Solace Bridge Outskirts - Bloody Bones and Ghosts

Discussion in 'New Player Experience Feedback' started by Bedawyn, May 9, 2019.

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  1. Bedawyn

    Bedawyn Avatar

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    Could someone please give me a clue on how to progress on these two quests?

    For starters, I've never been able to get either quest to even start; there obviously is a quest there, something wanting to be done, but no one will give me a quest task.

    Bloody Bones -- In the past month, I've killed him three times. With the online character yesterday he dropped nothing. With one of the offline characters, he dropped a copy of the MV book that I already had and no one wants. With another offline character - the wimpy tailor who wasn't looking for him, she was just going to quickly finish the nonviolent cotton-picking and Marden quests then run off to the safety of home -- he actually burst into Ackerly's house and attacked her there. It was fairly impressive and scary actually, since there was no warning and he was right there on top of her with all his goriness, instead of at a decent melee distance. I was rather surprised not to die. But all she ended up with was a skull, that she has no use for and that the creepy kids don't want. (Also, she was actually in conversation with Ackerly at the time -- you'd think he'd at least have run off and hid instead of standing there casually watching.)

    My main offline adventurer, the one who spent most of April carefully and repeatedly searching every inch of that scene for clues, never ran into him once. I finally searched the forum instead, and got too many spoilers, including that a certain type of object is involved. But none of those spoilers included how to make the quest progress. I was able to use that info to give Heloise a new keyword, and she finally admitted that the quest was a thing that existed. But she didn't give me a task related to it, and the information she had -- that the object is hidden somewhere in the camp -- doesn't seem to be accurate.

    As for the ghosts -- I can't even get that far with them. I've met all of them, given them (and the kids) every keyword I can think of, and again, searching the forums gave story spoilers but no useful help.

    Any clues, pretty please? Again, I don't want to be told how to finish it (or even what "it" is, really). I just want to know how to find the next step so that I have something to go on to figure the rest of it out. Thanks!
     
  2. jiirc

    jiirc Avatar

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    Bloody Bones drops a quest item, got one today. on an alt.

    The ghost I don't think have a quest. But there is something going on in the village that advances a quest.
     
  3. Anpu

    Anpu Avatar

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    Are you talking about the ghost that is trying to recover memories? If you press the J key and read the journal entry it should tell you specifically what to do.

    As for bloody bones I still have never figured that out. It could be an old quest that was removed. You can get a skull from them, once per character.
     
  4. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

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    For Bloody Bones, you should be able to get a quest to bring a book back to the kids, who will give you a deco version of it. He also drops a deco skull.

    The ghosts require you to track down the various ghosts and talk to them, and you'll eventually finish off the conversations. If I recall, there is no item reward, just some background about Mistress Valdris? Its been a while.
     
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  5. Bedawyn

    Bedawyn Avatar

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    I have talked to all the ghosts -- at least I've talked to three of them (possibly four, it was April so I don't remember) and there IS no journal entry, that's the problem. @Browncoat Jayson, are you saying there's no way to actually help them, just talk to them?

    For Bloody Bones, but HOW do you get the quest? What do you have to do to trigger it starting?
     
  6. jiirc

    jiirc Avatar

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    The trigger for the quest is the kids in camp that are singing about Bloddy Bones. They are by the unhealthy man in the tent.
     
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  7. Anpu

    Anpu Avatar

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    You probably already did those quests, but unfortunately our quest journal doesn’t mention anything you have finished before..... that’s probably why the ghost isn’t giving you a quest.

    You CAN do a one time quest reset, per character though. I wouldn’t recommend using that though, for now.

    Are you seeing various blue sparkles on your compass telling you to speak to various people?
     
    Last edited: May 9, 2019
  8. Bedawyn

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    Normally, yes, I get the sparkles for other quests. But neither the kids or the ghosts have ever given me sparkles or journal entries or tasks for anything, and I've gone through all their identified keywords and then everything else I could think of to say to them. I haven't forgotten completing the quests, it was one of the things I flagged for my main adventurer, that I could never figure out what I was supposed to be doing there.
     
  9. majoria70

    majoria70 Avatar

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    So what is the latest on this quest? It sounds like a potentially interesting and mysterious quest which of course should be fun and not bugged. So let's tag @Sannio regarding it.
     
