Trying to fix a very, very, VERY specific crash

[CatsWithMachineGuns]

Hello nexus, I hope you're all doing well and thanks for taking a look at this. I'll cut to the chase.

 

 

I'm having an incredibly specific, consistent, replicable crash issue with a mod I made, though I have no idea why it would be causing a scene. Google yields no shortage of "Help! My game crashes when I fast travel to Sanctuary / a workshop!" but my issue is less general, more specific. Perhaps one of you Fallout 4 / modding veterans might be able to help me identify where I'm going wrong.

 

I made a custom follower that's using a faceripped face and a custom outfit that I made. However, whenever I / we fast travel to the Sanctuary / Red Rocket / Concord area, it crashes straight to desktop with no errors mid-loading screen. At first I thought maybe it was the custom outfit my follower was wearing, so I removed their custom outfit via console so they were just in their underwear and then tried fast traveling to Sanctuary. Still crashed to desktop in the middle of the loading screen, no errors. Then I just deleted my follower altogether and then attempted to fast travel to Sanctuary. It worked with no issues or crashes, at the cost of me now being alone and not having my virtual buddy :sad:

 

I am not using CBBE, F4SE, excessive mods, scripts, etc or whatever it is a substantial portion of the player base and mod community uses.

My game is almost entirely vanilla and not cluttered up with a zillion potentially-conflicting things. Hopefully that makes it easier to address why and where my game may be crashing.

 

So here is every singular step leading up to the point in history where my game decided that I am destined to never fast travel to nor approach the vicinity of Sanctuary / Red Rocket / Concord so long as I'm roaming the wasteland with my custom-built follower.

 

 

- I started a new game with the intention of sculpting my soon-to-be custom follower's face.

 

- Spawn in pre-war Sanctuary in front of the mirror, sculpt the face/hair, go get frozen in the vault, watch spouse get shot in the head, etc etc until the point where you say "Yes I'm sure this is what I want my character to be thanks" and take the elevator to the surface.

 

- Save and exit game.

 

- I create a custom outfit for them in Outfit Studio (vanilla body, no CBBE or bodymorphs/slides or any fancy things like that)

 

- I boot up creation kit, go to actors, make copy of a random actor (probably Abbot or whoever was the top of the list), tweak it accordingly to give them the stats and custom outfit. Save them as a new actor (no, I did not overwrite Abbot)

 

- Set my freshly made .esp to the top of my very short load order.

 

- Launch my usual playthrough where I'm in the middle of doing plot stuff with an already-existing character, player.placeatme XXformIDhere the follower to myself.

 

- Save as new game now that my custom follower is standing five feet away from me and is loaded into my world. They do not yet have the custom face at this point.

 

- Exit game and use faceripper to transfer the face data from my save game of my soon-to-be follower's face onto the custom XXformIDhere npc.

 

- Overwrite the original custom follower .esp with the duplicate one that faceripper spit out that had a random string of numbers in the title.

 

- Boot the game up and be delighted to see my follower now looks exactly as they should. Use console command to force them to equip the custom outfit I made just for them.

 

- Follower-ify them via the console commands: setrelationshiprank player 4, setplayerteammate 1, setconsolescopequest followers, forcerefintoalias companion

 

- Console command spawn a gun and tweak it to my liking before trading it into their inventory with some stimpaks and ammo.

 

- Exit out of the game at some point just to tweak their settings in Creation Kit. Give them some perks (commando, lock pick, gunslinger, etc)

 

- Relaunch the game and resume my playthrough with my follower after making said changes.

 

- Adventure through the wasteland for hours with my custom follower that has the face I sculpted, the outfit I created, and the weapon I made for them (it's just a Handmade Rifle from Nuka World)

 

- Realize I want to store some gear at the Red Rocket station outside Sanctuary. Fast travel there with my follower and crash in the middle of the loading screen.

 

- Reload game and try fast traveling again.

 

- Crash to desktop while in the middle of the loading screen.

 

- Reload game and try fast traveling again.

 

- Crash to desktop while in the middle of the loading screen.

 

- Go through the first four stages of grief while coming to the haunting realization perhaps this wasn't meant to be and my strive for psuedo coop with imaginary friends as represented by lovingly crafted pixels has all been for naught.

 

- Decide "f*** that" and make a post on Nexus reaching out for help which incidentally is this very forum thread that you're reading right now!

 

 

 

So basically my almost-entirely-vanilla game is crashing when I fast travel to the Sanctuary area with a follower who I had a face duplicated onto via faceripper and is wearing a custom attire. Deleting the follower allows me to fast travel to said area without crashing, but also defeats the entire purpose.

 

Attached is my load order and mods I'm using in this playthrough.

 

 

 

If any more information or screencaps of my setup are needed I can provide them as soon as requested. Anyone who has read this and is willing to offer help to a novice Fallout modder and fellow community member will forever have my thanks.

Edited September 6, 2021 by CatsWithMachineGuns

[pepperman35]

Did you try fast traveling with the companion before modifying their face or outfit. Change one variable at a time for basic troubleshooting. Also, have you tried fast traveling or COCing to other locations?

 

1. Confirm the player can fast travel to these locations with no crashes.

2. Add the companion with no modifications

3. Repeat the fast travel process

4. Add the outfit, and repeat the fast travel process

5. Add the faceripper and repeat the fast travel process.

[CatsWithMachineGuns]

I've tried coc-ing to santuaryext after reading this, but still to no avail. Other locations seem to be fine (diamond city, gunner plaza, random locations that aren't considered workshops). I do not presently have an unmodified version of the follower in question, so I guess I can try remaking them from the ground up for science.

