That's a good point Arthmoor but myself and others here have also tried loading saves.

In my case the dialogues eventually all worked after some ingame time, but not consistently. Perhaps there is a bug with this. Because it all used to work fine, loading saves or using COC, straight away, with no messing around.

Grudgingly I'll have to do more testing tonight and see what's what.

Thanks Arthmoor, I was ignorant of that fact. Another modder had told me COC was the best way to work with a clean save. I'll no longer use it then.

As for the other question, my old saves work fine for my old NPCs, but not the 2 most recent ones. I did manage to find one save where they were working, which is shown at the end of this video. You'll also notice one NPC unsheathes his weapon, which both the ones in RIverwood do for some crazy reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-sjqFIM8M8&feature=youtube_gdata

The video shows this:
1. COC from main menu, not working
2. Use save after leaving Helgen, works for old NPC, not for new one. (Old NPC takes out weapon)
3. Using random save, everything works(this is the exception, most saves are still broken for new NPC, but old ones are OK)

Agreed Arthmoor. I updated my testing method in my initial post to clarify. I completed the initial quest and I have not COC'd anywhere at anytime. I'm definatley experiencing the Broken Dialog problems. In one mod, no dialog comes up at all. In the other mod, only one dialog option is available. (Users are reporting lots of other variations on the "broken dialog" option also.)

You can use COC (and should, actually, to save time) just not straight from the main menu. Load a save, THEN use COC to get around.

I just started a new game from the main menu, played through Helgen, then went into my mod. Still not much.

This entire time the 6th main quest in my mod has worked pretty much flawlessly. However the rest is entirely botched. However these results are different for every single one of my testers. They all get different sections of dialogue to function properly. One tester is 100% unaffected. Absolutely every single line in my mod works for him without a problem.

This sounds like the most complex bug ever created on this entire planet, haha. It's absolutely random, and probably nearly impossible to pin down. :/

Arthmoor, the dialogue breaks regardless of using coc from the main menu or loading any save prior to the mod's creation and fast traveling to the start location. This applies to my mod, my post 1.7 "hello world" mod created today, or the Bendu Olo Creation Kit Tutorial mod I haven't touched since three weeks ago.

I'll try the Helgen restart method and see if that changes anything.

One thought. Anyone using Fuz Ro Doh? That hasn't been updated for Patch 1.7 yet. If you are, take the plugin out of the SKSE\Plugins folder and see what happens.

The video link looked a lot like what it was doing to me when the beta landed, and I forgot to remove it after SKSE was updated.

Hi! I've been experiencing this "new dialogue-bug" since beta patch 1.7, already. I posted this some days ago, unfortunately in the wrong thread.
I have made a couple of tests since. To show that my "testing-methods" aren't that amateurish, this is going to be a bit more elaborate...
First, let me explain: We own two copies of Skyrim in our family, two different versions, both German versions, installed on two different computers. I have installed my version on different partitions of my system, one installation to play with (I am only playing with my own created mods, except for the HighResTexturePackFix) - the other solely for testing purposes, which is a fresh installed game without ANY mods and a clean script folder.

The first thing I noticed when I tried the 1.7 patch was, that custom topics of my mods, flagged as "SayOnce" reappeared, and that any custom topics I had made in my mods were highlighted as new. Once I reloaded that save, everything would work normally and "SayOnce" topics were gone. (However any edited vanilla-dialogue in scenes - which didn't work with version 1.6.89.0 - would now work just fine.)

So I tried to make a simple new plugin to test it out. I just made a little quest with a topic for Sven and Faendal in Riverwood. Switched two my clean installed Skyrim version and started a new game, of course without any mods. After finishing the Helgen-quest I saved and restarted, this time with my test-plugin enabled.
Arriving in Riverwood I found out that neither Faendal nor Sven had any topics of my Quest. I saved and reloaded, and guess what happened? All dialogue worked fine.
After that I changed that test-quest to not being game enabled but getting started via change location event. Strange enough, this time it worked perfect. As soon as I arrived in Riverwood the two topics were available, I didn't have to save and reload first.
Exactly the same things happened when I tried my test plugin on our second computer with the second Skyrim version.
I also found out that the game enabled quests do actually start (I made myself a debug notification on startup stage to verify that), just the quest dialogue won't get loaded for some odd reason.
At least for my two game versions, this new bug isn't random at all. It's absolutely reliable and replicable, though not really game breaking, as there are still workarounds and everything works just fine, once I reload any savegame which already includes the plugin. Needless to say that if I roll back to version 1.6.89.0 everything works normal, except for the "original" dialogue bug, of course.
So, maybe anyone else can confirm this, and sorry for my english.

Elyanou, thanks for the post!

I too have multiple images - one for developing, one for testing and another for playing. This way, I can test on a a clean install. With that said, I continued with my testing as stated in my initial post. (As mentioned before, I am starting with a clean game file saved outside of Helgen. I walked to Whiterun and saved. No mods were used up to this point.) Here are my results based on the loading the mod and continuing my tests:

ScenicCarriages:
When I talk to the carriage driver, I get only one dialog option, two options are missing. The dialog option showing is the correct option, but unfortunately, chosing the option doesn't actually do anything. (Note: The main option showing is based on a global variable that is initially set to 0 so everything is correct.)

I save the game and reload. Now when I talk to the driver, I get more options. The bad part is, I get BOTH options for the either/or variable! So something is fundamentally broken. (Note, since this mod is based on the RealCart option already built in the game, I utilized that variable. I will test with a new non-Beth variable.)

BFF Animal Companions:
When I talk to the NPC, no options are available.

When I save and reload, all options become available and everything "seems" to work fine.

Thank you for your post, at least there's some hope for one of my mods!

