Bugs, Cheats and Other Anomalies

This page details some of the problems found in the game and some of the ways in which you can either avoid or exploit them. Not all of these are bugs, some are simply differences of opinion between you and the game as to how things ought to work!

The good....

Warning: this section contains a number of spoilers so be very sure you want to know these things before reading further! Power gamers prepared to exploit any loophole can continue, every one else should probably jump straight to here! Items marked

require cheatmode or magicrepair to be enabled - see the text file from patch 2.13 for full details.

The items are arranged in a vague order according to cheat value: the ones at the beginning aren't really cheating, more being aware of how the game functions. In the middle are the things that you can probably justify in the game world if your role playing skills are up to it. However, down at the end there's no excuse - this is just plain cheating!

When you are fast travelling on a deadline travel in reckless mode which takes about half the time. When you arrive, fast travel again to the same destination in cautious mode. This will add only a day to your travelling but will let you arrive fully healed and with a town open for business.
If you rest in the wilderness facing north any wandering monsters that disturb you will appear in front of you also facing north. This means that they have their back to you initially so if you're sneaky enough you'll have the advantage.
If you rest in the wilderness just outside the town limits and face towards the town, any wandering monsters that disturb you will appear in front of you and within the town limits. If you want to take them on you can step back and they will come to you. If you'd rather avoid them just step forward into the town limits and they will vanish!
When you're on one of those quests to kill a certain number of something in a dungeon, clear out the entrance area enough so that it is safe to rest. If you rest long enough the nasty critters will usually come to you.
If you're high enough level to handle it a fast way to get rich is to take the Fighter's guild quest that requires the 'utmost discretion'. This is a very convoluted quest and quite nasty to complete (check with one of walkthrough sites for full details), but if you can afford to let it run a while the bad guy, Lord K'avar, will send repeated attacks against you. The attacks will come from groups of around 3 humanoids and each group you encounter will carry their own inventory items plus the inventory items of the groups that have gone before. If you can take the heat for a few days the benefits can become considerable.
Similarly, the guard the mage/item quest can be more lucrative at higher levels than it appears. There are usually 3 or 4 ruffians who turn up and each one seems to carry the inventory of the one before plus some more. If the items are of sufficient quality the value can add up, unfortunately you only get the one bunch of bad guys.
If you ready a spell and then abort it using the 'E' key, the mana used is returned to your store but it is still counted as a use of the skill. As a result you can 'train' your magic skills by creating cheap to cast, touch range spells in the spellmaker and casting and then aborting them repeatedly. For some reason this does not work with the Alteration skill. For this one you need to create a cheap caster range spell and actually cast it over and over. Slowfalling is a good spell for this. (More magic training details)
When making a 'create item' spell in the spell maker if you use 'previous' to back up to the messed up icon in the list and assign it to the spell, it seems to allow you to cast the spell again immediately after first casting. Beware, however, as use of this icon can cause game crashes. This technique can be used on other spells too - for instance, on a strength boosting spell casting it again will raise the STR higher instead of extending the duration.
Magic items can only be repaired by creating a magic item that has the repair object effect. Multiple items of this type are recommended for best effect. To repair, make sure your repair items are equipped and any items to be repaired are preferably unequipped but still on your character, and then rest. Unequipping is particularly important for 'when worn' items and if you have a lot of items to fix or they are very worn you may have to rest for several days! Resting while fast travelling does not count here.
When you reach 100% in one of your primary, major or minor skills you will be declared a 'Master'of that skill. Once this happens, advancement in any other skill is halted at 95% as the game limits them to 5% below the mastered skill. This limitation can be overcome by creating an item to raise the mastered skill above 100%, which will allow the other skills to progress as normal.
If you press 'E' to abort after activating a magic item with a combat spell, it will give you back as much magicka as the last spell you cast cost you. This can be a lifesaver when you're desperately short of magicka in a dungeon.
The Alt F11 fix for the void can be used to get back to a dungeon entrance. If you save your game, reload the game and then immediately hit Alt F11 before moving you will be returned to the entrance. This is because following the load the game has no other point of reference to which to return you.
There are 2 ways of gaining access to your wagon while in the depths of a dungeon. The first involves visiting a shop before leaving for the dungeon. Select the sell option to open your inventory and then select wagon. Exit your inventory and continue to the dungeon and everything you pick up should go straight into the wagon. This situation will continue until you select a different section of your inventory or until you reload the game, so ensure you have all your preferred items equipped beforehand. A second variation available to magic users is to create a cheap identify spell. Cast the spell, select the wagon from your inventory screen and then exit. This works in the same way as visiting a store except it can be more convenient to cast an identify. Unfortunately this still won't work inside the dungeon.
For the thiefly types wanting a little pilfering a safer option is to wait around in the store until closing time. After the store closes, save the game and reload. The shopkeeper will be gone but you can still take the goods from the shelves. Each save and reload should restock the shelves.
When generating a character you can arrange to gain multiple inventory items with which to start. After going through answering questions and selecting the ebony dagger etc, if you choose to restart the character the game seems to remember the items you were allocated the first time and add on the items you get the second time through. This way you can find yourself in Privateer's Hold with 2 or more ebony daggers!
The best get rich quick scheme at lower levels seems to be a visit to the Rusty Ogre Lodge in Daggerfall. Go upstairs and save the game. Reload the game and the cupboards when searched will contain some daedric items even if you're a low level character. It may be prudent to have cast a teleport anchor some distance away though as pilfering through these private belongings will bring on a horde of guards just waiting for you to go back downstairs!

