BUG in Quest: The Dragon's Lair (Dragonhold DLC initiating quest)

Shadowshire

The PC/Mac Patch Notes v5.2.5 - Dragonhold & Update 24 state:

• To visit Southern Elsweyr, navigate to the DLC tab of the Collections menu and accept the "The Dragon’s Lair" quest from the Zone DLC section.
• From there, visit one of the capital cities of the alliance (Wayrest, Mournhold, or Elden Root) and seek out the Baandari Caravan to Senchal, located on your map.

The Baandari Caravan NPC at Elden Root does not have Senchal as a destination, only Rimmen can be selected. However, my character did not travel either to Wayrest or to Mournhold to inquire of the Baandari Caravan NPC at those locations (if any, in fact, are there).

Instead, the workaround which I found was to open the character's Journal and select the quest "The Dragon's Lair" from the Southern Elsweyr category. Then I used the Show on Map function, which displays the location of Sai Sahan, near the Senchal Wayshrine. It cost my character 146 Gold Pieces to port to the Senchal Wayshrine, but he arrived there.

The original option described in the Patch Notes quoted above would certainly be preferable. But it seems that one of the requirements to play this game is an ability to find ways to cope with and, when possible, overcome the incompetence of the game software designers and programmers. Sheesh.

Gnatrak

Shadowshire wrote: »

But it seems that one of the requirements to play this game is an ability to find ways to cope with and, when possible, overcome the incompetence of the game software designers and programmers. Sheesh.

The requirements to play this game is an ability to find, wait ... WHAT? You don't even have your tighty-whities all tucked in!
Meanwhile, there are actually two Baandari Caravans in Elden Root.





I hope you're not looking for any compensation for your own incompetence.

Shadowshire

Zurica wrote: »

Shadowshire wrote: »

But it seems that one of the requirements to play this game is an ability to find ways to cope with and, when possible, overcome the incompetence of the game software designers and programmers. Sheesh.

The requirements to play this game is an ability to find, wait ... WHAT? You don't even have your tighty-whities all tucked in!
Meanwhile, there are actually two Baandari Caravans in Elden Root.





I hope you're not looking for any compensation for your own incompetence.

Why would there be one "Baandari Caravan" for Rimmen and another one for Senchal? Their respective Ghratwood locations are far apart, too. You do not play TESO with a PC on the NA mega-server, do you? What your first screenshot shows is much different from what I have seen on PC NA.

For what it was worth, I sent a character to Elden Root to look for the "Baandari Caravan" shown in the second picture of your reply. Of course, the wagon is not a Khajiit design. At first glance, it just seems to be "background furniture". Also, I did not find any NPC "navigator" there -- just an interactive prompt (which worked) for the wagon itself.

Further, the wagon is located beside a road near its intersection with another road from the Elden Root oak that is entirely different than the road leading out of that oak along which almost all of the NPC "navigators" are located. As a result, the wagon is rather far removed from where any player following the instructions in the Patch Notes would expect to find the so-called "Baandari Caravan" among other wagons and NPC "navigators".

The decision to add the second "Baandari Caravan" to Elden Root -- instead of adding Senchal to the menu of destinations displayed for the pre-existing NPC -- was simply wrong. The only justification for creating an additional "navigator" would be if a programmer discovered that they could not add Senchal to the existing NPC's menu, and was instructed to create another one instead. A situation such as that would be even more alarming with regard to the integrity of the game software, than simply adding a second "Baandari Caravan" unnecessarily.

Of course, the patch notes which I quoted also fail to disclose that there are now two "Baandari Caravans" at Elden Root, and only one enables travel to Senchal. The patch notes clearly imply that there is only one Baandari caravan, and, frankly, there should be only one.

For what it is worth, if a "caravan" symbol for Senchal appeared on the vicinity map for the Elden Root when I looked at it, as it does on yours, then I did not see it. I do recall looking at the vicinity map to see whether there was another "caravan" located somewhere around the Elden Root that my character had not contacted, but I did not find one.

So, I resorted to checking the Quest Journal, which displayed Senchal when I used the Show On Map function for the quest. The first time that I did so, I did not attempt to port to the Senchal wayshrine. But I could not find another evident possibility for traveling to it, so I decided to try it.

Gnatrak

Shadowshire wrote: »

You do not play TESO with a PC on the NA mega-server, do you? What your first screenshot shows is much different from what I have seen on PC NA.

Not only do I play TESO on a PC, I also play on the NA mega-server. The UI you see is the "gamepad" version, feel free to check it out yourself.

Shadowshire wrote: »

Why would there be one "Baandari Caravan" for Rimmen and another one for Senchal? Their respective Ghratwood locations are far apart, too.

I cannot answer your question as to why they would choose a separate traveling caravan, this is something only a ZOS developer can answer. However, this is not new, in fact it's been around for years and something tells me this is done to raise awareness to the new content.

Lets take a ride to Davon's Watch in Stonefalls. In the screenshots provided you will see both Boat and Caravan transportations.
Take note I switched back to the standard UI to avoid confusion.

These screenshots are of a boat ride to Summerset, on the dock there is indeed a NPC to talk to before you travel the vast sea of slaughterfish that are waiting for your boat to sink.





Moving along, in the next screenshots is a boat further down the dock, this will lead you to Vulkhel in Auridon. However, there is no NPC to talk to, just the ship's wheel and once again you will travel the vast sea of slaughterfish that are waiting for your boat to sink, which is much more likely if the Captain is too drunk to assist you.





