In-progress quests vanished

[Blep]

So I'm busy in the Clockwork Kingdom, going about mapping it out, starting quests, and getting on with them. Just after leaving Ferropolis, I checked my quest tab, and noticed all but four had vanished entirely, leaving me with 'the hunt for Vela Callouse', 'war stories', 'sky pirate Caxton Frost', and 'the endless dutchess'. Every quest I just picked up or had? Poof, gone. Even the ghost quest, which had been going on a while!

What's worrying as well is the presence of 'the endless dutchess'. I have already finished this quest and followed her back to Vela's fortress, seeing her set up, but now whatever's happened has returned her to her spot in Verdant where she repeats the dialoge saying she's heading to the fortress.

I can't progress, gain, or otherwise do anything with my quests, as I've tried finishing 'Madness of the king' thinking it was a meta effect of the clockwork king's reality alteration, but after getting the graveyard code Aphra has no new dialogue or options.

I'm worried my game is completely softlocked at this stage, as I have restarted when I noticed it thinking it just wasn't loading properly, but still none of the quests are back. Very confused, would love to hear if anyone has experienced this, and even moreso if someone's found a fix already!

[Carl]

Same thing happened to me just now, did you ever figure it out? Scared that my save is completely ruined right now....

[Hawke]

Same here. I noticed it at the Endless Realm, after destroying the spider eggs at the Flesh Farms. Loaded the last manual save afterwards to check the missing quests (all from the Endless Realm). Talking to the Duchess re-enabled her quest at least, same for the Entombed One's quest.

Having a one-autosave saving system is really bad design decision for any RPG.

[Blep]

I have done some more playthroughs to look into this more (I’m on four now!) and I think I’ve figured out what’s going on. I only have the fact my most recent playthrough was successful, so don’t take my word as gospel.

What I changed were the lengths of my play sessions. By routinely saving and exiting the game every 1-2 hours, I encountered fewer bugs overall and none of my quests messed up. Comparing this to my previous playthroughs where I’d had the game open all day whether I was playing it or not, it seems to have prevented it altogether.

Just to be safe, it’s worth noting I also made a beeline for the endless kingdom and beat Madness of the King FIRST out of any major quest. That might also have been the issue, but I couldn’t tell you!

[Hawke]

I've just noticed that a completed quest disappeared along with the in-progress ones and since it was a main quest, I am softlocked. If anyone has any idea how to change the quest's stage or state, it would be most appreciated. The Emberian. I am at the ruins where the Dark Star sits, but as the door is already unsealed, I cannot unseal it again.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3266125033

[Blep]

I did look into the code a bit with someone who knew more about programming than I do. In the save data files for the game, each quest has a number assigned to it that represents progress made. So for example, The Hunt for Vela Callouse (the files use shortened names) might have a value of 10 when you just get it, but 50 after progressing some key stages.

Notably, these numbers tend to stick to multiples of ten, but advance by 5 for smaller steps that I assume are related but not mandatory. Despite finding this, we haven’t figured out a way to modify them in a way that saves properly. It all resets back to its original value upon the game launching again.

[Hawke]

Originally posted by Blep:

I did look into the code a bit with someone who knew more about programming than I do. In the save data files for the game, each quest has a number assigned to it that represents progress made. So for example, The Hunt for Vela Callouse (the files use shortened names) might have a value of 10 when you just get it, but 50 after progressing some key stages.

Notably, these numbers tend to stick to multiples of ten, but advance by 5 for smaller steps that I assume are related but not mandatory. Despite finding this, we haven’t figured out a way to modify them in a way that saves properly. It all resets back to its original value upon the game launching again.

Thank you. I've looked at my save files. The quest I am looking for is referred 4 times:
1. taskStatesAsJSON, {"id":"charEmberian","stage":90}
2. FactsDB/"BoolFactKeys", "charEmberianComplete" (true)
3. FactsDB/"BoolFactKeys", "charEmberian" (true)
4. FactsDB/"IntFactKeys", "charEmberian" (90)

I think, it should be 130 in int. If anyone knows how to set it without corrupting the file, the information would be most welcome. It is probably applicable to other quests as well, but would require knowing their states and flags.

Edit. The save files should be possible to edit with a hex editor. I probably will try on the weekend.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1574240/discussions/0/6369856709168063323/#c6369856944156087909

[Hawke]

Originally posted by Blep:

I did look into the code a bit with someone who knew more about programming than I do. In the save data files for the game, each quest has a number assigned to it that represents progress made. So for example, The Hunt for Vela Callouse (the files use shortened names) might have a value of 10 when you just get it, but 50 after progressing some key stages.

Notably, these numbers tend to stick to multiples of ten, but advance by 5 for smaller steps that I assume are related but not mandatory. Despite finding this, we haven’t figured out a way to modify them in a way that saves properly. It all resets back to its original value upon the game launching again.

The quests also have events, and if an event is required to be triggered again, the relevant value in "BoolFactKeys" should be replaced with random symbols. So, I removed the last event of the Emberian's quest ("SpokenToEmberianVats") and the dialogue started correctly.

[Blep]

Oh wow, you've dug deep into this! This is extremely enlightening, thank you for sharing your progress!