One of the main reasons that Civil War quests (or any quests) fail to start is because one or more Quest Aliases has failed to fill. Aliases are parts of the quest that are filled dynamically by the Story Manager when the quest starts, rather than being predefined. Some Aliases are optional - if these don't get filled, there is no real problem. Other Aliases are required - if these don't get filled for whatever reason, the quest will not start, but the game won't actually tell you. (You can turn on Story Manager logging in SkyrimPrefs.ini by setting bEnableStoryManagerLogging=1 in the [General] section to get a log file which will show when a quest has failed filling Aliases, but will still not say which ones.)
Therefore one way to debug a quest's Aliases is to make them all optional - the quest should then start, but probably won't actually work properly because something it requires is missing. However the fact that it has started at all will still allow us to check every Alias which has not been filled, and therefore hopefully find which Alias is causing the problem.
In the Miscellaneous files of this mod (Serious Civil War Defense for OCW) I have uploaded Debugging esps which will make all the Aliases in that quest optional. Listed below are the Aliases for each quest which will cause the quest to not start if they show as NONE.
If the quest still doesn't start after making all the Aliases optional, it is probably not an Alias issue, and you can stop reading here, as the rest of this article won't help. Sorry!
To check the aliases in a particular quest, typesqv <quest>
in the console, where <quest> is the EditorID of the quest (e.g. CWSiege).
You will need to hit Page Up a good few times to get to the top of the Alises list, where it will say something like "351 Aliases on quest CWSiege".
The first alias is almost always the REF Alias "FieldCO", followed by the LOC Alias "City" or "Hold".
CWSiege - Number of Aliases: ~351sqv cwsiege
You do not need to check every Alias in CWSiege, as some of them are optional anyway.
The following 171 Aliases are not optional by default - if any of these show as NONE, CWSiege will not start.
- REF FieldCO
- LOC City
- REF CityCenterMarker
- LOC Hold
- REF MainGateExterior
- REF MainGateInterior
- REF enableMarker
- REF Jarl
- REF HouseCarl
- REF AttackerSons1
- REF AttackerSons2
- REF AttackerSons3
- REF AttackerSons4
- REF AttackerSons5
- REF AttackerSons6
- REF AttackerSons7
- REF AttackerSons8
- REF AttackerSons9
- REF AttackerSons10
- REF AttackerImperial1
- REF AttackerImperial2
- REF AttackerImperial3
- REF AttackerImperial4
- REF AttackerImperial5
- REF AttackerImperial6
- REF AttackerImperial7
- REF AttackerImperial8
- REF AttackerImperial9
- REF AttackerImperial10
- REF DefenderSons1
- REF DefenderSons2
- REF DefenderSons3
- REF DefenderSons4
- REF DefenderSons5
- REF DefenderSons6
- REF DefenderSons7
- REF DefenderSons8
- REF DefenderSons9
- REF DefenderSons10
- REF DefenderImperial1
- REF DefenderImperial2
- REF DefenderImperial3
- REF DefenderImperial4
- REF DefenderImperial5
- REF DefenderImperial6
- REF DefenderImperial7
- REF DefenderImperial8
- REF DefenderImperial9
- REF DefenderImperial10
- REF AllyMarkerAttack0
- REF AllyMarkerAttack1
- REF AllyMarkerAttack2
- REF AllyMarkerAttack3
- REF AllyMarkerAttack4
- REF AllyMarkerAttack5
- REF AllyMarkerAttack6
- REF AllyMarkerDefend0
- REF AllyMarkerDefend2
- REF AllyMarkerDefend3
- REF AllyMarkerDefend4
- REF AllyMarkerDefend5
- REF AllyMarkerDefend6
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase1A
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase1B
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase1C
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase1D
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase1FailSafe
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase2A
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase2B
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase2C
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase2D
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase2FailSafe
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase3A
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase3B
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase3C
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase3D
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase3FailSafe
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase4A
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase4B
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase4C
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase4D
- REF RespawnAttackerPhase4FailSafe
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase1A
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase1B
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase1C
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase1D
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase1FailSafe
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase2A
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase2B
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase2C
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase2D
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase2FailSafe
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase3A
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase3B
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase3C
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase3D
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase3FailSafe
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase4A
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase4B
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase4C
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase4D
- REF RespawnDefenderPhase4FailSafe
- REF GarrisonEnableMarkerImperialExterior
- REF GarrisonEnableMarkerSonsExterior
- REF CampEnableMarkerImperial
- REF CampEnableMarkerSons
- REF BattleCenterMarker
- REF AttackerSonsCampMapMarker
- REF AttackerImperialCampMapMarker
- REF WhiterunDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker1
- REF WhiterunDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker2
- REF WhiterunDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker3
- REF WhiterunDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker4
- REF WhiterunDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker5
- REF WhiterunDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker6
- REF WhiterunDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker7
- REF WhiterunDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker8
- REF SolitudeDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker1
- REF SolitudeDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker2
- REF SolitudeDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker3
- REF SolitudeDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker4
- REF RiftenDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker1
- REF RiftenDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker2
- REF WhiterunBridgeLever1
- REF WhiterunBridgeLever2
- REF SolitudeGateLever1
- REF WindhelmGateLever1
- REF WindhelmGateLever2a
- REF WindhelmGateLever2b
- REF MarkarthDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker1
- REF MarkarthDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker2
- REF MarkarthDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker3
- REF MarkarthDisableNearbyGarrisonEnableMarker4
- REF MarkarthGateLever1
- REF MarkarthGateLever2
- REF MarkarthMoveDefenderTo1
- REF MarkarthMoveDefenderTo2
- REF MarkarthMoveDefenderTo3
- REF RiftenMoveDefenderTo1
- REF RiftenMoveDefenderTo2
- REF RiftenMoveDefenderTo3
- REF SonsGalmar
- REF SonsUlfric
- REF ImpRikke
- REF ImpTullius
- REF WhiterunDefenseMoveTo
- REF WhiterunDefenderRikke
- REF WhiterunDefenderGalmar
- REF WhiterunAttackerGalmar
- REF WhiterunAttackerRikke
- REF WhiterunSeverioPelagia
- REF WhiterunHeimskrNewHome
- REF WhiterunIntEnableOnly
- REF WhiterunIntDisableOnly
- REF WhiterunExtDisableOnly
- REF WhiterunExtEnableOnly
- REF WhiterunCaravanMarker
- REF WindhelmCaravanMarker
- REF SolitudeCaravanMarker
- REF WhiterunCaravanActor01
- REF WhiterunCaravanActor02
- REF WhiterunCaravanActor03
- REF WhiterunCaravanActor04
- REF WhiterunSonsSoldierToDisable01
- REF WhiterunSonsSoldierToDisable02
- REF WhiterunSonsSoldierToDisable03
- REF WhiterunSonsSoldierToDisable04
- REF WhiterunDrawbridgeOBJ
- REF WindhelmDockGate
- REF WhiterunCompanionsTrigger01
- REF WhiterunCompanionsTrigger02
If you are debugging a quest for one of my mods, please post in the comments below, or in the Posts or Bugs of the relevant mod, with a list of any and all of the above Aliases which are showing as NONE when you do sqv cwsiege.
If you are debugging the Battle for Whiterun, you must load a save from before you give Balgruuf the message in Message to Whiterun. Depending on which version of the quest you are doing, CWSiege can start in the background at any point after that.
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