Illia Bugged Follower Problem: A Terribly Odd Situation

[Flamephoenix78]

Hey everyone,

So I think this is my very first post on any sort of steam disscussion page, and it's regarding an extremely odd, frustrating, and concerning issue with the follower Illia. Apologies in advance for the great length of this post.

This particular issue DOES NOT just have to do with Illia's commonly known bugs, where you aren't able to recruit her as a follower again after dismissing her, as well as her not even showing up at Darklight Tower (though it is definitely connected to the issue). The current issue with her npc is frighteningly more unique, and in order to fully understand my situation, I think I should give some background info/context first as to what exactly I was doing before her character bugged out:

Prior to even traveling to Darklight Tower, my character was alone and had just purchased the house in Markarth. However, due to a separate bug with the Markarth jarl's steward, I had to use a console command for the steward to get the 'buy house' dialogue option. The specific command I used is as follows:

setstage favor250 15

The command reset the jarl's 'thane' quest, allowing him to name me as thane, which then opened up the steward's house buying dialogue option. Now, that wasn't actually my first time using that command in Markarth; I had used it one other previous time after just discovering the bug and checking whether that solution would fix it. This most recent time, though, I used it to actually buy the house from the Markarth steward, and it worked fine. After that, while still traveling solo, I worked on my werewolf skill tree for a bit, devouring the hearts of forsworn across the Reach (I was, and still am, trying to get the master werewolf achievement). Once I was done with that, I then decided to head to Darklight Tower and re-recruit Illia as my follower (She has been my follower many times in the past, each time requiring me to use the command that brings up her follower dialogue option).

Now, as a last possibly useful tidbit of information before presenting the problem: I have previously used other console commands in the game, almost always to fix other bugs or resurrect lost or dead followers. I unfortunately can't remember every single command I have used, but I thought it still might be helpful for you all.

Now, for the actual problem:

I entered Darklight Tower to once again make Illia my follower. As usual, she wasn't even there, so I used the 'moveto player' command to bring her to me, and then the other command to allow me to recruit her. So far, so good. With her now following me, I head for the tower exit, and then I remembered that she still had the gear I gave her the last time we traveled together, so I initiate dialogue with her, and... the only dialogue option that appears is the 'recruit follower' option. I'm confused, as I had already made her my follower. I clicked the follow me option again, and this time, Illia tells me that I already have a follower. Her dialogue mechanics are obviously broken, though she still follows me as a regular follower; I just can't do anything else with her like trade gear or tell her to do something for me, nor can I dismiss her after recruiting her that first time, as the recruit follower option is the only available dialogue choice that appears.

So far, I have tried reloading previous saves, restarting and relaunching the game as well as my pc, and also doing the kill npc command on her, and then resurrecting her, all to no avail. The only other option I can think of that I haven't tried yet is to reinstall the entire game, which I will do soon. Also, Illia seems to be the only follower having this issue, and the rest of the game is working fine. I have a few mods installed from the steam workshop, but I don't think those are the cause of the problem because they were installed even when Illia was functioning regularly. This wouldn't be such a big deal for me if I didn't absolutely love Illia as a follower. My guess is that the command I had used in Markarth did something in the game to corrupt her data files (though I had used the command in the past). I just really hope there is some solution to fx all of this; I guess my worst fears of using console commands too often have been realized :/

Thanks!

[alexander_dougherty]

Console commands.
Setstage bypasses all sorts of triggers, so related events don't get triggered.
Moveto.Player clones the NPC which can lead to all sorts of issues.

Load a save from before you used the moveto.player command would be my recommendation.

[Docsprock]

I agree. Reload an old save. I also recommend getting the Unofficial patch. You should never be using the console to complete quest stages and resurrect npcs.

With a bit of luck, your saved game might be salvageable.

[Flamephoenix78]

Originally posted by Docsprock:

I agree. Reload an old save. I also recommend getting the Unofficial patch. You should never be using the console to complete quest stages and resurrect npcs.

With a bit of luck, your saved game might be salvageable.

I already tried reloading saves from before I used the setstage command, though if I tried reloading a save from all the way before I ever used the moveto.player command, I would lose a huge amount of progress that I would not want to redo all over again.

Any other way of fixing this? Like a separate console command that undoes the commands I have already used?

[Flamephoenix78]

Also, as I said in the original post, I had used the resurrect npc command in the past for a dog, vigilance, though I did end up having similar issues of not being able to recruit the dog once again.

[Flamephoenix78]

And honestly I can't even remember which save would be before I ever used the moveto.player command. Have had to do it with other followers in the past.

[Flamephoenix78]

And I already have the unofficial patch installed via steam workshop, which is the only way I am able to download mods, as at some point, Nexus decided to require the Microsoft .NET Framework software in order to use their interfaces, and for whatever unsolvable reason, my pc has absolute incompatibility with Microsoft .NET Framework (my pc has had this issue for years).

[Valden21]

Originally posted by Fierytitan78:

Also, as I said in the original post, I had used the resurrect npc command in the past for a dog, vigilance, though I did end up having similar issues of not being able to recruit the dog once again.

Ressurecting any named character via the console is always a bad idea. Although it doesn't always happen, it quite often borks your game, and sometimes at a point where it's too late for you to fix it. I sincerely hate to be the bearer of bad news, especially at this time of the year, but this, combined with your use of the moveto. command, which has its own set of problems, may have resulted in a borked game. Unless you load a save from before you used both console commands, you may have to ditch this playthrough and start anew. Sorry, but there's not much else that CAN be done.

