GUIDE Fear and Loathing in New Vegas - Feedback

[EssArrBee]

I actually have been using STEP for a long time, but I found this guide through reddit, so it's definitely a great place to spread the word.

 

Are there going to be any mods that add NPC's or better spawns to the wasteland? In the past, I used to use mods like IWS or RePopulated Wasteland, but I hear they cause savegame bloat and other nasty problems. Are there any alternatives?

I know that one of the Uncut series mods Outside Bets ands extra NPCs around a few spots. It's not so much save game bloat that is a problem like with Skyrim, it's the engine's limitation to have lots of NPCs especially outdoors. I'll be very careful about adding those type of mods. Plus, they take quite a bit of testing if they add spawns all over the map.

 

I'm sure if you know of mods that consistently add savegame bloat you could report it to hlp and Queue on the NVAC thread on the nexus and NVSE thread on the Beth forums. They may be able to port the invalid registrations fix from SKSE to NVSE, like hlp did with the memory patch.

[oqhansoloqo]

So I narrowed my game not loading now to two culprits.  One of them is the flashlight NVSE.esp, and I'm pissed about that since it's one of the UI mods that I had trouble with previously.  And yes, there is another too - Vault22FloralOverhaul.esp.  I have yet to try enabling only one of the two (plus every other plugin) and recreating a bashed patch, because it's possible that at least with one of them it might work with a bashed patch.  But I know both won't... because that's how I had it before.

 

I'll keep you informed with what I discover.

 

I'm confused now though.  Another issue I just ran into, is that I ran BOSS today and it's telling me now that a couple other plugins have ITM dirty edits.  I don't know how this is possible, because the mods it is pointing out to me now were not showing dirty edits yesterday in BOSS.  Did BOSS masterlist get updated between last night and right now?

Edited June 22, 2014 by oqhansoloqo

[EssArrBee]

So I narrowed my game not loading now to two culprits.  One of them is the flashlight NVSE.esp, and I'm pissed about that since it's one of the UI mods that I had trouble with previously.  And yes, there is another too - Vault22FloralOverhaul.esp.  I have yet to try enabling only one of the two (plus every other plugin) and recreating a bashed patch, because it's possible that at least with one of them it might work with a bashed patch.  But I know both won't... because that's how I had it before.

 

I'll keep you informed with what I discover.

 

I'm confused now though.  Another issue I just ran into, is that I ran BOSS today and it's telling me now that a couple other plugins have ITM dirty edits.  I don't know how this is possible, because the mods it is pointing out to me now were not showing dirty edits yesterday in BOSS.  Did BOSS masterlist get updated between last night and right now?

Does the game make it to the start screen or does it just not load at all?

It got updated both times actually, Will and myself are just using Steam to chat since it's easier than posting on the forums and we can troubleshoot while in game.

[oqhansoloqo]

It doesn't load at all.  I have a feeling the installation of the Flashlight mod was messed up before though, because previously I used LOOT, and now I'm using BOSS.  Even though it loaded up with LOOT and I could use the flashlight in the game, whenever I tried to enter the flashlight's MCM it would give me annoying error messages within the game.  This is my first time trying to load the Vault 22 Floral Overhaul mod though - what's interesting, is that particular mod (the only one in the list, actually) gives a warning in BOSS about having dirty edits that cannot be cleaned.  I did not attempt to clean that mod, though.

 

OK, good to know that BOSS masterlist was edited a whole lot last night or earlier today.  At least I know I'm not going crazy or messing up my mods severely somehow unaware.

Edited June 22, 2014 by oqhansoloqo

[EssArrBee]

Unpack a couple BSAs into there corresponding mod folders and then hide the BSAs. There is a 255 character limit on all the BSAs that can be loaded into the game. It is a bug that caused my to go grey then rip out out all the grey hair.

[oqhansoloqo]

*EDITTED*

 

Oh yes, I forgot that you mentioned extracting some mods with BSAs... I guess I didn't do it previously because of the mention that someone was working on a way to extend the amount of BSAs that could be loaded at one time.

 

So I reinstalled and extracted the BSAs in Afterschool Special and Authentic Burned Man, because those were simpler mods than some other ones with BSAs.  The game still didn't load with the two mods enabled: flashlight nvse & vault 22 floral overhaul.  Now the situation is that I still had the BSA version installations of the AS and ABM mods in my mod list, but as disabled mods. Would that make a difference or not towards the limit - IOW, should I totally delete the BSA versions from the mod list or can I keep their disabled installations in my list without causing issues?

 

Forget it - I'll test that myself.

Edited June 22, 2014 by oqhansoloqo

[oqhansoloqo]

Damn - It didn't fix the problem.

[EssArrBee]

Damn - It didn't fix the problem.

