hallo! When I started playing this mod one week ago, I didn't think it was that good: solving a few simple puzzles, collecting a few items, searching for some ingredients - the usual kid stuff, I thought. But I was wrong, the whole thing is actually a considerable challenge and also an engaging story, which is anything but easy to solve. The whole thing is fun, even sometimes I had to search endlessly for something and easily lost patience. But sooner or later I found the solutions when I continued searching and kept following all the clues. But now I've been stuck in this Dragons Lair for hours, have 3 runes at my disposal, but I dont find a way through this maze. Any tips?
I'm glad you like the mod. It was designed that way, harder than usual stuff. I tried to place clues that are solvable but not too trivial.
The maze is one of the hardest challenge. The usual "right-hand" or "left-hand" rules simply don't work in mazes with one-way walls!
Spoiler:
Show
Having the runes is not sufficient. You must wear them. At this stage you should have made the Runic Dragonscale Istar Circlet with the Runic Enchanter in the Tower Lab. Put the runes on the circlet and wear it. It's the only way you can wear 3 runes simultaneously at this stage of the game.
You should also have found the maze note in Olydra's Lab on top of Olydra's Complex. The note tells which Runes you must wear, and that the unlock order is West, East, then North. The note tells also that you must first go east to get west and to avoid center until final move from south. This refers to the rooms you must visit. These rooms unlock 3 sliding walls in the maze. When unlocked, the activators are highlighted with an effect. When you know the solution, the maze can be resolved by only 2 trips counter-clockwise. The W room unlocks the sliding wall which is near the NE corner.
When I designed that maze, I drew it on graph paper. The maze is 13 x 13. I used plain lines to draw invisible walls and > symbol to indicate one-way walls. With the map, finding the path is easy.
I have now managed to craft the istar diadem, which allows me to wear all 3 runes at the same time. but so far i can't reach any of the 3 rooms in the O,N or W: I keep getting stuck in the maze no matter which way I try and have to go back to the start. Maybe I need to draw it on paper too and mark every single cell?
It's still a good idea to map the cells. All the cells in the grid are accessible to the player and there is no dead end. There is always a way to get out.
Here is the complete solution:
West room from the beginning of the maze, starting in the cell just past the door, inside the Maze: N - Let's call this "meeting point 1". You will pass a second time here. Grid=2 away from South door. E-E-E-N-E-N-E-N-E - You're near East Wall. N-W-N-N-N-N-N-W-W - Let's call this "meeting point 2". Grid=3 away from N, 4 away from east. W-S-W-N-W-W - Meeting point 3: 3 away from N, one step west. W-S-W-S-W-W-S-E-S-W-S - Meeting point 4: 2 away from West, 1 step South. At E, there is the last sliding door. S- You can't go back, this is why you need to make two trips of the Maze. W-N-N-W- You're in the West Room.
Activate the apparatus TWICE. The first time, you remove the magical barrier, the second time, you unlock first sliding wall.
First sliding wall from West Room: E-S-S-E-S-E-S-S-E-E-E-E - You're at meeting point 1, 2 away from the entrance door. Follow previous instructions to get from meeting point 1 to meeting point 3. W-W-N-E-E- At North, there is sliding wall 2 (locked). E-E-N-E-E-S-E-N-E-E- You're in the NE Corner. S-S- Facing sliding wall 1, the one you're unlocked in the West Room. Activate it. S-S-S-S-E- You're in the East Room.
Activate the apparatus TWICE. The first time, you remove the magical barrier, the second time, you unlock second sliding wall.
Second sliding wall from East Room: W-N-N-N-W-N-W-W - Meeting point 2 again. W-S-W-N-W-W - Meeting point 3 again. W-W-N-E-E- At N, there is sliging wall 2. Activate it. N-E-N- You're in the North Room.
Activate the apparatus TWICE. The first time, you remove the magical barrier, the second time, you unlock last sliding wall.
Center from N room: S-W-S-S- Meeting point 3 again. W-S-W-S-W-W-S-E-S-W-S - Meeting point 4 again. Open sliding wall at East. E-E-S-S-S-E-E-N-E-N-N- The center.
There is a puzzle to solve. No clues, but "almost" trivial.
