Adventures with Balazar (Balazar's Bitch) - Beta

[killer905]

1 hour ago, Maidenslayer said:

I have thoroughly enjoyed Balazar and look forward to additional quests.

 

I'm running Skyrim AE 1.6.1170, Balazar's Bitch v0.932b SE.7z, and 200 other mods -- all installed with Vortex.  Although there are many, I deliberately avoid mods that radically alter death, locations, or questlines.

 

I experienced the same Secrets of the Forsworn (BLZR_Markarth) problems as reported by others over the last two weeks:

• Missing force-greets by Odelia, Forsworn Ravager, and Forsworn Shaman
• Missing quest markers on Odelia, the Balista, and Warlord
• Missing dialog options after greeting the Warlord

After reloading a dozen saves, my problems appear to have started when first greeting the Jarl of Markarth (with Balazar) and the Secrets quest starts.  On my first play-through, the pointer to Odelia did not appear.  (I thought that was odd because of your attention to detail.)

 

After reloading an old save and restarting Secrets, Odelia's marker correctly appeared and all of the problems reported above vanished.

 

Thus, rather than review Odelia's force-greet code, the problem may be further back when the quest starts.  (The term "script lag" might explain all the problems.)

 

Again, I look forward to future updates.

Hmm, you could try regenerating the SEQ file in SSEEdit and see if the problem ‘without’ loading the previous save still exists.

[Gristle]

10 hours ago, Maidenslayer said:

I have thoroughly enjoyed Balazar and look forward to additional quests.

 

I'm running Skyrim AE 1.6.1170, Balazar's Bitch v0.932b SE.7z, and 200 other mods -- all installed with Vortex.  Although there are many, I deliberately avoid mods that radically alter death, locations, or questlines.

 

I experienced the same Secrets of the Forsworn (BLZR_Markarth) problems as reported by others over the last two weeks:

• Missing force-greets by Odelia, Forsworn Ravager, and Forsworn Shaman
• Missing quest markers on Odelia, the Balista, and Warlord
• Missing dialog options after greeting the Warlord

After reloading a dozen saves, my problems appear to have started when first greeting the Jarl of Markarth (with Balazar) and the Secrets quest starts.  On my first play-through, the pointer to Odelia did not appear.  (I thought that was odd because of your attention to detail.)

 

After reloading an old save and restarting Secrets, Odelia's marker correctly appeared and all of the problems reported above vanished.

 

Thus, rather than review Odelia's force-greet code, the problem may be further back when the quest starts.  (The term "script lag" might explain all the problems.)

 

Again, I look forward to future updates.

Thanks for the report. This is very helpful. In playtesting, I noticed that sometimes (but not always) I wouldn't get Odelia's quest marker after speaking with the Jarl. Of course, it was apparent to me that there was a bug (because I had just programmed this objective) so I never went far down the bugged path. Eventually, I added a one second delay between enabling Odelia and starting the Markarth quest and that fixed the problem, for me. But... I have a pretty fast computer. 

 

Also, in the meantime, I've read that quest markers on actors (actually, actor aliases, but you can only put quest markers on aliases) may not work if the actors are not "persistent", where "persistent" means they are always in memory. (Skyrim doesn't usually keep things in non-loaded cells in memory.)  And... I did not make any of Odelia, Ravager, Warlord, Shaman or Prisoner persistent. So, this could also be the problem. I will release a new version soon that addresses this and perhaps also lengthens the quest start up delay.

 

Edit: In the meantime, anyone starting the quest should reload and start the conversation with the Jarl again if they don't get a quest marker after speaking with the Jarl.

Edited July 24, 2024 by Gristle

[Gristle]

On 7/21/2024 at 10:13 PM, Khrusaor said:

How do you feel about adding a small side-quest to visit Katla’s Farm with priestess Freir? Similar to the one with Dinya Balu and dogs. 

That's a good idea, but it gets a little bit more complicated than with Dinya. The stables are far enough away that most players would get bored walking there with Freir. So, she would have to meet you there, presumably at night. So, you'd have to speak with her in the temple and then meet her at the stables later. It's all doable, of course, and sounds fun, but a bit more programming work, and I think I would rather use the programming time to push the main quest forward.  

[Gristle]

On 7/21/2024 at 2:26 PM, Soda Pop said:

Just curious, which hold are you going to be doing next?

