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The Settlement Recovery Procedure - Instructions for Recovering a Problem Settlement (Part 2)

Acknowledgements

Thank you all for your inspiration and help, and the following people in particular for this guide:

GladiusVictorius - for this process
wim95 - tester
NikitaDarkstar - tester
msalaba - tester (contributed a severely failed game, that this process failed with)
kinggath - for his input and Sim Settlements on the whole
snarkywriter - for his original Settlement Recovery Procedure post
GA Darkerside - for pushing me to write this up properly for the Educational Vault

If I've missed your name and contributions - my apologies. Errors and omissions are entirely mine.
- Whisper

Settlement Recovery Procedure - Experimental Third Option

Please understand: this procedure is HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL. You should first have attempted the more mainstream and tested versions with your problem game/settlement.

You should first have made a full save and tried the following two fixes from this main thread about recovering problem settlements:

1/ City Manager 2078 Holotape Recovery
2/ Console Remote Reset

If these two fixes do not work for your savegame, you can try this one. Be aware, we cannot guarantee that your save can be recovered! You can do everything below and it still will not fix your game.

So. Use these instructions at your own risk. Good luck.
 
Experimental Fix Process

Step 1:
Go to an interior cell (Home Plate is a good choice, since there are no hostiles). This is to minimize load on the game.

Step 2:
Save your game. (Aka "making a clean save".)

Step 3:
Exit to desktop.

Step 4:
Take a backup of your savegame. Just in case. Given the various mod-managers available (NMM, Vortex, MO2) and options for profiles, you'll have to find out with your game where these savegames are.

Step 5 (Optional):
Create a new profile for testing. This depends upon your mod-manager as to how you can do this.

Step 6:
Install Fallrim Tools (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/22633) and Java (via a Google search).

This installs under your profile rather than in the Fallout 4 install itself. For me it was here:

C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Roaming\Vortex\fallout4\mods\FallrimTools 3.8.0 (alpha)-22633-3-8-0\FallrimTools
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From this point onwards we start doing dangerous things to your savegame.

This process requires the Workshop RefID of your problem settlement, which you can get from here: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_4_settlements

You can also find the Workshop RefID of your problem settlement in this post: https://www.simsettlements.com/site...overing-a-problem-settlement.7125/#post-52159
 
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Experimental Fix Process (Continued)

Step 7:
Run ReSaver.exe from Fallrim Tools and load up your problem savefile.
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In this example I am going to recover Nordhagen Beach. I put the RefID for Nordhagen Beach into the filter and get the following:
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Note that we are *only* dealing with the ChangeForms > REFR. Deleting from the Script Instances area is very very bad, according to some very smart people.

Delete that REFR RefID:
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This is what it should look like with that REFR/RefID deleted:
educational07.jpg
 
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Experimental Fix Process (Continued)

Step 8:
Save as a new game.
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Step 9:
Open your new game in FO4 and walk to the settlement (you might be able to fast-travel there, I preferred to walk from outside the original "CTD Zone" - just to give FO4 a chance to catch up).

At this point you should be able to walk into the middle of the settlement. It should look normal. It may have a supply line, you may be able to open the workshop - yet it will likely not be in your list of owned workshops/settlements.
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Step 10:
Walk away. Seriously. You will in a short time be offered a radiant quest for that settlement (this example came within 30 minutes through Radio Freedom). Once you complete the quest the settlement will be added back to your list.
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You may also choose to Save your game again - exit FO4 to the desktop - and reload your game. This should almost immediately offer you a radiant quest for the settlement.

If you check the filesize of your savegame you will discover that it has grown. The old information is still in the file somewhere, however new information has been added.
 
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Optional

GladiusVictorius has used this method to recover settlements which were built by hand, not just City Plans. He used to CTD any time he went into Downtown Boston - after recovering Hangmans Alley his CTD problems with the area were solved and he could travel there with minimal issues.

Your mileage may vary.

Many thanks and good luck.
 
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