to a tavern in the next city that contains several hours of gameplay just in that city and surrounding island - you wont be able to use your ship, though. Hope you can get it to let you past... I had to give up on two days worth of progress after I finally got the digsite sub-area to let me load in, but at least I'm able to access the rest of the game now. Hopefully my/our experience will allow you to do the same until they find/patch the issue. Good luck!

Functional workaround: 1.) Start in the Tavern, preferably - this is just in case you have an.. issue that's cropped up a few times for me in bypass testing. 2.) Make sure Eder and Aloth are in your party (the ashen statue of the animancer will NOT spawn if Aloth isn't in your party - not sure if this is still true if you didn't recruit him). Xoti also, if you recruited her. 3.) Open the console (tilde key ~ on QWERTY keyboards. It's just left of your 1 key) and type IRoll20s This WILL disable achievements during this playthrough, even if you disable cheats later. 4.) Open the console again and type (or paste): AreaTransition AR_0912_Engwithan_Digsite_Sublevel West1 ZN_09_Port_Maje This will... teleport you into the digsite sub-arena. The issue seems to be the transition from the surface to the sub-arena. 5.) Let it load. If the zone still hasn't loaded in after about 4-5 minutes (its usually faster), manually end the game process - you can do this by typing Ctrl+Shift+Escape if your using PC with Windows 10. 6.) If the area didn't load in and you had to crash the game, load it up again and go up and down the stairs in the tavern for a total of three area transitions (to clear your auto-save history) and try again. This should reliably let you in. I tried it with various conditions and, on the rare occasion that it didn't work, reloading and doing 3 area transitions and trying again seemed to let me in every time. You should be able to walk out normally with no problems and resume normal gameplay, just without achievements. Have fun.

When it happens, it doesn't "crash". The game... hangs. It will do the full loading screen, music will stop, you'll get your cursor back (the gauntlet), and then the game stops responding.

No, your achievements will be fully disabled for that playthrough. But what's more important, being able to actually enjoy the game, or getting a few achievements?

Is there an option to transition into the Sub-Arena using the console? Or has someone tried that and the loading got stuck all the same? Is there an option to give the PC the notes (quest item?) required to finish the quest via the console? It says something about being able to hand the governor the animancers notes in the quest log, but if it works... I don't know which "notes" they are as far as items go. I've tried adding various "quest item" flagged notes via the console already (FindGameData command is a godsend - THANKS!), but none have updated my quest journal when added so far, nor have I found any that change the conversation options with the governor. Believe me, I've already spent the better part of two hours just standing next to the governor, adding various items via the console (GiveItem <thing>), scouring item and quest names, and trying in vain to get the AdvanceQuest command to work so I could just skip that one map - for now - but to no avail. Hence why I just used AreaTrasition to go to the next town. If you'd like to do the same - for now - to at least experience a bit more of the game, just open the console and type "AreaTransition A" and then keep hitting Tab until you see the one with The Hole" in the name. The full command will be; "AreaTransition <long area name The Hole> South1 0" That'll put you inside a tavern in the next big city. You'll have to walk to the docks, and it'll whip you across the map for some rather... entertaining interactions. But there's SEVERAL more hours of content just in that city and the surrounding island, so it should tide you over for awhile.

Well... I managed to somewhat circumvent the issue/bug by using the console to AreaTransition to "The Hole" (Tavern), which let me into the next city. Most everything seems to be working as well as can be expected for essentially skipping part of the main storyline. I recruited some new companions, bought a (few) new ship(s), and even basically hired a new crew. I even managed to get the new storyline quest. Cleared all the combat areas I could find on the island so far as well. Downside is, I still can't actually "use" the ship(s). Leaving by sea is still grayed out. Well, and Aloth, despite stating that he wants to talk now that we're off the island, still wont let me talk to him since he still just says "We'll speak more when we're away from Port Maje" whenever I try to talk to him.. but that's a non-issue since he got voted out of my active crew for two other Godlike's. I was able to get it so I could actually select an active ship by using the console to activate the Defiant, and then change it to what I wanted manually after that - but I still can't actually "use" said ship (unless I'm missing something as for how to actually board said ship). So my question for now is, since I really want to actually experience the game and am already knee deep in console commands just because I needed to skip a single map, is there a way to either enable sea travel via console, or.. how do I actually get the AdvanceQuest command to work properly so I can just AreaTransition back to Port Maje and enable sea travel properly via the "Stranded" quest? Either will be fine. Its just that, what with sea travel being such an integral part of the game... I can't really "do" much without it. This is just for workaround purposes until the arena sub-level issue gets fixed/patched, since I plan on doing multiple playthroughs with different Legacy choices anyway? So, how do I enable sea travel via console, or advance the "Stranded" quest to just past the arena sub-level, so I can access the meat of the game? Thanks.

