Restoring an old save file

[Dubik123]

Hello, this is another embarrassing post from me.

Quite a while ago, Ive done a complete reinstall of my game. I deleted my old saves, my mods and practically everything from my old playtroughs and reinstalled my game.

 

I still backed everything up, in case I would want to go back to it. And now I do.

 

What do I need to do though? I have complete copies of all the files from my old game. The data folder includes all my mods in the exact order they were in back then.

Do I just reinstall the game and add the files in, or are there any other steps I need to do?

 

Thanks in advance.

[dubiousintent]

Haven't exactly done this, but the only potential problem areas lie in:

 

1) The INI files in your "C:\Users\<YourAccountName>\Documents\My Games\FalloutNV" are specific to your hardware setup and the game settings you had previously selected. If you preserved them but anything changed in the environment, then your best bet would be to rename them to something else, and launch the game from the vanilla executable so it will rebuild them. Then make the tweaks needed from your renamed backup copies. Note that some mods and other game components (like using ENB or SweetFX) may also make changes to the INIs without your knowledge. Also note that when you launch something using an "administrator" account, it runs under that account's credentials and saves it's files to that account's "Users" folder. The administrator account is separate from a regular "user" account.

 

2) The save game files can simply be restored to the "Users" folder "saves" sub-folder. However, they are highly dependent upon which mods you had installed previously. If you load a save and it informs you of "missing content", you are missing an active mod. At which point you need to either determine which is missing or decide you are going on without it. "Removing" or skipping a mod that was previously included in the game is one of the things known to cause game instability. Even with a "clean save", the save game file can still contain dangling quest stages and variables. Removing quest mods is the major thing you want to avoid, but others that affect game play aspects like factions are also of concern.

 

3) The load order is most important for mod conflict resolution, and which "wins" those conflicts. If you can keep it the same, great. If not, you might get get some different "winners" but still have a stable game.

 

4) If it has been a year or more, likely you are going to find mods you used have been updated or effectively replaced by newer ones. Even updating can cause game instabilities. If there are more than a couple, you should really consider starting a new game and take advantage of the many "lessons learned" since then.

 

At the least consider reviewing the many things needed for a stable game that you have likely forgotten since then. I suggest reviewing the wiki article "FNV General Mod Use Advice" as a starting point, because it links in other articles with more expanded, specific information.

 

-Dubious-

[Dubik123]

Hi Dubious, thank you for your reply.

 

I have got copies of all the New Vegas folders in the exact state they were during my old playtroughs. I didnt change anything, the .INI files are the same and I have an exact copy of the data folder with the .esps of my old mods, so I dont think that it would be too much of an issue if they were outdated.

 

In case I have too many outdated mods, I have an idea. Would it work if I restored my old saves, then saved my game and updated the mods? If so, that, again, isnt too much of an issue.

 

As to my load order, I didnt have any mods that required to be in a certain position to work properly (At least I think I didnt...). I will try to look into it if I manage to restore my game, maybe LOOT can help too.

 

Again, appreciate the notice and thank you for your advice.

[dubiousintent]

Technically that should work. I would HIGHLY recommend you upgrade one mod at a time, and test thoroughly and then make a new save before adding another. Make notes about which mod was updated for each save. That way you know which to revert back to if a later update proves to have a major conflict with an earlier one. Take care of all of the updates prior to resuming play. As noted earlier, it's removing mods that causes the most headaches. If you weed out the problems before pursuing the game, you will have a smooth and much more stable experience.

 

One crucial point that's in the wiki article "Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting". Don't use the game's "auto-save" feature. See the link.

 

Good luck, and happy gaming.

 

-Dubious-

[Dubik123]

Okay, so I restored my old save file and everything seems to be working fine. I tried running around for a while, even fast travelled to a modded location and it looks to be okay.

 

However, at one point during my playtrough (Before it was deleted), I had to disable a mod because it conflicted with another one. So now when I load the most recent save file, it says that some content is missing, but I cant re-enable it, because it would cause problems. Is it okay if I leave it disabled?

[dubiousintent]

It sort of depends upon the conflicting mod. If it was one with a quest, it would be better to revert to a save prior to adding it. If it's one that just adds object content (like armor or weapons) make sure you don't have any in your inventory, and make a "clean save" (meaning load the save, acknowledge the "missing content" message, wait 3 days (or however long you have it set for cells to respawn) and then save again). Now when you load the new save, you shouldn't get a "missing content" message and the cells respawning should have cleared out any of the removed mod's content.

 

The "missing content" message is a warning; not necessarily a fatal error. The most common consequence is items from the missing mod vanishing from your inventory, but there can be other "hidden" effects noone other than the author can predict. Which is why it's safest to revert to a save prior to adding the conflicting mod if possible. (And why saving often is advised.)

 

-Dubious-

[Dubik123]

It was a house mod, it was conflicting with a quest mod. I have played for quite a long time without it and I didnt notice anything unusual. It shouldnt be a problem.

[Dubik123]

I have also checked my mods and none of them need to be updated. Is there anything else to do, or can I safely play the game now?

[dubiousintent]

If everything has worked fine in your tests, then I would say go ahead and resume playing. Just keep track of the save point where you restarted, so you know how far back you might need to go if something really weird or disastrous occurs within the first 4 hours or so. If you get that far without problems it's not likely to be a lingering problem from before.

 

Good luck ,and happy gaming.

 

-Dubious-

[Dubik123]

Well, there hasnt really been anything strange so far, except for one bug that plagues my game since the first reinstall. I really dont want to bother you with it, as you have helped me enough, but I will write it down in case you want to take a look.

 

My game renders textures very slowly, even if the render distance is set to maximum. Its mostly terrain and rocks and the mountains in the distance keep flickering, so do the lights of the casinos in Vegas when looking at them from a distance. I have done two reinstalls with two playtroughs before the recent one and the bug was always there. At the moment, its much less noticeable than before, but still there. I know the game generates textures quite slowly, but this must be a bug since my PC is far beyond the recommended settings for this game. I also tried optimalizing the game trough GeForce Experience, but to no avail. I suppose it is also worth noting that I get a massive performance drop when the textures appear, I go from 60 FPS to about 10 and then jump back up.

 

Anyway, in case you have any ideas on how to fix this, I would be very happy. But if you dont, thats fine, you helped me enough already.

 

Thanks.