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I had the same issue with that mod. However, that was before a re-install of Fallout3, so if it left some lingering thing, that got rid of it. Such things can happen when (a) a mod grants a mod-specific "Perk" to work behind the scenes to accomplish its intent and then is uninstalled without removing the particular perk. Some mods are good about posting the perk thing in their Uninstall instructions, some aren't; and (b) the mod makes changes to game mechanics that don't get reset when uninstalled. Quite often, these are changes to the Fallout3.ini file. In this case, check the mod's readme file and see if it reveals anything. If not, contact the mod author and ask what changes installing the mod made and what needs to be done to remove them when uninstalling. Good luck in fixing the problem.

Sure, if you have a enough hi-res terrain around you, it can be a show stopper. I am not entirely sure why it would manifest itself only at fast travel (I don't use fast travel, so I don't have that problem). I have McNeil's installed, as well as other hi-res texture replacers. The upside is that the game world takes on a whole new, improved look. The downside is that you really need system resources (RAM and CPU(s)) and video processing to accommodate that. So I usually strive for a balance: if there is a 4096 and a 2048 resolution option, I usually opt for the lower one -- it's better than vanilla, but not as resource intensive. For more closed-in places (cave textures, for example), I sometimes opt for the higher end textures because the worldspace that has to be rendered is smaller. Experiment and see what happens. The cool thing about testing textures is that, unlike mods, they won't corrupt your save game(s).

I know exactly what you mean! :smile: I have a lot of little mods that change a single game setting or fix a single game nerf. The trick is to use FO3Edit to combine the mods (in an altogether new one) without having to use them as master references (and defeating the purpose of lowering the mod count). Better still is to use GECK and build a whole new mod, using the installed mods as a "model" ... this will ultimately be my solution for all the little mods I have, with the new mod replacing all those others. While it is achievable in FO3Edit, really the best place to accomplish such things is in GECK.

@AlienSlof: Yes, most of the cosmetic mods are female-oriented. It must be a guy thing. lol Me? I'd look like a reject from a half-way house living in those conditions. :biggrin: I favor Ling's resource-oriented LingsFinerThings - Coiffure.esm (and accompanying BSA). Because of its structure, it is compatible with HairPack and I can change mods that reference HairPack to reference that master instead and remove dependency on a deprecated mod. So the legacy cosmetics are there as well as a ton of new content. Which works for me at character creation time in setting the "tone" of what that character's persona will be as I play the game. That is, it enhances but isn't my focal point. As with all things of "beauty," it is largely in the eye of the beholder and thus subject to personal preference. As for the crashing still. Hmm. One (or more) of those mods is causing save bloat somehow or causing a fatally subtle in-game condition that blows the save file. I'm still investigating and learning that aspect of the game (engine) and mods' impact on it, so I can't give you any great insight or definitive answer. :biggrin: @psyclops: Yep, I agree. Conflicted scripts are the worst. That's why my entry into the GECK so far is focused on scripting. First, to fix via a combined script those mods whose scripts do clash and quite often break not only each others' functionality, but contribute to game-stopping crashes; secondly, I already know a few programming languages, so it is the easiest aspect of the game for me to learn (despite GECK's confusing, ungainly interface) in my first baby-steps at modding. As far as conflict resolution in FO3Edit, unlike Visine, I don't try to get all the red out. :biggrin: Install enough realism and world-expanding mods and you're going to get them by the ton. The same goes for cosmetically altering NPCs (globally vis a vis Lings Pretty Things or Project Beauty, or individually in NPC-specific "improvement" mods). The key is to resolve them in FO3Edit so that the intent of each mod is met and do not prove fatal to the game itself. Sometimes the "resolution" turns the record orange-on-red. Okay, so I'm conflicted, but I am assured that it isn't fatal and that conflicted mods will fulfill their intent (noting the scripting conflict above) in a compromise "solution."

Early on in Fallout (as in Oblivion), it became quite obvious it is an adult game (hence their Mature rating). I played for a bit, but vanilla Fallout3 wasn't quite doing it (again, like Oblivion) for me. So I ended up on Fallout3 Nexus looking for mods. I had to ask myself, what was I looking for out of the game? I am a realism/immersion fan. Mods that do that hook me. So do mods that fix broken things in the game. So do mods that expand the world. So I downloaded a bunch of mods. Then it came to "adult" mods. You know what I mean, the nude body replacers, the prostitution, drug, alcohol and other mods of that nature. "Enhancements" to Moriarity's, Paradise Falls, addiction mods, etc. So again it was back to the question of what I wanted out of the game. Realism and immersion always win out for me. I know that the adult mods are predominantly male player oriented (and from numerous posts, some very immature males), but in asking myself the realism/immersion question, I found the answer to such mods by asking myself another question: What would a woman face in a post-apocalyptic world? Do I "like" the answer to that? As a woman, no. As a realist, I know gender-wise we'd lose all the protections under law that women enjoy now; and that even with such protections in place, exploitation of women is still common today. So it is "realistic" to acknowledge that it would be far worse in an environment where social order has by and large vanished. So I downloaded and installed a lot of the adult and obviously male-oriented content. Because that's what kind of world it would be. So realism/immersion are enhanced. All the seamy aspects of humankind that would be more prevalent in such an environment. For me installing something like DIM TYPE3 and Breeze's, mods that emphasize alcohol and drugs or other aspects of humankind's moral frailty is a minor point. It all adds to the immersion factor of Fallout3, but isn't the focal point for me -- it merely sets the backdrop of the world environment. If someone finds nudity, strippers and interactive hookers the focal point of Fallout3 ... well, they've got issues and I'm not a certified shrink.

