[ch3] Outside Assistance stuck

[yaugie]

I got up to this point again on this new save, and this quest did actually activate this time - although I had to cancel out of the first time the person called me (it got 'stuck' at their first line) and then ring them back to get the conversation to go through.

However. I went to the location given and found the treasure, but the quest didn't update to acknowledge I had. I scoured literally every inch of that place seeing if there was an additional item I'd missed picking up, but nope.

... I wonder if this is the same issue meaning I can't complete Gremlin's "Laser Love" too, actually, since it's the exact same behaviour - quest not acknowledging that I picked up a weapon. I can't see how anything in my load order would even be touching that? The only reasonable candidates for interference are Munitions and ECO, and if that were the case surely someone else would've had the same problem by now... and if it is a mod conflict, it's now officially into "stops you completing the main questline" territory.
I was expecting a Neeher trademark "first time picking up the weapon" first person animation too, and didn't get one - is that meant to be the case? Also, on first picking it up, my character is holding it as though it's a Power Fist and not a gun - and trying to modify it makes the mesh disappear. Logging out then back in before doing anything with it seems to resolve this.

(Side note: the "take 3 territories" objective stage of "State of War" still hasn't updated in the time it took me to head to that location from Fort Strong ON FOOT and do this messing around plus listening to the three voiced holotapes I found in the place - although the log out and log back in I just did to try testing something did make it update)

 

[shazbot9ee3]

My best guess is that it's either Equipment Crafting Overhaul (specifically the changes to the 'naming rules' - look at my Ripper, that name autogenerated - or the 'new attachment points that adds) or maybe its child mod Legendary Effect Overhaul that makes the Legendary slot on weapons/armor accessible to crafting just like Barrel and Scope and such. It would require literally starting over from New Game to confirm that though.
I know I'm not the only one on these forums that runs those, though, so that's why I'm not sure.

I use the full ECO suite (NEO, LEO, ...) and I had the exact same problem as you. I tried every trick in my arsenal (not really a huge pool, but I rarely have to resort to forceful means) and the only way past for me was SetStage. However, after learning the Stheno has custom animations, I assumed the problem was a skeleton incompatibility, I use ZEX, because it acted weird when I picked it up and 3rd person animations are a mess -- not unexpected for custom animations with non-vanilla skeletons.

I should also note that the Legendary notification didn't pop until the second time I picked it up.

 

[shazbot9ee3]

(Side note: the "take 3 territories" objective stage of "State of War" still hasn't updated in the time it took me to head to that location from Fort Strong ON FOOT and do this messing around plus listening to the three voiced holotapes I found in the place - although the log out and log back in I just did to try testing something did make it update)

This might deserve a thread of its own, but my most successful workarounds were, and in order of trial: (1) 14.moveto 14, (2) save, exit, reload, and (3) fast travel. Considering how quickly objectives tend to fire after using the moveto command, it really feels like the code is hanging up rather than lagged.

 

[twolargepepperoni]

The territories not updating thing is a known issue. For now, they do update once all three are taken. It is being looked into.

 

[shazbot9ee3]

The territories not updating thing is a known issue. For now, they do update once all three are taken. It is being looked into.

Fair enough WRT those three objectives, but please note that I experienced the same type of issues throughout chapter 3 and those three methods were the most reliable solutions... for me.

 

[yaugie]

Can you drop the gun on the ground and console select it so we can check the ID please?

From what shazbot has said it may all be some sort of mod conflict after all, but here.

 

[twolargepepperoni]

It does sound like it unfortunately. Thank you.

 

[yaugie]

Alright, powered through to there again, with LIF.esl and Dank_ECO-INNR.esp and Dank_LEO.esp disabled from New Game - my bets for what it might be.

Still the same issue.

Next thought is removing ECO entirely, I can't see anything else in my load order it might be other than Munitions (although I can't see how), and removing that means taking out several other things... (attached is my plugins.txt - yes i am aware how disorganised it is - if anyone else with this issue could spot any common mods we share or perhaps things being out of order, that might be helpful)

 

[shazbot9ee3]

I don't see anything of interest, but since I chimed in on this one, here are our commonalities.
I did not filter out inactive items.

 

[yaugie]

Alright, yeah, assuming I'm on the right track, those are mods we both have in common. I'll do some more prodding later when I can muster up the mental energy to cheat through the questline to that point again.

 

[yaugie]

Ok. Absolutely none of ECO still enabled, another New Game, and still the exact same behaviour.
Heck, out of desperation I also tried removing the "Classic Holstered Weapons" F4SE plugin to see if that was it too, but it's clearly not that either.

