I've recently played through "Last Watch" after having destroyed all minor + major arrays, but ran into a couple of issues doing so (which are all interconnected, I suppose, or have the same root cause). I'm playing the Gamepass version on XBox Series X.
However, my main personal question: Is there any sort of workaround to get Gren to appear at Stardock again? Speaking to him is the only Watchtower activity I'm still missing, and I've already tried things like sleeping for 48h hours, traveling to different places and back to Stardock, checking the entire workshop area including the hidden room at the bottom (also with "Sense star stuff"), but alas, no Gren
- Everything works well until after defeating the Watchtower fleet and docking with Heimdall station (I've double-checked that the "Deal with station defenses" quest item is checked off and I don't get Gren's "oh, you are too late" voice line before boarding the station, e.g. I've tried reloading my save(s) before this mission multiple times and try to do things subtly differently, but I always get the same progression of issues afterwards)
- While the first part of the station works fine, I've noticed intense performance issues in the second cell (with the large open windows and the final boss/warden), up to the point where the audio effects are getting distorted/stretched and I'm down to maybe 2-3 fps.
- I couldn't really figure out why at first (switching to "performance" mode had almost no impact), but then I saw that there is a large number of watchtower ships visible through the station windows, all of them shooting at my fleet ships (which don't appear to be engaging) – an extremely large number, which certainly looks to be buggy (they're nearly bumping into each other at all times, because it is that crowded).
- I also noticed that the "Deal with station defenses" objective has unchecked itself.
- If I backtrack all the way to my ship, board it and undock, I'm confronted with this insanely large Watchtower fleet (and super low FPS again). I've actually managed to defeat all the ships, so that the "Deal with station defenses" objective gets checked again), but when I board the station and run over to the second cell again, the same thing happens, e.g. the objective unchecks and a large group of Watchtower ships jumps in again.
- I can actually play towards the second cell with a lot of patience (due to the extremely low FPS), up until the point where I'm supposed to enter the Skydrop.
- Most of the time, the Skydrop won't engage after sitting down, e.g. the door doesn't close, and the game just remains at this state indefinitely. I think this is due to the extremely low FPS and memory pressure (I get graphical glitches, too), which may cause some script not to trigger.
- Eventually, I managed to get the Skydrop to engage after reloading saves for a long time (both with and without Torin being alive)
- The next scene on the planet works fine, e.g. FPS are okay again, Gren lands, and I can board his ship. The only problem: Gren will repeatedly say his "oh no, you were too late and need to deal with more watchtower ships" line, while the "Deal with station defenses" objective will periodically update as either unchecked, and then checked again, as if in an infinite loop.
- When Gren takes off and we switch back to space, all the Watchtower ships are there, FPS drop to the single digits again, Gren will stare at me and alternate between "it won't take long to dock" and "oh no, you are too late", and fly around in circles while a ton of Watchtower ships fire at his ship, however without effect.
- He'll never dock with my ship. Since that's the Starborn Guardian, and not being able to dock with it appears to be a known bug <https://forum.kinggathcreations.com/threads/last-watch-bug-report-spoiler.531/#post-2652> anyway, I've done the workaround from this thread, e.g. talk to Gren on the planet, don't board his ship, but rather fast-travel back to the Stardock.
- Boarding Stardock will successfully finish the "Last Watch" mission – If I look at the "Completed" mission tab, the "Deal with station defenses" in the finished mission will be either checked or unchecked, depending on the timing I had when boarding Stardock (remember, this objective alternates between checked and unchecked for me).
- At Stardock, things appear to be mostly fine again: Harper and Torin are there (and I can finish the activity of speaking to them).
- However, Gren is nowhere to be found. When I engage the "Speak to Gren at Stardock" activity, the quest marker will appear at my ship's docking port, but if I board my ship, the quest marker is visible somewhere on the Stardock again (It's rather clearly visible when looking through the Guardian's large windows). If I enter Stardock again, the quest marker is back the docking port.
- If I jump back to Heimdall station, I can fight all those Watchtower ships that are somewhat "left over" – When I defeat them all, they won't respawn anymore at this time.
However, my main personal question: Is there any sort of workaround to get Gren to appear at Stardock again? Speaking to him is the only Watchtower activity I'm still missing, and I've already tried things like sleeping for 48h hours, traveling to different places and back to Stardock, checking the entire workshop area including the hidden room at the bottom (also with "Sense star stuff"), but alas, no Gren