Exit from center: S-S-W-S-S-E- Meeting point 1 again S-S
Stuck in NW corner to meeting point 3: S-S-S-E-N-N-E-E-E-E-S
Stuck in SW corner to meeting point 1: N-E-N-N-E-S-S-E-E-E-E
Stuck near center to meeting point 1: Follow center clockwise until you pass the NE corner, then: S-E-S-S-S-W-S-S-W-S-W
This maze is unbelievable, but now I'm through and a few items richer. That made good old Edhelluin pretty euphoric so she immediately gave me some more jobs. On we go! thanks for the help, until next time!
Wow great Mod, thanks for your work !, just one small thing, I have completed all stages of "the previous house owner", and the side quest, I got the message on completion "to be continued", problem is the quest remains in my journal, and hasn't closed, should I uninstall the Mod to get rid of it ???, Thanks Again !
If you uninstall the mod, you will loose all the new spells and items. Like all mods, when uninstalling, it is recommanded to revert to a game previous to the mod installation. You can't imagine the number of times I did just that when developing that module.
There is a little technical flaw in my quest design that prevents me from "completing" the quest at that stage: the quest scripts are used for support of the teleport spells. The quest must stay active. Sorry about that. I will make some R&D to check if there is a way to render the quest invisible to the player at that point.
I'm glad you enjoyed the quest. I was wondering if someone ever completed it.
Good news, it is possible to complete the quest without affecting support for the teleport spells. I have checked scripts and done tests with all new teleport and summon spells and some dialogs supported by the quest - without any problems. Usually, when we complete a quest with scripts, we also stop it. It's the "stop" operation that is problematic, not the "complete" one.
Here is the procedure to complete the quest:
Make a clean (not auto-, not quick-) save in case anything goes wrong...
Open the console (Usually the ~ character)
Type: GetStage YROHome01. The stage displayed should be 260. It should also work at stage 250, but I don't recommend anything below.
Type: completequest YROHome01. It should display the usual completion message: COMPLETED: A PREVIOUS HOUSE OWNER.
Exit the console (~)
Check the results and save the game to avoid the need to redo that procedure.
It is not usually a good idea to force-complete quests, so do not use on other quests unless recommanded also by the programmer...
Intriguing concepts, but sadly, I cannot get it started. Met "intruder" in Breezehome, completed conversation, received 2nd objective to retrieve "Big Diamond." The basement quest marker is in the middle of the street next to Belethor's store & no interaction available Can anyone help? Running Lexy's LoTD guide with Fortified White Run, but no direct changes to Breezehom. TIA
Made some tests again with the beginning of the quest to ensure nothing is broken. I have recently added SKSE64 mods in my environment, with SkyUI. They do not interfere. Quest markers are well placed:
Edhelluin - Drunken Huntsman.
Lokir's Tomb - Near Riverwood.
Edhelluin - Drunken Huntsman.
Breezehome Basement - points to Breezehome.
Warning: technical speak: Maybe it has something to do with the special script used to manage the infamous CTD bug in Breezehome so that the mod works in LE, VR and SSE versions of the game. The IA path (Navmesh) is not continuous to the basement.
Anyway, when you have fetch the diamond and talked again to Edhelluin, the basement is accessible under the stairs in Breezehome.
well I made it through the pass and to Istar Peak. Can't open blacksmith house, needs a key which I haven't found. Lots of places around the palace, the mages tower and the ship that I can't open because I don't have the key. Killed the bad lady and found a single rune. I feel like I'm running around in circles. Amazing amount of work in this mod but could use better directions on the quests. And whose the bloody jarl anyway? Guards threaten me if I go in the jarl's room?? that's not the player home???
Also, the entrance to the peak pass near riverside? It's in a weird spot, probably due to using majestic mountains, that is almost impossible to access without a climbing mod or console command.
For what I see you're about in stage 130 of the quest. Last stage is 260. There is about a dozen objectives to complete and a secondary quest to complete. The clues are mostly given by the NPCs that you encounter. Some are found in the layouts. Follow advices. I admit, there are not enough clues and the quest is not fully linear.
Some help:
Spoiler:
Show
There is a path somewhat SE of Riverwood that leads to the mountain. No need to climb to access Istar Peak Pass. A more visible entrance is seen farther but it can't be opened until later in the quest. The bridge is missing. When testing, without any mod, I found a way to climb on the tower, but it serves no purpose.
When you pass through the mountain the first time, Olydra's complex is mostly locked at that stage. You will find important clues in the spider area in High Istar Peak Pass (An adventurer's Journal).
