CTD when trying to enter Chevy Chase

[KresoX]

I've been playing a single FO3 playthrough for months now without any issues in Chevy Chase, passing through it relatively frequently, but several days ago I noticed that I'm suddenly getting an instant ctd when trying to enter it, no matter from what direction (from a metro station, from within GNR, doesn't matter). The rest of my Wasteland is ok, I get what one might call a regular amount of various ctds but they're random and infrequent - a normal FO3 feature - while this Chevy Chase issue means a ctd in 100 % of cases.

 

Please note that I did read the "How to ask for help" instructions but I haven't provided the requested hw/config/game/paths/mods details because I'm _not_ looking for troubleshooting, I'm looking for a person that might have had this exact problem in this exact location. I hope the admin(s) won't mind such approach.

 

So, has anyone else had Chevy Chase ctds and how did you solve it?

[Shadyfan4500]

Not exactly troubleshooting, but not exactly what your looking for:

 

If you've modded your game, download xEdit if you don't already have it. Fire it up, and then click Okay on the popup. Find the name of the cell on the Wiki (I already did, they're all located here) and then search it in the Filter bar at the top. Right click the right window, and then select Hide No Conflict Rows. If nothing shows up, then it's not a mod problem. If you don't know what you're doing, and something does show up, then you might want to read up on xEdit and what it does. It's not hard to figure out, and if you are modding your game, it's very likely that this will fix your game, if you do it right.

 

There are certain mods you can install to reduce the crashing:

Better Game Performance

CASM

Large Address Aware Enabler for FO3

Purge Cell Buffers (Not sure if I recommend, but this may fix your specific problem)

Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch

 

Otherwise, there are still steps you can take to mitigate the crashes without mods. This whole response is assuming you're playing on PC. This guide (located on Steam) says it's for Windows 8/8.1, but it appears to work on 7 and 10 as well. It is unnecessary on XP or Vista, but it's also very unlikely you're using one of those.

 

These solutions are ordered by tediousness. Least tedious to most. If nothing here works, then I'm out of suggestions. I hope it works out for you.

[Deleted1205226User]

From the suggestion above there's two point I don't agree:

 

Better game performance is NOT generally recommended by knowledgeable modders, test extensively first: some reports of minor slowdowns or worse, to include CTDs and corrupted saves. Best used with a "merged patch" or left out

 

Purge cells buffer is more a debbuging tool and should not be included in a game play load order

[Shadyfan4500]

I just got a warning about mods like that in another thread of mine, which is why I couldn't exactly recommend PCB. I did the console command in my FNV playthrough that kept crashing when I tried to enter the back of The Fort, and it worked, but apparently it's not recommended whatsoever. I grabbed those 5 mods from my current Load Order for FO3. I haven't played it in a long while though, and I'm not sure if it works on my Windows 8 computer at the moment. I know I went through all the trouble of getting a partition of Windows Vista just to play it at one point.. So it probably doesn't work on my normal setup.

 

One thing both of us left out: Never quick save your game. I encountered this problem in Skyrim, and apparently it's present in all Betheseda Games, where games become highly unstable after prolonged use of quick saves. Some people say it can mess with the game permanently after even one. I think it glitched out the Nightingale Quest, where Brynjolf and Karliah would stop moving completely, and some of my best attempts at using the console proved fruitless. If you want to play it safe, and if it's even possible for the FO3 version, set CASM to do full saves. If it stutters when CASM autosaves, then I would do it every 5 or 10 minutes.

[KresoX]

Thank you both for your suggestions, that was really quick - I wasn't expecting feedback so quickly so I'm pleasantly surprised :-)

 

Yep, I've been playing on a PC and have already applied the most common anti-crash/anti-stutter tweaks out there (ini tweaks, enabling 4GB, stutter remover, no auto/quicksaving...) months ago, while all the time being quite careful about reading each new mod's Desc and Posts to check out for known issues, conflicts etc. My current load order is 177 active plugins and 140 active mods and everything works just fine. Except for this Chevy Chase thing, that is.

 

-I'll first try if a new GPU helps. I'm currently using an old and heavily overclocked GTX 460, but my new GTX 1050 Ti is already on its way so we'll see if it helps. I doubt, but we'll see.

-If that doesn't work, I'll definitely try the above procedure with xEdit (something I never tried before; my "expertise" starts and ends with NMM), so again thanks for that advice.

 

I'll provide an update after trying all this.

Edited May 7, 2018 by KresoX

[Shadyfan4500]

It's likely that xEdit will fix the whole problem for you then. I've had the same problem many times and it was able to fix it, or mitigate it. One thing you should read up on is the Global Merged Patch feature. You have so many mods, this process may take a while, but it should reduce further incompatibilities. On a basic level, the merged patch takes all conflicts from every plugin, and lets you choose which parts from which mod for each conflict "win." It's an extremely useful tool, and I absolutely recommend this for more than maybe 30 mods on Fallout 3 and New Vegas. If you haven't, I would also check out LOOT, Load Order Optimization Tool. Use LOOT first, then make a Merged Patch. LOOT organizes the load order to allow the proper mods to load first to avoid many avoidable conflicts, then your merged patch picks up the stragglers.

[KresoX]

Ok, the issue healed on its own :-)

 

A quest mod took me to the GNR building so I tested exiting to Chevy Chase and the result was as expected, a ctd. The same mod then took me to some other location, and while I was on my way I was passing through Metro Junction where there's another exit to Chevy Chase. So I said to myself: ok, let's give it a go. And, to my utter surprise, I successfully entered Chevy Chase. From that point on, _everything_ has been working well - I can go entering and leaving Chevy Chase as I please, no matter which direction and no matter how many times. Strange, eh?

 

The only relatively strange thing I found on Chevy Chase was something that seemed to me like a little bit too much enemies than usual; there were 10 or more supermutants (and their abominated pets) there where exits to metros are located, and the same amount in and around that school in front of GNR entrance. By the school I was even attacked by two supermutant behemoths at the same time, which is something that I don't think I've ever seen before. Plus, two unrelated mods had their corpses in Chevy Chase as well. I haven't touched my MMM settings for months and haven't got any other mod that would (at least to my knowledge) influence the extra spawns, but that - the large amount of NPCs - is the only detail that strikes me as a bit odd about the whole story.

 

Well, at least in the meantime I've learned the basics of FO3Edit by checking for conflicts on Chevy Chase (none, btw.) and also by getting one crucial item from a corpse lying there (from the times I couldn't reach the location and I needed the item to move on with the quest). So everything bad for something good, I guess :-) I haven't had the opportunity to see what happens when I switch for a better graphics card because it still hasn't arrived.

 

Anyway, problem solved. Dumb luck but I won't be picky :-)

Shadyfan4500, pixelhate, I thank you both for your comments and advices, they're highly appreciated.

Edited May 17, 2018 by KresoX