Fallout 3 - Update Broke My Game, Need Help Fixing

[JimboUK]

It's been so long since I've installed this that I forgot what comes with Fose. Yes the one from here is fine, put the contents of that 7z into your Fallout 3 folder, now go into the data folder and create a folder called fose, then inside that create one called plugins and put the nvac.dll inside that. Try launching the game by double clicking the fose_loader.exe to make sure it's being loaded. 

[MatSpikeYinsen]

11 hours ago, JimboUK said:

It's been so long since I've installed this that I forgot what comes with Fose. Yes the one from here is fine, put the contents of that 7z into your Fallout 3 folder, now go into the data folder and create a folder called fose, then inside that create one called plugins and put the nvac.dll inside that. Try launching the game by double clicking the fose_loader.exe to make sure it's being loaded. 

Fose launcher says "version 1.7.0.4 is unsupported; please downgrade to 1.7.0.3".  I have no idea how to do this.

[JimboUK]

The only way to do it is with the anniversary patcher that doesn't work with your version of the game, I'm going to be honest, I can't see a way out of this, Bethesda have really screwed you over here. I don't know what the hell Bethesda were thinking, they patched a game 15 years after its release, broke everything and then forgot about it.

[showler]

Okay, first just to clarify, you mentioned the German no-gore version of the game being updated but is that the version you actually have?  It reads to me like you are confused by an update to another version breaking the version you have.

Second, I think you've been screwed by some seriously bad advice.  If you weren't using FOSE for any reason prior to this problem then installing FOSE now would have no purpose and could not possibly fix your issue.

Before anything else, the very first thing that should have been done was a game repair. Open Steam, go to Library, find "Fallout 3" entry on left, right-click and choose "properties", choose "Installed Files" on left, push the "verify integrity of game files" button.  Let it do it's thing.

After that, if needed, you could delete the "FalloutPrefs.ini" in "documents/my games/Fallout 3" and then run the game launcher to recreate it.

And that should have been done before messing with FOSE or downgraders or anything else that could have made your situation worse.

It seems that the people giving you advice were assuming that you had a game that was already heavily modded with FOSE based mods.  If that was not true then they were starting from a false premise.

 

One last thing:  you said "as soon as I click on "Play" and then pick "Yes" for the resulting popup" in the first post.  What "resulting popup" exactly?  I don't have a popup after hitting play, it just goes into the game.

[MatSpikeYinsen]

11 hours ago, showler said:

Okay, first just to clarify, you mentioned the German no-gore version of the game being updated but is that the version you actually have?  It reads to me like you are confused by an update to another version breaking the version you have.

Second, I think you've been screwed by some seriously bad advice.  If you weren't using FOSE for any reason prior to this problem then installing FOSE now would have no purpose and could not possibly fix your issue.

Before anything else, the very first thing that should have been done was a game repair. Open Steam, go to Library, find "Fallout 3" entry on left, right-click and choose "properties", choose "Installed Files" on left, push the "verify integrity of game files" button.  Let it do it's thing.

After that, if needed, you could delete the "FalloutPrefs.ini" in "documents/my games/Fallout 3" and then run the game launcher to recreate it.

And that should have been done before messing with FOSE or downgraders or anything else that could have made your situation worse.

It seems that the people giving you advice were assuming that you had a game that was already heavily modded with FOSE based mods.  If that was not true then they were starting from a false premise.

One last thing:  you said "as soon as I click on "Play" and then pick "Yes" for the resulting popup" in the first post.  What "resulting popup" exactly?  I don't have a popup after hitting play, it just goes into the game.

First off I have gotten the game working again; one of the Steam users managed to find the mod I needed, something about a Graphics Bypass.  I have a few other things like FOSE and the Anniversary Patcher in there which may or may not cause issues later, but for now the game is working, albeit looking a little different.