A second rune is in the lab, try the path that goes down on the left in the crystal cavern under the lab.
You can't access most of Olydra's complex until you find the key on Olydra. You must then return under the mountain. You will find what is needed to advance in the quest. Need to play a lot with that elevator... There is the key to Tower Mage area and a Rune.
Later in the quest, the player is given full access to the palace. It can be used as a home, but I think the tower is better.
Then you must find and/or forge components of the Istar Armor... A quest in itself.
The key to Shardin's House is given by Edhelluin very late in the quest. Accessing the second floor is done by the exterior.
Really enjoyable quest, definitely need some sort of a guide book or something. I had to use TFC or additemmenu just to progress the quest or see where im supposed to go next. Also, is the quest just being there after getting the ship running intended? and teleportation being restrained?
I will need to add some clues for the quest. Maybe that it was designed at a difficulty level too high. Progressing by adding items may not work properly.
The quest starts when you enter Breezehome at level 42+, and never ends, because it also supports teleport spells.
Teleport is restrained:
You must wear the Rustik rune to cast Teleport. This is a game balance feature, because when you are jailed items are removed from you, so you cannot teleport once jailed.
You cannot teleport in combat.
I restrain it with a Global Variable in some parts of the quest.
Teleport Booths you find in houses are not restrained.
See also "The Art of Teleportation" book on advices for how to use/not use teleport. For example, if you are in some captive scenario stuck in a room, you may use teleport to escape, but should not. There should be no important issue If you do teleport home in back just to unload some heavy gear, but the Story Manager could still launch things and quest may start things "OnLocationChange". There is always some risk - in case of doubt don't teleport. Teleport could be somewhat useless if you could teleport only where you can fast travel.
"Best of Both Worlds" downgrade to a pre-1.6 version of SKYRIM. What the mod needs is a 1.6 version of papyrus which supports the Actor.OnPlayerLoadGame() event. It still may work and I am optimist because DLC2 (Dragonborn) uses that feature. If you use SKSE, you may also have the CK 1.6.1130 problem we may be experimenting in the VR version (See A Fix for All Plugins Disabling after 1.6.1130) If you try the mod, it will basically work, but you may miss some features at important moments, which could be frustrating. Here is how to test that it works correctly:
SPOILER WARNING!
Spoiler:
Show
Before installing the mod, ensure your character has bought the Whiterun Breezehome house and is level 42+, which are the conditions to launch the quest. Place your character in front of the house and save the game. Let's call it "the clean game".
Install and activate the mod.
Launch SKYRIM and load the clean game. A pop-up should appear indicating that Istar Peak is installed. If it's not the case, you are probably experimenting the 1.6.1130 SKSE incompatibility problem. Try the A Fix for All Plugins Disabling after 1.6.1130 solution. It may work. Reply to the post with the result, it will help us.
If previous step did not fail, enter the Breezehome House. The NPC Edhelluin should appear and the quest should start.
Attack her! You will end in a cell somewhere. There is an Autosave.
Exit the game completely to desktop, before talking to her.
Recharge the autosaved game. If Edhelluin tells you that "saving the game won't save you", then the OnPlayerLoadGame() is well supported and the mod should work correctly. If not, I recommend NOT to use the mod. You should then exit, remove the mod, and delete the autosaved games created by the test.
"Attack her! You will end in a cell somewhere. There is an Autosave."
I attacked her and she did not fight back nor get hurt. However, I did not end up in a cell or get an autosave. Does that mean that the mod is not working for me?
Nevertheless, I quit the game and then restarted it, then spoke with her. She directed me to Lokir's Tomb to get her item, so it does seem to be working thus far. Should I continue the mod quest or uninstall it?
The compatibility with "Best of Both Worlds" is definitely Good News!
It is strange that the attack quest does not start, because it, by itself, does not need the OnPlayerLoadGame feature and I tested it in LE + SE versions. Only the special reply about saving games uses it. The attack quest is not required for the main quest.
Here, I think you have these options (sorry for the techno-babbling):
Option 1: Check the logs
There is another way to check, but it is more technical: you can activate the logs and check for a message. In the vanilla installation, there is an empty SkyrimCustom.ini in C:\Users\[you]\Documents\My Games\Skyrim (or Skyrim Special Edition). You can enable logging by adding these lines: [Papyrus] bEnableLogging=1 bEnableTrace=1 See also "skyrim enable logging", but I prefer SkyrimCustom.ini to Skyrim.ini to see clearly what I have changed). Be sure to keep backups of your ini files.