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  10. jiirc

    jiirc Avatar

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    The Bloody Bones quest isn't bugged, I did it this morning. There's 3 kids in an area, No sprkles. When you talk to them they say the Bloody Bones rhyme. When you ask about iBloody Bonesor say help, I can't remember which, they give you the quest. If you've finished the quest, they just say something about 'her', meaning Mistress V.

    I don't think the ghosts give you a quest, I don't believe I got one. They just give you information about Mistress Vadis (sp) and maybe the rital assassins, which is a different quest. I believe it's given by Kinsey, but I'm sure I', remembering it wrong (een though I did it this morning as well).
     
  11. Alley Oop

    Alley Oop Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

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    the ghosts do have a quest. there are four; it's from one of them and then you'll have to talk to the others to advance it.
     
  12. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

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    I stumbled across this on the wiki. This is the "Forgetful Ghost" that rewards you with an emote. You need to speak to the forgetful one, then the journal entries should lead you to the other versions.
     
  13. Sannio

    Sannio Lead Quest and Level Designer Moderator SOTA Developer

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    Hi @Bedawyn !

    Sorry to hear about your troubles. Here's a little info that may help with this specific quest and maybe quests in general. In general, NPCs that give quests will do so either in their initial "hello" response, in their "help" response, or in some specific keyword (or keyword phrase, like "macsen ingot" as opposed to simply "Macsen") that they "hopefully" present to you early in a natural flow of the conversation. I didn't create this quest, so I quickly poked around to get a sense of how it goes.

    I see the kids in the Solace Bridge Outskirts bivouac camp offer a quest related to Bloody Bones. They use two of the three guidelines mentioned above: You can say "help" or "Ballad of Bloody Bones" to them to start the quest. After you start the quest, the same "help" and "Ballad of Bloody Bones" keywords should be used to advance the quest.

    (Edit) Oh, and Heloise knows about the kids and their "Bloody Bones" rhyme, but she's just there for backstory support and doesn't have any real connection to the quest.

    I hope that helps. If you make use of the information in the spoiler note and you're still somehow blocked, please submit a bug and I'll look deeper into the situation.
     
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  14. Bedawyn

    Bedawyn Avatar

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    Thanks, @Sannio! I know I've tried "bloody bones" multiple times and that's never worked. I think I've tried "help" too, but can't be 100% positive. I believe Heloise mentions a song, but I'm not sure that she specifically says "ballad", and if she doesn't, then that leaves no way but asking other people to figure out the keyword. I'll go back and test... but it won't be today. Just got 4 crashes in three hours, the last three within 1.5 hours of each other. :-(

    For what it's worth, I've almost never in the "natural flow of conversation" been able to get the Solace Bridge captain or the Highvale captain to give me a quest. I've stumbled into the quests easily enough and can turn them in afterward, but since they don't have anything useful to say on initial conversations, it's not natural for a new player to keep returning to someone who doesn't have anything to say hoping that maybe this time will be different... Most of the NPCs don't have new things to say after your initial meeting, so why would someone new (i.e., someone just playing, not searching the forums and fan sites) expect these NPCs to be any different? On your first run-through you're not going to KNOW that they're quest-givers. Heck, I still wouldn't know that Kinsey was a quest-giver if the forums hadn't told me so.

    And, yes, I have talked to the Forgetful Ghost (multiple times), said "help", they've given me vague statements that they'd like help, but no tasks, no journal entries, still no way to progress.
     
  15. Anpu

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    Just to be sure, you are trying to do/get the quests with a newly created character in offline mode?
     
  16. Bedawyn

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    I've tried with several different characters offline and one online.

    Update -- the "help" keyword actually is working with the kids now, I don't how I could have missed it earlier because I make a habit of trying all identified keywords and all unidentified keywords I can think of every time I talk to any NPC. Perhaps because the kids use a slightly different formatting for keywords -- instead of the standard "help job name" etc, they have only a few keywords specified, spaced oddly in a way that seems to imply they're different from other NPCs, and "help" isn't one of their identified keywords. I still should have used it on my own, but perhaps that's why I was thrown off thinking I'd used it when I hadn't. (Also, when first interrogating them, I was focused on the fact they're clearly under the influence of some supernatural entity; I was intent on figuring out who "she" was, while initially thinking the Bloody Bones rhyme was just creepy atmospheric color.)

