Kelmych

When leaving vault 101 the game engine is stressed since it is the first time in the wasteland. Run GPUz while doing this and see how much VRAM is used when you leave Vault 101. If the VRAM usage seems high then reduce the number of high resolution textures being used, and/orwhen you ran Fallout Launcher (or fINIp 3) did what graphics option did you choose. If you chose Ultra you might want to redo this (which requires redoing the INI tweaks in MO) or just change the Fallout.ini and FalloutPrefs.ini to the values for the High (or a lower) choice. You should also monitor CPU use when leaving Vault 101 to see how high it gets. As also mentioned in answers to a lot of other support questions, it's a good idea to try testing using different MO profile(s) with fewer plugins when leaving Valut 101 (or other times when the game seems to become quite unstable) to test whether there are more plugins being used than the system and game engine can support.

You can remove EBT from the extended patch using TES5Edit. Search the forums using Advanced search and you should find this discussed. Basically you would modify the patch by removing the records that reference EBT vs. vanilla assets and then using Clean Masters to remove EBT from the patch. Note that this mod by itself is not likely to be the primary source of game freezing.

You'll find a lot of discussion about z-fighting and potential solutions (typically by changing Ini parameter values) in the Support and Troubleshooting forum threads. It's a Bethesda engine problem. For Skyrim DynDOLOD also helps to reduce this effect. I am not sure how much if any help comes from the static LOD from using FO3LODGen.

I have a small problem with the program. I setup the integrations tab with the location of my Mod Organizer path (which is on an HDD) and with the location of the Mod Organizer mods path (which is on an SSD). When I created a merge it put the resulting merged mod folder in a "mods" folder in the HDD Mod Organizer path vs. the mods directory on the SSD.

I'll be adding the new Merge Plugins Standalone {PUBLIC BETA} to the guide as soon as it seems to be ready for general use; it is being discussed in this thread. It replaces the Merge Plugins script for xEdit. If you are merging some plugins to reduce the total plugin count you might want to try using it; note that it is a beta version and is evolving.

You might want to eliminate (uncheck the plugin or possibly uncheck the mod itself) some of the mods with plugins that are less interesting to you to see if it matters. There are only a few mods marked Core, and in most cases it is because they affect other mods in the guide (vs. being critical for use with the guide). I added a lot of mods about locations since these add some immersion (the vast majority of buildings in vanilla Fallout 3 have no interior spaces) and they don't typically add any conflicts in the plugin; you might want to choose only those location mods that are interesting to you. There are a number of clothing, armor, and weapon mods and you might want to use only a subset of these. The game was never particularly stable; the original playthroughs I did years ago had some significant problems including a train station in the main quest that was unreachable.

It tested the new script using a new game (to eliminate any potential problems with recipes from old save games), using the same tests I used when I sent you an email about the problems with the previous version of this script. The new script seems to be working correctly; I did not see any problems with it at all. I added 2 waterskins (3/3) and the Apple Cabbage Stew recipe showed that I had 6 water. I did not need to consume any water for this this to be correctly recognized. When I drank some water the recipe still showed the correct amount of water in my inventory (now 5). I added a jug of water (7/8) to my inventory (jug of water is a CACO item). The Apple Cabbage Stew recipe now showed that I had 12 water. When I exited the Cooking Pot menu my inventory included 2 full waterskins (3/3), a partially full waterskin (2/3), and a partially full jug of water (4/8) for a total of 12 water. All of this seems to be the expected behavior. Thanks for the quick fix kryptopyr .

I have a lot more than 92 plugins and when I was building the guide and testing the mods I did not notice such an effect. If there is such an effect the number of mods before this occurs could be system dependent. I had no crashes at all for a long time after I started the game. I have noticed that as a the length of time in the game increases there seem to be more random crashes. Since Fallout 3 wasn't built for the capabilities in current PC hardware and software it's hard to know what are the primary causes of instability.

I test in game almost every mod in the guide. There were questions about the status of this mod and interest in it a while ago so I added it as an optional mod. I purposely added comments about the experimental nature of this mod to encourage users to try it to see if it should be included as a recommended mod.

It was a single mod a long time ago, but when the fomods were added it became separated and it wasn't practical to suggest merging it.

The instructions should be correct now.

As mentioned on the Nexus page and in the FO3 guide the NPC additions mod is experimental. It was added because of the high interest in FCO so users who wanted to try it (and edit it) could do so.

I have some waterskins and when I drink from one the item menu shows a decreased amount of water in the waterskin (the correct behavior). I hadn't previously looked at a water in recipes in a Cooking pot, but similar to what Shadriss noted when I drank the water the cooking pot recipe said I had added some water (vs. decreased it). I also got a jug of water (CACO_FoodIngrWater) from a well and when I drink water from it the message correctly says the water has decreased. If I have it my inventory when I use the Cooking Pot the recipe correctly shows the added water. I did not use the recipe and exited the Cooking Pot menu, but now the water jug shows that water has been consumed or the jug might be gone. In the Cooking Pot menu the recipe still shows the same amount of water as the last time I looked at the recipe.

