Common Cause - "Remnants of the Past" incomplete dragon quest ?

criss11 · August 2014

Looks like the Dragon campaign is made in rush by an amateur since ive found in Neverdeath Graveyard a "twisted" quest in fact 2 quests with the same complete action or so.

Now in Ebon Down i have found a quest "Common Cause" where you get to that point where the quest path leads to the npc (from Ebon Down near the dragon spawn area) and no areas or something like that or counter to kill/activate something. It has just a boring history text , which i don't care about it, but no precise instructions what to do.We had a quest before to spawn some ghosts from the ground and to do that daily Burrow dungeon, but now .. STUCK.
Looks like these Dragon campaign quests needs to be revised by a pro and tested their progress,tracking,workflow,etc.

Any advice how to finish it ? Thank you.

P.S I went to the Enclave but still the quest is unfinished to turn in.Someone asked how to finish it too in the Ebon Down zone chat...no valid reply at all.

If i already found confusing quests in 2 areas im wonder what we will find on the next maps to do..

daggon87 · August 2014

Maybe, you could start by reading the 'boring history text' ...
A vast majority of players completed this without any difficulties. I'm not certain the first place to search for faults is with the game design or implementation.

criss11 · August 2014

@ dagon
98% of the quests in this game are easy to track by auto-path or the direct instructions on the screen such as :
Kill zombies 0/8 or revive heroes 0/4 or talk to the Ancient Stone.
Don't forget that there are people in this game, age 12-50 without native english,rich kids from europe with lots of euros which likes to get a good product, and no that text doesn't help me and i/m not the only who asked help in zone chat.
Thank you for your marvelous answer and keep being on their side , try to ask them now for a key or a free artifact, you/ll get it for sure.Sometimes people needs to be told where or what to do in order to take attitude (game developers) or helped (players).They are not dumb, just confused at some point like me right now.
I/m gonna make a ticket and prove it that i/m right . I/m not a kid and i create 3D environments http://www.sharecg.com/pf/full_uploads.php?pf_user_name=cris333&division_id=1 , one used in a korean game , i can see where are missing workflow elements in a game .Cheers.

(-playing Neverwinter since open beta april-june 2013..check the joining date from the avatar
- Star Trek online since free to play
- PWI november 2008 (2 months after open beta) (Noth-America version release date September 2008)
- BOI open beta
- Forsaken World open beta)

daggon87 · August 2014

Your initial question being full of anger and accusations, I can't see what kind of answer you were expecting ...

The 'Common cause' quest asks you to resolve 3 sub-quests : 2 given by the npc you will encounter in the zone of the day (Cimetery, Ebon or Hotnow) and a dungeon quest in the same zone (Ghost Stories, The destruction of the tomb and the mithral mine).
Once you've done the 2 quests for the npc and the dungeon quest, you can go back to PE.

This is quite straightforward.

(Edit : replace Hotnow by Icespire ...)

criss11 · August 2014

I have trashed/abandoned the old quest since it was from yesterday and now after reset i got a new one in Icespire Peak.
Well i can say for this area the quests have clear instructions (no need to read that boring history text ) such as wagon 0/3 , etc..but,
at the final step under the "confusing/useless" additional title "Assist the Lord Alliance in IcespirePeak" there is (this time) the name Merothrax (now you know what/s next -following step) .
Better than the Ebon Down version,with another useless title - "Remnants of the Past" but no dragon/monsters name.
Yes this one is clear and can be finished without problems but Ebon Down version is "bugged"/missing elements instructions.

seamusflats · August 2014

daggon87 wrote: »

Your initial question being full of anger and accusations, I can't see what kind of answer you were expecting ...

The 'Common cause' quest asks you to resolve 3 sub-quests : 2 given by the npc you will encounter in the zone of the day (Cimetery, Ebon or Hotnow) and a dungeon quest in the same zone (Ghost Stories, The destruction of the tomb and the mithral mine).
Once you've done the 2 quests for the npc and the dungeon quest, you can go back to PE.

