Can the console be used to force a quest to start?

[Stormbreaker420]

I need the quest "Underground Undercover" to show up in my quest log. It became necessary for me to skip a few stages of the previous quest (the molecular level) due to bugs, and therefore I didn't receive the network scanner holotape from Tinker Tom or have the quest autostart (I had been following the MQ as a Railroad ally, started building the teleporter with them, but was unable to finish). I got the network scanner in the console and continued on as normal however.

Then I tried getting through the institute introduction then going to RR HQ to see if I could just start the quest at this point since they'll know ive been inside the institute, but I couldnt, so I had to use setstage to begin quest related conversations, and I was told to use the encrypted holotape inside the instititute, another item I didn't have due to skipping some parts of the last quest, so I grabbed it in the console too.

But through all this the quest isn't actually having any markers showing or objectives/title listed for it in my pipboy, so I'm wondering if the quest is technically active at all. Will it continue as normal from here just without markers and just autostart the next mission in the chain once it's done? Or do I need to get it to show up in the pipboy?

[MaximumEffort]

Yes, but they will bug out and not work.

[Stormbreaker420]

Originally posted by sjrekis:

Yes, but they will bug out and not work.

Well what is the command? I might as well try, my game is gonna have to be abandoned otherwise anyways, the entire reason i did this playthrough was for a Railroad story, and a glitch in "The Molecular Level" is making that impossible for me to accomplish without setstage commands.

[=EGC= kansasterry]

The command would be startquest followed by the quest name however the problem is when you use the startquest command you may miss stages or settings that are manupulated by other quests.

If for instance you want to say skip right to entering the institute and have a chance at a somewhat normal function you have to also run the quest for the faction that you chose to aid in getting into the institute and the setstage commands to progress the quests to the point you either build the device or have activated the device.

[Stormbreaker420]

Originally posted by =EGC= kansasterry:

The command would be startquest followed by the quest name however the problem is when you use the startquest command you may miss stages or settings that are manupulated by other quests.

If for instance you want to say skip right to entering the institute and have a chance at a somewhat normal function you have to also run the quest for the faction that you chose to aid in getting into the institute and the setstage commands to progress the quests to the point you either build the device or have activated the device.

Thats the plan. What I'm gonna do is go back to my pre-institute save (when I was stuck in the Molecular level) run through the setstage commands to get teleported inside the Institute, then force Underground Undercover to start and hope for the best, as far as I know the good thing about it is it isn't heavily linked to building the teleporter, it starts right at the end of having it built, wish i knew exactly when though, can't remember that, it either starts when you enter the institute OR when you are immobilized on the teleporter platform... I could try starting the quest while in THAT stage of the Molecular Level maybe.. When it's that or abandon the playthrough, I dont have much choice.

I'm not overly worried about problems down the line simply because this isn't one of my main characters, I just wanted to playthrough a RR story, and maybe Far Harbour, then I'll probably never come back to this character anyways. Not even getting most of the companions, thats how barebones this playthrough is

[=EGC= kansasterry]

Originally posted by free_the_beast:

Originally posted by =EGC= kansasterry:

The command would be startquest followed by the quest name however the problem is when you use the startquest command you may miss stages or settings that are manupulated by other quests.

If for instance you want to say skip right to entering the institute and have a chance at a somewhat normal function you have to also run the quest for the faction that you chose to aid in getting into the institute and the setstage commands to progress the quests to the point you either build the device or have activated the device.

Thats the plan. What I'm gonna do is go back to my pre-institute save (when I was stuck in the Molecular level) run through the setstage commands to get teleported inside the Institute, then force Underground Undercover to start and hope for the best, as far as I know the good thing about it is it isn't heavily linked to building the teleporter, it starts right at the end of having it built, wish i knew exactly when though, can't remember that, it either starts when you enter the institute OR when you are immobilized on the teleporter platform... I could try starting the quest while in THAT stage of the Molecular Level maybe.. When it's that or abandon the playthrough, I dont have much choice.

I'm not overly worried about problems down the line simply because this isn't one of my main characters, I just wanted to playthrough a RR story, and maybe Far Harbour, then I'll probably never come back to this character anyways. Not even getting most of the companions, thats how barebones this playthrough is

Just do not forget the stage in molecular level where you get the network scanner or you can get stuck unable to finish the first quest that lets you get back out of the institute.

[Stormbreaker420]

Originally posted by =EGC= kansasterry:

Originally posted by free_the_beast:

Thats the plan. What I'm gonna do is go back to my pre-institute save (when I was stuck in the Molecular level) run through the setstage commands to get teleported inside the Institute, then force Underground Undercover to start and hope for the best, as far as I know the good thing about it is it isn't heavily linked to building the teleporter, it starts right at the end of having it built, wish i knew exactly when though, can't remember that, it either starts when you enter the institute OR when you are immobilized on the teleporter platform... I could try starting the quest while in THAT stage of the Molecular Level maybe.. When it's that or abandon the playthrough, I dont have much choice.

I'm not overly worried about problems down the line simply because this isn't one of my main characters, I just wanted to playthrough a RR story, and maybe Far Harbour, then I'll probably never come back to this character anyways. Not even getting most of the companions, thats how barebones this playthrough is

Just do not forget the stage in molecular level where you get the network scanner or you can get stuck unable to finish the first quest that lets you get back out of the institute.

Yeah, I plan to run through all the remaining stages of Molecular level while inside RR headquarters, so I should get it. If not I can pick it up in the console though no?

Just thinking of trying to find a youtube vid of the Molecular Level being done on the RR side to see where EXACTLY Underground Undercover starts up. Then I can see what stage of Molecular Level to activate it on

[Stormbreaker420]

Update, all seems well. I used the SQS command on both the Molecular Level and Underground Undercover, was on stage 300 on Molecular level with 325, 350, 375, 400, 500, 600, 700, 1000 and 1200 to go.

I used setstage to go through them in order as far as 400, then I did startquest RR201 (Underground Undercover) which did nothing at first, then I used SQS on that quest and it told me it was running and that I was on stage 0, which according to the Wiki the objective for is to talk to Desdemona, but she had nothing to say, so I went to the next stage, 5, and the quest starting graphic popped up and I got my objective to upload the message. So I continued through the Molecular Level stages then until I got teleported inside the institute and completed it.

The only hiccup is that I didn't get given the encrypted message tape I need for Underground Undercover, but I can easily grab that in the console. I know I may run into trouble down the road having done it this way, but it seems to have worked out for now anyways, and thats better than nothing.

[Hentai with Senpai 69]

I want to do this for star control

[MaximumEffort]

Originally posted by Hentai with Senpai 69:

I want to do this for star control

Just do this:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/19603/?

[Crimson]

Do you know if the startquest function will work fine with creation club quests??

[MistaMugi]

THIS SAVED ME IN 2024! I was in nuka world with the sim settlements mod and i couldnt continue, so i had to look around for a few hours til i found this post! for me, using setstage <quest-id> 1000 (nuka world overseer kill part id is 06000801). finally i can continue

[Steve]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.