Haafingar. We'll see what Lady Elisif thinks of Balazar. Probably nothing good. The good news is she's always there -- regardless of the outcome of the civil war.

 

Actually, I might only make quests for the five main cities (and skip the lesser holds) before circling back to another daedric-themed Balazar quest. Doing all nine holds is going to take forever.

[Gristle]

I uploaded a new version 0.933b with bug fixes. Should fix all of the Markarth quest issues. But you'll need to start over from the first Markarth Jarl conversation to get the fix. If you don't get a quest marker after that conversation (for Odelia in the Hall of the Dead) then the quest did not start right and don't proceed.

 

• Added delay on Markarth quest start to address script lag on quest start
• Added persistence locations for mod NPCs to ensure aliases are filled on quest start 
• Disabled cum swallow message if PC is not wearing cum collar

 

Let me know please if this fixes/doesn't fix any issues.

Edited July 26, 2024 by Gristle

[xtro334]

On 7/24/2024 at 7:42 AM, Gristle said:

Haafingar. We'll see what Lady Elisif thinks of Balazar. Probably nothing good. The good news is she's always there -- regardless of the outcome of the civil war.

 

Actually, I might only make quests for the five main cities (and skip the lesser holds) before circling back to another daedric-themed Balazar quest. Doing all nine holds is going to take forever.

 

You could always handle minor holds as part of daedric-themed Balazar quests, if they take place in minor holds.

Since they are minor holds they should not be as hard to handle as large holds, especially after all large holds have given Balazar permission already.

[xtro334]

Started to try out the new version of the mod, and the quest markers that appear now was very helpful.

My problem with Balazar in Understone Keep and Hall of the dead seems to be that he is placed outside the map (can see his quest marker a bit outside the map).

So it took me a bit of work to get him inside Understone Keep. I could get in in if he had been asked to stay in dog form, and then I could ask him to take deadric form for the talk to the Jarl.

 

No idea what causes this, but to able to summon him all the time would be a great help to avoid problems like this.

 

Time to test the rest of Markath quest. 😜

[xtro334]

Tested the rest of Markath quest, and in large part it work very well.

 

1) If for some reason one exit blacksmith conversation before asking all questions, the conversation is no longer available and one have to reload an old save to get it back and progress the quest.

2) Took a bit of time to realize that part of dwemmer door was the trigger to open it (spent quite some time looking for a opening mechanism on walls and under water)

3) Naked in the spriggan cave is fully naked, and do not allow those clothes the collar allow.

4) More problem with Balazar disappearing, Once Drusella was dead and entered door to start to get back, Balazar appeared again and had no problem following med around between instances (Feel like he was doing it just to annoy me  😛).

 

It was a fun quest line. 🙂

[Zag_Deez]

well forsworn kept attacking me so only wearing armor and headress (it wasnt in the chest so additem  ) worked
great mod 10/10 

[Gristle]

3 hours ago, Zag_Deez said:

well forsworn kept attacking me so only wearing armor and headress (it wasnt in the chest so additem  ) worked
great mod 10/10 

Thanks. But the Forsworn faction-switch code is actually only on the Forsworn cuirass, so you don't actually need any of the other pieces. Did you have a follower with you, or a horse? The armor only disguises the PC (by putting the PC in the Forsworn faction), so anyone else with the PC is going to make the Forsworn attack.

[Zag_Deez]

4 hours ago, Gristle said:

Thanks. But the Forsworn faction-switch code is actually only on the Forsworn cuirass, so you don't actually need any of the other pieces. Did you have a follower with you, or a horse? The armor only disguises the PC (by putting the PC in the Forsworn faction), so anyone else with the PC is going to make the Forsworn attack.

No one was with me and no horse either . Saw previous comments about you saying try only wearing ciurass only but didnt seems to work so i tried with headress just in case !! 

[hitmanx2x]

Is there any way to "reset" the markath quest? Started this mod on a fresh playthrough so my last save is my char still in Helgen >.>

[Gristle]

8 hours ago, hitmanx2x said:

Is there any way to "reset" the markath quest? Started this mod on a fresh playthrough so my last save is my char still in Helgen >.>

There's a console command "resetquest" but I can't recommend it for this purpose. It won't put back items you need for the quest in the right places, and it probably won't correctly bring everyone back to life who has been killed. It's better to just go through with a new character.