Okay ... time for the no-nonsense direct approach :biggrin: In Windows Explorer go to your Fallout3 Data folder. Expand textures, expand characters, expand female. Now open TYPE3_V2_TEXTURE_pack in your archive utility. Open textures, then characters, then female. You'll see the following files: handfemale.dds handfemale_1st.dds handfemale_1st_n.dds handfemale_1st_sk.dds handfemale_n.dds handfemale_sk.dds upperbodyfemale.dds upperbodyfemale_n.dds upperbodyfemale_sk.ddsDrag these files from the archive utility into Windows Explorer (opened to the right sub directory, above). It will ask if you want to overwrite. Overwrite. Now for the meshes. In Windows Explorer, traverse to Data/meshes/characters/_male (Okay, I hate that, I admit it ... :biggrin: why isn't there a corresponding female folder? Dumb ol' Bethesda.) Now open up TYPE3 BODY V3dot5 in your archive utility. You should see the following folders: TYPE3 BASE CALI body TYPE3 BASE HD body TYPE3 BERRY body TYPE3 BERRY HD body TYPE3 SLIM bodyOpen ONE of those folders. Note: they all contain a meshes folder. Which mesh you use depends on the body style you want. If you aren't sure, go to Dim's TYPE3 page and look at screenshots. It is recommended that you don't drool on your keyboard or monitor. Expand the meshes folder of choice, then expand characters, and then _male. You should see the following: femaleupperbody.nifDag that from the archive into your Windows Explorer folder view (again, as specified above). You'll be prompted, again choose to overwrite. Cool. Close the archive utility. Close Windows Explorer. Start Fallout3 Mod Manager (FOMM) by Timeslip. Click the "Toggle invalidation" button (fourth from the bottom). If you get the "Remove archive invalidation?" dialog, select "No" ... you're done. If you get the "Apply archive invalidation?" dialog, select "Yes" ... congrats, you're done. Click the "Launch Fallout3" button at the top. Yay! Enjoy the game, everything is in its proper place.

Sound like the old "Overwhelm My Graphics Card" problem lol ... Also, you might want to give the Fallout Configurator utility a try. It let's you tweak a lot of settings (and save them) without going directly into the .ini file -- which can be a bit daunting. There are also tweak guides out there for optimizing your Fallout3.ini file. Either edit by hand or use Configurator. Hope this helps.

Sorry, fredy ... I'll beg to disagree. No load order is really needed, because relatively few mod conflicts are blatantly obvious from a posted list. What is needed is Timeslip's Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM) and FO3Edit by ElminsterAU. You'll need Miax's great FO3Edit Guide - Web-enized to learn how to do conflict detection and resolution. Basically, the process goes like this: Start FO3Edit, run the conflict detection filter, look at the conflicts. If some can resolved by load order changes, close FO3Edit and go into FOMM and make them. Rinse, lather, repeat until you're sure that load order isn't going to fix anything else. Then go into FO3Edit and set the conflict settings for a merge patch. Create a merge patch. Close FO3Edit, start FOMM, select the new merge patch and enable it. Close FOMM (to save the load order), start FO3Edit and start stepping through the tree view to find and resolve any remaining conflicts. It's a bit of work the first time, but once you've done it, you're good to go (until you install your next mod ... the good news about single mod additions is that the process is much shorter). Run FO3Edit in Master Update Mode (excepting those rare mods that specifically state not to MUM them). If you're error-free in MUM, you're good to go ... go play Fallout3 conflict-free and less crash prone.

