Quest Status Bug

virtus753

TemplarHealz wrote: »

It's officially been over 30 days since this bug was first reported. Terrible timing as I ran majority of my characters through the PVP event. I'm unable to progress on most of my characters. At this point, I'd like to quit, but I paid for ESO+ up front. What are our options for obtaining a refund? This is game quitting levels of disappointment.

You should be able to open a ticket on the website: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/#en/home

Billing/Purchase/Code and then your platform will let you choose "Cancel Membership Contract" as an option.

tomofhyrule

Tyrobius wrote: »

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tomofhyrule wrote: »

bunnydaisuki wrote: »

Adding some additional context on how messed up this bug is.

While running a normal random on a character affected by this bug, I noticed Za'ji had the quest starter marker on his head in Shipwright's Regret:
...
I double checked my map to verify I've already completed the quest:
...

Upon talking to Za'ji, he had the dialog that was offering me the quest, but there wasn't any option to accept it:
...

At this point, I think I'll stop picking up any quests including dailies on all my bug affected characters to prevent this bug from further messing up my characters' progressions. My ESO+ subscription is up for renewal soon, and I don't think I'll be renewing as well, until this bug is fixed, since the affects the characters that I'm often playing.

Yeah, I had that the other day in March as well. I specifically avoided talking to Hanu since I know I did the quest, but the dungeon was recorded as completed with the white icon in overworld, but she still had her quest marker on.

Oddly my world state says that I haven't done Scalecaller (black icon), but the last time I was in there Jorvuld didn't have the quest marker. Obviously a moot point since I've definitely done both of those quests ages ago.

I've already put my main down and decided to not touch a single new quest until this is fixed, but that's incredibly frustrating since there's a lot I want to do (I don't know if ZOS knows about it, but there is a brand new questline we got like a month or two ago in a new Chapter called "Necrom" that can't be completed because of this bug). I'm seeing quest markers I shouldn't, and I'm also not seeing ones I should.

Again, this is a major enough bug that we should be getting weekly updates. Any quests that take you to a quest-locked door (like, oh... all major zone questlines) are blocked off for affected characters. This is literally gamebreaking.
We know one of the major causes of this bug. Because of that, it shouldn't be too bad for ZOS's team to look into the "Kill 20 Arcanists" quest and find out what's bugging it all. But they didn't even block that quest from affecting anyone else.

While it does seem pretty conclusive that the Kill 20 Arcanists quest is causing this bug, we don't have access to the game's code or the internal tools the devs use. I think the law of unintended consequences is in full effect here and if the devs don't know 100% that this is the reason or if there is something else going on that we aren't aware of, removing or disabling the quest could cause more problems or even make this bug unfixable. It sucks but I'm glad we've gotten official dev response. I hope that we will get more communication if this takes longer to fix.

With respect, it is confirmed that the "Kill 20 Arcanists" quest is at least one cause of the bug, and seems to be the thing that bugged most players affected (since the reports started flooding in right after a PvP event). It was tested in a controlled environment - I checked PTS several times over the week (and even did things) and was not bugged. And then I went in to single out that quest. I specifically went in and finished that quest. I made sure to do nothing but that quest, and it immediately bugged the game. There is zero question that that quest is the most common cause of the bug.

With that information, ZOS should be able to look at that quest specifically and see what it's doing that may be changing world states. Yes, we don't know the internal workings of the game. But we know that that quest is the one that caused the bug for most of the people here, which should at least give the bugfix teams a hint where to start looking.

Now if they were afraid to disable the quest (which they have done before) to prevent introducing other bugs, I'd get it. They should then have had a line in the patch notes or a warning going up to announce to the players that that quest has been found to cause bugs and players should avoid it until it is fixed. That... didn't happen. I've been trying to post to all of my guild Discords, I've posted in a few of my streamer friends' Discords, I've made a few posts here in the forums, all to spread awareness that this quest could bug the game based on a (pretty strict) test that I did. But I don't really see too many people talking about avoiding that quest otherwise. It almost makes it seem like ZOS is fine with letting affected players spread the word instead of warning the players themselves (understandable - you don't want to talk too much about how your own game is broken), but that ends up making it feel like they're okay with just letting other players get the bug and be blocked from questing instead of trying to save players from getting hit with this (and saving them a lot of frustration).

