Beast of Winter Journal Entry oddities, stops BoW progress (Workaround inside)

[Clawdius_Talonious]

Edit: With the response of Kindoffer I was able to pull all of my saves from August out of the directory and get one of the last two characters into the BoW content. By trying my saves from the first character to go through BoW being back in the save directory (but all others in a temp directory) and reloading the pre-August save from the other character that was displaying all quests from Beast of Winter as complete I was able to get a game state where they were also able to travel to Harbinger's Watch and progress Beast of Winter.

 

I still have no idea what on earth the game looks at any saves that aren't loaded for, the saves of other characters to my mind shouldn't cause an issue like this, but since this fix works clearly that's the culprit.

 

I never did find a single save I could use to drop into the save directory that would recreate this issue by itself. That said, my entire directory does it, and I could probably pretty easily narrow it down to e.g. two characters entire save logs if need be... But I've gotten the six characters from before August into the content and I'm kind of tired of fooling with it now. If my saves would somehow be useful let me know, but otherwise I'm just going to hope Obsidian doesn't need me to upload several hundred megs of saves I don't feel like going through (it doesn't help that I seemed to have to exit the entire game to get added saves to register necessitating checking for one corrupting save being launching and closing the game over and over.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, on the repro on this I'm a little flummoxed TBH. I loaded a save I had started not too long ago, after having run through the entirety of Beast of Winter on my first or who I think of as my "main" character and didn't even consider looking at my quest log for Beast of Winter stuff. At any rate, on my second character, loading the quicksave that was his latest I charged on in and saw... Vatnir wouldn't talk to me, he just had some barks about his bandages or some such. It would load the little semi-cutscene sort of, the camera would move, and then a Vatnir bark.

 

Looking into it further, after a number of hours on this character, I realized that I had two quests that were shown as "completed" in the Beast of Winter log, the two from the title To Rise and Decline and An Honored Guest were both showing as complete before I ever was able to even talk to Vatnir. I can't really say or imagine why exactly this character reports as having completed these quests. Hell, looking at all my other characters and then going back to the first to exhibit noticeable weirdness, he now showed -every- quest I'm aware of in The Beast of Winter having been completed, despite the fact that he was never able to even pick up Vatnir.

 

Looking into things beyond these two characters I see they all have The Higher Ups as a sidequest despite having never been to Harbinger's Rest (having just been loading pre-endgame saves to examine the state of things after launch). And of course, as I mentioned, my character whose quest history is acting even more strangely than acquiring quests he's never had (as every character of mine has done with The Higher Ups) now reports every single quest in The Beast of Winter as having been completed despite the fact that he's level 9, and I'm just loading saves from before TBoW launched. I guess I never bothered to make him a permanent save, just going off of quicksaves and autosaves on him, because I've got several autosaves and the quick save that were there before TBoW launched, new autosaves and quicksaves started to be generated thankfully for me to explore but he's just reporting that I've completed every quest in TBoW now as far back as I can see...

 

I tried to attach a save, but since the max file size is 1mb and the save is more like 3mb I couldn't just attach it here. If you need me to upload the ... most afflicted save, I can put it on whatever site you recommend. As I stated, there is a save game now for which all of the quest completions are true, I did all the Beast of Winter stuff on a level 20 before loading up my level 9 to check it out on Hard difficulty at a low level and encountering what I thought was a bug just in the scripting of Vatnir that turned out to be... some sort of quest rot is the best way I can describe it, apparently as I played him and got him a few levels elsewhere (thinking I might have gotten the missive in error and just needed to level a bit and go back to have the script play out properly) he was apparently getting quests and having them flag as completed at this point? I really don't think that was the case, the crazy thing is these saves weren't altered, but on reloading them later instead of just having To Rise and Decline and An Honored Guest showing as complete they all started showing every single quest as complete.

 

I've since tried validating files, and even went to Harbinger's Watch on another character who had The Higher Ups, she got the letter from Vatnir but the quest didn't enter into her journal properly and when she got there he acted the same way just saying "Yes yes I'm here" and "I've got to change these bandages" or some such.

 

I'm more than happy to upload any files, but I am really not sure what I could upload that would be demonstrative of this issue since whatever it is seems to have taken hold and then spread to every file the character had, as well as The Higher Ups being present across every character. Something bled through from my first time through The Beast of Winter maybe? I've got several other characters I can try to run to Harbinger's and see if any of them will be able to trigger Vatnir's dialog properly, as I said it just activates the camera stuff and he says "Yes yes, I'm here" and it is over. I'm not really even sure how this journal stuff ties into it, just that it has exhibited these baffling properties and I'm flummoxed.

 

I'm aware that without some more from me, unless the repro is as easy as "Run a character through TBoW, load a second character in that instance of the game and try to run them to Harbinger's" this one's going to be a hell of a mystery. I'll check back in the morning and upload any saves or anything as required, but I'm really not sure what I can offer since now all of the worst afflicted character's saves have the same exact problem, including every save from before TBoW launched, even though the problem got worse over the course of my leveling the character from 9-11 (going from 2 quests to all of the stuff you do after climbing the cliff as well showing up as completed.)

