Third Method of Recovering Severely Bugged Games that CTD (PC Only)

[Whisper]

This thread is to discuss and trial a third method for recovering severely bugged settlements. Ones that cannot be fixed via the normal methods of fixing as per @snarkywriter 's main thread regarding fixing bugged settlements. That thread is:

The Settlement Recovery Procedure - Instructions for Recovering a Problem Settlement

What started this third method rolling was some posts by @GladiusVictorius and @wim95 over on the discussion thread for the above article (starting post #8 down on the first page of the thread):

The Settlement Recovery Procedure - Article Discussion Thread

To start with, we must stress: this process is new and highly experimental.

Repeat:

HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL

You have been warned.

So. The only times that you should think of using this method:

1) You have tried the main methods. They have failed to recover your settlement. You really, really want to continue playing that particular save.

2) You are willing to try something that may or may not work. You're also okay if it starts showing up some unexpected behavior further along the road. (Like, after 4-5-6 months of playing - it might take that long before it craters on you.)

3) You're happy to experiment and see how it goes. No biggie if or when it fails, just revert and continue in your other game or start a new one. You're simply happy to contribute some more info to the initial starting process of investigating this.

Yes, this is initial starting process. Someone with a whole lot more smarts than us will dig into the details. Right now we're just providing anecdotal evidence that it might be worth investigating more "officially". Eventually the pro's might ask us for a game save so they can dig into things deeper and see what it looks like.

Now with all that, we don't want you to lose your original game. What I'll do in this thread is put up a few placeholder posts, which I'll fill out with some things to help and the process. My current ideas are:

i) how to make a new profile (in Vortex) for your experimental game-save to run in - don't want to lose your original game

ii) the process to follow

iii) my experimental progress to date

iv) non-Sim Settlements games

Whether it succeeds or fails, happy playing!

--edit--

Meh, I should have said "Settlements", not "Games", in the thread title!!! A bit late now.

 

[Whisper]

Vortex Profile Setup:

Here is what Vortex looks like in the Profiles tab. You can see that Fallout 4 - Whisper Default is currently active (the orange border):

You can see that there are 52 mods enabled, it has an ID of "zo4h3Pou-", and that it has its own save games (a directory which is the same as the ID) and game settings (aka set of mods enabled). This is my currently-problematic game, where I CTD every time I go near Nordenhagen Beach.

Since I don't want to muck around with this current state at all, it's time to make a copy - click the arrow and choose to clone it (I'm going to call it Whisper - Nuked):


Going to the save game directory, it is empty:


I have to manually copy the files from my Whisper Default profile. Just the latest will do:

Voila, you can now Enable the "nuked" profile - close and re-open Vortex (very important!) - and you are ready to run that game. Now follow the next set of instructions.

 

[Whisper]

Experimental Fix Process:

Before I started this process I went to Home Plate. So the interior cell would cause less load on the game upon restarting.

You will need to install the Fallrim Tools - this is the version that I installed:


Fallrim Tools Mod

You will also need a copy of Java installed, you can get that via a Google search.

Now, this installs under your profile rather than in the Fallout 4 install itself:

C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Roaming\Vortex\fallout4\mods\FallrimTools 3.8.0 (alpha)-22633-3-8-0\FallrimTools

You need to run the ReSaver.exe and then select the nuked save in your new profile:

This is the point where we start doing the dangerous stuff to your nuked game. Follow along as I do it to my problem settlement: Nordhagen Beach. First, loading the file up - we see the results of my rather messy gaming and bad modding practices:

We are looking for the Workshop RefID for our problem settlement. I got Nordhagen Beach from this website. Put it into the filter and get this (note that we *only* want to be dealing with the REFR - deleting from the Script Instances is BAD, according to some very smart people):

Delete that RefID:




...to be continued in the next post...

 

[Whisper]

Experimental Fix Process - Continued:

Save as a new game:



Now that you have saved your game - open it in FO4 and walk to the settlement (you might be able to fast-travel there, I preferred to walk from outside the original "danger zone" as it were - just to give FO4 a chance to catch up).

At this point I was able to walk into the middle of the settlement - it looked normal - and check things out. The settlement had a supply line, I could open the workshop, yet it was not in my list of owned workshops/settlements:



Walk away. Seriously. Eventually you will be offered a radiant quest to help that settlement, and upon completion you will get it added back to your list of settlements (mine came through Radio Freedom):

Once you've completed that, save yet again and then check the file sizes. In my case, I re-loaded it in FallRim Tools:

Note that the savefile has climbed from 47.8mb to 50.6mb, another 2.8mb in size. @snarkywriter thinks that the old, garbage data is still in the savefile - it's simply been dereferenced and new data generated for that workshop/settlement.

At this point: play, and good luck.
=============================================
For myself, progress to date:

Start level: 88
Current level: 94

I've gotten the last of the bobbleheads and all but one of the perk magazines.

I've taken another settlement and did some serious building - had an issue with another mod - reverted several saves and taken the settlement again and started it up with a city plan.

