I've been noticing some very odd behaviour in my game these past few days and I have yet to find the cause. It all started when a courier came running up to me. Usually they initiate a conversation with me, but he was just standing there. Only when I pressed 'E' to talk did he proceed to talk and give me the item.

Next there was an issue with guards in the Talos temple during the Markath quest that would send me into the mines. They also did not force the conversation, but I had to press 'E' again.

Then there was the issue with several quests (Karliah standing at the stone, but not proceeding to allow entry. A followup quest that would not trigger the reward and just made characters stand there being 'busy'). Quite a few times I was forced to update the quest entries manually through the console.

But what made me search the internet and finally making this post was me being unable to get any options going during the Season Unending quest at the table.

I'm using v1.5.26.0.5 and at first I figured that maybe it was the third-party addon ScriptDragon, as I installed it (next to ThuuMicShouter) around the time I started noticing some odd behaviour (ThuuMic didn't work either sadly, because my language pack was not supported in Windows). But removing it (just to check) did not change the course of the Season Unending quest (still no options when I was asked if someone should stay or leave). Disabling recently added mods had no effect either. Verifying the integrity of the game files through Steam also did nothing apparently.

So at present time I am at a loss on what might be causing these problems as it seems to relate to some kind of 'proximity-trigger' that should trigger an automatic event but is bugging out and not triggering anymore.

I'll include my (very small) list of mods in use here; although I don't believe any of them are to blame:

Arrowsmith
HighResTexturePack01
HighResTexturePack02
ApachiiHair
MikeHancho's Breezehome Tweaks
WATER
HighResTexturePackFix
UniqueLevelledItemsUpgrade
ScenicCarriages
ArmoredCircletsQuickFox
Cat_Mount

Did you try out the Unofficial Skyrim Patch? it fixed some of my stuck journal entries and weird behavior (Karliah's for instance).

If that doesnt work, give the beta 1.6 a shot but thats just a last resort. Not sure what else to think of this.

Have you tried waiting out the reset period to see if that helps?

I installed the beta 1.6, but that one did not fix it apparently. I'll try and see if the Unofficial Skyrim Patch can help tomorrow.


Not entirely sure what you mean with 'reset period'. All I see if a group of people staring at me, with me not having any conversation options. Even waiting for quite some time does not provide me with any options. Setting the quest stage forward will cause the NPC's to talk with eachother, but as soon as my input is requested again nothing pops up for me to select

Waiting 30/31 in-game days is one of the main reset periods. That may help reset their AI.

I'll give it a try. Although it seems the NPC AI, pathfinding and 'cutscene conversations' seem to be working fine. It's the parts where the script should trigger a forced response from the player that seem to be malfunctioning for me...

Did you turn off subtitles? (longshot but it seems to happen in Oblivion)

I've been getting this in the past few days. I'm glad I'm not the only one. It seems like Beth sent out a silent update to the game or something.
The game is just unplayble like this. I really hope they fix it soon.

I'll go ahead and confirm that this didn't change anything. The NPCs still just stand there. The Navmesh for this game seems to only work 50% of the time. When it doesn't work you can sometime talk to the NPCs. but in some cases the NPC is "busy" and it has to be the one to start the convo. I think Beth slipped up and sent out a tiny update by mistake when they released the beta or something. Because I didn't have these issues like 5+ days ago.

Not sure if there was an update sent by mistake or anything, but I also believe it started to happen around 5+ days ago for me as well.

As to subtitles, I never used them with my 5.1 surround headset

I had this happen a few months ago. Like the scene when you first enter Windhelm (the dunmer and two nords), or the Winterhold scene between the shopkeeper and her husband or whoever... stuff just stood there forever. That was after patch 1.5, I was not sure what caused it, but playing lately, the game has been just fine. The only think I did different was turn off the two texture packs. I kept getting missing meshes on NPCs or items. ( was it textures, never get them straight, I kept getting white armor/items randomly,)

For all I know it could be those texture pack DLCs. I'm starting to think it's a 1.5 bug. I'm gonna try playing with the beta 1.6 when I have time with a new game with no mods to see if that fixes anything. I already tried playing with no mods and a new game with 1.5 but the bug eventually shows up.

Tried turning off the 2 official texture packs, but I'm still running into the same issue where I can't continue with the Season Unending quest because I do not get any conversation options

Just went through your log again and noticed you said you "disabled" your mods, but have you tried uninstalling them?

Initially I just flipped the checkbox off, but the next time I started up the launcher all the boxes were checked again. So I physically moved them to a temporary directory to be sure they would not load.

I'm not referring to just the ESP/ESMs but the meshes, textures, and script files as well. Did you try removing all files related to the all the mods as well?

Ah, so physically removing all the existing files the mods added? Haven't tried that yet, but I'll give it a whirl tomorrow and see. Although scripts and the like should not function when they're not being adressed through the esp that uses them as far as I know. But tomorrow's a day off for me, so I'll just have a go at that then

Yep. As for the second part, I think they still function as long as their files are still around but I've been kinda too engrossed in anolyzing raw data patterns for Morrowind and above to pay too much attention to that sort of thing.

I've been reading up a bit more with users experiencing similar issues with this particular quest. So it seems less likely to have been one of my mods, and more a creeping thing where many variables in the game may cause npc's to 'forget their lines' so to speak.

At any rate (and with great regret) I have been forcing myself to progress the quest manually by entering SetStage commands in getting me through. At least I can now continue onward.

Thanks everyone for your time and effort in trying to help me track down the problem, but I fear the issues reside within fragments of code embedded in the main game.

Greetz,

Milt