Kim stuck, won't follow even when progressing quest

[GuineaLynx]

Hello!

I ran into a pretty concerning bug after finishing MQ Journey Into Madness. I decided to take Kim with me and do some exploring around the desert, and after fighting some rats in the Dusty Cave Kim became idle. I can talk to him just as normal, but he won't follow me anymore. I've tried teleporting to see if that would reset him and make him magically teleport to my side as he always does, but it didn't work. I've restarted the game as well of course, which also did nothing. The obvious answer here would be reloading an older save, but the issue is that I thought Kim just got lost as he is prone to do and would eventually teleport back to me, so I went on exploring and by the time I realised he wasn't showing up I had too many new auto/quicksaves and couldn't reload one from before the bug occurred!
I've tried teleporting Kim to me through console commands, which resulted in him now standing idle in the desert outside the cave rather than in it. I tried disabling and then re-enabling him through console commands, but nothing. Finally, I tried progressing in the storyline and started MQ Unexpected Difficulties, hoping that that would prompt Kim into action but nope. I think he was meant to say a few lines during the initial quest conversation because Callisto turned to my side and was quiet for a few seconds and then seemed to answer a question, but Kim was still out in the desert. Now I'm worried I will break the game if I try to progress any further, and that instead of prompting Kim into doing the quest related stuff he's supposed to, he'll just continue to stand out in the desert and the game won't know how to handle this essential character not being there and my only solution will be to restart a new game, losing my 115 hours of progress on this one (first time playing it).

Does anyone know how I can fix Kim (and my game)? I so dearly want to continue saving the world with my sweet Aeterna prince

[Stefanie]

Hello GuineaLynx
can you give us your current saved game, and if necessary some more, before the cheats?
Console use quite often destroys the game, so the errors may write themselves into the score.

You can find game saves under: ...\Steam\steamapps\common\Oblivion\Saves
which are always an -.ess and a -.obse file with the same name. It is best to put these files in an archive (ZIP-RAW or 7z) and attach it to the bottom of the post.
!save often, even with many different fixed saves, never rely only on autosave or quicksave!

We cannot promise anything in such cases, but we try our best.

It is always best to notify us immediately if errors are suspected, the console is always the very last resort, it is not always bug-free.

[GuineaLynx]

Thank you for your speedy reply!

I always use the manual exit menu save before exiting the game but I couldn't find any of those files. I tried to google my way to a solution and someone had mentioned the teleport to player and disable/enable console commands as working for them so I figured I should try.

This is the save I have from right after the bug occurred before I used any commands, so Kim is still standing in the cave and has not been tampered with at all. I reloaded that save and checked, game looks normal apart from Kim being stuck and he's acting the same way he was when it originally happened so he doesn't seem affected by console commands at least to me. I'm not sure if the save file is correctly formatted, I tried to turn it into a zip file but the forum wouldn't let me upload it. Let me know if I need to do anything with the file and retry!

[Stefanie]

Hello GuineaLynx
I have repaired the save for you, unfortunately I did not have an OBSE file, so display errors can occur, e.g. in containers description .
OBSE cannot be uploaded directly to the forum, so you should put it in an archive and then upload this archive to the forum.

So first of all, save the AutosaveLong1.obse, before it is overwritten!
(you can also give it to me later in the forum, then I'll repair your save with this one, that would be better).

If you run all over Nehrim with Kim in your following, this can damage his controls and thus also a possible quest affiliation.
This also applies after you talk to Calisto and then go through the Lands with Kim again!
(so I would better go alone to be on the safe side).

PS:
-Save very often, also with different fixed game states, so please don't rely save only on autosave or quicksave.
-In case of errors: always load an earlier savegame as a first attempt, alternatively ask us, but don't use the console to fix it yourself,
this can write permanent errors into the game state, which are not always immediately recognisable and may not be able to be repaired later.

[GuineaLynx]

Thank you very much for your help.

I couldn't fine any converters online that accepted the OBSE file, so I put a zip of both files in a Google Drive, hope that works
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bw-Vi4 ... sp=sharing

I'll be more careful about doing manual saves in the future, and not bring Kim with me everywhere as much as it pains me to leave him, he's such a great follower and romantic interest character

[Stefanie]

You could also have used the ZIP file format for the forum, under the post, button File attachment (only -.obse or -.skse do not work in this forum).

If you often create different manually saved games, you can always load the last working game state in case an error is visible.
Then you could also explore Nehrim with Kim. ^

The new savegame is now also fixed with the container value display, have fun with it.

[GuineaLynx]

Thank you ever so much, Stefanie! You're truly a saint.

I tried uploading the Zip to the forum, but it wouldn't let me! I've seen other people upload their saves in .rar format, but I couldn't find such a converter that was free and easily accessible, and the forum gave me an error message for my Zip. Not sure why, but either way, thank you so much. I'll now continue my quest to kill some gods and most importantly, pick flowers and mushrooms and fawn over Kim <3