First, load Broken Steel after the other DLCs. But that is minor. Project Beauty is for NPC "beautification" mod, so the cosmetics probably wouldn't show for PC creation. Just a guess, because it has been some time since I had PB installed, but the resources might be set to "Not Playable." Get Lings Finer Things for availability of cosmetics in character creature. Insofar as mod utilities, there are two must-haves: Timeslip's FOMM (which I'm assuming you have by playing with your load order) and FO3Edit by ElminsterAU. The later is a must-have for detecting and resolving mod conflicts. You'll want Miax's great FO3Edit Guide - Web-enized to learn how to use Elminster's invaluable utility. First the downside ... with a bunch of mods already installed, the conflict resolution process can take a while at first. Basically it is setting the load order in FOMM and then checking conflicts in FO3Edit. Rinse, lather, repeat until you are sure that you're not going to get any further with just load order. Then it's time to roll your sleeves up and get to work on serious conflict resolution following Miax's great guide. Hope this helps!

You'll also want Miax's great FO3Edit Guide - Web-enized to help you understand conflict detection and resolution with FO3Edit. An immediate CTD is an indicator of a severe conflict. Just looking at your load order, it seems okay, but with massive game-altering mods comes the potential for massive conflicts. You can also CTD for other reasons, of course. Was Fallout3 stable before installing those mods? How much RAM do you have? What graphics adapter? Dual-core, quad, single? All of these can be factors in Fallout3 crashing.

:biggrin: Let's not complicate things and get them past FOMM first, okay?

:thanks: for the offer for well, umm ... all the guy-oriented celebratory things. I'm just glad it helped. :smile:

Mini-freezes can also be caused by fddshow. Get the K-Lite codec utility and install it. The latest version automatically disables fddshow for Oblivion and Fallout3 (and some other games and applications). This has resolved screen freezes for many users. You might even see an fps boost.

No offense to the FO3 Plug-in utility, it's great for quick-fixes to small mods that aren't likely to conflict. But for heavyweight mod merging you really need to use FO3Edit by ElminsterAU (and get Miax's great FO3Edit Guide - Web-enized to learn how to do it). This is a heavy-hitter, do everything utility for such purposes. What you describe are resource failures ... the merged mods got merged, but not the interaction of critical ONAM and other records need to tap resources, I am not entirely sure FO3 Plug-in correctly masters the two merged mods and merges their FormID references properly. Without the MASTer reference in the Header section, the resources of the mods won't be "accessible" to the other. Secondly, you need archive invalidation to be disabled. Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM) by Timeslip has a function that does this for you (Toggle invalidation). Hope this helps get you started down the right path.

First make sure that your Data folder isn't read-only (it shouldn't be). Right-click the folder and select properties. If that's the cause, get rid of the read-only property. What specifically happens when you drag 'n' drop, say a texture folder from a new mod, into Data? Does it refuse to copy? Do you get any sort of system feedback? There is a reported "upper cap" of mods .. .something like 255 or so. I have a lot of mods, but nowhere near that. There are about 30ish mods that I will merge on my own at some point, all the negator mods that do a specific thing like disabling VATs, getting rid of Karma messages, etc. You'll also need two must-have utilities. Timeslip's Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM) and ElminsterAU's FO3Edit. You'll want Miax's great FO3Edit Guide - Web-enized to learn how to detect and get rid of mod conflicts.

You can disable xlive.dll in FOMM (click the tweaks button and check the disable box). AlienSlof, I've seen your work over the years, and I've liked what you've done -- why a new cosmetic pack? A collaboration with Earache42, however, would IMO be a huge benefit to the community. I say this because (a) Earache is actively committed to keeping Ling's up-to-date and (b) you are a proven community contributor. The problem I encounter with mods is the inherent lack of consistency that ultimately leads to user frustration because mods end up conflicting, so I am on this evangelical kick for compatibility. :biggrin: Projects like FOIP, etc. help -- especially with huge projects like FWE, MMM, FOOK2, etc. -- but in the end, more cross-talk and collaboration between mod authors would result in less user frustration. So I end up spending a lot of time in FO3Edit -- correcting mod conflicts that should not exist. Mods that aren't cleaned of "Identical to Master" records and other Mod Cleaning processes in Miax's great FO3Edit Guide - Web-enized. The sad fact I've learned since using FO3Edit is that 90% or more of mod issues are avoidable. Of the remaining 10% (if the utopian clean-mod goal were reached), the vast majority are easily fixed with a merge patch by the user (or better yet, by mod authors in collaboration). So, despite Miax's strong warnings to the contrary, I do mod cleaning on everything I DL from Fallout3 Nexus (except those mods that explicitly say on their page or in their readme that they cleaned their mod with FO3Edit) -- it's sort of a user self-defense against bad modding habits. When using FO3Edit, I start with the Create Merge Patch function. (Okay I lied :whistling: ... First I play FOMM Load-Order Shuffle and check conflicts in FO3Edit -- but soon you reach the point where load ordering alone won't solve anything else.) The automated merge is my starting point. Trust me, conflicts will still exist after-the-fact. This is because a good number of mod conflicts fall in the "gray" area of user choice. I then go through every mod's records, expanding the tree and resolving the remaining conflicts, adding them to my merge. Some of that is cosmetic, like with NPC and custom race mods ... and there is no "right" resolution except for what is aesthetically pleasing to you. But there are the more subtle kinds ... where a mod author didn't clear "Identical to Master" records in modding (without any of the DLCs), so their level 20 "Identical to Master" record overwrites the Broken Steel level 30 adjustment. See what I mean about a needless conflict? More subtle are script conflicts. The "last one wins" can be helped by load order, but it often arises that you need two mods to "win" so their scripts are available to carry out their functionality. This is where more modder cross-talk would help a lot -- because script conflicts can screw up the game both in subtle ways and game-crashing ways. (Psst, Nexus forum, here's where you can have a modders-only forum maybe -- something for mod authors to collaborate and not have their posts lost amid the general public? Just a thought.) The only solution is to go into GECK and take both scripts and merge them in your own plug-in and adding it just before your own merge patch. But the majority of people aren't comfortable in GECK (me included, I'm just starting to learn it), so it places a huge burden on users. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. :biggrin: Looking at your load order in specific, you should be fairly good-to-go. You'll mainly want to look at those "subtle" kinds of mod conflicts. It's a necessary evil to ensure that the intent of every mod and its functionality are met ... and thus keep the game engine happy (okay, happier :biggrin: ... it's still going to crash on occasion, we all know that). If you play any custom races (like ghoul, tribal or raider, for instance), you'll want to add CREBSOR (Custom Race Ending Broken Steel OverRide) toward the end of your list. That'll get you through the end scene and into Broken Steel (of course, it isn't necessary if you don't want to go through BS again or don't play custom races). Anyway, good luck with your conflict-hunting. And go play Fallout3! :smile:

Essentially, Timeslip's utliity lets you order your mods, toggle archiveinvalidation off and disable xlive.dll if you want -- it also launches Fallout3 for you with your load order (far superior to the default Fallout3 launcher Bethesda provides). It's a must-have mod managing utility IMO. To use it, follow Timeslip's install instructions and create a shortcut to FOMM. Click the shortcut, click the Launch Fallout button and voila! your FOMM-structured load order gets input into Fallout3. It has other uses as well, but for most, setting your load order and loading Fallout3 is more than enough reason to use it. Also, to detect and resolve mod conflicts, you'll want to get FO3Edit by ElminsterAU and Miax's great FO3Edit Guide - Webenized to learn how to use it. Hope this helps.

You could play FOMM Shuffle with your load order, but it will only get you so far. To really resolve mod conflicts you need FO3Edit by ElminsterAU and Miax's great FO3Edit Guide - Web-enized to learn how to find and resolve mod conflicts. By the way, FO3Edit (and the guide) is an invaluable utility for mod authors as well. Hope this helps. ps: I'd get rid of Hairday and go with LingsFinerThings - Coiffure.esm as a resource master for cosmetics. Both HairPack and Hairday haven't been updated recently and Earache42 is constantly updating his whole Ling's line. I use FO3Edit to change/add the LFT-C master to mods that required the antiquated/limited cosmetic packs and haven't regretted it since.

There are two must-have utilities: Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM) by Timeslip and FO3Edit by ElminsterAU. You'll need Miax's great FO3Edit Guide - Web-enized to learn how to detect and resolve mod conflicts.

Make sure that Broken Steel loads after your other DLC master files (.esm) in Fallout Mod Manager. That way, your level cap doesn't get overwritten. Also, if you are running mods, you may have a conflict that is causing that. You'll need FO3Edit by ElminsterAU and Miax's great FO3Edit Guide - Web-enized on how to find and resolve mod conflicts.

If playing a non-standard race, you'll need a mod like CREBSOR (horrible acronym, but it gets you onward with a custom race like ghoul, Tribal, raider, etc. btw, that's Custom Race Ending Broken Steel OverRide).

From my understanding, that functionality isn't available from the console. There might be a way to do it in the .ini. Trying to remember if Oblivion/Fallout3 had a section for key bindings or if I'm thinking of something else. To do it through scripting, you'll need FOSE (Fallout Script Extender). The standard scripting stuff won't do it.

You'll get a message if the DLC is available. There are mods available to stop that behavior and make it only appear when you are "in range" of the particular mod start. I use the Refurbish series, but there are others.

:biggrin: It's even more problematic with de-leveled lists. But it keeps the adrenaline going when playing!

I agree it is probably a Windows UAC issue (if 7 is the same with its User Account Control security as Vista), this is especially true in the default install in the Program Files directory. If you don't want to re-install to something like C:\Games\Fallout3, then your best bet is to go to http://msdn.microsoft.com or on their main site http://www.microsoft.com and search on "User Account Control" or "Vista UAC" or "Windows 7 Security."