I'm about to go do something fairly serious with the Institute and Brotherhood of Steel.

 

[Whisper]

Non-Sim Settlement Games:

This is currently only tested by @GladiusVictorius.

He had a situation where he could not get into downtown Boston. It would consistently crash.

He ran this process on Hangman's Ally (and several other problem settlements that he had). Now he can get to downtown Boston with no problems.

For other players, whether Sim Settlements or regular settlements issues, feel free to give it a shot and let us know the results.

 

[Whisper]

Peace all, I'm done. Feel free to share your stories, correct mistakes that I've made, and generally - have fun!

 

[RayBo]

Peace all, I'm done. Feel free to share your stories, correct mistakes that I've made, and generally - have fun!

Wisper, thank you very much for documenting this!

I don’t know what will become of it. Kind of at the limit of what I understand but maybe wiser folks will compound it in a way that could be beneficial?

haha, it’s a rabbit hole. until one goes down it you don’t know what you will find?

 

[Enkay]

Thanks for the guide, I'll keep this in mind for the next time my save decides to go belly up on me (which has been unfortunately frequent lately)

Would cf SetOwnedByPlayer true on the offending Workbench RefID work in place of waiting for the Minutemen radiant?

 

[NikitaDarkstar]

As per Whispers request I'm posting this tidbit of information here too.

So I tried this with Sanctuary and it seems to have solved all my scrap and workshop related crashing (for reference I do use Scrap Everything, I've tried to live without it and I can't). I have successfully fast traveled there a couple of times now and while it does take a while to load that is not out of the norm for me.

I did notice a bit of an issue with this method however, or perhaps a rather obvious thing to NOT do. The first save I tried this on I was saved in Sanctuary itself and when I tried to load up that save I got stuck in an infinite load-screen. I tried it a couple of more times to make sure it wasn't just a random glitch but no, it's not. Second save I tried it on I was saved at The Castle and everything went smoothly with that one. So long story short, make sure you're not at the workbench/settlement you're trying to edit, it probably won't go well.

Interesting thing I did note with the botched attempt however is that I could hear the ambient sounds of the settlement in the background but still had the load screen, and eventually I had to kill Fallout 4 with the Task Manager. It wasn't unresponsive, and it didn't CTD, both things I would have expected from doing this wrong.

 

[GladiusVictorius]

Thanks for the guide, I'll keep this in mind for the next time my save decides to go belly up on me (which has been unfortunately frequent lately)

Would cf SetOwnedByPlayer true on the offending Workbench RefID work in place of waiting for the Minutemen radiant?

No need as you get the Radiant Quest right after you have done the Fix.Its better to not Change this Guide any more as its heavy enough and we don't know what real comes out over time.And you don't lose the settlement so make attention if you look in your Workshop Reference you will see SetOwnedByPlayer true is still there
I think this Fix is part of the Game that was implement to Test Settlements lost and retake.Only a little bit different from how it to have to work.Strange thing it Cancel only the Errors and Bad things but the right one it don't touch or change.To addition to this Guide use always a Fresh Save with Fallrim Tools as it don't like older Saves so make one ingame new and then Work with Fallrim.After the fix your City is there your Settlers even and all goes forward as always but you must Fix manual your Energy wire lines as they are there but don't be registered as Working.Its Easy only chose them one by one and then Cancel choosing but do it after you have done the Radiant Quest to not mess up more then you do with this Heavy Fix.
I play now for 9 Days real time with this Fix and i make it on a full broken Save with a lot of CTD and bugs and with 12 from 23 City's until now the Game work perfect the City's work and have no Bugs or CTD any more even i bombard them with new Buildings to see how far i can go now.

 

[msalaba]

This fix does not work for me. The 5x5 around Sunshine Tidings is a permanent CTD zone.
The strange part is I did not have a ROTC build there.
The only other mod I have that could botch this workshop would be better manufacturing with the linked extractor.

I did have some suspicious looking junk attached to the reference.

Ignore the onedrive popup. Stupid windows..........

 

[GladiusVictorius]

This fix does not work for me. The 5x5 around Sunshine Tidings is a permanent CTD zone.
The strange part is I did not have a ROTC build there.
The only other mod I have that could botch this workshop would be better manufacturing with the linked extractor.

I did have some suspicious looking junk attached to the reference.
View attachment 3131
Ignore the onedrive popup. Stupid windows..........

You cancel the wrong Ref the right ref you find under 001654d5.If you insert the right number you will get only 1 maybe 2 scripts and 1 Ref the CTD problem is in that Ref. What you cancel is more then the Ref for the Workshop and that will fix nothing but make more problems.

 

[msalaba]

Adding the extra 00 I get this



Looking further, none of the refids found on the wiki are searchable in my save. Mod? I can't imagine a mod would change all workshop refs. I even checked a few different saves with different characters.

Do I just need a nap???

