[csb]

First, let me set the stage:

Fallout3, until earlier this week, was completely stable. With almost 200 mods installed, my FO3Edit merge patches (I use a modular approach) were all working and the mods cooperating joyfully.

I updated a few mods, and as I always do, again ran my mod list with a conflict detection filter in FO3Edit. Some minor things, typical of a large mod list and updates. No problem ... I made the adjustments in my merge patches and everything seemed fine.

Upon exiting Vault 101 with a (yet another!) new character, I went to loot a dead molerat (pesky things!). I clicked away, but good ol' E key wasn't working. R worked, WSAD worked. Tab worked. All of that had been working inside Vault 101. Hmmmm. I went into my inventory, changed the vault utility jumpsuit for Butch's Tunnel Snake outfit (he won't miss it, he's dead ) and exited.

Oh boy, that's when it got really weird! The whole landscape lit up with exclamation marks! (!) and there I was with head, hands and feet. No Tunnel Snake outfit and a big ! beating my character's head in. Huh?

So I went to save (just to have a version that wasn't an Autosave out of the Vault). Hmm ... no Escape key functionality. So I went to the console (thank goodness ~ worked!) and did a save from console. Since Escape wasn't working, back to the console and a quick qqq.

Back to FOMM, yep everything was checked, Toggle invalidation ... yep. Open Fallout.ini to verify ... yep, bInvalidateOlderFiles=1. Weird, but okay. File compare .ini to ini.bak ... check. So back to FO3Edit. Nothing seemed wrong. Quick check of the updated/new mods, checking my Data folder's meshes/textures etc. ... yep, everything was in place.

Hmm. Okay, system reboot. Restart Fallout3. Load the last save. Whoa! No test1.fos! Okay, no problem, load from inside the Vault. Exit ... nope, same thing once I walked down the path and got the radio message.

Okay, one last trick! This will work! Restore Data from my handy-dandy DVD-RW disk backup! I know that set-up was working! Yay! New character (boy that birth scene gets really old!). Rinse, lather, repeat the above glitch once leaving Vault 101. Again huh?

There you have it.

So what would cause that? Anyone have any ideas?

[Rabbit 51]

It's probably just a coincidence, but my tab key just stopped working too. And this is on a keyboard less than a week old on a new machine. I haven't noticed any of your other glitches as yet. I'm using the ATI Radeon card. As I say it's probably just a coincidence maybe.


Rabbit

[Skotte]

csb, How much RAM does your your system have? I suspect the sheer amount of mods is causing you issues (even though you do everything you know to do).

You may need to try to merge a few mods to pair down the number abit

[csb]

Skotte:

Yep, RAM crossed my mind -- 2GB, with background stuff (services/apps) shut down when I play. The stumper for me is that having restored my previously stable list from DVD backup, the problem still persists when it wasn't before. That's what really has me scratching my head.

As far as merging mods ... yep, that's where my now-posted Just Say No and Weighty Matters came from ... combining a bunch of small mods into one. I'm working on a similar combo for all my "fix" mods, that address issues with FO3 and DLCs.

I guess I will try paring back further, just as a test but it just puzzles me why the error persisted after a restore to a previous point and using a new character. FO3 is full of mysteries like that, huh?