Some quest rewards showing "x 2" in the quest log

[justdownloading]

I'm playing TQ IT with fanpatch 1.17a and the character I talk about was created after I had already updated to 1.17a.

I had finished Normal difficulty with my character and am in Epic Act 1. For whatever reason I visited Normal with that character and in Act 1 Helos talked to Laches, just to confirm that I had the quest rewards correctly (because Laches can fix broken quest rewards with the fanpatch). After talking to him, the quest log updated a few quests, mainly Act 4 The Stygian Lurker and Hades' Generals quests, plus maybe some other one too.

I was wondering that why those quests were updated by Laches, because I thought the rewards are applied correctly as I had been using 1.17a for the whole lifetime of that character. So I checked the quest log, and saw that The Stygian Lurker's attribute point bonus had become "+4 Points to Str/Int/Dex x 2". Notice the "x 2", which indicates it was rewarded twice. Same thing happened with Hades' Generals Total Damage reward, it had become "+5% Total Damage x 2", again notice the "x 2".

However, after checking my attribute points, the bonuses seem to be what they should be, as in I have a total of +10 bonus to Strength and +4 to Int/Dex from Normal Act 4 (Lampido's Potion = +6 Str, The Stygian Lurker = +4 Str/Int/Dex). I don't know about the Hades' Generals total damage bonus, because I didn't check my damage before visiting Laches, to compare the damage before and after.

I would guess that what happened is that those quest rewards from when I completed the quests disappeared after exiting and starting the game again, and I just didn't notice it, and so now when I visited Laches, those quest rewards were fixed and the quest log entries "updated", thus showing as "x 2".

Still I would like to confirm that is that how it's supposed to work with the fanpatch, so that those quest rewards appear as "x 2" in the quest log? Has that happened to anyone else?


(There is also the Hidden Treasure quest in Act 1, which can give the exp reward twice (the exp reward is shown as "x 2" in the quest log), if you complete the quest without having first talked to the NPC who gives the quest in the first place, and then talk to Laches. But that seemed to be a known bug (using google I found at least two people reporting it on these forums), and is so minor (only a relatively tiny one time exp bonus) that it doesn't matter much in any case.)

[AdamBast]

it happened to me, i reported it in the fanpatch bugs topic, no one answered me or even seemed to notice it.

i didn't get the bonuses twice so there's no problem i think

[justdownloading]

Thanks for the reply.

Gladly, for me also the quest reward stat points didn't come twice, and now, by using an Excel sheet damage calculator that Poinas had posted on these forums some time ago, I confirmed that my character's damage seems to be consistent with having the Hades' Generals quest reward (+5% total damage) being applied once, as it should be (only completed it on Normal so far), even though my quest log shows the reward given twice "x 2". So seems like there is no problem.

However, I would still be curious to hear that has that happened to any others (that some quest rewards being shown in the quest log as if they were given twice "x 2", please refer to the first post)?

[justdownloading]

A slight update which doesn't really have any effect in practice, but at least it's good to have a conclusion for this. Probably most if not all of this is already known by many of the modders out there.
Note that this only applies to fanpatch 1.17a, unless stated otherwise.


Quest reward skills
All the quest rewards that grant stat point bonuses or such, are actually skills. Just like the skills in each mastery, except that these quest reward skills are not visible as a usable separate skill in the game, instead they are always active in the background once they are granted by the relevant quest.

These hidden quest reward skills are probably affected by +all skills, but it doesn't have any effect on them because each of these skills have just 1 value set, so they remain the same regardless if they are level 1 or 50. (Only exception that I know of is that without the fanpatch (i.e. with TQIT 1.10), the Hades' generals Total Damage bonus reward is bugged; it has 3 different skill level values set (5, 10, 15), but the skill doesn't increase from 1, so it remains at 5% unless the character has some +all skills items (or a skill shrine I suppose), in which case it can increase to 15% at most while the +all skills property is equipped.)

About that character of mine which has the Stygian Lurker and Hades' Generals quest rewards from Normal listed as "x 2" in the quest log, I checked the character with a hex editor, and indeed those quest reward skills' levels are 2 each, whereas normally it should be 1. So the quest reward was applied twice, just as the quest log claims. However that doesn't have any effect, because, like I explained above, the quest reward skills have only 1 value set, so their bonuses do not increase with additional skill levels. So everything is alright here, no unfair advantage is even possible from those quests.


One off quest rewards
Then there's another category of quest rewards; they could be called "one off rewards". This includes quest rewards which give unused attribute or skill points, or experience, or items. Those are not granted by any "hidden skill" that remains constantly active in the background, instead they are directly granted by the quest logic.

For example that Hidden Treasure quest in Act 2. There's a bug in the fanpatch 1.17a that the reward for that quest can be achieved twice, and so the experience reward is given twice then. The bug is related to talking to Laches in Helos, who can fix missed quest rewards. However this doesn't make much of a difference because the experience boost from that quest isn't that big, and it can be achieved twice at most.

I do not know if there are any other "one off quest rewards" which could be bugged this way, at least I haven't encountered any yet. The "worst" ones would be the ones which give unused attribute or skill points, because that would give a permanent unfair advantage to the character, but as I said, I haven't seen these quest rewards bug yet.

From what I have understood, all those "quest reward granted twice" bugs are somehow related to not initiating/finishing the quest in "proper" order, and then talking to Laches at some point, I don't know the exact mechanics. But that also means that those bugs can be avoided by initiating the quests first by talking to the NPC where it is gained from, then completing the quest (killing the quest monster(s)), then - IF it's necessary for the completion of the quest - talk again to the quest giver NPC, that way the quest is initiated and finished properly, and Laches won't do anything to the quest even if you talk to him.