You are right that the German Low Gore version is not the one I had (although I didn't have blood splashes on normal hits before and I do now; I'm guessing if I poked around in the graphics settings I'd find out why it's different, as I was changed from High Quality to Medium and there may have been other alterations).  I do still think the change seems unnecessary, and I'm annoyed that it ever happened, but what's done is done.

I do think the bad advice from assuming I have more than I do was a common issue with people answering on Steam; they also couldn't figure out that I couldn't post replies to my topics because I don't have Steam Guard (and never will; it's Orwellian crap that has no business existing).  I'm glad the whole thing is behind me for now.

When I click on Steam's Fallout 3 link (either on the website or on my desktop), a window pops up that contains the options "Play", "Data Files", "Graphics Settings", and a couple others I never use.  I used the Data Files to turn on the Pitt and Zeta expansions when I was bored with the base game, and the rest of the time I just press Play; this then launches the actual game, which loads for several seconds before reaching the menu, from which I can actually launch a New Game or Load an existing file.  But in between those steps, Windows 11 has a window that says "Do you want to let this executable file run? Executable files can harm your computer" (not an exact quote).  If I click "no", the game doesn't launch; I have to pick "yes" in order to get the game to play.  I can't recall whether this has stopped happening since I did the graphics bypass.

[showler]

Weird that you needed that mod if you didn't need it before.

That last bit with the "do you want to let this executable run" question sounds like maybe your UAC settings are higher than normal.  If it works after hitting yes that's probably not a problem if you want the higher protection level.

[MatSpikeYinsen]

what's a UAC?

[showler]

"User Account Control"  It's a Windows feature that controls which programs are allowed to run on your computer.  Different settings will allow programs to run with or without your express permission depending on whether they have digitally signed certificates indicating who the developer was.

In this case, a slightly lower setting would likely mean the game would run without asking you for permission every time.

[MatSpikeYinsen]

Well it's moot now.  Thanks to everyone here who tried to help me, even though it ended up not mattering.

[Thearced]

On 6/23/2024 at 3:13 AM, MatSpikeYinsen said:

First off I have gotten the game working again; one of the Steam users managed to find the mod I needed, something about a Graphics Bypass.  I have a few other things like FOSE and the Anniversary Patcher in there which may or may not cause issues later, but for now the game is working, albeit looking a little different.

You are right that the German Low Gore version is not the one I had (although I didn't have blood splashes on normal hits before and I do now; I'm guessing if I poked around in the graphics settings I'd find out why it's different, as I was changed from High Quality to Medium and there may have been other alterations).  I do still think the change seems unnecessary, and I'm annoyed that it ever happened, but what's done is done.

I do think the bad advice from assuming I have more than I do was a common issue with people answering on Steam; they also couldn't figure out that I couldn't post replies to my topics because I don't have Steam Guard (and never will; it's Orwellian crap that has no business existing).  I'm glad the whole thing is behind me for now.

When I click on Steam's Fallout 3 link (either on the website or on my desktop), a window pops up that contains the options "Play", "Data Files", "Graphics Settings", and a couple others I never use.  I used the Data Files to turn on the Pitt and Zeta expansions when I was bored with the base game, and the rest of the time I just press Play; this then launches the actual game, which loads for several seconds before reaching the menu, from which I can actually launch a New Game or Load an existing file.  But in between those steps, Windows 11 has a window that says "Do you want to let this executable file run? Executable files can harm your computer" (not an exact quote).  If I click "no", the game doesn't launch; I have to pick "yes" in order to get the game to play.  I can't recall whether this has stopped happening since I did the graphics bypass.
I am a developer myself and do flutter development. This allows me to develop different applications without difficulty. I also sometimes make different mods for games.

It can be frustrating dealing with unexpected changes and bad advice, especially when it comes to something as intricate as modding games.

As for your issue with Windows 11's security prompts, it's a common feature designed to protect users from potentially harmful files. It's good practice to ensure that all your software, especially mods and patches, are from trusted sources. If the prompts have become less frequent since implementing the graphics bypass, it might have resolved some underlying compatibility issues as well.