I absolutely hate the escort quests disappearing without any warning

[watchdog79]

I am a new player, I started a few days ago. I just had a quest for Mercedes disappear without any warning. I was in the Inn during the night, so I decided to rest till morning and then take the Escort quest from the notice board. It is gone.

I read somewhere in a discussion, that you have plenty of time to take it. It appears you don't. And due to this abysmally stupid single save file system, I am screwed permanently. No, being able (and basically required) to play the game again is not a solution. My current playthrough is screwed irreversibly.

I love many aspects of the game, especially the pawn system, but this locking players out of very important quests is idiotic. Why should I as a new player have to consult a player made spreadsheet of quests order constantly, and fear that I am missing out?

[Ceangailte]

Played it along time ago and want to do a replay. If i remember corectly she says that she needs the escort or she will go alone, and that she is in a hurry.
For Dragons Domga this means that it is like now or never. THe game has a few more of this quests. NPC change they locations depending on quests you do or you dont.

But if you dont understand this early it can feel bad.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by watchdog79:

I am a new player, I started a few days ago. I just had a quest for Mercedes disappear without any warning. I was in the Inn during the night, so I decided to rest till morning and then take the Escort quest from the notice board. It is gone.

That's not how quests work. Either you are omitting some important detail. eg "i'm just using this mod...", or "I merely cleared this quest"; or are lying.

BTW What kind of warning would you expect? Are there any games that give you warnings?

Originally posted by watchdog79:

I read somewhere in a discussion, that you have plenty of time to take it. It appears you don't.

1. If someone makes a claim, read the basis for the claim. Not just the general premise. You may be missing some key condition. Like that some quests appear/disappear based on NPC favor for your character, or the progress of the main quest, eg Mercedes escort appears upon starting Lure of the Abyss (let the area update by leaving and re-entering or teleporting) and dissapears on clearing any of the Wyrm Hunt quests.

2. And that's apart from the fact that you shouldn't trust everything your read on the internet. Internet is full bs. Wiki is the way to go, at least ppl there verify stuff, more often than not.

[watchdog79]

Originally posted by zadymek:

Originally posted by watchdog79:

I am a new player, I started a few days ago. I just had a quest for Mercedes disappear without any warning. I was in the Inn during the night, so I decided to rest till morning and then take the Escort quest from the notice board. It is gone.

That's not how quests work. Either you are omitting some important detail. eg "i'm just using this mod...", or "I merely cleared this quest"; or are lying.

BTW What kind of warning would you expect? Are there any games that give you warnings?

Originally posted by watchdog79:

I read somewhere in a discussion, that you have plenty of time to take it. It appears you don't.

1. If someone makes a claim, read the basis for the claim. Not just the general premise. You may be missing some key condition. Like that some quests appear/disappear based on NPC favor for your character, or the progress of the main quest, eg Mercedes escort appears upon starting Lure of the Abyss (let the area update by leaving and re-entering or teleporting) and dissapears on clearing any of the Wyrm Hunt quests.

2. And that's apart from the fact that you shouldn't trust everything your read on the internet. Internet is full bs. Wiki is the way to go, at least ppl there verify stuff, more often than not.

No, I am not lying. I finished Selen's Escort quest (taking her to a Healing Spring), but since I took it during the night (stupid me, I thought I would have to travel back to her place to start it, so I wanted to come there in the morning), and it was a nuisance to travel at night. I returned to the city and decided to take Mercedes' quest in the morning. It was still on the Notice board, but it expired at that very moment. And since I cannot reload a save, because the game autosaved upon resting, there is nothing I can do.

1. There is no official source on this. As in a developer source. All is player knowledge. The discussion I read said it took a really long time for Mercedes' quest to time out.

I started the Lure of the Abyss, but I don't think I ever went to the quest dungeon. The Notice board contained two Escort quests, one for Selene, one for Mercedes. I have not gotten to Wyrm Hunt quests yet. I did not advance the main story at all beyond getting the Lure of the Abyss. I just went exploring, which also resulted in locking myself out of one of the starting area quests, because I managed to get into the castle with Maul and kill him. I am level 40 now, by the way.

2. Wiki is not an official source. It is unofficial as well. And it does not clearly say how much time I have before quests disappear.

I am really disappointed, and thinking of having to start over, this time sticking to the player made quests order list to be able to actually do the quests the game contains. I am not entirely certain I want to play a spreadsheet requiring game, though. Not my kind of fun.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by watchdog79:

2. Wiki is not an official source. It is unofficial as well. And it does not clearly say how much time I have before quests disappear.

