evilhippo

This is what I am talking about (trader caravan guards in 'unarmed' stance with their weapons floating on the back of their hands... when attacked they attack back unarmed... doh) http://www.samizdata.net/blog/~pdeh/unequip_bug_CROP.jpg

Yes, totally daft. After 'Take it back', there is one knight and a scribe defending the main facility... plus one knight burning dead mirelurks and a second titting around shooting at dying mirelurks, neither of whom are in a position to actually defend what is now the most valuable facility in the entire wasteland! The one knight and scribe outside by the water bottling plant keep getting killed by Enclave troops who spawn on the bridge but these troops inexplicably do not then simply recapture the now almost undefended Project Purity for the Enclave. Doh! Possibly the daftest thing in the entire game. No so daft. You have to be a proven asset to the community. Home schooling. Schools are vastly over rated (yes, I was home schooled too). Yeah, that made me laugh :D He is an ignorant 8 year old, but being ignorant does not make him stupid. Unlike a grown up, who might try to fight with some piddly weapon, he knew to run. Makes him pretty smart actually. Well no one in the vault really lit my fire, although I think a torrid lesbian love affair with Beatrice Armstrong might be interesting :) I chose the dialogue that implied a lesbian interest in Amata too. Yes that is crazy as they are probably the richest community in the wastelands Not so unbelievable. They could have trapped him or injured him to the point of incapacitation. Makes no sense at all. Go figure.

It would rather break the story unless she is also stripped of all her gear.

I had the same problem (CTD in the exact same place you describe) and tracked it down to to the Companion Behaviour Overhaul mods (which I do not see in your list). Great mods but they were the ones porking the game at that point. I disabled them and the game advanced just fine. Other than all the DLCs, DC interiors and mannequins, I am running none of the mods you are running. Suggest you start by disabled all companion mods first and trying and then if that does not work, try disabling all mods and gradually enabling them until you crash again to see which is doing it. Please post your discovery for others to see as I know others have this problem too and I will be interested to see which one nailed you.

I have seen a very common bug where companions/NPCs unequip their weapons and act as if unarmed (and the weapon appear in the air as if attached to the back of heir hand). Stopping, talking, asking to exchange gear and then exiting dialogue 'fixes' it and they re-equip the weapon onto their back where they can draw it as usual (until the next time it happens, which is pretty damn often). Annoying. Does anyone have a permanent fix for that?

LOL. Yes it really is that simple :wallbash: And put an electrified fence around the damn brahmin pen. Fact is for the story to make any sense, the existing communities could not have survived unless they were defensible. Improvised robot guns would be a great idea (crazy looking makeshift turrets, which would also look cool and 'wasteland-ish') and given that deranged robots are a common wandering 'wild life hazard' (presumably being produced in some automated factory somewhere), it is not like there is a shortage of spare parts, power packs and processors to coble together lots of never sleeping 24/7 'guards' against the various horrors of the wasteland. Most settlements should be festooned with them. And not a single surviving community would lack walls. Not one. Not a single one. All you need to keep an albino radscorpion out of Canterbury commons is... A GODDAMN WALL :P Low tech and 100% effective against non-intelligent beasties. Take a look at any 'village' that anyone sets up using Real Time Settler... they are always defined by their defences. They are essentially built around their defences. Arefu is actually very well situated and as steelplate points out, put a serious weapon pointing down that ramp and even raiders would hesitate to come strolling up there. Bigtown too at least has a viable wall and a (somewhat pathetic) attempt at an entry choke-point and all it really needs is a *gate*, better weapons and maybe a watch tower to be quite defensible. Canterbury Commons however makes no sense whatsoever without walls in two places. Logically rather that walking the streets, Dom and Machete should be day/night shift manning a firing position on the roof of the first building, which allows over watch of all the main approach routes. Helping Bigtown/Canterbury Commons/Arefu become viable defensible places would actually be fun quests and Bethesda really missed a trick there. The outstanding recent 'Arefu Exanded' mod by Azar actually adds an extra guard and makes the whole place seem a bit more 'real', as does 'Canterbury Commons Embiggened' (or whatever it is called, hehe). However the settlement in the *truly magnificent* 'Return to Shady Sands' mod is 100% exactly right in terms of defences.

The more people that use the images the better, I figured that noobs are generally too lazy to read, so I decided to keep it simple, with a big red arrow... I will resist the urge to say all of what I really think about your reply and content myself with suggesting my post is actually in the right place as I am making an overarching 'design philosophy' point rather than a conventional "please make a mod so I can play as a damaged garden gnome" (or whatever)... i.e this is GENERAL modification talk.

Seems that given the horrors of the wastelands, settlement defences are pathetic. There is a good mod that massively increases the defences at the Citadel but this needs to be repeated elsewhere. The survivors of post-Apocalytia should be well armed and obsessed with keeping themselves safe! Megaton... one lousy sniper and a measly protecton? Gimme a break. The mole rats would have eaten holes in the walls by now :biggrin: At least the chap making the promising looking Megaton Expanded is looking into adding some more exterior defences. Rivet City... where should be at least a few robot turrets on the ship facing outwards and logically the arrival tower should be a manned fortified tower (sorry but that water begger needs to be moved) given there are super mutants and enclave threats just up the road! Project Purity... two BOS knights defending it? Last night I saw four Enclave troopers walk in, kill the knight and the scribe and then casually wander off. WTF? Project Purity was theirs for the taking! This should be well defended with at least a full squad of BOS and M.VI turrets behind sandbags absolutely everywhere! Fort Independence... what a joke... at least there is a great mod dealing with that. I wish there was some quest to also beef up Big Town's defences after the rescue quest is finished. At least Paradise Falls and Evergreen Miils are swarming with armed men. If I was not so utterly useless with the GECK I would do it myself. :whistling:

Are there any post patch 1.7 mods that actually work any more that (1) greatly reduce the absurd dismemberment caused by non-explosive weapons (2) make weapons so that their barrels are no longer made of boiled asparagus so they do not degrade so fast? I came back to the game after a break of several months but find that none of the mods that claim to do those things actually work any more.