Quests bugged, probably due to mods, how can I find out which one?

[Chuck]

Im having an issue with quests where the description will be like

ERR:[Asker_namefull], [askerFaction]...

and so on for every bit of text. I know this is probably a mod, i dont know which one. None of my mods affect quests, apart from maybe silent raids, but im not sure. Its probably rimcities but i dont know what happens if i delete that mid-playthrough and want to be sure before i go removing mods.

I dont know much about debugging and file stuff (I could find a file if i know where its supposed to be), where would i find some kind of error log that might give me a clue whats going on with my quests?

[Astasia]

It's usually an issue with pawn or location generation, and rarely has anything to do with quest scripts. When the quest pops you should get an error in the log IIRC saying it failed to generate something, that can point toward what failed at least, but typically not the exact mod.

Mods that add new factions are the most likely cause, especially if those factions use non-human units. A common example of the error happening is the game tries to generate a quest from a modded faction, that faction has say combat dogs that can be a part of raids, the quest picks a combat dog to be a NPC mentioned in the quest, and the whole thing fails because the dog doesn't have the correct variables.

[Chuck]

hmm. Thats why i was thinking it was rimcities, I thought it might be trying to get a location that it cant resolve.

I think i found the log, i found a "grammar resolution trace" where i can see that raidpawn kinds, raidArrivalModeInfo, pawnKindsParagraph, and ending common are all marked as UNRESOLVABLE in the log for the quest thats bugged here.

None of the mods I have add new factions. I have vanilla expanded framework but i only have that for one of the weapon packs, it could be possible its attempting to get factions from vanilla expanded that i dont have, but i dont really know. Not sure what to get rid of. All i know is its a little hard to accept quests when i hear ill be faced with [numGroupsOf] [enemyFaction_pawnsPlural] which tells me nothing about what im actually signing up for

[Astasia]

The unresolvable stuff is IIRC an "after the fact" sort of thing, something in the quest fails, so all fields in the quest become null, which then causes all the grammar to return unresolvable.

RimCities hasn't been the most stable mod in the past, especially when used with other mods, but I don't know what kind of issues it might currently have. If you are seeing this "once in a while" I'd honestly suggest just ignoring it, trash the quest and move on, fiddle with mods next save. If it's happening every quest, or most quests, then something more serious is broken and I don't really have any more suggestions based on the listed info. Removing a mod mid-save is almost never a good idea though, even if it says it's safe, but if the mod page/discussions lists a "safe" way to remove it then that might be an option to try.

VE Framework isn't going to be the issue. I haven't done a run without that in ages and it's been a year or two since I ran into this issue myself. VE Vikings used to cause it, but they are remaking that and it's not currently updated or relevant.

[Radiosity]

Did you remove any factions at game start? I often remove factions for my games because I only want specific enemies or whatever (normally removing mechanoids and bugs, and sometimes the empire too, plus stuff like yttakin), and I pretty much always end up with the broken quest thing you mention in the opening post.

In my case the game probably thinks a certain faction should be there, but it isn't, so it can't generate properly and I instead get ERR:[Asker_namefull] stuff. I just bin those and move on.

[Chuck]

Originally posted by Radiosity:

Did you remove any factions at game start? I often remove factions for my games because I only want specific enemies or whatever (normally removing mechanoids and bugs, and sometimes the empire too, plus stuff like yttakin), and I pretty much always end up with the broken quest thing you mention in the opening post.

In my case the game probably thinks a certain faction should be there, but it isn't, so it can't generate properly and I instead get ERR:[Asker_namefull] stuff. I just bin those and move on.

no, although i did add some. Like the baseliner human variants of the outlanders and tribes so tribals arent always either neanderthals or impids, and outlanders arent always pig people.