Spoiler Patch 1.5.26 - Bandits Love my House

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ysabet

New Member
Windows 7, using steam.

I started a new character 11th April. After picking up a few quests, travelling around, and buying Breezehome in Whiterun, I opened the door to find ... bandits.

Okay, not so good. But maybe it was the way I was playing the game non-linearly or something that was doing it - I managed to visit Falkreath before I got to Riverwood, for example.

12th April, second new game. I was very restrained, did only the main quest and a single bounty from the Jarl of Whiterun (Kill bandits at Halted Stream Camp) before buying my house. After following the Companions quest line and going to Dustman's Cairn with Farkas, I discover that fast travelling back to Whiterun causes bandit spawns. I tried walking - that just made the bandits spawn between honnigbrew meadery and Pelagius Farm, and kill all the npcs in the area. I tested a few times in Whiterun - at least I can (with the help of the guards) usually kill whatever pops up before it kills a named npc. After going into and out of various houses to sell loot, now and again there would be other bandit spawns - Mistwatch bandits, Blackwood Mauraders, and unnamed bandits. Ones that don't get killed at the gate or distracted by killing npcs make their way to Breezehome and enter. I also suspect that there are more spawns in there, since whenever I open the door, there seems to be around 30 or so bandits in that very small room.

Current quests that may be related to bandits are:
- Misc: Find Amren's Family Sword inside Valtheim Keep
- Misc: Talk to the Companions leaders for work

They may also include bandits from Jarl bounty quests from various locations, but it's hard to tell since I don't have the quests in my log, and tend to die when as an assassin/stealth type character I get mobbed.

Like this:

banditsomg_resize.png
Anyone else have this problem, solutions, or ideas for further tests I can do to clarify the issue?
 

Maxlength

Member
PA
Windows 7, using steam.

I started a new character 11th April. After picking up a few quests, travelling around, and buying Breezehome in Whiterun, I opened the door to find ... bandits.

Okay, not so good. But maybe it was the way I was playing the game non-linearly or something that was doing it - I managed to visit Falkreath before I got to Riverwood, for example.

12th April, second new game. I was very restrained, did only the main quest and a single bounty from the Jarl of Whiterun (Kill bandits at Halted Stream Camp) before buying my house. After following the Companions quest line and going to Dustman's Cairn with Farkas, I discover that fast travelling back to Whiterun causes bandit spawns. I tried walking - that just made the bandits spawn between honnigbrew meadery and Pelagius Farm, and kill all the npcs in the area. I tested a few times in Whiterun - at least I can (with the help of the guards) usually kill whatever pops up before it kills a named npc. After going into and out of various houses to sell loot, now and again there would be other bandit spawns - Mistwatch bandits, Blackwood Mauraders, and unnamed bandits. Ones that don't get killed at the gate or distracted by killing npcs make their way to Breezehome and enter. I also suspect that there are more spawns in there, since whenever I open the door, there seems to be around 30 or so bandits in that very small room.

Current quests that may be related to bandits are:
- Misc: Find Amren's Family Sword inside Valtheim Keep
- Misc: Talk to the Companions leaders for work

They may also include bandits from Jarl bounty quests from various locations, but it's hard to tell since I don't have the quests in my log, and tend to die when as an assassin/stealth type character I get mobbed.

Like this:

View attachment 814
Anyone else have this problem, solutions, or ideas for further tests I can do to clarify the issue?
P-A-R-T-Y at your place!! Bring the mead!!
 

ysabet

New Member
Hmm, the version I'm running is 1.5.26 - does that mean I should or should not use this fix? I'm unclear on your meaning. Also, what is this fix?
 

ysabet

New Member
Rightio, might give that a go then - I'm currently trying the 'delete everything in sight and reinstall' option.

Sigh. I guess at least it happened before I really did anything in game. Meh.
 

Rayven

Global Moderator
Staff member
I've moved this post to the help section and I did delete the link to the patch (I believe it is also a game crack).

Let us know where you're at with this and we'll see how we can help. I'm not sure what you ended up installing.
 

Dagmar

Defender of the Bunnies of Skyrim
You should only download patches through official sources, e.g. Steam. Any other source isn't trustworthy. They're used by people who are using pirated versions of the game and posted by the same people who cracked the game. The hacker population that does this stuff includes a segment of people whose sense of ethics and humor are skewed enough for them to deliberately post a "patch" that does things like what you're experiencing.

What kind of internet security and anti-virus software are you using? Besides deleting and reinstalling the game I recommend running a full virus scan afterwards.
 

ysabet

New Member
I've moved this post to the help section and I did delete the link to the patch (I believe it is also a game crack).

Let us know where you're at with this and we'll see how we can help. I'm not sure what you ended up installing.


