Dawnguard Issues

[Reddazrael]

Shockingly, I've encountered some bugs in Dawnguard. Nobody faint, please.

I'd like to note that initially, I couldn't do the DLC at all, even with the Unofficial Dawnguard Patch – Dimhollow Crypt's vampires wouldn't trigger, so the cavern entrance was always closed to me. I tried to noclip my way through the wall and complete that objective with console commands, but no dice. Further things refused to trigger properly regardless, and if I continued manually triggering them, I'd miss all the story. So I uninstalled my entire game, reinstalled it, and started a fresh save file.

This time around, it appeared to be working fine. Initial quest triggered as normal. Serana spoke to me after I woke her up. We ran around being buddies and giggling together over nail polish and corpses. We began Chasing Echoes together and infiltrated her dad's castle. We found her mother's courtya—

Wait, no. I found her mother's courtyard, because Serana refused to follow me through the door. If I went back through to the previous area, she'd start following me again, but she would not go into that courtyard. I reloaded, tried going into different areas and then back, reverted to an earlier save... nothing worked. She would not step foot in that courtyard. Too many bad memories, I figured, but sometimes the best therapy is to face your demons head-on.

I used the moveto command, which worked just fine, but I had to manually "complete" the 'investigate the courtyard' objective set the quest stage to 'investigate the moondial'. Serana spoke to me about the moondial after that. Yes! She was working through her issues! But then the missing moondial pieces were nowhere in the vicinity. I even used a walkthrough to make sure I wasn't just missing them, but no. They weren't there, so I spawned them into my inventory. They allowed themselves to be placed properly, the courtyard opened up, Serana reacted to it, and all was well.

Then we got to the lab. Everything proceeded as normal, blah blah blah, I collected twenty bear asses and shoved them into the vessel, then asked Serana to kindly stab herself so we could move on. She agreed...

...and proceeded to do absolutely bugger all. I can't get her to donate any blood to the cause, and nothing I do will fix the problem – not even things that have saved other people who got stuck here.

Here is a list of things I've tried:

* Reloading from an earlier save, this one from even before the courtyard fiasco, which happened again as well. (No change.)

* Uninstalling Serana-related mods, and then cleaning the save. (No change.)

* Using the DLC1VQ04 80 command. (Nothing happened – no error message, but no change.)

* Using the SetStage DLC1VQ04 90 command. (Told me to enter the Soul Cairn, but the floor didn't open up.)

* Using the SetStage DLC1VQ04 80 and then, without exiting the console, the DLC1VQ04 90 command. (Ditto.)

* Using SetStage DLC1VQ04 80 before talking to Serana. (Nothing.)

* Using tcl and clipping through the floor after using SetStage DLC1VQ04 80. (Results in falling down to the Undercroft.)

* Clipping through the floor after using SetStage DLC1VQ04 90. (Results in falling down to the Undercroft.)

* Using SetStage DLC1VQ04 90 and then movetoqt DLC1VQ04. (Technically it "works", putting me at the quest marker, but due to the Soul Cairn not existing, the command also results in falling down to the Undercroft.)

* Using SetStage DLC1VQ04 100. (Which does allow me to ask Serana to either vampirize me or steal my soul. But then I get stuck in "conversation freeze" mode while she wanders around repeatedly telling me to hold still while she makes it as painless as possible, creeping me out in the process.)

* Pressing every single button on the controller. (Nothing but Wait or Load.)

* Unplugging the controller and pressing every single key on the keyboard. (Nothing but Wait or Load)

* Waiting for 24 hours while in convo lock. (Serana is still saying it. Creep factor rising.)

* Shooting dirty looks at the screen. (No change.)


In summary: I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO, PLEASE HELP ME.

I suspect I'm just plain screwed, but damn it, I am an optimist at heart. You people are clever individuals. Surely one of you can help me, yes? Yes?

[Eternie]

I agree with Grimus do a total restart with a clean vanilla Skyrim and try to get out of the habit of console fixes for everything before you even have a problem.
http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Make_Skyrim_Vanilla_Again

Follow this guide carefully to remove all scraps of Skyrim and do a total clean reinstallation. You'll enjoy the game more with less headaches.

[Reddazrael]

Originally posted by grimus:

Did you read the red warning sign before using the concole commands?
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Console

It's kind of hard to miss, being all red and warning and all. I know what it says, hence why I didn't use console commands until I literally could not progress any other way. I'm aware of their gamebreaking potential, but the game was already broken. I didn't exactly have anything to lose by trying them.

Originally posted by grimus:

My advice, start over again from vanilla Skyrim.

Make Skyrim Vanilla Again.
http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Make_Skyrim_Vanilla_Again

Thank you -- honestly, I do appreciate your response -- but that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. The entirety of my game isn't broken, just this one story arc. Granted, it's the entire DLC, but I have the Legendary edition and I got it during the Winter Sale, so it's not as if I technically paid extra for the DLC. I don't want to have to scrap this arc, but I will if I must. I'll no doubt restart the game with a new character later, and see if that fixes the problem.

See, the thing is, my first runthrough was vanilla. That was the doesn't-even-start runthrough. I installed the unofficial patch. Still problematic. Only the total uninstall and reinstall fixed it.

[Reddazrael]

Originally posted by grimus:

This MIGHT work: Try disabling Dawngaurd after making a new save with your old character in Whiterun. (or anywhere NOT Dawngaurd related.) Play a bit with no Dawngaurd and make a new save game. Enable Dawngaurd agian and start the DLC from beginning.

EDIT: Don't forget to use LOOT to restore load order.

Thank you kindly; I will try that. And if it doesn't work and I'm forced to play the game sans-DLC completion, then when I inevitably make a new character anyway, I'll scrub the game back to vanilla and see how that goes for Round 3.

Again, thanks for taking the time to respond. It's appreciated.

[Reddazrael]

Originally posted by grimus:

Crap, forgot to mention that you'll have to disable all your Dawngaurd related (dependant) mods as well.... or you'll get a ctd at Beth's logo. Running LOOT and looking at Details page should flag those for you, I hope.

No worries, you caught me in time.