Faralda at the College of Winterhold is Missing

[Fastdash]

I'm trying to start the College of Winterhold quest, but Faralda is not at the bridge so I can take the test. I have the Immersive College of Winterhold mod, but I'm not sure if it's causing this glitch or not. What should I do?

[Stormsong]

If I remember right that mod has her teaching lessons during the day. Try waiting until nighttime and see if she's around.

Yes I realize she's marked to stand there regardless if you've not yet been in the College. However, it's a safer experiment than going right to deleting or uninstalling things.

[Fastdash]

Originally posted by Stormsong the Fallen:

If I remember right that mod has her teaching lessons during the day. Try waiting until nighttime and see if she's around.

Yes I realize she's marked to stand there regardless if you've not yet been in the College. However, it's a safer experiment than going right to deleting or uninstalling things.

It's 9:02 pm in-game time, and she's still not there.

[Solar Rayman]

i recommend uninstalling and maybe reinstall
it might not have fully rendered the mod

[HiTmAn]

she appers during night.. right in front of bridge...

[Fastdash]

Originally posted by HiTmAn:

she appers during night.. right in front of bridge...

She didn't for me.

[Fastdash]

Originally posted by Anime Scrub:

i recommend uninstalling and maybe reinstall
it might not have fully rendered the mod

I unisntalled and reinstalled the mod, and she is still not there.

[Draescan]

Don't bother reinstalling, just sounds like you're a victim of the uncapped FPS bug....If you DO have your FPS uncapped, cap that ♥♥♥♥, it breaks quests, the physics engine, the in game timer that runs the NPC's schedules, etc....If not, this will still work for you


Open your console ( on a qwerty keyboard it's the key to the left of the number 1 above Q )

type this exactly: [Things contained inside these square brackets indicate a keystroke]

help Faralda [Enter/Return]

(You will see a few lines pop up in the console, the one you need is the one that says something along the lines of: NPC: Faralda " then an id code here " )

to spawn her next to you type

player.placeatme <--- notice the space after placeatme ( the id from the line I mentioned above ) [SPACE] [1] [Enter/Return]


Then drop out of the console with tilde again, she should be right next to you or somewhere nearby ( usually within 10 feet )

If you need better instructions just add me or message me on my profile.


To break down what's happening here, you're querying the console to search for records in the game's load order that have the word " Faralda " in them, this includes but isn't limited to: Dialogue, notes, books, weapons, armor, and npc names/conversation options.

It's displaying these records and providing id's for applicable sources.

when you use the player.placeatme command you're telling the console to place the following ID'd ( thing ) next to you and the number 1 that you provide after the id code you put in for Faralda is telling the console you want 1 of this reference.

[Fastdash]

Originally posted by Mantis:

Don't bother reinstalling, just sounds like you're a victim of the uncapped FPS bug....If you DO have your FPS uncapped, cap that ♥♥♥♥, it breaks quests, the physics engine, the in game timer that runs the NPC's schedules, etc....If not, this will still work for you


Open your console ( on a qwerty keyboard it's the key to the left of the number 1 above Q )

type this exactly: [Things contained inside these square brackets indicate a keystroke]

help Faralda [Enter/Return]

(You will see a few lines pop up in the console, the one you need is the one that says something along the lines of: NPC: Faralda " then an id code here " )

to spawn her next to you type

player.placeatme <--- notice the space after placeatme ( the id from the line I mentioned above ) [SPACE] [1] [Enter/Return]


Then drop out of the console with tilde again, she should be right next to you or somewhere nearby ( usually within 10 feet )

If you need better instructions just add me or message me on my profile.


To break down what's happening here, you're querying the console to search for records in the game's load order that have the word " Faralda " in them, this includes but isn't limited to: Dialogue, notes, books, weapons, armor, and npc names/conversation options.

It's displaying these records and providing id's for applicable sources.

when you use the player.placeatme command you're telling the console to place the following ID'd ( thing ) next to you and the number 1 that you provide after the id code you put in for Faralda is telling the console you want 1 of this reference.

Ok, I did all that, and I didn't get the quest start dialogue. All she did was walk right back into the College of Winterhold. I waited until night again, and she wasn't on the bridge.

[Draescan]

Hmm, well unfortunately that spans my knowledge on the matter, I've never used the mod in question as I use a simple texture overhaul for the college " Sexy Winterhold College " no it's not what you're thinking XD

The only recommendation I can give you at this point ( I NEVER advise someone use the console to progress quests, it can fix things but if something is REALLY wrong it makes the problem even worse ) I would try to load an earlier save or hopefully if you're not too far in start over. I know that sucks but that's what I would do as someone who collectively has spent around 2000 hours ( console and pc ) in skyrim, and around twice that modding oblivion,fallout3,NewVegas,Skyrim,Fallout4,and SkyrimSE. That's not meant to be an achievement or anything I just want you to get a feel for my experience in the matter and weigh it in your own mind.

After my brief google searching that mod actually looks like it has some strange issues that haven't been addressed by the mod author. You might want to look into switching it out for another mod. It looks nice but I think the mod author didn't check to make sure the new architecture and such didn't interfere with pathing and questing. My guess is he has altered Faralda in a way that makes her not do her wait mode for the player character entering the college at the bridge. He's probably accidentally saved her in a state in the esp that has ignored this part of the quest. Try it without the mod on a new character ( just run straight there ) and see if you can talk and start the quest.

[Draescan]

To give you an idea of what I think has happened. I think the mod has altered the teacher's schedules so that they use the new college that the mod creates, but in doing so he forgot to put contingencies in to make sure that Faralda still stood outside the gate waiting for the player to approach and begin the mage's guild quest line.

This is evidenced by faralda walking STRAIGHT back to the college when you spawned her.

[Draescan]

Ah, I just found more reason to believe I'm right about this, on the mod's image page there's a screenshot that shows the teachers actively teach classes, Faralda is one of the teachers which means her daily routine has been changed, it's the mod breaking things I'm willing to bet....Here's the screenshot in question from the mod's page

https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/36849-4-1371987075.jpg


Now if I'm right about this you have two choices....one, uninstall and use a different mod, or two.....hope that it's the only part of the quest that's broken, get into the college with the mod not installed, then after the initation, install the mod again and reap the benefits.

[smr1957]

By using the player.placeatme you created a copy of the NPC - which wil not have the appropriate dialogue and therefore of course you will not be able to advance the quest. This is one of the console commands that should never be used with a named NPC.

From: http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Form_ID

"With unique NPCs however, a second copy will usually cause problems with quests and such. In that case, one could move the NPC to the player with the command sequence:
prid <RefID>
moveto player

You should go back to the save you made before using that command and try the command referenced above instead (but only if you cannot advance the quest any other way).

[CrayZcarts]

Try just uninstalling the mod, gain access to the college, then install the mod

[Uncle64]

Is this tread full of useless suggestions?
Listen to SMR1957 and forget the others.

[Draescan]

Originally posted by Uncle64SwE:

Is this tread full of useless suggestions?
Listen to SMR1957 and forget the others.

Except he's wrong and it works just fine. When Dawnguard came out I had to spawn Serana in the room with her coffin.



Allow me to clarify.....There's nothing wrong with using the aforementioned method, nor is there anything wrong with moveto.......However, if the NPC in question is not showing up in the game world ( as the OP mentioned ) spawning it in will do nothing wrong.