So many missing NPCs, cannot proceed with game

[J.C. Stripes]

The guide at the cement factory never showed up for me, now the guide at Yaniv has disappeared too. Just finished the Monolithian attack on Yaniv and Richter isn't anywhere to be found at or around the water tower. The quest indicator is beyond the locked door that goes towards pripyat but I can't talk to anyone to unlock the door. This is 100 hour save file and I can't go anywhere, are there any solutions to this?

[Lucid_Shotz]

Same issue it starting to get ridiculous

[Sparhawk122]

I think the issue is that the game bugs out and sometimes does not render an NPC in the correct location or they get killed without the player knowing. Or they even become non interactable or lose dialogue options they should have.

The quests have very fragile scripting. If you explore some locations early and interect with certain objects or loot certain things. You can break a quest without even knowing.

[J.C. Stripes]

I had to reload a save game and do it over again, this time Richter was in the tower, at least I can continue with the main quest.
Also, the regenerator disappeared from my inventory and I wasn't able to save Spirit so that sucks too