Major Oblivion bug

M

ManCannon

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
2,451
The bug is described here:

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=293533

Here is what the first post says:

The no spoilers bug description:

There are a certain few quests that provide a certain kind of reward. This certain kind of reward causes a skill to never be able to learn or advance moving forward from that point. The skill is 'stuck' if you will. I have spent a couple of hours making sure there was no way around it except for not completing the quest. Unfortunately, I have no workaround. My digging into the quests in the construction set reveals a bug that needs developer attention. The only work-around in the construction set is to alter the reward to not be the certain special kind. Not a big deal to actually perform this mod, but a bummer in removing something interesting.


Spoiler description additions - skip if you understood the above

There are quests (including Ftrs Guild rats, rescuing a girl, and a few more) that give as a reward levels up in a skill. The rescue a girl quest gives a boost of 5 levels in Mercantile. Afterwards, the Mercantile skill is forever stuck. I found no condition that I could get the Mercantile skill to be unstuck after receiving my reward. It has nothing to do with leveling up, sleeping, stat values or anything else under player control. There is a call within a number of scripts (ModPCSkill) that itself is not a script. That would indicate internal game code that modders don't have access to.
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I looked around before posting and didn't see any threads about this, so if it's already been mentioned my apologies. I just figured I'd give everyone fair warning.

I didn't even realize I was affected by this bug until 7 hours of gametime after I completed that quest. My Mercantile skill is still stuck at 21 and it hasn't went up since :(. There's a few fixes discussed in that thread, but they're dodgy hacks at best. Couple this with a bug that doesn't allow me to fast travel anymore and I'm about ready to unsintall this game. I was having so much fun with it too :mad: .
 
man that sucks, I guess i won't join the fighters guild untill after they release a patch.
 
Yeah, also look out for the one where you have to rescue the Argonian merchant's daughter in Hackdirt, that's the one that got me :(.
 
great i was in the middle of the ftrs guild rats quest, looks like i will let that one sit and go run into an oblivion gate
 
ManCannon said:
Yeah, also look out for the one where you have to rescue the Argonian merchant's daughter in Hackdirt, that's the one that got me :(.
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I did this one yesterday. Am I screwed now?
 
Well, look at your Mercantile skill, then sell a bunch of stuff and if it doesn't go up one point by the time you're done selling stuff then yeah, there's a good chance you're affected.
 
Those bugs really have me frickin pissed off. I have put in 64 hours of playing time into this game, and just can't believe bugs like that were undetected. I too found those bugs about 7 hours after completing those quests. If just everyday people like us an find these bugs, how in frickin HELL did they slip past their QA testers, and Beta testers? After putting 64 hours into this game, i'm simply not going to start over. Hacks are out of the question as i'm playing the Xbox360 version of it. This game has some other serious bugs i've found as well. For some reasons, many of the forts, Alyeid Dungeons, and Caves won't show up on your map even after you've found them. Once you discover a dungeon(it says that you discovered it), the game is supposed to mark it on your map. All I will say, is that those blokes who made this game better release some sort of fix or hack that will allow me to "update" my stuck skills as i've put way too much time into it. And yes I have a life, but I decided to put some serious time into Oblivion while I was on break last week. With the amount of trading i've done after my skills got stuck, they should be at least 8-10 points higher as I was a Jorneyman in both.
 
Yeah, and not to mention all the extra money we would have made selling our stuff at a higher level of Mercantile :(.
 
Don't worry about that quest bug, once you've done 5 skill increases for mercentile, you'll start gaining levels again. The bug is that it instantly gives you 5 levels at once, but in order to get a new mercentile level, you must actually do 5 levels worth of leveling... if that makes sense :p So it's not going to lock your skill forever.
 
Really? I heard someone mention that might be the case but some other people said it wasn't for them.

After doing that quest, I trained Mercantile 4 times and I've sold a whole lot of stuff, yet I haven't gained any levels. Hmmm, I think I might load up my save and sell everything I have and see if I level up. Hopefully that's the case because I'd hate to be stuck at such a low level for the rest of the game.
 
Noticed the mercantile bug as well about 5 days ago, so I re-rolled my character.
Hopefully something will be fixed (or people here can confirm if you can still level in Merchantile after 5 level up's) so I can get that quest out of my book.

D.
 
Alright, I think you can still train yourself by Merchants, but you can't level up on your own. I trained myself above the level I was at, then sold everything I owned and I didn't gain another level...
 
Well i'll go try it tonight with that Kvatch orc lady glitch and see if my level goes up. I'll let ya know.
 
