"Unable to load area" when starting a new game - possible mod issue

[rebelatnight]

Hello lovely people, looking to see if anyone has any insights on a problem I'm facing rn

Recently, I spent literal days of my life downloading and installing mods for DAO instead of playing The Veilguard (I have it installed, and swear I'll get round to it, just wanted to play Origins first for a bit)

Anyway, I installed all my mods, compiled all the chargen files, booted up the game, made a new character... and then got kicked back to the main menu with the "Unable to load game" message

I've never seen that error on 11 or so years of playing the game, and tried some troubleshooting. I'd been making a City Elf character, so I tried a Human Noble. Kicked back to the menu as well.

Dwarf Noble also didn't work.

Nor did Dalish Elf.

The only origin story that would start was the Mage (both human and elf), so I went back to a few test saves I had from other origins, and they all loaded just fine.

When googling for this error, all the message boards I found for both PC and console suggested verifying/repairing the game, and that seemed to work for most people.

I'm using the GOG offline installer, and that had been recently updated, so I downloaded all the files and re-installed the game, after wiping all previous files and resetting the registry.

(This is a whole 'nother thing, but then the game wouldn't recognize ANY DLC from the Ultimate Edition, so I've spent another day or so trying to fix that, and now I have)

Clean install, no mods, all the origin stories now load and work properly as intended, so I *know* it can't be a game install problem.

TL;DR: Does anyone know of any mods or anything that can cause the game to not load? I think it must either be one of my many mods, or maybe I didn't install one of them properly (throwing something into override when it should have gone into addins, etc). I'm leaning towards that right now as I was going through a long list of mods and just not paying attention, so maybe I installed something incorrectly?

Please let me know, I'd really appreciate any and all help at this point!

 

[theskymoves]

Impossible to give any advice without a complete list of all mods installed. How they were installed (DAupdater.exe, DAO-ModManager, Vortex, DA Modder, etc) may also be relevant.

 

[rebelatnight]

34 minutes ago, theskymoves said:

Impossible to give any advice without a complete list of all mods installed. How they were installed (DAupdater.exe, DAO-ModManager, Vortex, DA Modder, etc) may also be relevant.

No worries, compiling a list of mods now, this may take some time

Also including ones I've removed as I'm going for the sake of completion, and then noting if those were the troublesome ones or not

 

 

[BlickJustice]

Could it be you didn't run the game for the first time without any mods? My advice would be to run the game at least once without ANY mods installed, so that every addins, settings file is created properly in Documents. And once you install mods, the ones in .dazip format must be installed by daupdater (which is the simplest way and uses the installer provided by Bioware) or the mentioned tools. If it's not .dazip, it goes into the override folder, although there have been some mods that stated to install them in Bioware/Dragon Age/modules/Single Player/override/toolsetexport (rare cases, if the author of a mod doesn't say anything about toolsetexport folder, don't worry about that one).

As you said you have a lot of mods, some of them could have conflicts between them- use Duplicate Search Tool at Dragon Age: Origins to see the conflicts and remove/backup one of the conflicting files, it's the safest way. 

[zloybelka]

I've heard about an issue with just crashing the game to desktop after character creator with texture-heavy cosmetic mods for NPCs without 4GB patch installed.

[theskymoves]

According to the GOG listing for DAO, as of 13 November downloads of their version of the game are pre-patched to use 4GB of memory.  And what OP has described doesn't have the typical symptoms of a LAA issue.

@rebelatnight, do any of the mods you'd installed add additional standalone quest campaigns, to be played outside of the regular DAO campaign?

[rebelatnight]

On 11/25/2024 at 8:10 PM, BlickJustice said:

Could it be you didn't run the game for the first time without any mods? My advice would be to run the game at least once without ANY mods installed, so that every addins, settings file is created properly in Documents. And once you install mods, the ones in .dazip format must be installed by daupdater (which is the simplest way and uses the installer provided by Bioware) or the mentioned tools. If it's not .dazip, it goes into the override folder, although there have been some mods that stated to install them in Bioware/Dragon Age/modules/Single Player/override/toolsetexport (rare cases, if the author of a mod doesn't say anything about toolsetexport folder, don't worry about that one).

