Possible bug, villagers scared of Geralt

[PriesT]

I'm currentling have a replicatable bug.

Everytime i enter a town, the villagers are scared of Geralt. Screams etc. all around. Immersion breaking stuff and super annoying.

It appears (after much reloading and going back in saves) that the bug is introduced when you do the quest related to 'The Pellar' (locate the missing goat).

Anyone else have experienced this problem?

(new game in 1.10, all DLC's active)

[The Three]

I have this bug on 1.12 - I'm yet to find any solution.

[Pulptenks]

When you run away from a fight and you approach the NPC they are scared of the fight (The guards will encourage ...), aggro take a time to disappears. I remember in the mission appear wolves and The Bear, maybe some monster is aggroing?

kill'em all!!

[The Three]

Unfortunately this 'aggro' seems to be permanent and global - no matter where I go, fast travel or on foot, peasants are always terrified.

[Pulptenks]

and your actions in the world? have been aggressive?
I mean for exam, kill baron men in the Inn (before meeting the baron)

people are upset and asks you to go away, it happens in many conversations with bandits and thugs

[The Three]

Can confirm OPs findings, peasants get 'globally' panicked and frightened after completing the quest with the goat.
@PriesT did you perhaps somwhow managed to avoid this bug? Is it random or happens in 100% scenarios?
Thanks!

[Vashra]

I am resurrecting this old thread because after some experimentation and verification, I believe I have found the solution to this bug.

TL; DNR:

Just keep questing. It will resolve itself.

---

Long form:

First....Yes this *is* a bug. At the point where the villagers are triggered to be terrified, only *some* villagers *should* be. The rest of the citizens across the territory of Velen should not. Someone coded in a global trigger where an area specific one should be. I doubt it's a bug that developers would bother to spend the man hours to fix since it *does* resolve.

Below is the specific solution, which I have encased in spoiler tags since in involves questing. I didn't bother to tag/hide things already discussed above.

I will say that since this bug is wrapped up within the game's main quest arc, it is pretty much unavoidable. As such, if you find the *constant* terror of the villagers to break your immersion or whatever, you might want to engage the solution quickly.

Unless you have done something else to warrant their fears, the villagers should not be terrified of you until you *complete* the pellar's goat quest. So if you want to avoid the problem, leave the goat wandering the wilds until you're ready to deal with the goat...and all of the steps that must be taken after finding the goat to fix said bug.

Solution:

I too suffered from global terror among the citizens of Velen after saving the pellar's goat. At first, I thought perhaps the pellar would turn out to be some great villain, and so the peasants were not happy that I aided him. Alternately, maybe they took extreme issue with his alleged bestiality, and figured if I was willing to return his poor furry victim to his clutches, I was worthy of terror in my own right.

In any case, I verified after several saves and restarts that it is specifically completing the pellar quest which bugs the villagers. The next thing that quest line leads you to do, is to return to the quest "Family Matters" and go talk to the Baron.

When you get to Crow's Reach, you will find the villagers *there* to be in panic mode because the stable and such is on fire. You rush in to help (or just to talk to the Baron, if you're the heartless kind of jerk who can leave a man and several horses to die). The Baron is utterly sozzled, and proving to the world that he's quite a mean drunk. Best him in a fist fight, sober him up with a good dunking in a horse trough, and then have a little chat with him about how he *really* treats his wife and daughter when he's three sheets to the wind full of booze.

Once you complete that chat, even if you put him off to go do other things before doing the next leg of *his* quest, the villagers in his keep...and everywhere else...will reset to their more calm demeanor.

[PriesT]

Woah, this is indeed an oldie. Funny this specific bug is still around, but as you say, @Vashra, they probably coulden't be arsed to fix it. I can't remember what I did to solve it, maybe they just reset at some point. Thanks for posting your solution.

[Vashra]

Originally posted by PriesT:

Woah, this is indeed an oldie. Funny this specific bug is still around, but as you say, @Vashra, they probably coulden't be arsed to fix it. I can't remember what I did to solve it, maybe they just reset at some point. Thanks for posting your solution.

Yep...as I said, they just reset after a certain point in the main quest arc, but if you don't know that and you park the main quest arc to do the bazillion side quests available in Velen, the terrified villager thing gets really annoying after a while.