    I'll echo someone else's suggestion elsewhere for making Bloody Bones as an overworld encounter, or at least a possibility in other scenes. If the drop for the kids is random so that you can kill Bloody Bones in Solace Bridge Outskirts and still not get it, then it should be possible to get it elsewhere. Players who've otherwise finished the Outskirts shouldn't have to stick around there hoping to get the right dice roll to finish the scene. And it would add more variety to other scenes as well as making it believable that folks in this part of the world actually have folklore about Bloody Bones.

    Still at a loss for the ghosts.
     
  17. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

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    All NPCs should have a set of keywords that appear by default. "name", "job", "health", "help", and "rumor", possibly others. If those don't appear, I'd think it was a bug and should be reported as such.
     
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  18. Bedawyn

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    They have A set of keywords that appear by default, it's just not the same set as most NPCs and is spaced differently. I've since seen similar spacing and lack-of-expected-keywords in other NPCs; the impression I've gotten is that maybe they're using a different older standard that just never got updated. Whether that's actually the case or not, *shrug*

    I wouldn't call it a bug. When it comes to keywords, I'm far more worried about having too many keywords identified up front, especially when they either don't give useful information (like "health") or when they give spoilers before you've even clicked them. (Eventually I'll start reporting the latter, but there's only so many things I can complain about in one week. :) )
     
  19. Paladin Michael

    Paladin Michael Bug Hunter

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    1. The forgetful ghost is inside the first house, left, next to the entrance of the abandoned village, upstairs.
    After talking to him you know what to do and receive the compass sparkles to find his other parts ...

    2. As told above: The Bloody Bones quest gets started by the triplets in the camp.

    3. The quest for Valdis is another one: following Captain Kinsey's question about her missing scouts.
    Entering the abandoned village, following the path, until you find blood on the ground, turning to the next house on the right, upstairs to find the last scout, Lieuteneant Sigourney ...
    She tells about the Ebon Dawn ritual(s). You may find 2 of them - and two possibilities to disturb the ritual(s) and defend Mistress Valdis ...

    No bugs so far.

    @Sannio, it could be a quest improvement, if someone finds the ghost parts of the forgetful ghost first(!), so they could tell to find the first part of them.
    (At the moment I can't remember if this information is still in game - no time to check it)

    Good Luck, Avatar @Bedawyn :)
     
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  20. Blarla

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    I've read this thread in full because I am having trouble with it. This thread seems to be confusing two quests.

    The children (Julie, David and Lily), have the Ballard of Bloody Bones quest. They want the book. By killing random Ebon Cultists in the abandoned village they eventually drop it. Give that to the children, quest done.

    That is different to the ghosts found in the houses. Bloody Bones which roams the land and the Ebon Dawn summoning ritual, which, when killed unleash Mistress Valdis. She is the 'her' the children mention. Saying her name to them doesn't start a new quest. And all these things don't seem to do anything and they clearly should.

    Killing Bloody Bones did drop a book about Valdis, which I read and it covers the three typestype had to kill for blood and eventually the killing of her lover. But none of this cool backstory or new names it reveals, trigger anything with anyone.

    From what I can gather, there is a Forgetful Ghost. By offering them 'help' you can getga quest to talk to each of the ghosts and regain the forgetful ghosts memory. So far I have found a wounded ghost, which fits with the Valdis story and a child ghost, which also fits, but neither of them want help or trigger a quest. I've tried MANY keywords. I've never found the 'Forgetful Ghost' who apparently is the one to offer help to for quest trigger or a forth ghost that some say may exist.

    Early game is so important and with glaring issues like these, it will destroy the progression of a new player quickly. Which is heartbreaking because I love this game and I want others to love it too. This stuff needs resolving, it isn't just some silly side quest that nobody cares about, it is new players introduction to the game and it's broken. And according to bug reports it's been broken for well over a year, maybe longer.

    If I could just work out a work around to trigger the quest, I'd be personally happy. But so far, I'm out of luck. ><
     
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