What to do when you can't save?

[Yossarian22]

I would suggest to post your load order here.

 

I too have my MapMarker ESP and MMM running and dont have problems, so I doubt its about one of those. The Floater Addon seem to me more under suspicion. I wouldn't use such mods. MMM will surely add those Creatures in the next Update.

[TGBlank]

Guys. Conflicts doesn't mean crashes.

 

Crashes happen when a mod doesn't have it's master loaded before it (crash at start).

Crashes happen if there is an error on the structure of a mod (ie, you went trigger happy deleting stuff with fo3edit).

Crashes happen when you have an invalid mesh (ctd when you load a mesh).

Crashes happen when a mod "deletes" something that has already "spawned" in your game (ctd when getting near, entering the cell, or if you're really unlucky, ctd on load because it deleted some part of the landscape).

 

Crashes happen when you have a circular lists (very rare, but it can happen), game freezes i believe on attempt to spawn the list.

 

Crashes happen if you REALLY mess up with a script, most likely through fose (freezes/crashes when that part of the script runs). These are more varied, trying to make an npc shoot the rockit launcher causes ctd, so does calling getweaponammo on a weapon that doesn't use ammo, or additem/removeitem/equipitem with a non-existent / invalid item.. Sometimes the script graciously commits sepuku and the game runs normally, sometimes it just CTDs.

 

Crashes also happen if an area is horribly bloated (many objects, foes, or even extra unnecessary detail on the landscape/infrastructure. These tend to get worse on third person. setting a scene as "complex" really takes off a lot of npc load on a place.

 

Slowdown/Stuttering can happen when loading cells that have many different things with high rez textures, From that point to getting a crash it's just a matter of pushing the engine a little bit more.

 

Crash happens on load when you remove a mod that had a perk, before removing the perk from the player.

 

 

 

Apart from these types of crashes, there are 3 that seem to escape any categorization:

 

Random ctd after playing for a while, no matter what you're doing: This is a weird one that a lot of people suffer, it sounds like bad memory handling on fallout's side. It has been reported that doing THIS may solve them for some people.

 

Crash on save (any kind of save): These things are of mysterious origin, They happen with mods, they happen without mods, it just seems that the game simply left the player data on a bad state. This is one of the reasons why saving constantly is recommended: Loading to an earlier save can and will solve this (tho it may happen again). Damage may extend to some of the previous saves for some unknown reason.

 

Crash on level up: This one i've seen has happened mostly to:

Users who got Anchorage (all of them, so far reported), and has competed it with that character (not confirmed), and users who also have fook (unconfirmed if all the cases have it). The reason for these crashes is still unknown. Removing fook - anchorage or fook entirely didn't seem to fix, removing anchorage however, did the trick.

As a workaround, it is possible to make a backup of anchorage.esm, and use fo3edit to clean it up and remove everything except the new weapons/armor. This has been reported to solve the problem.

[Mavkiel]

Guys. Conflicts doesn't mean crashes.

 

Crashes happen when a mod doesn't have it's master loaded before it (crash at start).

Crashes happen if there is an error on the structure of a mod (ie, you went trigger happy deleting stuff with fo3edit).

Crashes happen when you have an invalid mesh (ctd when you load a mesh).

Crashes happen when a mod "deletes" something that has already "spawned" in your game (ctd when getting near, entering the cell, or if you're really unlucky, ctd on load because it deleted some part of the landscape).

 

Yep most of those explain my crashes. Although I rarely use fo3 edit unless I know wtf I am doing :P

[Rockatanskiy]

Do you know if there is a way to fix CTDs when saving?

 

This first happened a few days ago, but by messing around with load order, testing combinations of certain mods on/off, and sheer dumb luck, I was able to save again.

 

Yesterday, it started happening again, and I can't seem to fix it by turning anything on or off or moving files around. However, the previously mentioned corrupted-but-fixed save still works fine.

 

I guess I could go back and keep using that previous save (which is a few hours of gameplay old) but I think this problem is bound to happen again...

 

 

EDIT: You did not mention anything about this, but will uninstalling a mod ever cause a CTD? I'm guessing turning off a mod that gives you a special armor while wearing that armor will cause a CTD, but what about things like changed leveled lists or ambience effects? Could it be possible that an unchecked mod is causing any problems?

[TGBlank]

Removing a mod that added a perk causes ctd on load if you had the perk.

 

Removing a mod that gave an armor, or a mod that modifies the enchantment of an armor, or adding a mod that modifies the enchantment of an armor, while wearing said armor, results in messed up stats. The solution is to simply get naked (your companions too) and make sure no chems or other things are affecting you, save, and then add/remove the mod.

 

Moving things around in the load order causes the game to re-evaluate certain things when loading the save file, with some luck, it may somewhat fix the crash-on-save problem (after that, you should be able to return to your previous order).

The ctd-on-save happened to me once on vanilla fallout, i had a save just after leaving paradise falls weapon shop, a save just before entering eology's home, an autosave when i entered, and a save inside after killing em all just before leaving.