Traveling into town you will come across two different caravans, one to Murkmire and another one to Wrothgar; they are not located right next to each other nor do they have NPC's to talk to. Inspecting the Wrothgar caravan you will notice it is of Orcish design along with it's flag.

Shadowshire wrote: »

For what it was worth, I sent a character to Elden Root to look for the "Baandari Caravan" shown in the second picture of your reply. Of course, the wagon is not a Khajiit design. At first glance, it just seems to be "background furniture". Also, I did not find any NPC "navigator" there -- just an interactive prompt (which worked) for the wagon itself.

"For what's it worth," I traveled back to Elden Root, and upon further inspection of the "Baandari Caravan" to Senchal, I determined that the caravan is most definitely of Khajiiti design. It may not be as fancy as some of the other Khajiiti caravans, but it's a free ride and if you want to travel in luxury it's going to cost you. Unfortunately, there is no NPC holding a flashing neon sign saying "Senchal" but there are clear indications that it is Khajiiti. I found lunar moons on the wheels, amber vases, a lamp of Elsweyr design, a faded rug of Elsweyr design (which can be found on the second floor of the Fighters Guild in Senchal) and even the flag of Senchal right next to the caravan.

Shadowshire wrote: »

Further, the wagon is located beside a road near its intersection with another road from the Elden Root oak that is entirely different than the road leading out of that oak along which almost all of the NPC "navigators" are located. As a result, the wagon is rather far removed from where any player following the instructions in the Patch Notes would expect to find the so-called "Baandari Caravan" among other wagons and NPC "navigators".

Shadowshire wrote: »

Of course, the patch notes which I quoted also fail to disclose that there are now two "Baandari Caravans" at Elden Root, and only one enables travel to Senchal. The patch notes clearly imply that there is only one Baandari caravan, and, frankly, there should be only one.

Shadowshire wrote: »

The PC/Mac Patch Notes v5.2.5 - Dragonhold & Update 24 state:

• To visit Southern Elsweyr, navigate to the DLC tab of the Collections menu and accept the "The Dragon’s Lair" quest from the Zone DLC section.
• From there, visit one of the capital cities of the alliance (Wayrest, Mournhold, or Elden Root) and seek out the Baandari Caravan to Senchal, located on your map.

The instructions do not say you will find one "Baandari Caravan" among the other wagons and NPC "navigators." It says: "From there, visit one of the capital cities of the alliance (Wayrest, Mournhold, or Elden Root) and seek out the Baandari Caravan to Senchal, located on your map." I understand how this is confusing to potatoes, but the instructions clearly suggest for you to look around on your map, not for the Baandari Caravan to Rimmen but the one to Senchal which should had been an immediate cue for you to look for a second caravan.

Also, to compare other similar caravans for new DLC content, I decided to put both maps of Grahtwood and Stonefalls side by side. The distance between both caravans appear to be nearly equal. Take note, the other main NPC "navigators" in Stonefalls are on the docks, much further away compared to those in Grahtwood.

Shadowshire wrote: »

The decision to add the second "Baandari Caravan" to Elden Root -- instead of adding Senchal to the menu of destinations displayed for the pre-existing NPC -- was simply wrong. The only justification for creating an additional "navigator" would be if a programmer discovered that they could not add Senchal to the existing NPC's menu, and was instructed to create another one instead. A situation such as that would be even more alarming with regard to the integrity of the game software, than simply adding a second "Baandari Caravan" unnecessarily.

I highly doubt the programmers are incapable of adding new ports to existing NPC's, after all they consistently update the Wayshines to all the new content. These isolated caravans seem to be a feature that ZOS wants in their game, and thus I remind you, it is not new. You can think the decision is wrong all you want and sure, you may send in suggestions about what you'd like to see in game, but ultimately the game does not belong to you nor are you in charge of such decisions.

Shadowshire wrote: »

For what it is worth, if a "caravan" symbol for Senchal appeared on the vicinity map for the Elden Root when I looked at it, as it does on yours, then I did not see it. I do recall looking at the vicinity map to see whether there was another "caravan" located somewhere around the Elden Root that my character had not contacted, but I did not find one.

So, I resorted to checking the Quest Journal, which displayed Senchal when I used the Show On Map function for the quest. The first time that I did so, I did not attempt to port to the Senchal wayshrine. But I could not find another evident possibility for traveling to it, so I decided to try it.

You most certainly missed the second caravan symbol on your map.

"For what it is worth," when you accept a quest for new DLC content from the crown store, it will automatically open up a Wayshrine to that land. If you knew where Northern Elsweyr was located then you should have already had an idea of where Southern Elsweyr would approximately be, thus all you had to do was go to the nearest Wayshrine, find the new land and travel there for free.

Worst case scenario, lets just say you're terrible with reading maps, and perhaps reading in general, thus needing to use the "Show on Map" function from your quest journal. "For what it is worth" and upon finding the new land through that function, all you had to do was mark the new Wayshrine on the map, exit the "Show on Map" function and then lastly go to the nearest Wayshrine and find your mark on the map so you could travel to the new land for free instead of directly teleporting which charges you a traveling fee.

It's comical that you chose to defend your "incompetence" rather than accept the fact you made a simple mistake. Regardless, your argument has been rendered invalid and at the end of the day you're still out of "146 Gold Pieces."

May your road lead you to warm sands.