As you said you have a lot of mods, some of them could have conflicts between them- use Duplicate Search Tool at Dragon Age: Origins to see the conflicts and remove/backup one of the conflicting files, it's the safest way. 

Was gone for a few days, so apologies for a late response, but I can confirm a few things:

I realised I was having a few issues with the GOG version (slow loading, freezing on loading screens, stuttering and more) even with the 4gb patch installed, and checked the forums over there. Found out they had recently "updated" the game, so I completely uninstalled my game, cleared the registry and then re-downloaded and reinstalled the reinstated offline installer version of the game, and loaded to the main menu to let the game create all the needed files in my Documents folder. I even started a new game, went through CC, and checked that yes, I can load into any of the starting stories on a completely fresh install of the game so it *must* be an installed mod.

My most recent approach was to copy my old Documents backup and paste it back to my new install, and confirm the problem still existed,which it did. I then took out ALL files from my override folder, loaded up the game, made a new character, and so far, I've had no issues starting a new game or playing for a short time.

Ergo, it must be a file (or multiple files) in my override that are causing the issue. I've got the Duplicate Search tool finally downloaded and setup, so while I try the classic "half the files, see which half causes the issue and then whittle it down" approach, I'll check just how many duplicates I've probably shoved into that folder

 

On 11/26/2024 at 1:13 AM, zloybelka said:

I've heard about an issue with just crashing the game to desktop after character creator with texture-heavy cosmetic mods for NPCs without 4GB patch installed.

That very well could be the issue? I've recently applied the 4gp patch AND installed Performance and Memory Leak Fix - DXVK, but neither of those fixed the issue.

Like I mentioned above, I've now narrowed it down to something in my override folder, so it may still be a texture mod or all my CC mods not playing well together (since I basically have every bloody CC mod off the Nexus...)

 

On 11/26/2024 at 9:49 AM, theskymoves said:

According to the GOG listing for DAO, as of 13 November downloads of their version of the game are pre-patched to use 4GB of memory.  And what OP has described doesn't have the typical symptoms of a LAA issue.

@rebelatnight, do any of the mods you'd installed add additional standalone quest campaigns, to be played outside of the regular DAO campaign?

I did once have that issue with a mod off the Nexus years ago (can't remember which one), so I've mostly avoided such mods since then, and even ones that add elaborate story lines within the Origins module

In a panic earlier this week, I stripped out a few mods from my setup with DAModder, especially ones I've never used before

As I mentioned above, on a whim, I tried copying my hefty mod setup to my clean install, and then took EVERY file out from my override folder, after backing them all up.

Surprise surprise, the game worked as intended, so it might just be a mod conflict in my override?

[BlickJustice]

Could you specify how many mods you have? It can be a circa number, I'm just curious. From what I've read now, in my opinion it definitely must be a mod conflict. I guess you have at least a few retexture mods in the override at the same time, it can cause an overload, DA:O engine has its limits, even with 4GB patch installed. If I could see your list of mods, I'd try to narrow down which are the most incompatible. If you want, you can show the list here, or write it to me on PM, I'll get through what you have there. The Duplicate Search Tool should give an answer eventually, as well. 

[theskymoves]

It could be a conflict between two mods, or it could be caused by an issue inherent to a mod... for example, some armor/clothing mods are known to cause crashes in certain maps, or when equipped by specific characters. (IIRC, in that example it's an issue with the mesh and the animations used.) Once I encountered a hairstyle from a mod that caused my game to CTD. It could even be a bad texture.

A complete list of installed mods would be helpful for long-distance troubleshooting, especially if it is an obvious or well known issue.

