Nightsade Perimeter quest bug?

[unesn6iduja]

Hi. I don't know whether to post it here or in tech support... Anyway, the Nightshade Perimeter quest is not triggering for me after burying the first stone, up northeast. I got the quest, went there, defeated the foes, buried the stone. Back at Commander Cerise, she has no new dialogue options. The quest marker star is still up there at the stones. When I go back there, nothing happens.

 

Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?

 

Thanks!

[Randomizer]

After burying the stone did you wait around for something else to happen? You are supposed to get attacked a few rounds later to finish that part.

 

Welcome to Spiderweb Software. Please leave your sanity at the door. All will become cloudy in time.

[unesn6iduja]

Yes, defeated the enemies too. They arrive immediately, I don't think it's possible to leave without fighting them.

[MJ]

You're not in the right Stone Circle. In CampNightshade go to the foremost Lower Right corner. There's a tower and the circle is inside.

[kerriganmc]

I’ve got a similar problem. I completed the first stone circle task with no problems, but I’ve just completed the SE circle task- placed the stone, killed the many skeletons- and I get no love from Cerise. I know i’ve done some other game tasks out of order- would that cause it? I’m thinking I’ll have to start the game all over, but I don’t want it to happen again. Any ideas or info on how to avoid trouble on my second go-around?

[Randomizer]

Did you place the stone after killing the skeletons in the top level? After doing the second stone, you get told by Cerise that another Hand is doing the third stone placement in the southwest corner so that might be the problem. You need to go there and see what happened.

 

Doing it out of order shouldn't make a difference and you shouldn't need to start over. The worst would be going back to the autosave file from before getting into the zone.

[kerriganmc]

As I recall, placing the stone triggered the skeletons. Yes? No? If not, must I place the stone after killing the skeletons? I got prompted to place the stone before the skeletons appear. I did go back to an earlier save so I could try the task and then check in with Cerise a couple times, but I always got the same result. I don’t get to tell her I finished the task, and she has nothing to say about the third circle. I wandered to all the circles (including the SW) but nothing happened. I’m afraid I eventually gave up on this and moved on, so I’ll have to restart the game to be able to get it done. Not the end of the world, but still... 

 

I’ve purchased every one of your games. I hope you guys keep making games forever! But pretty please, no more lumping multiple games under one forum. What with repeating characters and places and all, trying to find help for a particular task in the particular Avadon game I’m currently playing has been frustrating me for years now! 

[Randomizer]

The second stone has the skeletons appear when you start to place the stone and after you fight them you have to place the stone to complete that part. Then see Cerise to  get some experience.

 

There is no need to start over. You can come back to quests like these at any time. Until the very end of the game you can always go back to finish up quest, but you will get less experience the longer you wait.

[kerriganmc]

I’m afraid I clicked “yes” to place the stone when first prompted to, just before the skeletons appeared. Now I no longer have the stone, and the game doesn’t seem to know that I already placed it.

 

I haven’t been in the Forums for quite a while (years?) and just realized that all the game forums have been clumped together in groups. So, um...whoops. I guess that was a feature, not a bug. 

 

Thanks for your help, though.

[Ess-Eschas]

20 hours ago, kerriganmc said:

I’m afraid I clicked “yes” to place the stone when first prompted to, just before the skeletons appeared. Now I no longer have the stone, and the game doesn’t seem to know that I already placed it.

 

This is odd. I've had a look at the code for this encounter, and on the surface it looks quite straightforward. All you need to do is to go in to the circle and place the stone. This sets a couple of flags that let the game know that you can claim your reward (along with removing the stone from your special items list). Just to clarify this, since some of the stone quests differ, for this quest you only need to place the stone once, spawning the skeletons. You don't need to do so again after you've fought the skeletons. In fact, you don't even need to fight the skeletons if you don't want to. The set flags aren't used anywhere else in the game, so you should be able to go back and claim the reward at any time; nothing else in the game seems to interfere with this quest.

 

Just for my curiosity, what is Cerise's dialogue option about the quest when you talk to her? Is one of the options 'I suppose that I can place another stone'? If it's something else, then something isn't behaving as it should be.