Now yes, there are anecdotal stories that some bugged players didn't do that quest, or that some players who did that quest didn't get bugged. That could complicate things. But the only hard test for this bug I've seen is the one I did last Wednesday night, where I specifically went on PTS to do that quest and I saw that my game bugged right after I left Cyrodiil after turning it in. I can extrapolate to suggest that it's likely setting some flag that's overwriting some other quest, and that would explain why someone with a PvP-specific alt didn't get bugged, but again, that part is me guessing. But going in and working towards that specific quest and then turning it in to bug my game is not a guess, that's a fact.

And again, the only "official dev response" we've gotten so far is some order of "we're still looking into it." We got a bunch of support tickets that players brought in (from the support agents that are being swamped with Crown Crate gifting requests) that are saying a range of things. We had Kevin come in and say "we're looking into it, but if you have information, please share," and that was before the exact problem quest was specifically tested. But that was all last week. Since then, there has been a major break in this bug (namely, the test to find the quest that caused most of our cases so we can start telling our friends to avoid it), and we have not heard anything since that quest was identified and tested. So have the teams found anything since we were able to pinpoint a quest that causes it? Did that provide the break in the case they needed to fix it? We have some players who have been unable to play content (that they paid for!) for over a month now, and it seems they're as close to fixing it as they were back then. Even something like a "hey, we found out what's causing the bug so that'll be fixed in the next incremental; we're still figuring out how to restore your characters' progress but they will be back unharmed don't worry!" would really help at this point.

Sikon

Well, I think I did not complete "Kill 20 Arcanists" while the event. But I unlocked the Achievements to kill 10-100 Arcanists... maybe it's just something with the Arcanists... for me it would be also completely fine if we delete this whole class from the game again. Does not fit into the ESO environment anyway

(sorry for my sarcasm, just frustrating)

birdmann1230

Sikon wrote: »

Well, I think I did not complete "Kill 20 Arcanists" while the event. But I unlocked the Achievements to kill 10-100 Arcanists... maybe it's just something with the Arcanists... for me it would be also completely fine if we delete this whole class from the game again. Does not fit into the ESO environment anyway

(sorry for my sarcasm, just frustrating)

Now that you mention the quest, I do think think the pts mentioned something about that quest completing faster that it should have or something. I’ll have to go back and read them.

Soraka

For Caldwell's silver it says to use the light of Merida in the harborage, however I can't use the door to enter. It says something like you can't use that door right now. Yes I'm at my factions harborage.
Additionally, my companion summon menu has red text when I hover over each that says I must do their quest to unlock them. However I've unlocked each companion on this character and I can summon them just fine.
Edit to add my character is an arcanist, EP. I don't know when this started because I spend 95% of my time in Cyrodiil. I have at least recently completed the kill arcanists quests. I know at least over this last weekend, don't know about before.

SeaWoodStage

This is the worst bug in thhile people say things likee game ever since I've been playing (four years), and it doesn't even affect me personally. It affects my husband, who has played for six years and this is absolutely horrifying. This is not just an aesthetic bug btw, it impacts almost everything he can do. He had 100% zone clearance but now there's lorebooks he can't pick up because one part of the game recognises he's got them, but the zone thinks he hasn't done the quest.

I don't mean to be a real tool but isn't this partly why we play? Because we trust Zos to sort this stuff out? Currently it's like sitting on a train platform while listening to announcers saying: "the 9.12 to Southampton is delayed. That's all the info you get, suckers"

This is a HUGE ISSUE. Sure it's not going to be resolved overnight, but could you at least acknowledge it's serious, Zo
s, and fix it please:

SeaWoodStage

*worst bug in a while", sorry.

bulbousb16_ESO

Yep, this is pretty bad. It's like the game has forgotten a whole bunch of quests that I have completed, just randomly across the board.

dark_nick

i don't care about crates changement, don't care endless endeavour bugs (which you fast fix it in 2 days....ohhhhh you smart when you want eh), FIX THIS BUG

Poss

SeaWoodStage wrote: »

*worst bug in a while", sorry.

