If it's not, and it MIGHT be a mod, wether being faulty on its own on badly installed...its hard to find out, and there are only so many vague suggestions that actually work.
So, here's a guide from someone who's has always gotten his Gamebryo games modded. Ranging from Oblivion, to Fallout 3 and New Vegas. The below suggestions are written with New Vegas in mind, but will very likely work on Fallout 3 too, and probably with Oblivion aswell.
So, lets get started.
First, you need to know what kind of crash you're having.
There are several types, so I'll sum them up for you.
- Startup crashes.
- Immediate Crash
- Semi-Immediate Crash
- Crash on loading savegame
- Gameplay crashes
- Overload crashes
- Savegame bloating
- Other moments
You can also look up chapter names to skip right to them.
Chapter names and imported words are usually bolded and/or underlined. Something in Italics is usually context sensitive, like something you should put in console or a quoted message.
When you crash during the launching of the game, there are distinct differences, and what problem they point out to.
1.1
The Immediate Crash is the easiest one. This occurs even before the game music starts, before you even see the F3 slides or the NV backgrounds. This points out to your settings being faulty. And actually was the final drop to convince me to make this guide.
Alot of tools mess with your settings, even some mods. Usually, this is done responsibly, like the Darnui changes your Font settings. In all my years and all the games I've used Darnui (google it, it updates alot), I've never had a complaint that I couldnt blame myself or a crappy modder for. (usually myself)
Solving it is easy too. Locate where your settings are located. There are plenty of websites explaining where you can find these on your own Microsoft OS, so I'll permit myself to be vague about it.
It generally is NOT in the folder where the game is installed, especially when using a Steam game, especially for NV since its not legally available elsewhere for PC but Steam.
Instead, it tends to land in a folder like in My Games or My Documents. Search around, especially Vista and Windows 7 like to use those without asking you. Mines in \Documents\My games\FalloutNV. Easy peasy.
Once you get there, you should delete both Fallout.ini and FalloutPref.ini
Don't worry, whenever the game can't find these, it will assume you're on a fresh install and just create a fresh one. Then simply go to the games Launcher to find the settings, and brush them up to your suiting.
If that doesn't fix it, you're either looking at the wrong type of Crash in this guide, your computer is simply not fit or strong enough for the game, or you screwed up the computer self BADLY. Alienware users, try to make sure Stealth mode is not enabled, but that should only harm the framerate, not crash it.
1.2
The Semi-Immediate Crash is sadly the most common one, and often the hardest one to figure out. It was the first incentive to build this guide for you all, but not the only and final one.
Typical moment is when you hear the game start, the music plays, and you get to see the slide that shows that credits Bethesda. If you crash at around this point, you've got a problem with one of your mods.
Common issues:
- Load order crash
- Bad sorting
- Missing master
- Missing other file
Oblivion has Oblivion.esm Fallout 3 had Fallout3.esm and New Vegas has FalloutNV.esm
Below that mentioning, should be any other mod files the mod requires.
Example:
- Mod A needs Mod B for some reason.
- Mod A will have Mod B listed as a master in its description
- Mod A must be loaded UNDER Mod B, as all mods can see what mods are loaded before it, but not after it.
When properly installed, you can start it, and you will immediatly see your load order list. Just press Ok, you shouldnt make any changes here unless you know what youre doing and why youre doing it.
Now it will load your game, simulating the part of the game loading up all the plugins (mods) you have installed. Below is an example what gets put in the Message Box if I put a mod requiring the FalloutNV.esm on top of the load order.
[00:02] Background Loader: Fatal: <Exception: "SomeMod.esm" requires master "FalloutNV.esm" to be loaded before it.>
You immediately see what mod is not properly sorted, being SomeMod.esm
To fix it, you simply open your preferred Mod Manager, and sort it below the master it requires.
For one mod, thats do-able, but for a whole bunch of mods? You'll thats too much for you, and I can't agree more.
For that, you shoud install BOSS (Better Oblivion Sorting Software). There's one for all three games, but I think my copy installed for all three.
If you fire it up for the first time, I suggest you let it run with updating the masterlist.
There you go, BOSS will optimally sort your load order for you. Be sure to not have any Mod Manager or Wrye Bash open while doing so, or the changes will be undone.
At the bottom of the window that will open after BOSS has sorted, will be the mods that it couldnt sort. Common sense into sorting this, as I have explained to you earlier, should help. Off you go!
IF that does not work, it might be something else, again.
One crash that FNVEdit does not pick up on is missing Menu files.
In Data/Menus, if a mod requires a file in there, but does not find it, the game will crash, yet FNVEdit will not pick up on that.
Sollution: Re-install that mod if it was responsible for adding that file in the first place. Its safe to assume, if its not a dirty mod, you were responsible for it. :P And you're capable now to fix it!
