[SOLVED] Jewel of the Commonwealth bugged

[Lyrim]

I found a fix on my own after a lot of reloading saves trying different things. The exact problem I had is below. if you're having the same issue, make a new save to test my fix (don't overwrite just in case it doesn't work).

SOLUTION:
Go to the gate of Diamond City and type this in the console: setstage mq103 20
Next enter this command to disable clipping to allow you to go through the closed gate: tcl
then once you're inside the area where the mayor and Piper have their argument, enable clipping a couple feet off the ground (so you don't fall through the floor) by typing tcl again in the console. Next you'll head into diamond city, then into pipers home, and talk to piper. She should then ask for an interview and the quest should progress like normal from then on.


PROBLEM:
I just started a new game (texture mods only) and I've run into something that I'm not sure how to tackle. I prefer avoiding the console, because we all know how bad that can go, but if I have to then I will as a last resort.

So here is the problem: Piper is not outside the Diamond City gate but Danny (I think that's the guards name) does his dialog like she is there. I figured "no biggy, I've seen the scene before, I'll just let it play out and the gate will open and it should correct itself inside." That's not how it worked out. Danny stopped talking and I sat for a few minutes waiting and realized that the gate wasn't going to open without Piper to progress the dialog with me.

I've run through the intro quest of saving Preston and the gang in Concord and then going back to Sanctuary with them and then when they were there I rearmed and headed toward the first settlement that needed help (from Preston), solved their problem but haven't turned it in yet, and continued to diamond city to start that. That's where I'm currently at. I'm trying to figure out if there's something essential that I haven't done that I forgot or if there's a console command to just progress the quest past the mayor of diamond city at the gate (basically to just get into diamond city when you're supposed to visit piper). I have a follower tracker and it says that she's in her home. I did make an attempt at using a "placeatme" command for Piper which worked for bringing her outside the gate, but didn't trigger the event. I'm not an idiot though, as a I did save prior to using the console command and reverted back to that save after the command failed.

If anyone has any ideas for me I'd greatly appreciate it as I'm on a survival playthrough and I have about 5-6 hours of playtime on this playthrough...

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the only mod I can think of that would affect Piper at all is "Loving Piper". It's a Piper retexture that shouldn't have an effect on her behavior.

EDIT 2: Also forgot to mention that I do not have the Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch installed because I don't have the Nuka World DLC which is required to install UFO4P.