Next time you start Skyrim, you will have logs. These files may grow fast if you use a lot of mods, but the good news are that the logs are "rolled": there are only 4 files and a fresh one is used each time you start Skyrim. The logs are in C:\Users\[you]\Documents\My Games\Skyrim (or Skyrim Special Edition)\Logs\Scripts.
With logs enabled, start Skyrim and load a game you have saved after Istar Peak was installed. Then exit. Search for yroistarpeak in Papyrus.0.log. If you see this message in the logs, then OnPlayerLoadGame feature definitely works: [yroistarpeakmodulequestscript <YROIstarPeakModuleQuest (070B1ED7)>]: Game Loaded: old version=1.030000, new version=1.030000, updated=596.811340, previous load=611.218506, loaded=611.264954, Dawnguard=TRUE, Dragonborn=TRUE, HearthFires=TRUE [yroistarpeakmodulequestscript <YROIstarPeakModuleQuest (070B1ED7)>]: Notifying 0 registered forms of Game Load
Specifics may differ in your installation, but the "Game Loaded" message is a clear indication that it works.
If you want to re-disable logging after that, you can keep the SkyrimCustom.ini file and simply set the values to 0.
Option 2: Wait for 1.04 version
We are working on fixes for the VR version and I will soon publish the 1.04 version. If you update and load a previous Istar Peak enabled game, then an update message will be displayed if OnPlayerLoadGame is enabled and the test will be complete without technical work.
Option 3: Just continue playing with Istar Peak
For now, the OnPlayerLoadGame feature is used:
To manage Istar Peak updates: if you install a later version of Istar Peak, when you load a game you savedwith Istar Peak enabled, then the script may do some tasks to adapt to the new version. Here, there is always the option of loading the "last saved game before using Istar Peak", and the "update" will be OK, since it's a fresh install. You have no idea of the number of times I needed to return to my "last non-Istar Peak Game" when I developped the module! That's the reason I added the update feature.
To refresh some visual artefacts when you save and reload a game in specific layouts. These are not used until very late in the quest and the "bug" that it may cause is only a visual glitch and not a core thing.
If you enjoy the module, I think you should continue playing it, but you may have to return to the "last game before Istar Peak" if something goes really wrong.
Thanks for your tests and your comments. I appreciate very much. This is a Mammoth Module and not so easy to debug for all environments.
That's a lot of stuff to check, so I will try to get to that tomorrow, given that it's after 10PM here now on Christmas Eve.
Anyway, an additional fact (just FYI) is that I am also using the following patch, which might have helped: Backported Extended ESL Support https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/106441
Update (12/25/2023). Here is what is says in the relevant section of the Papyrus.0.log file:
[12/25/2023 - 07:16:59AM] [yroistarpeakmodulequestscript <YROIstarPeakModuleQuest (190B1ED7)>]: Game Loaded: old version=1.030000, new version=1.030000, updated=10.892706, previous load=16.370380, loaded=16.391071, Dawnguard=TRUE, Dragonborn=TRUE, HearthFires=TRUE
Then, further down (after some unrelated lines), it has:
[12/25/2023 - 07:16:59AM] [yroistarpeakmodulequestscript <YROIstarPeakModuleQuest (190B1ED7)>]: Notifying 0 registered forms of Game Load
Okay, I presumed that the papyrus log message meant I was okay to proceed, so I played what I believe to be most of the quest through. I got to the part where it says "Explore Istar Peak, there may be more to do".
I looked all around and can find nothing else that I am supposed to do. The quest isn't resolved, so I imagine that there must be something else that might need doing. Please advise...
The log messages clearly indicate that the OnPlayerLoadGame feature works in your environment. This is good news.
Hope you are enjoying the adventure so far.
I may need to add more clues in the module for the last stages of the quest...
Meanwhile:
SPOILER WARNING!
Spoiler:
Show
If you talk to Edhelluin, there is a Dialog about a Big Flawless Ruby. It's a clue for the next steps. This helps to resolve the "Find Istar Armor Components" side quest. There are other clues in these books:
The Olydra's Journal: On Olydra's corpse.
The Istar Peak Journal: In the treasure room in Breezehome Basement, which is accessible after teleporting there from the lab the first time.
