Not sure if this is bug or some consequence of faction / my actions in game before quest taken.

In 3-4 different play throughs before restart, I've done the encounter with Skinny Malone while rescuing Valentine and Kellogg same number of times.

Each case, I got the conversation trigger and only after conversation did hostilities ensue (unless of course I just walked in guns blazing)

But now, in both these quest scenarios, soon as I walked into room - instead of conversation triggering the NPCs went immediate red hostile, not convo.

Anyone know if this is a bug? Not sure what actions may have set this up if intended design. I never encountered any triggermen before Skinny Malone, and in prior runs, killed all his guys up to moment I met Skinny, and yet he talked first. Now it was just enter, fight starts.

Same for Kellogg. Had killed plenty of synths before in other runs, but now - despite him saying 'lets talk', soon as I enter the room the guard synths plus Kellogg went hostile.

Sometimes if you keep walking into the room after they start talking, they'll go hostile. The same thing happened to me a few days ago with Paladin Brandis. I walked too far into the room and he went hostile. I didn't want to kill him though, so I reloaded my save from right before I entered the building. I've experienced the same thing during other quests as well.

Try hanging back a little bit before moving too far into the room. That seems to make the difference in my experience.

i've heard of people reporting this, someone said to make sure weapon is holstered and approach them really slowly, but i can't confirm this will work, i know i've seen other threads talking about this issue tho

Happened to me in the silver shroud quest. I guess you are supposed to stop moving and stand still while talking. Move around too much and it might just end the conversation and that usually results in violence.

Thanks for suggestions, will try the stand still and holster weapon next time mist to be extra safe.

In prior campaigns though, i recall walking comoletely into and right up to Skinny and Kellogg's face.

Now, with Skinny - didnt even have much chance to move because in that one there is no room you walk inyo per se, but you zone in from the other side. Soon as i finished zoning in, bullets were flying.

In Kellogg, the robots started shooting and went red the second after Kellogg said lets talk, and i was barely into the doorway. Unfortunately dont have old save to test. The quest even got semi stuck on the 'confront kellogg' step - after auto hostile and killed him, the quest marker still showed nav to his dead body with the step to confront him, even though it did advance to the step to talk to piper at same time.

Am hoping this doesnt mean every single quest conversation with possible hostile npc doest just auto trigger into combat for rest of this play through.

Are you wearing the Power Armor Helmet that highlights every npc? It is known to turn certain quest npcs hostile. This happened to me at the end of The Big Dig quest.

I wanted to get that one, now I am scared to ruin my game.

Correction wearing PA will trigger NPCs hostile randomly regardless of mods installed. Targeting Hud or not. Brandis, the Forged Boss, Virgil. Probably others, so it may happen with some and not with others, a roll of the dice I guess. Just be sure to exit PA before entering a cell like the cave for Virgil in the case you do find them hostile.

Just remove the helmet when you encounter this situation and equip it when you are done. It just requires reloading to a previous save.

Not my experience. Of course, people experience different bugs so some people might need to remove their Power Armor while others just need to remove their helmet.

This happens to me a lot when wearing power armour. Nick's personal quest, Virgil, rescuing Kent, finding the lost Brotherhood patrol... so many instances of people going hostile, but being perfectly peaceful if I approach without it. Even destroying the Institute can fail on arrival if you go in dressed for war.

Doesn't deter me from power armour, though. Love my targeting helmet. Just have to know when to strip down.

Virgil becomes hostile if you wear the X01 power armor. This did not appear to be a random response but I'm not sure if it is intentional because he doesn't mind if you show up in a courser uniform.

There are a few that become hostile due to wearing the enemy highlighting helmet or using berry mentats for the same effect. It's possible that the scanning is considered to be a very low priority hostile action by the AI which is why most AI characters ignore it except for the ones set to become hostile based upon any suspicious activity.