 

Both saves inside, and the save just outside eology where "infected" with the problem. The save outside of lock & load was clean, and i was perfectly able to enter eology's house again, manslaughter, and come out. I haven't had the save problem ever since.

[Deleted1084753User]

What you descripted sounds for me more like some kind of Mod Conflict. I had this once, when I activated my first GTS Map Marker ESP and the second Map Marker ESP together. I dont know why, but after I deleted the old File the Problem was gone, so maybe its because you have 2 Mods, that changes the same Cells or same Objects or something like that.

 

I always disable all other mods but my own when testing stuff (and use a clean save file just outside Vault101 with a batch file to add any content I've added), having other mods active makes testing tough because you don't know whether a bug or crash was specifically caused by your own mod or not, or whether it was something to do with another mod. I've been modding various games for many years now, some lessons I learned the hard way and have always striven to avoid since ;)

 

I've also come across something similar to this bug in Paradise Falls. Every single time I attempt to go in guns blazing from the front entrance, as soon as I go through the door into the main compound the game CTDs. Every single time, without fail. With mods, without mods, with and without DLC content, and various other things like unequipping my weapon first, talking to the kid, NOT talking to the kid, etc. etc.. Really strange. I guess killing off the guards outside first somehow causes the quests to screw up or something. If I go in normally (bribe or whatever) and talk to the kid, then enter the compound, it works fine.

 

I've thought ever since I got the game that the bugs and problems it has really are in a league of their own, never before have I owned such a frustratingly awesome yet unbelievably bugged game.

[TheOutlander]

Guys. Conflicts doesn't mean crashes.

 

Crashes happen when a mod doesn't have it's master loaded before it (crash at start).

Crashes happen if there is an error on the structure of a mod (ie, you went trigger happy deleting stuff with fo3edit).

Crashes happen when you have an invalid mesh (ctd when you load a mesh).

Crashes happen when a mod "deletes" something that has already "spawned" in your game (ctd when getting near, entering the cell, or if you're really unlucky, ctd on load because it deleted some part of the landscape).

 

Crashes happen when you have a circular lists (very rare, but it can happen), game freezes i believe on attempt to spawn the list.

 

Crashes happen if you REALLY mess up with a script, most likely through fose (freezes/crashes when that part of the script runs). These are more varied, trying to make an npc shoot the rockit launcher causes ctd, so does calling getweaponammo on a weapon that doesn't use ammo, or additem/removeitem/equipitem with a non-existent / invalid item.. Sometimes the script graciously commits sepuku and the game runs normally, sometimes it just CTDs.

 

Crashes also happen if an area is horribly bloated (many objects, foes, or even extra unnecessary detail on the landscape/infrastructure. These tend to get worse on third person. setting a scene as "complex" really takes off a lot of npc load on a place.

 

Slowdown/Stuttering can happen when loading cells that have many different things with high rez textures, From that point to getting a crash it's just a matter of pushing the engine a little bit more.

 

Crash happens on load when you remove a mod that had a perk, before removing the perk from the player.

 

 

 

Apart from these types of crashes, there are 3 that seem to escape any categorization:

 

Random ctd after playing for a while, no matter what you're doing: This is a weird one that a lot of people suffer, it sounds like bad memory handling on fallout's side. It has been reported that doing THIS may solve them for some people.

 

Crash on save (any kind of save): These things are of mysterious origin, They happen with mods, they happen without mods, it just seems that the game simply left the player data on a bad state. This is one of the reasons why saving constantly is recommended: Loading to an earlier save can and will solve this (tho it may happen again). Damage may extend to some of the previous saves for some unknown reason.

 

Crash on level up: This one i've seen has happened mostly to:

Users who got Anchorage (all of them, so far reported), and has competed it with that character (not confirmed), and users who also have fook (unconfirmed if all the cases have it). The reason for these crashes is still unknown. Removing fook - anchorage or fook entirely didn't seem to fix, removing anchorage however, did the trick.

As a workaround, it is possible to make a backup of anchorage.esm, and use fo3edit to clean it up and remove everything except the new weapons/armor. This has been reported to solve the problem.

You missed one

 

Crash on exiting the game or exiting to main menu.

 

Dunno why that one happens even when you don't load a save (ie start Fallout 3 then quit). Apparently stopped happening when I disabled the Fairfax Appartment mod, even though I'm sure it was happening before I installed that mod...

[TGBlank]

That one has always happened to me, same for oblivion... sometimes with mods, sometimes without mods... since it doesn't break gameplay i'm so used to it that i don't even notice it ^^'

[Deleted1084753User]

Never had problems on exiting the game, but the GECK crashes with an error 9 times out of 10 when I close it these days. Not to mention randomly closing for no readily apparent reason, sometimes even when I click the save button. I'll give bethesda that much, at least they're consistent :D

[TGBlank]

ffs i've just spent 3 hours witchhunting for a corrupt mesh that was ctding me, F*K i hate those >_<