[KanoBuhen]

So I am stuck on the part where it says to ask Sylgia about the white wolf. When I go to talk to her, there is no option to ask about the wolf.

[Gristle]

2 hours ago, KanoBuhen said:

So I am stuck on the part where it says to ask Sylgia about the white wolf. When I go to talk to her, there is no option to ask about the wolf.

There is a fox in her house and she is supposed to start having sex with the fox when you walk in. Make sure you have at least one fox animation enabled.

[KanoBuhen]

3 minutes ago, Gristle said:

There is a fox in her house and she is supposed to start having sex with the fox when you walk in. Make sure you have at least one fox animation enabled.

Yeah I found this info after I posted. I didn't have one, but now I do and its still the same. I enter the house and she is standing naked with the fox running around. I know the animation is working cause I can make my OC have sex with the fox while in the house. I did also see a post on here about someone saying don't pick the lock to go into her house. Which I did, but only because I literally waited 24 hours ingame one hour at a time and the door never showed unlocked to come in.

[Gristle]

4 hours ago, KanoBuhen said:

Yeah I found this info after I posted. I didn't have one, but now I do and its still the same. I enter the house and she is standing naked with the fox running around. I know the animation is working cause I can make my OC have sex with the fox while in the house. I did also see a post on here about someone saying don't pick the lock to go into her house. Which I did, but only because I literally waited 24 hours ingame one hour at a time and the door never showed unlocked to come in.

You're supposed to speak to people in town about the wolf. Speaking to the blacksmith or guards should point you to Odfel, and speaking to him will point you to the old Orc, and speaking to him will point you to Sylgja and unlock her door.

Edited August 4, 2024 by Gristle

[KanoBuhen]

4 hours ago, Gristle said:

You're supposed to speak to people in town about the wolf. Speaking to the blacksmith or guards should point you to Odfel, and speaking to him will point you to the old Orc, and speaking to him will point you to Sylgja and unlock her door.

Yeah I had done all that, but it was still bugged for some reason. But I did manage to get it working. Loaded up a save further back, and when I got to this part again it worked as it should.

[xtro334]

7 hours ago, KanoBuhen said:

Yeah I had done all that, but it was still bugged for some reason. But I did manage to get it working. Loaded up a save further back, and when I got to this part again it worked as it should.

 

I have noticed that there exists a state, usually a bit before a crash or computer freeze, where conversation can stop working properly.

Usually is enough to restart the game to get things working again.

I think it is memory leaks from different mods, since I have not had that at a base installation with fixes only.

 

[recroid366]

Ok, first, when I get to the spriggan cave, I get force greet then told to grab fish eggs, Then I get the prompt about the slaughterish animation, that doesnt trigger, I go to the bottom of the water to the marker grab the fish egg, and nothing happens, what am I supposed to do now?

 

[Gristle]

15 minutes ago, recroid366 said:

Ok, first, when I get to the spriggan cave, I get force greet then told to grab fish eggs, Then I get the prompt about the slaughterish animation, that doesnt trigger, I go to the bottom of the water to the marker grab the fish egg, and nothing happens, what am I supposed to do now?

 

I suspect you don't have a Slaughterfish animation. As long as you have a fish egg, you can use setstage "BLZR_Markarth 288" to advance to the next stage.

[nothing2lose]

latest update fix my problem with the shaman , warlord, and etc thanks for that! i have new question regarding freeing the prisoner is the only way to proceed is by killing or i can sneak through

[Gristle]

1 hour ago, nothing2lose said:

latest update fix my problem with the shaman , warlord, and etc thanks for that! i have new question regarding freeing the prisoner is the only way to proceed is by killing or i can sneak through

You don't need to kill anyone after you free the prisoner, but you need to leave through the lowest exit -- down the circular stairs -- so it's going to be hard to get past the Forsworn prisoner guard and the two Forsworn in the area below without a fight. But, once outside, you should definitely sneak back to Markarth with the prisoner and not try to start any other fights with the Forsworn in the camp. 

[recroid366]

20 hours ago, Gristle said:

I suspect you don't have a Slaughterfish animation. As long as you have a fish egg, you can use setstage "BLZR_Markarth 288" to advance to the next stage.

What animation mod has a slaughter fish animation?

 

[killer905]

40 minutes ago, recroid366 said:

What animation mod has a slaughter fish animation?

 

Billyy