1.3
A crash on loading a savegame can come over as complicated, but is actually pretty easy to diagnose and fix. If fixable at all.
There are a few reasons why a savegame suddenly wont load.
- Badly corrupted savegames (as long as you only install proper mods, this will be unlikely)
- Bad Cell
- Bad Mesh
A corrupted savegame is tough to fix, if at all. If you are dearly afraid of ever running across such a situation, you should install CASM (available for F3 and NV). It wont prevent a corrupted savegame, but will automatically make neatly sorted saves for you too.
As we all know, the Autosave and Quicksave feature from all three games are buggy and have been known to cause crashes. Using CASM's system is much safer, and reliable. Be sure to tinker with its settings though, to suit your own taste. Some like to have a total of 50 saves before they automatically get rewritten, but I prefer to keep it to 10.
A Bad Cell is matter of sensibly uninstalling mods. First of all, do NOT uninstall a mod whereof you are in a room of. A cell is a room or a place in the game world. If you have a house mod, save your game in it, and then uninstall that mod, its only logic the game will crash. Simple as that. Either you re-install the mod, save your game OUTSIDE of that place, or you revert to an earlier save.
A Bad Mesh is something I've encounterred, and is utterly rare to happen, and only when the outfit is worn in the cell you're in that has the bad mesh.
I was installing Bouncing Breasts in my F3 game (yes, bouncing breasts. I dont need to hear from you about it, I just do it. Deal with it) and one mesh from the Ghost Bodysuit, specifically the one for the Harness, seemed to be bad for some reason. Probably has to do with the tricky way of making female outfit's breasts bounce.
It's very case specific for when this can happen. To see if its a clothing mod that will add an outfit to the game, try disabling its plugin file, usually an .esp and see if that works. If its a mod that replaces an outfit, you'll have to carefully undo the installation. If you installed the mod with FOMM's Package Manager, its easy peasy.
Dislocating a mesh is however an other thing, and does not cause a crash. It just shows you a red <!> error with a white exclemation mark. Thats an entire different case I might once cover here too.
2 Gameplay Crashes
Crashing during gameplay can be a bit fickle. Most issues are encounterred if your game crashes during startup.
2.1
An overload crash is simply you playing too long on the game. Closing the game or rebooting your computer can help if you've been gaming for hours at no end.
Sometimes, however, having a heavily modded game, can also lead you to crash if combat becomes very intense. Alot of different things are happening at the same time, enemies attack you, teammates attack them, you shoot somewhere in between... it can get chaotic.
If you crash during moments like that, consider uninstalling some mods or lowerring some quality in the game. Keeping a keen eye on the ammount of mods you have will significantly help you.
2.2
Savegame Bloating is dangerous. They lengthen savegame loading, and are caused by badly cleaned mods or mods that dont properly handle the items they (probably continuously) place in the game world.
See it like this: Mod A adds a new NPC in the world to be killed by you. Later on, in another encounter in that area, it created another new NPC, instead of re-using the earlier one, for you to kill. Creating a new reference constantly. This can go for many other ways too, such as items and whatnot. New objects are saved in your savegame, and too much of that without properly cleaning them will lead to your game being bloated.
If this goes too far, your game may simply be incapable of properly loading your savegame. Be sure to watch out on mods that let you place certain things in the world, like Portable item mods. Most popular ones are handled properly, but you never know...
2.3
There are various other reasons and other moments a crash during gameplay can happen.
Generally, if you think there's a mod involved, try narrowing it down. Investigate! Is it a cell added by a specific mod, or item?
If its a specific item in your inventory, yet you dont know what mod it is, try putting it in a container, opening console, and selecting that container.
When you type showinventory and press enter, you will see a list of the containers contents, including the refID of the items. The first two numbers of that ID indicate the mod in your load order. A mod with the ID of 1E000ADD will logically be owned by the mod in your load order order on the position of 1E. That way you can easily narrow down what things are related to what.
Mod incompatibility does not always lead to crashes. Common symptons for those are the game behaving oddly, unless its a specific function or trick a mod adds. But that usually will easily give away WHAT mod is causing it then.
Example: FWE and FOOK2 both have a breached entry option, allowing you to use explosives to give you access to locked doors or containers. If you however have BOTH overhauls installed, you will crash when you attempt this. This is a classic incompatibility.
These instructions should help you in your investigation why are you are crashing.
And remember, if you've narrowed down to what mod causing the problem, and you are absolutely certain it was not you improperly installing/configuring, you should contact the creator of the mod and ask for advice. And do so POLITELY!
Nobody likes to help someone who is raging at you, and remember that these mod authors are helping you by their choice. They are never legally obligated to provide support for their mod. Them doing so is either out of Mod-Author prestige or out of the good of their heart, commonly both.
Also, the Nexus community is helpful and will gladly help you with most of your problems.