 

The only other thing I can think to offer is, I loaded a bunch of characters, then loaded the afflicted character and that was when I first noticed that his latest saves (and afterwards all his saves) were also showing up with the same issue. I'd swear that I loaded the pre-DLC (not the autosave named that, just the quicksave that stayed extant once I started making new quicksaves that I initially loaded on that character) save once I saw the quests as flagged complete and I was sure I saw The Beast of Winter heading with no leads under it, so I thought I'd have great before and after saves to upload when I started writing this and as I went to do more thorough investigating things just got worse.

 

I don't have any mods or anything like that, so that's out the window as a potential cause of these baffling issues.

 

I'm more than willing to imagine this is just going to be some crazy super rare issue that is impossible to repro, Rymrgand possessed my saves and brought me some free entropy. If that's the case, I would love some console commands, so I can reset the state of every TBoW quest to the state of having never been accepted if such a thing exists. 

Edited August 9, 2018 by Clawdius_Talonious

[ptarror]

Think I'm having the same issue, although this is after finishing the DLC in my case. When I load any save or try to start the DLC with another character, Vatnir and Brythe will only give their completed quest barks -- Vatnir's intro speech cutscene stops dead, and Brythe won't open dialogue, she just thanks me as if I'd completed her second quest.

Edited August 3, 2018 by ptarror

[Clawdius_Talonious]

Yeah, I finished the content on one character, tried to bring in others and something weird is going on now game wide for pre dlc characters, although I haven't checked on what happens quest log wise on a new character.

 

I have a... half dozen or so characters, a level 20 I beat  TBoW with and 3 more 20s and the two who I currently have at Harbingers unable to progress.

[Morning Glory]

The same Journal oddities were found.

 

I started DLC with my 20 lvl character just before choosing the side and going to Ukaizo, and I had this last Gods meeting on the way to the isle. Don't know if that had any influence, but when I killed the dragon nothing happend, cutscene didn'd start and all the NPC were barking the same thing about the dragon coming. So I had to start DLC anew.

 

I loaded the 17 lvl save before Hasongo and found that DLC entry are already inside the journal. This time everything was OK, I slayed the dragon and finally had that cutscene about finding Vatnir.

Then I decided to load my earliest save of this character to check if Journal entry keeps bugging. So yes, I still have all the entries dated by Foniverno 2824, but wait, it's Fonprima 2823 out there.

[Clawdius_Talonious]

This is on the same character who initially completed the DLC, Morning Glory? So you did the DLC, then had to reload the Pre-DLC save and continue from there and already had the journal entries?

 

Interesting, so this problem isn't just for people who've completed the DLC on another character necessarily, even the same character could encounter issues after beating the DLC.

 

The -only- character I have that doesn't have erroneous journal entries is the character I first did the DLC on, he's clean when I load the Pre-DLC save, at least in the journal sense. I haven't brought him into town to see how Vatnir responds, I just looked at it this morning when I was curious if all of my characters were indeed affected or if this was just for characters who existed prior to beating the DLC with one character.

 

I've started a brand new character, who has no journal issues at all, but I didn't really feel like going through Port Maje again so I'll report back if I do end up going back to it and seeing if I can even start the DLC on a new character.

[Morning Glory]

This is on the same character who initially completed the DLC, Morning Glory? So you did the DLC, then had to reload the Pre-DLC save and continue from there and already had the journal entries?

 

Interesting, so this problem isn't just for people who've completed the DLC on another character necessarily, even the same character could encounter issues after beating the DLC.

No, not completed. I mean the very first dragon kill when I first met Vatnir, I barely started DLC and had to start again because of a bug - Vatnir had to be hiding in his room but he never moved and there was no cutscene.

 

So I dropped it and thought maybe it's because I'm in the end of a game and supposed to go to Ukaizo, not to play with cows, so I loaded earlier save to avoid problem of Ukaizo. And then I saw that An Honored Guest is already showing as complete, but despite of this I successfully started DLC all over again and now I'm happily gaming without problems (for now).

[Clawdius_Talonious]

Thanks for the update Morning Glory, although it leaves me with a less defined concept for what exactly this bug is and what indicates you have it (besides Vatnir being unresponsive during his introduction video.) I'll have to try to initiate the video several more times on different characters and make sure that I'm unable to get lucky and have the quest progress properly (even if it displays as completed.)

 

When i set out to report this issue I had thought it would be as simple as a before and after save, but if it can affect people who haven't beat TBoW content, then that indicates that it is even more rare and therefore that much more difficult to reproduce. Whatever this is seems to affect the entire game, and every extant save prior to the release of TBoW, so I don't think that any files I have would really be helpful in diagnosing or addressing it. That said if I'm mistaken I'll happily provide any files that may help, at the very least I have a character who hasn't fought the messenger and yet mysteriously reports every single quest in TBoW as complete if that could be useful?

