Neketaka guards bug and how to solve it

[Barba17]

As per title, I am playing turn-based and I have encountered that damn bug (fighting Cotta) where all guards come at you. I am playing veteran difficulty and I see no way to get that bounty. Do you have any clue on how to solve it?

My idea by now is to use cheat codes such as God mode (do not really care about achievements), but then my question is: how can I turn the god mode off? Is not like I want to use it all game long, is just to surpass the bug...

 

Thanks!

[thelee]

in the past i've heard that playing at midnight can help, because it reduces commoners and those are the ones that can trigger the bug. maybe give that a try?

[Shai Hulud]

20 hours ago, Barba17 said:

As per title, I am playing turn-based and I have encountered that damn bug (fighting Cotta) where all guards come at you. I am playing veteran difficulty and I see no way to get that bounty. Do you have any clue on how to solve it?

My idea by now is to use cheat codes such as God mode (do not really care about achievements), but then my question is: how can I turn the god mode off? Is not like I want to use it all game long, is just to surpass the bug...

 

Thanks!

You could solve the Cotta encounter peacefully. You get roughly the same awards if you just take his deal and convince the shipwright with diplomacy.

Using console you just type "iroll20s" to activate cheat mode, then "god" for invincibility, type "god" again to turn it off. "toggleresourcelimit" is also useful, gives you infinite resources. 

[bugarup]

From my experience this is caused by a NPC touching your AoE. Just had the same thing with Cotta fight, when some dunce blithely traipsed right into soft winds of death. So to be on the safe side it's better to turn AoEs off for the fight duration. Also let those idiots pass by when it's your turn and you see them coming by.

Oh, and another very important thing: if you reload from a quicksave, guards auto-aggro regardless. Gotta go back all the way to the start screen. 

Shipwright doesn't offer you discount if you don't off Cotta though, and if there's a shop where a discount, heh, counts, it's the one that sells ships. 

[thelee]

8 hours ago, bugarup said:

Oh, and another very important thing: if you reload from a quicksave, guards auto-aggro regardless. Gotta go back all the way to the start screen. 

whoa, very nice find. quoting to help ppl find this from google. i don't recall finding discussions about this on the internet, so this is a really useful insight.

quicksave/quickloads are convenient, but it's easy to forget that making them "quick" requires the game taking shortcuts that might introduce bugs. (the biggest one for me is the memory leak after prolonged play which only quitting to start screen can clear)

[Shai Hulud]

23 hours ago, bugarup said:

From my experience this is caused by a NPC touching your AoE. Just had the same thing with Cotta fight, when some dunce blithely traipsed right into soft winds of death. So to be on the safe side it's better to turn AoEs off for the fight duration. Also let those idiots pass by when it's your turn and you see them coming by.

Oh, and another very important thing: if you reload from a quicksave, guards auto-aggro regardless. Gotta go back all the way to the start screen. 

Shipwright doesn't offer you discount if you don't off Cotta though, and if there's a shop where a discount, heh, counts, it's the one that sells ships. 

No he always offers the discount. Only difference is he doesn't give you the iron thunderers for 1000, *unless* you tell him Radora was robbed BEFORE making the deal. You also get +700 gold for the peaceful route, this is definitely the easiest and most lucrative route. 

[NotDumbEnough]

I tend to do the double-crossing route where I take Cotta's advance payment, then initiate the fight by blowing up the powder barrels next to him. His group drops somewhat useful gear so it's still worth fighting them.

[Shai Hulud]

3 hours ago, NotDumbEnough said:

I tend to do the double-crossing route where I take Cotta's advance payment, then initiate the fight by blowing up the powder barrels next to him. His group drops somewhat useful gear so it's still worth fighting them.

I guess the most lucrative option would be to take the initially peaceful route of agreeing to convince Zamar to sell to the principi, take the advance payment, inform Zamar, buy iron thunderers if desired, return to Cotta for the 500, then kill the group anyway. You get a reputation gain with the principi, 700 gold, and can still buy the iron thunderers and kill Cotta for his gear. Though sometimes I too just take the advance payment before the double-cross, because Zamar seems so angry and disappointed at having to deal with the principi (which oddly stays in effect even if you kill his contact after). 

Should note, however, that when you're first coming off the Defiant in Neketaka, low level and with crap gear, his well-rounded party is a pretty rough encounter. Even detonating the barrels, typically Cotta, his wolf, and the priest in the back survive, often one or more others. I've found throwing sparkcrackers first then detonating the barrels helps. While rarely killing the group outright, this at least draws some of the ones in the back like the priest into the explosion radius. The priest is important to deal with here because he has the annoying habit of casting withdraw on his near-death allies (and on himself).

I think Cotta has a ring of minor protection but don't think anything else drops of interest. Though I guess during the stage of the game people typically fight him, money is still scarce so even 500 dollars of loot is maybe worth the fight. And rings of minor protection are pretty good, yeah.