[BUG] "Person In Distress" Never Completes Above Hanged Man's Tree

[blackbishop86]

[BUG] "Person In Distress" Never Completes Above Hanged Man's Tree

After rescuing the merchant locked by bandits' camp at the north of the Hanged Man's Tree, every time I load my game the symbol of the merchant appears inside the cage regardless the guy was already released and not only that, when I travel there the guy just appears walking in the road as if he just escaped from the cage until he reaches the refugees' camp. I can talk with him though so he can sell anything at any time but he has no symbol so it is difficult to know he sells you or buy you things and you would think it is just a regular NPC.

I also find weird every time I load the game that guy appears there and always walk to refugees camp instead of just permanently appearing there after being rescued, let alone the symbol remains in the cage instead of following the NPC location. I have escorted him but that doesn't work, I have no mods installed either.

I attach a screenshot of my map, the red circle being the person in distress I'm talking about and the yellow cross is where the guy appears.

http://oi64.tinypic.com/2emevkl.jpg

Tried to upload the picture using the forum tools but it kept showing "invalid file" error, so just uploaded it somewhere else.

I hope this can be fixed.

 

[SigilFey]

Unfortunately, a few of these issues still exist -- mostly because the root of the bug could not be found. Here's a few things to try to get it to trigger:

1.) Stand in front of the cage, and save your game.

2.) Exit to windows and launch the game again, then reload. (Possibility here is it will either work...not work...or the merchant will be there but non-interactive.)

3.) If it doesn't work, or if the merchant isn't responsive, head to an indoor location, then head back.

4.) If the merchant appears in-game at this point, but still won't respond, save, exit to Windows, and reload again.

If it refuses to cooperate even then...you've done everything you can for this merchant. He'll be of no help against the Wild Hunt. Just leave him. Stoically walk off into the sunset. (Or rainstorm, as is more likely in Velen.)

_______________


EDIT: Another thought -- just occurred to me as I was looking at the map again. Sorry, I need to spoil something here:

There is a quest involving an NPC named Thaler and 3 trolls that you'll receive down the road as part of the larger questline A Deadly Plot. It all transpires right in that area. Perhaps it's overlapping scripts. If nothing above works, try coming back and fiddling again after that quest. (Just be sure you do the quest, as it's optional.)

 

[blackbishop86]

Thanks for the reply, but I think you misunderstand me or perhaps I worded it badly . I'll clarify it in a minute:

Looking from the map screenshot I attached, you would think the merchant remains locked down, but he isn't. I succesfully found the key and he abandoned the cage the first time I found him but it seems the icon is not tied to this NPC.

It is just the icon what remains there, however I load the game, go to the area and the merchant just pops up where the yellow cross is and walks away to the refugees camp where it stays there until I exit the game, then when I load the game(either a new save or an older one) this doesn't change (icon remains in cage, merchant poping up in the yellow mark, walk to the camp... or at least I think it pops up because I saw him to just appear there every time I load the game and get there to check).

I can talk to him just fine but it seems weird and I don't think this is intended. I just wanted to report this behavior as bug, because the icon should follow the NPC and that guy should remain in the camp once it is free instead of its current behavior, unless that is intended and the only bug is the merchant icon being static instead of being attached to the merchant NPC.

 

[SigilFey]

Thanks for the reply, but I think you misunderstand me or perhaps I worded it badly . I'll clarify it in a minute:

Looking from the map screenshot I attached, you would think the merchant remains locked down, but he isn't. I succesfully found the key and he abandoned the cage the first time I found him but it seems the icon is not tied to this NPC.

It is just the icon what remains there, however I load the game, go to the area and the merchant just pops up where the yellow cross is and walks away to the refugees camp where it stays there until I exit the game, then when I load the game(either a new save or an older one) this doesn't change (icon remains in cage, merchant poping up in the yellow mark, walk to the camp... or at least I think it pops up because I saw him to just appear there every time I load the game and get there to check).