The bad....

Be aware that the stability of the game varies not just from machine to machine but apparently from install to install on the same machine!
Don't attempt to take a second quest while you still have one active. This has a tendency to confuse the game and results in some strange behaviour, if not outright crashes.
Keeping lots of items in your inventory (whether on your character or in your wagon/house/ship) increases the chance of crashes. This can sometimes be helped by increasing the value of OBJMEMSIZE in your z.cfg file.
When dealing with lots of inventory items - selling them, moving them between locations etc. - save often during the process as it tends to increase the chance of crashes.
Asking lots of different people for directions to mark on your map can increase the crash chances of the game. Save frequently to avoid losing too much information.
The red brick doors in dungeons sometimes function as teleports, sometimes not. This depends on the way the particular dungeon has been generated from the generic building blocks. Occasionally the free standing ones have been known to kill on contact! If in doubt, save first. Teleporting skulls can be deadly too!
Be careful about increasing lockpicking skills too high as many people have found that this increases the number of magically locked doors found in dungeons.
Don't go too close to the back wall of small ships - they seem to contain a direct gateway to the void and death is a common result!
Don't try sleeping on your second floor porch unless you want to be sung to sleep with a chorus of Halt, Halt, Halt! Although you may consider it part of your house the game treats it as just a part of the town and the normal vagrancy rules apply.
When running the merchant's quest to retrieve 4 bars of counterfeit gold you are given a fairly tight deadline for finding all 4. Although this is possible, the merchant will never pay you for more than 1 of the bars so don't worry if you don't get them all.
When you take the fighters' quest for finding and killing a were creature sometimes you will only find a normal animal such as a bear. There is some debate as to whether this is actually a bug or just a case of mistaken identity on the part of some poor, frightened peasant.
In the fighters' quest to clear a house of rats/bats etc, you'll need to make sure you get them all to collect your fee, and they keep turning up. Once you've cleared the house keep loitering until no more appear, but be careful not to miss your quest deadline.
Be careful when using the control F1 map cheat. For some reason the game reads it both as a cheat code and as an instruction for steal mode. After use remember to use another key to get you out of that mode or risk being picked up for inadvertent criminal activities!
Somewhere around 3/4th level your character will be handed a letter that does not show up in your inventory. This is most likely an invitation to go and see Prince Helseth in Wayrest. This is one of the optional quests so it won't mess up the main quest if you miss it.

And the slightly bizarre!

After casting a levitate spell outside you can still switch transport mode to horse or cart and have a flying horse! It's been rumoured that some players don their best red cloak and gear and exploit this anomaly in order to deposit gifts on rooftops at the appropriate time of year.

If you use the Mages guild teleport with adverse weather outside and abort without actually teleporting, the adverse weather conditions have been known to then appear inside the guild!

On occasion the whims of Tamriel mages can assign a whole new meaning to the term 'hanging basket'!
Another whim is the one that has Tamriel artisans building faces into their constructions. A self portrait, maybe?!
These are pictures of Tsetillian in Pothago after a major sand storm has swept the area. At least, I assume there was a major sand storm, as it was perfectly flat when I passed through a few days earlier!

This is the kind of thing that can happen when you attempt to teleport directly into the mages guild! You're inside really as you can't pass outside the building boundary, unfortunately as you can't find the door, you can't get out! The only way to escape is to use the fast travel map, as the game is confused and thnks you're still outside.

And finally....

Could this be one of the infamous missing dragons of Daggerfall?!
If so, how come it's hiding out in the map of the Wrothgarian Mountains instead of the Dragontails?

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