That's because there is no time limit, for any quest. It's not about any specific amount of time just the progress of the main quest line. If for you the quest dissapeared after resting, that's an abnormal behavior and again, this is not how quests work: in a normal, clean, not malfuctioning game Mercedes' escort quest only dissapears on advancing to stage 3 of the main quest line.

BTW Wiki is partially based on official sources (the official strategy guide for one) but above all else the claims added to articles are verified by editors. Or at least may be verified, not necessarilly immediately but still. And if you have a problem with the wiki content you can comment on this and wiki content will get revised. While someone's entitled claim in a forum post or a guide on the internet remains unchanged for ages.

[toasty frosting]

I've had escort quests disappear despite being in the proper story stage because I put them off too long. Probably an affinity thing. For instance, Reynard's quest disappeared after a while, then showed up again when I did more of his storyline.

I think I missed the boat entirely with regards to Mercedes' quest this run incidentally.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by toasty frosting:

I've had escort quests disappear despite being in the proper story stage because I put them off too long. Probably an affinity thing. For instance, Reynard's quest disappeared after a while, then showed up again when I did more of his storyline.

Whjy yes, escort quests appear and diss-appear based on Affinity. The question is: is Mercedes' escort based of Affinity as well. If yes then the OP should have at least 7 in-game day before Mercedes' Affinity normalizes.

[NF_Crenos]

Escort quests only matter if you want to increase that NPCs affinity, and perhaps at times another neat reward, but that reward can be obtained in other ways anyways and is not better than endgame stuff. It doesn't matter for story or character progression. You won't lose out on Mercedes quests because of this.
But there are a bunch of other quests that might fail or become unavailable after certain points in the main story.
This list https://dragonsdogma.fandom.com/wiki/Quests#Stages shows you when sidequests become available/unavailable/fail. It's not really spoilery either as only the quest names are revealed.

[Carnatux]

First rule of escort quests is don't escort then figure out where they want to go first go there yourself setva port crystal then the the quest from the board warp there immediately finish and warp back no danger whatsoever for the person being escorted.

[TheDudeAbides52]

escort quests are tied to affinity. if you do something that decreases their affinity, their escort quest is removed. to get it back, you have to do something that increases their affinity like talk to them or offer them something they like.

or maybe you have an ongoing escort quest. you cannot take another escort quest if you have an ongoing escort quest. to see if you have an ongoing escort quest, take a look at your mini map. if there is a blue dot, that usually means you have an escort ongoing. either finish that escort quest or fail it. then the other escort quests will show up on the notice board. and they only show up in one notice board. either the board at cassardis inn or gran soren inn.

[TheDudeAbides52]

here are the cutoffs for the quests:
https://dragonsdogma.fandom.com/wiki/Quests

here it is for the escort quests:
https://dragonsdogma.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Escort_Quests

[~⁧⁧kapacb]

Originally posted by watchdog79:

My current playthrough is screwed irreversibly.

but this locking players out of very important quests is idiotic.

It seems like im the only one who dont understand the drama.
What was screwed? Whats important in escort quests?

[solidap]

Originally posted by TheDudeAbides52:

escort quests are tied to affinity. if you do something that decreases their affinity, their escort quest is removed. to get it back, you have to do something that increases their affinity like talk to them or offer them something they like.

or maybe you have an ongoing escort quest. you cannot take another escort quest if you have an ongoing escort quest. to see if you have an ongoing escort quest, take a look at your mini map. if there is a blue dot, that usually means you have an escort ongoing. either finish that escort quest or fail it. then the other escort quests will show up on the notice board. and they only show up in one notice board. either the board at cassardis inn or gran soren inn.

This is correct. If you want her escort quest to pop back up then start giving Mercedes some gifts to increase her affinity to you. She likes Cloudwine

[Clail]

The notice board escort quests are far from important, and there's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of them since it's tied to NPC affinities. You aren't missing out on any thing special.
Many of them, in particular the ones that have you treking from one end of the map to the other at an endgame location are honestly best saved for NG+.

[Scribor]

Yes, the game has a horrendous quest system, if you're a completionist, you're basically supposed to check every NPC in every location in the game everytime you advance the main quest line and do the escort quests as quickly as possible because they're tied to affinity which wanes over time...
If you're not too far in the main quest line (before finishing your first wyrm hunt quest) you can still salvage the situation with some baril glitch shenaningans: get a skeletton key, hit someone to get arrested, get out of the cell and baril glitch your way out to the castle where you can speak to Mercedes and increase your affinity with her by either gifting things to her (she likes cloudwine) or simply repeatedly initiating/quitting dialogue with her, leave Grand Soren then get back to check the board, her escort quest should have reappeared.