Is anyone having similar issues with scene phases not always firing?

I have a mod where a dancing girl moves to an idle marker and starts dancing while four random guys move to other idle markers and egg her on. It was working perfectly before the 1.7 patch update.

The reason I wonder is that the lines of dialogue in the speech are missing, or unreliable, and similarly some of the phases seem to be unreliable.

This might be utterly unconnected, but I offer it as one more data point.

Ok so after further testing I have found the following for dialogue only "quests":

(My dialogue only quests are a single 1 line topic/response branch with a condition S - GetInFaction - HunterFaction == 1, and a single line with S - GetIsID - Elrindir == 1)

COC from main menu

No dialogue shows at all for hunters or Elrindir. No amount of waiting or fast travelling seems to solve this. SQV MyQuest shows the quest as running fine.


Load a save that has never seen the mod

No dialogue shows at all for hunters or Elrindir. No amount of waiting or fast travelling seems to solve this. SQV MyQuest shows the quest as running fine.


Load a save that has been saved with your mod loaded (I loaded an old save, and instantly saved it to make this new save)

All dialogue works perfectly!


(For testing) Load a clean save as above, then go to hunter (no dialogue shows). Save game right there, then load that save from the ESC menu.

All dialogue works perfectly fine!


Basically, your dialogue only shows if you load the game with your mod enabled, save it, then reload that save. So this is completely reproducible. I added the COC test results as I know some modders use that. I myself use it to test level design etc.

Something has definitely gone wrong with the latest patch, because any save loaded with a new ESP (my own for example) would instantly work fine with new dialogue quests. Now though, you need to save, then reload that save...


EDIT

Obviously this can cause problems because if you save with a mod loaded, that has an active quest with scripts, then those scripts will be saved into that save. Meaning any edits you make to it in the CK won't change for that save.

EDIT 2

A couple of people have reported this doesn't fix the issue, but more have said it does. Best to try it for yourselves. Until we get a fix from Beth

Huh, I'll test my little quest (one I made a while ago to get a feel of making quests) with all the methods you listed.

Good job B1gBadDaddy. This will help when the inevitable happens and my dialogue topic for Wearable Lanterns on followers starts not working.

I have another issue. All the dialogue, clean save or not, resets whenever I exit the game. Meaning, the initial dialogue that I have set to "Say Once" comes back if you exit the program and restart Skyrim. It works properly if you never leave the game, but obviously that is not feasible.

I can confirm this also happens to me with "Hours Until Reset" responses; they reset immediately when saving, quitting, and then reloading the save.

This is an incredible developement! (Weird, though)

If I load a clean save, and coc to my main village, no dialogue works. But if I save, then right there from in the game load that save, all dialogue appears to fully function! Whaaaat?

EDIT: So this method could be used to do rough testing on newly added dialogue, meaning I can at least continue developement of quests. Then once it's actually fixed I can do final testing. Wheeew. I've forwarded this information to Gstaff. I'm really pressing him to get a developer in here so we can speak with them firsthand.

Yep, basically this. Which is weird because it never used to work like that. Dialogues always worked (new ones that is, not vanilla edits )

Unless it's fixed, not only is it weird to have to have in the mod install instructions "Load your game, save it, then load your game again..." And now with this new issue with Say Once, I don't know what's going to happen

Yep, just the same for me, as I already mentioned in my post above. Delvin Mallory of the Thieves Guild for example repeats his "Finished that job in xxx" topic every time I start the game. Which could mean, that not only esp files are affected. However, if I reload my save, everything is just like it's supposed to be.

AV, as I noted in response to Elyanou's post (who I think first observed saving and reloading made quests work), when I do that, I am getting both dialog options for an either/or condition! So that means the conditions are seriously broken in the dialog system. (Example: I have a global set to either 0 or 1 with one dialog option set for the 0 and another set for the 1. The first time I talk to the NPC, the dialog shows the correct response for 0. After I save and come back, I am getting BOTH dialog options! )

That sounds the same as the Say Once dialogue resetting every time you load. Maybe your save registers the variable change, but then... doesn't... if you get me. Otherwise it wouldn't know it's set to 1. So you load, save knows the variable changed to 1 and shows the correct dialogue, but for some reason also shows 0.... yep I know I just repeated myself lol.

I understand your logic, but I never set it to 1. I can't. The dialog to get the book to set the config options never shows So it should always be zero and never should be 1, yet the dialog for both 0 and 1 is showing.

Try what I did also in testing. Make a new dialogue quest with the same conditions, with just one line of text, in a new ESP. To make sure it's reproducible with anoter quest and ESP.

Okay, I'll give that a shot (and test Elyanou's suggestion from the other thread) and give an update.

ive had this problem and solution since before patch 1.7 although it wasnt as severe.

in patch 1.6 only the existing dialogue branches that were edited using the 1.6 CK was affected. now it seems all dialogue is affected regardless of edit (this only happens for me on dialogue quests that exist on esp and not esm). saving and reloading on the spot has the fixed the problem for me in both cases, but it is annoying regardless. especially having to repeat this explanation in the comments section of the mod repeatedly

Yep, I'm getting the same problem, dialogue added by my quest to the carriage driver faction doesn't show up initially, but if I save and re-load it shows up ok.

I can confirm that loading and re-loading again seems to fix all the issues for my old NPCs. I can even go to the main menu and COC and they work again, provided I had loaded once before. New NPCs don't work, however.


EDIT: Never mind on new NPCs, something just changed. I made a mod from scratch, and no matter what I did she wouldn't say a word but now is speaking the 1 line I gave her. Still has bugged "Say Once" dialogue, but at least she's talking now, whereas up until 30 minutes ago was not happening.