The Istar Peak Adventurer's Journal: is in High Istar Peak Pass on an adventurer's corpse where there are spiders.
The Istar Peak Complex Levels note: In the lab in Olydra's Complex.
The Istar Peak Maze note: In the lab in Olydra's Complex.
The first step is to get the Big Flawless Ruby:
Be sure to wear a Runic Circlet, in which you have incrusted a Rustik Rune. You should be able to cast Teleport Self Home at this stage. You can also set your "Home Teleport" to Istar Peak Tower Lab by activating the magic stone on the opposite side of the runic room under the lab where there are most teleport booths.
Find Shardin's Treasure Room under the lake (left of the ship). Having potions to breath underwater may help.
With the Big Flawless Ruby, you can create the Runic Dragonscale Istar Circlet. It is important, because it's the only way you can wear 3 Runes simultaneously at this stage of the game. You need a total of 6 Mithral Ores (3 ingots) to make the Circlet. You can recover one ingot from the circlet you already have. If you do not have enough, explore Istar Peak Pass Caves more thoroughly (underwater too...).
You must wear these runes by encrusting them on the circlet: Rustik, Shaacg and Joussim. Joussim is somewhat hard to find in the lowest part of Olydra's Complex. You'll need to play with that elevator...
Once you wear the 3 runes, you may continue by exploring the Maze accessible from the Dragon's Lair where you defeated Olydra. With Joussim, you can fly the boat in the lair to access the Maze. You can also fly the lifeboat on the port (left) side of the ship, just for fun.
Once you resolve the Maze, the quest will advance to the next step.
28 comments
When I started playing this mod one week ago, I didn't think it was that good: solving a few simple puzzles, collecting a few items, searching for some ingredients - the usual kid stuff, I thought. But I was wrong, the whole thing is actually a considerable challenge and also an engaging story, which is anything but easy to solve. The whole thing is fun, even sometimes I had to search endlessly for something and easily lost patience. But sooner or later I found the solutions when I continued searching and kept following all the clues.
But now I've been stuck in this Dragons Lair for hours, have 3 runes at my disposal, but I dont find a way through this maze. Any tips?
The maze is one of the hardest challenge. The usual "right-hand" or "left-hand" rules simply don't work in mazes with one-way walls!
I have now managed to craft the istar diadem, which allows me to wear all 3 runes at the same time.
but so far i can't reach any of the 3 rooms in the O,N or W: I keep getting stuck in the maze no matter which way I try and have to go back to the start. Maybe I need to draw it on paper too and mark every single cell?
It's still a good idea to map the cells. All the cells in the grid are accessible to the player and there is no dead end. There is always a way to get out.
Here is the complete solution:
West room from the beginning of the maze, starting in the cell just past the door, inside the Maze:
N - Let's call this "meeting point 1". You will pass a second time here. Grid=2 away from South door.
E-E-E-N-E-N-E-N-E - You're near East Wall.
N-W-N-N-N-N-N-W-W - Let's call this "meeting point 2". Grid=3 away from N, 4 away from east.
W-S-W-N-W-W - Meeting point 3: 3 away from N, one step west.
W-S-W-S-W-W-S-E-S-W-S - Meeting point 4: 2 away from West, 1 step South. At E, there is the last sliding door.
S- You can't go back, this is why you need to make two trips of the Maze.
W-N-N-W- You're in the West Room.
Activate the apparatus TWICE. The first time, you remove the magical barrier, the second time, you unlock first sliding wall.
First sliding wall from West Room:
E-S-S-E-S-E-S-S-E-E-E-E - You're at meeting point 1, 2 away from the entrance door.
Follow previous instructions to get from meeting point 1 to meeting point 3.
W-W-N-E-E- At North, there is sliding wall 2 (locked).
E-E-N-E-E-S-E-N-E-E- You're in the NE Corner.
S-S- Facing sliding wall 1, the one you're unlocked in the West Room. Activate it.
S-S-S-S-E- You're in the East Room.
Activate the apparatus TWICE. The first time, you remove the magical barrier, the second time, you unlock second sliding wall.
Second sliding wall from East Room:
W-N-N-N-W-N-W-W - Meeting point 2 again.
W-S-W-N-W-W - Meeting point 3 again.
W-W-N-E-E- At N, there is sliging wall 2. Activate it.
N-E-N- You're in the North Room.