Because it wasn't an official patch, or a reputable source, I did not install it, especially since the file name rang several alarm bells in my mind.

At the moment, I've installed Skyrim from scratch via Steam after deleting the original folder and the *.ini files in My Documents/Games/ . I've started a third new game, and I'm currently avoiding doing the main quest, buying Breezehome, or doing Companion quests to see if I can avoid the Whiterun trigger. I intend to go back and do those quests, of course - but after I've done a few others. I'll report back with my results.

I also intend to install Skyrim on the other PC in the house and play it there, to see if it's somehow related to hardware configuration; that machine also runs Windows 7, but has sufficiently different hardware to potentially offer insight. I'll try both playing the older saves and starting a new game.

Also, I did not have this problem when I initally played the game at release, with the mods installed that I was using for the problem saves. I've had a hiatus since January, and the first new game I started up (with nothing more than Steam auto-updates) exhibits this problem. I seriously doubt it's a virus, since there is no vector; I strongly suspect it's the official patch, especially as I've seen reports elsenet of what may be a related bug for necromancers in patch 1.4.

Any help would be welcome, this is driving me kind of nuts.
 

xSuoiveDx

Dave, The Quiet One.
Have you tried playing Skyrim without the patches ?

I've been playing Skyrim Unpatched for the last 70hrs & I haven't had a single problem as yet. It's just an idea.
 

ysabet

New Member
Have you tried playing Skyrim without the patches ?

I've been playing Skyrim Unpatched for the last 70hrs & I haven't had a single problem as yet. It's just an idea.
I'm not sure how to install it from steam without the patches, to be honest.
 

xSuoiveDx

Dave, The Quiet One.
Unfortunately neither am I, it's been 410 days since I last used Steam.
 

Rayven

Global Moderator
Staff member
Because it wasn't an official patch, or a reputable source, I did not install it, especially since the file name rang several alarm bells in my mind.

I'm very glad you didn't install it. I'm sorry the link was left up as long as it was.

At the moment, I've installed Skyrim from scratch via Steam after deleting the original folder and the *.ini files in My Documents/Games/ . I've started a third new game, and I'm currently avoiding doing the main quest, buying Breezehome, or doing Companion quests to see if I can avoid the Whiterun trigger. I intend to go back and do those quests, of course - but after I've done a few others. I'll report back with my results.

Please do let us know how this game works out for you. Sometimes a reinstall will just magically fix things. You should also have the option to verify file integrity and you should make sure you do that too. As an aside, I have another member with a problem downloading the game. Do you recall the file size when you were downloading? Was it in the 5717MB range somewhere? Did it hang at any point and force you to resume?

I also intend to install Skyrim on the other PC in the house and play it there, to see if it's somehow related to hardware configuration; that machine also runs Windows 7, but has sufficiently different hardware to potentially offer insight. I'll try both playing the older saves and starting a new game.

This is a good idea and, like you said, could offer insight. Let us know if the saved games work on there. You can also try that file integrity check after loading up one of the old saved games and see if it comes back with anything.

Also, I did not have this problem when I initally played the game at release, with the mods installed that I was using for the problem saves. I've had a hiatus since January, and the first new game I started up (with nothing more than Steam auto-updates) exhibits this problem. I seriously doubt it's a virus, since there is no vector; I strongly suspect it's the official patch, especially as I've seen reports elsenet of what may be a related bug for necromancers in patch 1.4.

Any help would be welcome, this is driving me kind of nuts.

Well each patch introduces opportunities for other things to mess up. The hope is always that it fixes more than it breaks. 1.2 was notoriously bad. And 1.5 turned out to be a bit of a hassle for PS3 users though the fix was put out quickly and it's not horrible. Did your game patch up to 1.5 when you reinstalled it?
 

ysabet

New Member
Answers below inline, quotes edited for shortness where appropriate.

Please do let us know how this game works out for you. Sometimes a reinstall will just magically fix things. You should also have the option to verify file integrity and you should make sure you do that too. As an aside, I have another member with a problem downloading the game. Do you recall the file size when you were downloading? Was it in the 5717MB range somewhere? Did it hang at any point and force you to resume?

If I remember rightly, it was actually 8917MB or similar. It didn't hang or whatever either. Actually, I did it twice yesterday; once just reinstalling over my old directory, the second time doing a full clean install by deleting all the old files (after doing 'remove local content' via steam). For verifying file integrity, does that mean 'Verify integrity of game cache'? If so, that was one of the first things I tried; sadly, no dice, it seems.

Did your game patch up to 1.5 when you reinstalled it?

Yep, says 1.5.26.05 on the in-game save/load/settings/etc screen.

Thanks for helping me with this, it's appreciated.
 
Wow! A couple of heavy duty Destruction spells and you could gain massive experience in no time!
 

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