Yes, Esmeralda is STILL Screwed Up

07/07/2019 19:31
Title: Esmeralda is Still Screwed Up
Reproduction Rate: I've never seen her quest work right.
Blocker? Yes

Details:

Still trying to complete the quest as described here:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...s/esmeraldas-quest-chain-broken-again.156059/

I finally got the Elder Frostgeist skull and she accepted it. Now the task list says to ask about the final step, but she won't tell me anything about it. I _think_ I remember what it is, so I'm going to try to complete it anyway, but if I hadn't been through the quest offline, I'd be clueless. She claims there are still things that need to be done, but she's never told me what they are and they don't show up in the task list or the journal.

Steps to Reproduce: ----------

User Specs:
OS: Windows 10 (10.0.0) 64bit
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-8130U CPU @ 2.20GHz (4) System RAM: 8089
GPU: Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 GPU RAM: 2150
SotA.Win.64.1007.Date.07.06.19
Area: Novia_R6_Hills04_01
Area Display Name: Highvale Outskirts
Loc: (1.1, 194.0, -453.6)
Debug: Tm92aWFfUjZfSGlsbHMwNF8wMXx8KDEuMTI0LCAxOTQuMDE4LCAtNDUzLjYwOSl8KDAsIDAuODY1LCAwLCAtMC41MDEpfDE2ODAuNjA0fDcuMDAyMjg4fDEuMjU=

 

She did let me complete the ghostly echoes task, although again I only knew about that because I'd done it offline. If I were a true newbie relying on her for information, I'd have been lost, because she never told me anything about seeking out the fourth echo.

On returning with the geistesser skull, she initially refused to accept it, as she had refused to accept tea leaves on my previous visit. In both cases, the turn-in window appeared the first time it should have, but closed itself in a split-second, before it could be used, then did not appear at all when the appropriate keywords were repeated. Logging out and in again and returning to her solved this problem for me, but not for the next person to run into it.

Oddly, when I turned in the geistesser skull, the turn-in window showed Ghostly Echo Essence still in my inventory, although it didn't appear in my normal inventory either before or after that. Possibly related -- I couldn't get out of the geistesser's vault through either of the barrier'd exits. I don't remember the "normal" way of leaving, but I'd expected to get out the same way I came in, and ended up using a recall scroll instead.

 

When you say refused to accept a quest item, do you mean the quest turn in window would not pop up or?

Like when giving the geistesser skull, I’m assuming you clicked on the geistesser keyword, but no quest turn in window appeared?

 

This is odd. I literally went back and redid all these quests and everything worked perfectly for me. I did find that I needed to ask multiple times about the various "steps" in order to trigger the correct quest progression. Like @Jaesun mentioned, I am operating under the assumption that the quest "pop-up" window didn't appear? Or if it did appear, you weren't able to submit said items.

 

As I said above:

This is a sandbox game. Players are not all going to follow a single, narrow, predefined path. A quest that only works for characters that do follow a specific narrow, predefined path and not for those who take a single step off that path is not a working quest. Neither is one that requires workarounds, outside knowledge of how to make the quest progress, or repeated attempts to make it do so.

I love this game, which is why I file bug reports. I even love this quest, despite my desire to rewrite it from the ground up. But denying that flaws exist doesn't help anyone.

 

Oh that. The quest turn in window suddenly closing is a known bug, but unfortunately it’s random and there’s no way to find a way to replicate it to happen.

The only thing you can do to fix that is to log off then log back in.

If you CAN find a way to replicate that, please let them know. I’ve tried and tried to get this to happen, but I’ve never been able to see it happen.