This is quite straightforward.

(Edit : replace Hotnow by Icespire ...)

What's not immediately obvious is that Common Cause assigns the quests available that day. The questgiver in each locale alternates between the two short zone quests. If you take Common Cause, but wait until the next day to complete it, the questgiver will not offer the zone quest you need, and you'll have to wait yet another day to complete Common Cause.

In other words, don't take Common Cause unless you plan to complete it soon thereafter.

iamannoyingdevil · August 2014

criss11 wrote: »

Any advice how to finish it ? Thank you.

When you see the big question mark above the quest giver go up to him and press F , this will bring up a really amazing thing called a quest dialogue box in which your objectives will be clearly stated ( unless you are a simpleton) if you accept the quest ( which can be done by pressing >ACCEPT< at the bottom of the dialogue box) the quest will then be added to your 'Active quest log' at this point if you are still unsure what to do press J and your active quests will magically pop up as if from nowhere and you can then click the one you wish to do which will give you both objectives as well as a lovely pretty sparkly path to follow , once you complete the objectives in question you must then return to the quest giver , press >F< to interact with them and hand in the quest for 'lootz'

urkmockingjay · August 2014

There is a time factor with common cause. If you can't get the quests / complete them do it the next day and you should be able to do so.

It can actually be done if you have the quests, just not turned in except on the "right" day.

Also there were some issues about people accepting quests in a zone and not having talked to the harper in PE first that "broke" their chain somehow.

While there may be programming fixes / implementations that will probably be adjusted eventually, the one solution that I have found that worked on my toon was to drop the quests, then start them the next day and do them that day. I don't accept the quests if i am not going to do them anylonger on that day.

Hope this helps. I know it can get confusing, and I reserve the right to be wrong if they change things, this is just my experience, I am not claiming it is what everyone has.

ya'll have fun out there and stay safe.

criss11 · August 2014

iamannoyingdevil wrote: »

When you see the big question mark above the quest giver go up to him and press F , this will bring up a really amazing thing called a quest dialogue box in which your objectives will be clearly stated ( unless you are a simpleton) if you accept the quest ( which can be done by pressing >ACCEPT< at the bottom of the dialogue box) the quest will then be added to your 'Active quest log' at this point if you are still unsure what to do press J and your active quests will magically pop up as if from nowhere and you can then click the one you wish to do which will give you both objectives as well as a lovely pretty sparkly path to follow , once you complete the objectives in question you must then return to the quest giver , press >F< to interact with them and hand in the quest for 'lootz'

Ha, i do quests on Neverwinter before you know that this game exists (maybe), in open beta. Its just the Ebon Down is missing the dragon/monsters name so you don't know what to do next. All u can see there 2 useless titles : "Assist...." and "Remnants of the Past".
The dragon was killed but idk why the dragon counted but couldnt be turned in at the npc , no yellow "?" only grayed out.

@urkmockingjay Yes i know that these quests requires to go back to Enclave but i even couldnt turn in to that Ebon Down npc first. Yes i took the quest to finish it immediatly but i guess i got the server reset in the meantime.The dragon name was missing , didnt knew whats next.
Abandoned quest and took it again for today, finished in Icespire Peak without problems.
I will keep my view/suggestion as these Dragon quests 'workflow' needs to be revamped.

twilightwatchman · August 2014

criss11 wrote: »

Ha, i do quests on Neverwinter before you know that this game exists (maybe), in open beta. Its just the Ebon Down is missing the dragon/monsters name so you don't know what to do next. All u can see there 2 useless titles : "Assist...." and "Remnants of the Past".
The dragon was killed but idk why the dragon counted but couldnt be turned in at the npc , no yellow "?" only grayed out.

@urkmockingjay Yes i know that these quests requires to go back to Enclave but i even couldnt turn in to that Ebon Down npc first. Yes i took the quest to finish it immediatly but i guess i got the server reset in the meantime.The dragon name was missing , didnt knew whats next.

It's been explained a couple of times in this thread, but here goes...

