Instantaneous Cell Reset Bug

[SMB92]

Hi folks,

 

So I've been investigating this bug where some cells just reset after leaving an area, on both vanilla and modded installs. There are some locations that seem to do this quite a lot as per reports online, even on console. The best example is Thicket Excavations. Many have reported that place just resets after leaving the area. Anyway I wanted to get a discussion going if possible to try and narrow down the cause or at least gather some more info. This is hindering my Precull project, although in itself is not the inherent cause.

 

The problem persists in some locations as mentioned, vanilla or not, but this is what I know and also some things can trigger it:

 

1. It seems that this bug is more prevalent in Survival mode, judging by what info I can dig up on Google.

2. The mod Mojave Imports adds some new items to some exterior cells. It however does not edit any pre-existing stuff in the cell (which would trigger precull bugs etc), which I've checked in xEdit. So it seems that sometimes edits to cells can cause it. I have however tested Power Armor in those cells I can produce on my end and that never resets. So if you're thinking "ah it's the cell reset bug!" you are could be right but it seems slightly different in that it affects the vanilla game. It only affects the single cell the new items were placed however.

3. It's curious a place like Thicket Excavations is subject to the bug, and is also a location known for not unloading LOD, leaving the area unable to be explored until game is reloaded or cell completely reset by walking far away. However, another location I found on a highway near the Co-op, where a gunner station/base is, that has the LOD bug a lot does not seem to suffer from this resetting bug.

4. I've witnessed the bug stop occurring in my long term save game in some places for reasons unexplained.

 

Known areas for fast respawn without mods:

-Thicket Excavations

-An area west of Hangman's alley, on the way to V81. (However in recent times I have observed this area to stop respawning at all in my 600 hour save game which is weird.)

-Skylanes plane crash site near Outpost Zimonja (This area has recently stopped respawing in my save as well, but it was a hotspot before)

-Natick banks Super-Mutant base respawns a lot.

 

These are only the places I am confirming having seen reports of on Google, and have experienced myself. There are more.

 

Chief concern is that some cells will respawn a lot if they are touched in anyway. But it's not all of them, I have a lot of areas that are modded and I've made new precull data for that don't instantly reset. And that leaves me highly confused.

 

Feel free to chime in if you think you know something or experienced this yourself!

 

 

[Vormina]

Pretty much all of downtown Boston, every skyscraper, every building, every overpass, every area around Hangman's Alley respawns extremely fast for me, some respawn just from making a loop around the block like Faneuil Hall. I made Hangman's Alley border larger, but the rest of Boston is unmodded.

 

Thicket Excavations and all the other places you mentioned spawn normal for me.

[SMB92]

That's interesting, I never have fast respawns in Boston..... Something must trigger it off, not mod related. I've seen reports the area near Cabot house is common for fast respawns, however I only ever see a consistent respawning of about 4 raiders fighting a BoS vertibird even remotely close to there... And a certain area under a bit of road, an overpass near Goodneighbour that always has a spawn, but that one seems more like a random event place.

[Vormina]

Don't get me started on Vertibirds, they show up constantly, usually when I'm picking off enemies with a sniper rifle. And they always, always crash on my position when shot down, lol.

 

I can start on the east or west side of Boston, clear everything in a path to the other side, go back to where I started and everything has respawned already. Faneuil Hall is the quickest, I can run to Cabot house and back and it respawns, sometimes I can clear the outside of it, go clear the interior, then step back outside to a fight, lol.

 

The supermutants on the overpass near Goodneighbour respawn quick too, the area between Hub 360 and the med center.

[SMB92]

Hehe yeah they got a bad habit of magnetising to the player XD

[OunceStripes]

Try this: Patch-Respawn

[SMB92]

I'll have a look at that a bit later, thanks for the link.

 

EDIT - yeah those are the main spawn settings, this bug occurs outside of those. It seems the game doesn't save these timers when unloading those cells. Or it doesn't save the status of those cells at all.

[SMB92]

New theory folks. I've noticed a pattern of when mods add a new layer to a cell, even if they don't touch what exists, the cells may be losing their persistence altogether. Chime in if you know more, we are researching heavy.

[jones177]

This happens in my games randomly.

 

In my new play through Quincy & the raider base between Quincy & Jamaica Plains are doing it. I don't mind because I pick up power Armour that way. Corvega assembly plant also reset as soon as I went into Lexington. I only notice because they started shooting at me & I know I cleared the place.

 

I did about 1100 hours with only body & Armour mods & my biggest problem was cells not resetting at all. I finish the main quest on these saves just to see if the game would go back to normal again. Sometimes it does & sometimes they go nuts(mega spawns).

 

My character saves that went though all the updates are a bit of a mess & my new saves after the updates are just strange.

 

Later

[SMB92]

Has been some oddities after updates, that's for sure. This one bug is a persistent little devil, some places more prone to it but it does seem to show up anywhere in any config. There's got to be a trigger for it....