It is though.

My entire pve progression is halted until this is fixed. Xbox EU pvp servers are unplayable currently so I can’t do that either. The only thing left for me in this game is my weekly trial prog group which if I wasn’t already committed to, I’d have left this game already. There’s nothing for me to do anymore until this is fixed

And the fact they haven’t disabled the “kill Arcanists” quest (a confirmed trigger) means more and more people are gonna be experiencing this bug. Some will no doubt just quit in frustration. And what is the biggest killer of MMOs: underpopulation

So yes, this is one of the worst bugs

NoticeMeArkay

I can't play tribute anymore because the game thinks I didn't play the introductional quest in Gonfalon yet.
Me, who's got the max rank, all achievements done and just wants to farm a lead.

This isn't a minor bug, it's actively stopping people from playing whole sections of the game.

birdmann1230

NoticeMeArkay wrote: »

I can't play tribute anymore because the game thinks I didn't play the introductional quest in Gonfalon yet.
Me, who's got the max rank, all achievements done and just wants to farm a lead.

This isn't a minor bug, it's actively stopping people from playing whole sections of the game.

@NoticeMeArkay you can get that from the NPC daily quest. Even with the bug in all the other places I was able to do those and get the lead.

Sikon

I have the same issue since a month and could not play ranked season.. I dropped out of top10 completely. Guess next season I cannot play at all if the bug is still there.

NoticeMeArkay

birdmann1230 wrote: »

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NoticeMeArkay wrote: »

I can't play tribute anymore because the game thinks I didn't play the introductional quest in Gonfalon yet.
Me, who's got the max rank, all achievements done and just wants to farm a lead.

This isn't a minor bug, it's actively stopping people from playing whole sections of the game.

@NoticeMeArkay you can get that from the NPC daily quest. Even with the bug in all the other places I was able to do those and get the lead.

Thank you kindly for letting me know!!! I'm glad I don't have to miss out on it!

WalkingBomb

Any updates on this? I'd like to play the game again when this is fixed.

Sikon

I think it is not that easy to fix as it seems. They would have done it faster otherwise because it is affecting alot of players and the overall game experience. Some players have no acces to crucial parts of the game anymore.

ZOS already said they are working on this, but since there is no other statement this seems to be a serious incident.

Colue

im sorry i don't believe till it hits their bottom line they wont make it a priority bc no dev has given a timeline and it took almost a month for them to admit it, and they are still letting people get their accounts screwed over by letting the quest and achievement that's doing it still be active in game

tomofhyrule

@ZOS_Kevin , is there any update on the status of this bug? The last update we got was over a week ago, and it is completely gamebreaking for anyone affected by it.

Drakho

This bug is gamebreaking.

Aka_

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_GinaBruno

This is like... Really being ignored far too much given the impact it's having on the whole game. Please do what you can to communicate with us on what the fetch is going on.

TemplarHealz

Every day I come to check the forums, and patch notes for updates on this game-breaking bug.

Every day I see no mention, no timeline, hardly any acknowledgment. [snip]

Seeing as this has mostly been ignored, it's hard to imagine there is a solution in the works.

[edited for bashing]

Poss

It’s ridiculous. Literally just one comment from Kevin saying they’re aware and that’s it. Whereas other, less gamebreaking bugs have their full attention.

I gave you money for Necrom and I cannot play it.

Soraka

In case y'all are gathering tickets on this issue @ZOS_Kevin here's mine
[230725-002306] Elder Scrolls Online Support Ticket
Edit: support replied to me I posted the tldr below.

Colue

Poss wrote: »

It’s ridiculous. Literally just one comment from Kevin saying they’re aware and that’s it. Whereas other, less gamebreaking bugs have their full attention.