 

If you want to force the game into thinking that you've completed this quest, you could try using a debug option to set the appropriate flags. If something has gone amiss, this should fix it. Hold down shift, and press d. This should bring up a dialogue box. Now, type in:

 

sdf 0 21 3

 

Do the same for all of these as well, one at a time:

 

sdf 0 23 1

sdf 0 24 0

sdf 0 54 3

 

Strictly speaking, you only need to first two, but the last two are there for safety's sake.

[kerriganmc]

Wow! Thanks for your time and attention! Unfortunately, I’m on an iPad- no actual keyboard. Heh. Am I irreparably unfortunate? I am not really worried about starting afresh if it doesn’t work out, but it would be nice to save the game if I could. Any ideas?

 

Cerise has three dialogue options, all generic for her. 1) You seem ill-at-ease. 2) Tell me about yourself. 3) What was on that scroll, anyway...? I guess the quests plumb slipped her mind.

[Ess-Eschas]

4 hours ago, kerriganmc said:

Cerise has three dialogue options, all generic for her. 1) You seem ill-at-ease. 2) Tell me about yourself. 3) What was on that scroll, anyway...? I guess the quests plumb slipped her mind.

 

Ah, that explains the problem!

 

Have you noticed that Cerise makes no reference to Redbeard? This is because she has two independent sets of dialogue choices: one for before Redbeard arrives at the camp, and the other for after he arrives. The quest involving the Nightshade perimeter is only connected to the later set of dialogue choices, and can't be accessed from the earlier set. This makes sense, since I suppose Nicodemus would only feel the need to shore up the perimeter once Redbeard has arrived. However, your game has shunted you back onto the earlier set of dialogue choices. This means that you can't report back your victory, since part of the game thinks that Redbeard hasn't visited the camp yet!

 

This also means that the fix I posted above won't work. However, fixing this problem is a little simpler. All you need to do is to enter one of the following debug commands while in Camp Nightshade:

 

sdf 0 28 1

sdf 0 28 2

 

Choose the one ending in 1 if you're at the part of the game where Redbeard is still in the camp, or the one ending in 2 if he's left. It's important that you do this while inside the camp, since this flag is reset when you enter the area.

 

5 hours ago, kerriganmc said:

Unfortunately, I’m on an iPad- no actual keyboard.

 

The way of entering the debug command is slightly different for the iPad. In the designer's words, select the File button and then 'Use Cheat Code'. I don't have the game on a tablet myself, but I'm assuming that will bring up a keyboard for you to enter the code. This type of debug command is treated like a cheat code by the game. Don't worry, though! You won't be locked out of anything by doing this.

[kerriganmc]

Thanks! I’ll try it and let you know what happened. Maybe not today- migraine. But soon!

[kerriganmc]

Worked like a charm! I got credit for placing the second stone! Then Cerise told me to check the last circle. I went down, saved your man, killed the baddies, and came back to Cerise. No credit for the last task. *Sigh* Any chance you’ve got another secret code for me?

 

I did start a new game several days ago, thinking I had to. That new game has caught up to my original game more or less, so I can always just keep going with that. But it would be nice to contrast different decisions while playing both games through. (Redbeard sure is touchy!)

 

Thanks again!

[Ess-Eschas]

13 hours ago, kerriganmc said:

I went down, saved your man, killed the baddies, and came back to Cerise. No credit for the last task.

 

I think the most likely explanation is that Cerise has been reset again. The fix I posted above is slightly fragile, and could be overwritten by doing things such as exiting the zone or even entering certain buildings. The first thing to try would be to enter the 'sdf 0 28 1' or 'sdf 0 28 2' code again. This should work anywhere within the boundaries of the actual camp but, just to be on the safe side, I suggest doing so standing in the same room as Cerise. Hopefully, that should allow Cerise to recognise that you've completed the task.

 

If that doesn't work, then let me know what her dialogue options are this time. That will help me to figure out what your problem might be. If necessary, I can use a brute-force method and produce a more complicated set of flag changes that should convince the game that you've completed the mission.

 

In either case, this bug is unusual. Just on the off-chance this might help diagnose the real cause of the problem, would you mind giving a little more information about your original playthrough? Where was Redbeard? What was the last major mission you worked on (that is, a mission related to the main storyline)?