Corruption, Thy Name is Console?

[Moksha8088]

 

November 24th, 2015 at 4:07 pm - Author, KitGuru Website

Matthew Wilson

It is common for PC gamers to use the developer command console within Bethesda games to access certain things, like secret rooms filled with every item in the game, or cheat a little by unlocking a door or adding a few extra experience points to your character. However, with Fallout 4, it seems that Bethesda wants to warn against it, as it could “easily” corrupt save files.

With a game as big as Fallout 4, losing your save file could result in hours worth of time lost. Answering a fan question on Twitter, Bethesda’s Pete Hines explained that the use of console is “not supported or recommended on PC”, he then went on to say that it can “very easily mess up save games”.

One person chimed in to claim that he has been using the console in most Bethesda games without issue, to which Hines admitted that not everyone will have issues. If you do plan on using the console in Fallout 4 at all, then you could easily protect your save files by backing them up, this way you can always revert to a non-corrupt file if something does go wrong.

 

Not using the console (which has saved many of us in the past from being stuck, etc...) sort of puts the PC game more in the TV console range with better graphics, but equally inept at solving in-game glitches through ingenious command solutions. Personally, I have a keyboard, mouse and memory of a number of console codes for past Bethesda games.

 

So do we make frequent quick saves and trust this issue will be addressed in an unofficial patch from a team of Fallout 4 modders?

 

 

[geekminxen]

I used console commands almost from the start with no problems. In fact, the endgame quest bugged on me twice and I wouldn't have been able to finish the game without the console.

[Arthmoor]

That has always been true though. Use of the console is NEVER something Bethesda will support doing. I'm frankly surprised they haven't chimed in about this before now. It's well known that misuse can lead to serious problems later, and you may not know it was serious until it's way too late to undo it without losing dozens or hundreds of hours.

 

Rather than hoping for saviors on a UFO4P (which, yes, we're making plans for) you should be pushing Bethesda to fix the things you are trying to skirt with console commands so that the use of the console becomes unnecessary.

[Oubliette]

That sounds more like the type of thinking that doesn't do mod users justice but does speak to the large amount of people who do things to their games without any understanding of what they're doing. Basically there are people who will brick their games time and again by doing things they think they know how to do but actually don't.

 

And then there's the rest of us.

 

Also, stay away from quick saves. Those are more reliably game breaking than using the console in the hands of an experienced mod user.

[Warmaker01]

That has always been true though. Use of the console is NEVER something Bethesda will support doing. I'm frankly surprised they haven't chimed in about this before now. It's well known that misuse can lead to serious problems later, and you may not know it was serious until it's way too late to undo it without losing dozens or hundreds of hours.

 

Rather than hoping for saviors on a UFO4P (which, yes, we're making plans for) you should be pushing Bethesda to fix the things you are trying to skirt with console commands so that the use of the console becomes unnecessary.

This had always been true. There are certain uses of the console commands on a regular basis that are harmless. When you start affecting important non-companion NPCs, quests, etc you're taking riskier actions. Probably has to do with flags and such. There's more risky measures in Console Commands. Then there's less harmless stuff like... "Moar ammo."

 

Also, stay away from quick saves. Those are more reliably game breaking than using the console in the hands of an experienced mod user.

Haha, I remember learning that lesson long ago with FO3. I had a standard save file that I barely used because I used quick save all the time. Then the quick save file took a dump and I was screwed.

I've logged a lot of hours in FO4 and thankfully have yet to come across a save corrupted game. But when it happened in past games, it was usually late game characters.

Edited November 24, 2015 by Warmaker01

[Arthmoor]

Also, stay away from quick saves. Those are more reliably game breaking than using the console in the hands of an experienced mod user.

Urban legend.

 

Quicksave, Autosave, Manual save, and even console save are all piped into the same routine that performs the actual saving of the files. Then the OS does the actual work.

 

The only reason they're perceived as dangerous at all is because Bethesda games tend to crash more than others, and your chances of you ruining your game approach 100% of you rely on only quick/autosave as a means of preserving progress because eventually you'll crash during a save and that's it.

 

During normal gameplay, these saves are all completely reliable unless the game crashes while the save process is open.

[Deleted3507349User]

TCL is usually safe, and is probably the one I use the most....mainly because I have a horrible habit of extreme billy-goating around all over the place.

[LordGrievous]

Sounds like what a company would typically say to let people know that they don't want to troubleshot something. They aren't going to bother helping people who've used the console, so they're saying not to.

 

I highly doubt the console is so vastly different in FO4 that it could obliterate your game during intelligent use. It could always brick your game if you don't know what you're doing. Then, big whoop, you reload your last save.

[Vagrant0]

I don't see what the issue is... To be completely frank I've been abusing the hell out of the console, quicksave, and even using mods created with FO4edit. No problems on this end. Game is stable and runs well 95% of the time, able to run for several hours at a time without issue. The places where I have noticed issues however are those parts which are directly related to the scripting of the game. Quest conditions not triggering properly, settlements having their information bug out, NPCs not updating their packages, ect. This isn't the fault of using console or properly assembled mods, it is the game itself.

 

Sure, if you teleport to a cheat room, loot everything including quest objects, then complain that a quest isn't working right, then yeah, you kinda dug your own grave there. But for other cases it sounds like they're trying to pass off actual game bugs as some sort of user error. Combined with the very lackluster patches they've released that have addressed none of these issues, starting to understand the whole "modders will fix everything" mentality.

[Moksha8088]

As a general rule, commands like player.additem a or f won't hurt anything (I think I am hearing that as a general consensus) just as long as we don't uncover a previously unknown spear gun. I think some of us have prevented cursing at some mods by using the setstage command (best if it is the author's suggestion). Perhaps FO4 adds less leeway for PC players than previous Bethesda games.

 

Adding fear, uncertainty and doubt into console usage may save our butts, however, game players have been known to open the door and look into the hallway without slipping on a banana peel in the process. Mods will be mods and we want to enjoy them, even if the main game is sacrosanct until someone addresses those ever so slight glitches that happen.