 

Most of the affected seem to have completed The Beast of Winter, upon which they were unable to bring any previously extant characters to Harbinger's Watch and have Vatnir's introduction play properly. I've brought a character created after the release of 2.0 to Harbinger's Watch and successfully encountered the Messenger, so while this does appear to affect all the older saves it doesn't seem to bleed over into new save games.

 

Edit: Update - Loading pre-endgame saves etc. seems to trigger the quests properly, and my characters aren't showing The Higher Ups as a side quest long before they could possibly have gotten it. The more prevalent of what may be two different issues may have been addressed? If so that just leaves me with one character whose time spent with this bug exacerbated the condition beyond recovery. 

Edited August 5, 2018 by Clawdius_Talonious

[Clawdius_Talonious]

Reporting back in, it seems that the characters who hadn't travelled to Harbinger's lost the erroneous The Higher Ups, I still have two characters who went to Harbinger's Rest and are unable to start The Beast of Winter content, but most of my characters can now complete the content at least. I am not sure what changed, as I had already checked the endgame saves on all my characters and The Higher Ups was displayed and the characters I had brought to Harbinger's were unable to progress.

 

Looking further into it, I simply wasn't displaying completed quests on the two characters I brought into this after the first to exhibit these issues couldn't start The Beast of Winter. This means that now I have three characters, one of whom hadn't ever been to Harbinger's Watch and was only loaded for a moment in the pre-endgame phase to check his quest journal, who cannot progress the Beast of Winter quest line because every quest in The Beast of Winter is being displayed as complete except for The Higher Ups despite these characters having never even been to Harbinger's Watch. I'd be fine with a manual reset command for the developer console so that I could take An Honored Guest and begin the Beast of Winter content on the only characters I had prior to launch that still needed experience to reach the level cap.

 

I can't be sure what on earth caused this initially, nor what caused 3 of the saves previously displaying the symptoms (Higher Ups just being in the quest journal despite these being pre TBoW PRE-ENDGAME saves at least, I don't recall if I manually clicked on display completed twice to make it actually display completed quests upon loading new characters) to no longer have this issue and be able to battle The Messenger properly. Because of the third character, for whom I only had loaded a pre-endgame save and then moved on to the next character like I had for the others that this isn't an issue for any longer, I no longer even have the common thread of "these characters had been to Harbinger's Watch prior to whatever fixed this having happened." That puts my own personal tally at 3 characters who can't progress The Beast of Winter, and 3 characters who can. And one who I created after The Beast of Winter was released to test whether a new character had any issues.

 

If there wasn't any sort of patch released on Sunday (and that seems likely), the only thing I did that might have had any effect on whatever this is was starting a new character. I don't know how or why that would have changed anything, but I also don't know why saves that have existed and not been altered since well before The Beast of Winter launched all now display TBoW quests as having been completed...

 

If it sounds like providing these characters saves might be useful I'm happy to upload them, but since the glitch is game wide I can't provide anything like a before and after because there is no before since this bug is displayed on even my oldest saves on every affected character.

[Clawdius_Talonious]

Bumping this for visibility.

[Kapten Teo]

This happened to me, as well. I started and finished the questline as normal with my first character, and when I loaded the save for my second character, the journal states that I've already done all the quests pertaining to the DLC. The initial dialogue triggers if I travel to Harbinger's Watch, but when I then go to speak to Vatnir, the conversation doesn't trigger, and any progress stops there.

 

• First character played Beast of Winter from beginning to end with no issues.
• Second character can't progress past the first meeting with Vatnir, because the journal states that all the Beast of Winter quests are already completed.

 

Update: Removing the save files of Character 1 from the save folder, before loading the save game for Character 2, prevented this issue from happening. I was then able to start the quest line with Character 2 and save anew, before restoring the save files for Character 1. This appears to have fixed the issue for me at least, so anyone having the same problem might want to try doing the same.

 

Update 2: Restoring the Character 1 save files made the quest get stuck when searching for Vatnir after the Messenger attack. Went back to an earlier save after removing the Character 1 save files and loading an earlier save fixes it once again. It seems I must play without the first characters save files present in the save folder.

 

Save files: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Kfr6d0S1ioH4nCvUZohqTJhFuvyvpv2U

Edited August 7, 2018 by Kindoffer

[Clawdius_Talonious]

Confirmed! Disabling Steam Cloud saves and copying all the saves of characters that had completed The Beast of Winter has allowed the character who was getting The Higher Ups and not getting/able to progress Honored Guest no longer has The Higher Ups when I load his PRE-ENDGAME save.

 

Sadly this didn't have any effect on my other two characters, who now all display all of the Beast of Winter content as completed on all of their saves. I can try pulling out newer saves from those characters and see if I can isolate saves that are corrupting the others or something tomorrow.

[ptarror]

This does seem to work. I went back to a save from before I'd started the DLC (before I'd gotten Vatnir's missive) and it all seems to be back on track so far.

[Clawdius_Talonious]

I think this will be the last time I bump this, I updated the title and initial post to reflect the state of the problem for me. Hopefully the workaround suggested by Kindoffer works for everyone else, and if that's not enough they might be able to try what I had to do for the last character to be able to start the Beast of Winter content.