Fiddling around with explosives, I noticed that - with the exception of noisemakers - all explosives are "silent" (which I find hilarious, mind you.. Please give me a few silent grenades irl, please? - Oversight?). So I figured I'd play around with them, making a little stealth+explosives bombardier hero character. Quickly noticed many of the following issues; 1.) You cannot reverse pickpocket already hostile npc's (kith). - (Already known, but adding again for inclusion) 2.) You cannot reverse pickpocket hostile non-npc's (beasts, undead, etc.) at all. - (Makes sense for beasts, I guess, but I don't see why I can't stuff a grenade in a skeleton wizard's robe) 3.) Throwing a grenade (or other explosive) with Combat AI turned on at all and having a ranged weapon equipped while in stealth will cause thrower to instantly leave stealth and attempt to shoot (one of) the target(s) the moment the explosive detonates, even if the explosive killed the target(s) outright. - Makes partial sense, I guess, but it would make more sense to attempt to shoot a target FROM stealth, and simply lower your weapon again if the explosive ended up killing the target(s) outright, rather than simply breaking stealth. 4.) Throwing a grenade (or other explosive) with Combat AI turned on at all and having a melee weapon (or fists) equipped while in stealth will cause the thrower to instantly leave stealth and attempt to charge full speed at (one of) the target(s) the moment the explosive detonates, even if the explosive killed the target(s) outright. - Same issues as above, but this is especially problematic for melee characters if they used one of the vortex or other lingering effect field explosives, as the thrower basically screams "I miss you Berath!" as the charge headlong into there own hostile effect field and attempt to suicide themselves... even if there's no enemies left in it to attack. 5.) Throwing a grenade (or other explosive) with Combat AI turned OFF while in stealth causes the thrower to break stealth and stand up like a dolt the moment the explosive detonates, instantly revealing themselves to everyone else in the vicinity, even if the explosion killed the target(s) outright. - (This one was/is currently only tested with grenades, but since the effect held true for 3 and 4, I'm assuming it will be the same for the others here as well). 6.) Throwing a grenade (or other explosive, other than noisemakers) with Combat AI either on OR off while in stealth and MISSING any target(s) while still being in aggro range causes the thrower to break stealth and stand up in shame the moment the explosive detonates (with Combat AI turned on, the character will at least start targeting the nearest enemy). - Why? The enemies would clearly know an explosive was thrown, but not that you threw it if you were undetected at the time it exploded. Despite all that, I still find explosives extremely fun to use. Please fix anything that needs fixing, so explode-y fun time can be even more explode...y fun. lol

If you have multiple characters with different Legacy choices selected in different saves, loading a different save (i.e. changing characters) will not switch a companions preferences in the newly loaded game. You have to completely exit the game, restart, and load the other character from the main menu to have companions preferred preferences appear. This is especially noticeable with Aloth, as his disposition preferences are almost completely different between if his Legacy is to dismantle the Leaden Key or if he became the new leader of Leaden Key. Loading a game where Aloth is dismantling the Leaden Key, and then loading a different save for a different character where Aloth is the new leader of the Leaden Key, Aloth will not switch to his pro-Leaden Key disposition preferences (in the character menu). I currently have four different save games, due to a different.... issue... involving the Engwithan Digsite Sublevel that's already been reported and backed up by multiple other people, so while I was poking around my different save games trying to discover what impacts Legacy choices already make even in the very early game, I noticed this bug and, since nobody else seems to have reported it, I figured I'd bring it to everyone's attention.

Like everyone else, I'm having the exact same issue. Only with the sublevel. All other area transitions work fine (albeit sometimes a little slow). I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game (twice), verified the game files (four times), set the graphics to the lowest settings, and even tried letting it just sit there and try to load for literally over nine hours (I left the game running on the area transition overnight) to no effect. If attempted this with four different characters as well. Three with imported PoE1 legacy data, and one with custom legacy data. Each has the same (lack of) effect. Since I really don't care about the loot/items in there, and just want to get the quest done so I can actually play the game and experience more than a few skeletons and some boars to fight, I even rummaged around with the console to AdvanceQuest past the need to enter the sub-level - it doesn't even update the quest journal. So apparently its hard coded into the game that your absolutely, positively *required* to enter this map, with not even a way to cheat past it so you can actually, you know, experience the rest of the game. I'm actually half tempted to try and find someone else who has the game, send them my save file, have them do that map, and then send the file back when its done - if I actually had anyone on my friends lists who also play, which I don't, sadly. Is there literally ANY way to "skip" this area? Give a quest item via console that I can just take to the governor, for example, so I can actually experience more of the game than just... noob island, basically? I'm going to keep trying to fiddle with the graphics, etc, to try and get it to load in at least once... since theoretically that's all I'll need. But I'm growing rapidly more disappointed, beings as I've already dedicated over 35 hours of gameplay to just trying to get past the Black Screen Stonewall that is the Engwithan Digsite Arena Sub-Level. Please fix/patch. Thanks.