[3.84?- to present] can't find missing farm animal

[Plotinus]

I've successfully completed this quest many times, but the last 4-5 times I've gotten it, spanning a few versions now I think, definitely 3.84 but possibly earlier, I haven't been able to find the animal, in spite of spending the full 15 days looking in the zoomed in map, scanning the entire circle from east to west and then scanning it again from north to south -- at least 10-20 real life hours per quest. I've been waiting to report it because if it was just once or twice then maybe I got unlucky and didn't see it or the tracks faded before I could get to them but I think there might be a bug here.

I can provide a save of Aaro, who has a bit more than a day left of the quest, and has explored the whole area pretty thoroughly, and maybe you can tell me if he somehow missed that square or if something is wrong.

[JP_Finn]

What's Aaro's tracking skill?
I've had hard time with this quest too, I only accept it if TRACKING is 80 or higher. Especially if it's just a missing sheep.

[Plotinus]

Missing sheep are the worst, only 5 squirrel hides. I try not to visit a village with sheep if I have a quest due, I use markers to keep track of what animals and items the villages have.

Have you succeeded at it recently?

Aaro has 100 tracking. But it's not just Aaro, I have ten active characters and several of them have had this problem. Mikko is 13 days into the quest with 86 tracking, but I tried something different with him (tracking on the zoomed out map instead of fully in the zoomed in map), and Väiski also failed it recently with 100 tracking.

Of my currently living characters:
Aaro did complete it successfully 391 days ago, by the QST file that was May 25th of this year. Aaro's currently quest was assigned on September 18th.
Egel last successfully completed it 913 days ago, assigned February 5, 2023, hasn't spawned the quest again.
Kari has failed it twice, assigned Sept 15, and May 20 2023
Mikko failed it, assigned July 13th this year
Orddotfishes succeed, assigned March 29th this year
Reko succeeded twice, assigned July 15th this year, February 23, 2023
Väiski succeeded in January 3 2024, and failed on September 17th.
Yrkki failed, assigned Nov 5 2021.

Reko succeeding with the one assigned this July makes me think maybe I am wrong about it being a bug, because that would have been in 3.84 but I've failed it 5 times since then -- Aaro, Mikko twice, Reko, Väiski, which seems really excessive.

[Plotinus]

It could be that the tracks are getting cleared away too quickly and Reko got lucky and found it early in July, I don't remember after all this time.

[Sami]

For verification I can check out the save of Aaro, so feel free to send the character over.
I tested the quest few times and didn't find anything unusual or the tracks disappearing too quickly.
There are some special mechanisms that treat these quest related tracks a bit differently to make sure they aren't easily wiped away, especially before player character hasn't even found them, and they are also easier to spot even with lesser tracking skills - so that shouldn't never be an issue either for being able to complete this quest.
But let's check Aaro and see what I can find out.

[Plotinus]

Thanks, I appreciate it.