I've been playing Daggerfall for a few weeks and having a blast with the game, but I got at the end of the main line and I'm hopelessly stuck. I retrieved the Totem from Castle Daggerfall, gave it to the Underking's agent, and I can't proceed any further. According to every walkthrough I've checked Nulfaga is supposed to contact me immediately after I hand over the Totem, but she hasn't, and if I go to her the game won't let me speak to her. I tried reloading an older save and giving the Totem to someone else, with the same result. I tried waiting a year game-time and nothing happens either. I feel really frustrated being so close to the end yet unable to continue or even find out what went wrong.
I'm using the 2.13 patch, the CompUSA addon and DQFIX. I tried FIXSAVE on a game just before and after giving away the Totem. According to walkthroughs I checked I've done everything required to be able to proceed. If anyone has any suggestions I'd greatly appreciate them
Alternatively if someone if someone has a saved game from just before or after getting the Totem that would be great. I don't mind having to use a different character so long as I can finish the game without restarting from scratch (and even then there's no guarantee I won't run into the same problem again).
EDIT: Amazing, I posted this yesterday and just today there's a new version of DQFIX that fixes the issue! The timing couldn't be better Now I hope my oldest save will work with it...
EDIT2: My oldest save wasn't old enough it seems. Oh well.
I just encountered this exact same problem. Very frustrating. And, as I recall, this is what caused me to abandon the game years ago, during previous attempts to play it. Like you, all of my saved games are from after the point at which the global variables are set in preparation for the final quest, so installing the new version of DQFIX does nothing.
If you examine the readme, however, you will see that there is a way to manually force the initiation of the final quest. I just tried this, and it worked. The basic idea is this: simply take the quest files associated with the final quest, the one in which Nulfaga teleports you to the Mantella and charges you with finding the Heart, and rename them so that they can be accessible by one of the factions in the game, via the faction's questgiver. If you choose the Fighter's Guild, for instance, then talking to any Fighter's Guild questgiver will give you a chance of being offered the final quest. You need only keep asking for quests until the Final Quest shows up.
Here is what you need to do, in a slightly easier-to-follow format than in the description included in the readme:
1. Install the new DQFIX.
2. Find the files named STARTFIN.QBN and STARFIN.QRC in your Arena2 folder. These are the files that control the Final Quest. EDIT: Be careful to use STARTFIN, and not STARTFIX! (The latter are used to fix the very first mainquest quest.)
3. Rename these files so that they appear to be a quest for a faction. (See below for the naming pattern.) The computer will now read the Final Quest as a faction quest, and when you ask for a quest from the faction, the Final Quest will be assigned a chance to be granted by the questgiver.
4. Load your saved game and go to the questgiver of whatever faction you chose for the final quest. Request quests until you see the message "Start the Final Quest?", and click on Yes.
5. You will be teleported to the Mantellan Crux, and given the rhyme/instructions that Nulfaga would have given you had you spoken to her in Shedungent.
6. After five in-game minutes, you will see a message telling you that the Final Quest activation has been completed, and that all is set.
7. Save the game, exit, and go back into the Arena2 folder. Remove the dummy quest files that you created. (Save them back to STARTFIN if you want to be safe.)
The naming pattern for faction quests is fairly straightforward. It follows an 8-character scheme, as follows:
--1st character (letter): a code for the faction. Fighter's Guild = M; Mage's Guild = N; Temple = C
--2nd character (number): the number 0
--3rd character (letter): B for member quests; C for non-member quests
--4th-5th characters (2-digit number): the minimum reputation needed for being offered the quest
--6th character (letter): the letter Y
--7th-8th characters (2-digit number): the quest number, simply a number assigned to the quest
So, for instance, a quest named M0B00Y** is a quest for the Fighter's Guild, for members only, requiring a reputation of 0. The ** would be the number of the quest.
All you need to do is rename the two STARTFIN quest files to be a quest for one of these factions. I think you can rename the files so that they take the place of existing files, but this always resulted in a crash for me. To be safe, I recommend using a quest number that does not already exist. The readme suggests naming the files as M0B00Y21, which does not exist beforehand; I tried that, and it worked perfectly.
This should get the job done. The only thing you miss out on is Nulfaga's summons to come and see her in Shedungent. Don't forget to remove the dummy files after the Final Quest startup is complete. (I don't know what happens if you don't, other than the chance of being offered the Final Quest again if you return to the faction questgiver after finishing the main quest; I'm just following the readme instructions.)
Now I hope my oldest save will work with it...