The Common Cause quest will list two open world quests in a particular zone that need to be picked up at the zone contact. If you are level 60 you will get an additional Lair quest that must be picked up from the PE contact for that zone. These quests must all be done on the same day that you pick up Common Cause as it cycles through the zones. If you pick up Common Cause one day but don't visit the zone contacts until the next day then they will NOT have the right quests for you.

The Dragon quests are not available in a newly unlocked zone until you have done the initial quest chain for that zone that ends with returning a report to the PE contact for that zone. You can still fight the Dragon and get the normal reward but you will not have a quest to turn in or count against completion of Common Cause.

criss11 · August 2014

Now i can't turn in the Dragon quest Marching Orders with the 2 documents 2/2 from the camps in Rothe Valley. Took the quests and finished them today, before reset with 2 hours . I went to Enclave to see the harper and his timer quest reset was at 2 hours and 9 minute, just few moments ago in real life.
There is something wrong with these quests , the killing dragon quest might lock it and can't turn in. I repeat i had 2 hours ahead before reset.
How come i could turn in the Dragon kill, the escaping slaves one but not the document quest ?
These quests are not from yesterday, yesterday i did Icespire Peak as you can in the comment above.
Wanted to take screenshots from npcs ,quest log and timer reset for a ticket support but the game crashed.
Cryptic developers please verify and modify the dragon quests ,these quests get blocked before server reset.

3 screenshots

Edit: i could search the crates again i guess its because of the long time respawn interactive crates.
Finally completed, after 2 game crashes in the meantime..
There is nothing as instruction to say that you have to wait until the crates becomes interactive again and keep searching the crates. Not my fault.

w00trandomsnoobi · August 2014

criss11 wrote: »

Edit: i could search the crates again i guess its because of the long time respawn interactive crates.
Finally completed, after 2 game crashes in the meantime..
There is nothing as instruction to say that you have to wait until the crates becomes interactive again and keep searching the crates. Not my fault.

I was so mad about this yesterday, only the two crates were interactable to me and didn't contain the documents. I had to switch to another instance, searched the two crates there, nothing, switched instances again and then finally found the documents.

criss11 · August 2014

Thank you w00trandomsnoobi for your reply,
We should keep alive this thread maybe the game developers will consider a revamp of the dragon quests.I doubt that will happen to soon but in time after more players will have problems in solving them and cry on forums or tickets support.
Well you had this great idea of switching channels, i didn't , was for the first time here. Imagine this can happen to anyone who's new to this dragon campaign . Lots of confusing quests . The old game (vanilla) has quests pretty simple that everyone know what to do next or where to go or if u have found what is needed.Did you know that at the searching crates quest, those 2/2 documents were found,the crates become non-interactive but still the quest didn't finished ?.. AT least they could make a simple quest to obtain 0/4 documents from whatever, mobs and/or crates not 0/2 in the text.

First time when i arrived in the quest area i saw the crates available for search thought have some goodies such as potions or something , i killed some agroed mobs by mistake ,got 2 documents , crates became inactive and ..dang ..Stuck !! running around like 15 minutes untill quit the area is not nice.
"Search camps for documents..." ! the documents were found already

at the monsters. Where to search ? The crates became inactive for a long time.

Man, even a beginner in Foundry could make a better workflow/understandable quest.
Im not asking for easy to do quests, i can finish a daily to kill 50 or 100 monsters as long as i know what to do, not running around like a headless chicken .

(Gotta love questing the dragon expansion..)

adinosii · August 2014

I have never had any problems like this with any of the quests here (and I have done all the HE's and available quests every single day - including Whispering caverns tree times .. just two more to go).

However...

I did have a similar problem back on Preview - I assumed the quests were just a bit buggy there, but now I wonder...anyhow, what might have triggered the problems there is that I would accept the quests in PE or the various HE areas, but not do them right away - maybe not until a day later (hey, it was Preview-and I had some real playing to do as well), and I am wondering if that might have messed something up.

