# Your checker notes

> What the notes on your build report mean for players, the most common ones and how to fix each, and why none of them stop your guide.

Page: https://polestar.guide/docs/authors/checker-notes (Polestar docs > Guide authors)

When you upload a version, Polestar's compiler builds your addon and reads
every step against the game data, the same way `forge guide lint` does on your
computer. Anything that looks off becomes a note on the version's build report,
under **Things you may want to fix**.

The notes are help, not rules. **None of them stops your guide**: the version
builds and goes out as you wrote it. You know your route and the server better
than any checker does, so whether and when to change something is your call. A
note may well be wrong: Forever has quests, people and places the game data
doesn't know yet.

The report lists the notes the checker thinks a player is most likely to trip
over first, and folds notes of the same kind into one line with a count, so
forty of one kind read as one thing to look at. **Download report** gives you
the whole list as text or a spreadsheet to work through.

What does stop a version is different, and short: an upload that isn't a
guide's plain text (code, or files Polestar doesn't read), a `pack.json` that
can't be read, a guide file with no guide in it (no `guide <id>` line, no
title, levels or zone, or no steps), or a route id outside your guide's id or
used twice. The report says which; fix it and upload again with the same
version number. A malware scan that flags the zip holds it for a moderator.

## The most common notes

Each note below shows the checker's wording, with the numbers and names of
your own guide in place of the examples.

### A quest some of your characters can't take

> quest 1234 (The Title) is not available to any race this step applies to

The quest is for some races or classes only, and the step (or the whole
guide) is for players who can't take it. A player the quest isn't for is sent
to a quest giver who has nothing for them. Say who the goal is for with
`only`, after the goal or on the step:

```text
# before
  accept 1234
# after
  accept 1234 only Human,Dwarf
```

### The objective number points at another objective

> quest 1234.2 is kill Young Wolf x8, not this npc; Diseased Young Wolf is 1234.1

A goal's `quest 1234.2` names the quest's second objective, counted the way
the game lists them in the quest log, not the order you do them in. When the
number points at another objective, the guide counts the wrong one: the step
can finish too early or never. Use the number the note gives, or leave it
out and the compiler takes it from the target:

```text
# before
  kill 299 x8 quest 1234.2
# after
  kill 299 x8 quest 1234.1
# or
  kill 299 x8 quest 1234
```

The same mix-up reads `quest 1234 has 1 objective(s) in data, not 2` when the
number is past the quest's last objective.

### A quest the guide never accepts

> \`collect\` for quest 1234 that is never accepted earlier in this guide or a guide chaining into it

The step works on, or hands in, a quest the player has not been sent to pick
up. A player who follows the route doesn't have it, so the step waits for
progress that never comes. Put the `accept` before it, in this guide or one
that hands over to it with `next`:

```text
# before
step Into the hills
  collect 750 x8 quest 1234
# after
step The camp
  accept 1234
step Into the hills
  collect 750 x8 quest 1234
```

### Coordinates far from where the game data puts the target

> explicit coordinates 52.1,40.3 are more than 50 yards from every known spawn of npc 1234

The arrow points where you wrote, but the game data has the person or
creature somewhere else. Take the coordinates from where they actually stand:
`/polestar where` in the game prints your position as a guide line, and
`polestar find 1234 --kind npc` prints the known spawns. If you checked and
they do stand there on Forever, keep yours.

```text
# before
  turnin 1234 @52.1,40.3
# after
  turnin 1234 @48.9,41.7
```

### Coordinates on a map where the target never appears

> explicit coordinates 30.2,60.5: npc 1234 has no known spawn on map 1429

Usually the step's zone is not the zone the coordinates were taken in, so the
point lands on another map. Give the step the right `zone`, or check the
coordinates as above.

### Elite work in an ordinary step

> \`kill\` npc 1234 (Name) is elite; in a Leveling guide put the goal in a step with \`when group <quest>\` (the player chooses it) or make it \`optional\`, …

The same note reads `<item> drops only from elites (…)` for a `collect`. A
solo player is sent at a monster made for a group. Let the player choose:

```text
# before
step The ogre
  kill 1234 quest 5678
# after
step The ogre
  when group 5678
  tip The ogre is elite: grouping up is advised.
  kill 1234 quest 5678
```

or keep the step and add `optional` after the goal, so it never holds a solo
player up.

### A profession the guide never trains

> quest 1234 (The Title) needs Skinning 1, and the guide does not train it before here: characters without it never see this goal

The quest needs a profession, so Polestar hides the goal from characters
without it. If your route counts on it, train it first; if not, say it's
optional:

```text
# before
  accept 1234
# after
  train Skinning
  ...
  accept 1234
# or
  accept 1234 optional
```

### A level the route doesn't reach yet

> quest 1234 needs level 12, but the route plausibly reaches only level 10 here

From the experience of the quests before it, a player following the route is
still below the quest's level, so the giver doesn't offer it yet. Move the
accept later, add quests before it, or tell players to level first with a
`level 12` goal before the accept.

### Something the game data doesn't know

> quest 1234 is not in data; using the explicit title (new Forever content?)

The game data has no quest, person, object or item with that id. If it is new
Forever content, the note is expected: you gave its name, and that's what
players see. Otherwise check the id with `polestar find`. Without a title or a
name the compiler can't fill in, the same note is an error asking for one:
`accept 1234 "The Title"`.

### A `complete` with nowhere to point

> \`complete\` for quest 1234 has no place, but its objectives do (…): the arrow has nowhere to point

The arrow has no target for the step. Give it a place, or one goal per
objective:

```text
# before
  complete 1234
# after
  complete 1234 @48.5,31.0
# or
  kill 299 x8 quest 1234.1
  collect 750 x4 quest 1234.2
```

### A quest whose earlier part the route skips

> quest 1234 needs 1233 turned in first, but the chain never turns it in

The game offers the quest only once its earlier part is handed in, and the
route never hands that in. A player arrives and the giver has nothing. Add
the earlier quest before it, or start the chain where the player can.

### A `goto` that only repeats the next goal

> \`goto 50.2,40.1\` "To the camp" sends the player where turnin 1234 (line 12) already leads, 80 yards away

The arrow already leads to the next goal, so the waypoint adds a stop on the
way. Remove it, or keep it when it marks a path the arrow wouldn't take
(around a cliff, through a cave).

## Seeing the notes before you upload

`forge guide lint` prints the same notes on your computer, and `polestar dev`
shows them on every save. [Guide format](https://polestar.guide/docs/authors/guide-format) has every
goal and condition used above.

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