Yeah, so I decided to sell stuff immediately at level 21. I sold over a thousand gold worth of stuff and didn't gain a level, but I gain a level immediately if I get training. My level is definitely stuck at 21 and can only be upped through training, which I can only do 5 times, so I guess I'll remain a Novice in Mercantile for the rest of the game.
 
I personally believe this falls well within the "Laws of Cheating", and you are therefore allowed to do:
Code: 
AdvSkill <skill> ##
in the console. I know I wouldn't consider it cheating if it was a game bug. :)
 
So I just choose how much I want to add? Does anyone think there will be some kind of penalty later on for "cheating"?

Man, I can't believe a bug this big wasn't caught during playtesting.
 
I just completed the arena last night, which was boost to agility for one, so you're telling me my AGI is now stuck?
 
It depends on the quest and how the boost was given to you. Certain boosts don't affect your actual skill level but rather give you + X to whatever skill, sort of like putting on armor that gives you + 2 strength. The ones in the quests described actually take your skill level and change it. I believe the arena skills aren't affected by the bug but I'm not sure.
 
movax said:
I personally believe this falls well within the "Laws of Cheating", and you are therefore allowed to do:
Code: 
AddSkill <skill> ##
in the console. I know I wouldn't consider it cheating if it was a game bug. :)
Click to expand...

Hmm, is there some kind of command to enable cheats or something?

I tried "AddSkill Mercantile 10" and that didn't work, I also tried "AddSkill <Mercantile> 10" and that didn't work either :confused:.

EDIT: Oh ok, I did some looking around and I see it's "advskill" not "addskill", just a typo.
 
Rich Tate said:
I just completed the arena last night, which was boost to agility for one, so you're telling me my AGI is now stuck?
Click to expand...

So far, this bug seems to only affect skills that you earn from certain quests, and not attributes. Since your atributes are really only raised from leveling up, they wouldn't be affected. I spent a lot of time trying to level up some of my skills like Mercantile so I could make more money when the loot gets better, and can't believe that i'm stuck at where I am now. I'm not going to have a chance to play Oblivion till this weekend again, so they better get their asses on a fix NOW. If the bug was minor, or even non-relavent like the bug where dungeons sometimes don't get marked on the map, I wouldn't be upset. However, a bug as big as this shouldn't have been missed, especially when the game has spent so many years in development.

Has anyone verfied that after you complete the "Find Dar Ma" quest in Chorrol, that your Mercantile skill will start going up again after training 5 times in Mercantile? If the game is programmed to numerically keep track of how much stuff you've bought or sold over the course of the game, I imagine that a bug fix would be simple as it can use that stored value to fix your stuck Mercantile skill to what it should be now.
 
ManCannon said:
It depends on the quest and how the boost was given to you. Certain boosts don't affect your actual skill level but rather give you + X to whatever skill, sort of like putting on armor that gives you + 2 strength. The ones in the quests described actually take your skill level and change it. I believe the arena skills aren't affected by the bug but I'm not sure.
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If your theory about it being similar to an armor boost is correct then Arena is ok. It is a bonus like dawning armor.
 
What about the quest from the orc Arena Champion, where he asks you to show proof of the fact that he is entitled to a title of nobility?

He gives like +3 to blade/blunt/and block.
 
Eihli said:
What about the quest from the orc Arena Champion, where he asks you to show proof of the fact that he is entitled to a title of nobility?

He gives like +3 to blade/blunt/and block.
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Doh! Did that one too. :(

That one was indeed boost your stats :(

Maybe using the addskill option to boost it maybe even just a point will get it rolling?
 
Nope, tried that, bumping it up with the advskill command doesn't unlock it, it's still stuck no matter how much stuff I sell.
 
ManCannon said:
EDIT: Oh ok, I did some looking around and I see it's "advskill" not "addskill", just a typo.
Click to expand...
Oops, corrected that in post.

ManCannon said:
Nope, tried that, bumping it up with the advskill command doesn't unlock it, it's still stuck no matter how much stuff I sell.
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I was thinking more that you can "manually" advance yourself, but that might just break things more. I'll try to stay wary of this bug though, I'm not that far in the game yet. Just screwing around stealing and killing stuff.
 
ManCannon said:
Yeah, also look out for the one where you have to rescue the Argonian merchant's daughter in Hackdirt, that's the one that got me :(.
Click to expand...
lol, good thing I failed to protect the daughter, then and "failed" it. :p
 
Eh, that sucks. For those of you with self control, why don't you try putting it up 1-3 points each level (with the advskill cheat thing), depending on how much it was advancing per level when it was advancing. Hell, maybe even a solid 2 each level.

