ACCEPTED Timing is Everything (by kryptopyr)

[TechAngel85]

This would be something that we would simple fix with the STEP Patches.

[DepartedCitizen-00002]

Oh yeah, the quest mentioned by Arthmoor in the bugs section can be a problem if not fixed per USLEEP, as for the other one that is on the Conflict Resolution in Neovalen's guide and mentioned by Nebulous there I do not know.

[kabepo]

Here is a useful looking bug fix (released Feb 2017), for Timing is Everything.

 

Timing Is Everything - Afflicted Fix by xackoff

 

"Fixes quest that spawns infinite Afflicted NPCs introduced by Timing Is Everything 2.02. Backported the fix from USLEEP. 

The encounter was meant to be seen only once, Skyrim wanted to to it with RunOnce, but failed, so USLEEP changed the quest stage properly. I didn't disable the Afflicted completely, this fix allows you to see him ONCE and never see the NPC again after he gave you the quest."

 

Perhaps it can be added to STEP Extended, or added to STEP Patches.

[TechAngel85]

Here is a useful looking bug fix (released Feb 2017), for Timing is Everything.

 

Timing Is Everything - Afflicted Fix by xackoff

 

"Fixes quest that spawns infinite Afflicted NPCs introduced by Timing Is Everything 2.02. Backported the fix from USLEEP. 

 

The encounter was meant to be seen only once, Skyrim wanted to to it with RunOnce, but failed, so USLEEP changed the quest stage properly. I didn't disable the Afflicted completely, this fix allows you to see him ONCE and never see the NPC again after he gave you the quest."

 

Perhaps it can be added to STEP Extended, or added to STEP Patches.

I know it's been some time since this post. I've had a tab open with a link to the mod since this was posted and am just now getting around to looking into the issue.

 

I've seen kryptopyr's posts and reasoning behind not fixing this. However, I have to say that I don't agree. Changes that can "potentially" cause issues for players are not "acceptable" changes in my book. This is clearly causing enough issues for enough players that there is now a patch available to fix it and its discussion spans multiple community forums. To me, this warrants a deeper look into it by kryptopyr. However, it's her mod and she can do as she pleases. I've personally ran into this issue myself without knowing it was an issue...running into this guy at every freaking part of the map. I was unaware it was potentially blocking other random quests though! Fixing it would be a quick edit to the STEP Patches. I may look into updating them this weekend.

 

I will go on record that neither option is a true "fix". Shutting it down like USLEEP does is to promoting Bethesda's lack of depth into this particular side quest. Kryptopyr's reasoning for the plague spreading makes more sense, but not at the cost of potentially creating issues...regardless if she's experienced it or not. Not to mention the NPC is the same freaking NPC every single time so it's rather difficult to buy into "the plague is spreading" reasoning when only one NPC in the entire game has the "plague".

 

I fully understand how hard it is to track down bugs when you haven't experienced them yourself, but in this case I think there is plenty of evidence. "Fixing" it via the MCM as she suggests isn't a "fix" either. It's a workaround and workarounds are used for known issues or limitation...which is kind of ironic. A true "fix" would be to build out this quest so that the "plague" is a real issue affecting NPCs at "random" in "random" places the player visits. This could eventually lead up to a yarl asking the player to look into the matter (player could refuse of course). However, that would go beyond the scope of kryptopyr's mod so I believe she's doing the best thing she can for the time being. Though I disagree with how she's implementing this one due to the potential issues it's causing.

 

A more simple fix would to not turn off the force greeting and adding some general dialogue so the player can refuse the quest form the Afflicted...or only allowing the NPC to spawn within a certain area and not all over Skyrim.