The character limit may still be over 255. You could count the total characters or just extract a couple more. I have vault 22 extracted. Don't extract Willow. after extracting the BSA just hide the BSA with MO it's very simple to do. Double click the mod, go to the filetree tab and right click->Hide on the BSA.

[oqhansoloqo]

OK, I will.  One thing I just tried was this - I disabled all mods but the UI mods.  Of course, the Flashlight NVSE mod is one of those.  The game loaded when I did that.  So it's either this BSA limit issue, or something else I did to one of the currently disabled mods.

 

I don't like the idea of having to extract random BSAs to get it all working though.  I don't want to unknowingly mess up a mod that doesn't handle having its BSA extracted - like the Willow mod you say?  Also, do mods with BSAs that are disabled in the list still count towards the limit, or do they not since they are disabled?

 

Also, the more I extract, isn't it going to end up slowing down the game when it's run because I thought BSAs are read more efficiently than extracted files?

[EssArrBee]

I'd leave willow and flashlight packed. You can extract the other mods without issue.

[Kelmych]

I've also had some problems getting the Flashlight NVSE to work correctly. I followed (or thought I was following) SRB's instructions in the guide for the HUD mods., and I stopped as suggested after installing the HUD mods and started the game with an old save.  The first two times I did this I had some problems. Each of those 2 times I found something I forgot to do, which meant I had to remove the HUD mods and start from the beginning of the HUD mods in the guide. The third time I got it right and everything worked.

 

If Flashlight NVSE doesn't work after completing the installation of the HUD mods then in almost all cases I have seen (barring a corrupt file)  three possible problems, several of which can be fixed without starting over (if this is the only HUD problem).

 

1. First, check in Unified HUD for the "menusprefabsincludes_HUDMainMenu.xml" file.

 

 

Open it with Notepad++ or other editor that can read xml and make sure these lines are present; they can potentially be added manually if they are not there. This problem rarely happens by the way, and if it does the flashlight will not show up in the Mod Configuration Menu at all:

 

<!-- BEGIN Added by Unified HUD Project 3.7 -->

<include src="flashlight_battery.xml" />

<!-- END Added by Unified HUD Project 3.7 -->

 

2. Double click Flashlight NVSE in Mod Organizer and look at the FileTree and make sure that the file "menusprefabs"flashlight_battery.xml" is present. If it isn't (which has happened several times to me) you can reinstall Flashlight NVSE using the FOMM - Fork. Once Unified HUD is installed, re-installing Flashlight NVSE will not cause any problems with the rest of the HUD setup.

 

3. Double click One HUD in Mod Organizer and look at the FileTree and see whether the file "menusprefabs"flashlight_battery.xml" is present. This is not the version of the flashlight you want, so hide it if it is present. If present this will cause the error in MCM about the flashlight being misconfigured.

[EssArrBee]

A few people have also mentioned that it should be installed after OneHUD and I just haven't bothered checking the page for directions on that because of the other million things I'm doing.

[oqhansoloqo]

Kelmych - thank you.  I had situation #2 and #3.  I resolved #3, but not yet #2.  I still haven't re-installed Flashlight NVSE though yet because I am trying to figure out the correct way to do it.  I don't want to mess anything up, and the whole FOMM part of everything is tricky and delicate.  I know you said that once uHUD is installed the rest of the UI setup will not get messed up, but your idea of re-installing may be different from what I might do to re-install.

 

Should I just load up FOMM in MO, then the Package Manager, then Add FOMod, and then add the Flashlight NVSE mod again under a different name in FOMM?... or should I somehow delete the other one that's already there first?... or overwrite it maybe?  I'd like to get some feedback on that before I just say "alright, let me give it a go to see what happens if I do it this way..." and then end up botching things up really bad.

EssArrBee - I think Kelmych's assessment of the Flashlight NSVE situation should be mentioned in the guide.  I think it's valuable information, and I seem to recall someone else, either in these forums or other forums who mentioned the same exact symptoms of situation #2 & #3.

Edited June 22, 2014 by oqhansoloqo

[EssArrBee]

You could also just go into the archive and extract the file into the ...MOmodsFlashlightNVSEmenusprefab folder.

 

Also, you can untick all the mods in the UI sections, all of them. Then reinstall FlashlightNVSE with FOMM. Move the files from Overwrite to the FlashtlightNVSE folder. You can double click the Overwrite folder then scroll up to the flashlight folder and drag and drop from the Overwrite pop up to the mod folder int he left pane. Then tick everything and run uHUD again. When you reinstall a mod with FOMM just hit Reactivate. Follow the same instructions of moving the files from Overwrite for uHUD that I gave for FlashlightNVSE.

Oh retick all the UI mods before reinstalling uHUD.

[oqhansoloqo]

I guess I'll just "go into the archive and extract the file into the ...MOmodsFlashlightNVSEmenusprefab folder."  Sounds like the easiest way.  :)