Edit: And I can't stress that "Self control" thing enough... Everything turned to hell when I discovered that in morrowind...
 
Where is this info coming from anyways?

I can't find ANYTHING on it on their forums.

Are we sure this isn't some sort of a rumor?
 
maybe I misread, but doesnt the link posted have a fix for this? 2nd page of that thread...

the fix even makes it so if you havent had this problem, it wont occur...
 
After reading all pages there is indeed no official confirmation or denial of this problem.

I guess I just need to load up and try blocking some stuff and see what happens, I'll let you guys know.
 
Yeah, there is a workaround apparently, I wasn't reading that thread but another thread on a different forum that was discussing that thread. It won't fix any stuck skills but it will prevent it from happening again.

It does say that the skill will eventually start working again if you gain 5 levels, but I'm not sure if that holds true for everyone. Do you have to sell or buy a certain number of items or gain or use a certain amount of gold before you level up? If anyone knows the amounts that would be helpful. I sold a lot of stuff and gained a lot of gold when I was testing but I never levelled up and I'd sold a ton of stuff before I noticed I was affected by this bug too.
 
Well in my case in doing the arena Gray Prince quest my stats are leveling just fine.

Block and Blade were specifically effected, and both we gaining with no problems at all.
 
Rich Tate said:
Where is this info coming from anyways?

I can't find ANYTHING on it on their forums.

Are we sure this isn't some sort of a rumor?
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For me, this bug isn't just a rumor because my mercantile skill is indeed frozen. It's been stuck at 51 for a very long time, and i've tried selling a lot of stuff without it budging at all. It appears that my acrobat skill is also stuck as it's been in the same position at 51 for a while now, no matter how much I jump around. I did the Gray Prince quest, but my blade skill isn't stuck fortunately. I was working and doing my best to raise my Mercantile skill, and now I can't even do that due to a horrible oversight by their QA people. The mercantile skill is important since at above 75, you can start investing money into shops, which means they will have more money to buy your more expensive loot. I was jumping everywhere to raise my acrobat skill as well...........
 
Nuzzles said:
Eh, that sucks. For those of you with self control, why don't you try putting it up 1-3 points each level (with the advskill cheat thing), depending on how much it was advancing per level when it was advancing. Hell, maybe even a solid 2 each level.

Edit: And I can't stress that "Self control" thing enough... Everything turned to hell when I discovered that in morrowind...
Click to expand...


It's still not a fix for a bug, and us Xbox360 people can't do it unfortunately.
 
junehhan said:
For me, this bug isn't just a rumor because my mercantile skill is indeed frozen. It's been stuck at 51 for a very long time, and i've tried selling a lot of stuff without it budging at all. It appears that my acrobat skill is also stuck as it's been in the same position at 51 for a while now, no matter how much I jump around. I did the Gray Prince quest, but my blade skill isn't stuck fortunately. I was working and doing my best to raise my Mercantile skill, and now I can't even do that due to a horrible oversight by their QA people. The mercantile skill is important since at above 75, you can start investing money into shops, which means they will have more money to buy your more expensive loot. I was jumping everywhere to raise my acrobat skill as well...........
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm 95% certain my Mercantile skill was stuck where it was. I sold more than enough to gain 5 levels yet it never went above 21. I just used the "advskill" command to up it a bit and I'm on my merry way. Fast travel started working for me again too.

It's too bad you can't do anything to fix your situation since you're ont he 360. I feel bad for you man, it's insane how a bug as big as this could have been missed.
 
Looks like a very serious oversight. Bugs I expect - this is incompetence.
 
ManCannon said:
Yeah I'm 95% certain my Mercantile skill was stuck where it was. I sold more than enough to gain 5 levels yet it never went above 21. I just used the "advskill" command to up it a bit and I'm on my merry way. Fast travel started working for me again too.

It's too bad you can't do anything to fix your situation since you're ont he 360. I feel bad for you man, it's insane how a bug as big as this could have been missed.
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At 21, it should still be going up at a decent rate when you buy and sell stuff. Wait till you start getting into the 40's! It takes forever to get it to budge, which is why i'm so ticked off about this serious bug. All that hard work I put into it has been ruined.
 
Terrible. I did the Dar Ma quest on the X360, hadn't looked at my mercantile stats in a while. At least we can still download patches and such... I'd imagine this will be fixed sometime next month... :rolleyes:
 
During the main quest line, if you prevent someone from dying, he rewards you by giving you an increase to your block, blade, and heavy armor skill.

So am I now perminently crippled for the rest of the game???

And people are complaining about a stupid infinite gold exploit. :rolleyes:
 
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