[Flamephoenix78]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Originally posted by Fierytitan78:

Also, as I said in the original post, I had used the resurrect npc command in the past for a dog, vigilance, though I did end up having similar issues of not being able to recruit the dog once again.

Ressurecting any named character via the console is always a bad idea. Although it doesn't always happen, it quite often borks your game, and sometimes at a point where it's too late for you to fix it. I sincerely hate to be the bearer of bad news, especially at this time of the year, but this, combined with your use of the moveto. command, which has its own set of problems, may have resulted in a borked game. Unless you load a save from before you used both console commands, you may have to ditch this playthrough and start anew. Sorry, but there's not much else that CAN be done.

I appreciate the advice, but I still feel as though there is some sort of console command or other step I could take to fix this, as it is just affecting Illia, and fortunately no other npc or follower in the game.

Also, on the uesp and other wiki pages for skyrim, they should really give warnings on the pages about such console commands and what they can do to your game; I saw no warnings on the info pages that I read when figuring out how to revive dead npcs.

[rallicknom]

Console commands are what got you into this trouble in the first place and now you are looking for some other console command to get you out of it. Do you realise how silly you sound?

Console commands are there as a debugging tool for mod authors primarily and should not be used unless you have a good knowledge of mods and modding, which you evidently do not have. The best advice you got in this post was from Valden21, start from scratch. Your game is undoubtedly irretrevably borked. And stay away from console commands in the future unless recommended by a site such as uesp.

[Flamephoenix78]

Originally posted by rallicknom:

Console commands are what got you into this trouble in the first place and now you are looking for some other console command to get you out of it. Do you realise how silly you sound?

Console commands are there as a debugging tool for mod authors primarily and should not be used unless you have a good knowledge of mods and modding, which you evidently do not have. The best advice you got in this post was from Valden21, start from scratch. Your game is undoubtedly irretrevably borked. And stay away from console commands in the future unless recommended by a site such as uesp.

UESP was actually the site I used to fix my Vigilance dog problem which prompted me to use such commands in the first place. Other console commands like ones that give you items in your inventory had no detrimental effects on my game in the past, and I have used thosed many times on this playthrough. It seems to be the more serious commands that affect npcs which appear to cause issues. You're right that I have no significant knowledge in the more detailed aspects of modding; I just did what the page recommended as a fix to a common bug (in that case, it was having a follower disappear on you with no knowledge of where they went).

Either way, it looks like I won't have to start a brand new game as fortunately, since I usually make new saves whenever I save my game, I was able to load my game back to when I had just finished Repentance and Ilia had just become available as a follower, which wasn't as far back in my playthrough as I had thought. It seems to have fixed the problem, because now I can actually interact with her as a regular follower and can dismiss her whenever I want to. So far, other aspects of the game don't appear to be broken or 'borked'.

Thanks to everyone who replied!

[Flamephoenix78]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Originally posted by Fierytitan78:

UESP was actually the site I used to fix my Vigilance dog problem which prompted me to use such commands in the first place. Other console commands like ones that give you items in your inventory had no detrimental effects on my game in the past, and I have used thosed many times on this playthrough. It seems to be the more serious commands that affect npcs which appear to cause issues. You're right that I have no significant knowledge in the more detailed aspects of modding; I just did what the page recommended as a fix to a common bug (in that case, it was having a follower disappear on you with no knowledge of where they went).

Either way, it looks like I won't have to start a brand new game as fortunately, since I usually make new saves whenever I save my game, I was able to load my game back to when I had just finished Repentance and Ilia had just become available as a follower, which wasn't as far back in my playthrough as I had thought. It seems to have fixed the problem, because now I can actually interact with her as a regular follower and can dismiss her whenever I want to. So far, other aspects of the game don't appear to be broken or 'borked'.

Thanks to everyone who replied!

Glad to hear you solved the problem on your own. However, that's the problem with using console commands. Sometimes, they have minimal effects on the game, and sometimes, they can have horrible consequences. Using them correctly requires that you know EXACTLY what you're typing and the effects of the command you're using.

Thanks; I now really understand the risks involved in using console commands, hopefully the rest of my game should operate normally now.

[Valden21]

BTW, UESP actually does provide a warning about the dangers of the console command to ressurect a dead NPC, it's just not labeled as such, so you might have missed it. It's in the section on Skyrim's console commands, under "NOTES", and right next to the description of what the console command does.

[Flamephoenix78]

Originally posted by Valden21:

BTW, UESP actually does provide a warning about the dangers of the console command to ressurect a dead NPC, it's just not labeled as such, so you might have missed it. It's in the section on Skyrim's console commands, under "NOTES", and right next to the description of what the console command does.

I never actually went to the Console Commands page of UESP when I was on there, I only looked at the console command solutions under Illia's specific page; and it doesn't have that warning there :/

[Valden21]

Originally posted by Fierytitan78:

Originally posted by Valden21:

BTW, UESP actually does provide a warning about the dangers of the console command to ressurect a dead NPC, it's just not labeled as such, so you might have missed it. It's in the section on Skyrim's console commands, under "NOTES", and right next to the description of what the console command does.

I never actually went to the Console Commands page of UESP when I was on there, I only looked at the console command solutions under Illia's specific page; and it doesn't have that warning there :/

Ah, that's why you missed the warning. It never has those warnings on the NPC pages, only the console commands page.