Yes

Thanks for the comments on the mods. I'll look at these. I don't recommend using Optimizer textures. It uses a one-size-fits-all approach to optimization that can cause problems (e.g. it does a poor job of optimizing compressed normal maps). Look at "How does DDSopt compare with Optimizer Textures" in the FAQ section of the DDSopt guide.

Will the merged version be released soon?

Like many others, I've been looking forward to this mod for a long time so there would be an Alchemy mod that makes Alchemy a much more useful part of the game. A few thoughts on the areas for debate: Bombs: I would also put Shock bombs in the same category as fire bombs. Stun effects can be obtained using a mix of non-magical chemicals (usually including aluminum) and doesn't need gunpowder, and Corundum in the game has been likened to aluminum. The magic system includes runes which provide a bomb-like effect, so I could also see justifying bombs as the alchemical version of the magic runes. Potions: Often the real effect of taking multiple doses of the same potion is diminished benefits for subsequent doses after the first dose and the increased possibility for significant side effects (typically harmful). Adding these two factors (diminished returns and the "poisoning" effect mentioned by Tech) might be difficult to add to the game. I feel non-stacking potions (for potions with the same effect), along with potions of different strength, is the best alternative without making a significant change to the scripts for potion use to accommodate both of these changes (I realize the new alcohol effects in CACO handle both of these, but it is a lot more complex than the ordinary potion effects). I don't think taking multiple copies of the same potion should increase its duration; taking more aspirin (as an example) doesn't change the duration of the effect. I also feel that potions should not take effect instantly, and should provide an effect over some time period. Some would act very quickly while others would provide an effect (e.g., increasing health) at a fixed rate over a predetermined time. Some would provide an constant effect (e.g., improved weapon skill) over a period of time. Needs: I agree that this should be up to the individual player. The Fallout 3 Wanderers Edition mod included the Needs mechanism in the Fallout series (based on an existing Fallout 3 mod) and Bethesda then included it in the vanilla Fallout New Vegas. In both cases it is optional. I like that CACO has tried to provide a lightweight Needs capability while retaining compatiblity with other Needs mod like iNeed (which I use).

I haven't gotten to that quest yet. I don't know any easy fixes for such problems. You could remove the Big Town mod, of course. It may be possible to fix the navmeshes so they are compatible, but it requires loading the mods in the GECK (there are discussions about this procedure in some Skyrim posts). Otherwise it requires non-immersive console changes.

I was thinking primarily of the tweaks that would be the same in both games like the Antialiasing tweak. I'll look at some of the other ones like grass.

There are multiple screenshots so I'm not sure which one you mention. Before running the cleaning program you should have 33,340 files in "Vanilla Extracted" as shown in the first screenshot (Working Folder Screenshot). The cleaning program removes 248 files, so after it runs there should be 33,092 files in "Vanilla Extracted" as shown in the 2nd screenshot (Working Folder Screenshot after Pre-optimization). How many files do you see there?

You added an INI tweaks file to the Skyrim version of this mod. Would it be useful to add a similar version for Fallout 3?

I didn't have this problem in my current FO3 playthrough (I am using the Big Town mod, by the way), but I have in at least one of the previous times I used this quest. At least one of these times I was using the vanilla Big Town when the problem happened (no Big Town mod) so it's unlikely that the mod is the problem. The Big Trouble in Big Town quest seems to be one of the least stable vanilla quests in the game. I have had other problems in the past with it also, particularly when training the residents. The wiki site has the quest stages, and you might be able to use these to set the quest to a stage where it works when you move forward.

As you can see from my system specs, my system is similar to yours. I have traveled through Big Town and the Riverside Cafe and I haven't had the problems you describe. I'm not sure what is causing the problem you are noticing. In other Bethesda games like Skyrim I have had FPS problems in a few locations when looking in some directions, like you are seeing in FO3. Most of the time I have seen these problems discussed on the STEP forums they were eventually fixed by changing some configuration (INI) values. The INI tweak section of the FO3 guide was recently amended to include the new recommendations that DoubleYou has been creating; for my system I recently redid my INI settings using the DoubleYou's procedure described in the guide. In troubleshooting your problem you might also find some of the spINI tweaks that DoubleYou added in a file on the new Skyrim INI parameters page on Nexus. These allow making changes to one set of parameters at a time. The discussion in the Skyrim INI parameters forum might also have some useful suggestions.

I haven't had time yet to see how well FCO works when FO3 Redesigned is also used. I've been waiting for the FO3 version FCO, and hoping that others will test it in addition to me. Because I was expecting FCO I didn't add any other face mods for FO3; I expected users would try different ones and mention their experiences with them. In addition to Project Beauty I previously used Lings, but I haven't tried Hall of Face or other more recent mods.

FCO has only recently been updated in FO3 to support NPCs. Its difficult to say much about its performance yet.