At any rate, the quests might be a bit...well, fragile.

The only issues I have had on the life server is that the sparkly trail in some of the daily mini-dungeons/instances is not 100% reliable. Sometimes it leads the wrong way and I would get stuck if I followed it.

wreckedm · September 2014

I've been doing common cause for several days without problem. Yesterday it assigned me a sub-quest that the in-zone quest giver did not assign and therefore I could not complete. I assumed I screwed something up yesterday and dropped common cause. Today the exact same thing happened - this time in Rothe Valley. Both times so far it has been the mini-dungeon that was not assigned.

WORK-AROUND: Group with another player that has the mini-dungeon quest and enter/complete with them for credit! Do not drop common cause if you've done the non-instanced quests (ie. lightning bottles, grave swap, etc.) because you will lose credit and not be able to re-accept those until the next day.

daggon87 · September 2014

Searching crates or tables with a small sized character (like a dwarf for example) can sometimes not work. You can jump on the thing to search and it usually solve the problem.

aspen1979 · October 2014

All I have to say is "lighting in a bottle"

sensifr · October 2014

seamusflats wrote: »

What's not immediately obvious is that Common Cause assigns the quests available that day. The questgiver in each locale alternates between the two short zone quests. If you take Common Cause, but wait until the next day to complete it, the questgiver will not offer the zone quest you need, and you'll have to wait yet another day to complete Common Cause.

In other words, don't take Common Cause unless you plan to complete it soon thereafter.

This is what happens. In other words this is a badly through and implemented quest, I see no reason why the same NPC can't register the quest from yesterday that you completed today or why the quest path is pointing to that NPC while he can't do anything for you as of now... And like the thread starter stated the text that remains once you accept that quest doesn't give you any hint of what was supposed to be done or why it is in such a broken state.

Basically for some quest givers who give you different quests from day to day that you can initiate and "stack" pending completion for another day that will give you quests that will temporarily remain in a broken state if you don't finish them on time, and those quests remain cluttering your objectives -you can't register their completion- until that the same quests come back again to the quest giver. So you have "common cause" unrepeatable for possibly several days if you don't abandon it losing the two others side quests completion and work. Again it is poorly implemented at the very least, nothing short of a bug.

chaelk · October 2014

I've been doing these with only one problem;
some of the inside missions require 3 people in a group to enter.
Ghost stories,
Rothe valley wagon one.

but for your questions.
the help a certain group means speak to one of the people near the harper or go to a particular area.
so after you get it, talk to the 3 people near her and see if it's one of them.
A Lord, a Zentarim behind the bar and someone else next to her.(haven't been on yet tonight)

the side quests- you usually hand in to an NPC in the area.
Harper in Graveyard.
Acolyte in Ebon Downs.
Guy by fire in Rothe valley.
Dwarf in start area at Icespire peak.
zentarim Guy at fire just before dragon area in Whispering caverns

Barrow demolition is the large gate behind the dragons area in Ebon Downs, you can go in solo.
Remnants of the past is scrolls which you collect from round vases around the area where the dragon is, also from kills.

also if you have common cause listed as Primary, rather than the sub mission- it will keep leading you to the NPC.

sexwax45 · October 2014

I had the problem a long time ago and it was from not completing the quests on the day i accepted them. Additionally when your in PE and pick up the common cause quest another quest will pop up from another guy around the same area with the liar quest it can take a couple secs for the quest to pop up. All you need to do is pick up common cause wait a couple secs then pick up the lair quest from the different guy in PE and complete in that day. I have now done them all for about 2+ weeks straight with no issues and have done them all solo idk what that guy was talking about having to have a 3man party thats ludicrous. To reiterate make sure you pick up all the quests in pe should be at least 2 then complete them in the same day you accepted them, if you have issues drop the common cause quest and try again the next day but as long as you get all the quests their won't be any issues.

zebular · October 2014

Closed as this was necro'd on the 20th.

Common Cause - "Remnants of the Past" incomplete dragon quest ?

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