I can talk to him just fine but it seems weird and I don't think this is intended. I just wanted to report this behavior as bug, because the icon should follow the NPC and that guy should remain in the camp once it is free instead of its current behavior, unless that is intended and the only bug is the merchant icon being static instead of being attached to the merchant NPC.

Exactly! I was the one being a little unclear. While game software engines always act according to logic, it's not always everyday, human logic...

Because the Icon appears over the cage, and taking into account the fact that the merchant spawns there each time, the engine is failing to replace the "instance" of the NPC in the cage with the final "instance" of the NPC in the refugee's camp. When you load the game, the instance of the merchant loads in as it exists in your save-state...as having just been freed.

What we need to do is "trick" the game into correctly updating the instance when he reaches the camp. Very often, something about the order that certain NPCs load in reference to active quests can get borked. Here's another example of what is likely the same bug (sorry for very minor spoilers):

Spoiler

In Skellige, you may discover a scene on the side of a road that winds up being very bad news for a blacksmith in Kaer Trolde. Now, when you return to Kaer Trolde, the game's engine needs to load the instance of the blacksmith himself, the armorer and apprentice working next to him, and all of the NPCs around him. Things need to happen in a sequence:

1.) The code for the blacksmith must be loaded.
2.) The graphics for the blacksmith (model and textures) need to be loaded.
3.) The standard "blacksmith" interface (basic dialogue and link to shop window and inventory) needs to be loaded.
4.) The special quest-state (quest-related dialogue options) needs to be cross referenced with the existing quest stage and the appropriate dialogue loaded alongside the standard dialogue in step "3.)".

Now...there is a specific order that this needs to occur, but the bug is obviously that things are happening out of that intended order. In practice, when I arrive at Kaer Trolde, one of two things happens.

a.) The blacksmith is not there -- the game never creates the instance.
b.) The blacksmith is there, but I cannot interact with him.

At this point, something in the game's engine has failed to load the needed data for the instance. (We'll take "a.)" into account -- the blacksmith is missing.) The missing data is likely caused by other things that the game engine needs to load at that same point (audio...graphics...internal locations...etc.) So, I need to try to get the game to load things in the correct order. Best bet -- fresh boot of the area from a clean RAM cache. Save the game, exit to Windows, and restart...RAM is cleared. Load the savegame. Poof! The blacksmith is there, along with the armorer working alongside him. I can interact with the armorer...but not not blacksmith. Nuts!

Let's try to load the area a different way. When you proceed to an internal location (where Geralt automatically slows to a walk), the game loads the internal location's data while simultaneously unloading data from the external area outside but leaving some of it "resident" in RAM (mostly, just meta visual data, that's why you can see some details but not others when, say, you look out the window of a cottage). Now, when I walk back outside, the resident data already cached in the RAM for the blacksmith is loaded again and -- viola!!! -- he works! The newly created instance of the blacksmith has full functionality. I can interact with him, complete the quest, buy weapons, all of it! Whoo-hoo!

BUT-- !

What is this...? The armorer working alongside him and the apprentice hammering away on the forge...have vanished! What is going on!? What is this -- Bizarro World!?!?

Nope. It's actually a sign of what must be causing the bug: the game is having trouble loading the standard blacksmith / armor shop interface data AND the special quest dialogue option simultaneously. Something is interfering with it, and it can be very difficult to figure out what...and may be impossible to completely fix it as the engine can not do what actually needs to be done. Human error, either way, but it's too late to go back. Now, we simply need to work around it.

To conclude, I finish the quest, alleviating the engine of the need to load those dialogue options beside the standard blacksmith dialogue options, and I can save, exit to Windows, and reload. Presto! -- the game now needs to load only the standard stuff and both the blacksmith and armorer work correctly forever more.

Now...where the hell did Ciri go?

You can try to follow the same logic. Go where the game engine thinks the trader should be (the cage). Save, exit, and reload...and he should appear in the cage and start walking to the camp. Follow him...all the way to the camp. Go find an internal location, walk inside, pick your nose, walk back out. Ride back to the trader. If he's there...he may not be interactive. Awesome sign! Save, exit, and reload again. If he's still standing in front of you, that should do it.

Or not. It's a complex engine.