You can also troubleshoot through good old trial and elimination, if you are certain that the cause is in the override folder:

1.  Move all mods in the override to another location (you can even just rename the folder to something like override.BACKUP).

2. Run the game without any override mods, to establish a 'known good' baseline, when the game is working correctly.

3. Add a small group of mods (10 at most) back to the override, and run the game to confirm that the issue isn't occurring.

4. Repeat step 3 until the issue crops up again.

5. Remove all the mods in the last installed group, and add them back one at a time. Again, run the game after installing each one.

Having isolated and eliminated a problem mod, I would then continue to add any remaining mods back in small lots.

If the mod causing the issue was a chargen mod, be sure to recompile/edit the chargenmorphcfg.xml to remove invalid entries.

[rebelatnight]

On 11/29/2024 at 11:18 PM, BlickJustice said:

Could you specify how many mods you have? It can be a circa number, I'm just curious. From what I've read now, in my opinion it definitely must be a mod conflict. I guess you have at least a few retexture mods in the override at the same time, it can cause an overload, DA:O engine has its limits, even with 4GB patch installed. If I could see your list of mods, I'd try to narrow down which are the most incompatible. If you want, you can show the list here, or write it to me on PM, I'll get through what you have there. The Duplicate Search Tool should give an answer eventually, as well. 

Oh boy, I'm STILL compiling a list of mods I have installed because I went completely overboard, and spent 2-3 weeks on the Nexus downloading everything that looked good, and just throwing them into my game.

So far, I have 253 mods on my list, some of which I've installed after realising they were conflicting, or just changed my mind about having them.

DAModder takes ages to load (no surprise there), but I have 198 folders in my Addins folder, and I have 939 loose files in my override (mostly character face files and custom scripts for armor mods)

THEN, I also have a total of 1,103 folder as well as those above loose files.

Now that I'm typing it all out, yeah, makes sense that that many files can break my game, even if I have a fairly recent gaming rig.

Is there a known limit on how many duplicates the DAO engine can handle? Because if it turns out not to be an issue with any specific mod, but how many copies of specific files I have, then at least I can also use the Duplicate Search Tool to prune out those troublemakers.

Edit while typing this; Duplicate Search Tool says I have 74,783 files, with 9345 duplicates. Yes, REALLY.

Would it be faster to try and eliminate duplicates first with that freaking many in my override, rather than try and compile a list of currently installed mods? Granted, with that many mods, there still may be incompatibility issues, I'm just thinking those duplicates are more likely to be causing my load issues. At least from my perspective.

 

21 hours ago, theskymoves said:

It could be a conflict between two mods, or it could be caused by an issue inherent to a mod... for example, some armor/clothing mods are known to cause crashes in certain maps, or when equipped by specific characters. (IIRC, in that example it's an issue with the mesh and the animations used.) Once I encountered a hairstyle from a mod that caused my game to CTD. It could even be a bad texture.

A complete list of installed mods would be helpful for long-distance troubleshooting, especially if it is an obvious or well known issue.

You can also troubleshoot through good old trial and elimination, if you are certain that the cause is in the override folder:

1.  Move all mods in the override to another location (you can even just rename the folder to something like override.BACKUP).

2. Run the game without any override mods, to establish a 'known good' baseline, when the game is working correctly.

3. Add a small group of mods (10 at most) back to the override, and run the game to confirm that the issue isn't occurring.

4. Repeat step 3 until the issue crops up again.

5. Remove all the mods in the last installed group, and add them back one at a time. Again, run the game after installing each one.

Having isolated and eliminated a problem mod, I would then continue to add any remaining mods back in small lots.

If the mod causing the issue was a chargen mod, be sure to recompile/edit the chargenmorphcfg.xml to remove invalid entries.

Thanks for a more detailed plan of attack! I've been rather inconsistent in my approach of checking my installed mods, so this is going to a great help going forward too.