There is NO way it could possibly do that.

Yes it could.
I work for a software house, and we constantly release updates to our software, which at the end of the patch always goes through and validates/updates the data.

Does your company's software use the same quest system as Skyrim?

when for instands a person wont move to a location it should be going to, it can easily be patched..-.-

of course not, what mad unlogical planet are you from?

Maths is Maths
Programming is Programming

The methodology of conditional statements, and the storage of data view pointers and counters is universal.

Yes it could.
I work for a software house, and we constantly release updates to our software, which at the end of the patch always goes through and validates/updates the data.

The validation just needs to know what quests you are on or have completed, and then check the status of relevant items and locations.
It doesn't matter if you've been somewhere else inbetween.

When you finish "Quest A" the dagger will be "somewhere" and not in the chest at "somewhere"
On "Quest B" - part2 If you have item "box of crabs" then Part 2 should be "completed" as you have "box of crabs"

The game stores and tracks all these. So a quest condition has failed for some reason. The validation routine can just loop through your quests.

Simples

of course not, what mad unlogical planet are you from?

Maths is Maths
Programming is Programming

The methodology of conditional statements, and the storage of data view pointers and counters is universal.

Don't be so silly, PS3 patches do not alter gamesaves on a users PS3 in terms of content...that would be sucidial.

So no it will NEVER happen on a PS3, it CAN be done but WILL NEVER be done.

The problem is that the game may not know where quest glitches have occurred. Since you have such a high-degree of freedom in the game, this means you can do stupid stuff and it's still part of "your" game.

If you can accurately identify the problem, then you can often fix it. This is why stuff like work flow programs have check points to keep track of where it's broken. The thing is, Skyrim is so large that actively tracking things like this would eventually flood the system with data just like the bug is currently doing. So something of this scope (most likely more complex than the stuff you're working with, since games are generally more complex than most other software developing) can't really track down the problems as easily.

Unless the patch creates a new option (and routine) in the game menu called "Check/Fix Quest status" for example.
Then it would not break the conditions and allow people to check the status and or fix their save files.

Whether it CAN or CANNOT be done is IRRELEVANT....

It is NEVER done like this on ANY games console or PC for that matter, 99% of patches DO NOT look inside a savefile and alter the contents....

Most patches simply fix the code in th game to stop the bug in the first place...

Well maybe they should have an option. It is certainly possible.

The mechanics of storing quests, items and locations and their progress, has been much the same since the old "type Go North" adventure games.
I've written a few (not as pretty as skyrim though lol)

Also on the PC you can fix broken quests, locations yourself via a console command.
If this is a port of a PC game, then that functionality is probably still there behind the scenes.

Notes:
It is not possible to undo this command. So, for example, if you type SetStage MQ03 20 by mistake (instead of MQ02), there is no way to reverse that command and make the game think that you have not started MQ03. In particular, SetStage MQ03 0 will have no effect. Overall, it is not possible to decrease a quest's stage. So even entering SetStage MQ03 10 would not change the quest stage (e.g., GetStage MQ03 would still return 20, not 10).
Internally, the game has flags that keep track of the status of each individual quest stage. So the command SetStage MQ03 20 does not set a "stage" variable to 20; it actually sets the "stagedone" variable for MQ03 stage 20 to true (or 1). The command GetStage MQ03 just figures out which is the highest numbered stage that has been flagged as done, and returns that number. There is no known way to directly alter the "stagedone" variables, which is why it is impossible to undo a setstage command.
Some game scripts are based upon the the overall quest stage (i.e., the value returned by GetStage); other scripts are based upon whether or not specific stages have been done (i.e., the value returned by GetStageDone). Therefore, skipping ahead in a quest, for example by entering SetStage MQ03 100 can have unpredictable effects, because the individual stages of the quest are not marked as complete. Also, there are invariably many other scripts that are supposed to get executed as a quest progresses; skipping ahead in a quest will not cause any of the other scripts to be run. It may subsequently be impossible to ever reproduce the missing events using the console. Therefore indiscriminate use of this command can lead to permanently bugged games.

Whether it CAN or CANNOT be done is IRRELEVANT....

It is NEVER done like this on ANY games console or PC for that matter, 99% of patches DO NOT look inside a savefile and alter the contents....

Most patches simply fix the code in th game to stop the bug in the first place...

Yep, I never disagreed with that. I was explaining to the other poster why it isn't really viable in this case and not the same as anything found in typical software.

The poster indicated that there was no difference between skyrim and the type of software they work on because math is apparently equal to math. I just corrected them with the equivalent of saying physics is not equal to addition.

Yeah I agree with you, I quoted the wrong post...