Activate the apparatus TWICE. The first time, you remove the magical barrier, the second time, you unlock last sliding wall.
Center from N room:
S-W-S-S- Meeting point 3 again.
W-S-W-S-W-W-S-E-S-W-S - Meeting point 4 again.
Open sliding wall at East.
E-E-S-S-S-E-E-N-E-N-N- The center.
There is a puzzle to solve. No clues, but "almost" trivial.
Exit from center:
S-S-W-S-S-E- Meeting point 1 again
S-S
Stuck in NW corner to meeting point 3:
S-S-S-E-N-N-E-E-E-E-S
Stuck in SW corner to meeting point 1:
N-E-N-N-E-S-S-E-E-E-E
Stuck near center to meeting point 1:
Follow center clockwise until you pass the NE corner, then:
S-E-S-S-S-W-S-S-W-S-W
thanks for the help, until next time!
There is a little technical flaw in my quest design that prevents me from "completing" the quest at that stage: the quest scripts are used for support of the teleport spells. The quest must stay active. Sorry about that. I will make some R&D to check if there is a way to render the quest invisible to the player at that point.
I'm glad you enjoyed the quest. I was wondering if someone ever completed it.
Here is the procedure to complete the quest:
- Make a clean (not auto-, not quick-) save in case anything goes wrong...
- Open the console (Usually the ~ character)
- Type: GetStage YROHome01. The stage displayed should be 260. It should also work at stage 250, but I don't recommend anything below.
- Type: completequest YROHome01. It should display the usual completion message: COMPLETED: A PREVIOUS HOUSE OWNER.
- Exit the console (~)
- Check the results and save the game to avoid the need to redo that procedure.
It is not usually a good idea to force-complete quests, so do not use on other quests unless recommanded also by the programmer...I have recently added SKSE64 mods in my environment, with SkyUI. They do not interfere. Quest markers are well placed:
Warning: technical speak:
Maybe it has something to do with the special script used to manage the infamous CTD bug in Breezehome so that the mod works in LE, VR and SSE versions of the game. The IA path (Navmesh) is not continuous to the basement.
Anyway, when you have fetch the diamond and talked again to Edhelluin, the basement is accessible under the stairs in Breezehome.
You should play a lot with that elevator to access the highest point: Olydra's Lab. It's in the lab.
Also, the entrance to the peak pass near riverside? It's in a weird spot, probably due to using majestic mountains, that is almost impossible to access without a climbing mod or console command.
For what I see you're about in stage 130 of the quest. Last stage is 260. There is about a dozen objectives to complete and a secondary quest to complete. The clues are mostly given by the NPCs that you encounter. Some are found in the layouts. Follow advices. I admit, there are not enough clues and the quest is not fully linear.
Some help:
edit: got it its in the basement next to the stairs
SPOILER WARNING!
I will need to add some clues for the quest. Maybe that it was designed at a difficulty level too high. Progressing by adding items may not work properly.
The quest starts when you enter Breezehome at level 42+, and never ends, because it also supports teleport spells.
Teleport is restrained:
See also "The Art of Teleportation" book on advices for how to use/not use teleport. For example, if you are in some captive scenario stuck in a room, you may use teleport to escape, but should not. There should be no important issue If you do teleport home in back just to unload some heavy gear, but the Story Manager could still launch things and quest may start things "OnLocationChange". There is always some risk - in case of doubt don't teleport. Teleport could be somewhat useless if you could teleport only where you can fast travel.
If you try the mod, it will basically work, but you may miss some features at important moments, which could be frustrating. Here is how to test that it works correctly:
SPOILER WARNING!
I attacked her and she did not fight back nor get hurt. However, I did not end up in a cell or get an autosave. Does that mean that the mod is not working for me?
Nevertheless, I quit the game and then restarted it, then spoke with her. She directed me to Lokir's Tomb to get her item, so it does seem to be working thus far. Should I continue the mod quest or uninstall it?
It is strange that the attack quest does not start, because it, by itself, does not need the OnPlayerLoadGame feature and I tested it in LE + SE versions. Only the special reply about saving games uses it. The attack quest is not required for the main quest.