 

I'll try the steps you suggested and report back accordingly, thanks!

[CatsWithMachineGuns]

Okay, I remade the Abbot Clone as a new follower. All was fine.

 

Tried deleting their default clothing and adding in my custom follower's outfit into their inventory via CK, and now the crashing is back. I tried removing the custom outfit via CK, but they still crash when loading. So it seems that perhaps it's not necessarily the outfit I made, but moreso the tinkering around with what was supposed to be in their pockets that's messing with the crashes....?

 

 

With this new troubleshooting follower I was able to fast travel to Sanctuary without crashes. Then I saved and quit, removed their native gear via CK, and now I can't even load that save where we were both standing at Sanctuary. Using CK to edit Abbot's default gear back onto their person has not fixed the crashing. Any ideas?

 

 

Update: I'm trying variations of them having the outfit in their inventory / on their person, fast traveling to Sanctuary, loading from main menu when at Sanctuary, etc. It seems like if they have the custom oufit and not their default outfit in any way, shape, or form, it will crash upon freshly loading into Sanctuary, be it from the main menu or fast travel. I think it might definitely have something to do with me digging through their hypothetical pockets on creation kit.

 

Update 2: I made a whole new follower from the ground up. This time I left their default inventory exactly as it should be and changed their gender. I used faceripper to apply the face on them and do nothing more. I was able to fast travel to Sanctuary without crashing.

 

I saved and exited the game. I can not load that save from the main menu without it crashing. However, I can load the save where I just freshly spawned them into existence outside of Vault 95 just fine and dandy with no crashing. But anything, and I mean ANYTHING pertaining to the mere idea of traveling to Sanctuary while the follower in question exists in any corner of the worldspace whatsoever is a guaranteed crash.

 

Is Sanctuary itself just haunted? Or is the npc Abbot haunted? How do people get custom followers without crashing?

 

 

 

Or are one of these console commands I'm using to follower-ify them to blame for the crashing? setrelationshiprank player 4, setplayerteammate 1, setconsolescopequest followers, forcerefintoalias companion

 

 

 

 

Update 3: I'm at my wits ends. It just seems like if my follower exists in the world, end of story (with or without custom outfit, with or without face data, with and without using the console commands to make them follow the player), then fast traveling or loading to the Sanctuary area in any one capacity or another just crashes the game. I can't rack my brain over why this is being this way. Does anyone have any idea at all? How do you guys set your custom followers up? What am I doing differently from everyone else? I've tried using Construct a Custom Companion, but same issue. If a custom follower commits the sin of existing, then you can forget about loading saves set in or traveling to Sanctuary.

Edited September 6, 2021 by CatsWithMachineGuns

[pepperman35]

Did a plain generic follower (i.e., no custom clothes or face ripping) with vanilla clothes, inventory and the like crash? If not, your problem seems to be with the custom add--ons.

[CatsWithMachineGuns]

Hmmm.

 

I can't even make heads or tails out of this now. I'm just crashing altogether on old, pre-follower-mod saves, new saves, in-between saves, anything.

 

I can spawn Abbot (08000f99) just fine, follower-ify them just fine, and fast travel to and fro with them both as a standard npc and a follower npc.

 

I can sometimes spawn the Abbot clone (08000f9a) without crashing, but sometimes with. I can sometimes spawn them and fast travel without crashing, but other times I spawn them and fast travel and it does crash.

 

Sometimes I can spawn them inside Sanctuary without crashing, other times it does crash. Sometimes I can spawn them outside Sanctuary without crashing, sometimes it crashes.

 

 

This is all on an old save from 4 hours before I made the mod. Even on the old save the crashing is almost-but-not-quite-consistent, but it's never been like this before. I just had a crash from just dropping some power armor pieces from my inventory down onto the floor and that alone was enough to crash the game, even without trying to fast travel or console command spawn any npcs. Is my Fallout 4 just flat-out borked? Again, my mod list and load order is pictured in the initial post and hasn't changed since then. I play this game with hardly any mods, so I'm wondering why it's suddenly so corrupted.

 

 

Update: I reloaded an old, old, old save from about a year ago before I had any mods installed whatsoever at the quest "Inside Job". I added my custom follower and was able to complete the quest. I then fast traveled back to Sturges in Sanctuary without crashing, saved as new game, and exited. As expected, I cannot load that save of me and my follower standing outside the teleporter at Sanctuary.

 

It just seems like any semblance of a custom follower existing whatsoever will completely make any of my potential excursions to Sanctuary absolutely unstable. Is this happening because I suddenly introduced a mod(s) late into my already established playthrough?

Does the game not agree with me trying such things?

 

I had played the game vanilla without a hitch for the first 40 hours before installing the Unofficial Patch, xce (for the face grime transparency fix), All Fallout Radio Stations, and my follower mod in question.

 

 

Update 2: I tried experimenting with a new game. New character, new Abbot clone follower. I am able to fast travel to and from Sanctuary with the custom outfit in their inventory so far with no crashes. I'm under the assumption that adding my follower to my long-standing playthrough is what caused it to s*** the bed. Unless anyone else in these forums is more intimately familiar with the nuances of specifically Sanctuary-and-follower-related crashes then for the time being I just have to assume that this playthrough is too far along to add custom followers now. Even using Create a Custom Companion (instead of my specifically hand-crafted follower) crashes when loading into / fast traveling to Sanctuary during my long-standing playthrough. I guess I just need to avoid the entirety of the top left corner of the map for the rest of this playthrough.

 

However, this doesn't mean I'm not open to suggestions or interpretations and potential diagnostics!

Edited September 6, 2021 by CatsWithMachineGuns