Can modding cause Vanilla Companions to dissapear from game?

[vipersfury86]

I'm having a strange issue that I've run across a few rimes before, only this time, it's at it's worst. I've been playing a modded New Vegas for about a year now, and after doing some mod installations, I was unable to find Cassidy at the Mohave Outpost. No, she wasn't my companion yet, since I hadn't done "Heartache By the Numbers" yet. But upon entering the cell, Cassidy is not there, and never returned. She did eventually come back after I scrapped my save file and started over again. I hadn't had that problem for a while, until this week. After spending some time crushing Fallout 4, I jumped back to New Vegas and started a new game with my mods. This time around, not a single vanilla companion is in the game; Boone is not up in the T- Rex at night, Veronica is not at the 188, Cass is not at the Mojave Outpost, Arcade is not at the Mormon fort, etc... they've literally disappeared from my game in total. Now, I REALLY don't want to have to start a new game, aside from the possibility that it won't fix the issue. I did try uninstalling and re- installing new vegas, as well as my mods. No dice. Does anyone have a solution, or could possibly direct me someplace that could give me an explanation? Thanks everyone.

[dubiousintent]

One (or more) of your mods is causing this issue. The vanilla companions are in the game ESM/ESP. Some mod is preventing their display, as evidenced by their sudden re-appearance when you scrapped a save file.

 

This relates back to "the rule of one". Without patching, the last mod to load overrules all earlier mods (in their entirety) that touch on the same record. That is the reason you need either a hand made "patch file" or to use a tool like "Wrye Flash" which creates a "Bashed Patch" (BP) that allows non-conflicting records from other mods to co-exist with the winning record from conflicting ones.

 

"Wrye Flash" (WF) is a version of "Wrye Bash" (WB) customized to work with the file format of FNV records. It works just the same as WB. So, the "Wrye Bash Pictorial Guide" works just fine as an introduction to how to use WF. In your case, everything you need to create a Bashed Patch is detailed in the "WBPG - Basics and Installers Intro.pdf" file.

 

Try creating a BP and see if it doesn't solve your current game problem.

 

-Dubious-

Edited March 23, 2016 by dubiousintent

[JimboUK]

Load up FNVEdit, expand FalloutNV.esm, then Non Player Character, locate one of the companions, it's easier to sort by name, now highlight that companion and in the right hand pane you'll see details about that character, also it will show any other plugins that make changes to that character, the culprit is likely to be one of those plugins.

[vipersfury86]

Thank you both! I'm giving those a try, as I already have FNVEdit. If that doesn't do it, I'll try Wyre flash.