Here, I think you have these options (sorry for the techno-babbling):
Option 1: Check the logs
There is another way to check, but it is more technical: you can activate the logs and check for a message. In the vanilla installation, there is an empty SkyrimCustom.ini in C:\Users\[you]\Documents\My Games\Skyrim (or Skyrim Special Edition). You can enable logging by adding these lines:
[Papyrus]bEnableLogging=1
bEnableTrace=1
See also "skyrim enable logging", but I prefer SkyrimCustom.ini to Skyrim.ini to see clearly what I have changed). Be sure to keep backups of your ini files.
Next time you start Skyrim, you will have logs. These files may grow fast if you use a lot of mods, but the good news are that the logs are "rolled": there are only 4 files and a fresh one is used each time you start Skyrim. The logs are in C:\Users\[you]\Documents\My Games\Skyrim (or Skyrim Special Edition)\Logs\Scripts.
With logs enabled, start Skyrim and load a game you have saved after Istar Peak was installed. Then exit.
Search for yroistarpeak in Papyrus.0.log. If you see this message in the logs, then OnPlayerLoadGame feature definitely works:
[yroistarpeakmodulequestscript <YROIstarPeakModuleQuest (070B1ED7)>]: Game Loaded: old version=1.030000, new version=1.030000, updated=596.811340, previous load=611.218506, loaded=611.264954, Dawnguard=TRUE, Dragonborn=TRUE, HearthFires=TRUE
[yroistarpeakmodulequestscript <YROIstarPeakModuleQuest (070B1ED7)>]: Notifying 0 registered forms of Game Load
Specifics may differ in your installation, but the "Game Loaded" message is a clear indication that it works.
If you want to re-disable logging after that, you can keep the SkyrimCustom.ini file and simply set the values to 0.
Option 2: Wait for 1.04 version
We are working on fixes for the VR version and I will soon publish the 1.04 version. If you update and load a previous Istar Peak enabled game, then an update message will be displayed if OnPlayerLoadGame is enabled and the test will be complete without technical work.
Option 3: Just continue playing with Istar Peak
For now, the OnPlayerLoadGame feature is used:
If you enjoy the module, I think you should continue playing it, but you may have to return to the "last game before Istar Peak" if something goes really wrong.
Thanks for your tests and your comments. I appreciate very much. This is a Mammoth Module and not so easy to debug for all environments.
Anyway, an additional fact (just FYI) is that I am also using the following patch, which might have helped:
Backported Extended ESL Support
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/106441
Update (12/25/2023). Here is what is says in the relevant section of the Papyrus.0.log file:
[12/25/2023 - 07:16:59AM] [yroistarpeakmodulequestscript <YROIstarPeakModuleQuest (190B1ED7)>]: Game Loaded: old version=1.030000, new version=1.030000, updated=10.892706, previous load=16.370380, loaded=16.391071, Dawnguard=TRUE, Dragonborn=TRUE, HearthFires=TRUE
Then, further down (after some unrelated lines), it has:
[12/25/2023 - 07:16:59AM] [yroistarpeakmodulequestscript <YROIstarPeakModuleQuest (190B1ED7)>]: Notifying 0 registered forms of Game Load
What does this mean? Is the mod working for me?
I looked all around and can find nothing else that I am supposed to do. The quest isn't resolved, so I imagine that there must be something else that might need doing. Please advise...
Hope you are enjoying the adventure so far.
I may need to add more clues in the module for the last stages of the quest...
Meanwhile:
SPOILER WARNING!
If you talk to Edhelluin, there is a Dialog about a Big Flawless Ruby. It's a clue for the next steps. This helps to resolve the "Find Istar Armor Components" side quest. There are other clues in these books:
The first step is to get the Big Flawless Ruby:
With the Big Flawless Ruby, you can create the Runic Dragonscale Istar Circlet. It is important, because it's the only way you can wear 3 Runes simultaneously at this stage of the game. You need a total of 6 Mithral Ores (3 ingots) to make the Circlet. You can recover one ingot from the circlet you already have. If you do not have enough, explore Istar Peak Pass Caves more thoroughly (underwater too...).
You must wear these runes by encrusting them on the circlet: Rustik, Shaacg and Joussim. Joussim is somewhat hard to find in the lowest part of Olydra's Complex. You'll need to play with that elevator...
Once you wear the 3 runes, you may continue by exploring the Maze accessible from the Dragon's Lair where you defeated Olydra. With Joussim, you can fly the boat in the lair to access the Maze. You can also fly the lifeboat on the port (left) side of the ship, just for fun.
Once you resolve the Maze, the quest will advance to the next step.