I gave you money for Necrom and I cannot play it.

[snip] then they leave the 2 things in that broke people in the first place i payed for a full year and can do very few things

[edited for bashing]

emilyhyoyeon

Poss wrote: »

It’s ridiculous. Literally just one comment from Kevin saying they’re aware and that’s it. Whereas other, less gamebreaking bugs have their full attention.

Kevin commented page 5 post #147, so they're aware

''Hi all. We just checked in with the team and they are investigation this issue. Once we have more concrete fix to share or need additional info, we'll update the thread. The dev team has this thread and has been going through it as part of the investigation, so if you have any additional information you would like to add, please feel free.''

tomofhyrule

emilyhyoyeon wrote: »

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Poss wrote: »

It’s ridiculous. Literally just one comment from Kevin saying they’re aware and that’s it. Whereas other, less gamebreaking bugs have their full attention.

Kevin commented page 5 post #147, so they're aware

''Hi all. We just checked in with the team and they are investigation this issue. Once we have more concrete fix to share or need additional info, we'll update the thread. The dev team has this thread and has been going through it as part of the investigation, so if you have any additional information you would like to add, please feel free.''

My problem is that that comment came 4 weeks after the initial report, and that was also before the tests that pinpointed an exact cause of the bug and how to reproduce it. Since then, it's been silence.

So has the team looked at that quest? Have they found out what the problem was? Can we even hope that our characters will get their world back?

I could imagine that patching the bug and restoring our game states are two different things, and I imagine that one is much harder than the other. After all, when they introduced Account-wide Achievements, we found out exactly how many quest states were pulled from the Achievements list instead of the character's hidden quest log (dialogue saying you've done something you haven't, things like Melina Cassel being tracked there, etc. Heck, we still don't have the WSkyrim Giant Camps fixed so each character can eat the cheese).

I believe the problem is the same here - each quest will set a flag for the world state, and then everything goes off of that. Even the Quest Log addon pulls from the same source as the quest states, which is also why Ulrich's Skill Point Finder is not working either since it's looking at the world states for zone quests instead of the hidden journal. But the problem is the world states got reset, and there's no easy way to fix it without wiping that and resetting every quest.

Now in games like Skyrim, each quest has an internal ID and each stage you do has an ID as well. It's those stages that set flags if they need to be set. I don't know how the character's individual quest journal is arranged (since so little seems to go off of that and instead looks at world states or achievement flags), but I figure it's similar. But that does mean they'd need to create - from scratch - a program that will go through a character's hidden quest log (that I don't think any addons use, so it's not in the API) to reset their world quest by quest depending on what stages they've done... and for the earlier zones there were some with choices, so it'd need to see which choice was made (i.e. which quest state that hit and which they left blank).

Considering that this is a gamebreaking bug that prevents you from doing any and all questing though, this is something we should be getting regular updates on. Not just one "hey, we're looking into it, please keep supporting the game while you literally can't play the content you paid for." It's been a month. People feel that ZOS doesn't care. They are quitting because their characters are essentially bricked. This should be top priority for ZOS to avoid losing players, but we see several comments on other bugs that are less gamebreaking (and so many on the Crown Crate issue...) and almost nothing here.

Here's a hint - if we stop playing because our characters are bricked, we're not going to be buying Crown Crates either. Or ESO+. Or anything else. We're annoyed enough that the $40 we spend on Necrom was essentially wasted because we can't play it.

Soraka

Support got back to me and linked me to this page, stating there will be an update to this article soon:
https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/#en/answer/60785
(They also said to get rid of my add-ons but I don't think that's the issue, I can try next time I play though)

Mirumorg

In a future update…

Soraka

Mirumorg wrote: »

In a future update…

Yeeaaah I just said okay thanks I'll wait for an update, in my response. 🙃

TemplarHealz

Support has said this will be fixed in a future update. We've had 1 major update and a few maintenance updates since then.

It's time to unsub, uninstall, and let others know that it's common to lose all of your progression. Requesting a refund even while the game is broken will result in your account being banned. Great company!