If nobody else has any ideas I'm tempted to just give up and console-command through it on the original game, I'm beyond tired of putting up with these kinds of issues. It took me a literal week of effort to make at best five minutes of progress in this questline, and I'm already stuck again... I try to be fair about this, but I'm almost at my limit.
This gun is cool-looking and all, but either something is bugged about its damage output, or it just wasnt worth all this frustration and effort

 

[Antoine Soverie]

Did the last hotfix fix it for you? I picked the holotapes after the quest objectives so no idea if that broke anything before.
(also yeah, the damage is pretty underwhelming, considering that they use gauss rifle ammo. but I have a feeling that it's not just a gun)

 

[yaugie]

Did the last hotfix fix it for you? I picked the holotapes after the quest objectives so no idea if that broke anything before.
(also yeah, the damage is pretty underwhelming, considering that they use gauss rifle ammo. but I have a feeling that it's not just a gun)

I console-commanded past it as carefully as I could. The next quests triggered so I assume I did it good enough.
It's not awful in terms of damage, and the "legendary effect" on it is actually pretty nice, but you'd need to use it as a non-sniper weapon to get the best out of it in my opinion - maybe even full-auto.
And yes, I'm aware of the story purpose of it a few quests later in that chain.

 

[spieslikeus]

Hey guys, just reporting I'm having this exact same issue as well, picking up the Stheno does not update the quest, have ECO installed. Also @yaugie I had issues with Laser Love too, picking up prototype does nothing, just used console commands to complete the quest. Oddly enough, I had no issues with Laser Love on my first playthrough of Chapter 2 despite, I think I had similar mods to my current 2nd playthrough.

​

 

[yaugie]

Hey guys, just reporting I'm having this exact same issue as well, picking up the Stheno does not update the quest, have ECO installed. Also @yaugie I had issues with Laser Love too, picking up prototype does nothing, just used console commands to complete the quest. Oddly enough, I had no issues with Laser Love on my first playthrough of Chapter 2 despite, I think I had similar mods to my current 2nd playthrough.

I can't figure it out either. As documented in this thread I tried a ton of things - despite it being my best guess, doing a runthrough without ECO installed at all still caused the issue - and I never had problems before. But only a handful of people have reported it as an issue, so it can't just be the core mod on its own...

Based on the patchnotes for recent updates to the mod, though, apparently you have to listen to a specific holotape all the way through to make the quest continue? If that's the case, personally I'd make the quest marker point at it.

 

[TooN0ble]

Based on the patchnotes for recent updates to the mod, though, apparently you have to listen to a specific holotape all the way through to make the quest continue? If that's the case, personally I'd make the quest marker point at it.

Just started and finished this quest today on 3.0.0L. No Issues. Not running any weapon related mods. Didnt have to listen to any holotapes. I found the three in the same cell, after I already finished the quest.

 

[Antoine Soverie]

Based on the patchnotes for recent updates to the mod, though, apparently you have to listen to a specific holotape all the way through to make the quest continue? If that's the case, personally I'd make the quest marker point at it.

Wasn't it a typo and the holotape refers to Aide Memoire? I didn't pick the holotapes to finish the quest either, picked them later. No idea what's going on there. Arguably not everyone made it to those quests but we'd probably see more reports, yes. And a few people finished the mod already while I'm sitting on the Jake rescue quest lol. I assume it broke in a recent patch (if it's broken in the mod that is).
(though I have a strong feeling it might be related to the "friendly gunners" issue. I had them as warriors in murkwater and probably somewhere else, and a red marker is pointing at murkwater but not any specific NPC)

 

[NickLayson]

well.. we can console command through this . That's what I would have done in normal circumstances.. But on the other hand.. The nature of such a large mod, scares me away from it. The problem is us not being able to make a weapon realise that it is picked up. Seems like a fix for it, isn't that hard. A secondary trigger that checks if we carry a weapon named Sheno?

 

[yaugie]

I've really got no idea what causes this. The fact that "Laser Love" is also exhibiting the exact same behaviour makes me think it's something to do with my load order altering weapons, but the only thing I didn't try to test that with based on the 'list of commonalities' shazbot posted was the "Munitions Vanilla Ammo Addon" - and I can't see how that'd be it. I think we just need more data points on what the interference could be, since obviously it's not affecting everyone.

 

[NickLayson]

I've really got no idea what causes this. The fact that "Laser Love" is also exhibiting the exact same behaviour makes me think it's something to do with my load order altering weapons, but the only thing I didn't try to test that with based on the 'list of commonalities' shazbot posted was the "Munitions Vanilla Ammo Addon" - and I can't see how that'd be it. I think we just need more data points on what the interference could be, since obviously it's not affecting everyone.

But on the same time.. I have the same problem u have, but there are other quest mods I have in this very load order, that just require me to pick up a weapon to trigger next stage. You to have vanilla quests, that require u to pick up stuff, and haven't had this problem. For me it is only ss2 that has shown this spesific issue. So I am really confused what ss2 do different.

 

[yaugie]

But on the same time.. I have the same problem u have, but there are other quest mods I have in this very load order, that just require me to pick up a weapon to trigger next stage. You to have vanilla quests, that require u to pick up stuff, and haven't had this problem. For me it is only ss2 that has shown this spesific issue. So I am really confused what ss2 do different.

F it, I've got nothing else to do today except for finishing off this 'essay' I was working on, Ima dig into this.
I can't think of any, can you provide an example of a base game quest that has an objective to pick up a specific weapon off the ground? The best point of comparison I can come up with is investigating Kellogg's house, and that's not a weapon it has you pick up.