CTD in particular places (Fort Alessia) while using FCOM

[origin555]

Hey all

 

I've just done a clean reinstall of oblivion to try and get rid of some bugs, then downoloaded FCOM (following the cheat sheet provided). I've downloaded a few other mods, beautiful people, natural environments and let there be darkness.

 

Seemed to be working well, other than the occasional CTD due to stuttering (which didn't happen before reinstall, though there were plenty other CTDs happening, and I didn't have FCOM before), but this was managable.

 

Now for some reason, certain parts of the map cause CTDs just by walking towards them. Anywhere near Fort Alessia, for example, and I CTD every time. I can't even get over the bridge without crashing. I did notice something bright yellow shortly before a crash which may have been the yellow exclamation mark of a missing model. My question is, could a missing model cause a CTD just from seeing it? And if so, is there any easy way to fix it? or am i looking at another reinstall?

 

Thanks for any help

[Domas]

I'm sorry to say I had the exact same problem, and tried extensively to find help on multiple forums. However, in the end I was forced to reinstall everything (including Oblivion). I want to say it's your FCOM install. Before resorting to a full uninstallation of the game, I would try a few things...

 

1) Not sure what Natural Environments does, but I'm assuming it changes the outdoors. Try removing that temporarily to rule that out.

2) Try a complete reinstallation of FCOM. I'm 90% sure that was my problem, and could have avoided a lot of hassle reinstalling everything.

-Be sure to follow the cheat sheet to a T, including reading all the find print, and doing exactly what it says.

3) If worse comes to worse, you're looking at a complete reinstall imo.

 

I highly doubt a missing mesh or texture caused the CTD. I used to see those ALL the time for Fran's items. It has something to do with Oblivion 1.2 and the way it loads BSAs. From my understanding (and I would suggest researching confirmation on this in case I'm wrong) BSAs are loaded based on the name of itself and the esp loaded before it.

 

i.e. You have a bunch of ESPs name Francesco's ________.esp. And the BSA is FraNewItems.bsa (or whatever). It doesn't load properly because there isn't a FraNewItems.esp. I created a dummy esp that did nothing and named it the same as the .bsa file and it fixed my problem.

 

I really wish I remember where I read that so I could site it, but like I said, research confirmation on the esp/bsa issue. That's my disclaimer lol :sweat:

[origin555]

Thanks for the response.

 

I've already tried removing natural environments and let there be darkness, but this doesn't seem to affect the crashes. After checking back over the cheat sheet the one thing i notice I did wrong was install the oblivion patch, and not the oblivion shivering isles patch instead. Can't seem to install the shivering isles patch on top of it, so it might be that. I'll try reinstalling fcom, and if that doesn't work i'll reinstall oblivion using the right patch this time round.

 

Also, i used the unofficial patches. Not sure if this might conflict with FCOM at all. I'll try disabling them as well to see what effect that has

 

Thanks for the help. I'll look into the whole BSA/ESP thing as well.

[DavidBudreck]

You can manually "Register" your .bas files by editing the Oblivion.ini file located in your Oblivion Saved Games folder.

 

Put it at the end of the line that starts with "SArchiveList=Oblivion - Meshes.bsa," add a comma to the end, then add mmm.bsa

 

So, it would look like this: SArchiveList=Oblivion - Meshes.bsa, <a whole bunch of files>.bsa, mmm.bsa (or FraNewItems.bas, or whatever.bsa) You can string them together separated by commas. All of your .bas files should be registered.

 

But, I doubt whether this will help with the crashing, but you never know. Oblivion is just plain unstable. I crash all the time, and I don't care if MMM causes it, MMM (as part of FCOM) is worth it.

 

 

Crashing the way you are describing happens to me as well, including the flash of yellow. In my case it was the Waterfront. I got it to stay alive once long enough to see that the sidewalks were yellow (in the waterfront) and then in a different case that my character's skin was yellow. I could also see that the water was not being rendered, or had not been rendered yet before it crashed.

 

I has to be a hidden conflict somewhere; I doubt very seriously whether reinstalling FCOM, or the game itself, will solve the problem. My best guess, and this is only an educated guess so far, is that it is caused by some land conflict with OOO.

[DavidBudreck]

OK, definitely a conflict.

 

I have just experience the strangest things I have ever seen in Oblivion.

 

I had AFK Weye, Region Revive Lake Rumare, and Unique Landscapes Imperial Isle all installed at once (along with a Bunch of patches). All three of these basically modify the same area. For a while it was actually OK, but then I couldn't go to the waterfront, and then I couldn't go to Weye...

 

 

I just had a couple of experience where the game ung on long enough before it creashed to let me catch a glimpse of the entire landscape renedered in the same bright yellow as the "No Mesh!" marker. Really weird looking!

 

I had to pick one to uninstall, so I picked Region Revive, and now all of a sudden I can go to Weye.

 

I have also Just upgraded to Windows 7, and had been running in Compatibility mode, but that actually did more harm than good. When I uninstalled, and unchecked Compatibility, viola!

 

 

So, DON'T reinstall everything!

 

Instead, figure out which mods are conflicting (which, as always, is MUCH more easily said than done...).

[origin555]

Thanks for the information. Just been testing to see which mods are incompatible, and i noticed another bug which might mean i've used wrye bash badly, which i guess might also be the cause of the crashes. Dremora and daedra are opposing factions, and fight each other on sight. Im guessing this isn't a feature of any FCOM mod, so I guess I've done something wrong with the bashed patch. Tried reading guides on wrye bash and they either don't include information about bash patchs or I just don't understand them.

 

Currently, I have alias mod names, merge patches and levelled lists checked on the bash patch. Should i be importing factions? Or using any of the other options? Are there any layman guides to Wrye bash for those of us with the inability to understand long words?

[origin555]

I've found the culprit. MMM causes it even with no other mods loaded. After looking back over the FCOM cheat sheet I notice something wrong with the MMM install. It asks me to install 3.5.5 OMOD, which i did, but then asks you to take 'Meshes,' Sound,' and 'Textures' folders and Mart's Monster Mod.esm from 3.7 beta, but the download it sends me to only has the esm, and a link to a BSA which i didn't download. I don't know what the different file types do, but i thought a BSA wouldn't include a meshes sounds and textures folder. Im guessing that was a wrong assumption. Will try downloading the BSA...although won't that just replace the BSA from the omod?

 

Maybe i should have downloaded the beta 1 not the beta 3. Seems the beta 3 isn't an update for 3.5.5 like i assumed. Sounds like this is what caused the problem. Doh. Will try that now

[origin555]

reinstalled MMM using the patch beta 1 and not the full beta 3, and it seems to have solved the problem. My idiocy strikes again