 

[GladiusVictorius]

Adding the extra 00 I get this

View attachment 3132

Looking further, none of the refids found on the wiki are searchable in my save. Mod? I can't imagine a mod would change all workshop refs. I even checked a few different saves with different characters.

Do I just need a nap???

If you don't have a Workbench script and a Ref under the original Settlement ID then you have mess real heavy up your Save.Or you have cancel it in the past or your Game are missing files.The Original ID get never Change only a player can cancel it by mistake.
If you can upload your Save i can take a look into it maybe i found what you have done wrong

 

[msalaba]

Like I said, I went and looked at many saves of other playthroughs. One is an unmodded vanilla save. I know I had Sunshine Tidings unlocked in each one. 001654d5 does not turn up in any of them. Same with other settlements. The first two zeroes are truncated.

edit: I have Fallout 4 with season pass version. (all DLC loaded)

I do not believe I have any mods that edit any workshops other than Sim Settlements, IDEKs Logistic station and Uncapped Settlement Surplus. Maybe We are the Minutemen.

Going back to an older save I determined that the save died sometime during the Far Harbor DLC.

The only thing I can think off SS related is Hancock was in Sunshine Tidings (Not as a Leader) when I assigned him to Echo Lake Lumber as a leader. I do not have a save just prior to starting Echo Lake Lumber to verify, as my only hard save is just prior to entering Far Harbor. I do remember hearing that Far Harbor was buggy with ROTC.

I can upload my save and mod list later when I'm at my gaming rig.

tldr; I think I'm the victim of cell corruption. It would be nice to know what caused it. I got up and running by loading an earlier save. I Learned that I need to make more hard saves.

 

[GladiusVictorius]

Like I said, I went and looked at many saves of other playthroughs. One is an unmodded vanilla save. I know I had Sunshine Tidings unlocked in each one. 001654d5 does not turn up in any of them. Same with other settlements. The first two zeroes are truncated.

edit: I have Fallout 4 with season pass version. (all DLC loaded)

I do not believe I have any mods that edit any workshops other than Sim Settlements, IDEKs Logistic station and Uncapped Settlement Surplus. Maybe We are the Minutemen.

Going back to an older save I determined that the save died sometime during the Far Harbor DLC.

The only thing I can think off SS related is Hancock was in Sunshine Tidings (Not as a Leader) when I assigned him to Echo Lake Lumber as a leader. I do not have a save just prior to starting Echo Lake Lumber to verify, as my only hard save is just prior to entering Far Harbor. I do remember hearing that Far Harbor was buggy with ROTC.

I can upload my save and mod list later when I'm at my gaming rig.

tldr; I think I'm the victim of cell corruption. It would be nice to know what caused it. I got up and running by loading an earlier save. I Learned that I need to make more hard saves.

001654d5 is the original ID.Even you cancel or change that for mistake or other reason the original ID remain always in your game.That you don't have that ID seams Strange.
As i say let me see 1 Save Mods i don't need as i look only what is wrong with your ID.

 

[woodfuzzy]

Do I just need a nap???

Maybe... but upgrading Fallrim Tools would help!

 

[msalaba]

001654d5 is the original ID.Even you cancel or change that for mistake or other reason the original ID remain always in your game.That you don't have that ID seams Strange.
As i say let me see 1 Save Mods i don't need as i look only what is wrong with your ID.

Modlist/Loadorder https://1drv.ms/t/s!AqkY1xBJqJoMg9oDPdEWXfcFd1pb7A

Save with bad cell in Sunshine Tidings Coop https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqkY1xBJqJoMg9oFvnKqzllwcc1noQ

@woodfuzzy I was on 3.0.3 upgraded to the latest 3.8.0 per your link. Still the same ref


I read a bug report in this post https://www.simsettlements.com/site/index.php?threads/some-magazine-issues-robot-morale.7622/
I do have a magazine press in this settlement. I was not in the Commonwealth for the entirety of the Far Harbor quest line. Maybe related? There are too many variables and I am not familiar enough with the engine.

 

[GladiusVictorius]

Modlist/Loadorder https://1drv.ms/t/s!AqkY1xBJqJoMg9oDPdEWXfcFd1pb7A

Save with bad cell in Sunshine Tidings Coop https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqkY1xBJqJoMg9oFvnKqzllwcc1noQ

@woodfuzzy I was on 3.0.3 upgraded to the latest 3.8.0 per your link. Still the same ref
View attachment 3144

I read a bug report in this post https://www.simsettlements.com/site/index.php?threads/some-magazine-issues-robot-morale.7622/
I do have a magazine press in this settlement. I was not in the Commonwealth for the entirety of the Far Harbor quest line. Maybe related? There are too many variables and I am not familiar enough with the engine.

Ok try 4 Hour's to find out what is wrong with your save
First my ID is right if i write it with 00 before i get the Ref.So don't know why you not.
Bad thing the Fix don't Work.Try it more then 1 time even i search for the Cell ID of the entire Zone and try the same there but nothing.
Im able to jump to Walden Point with no Problems and from there to start the remote destroy Settlement but it don't help.(you can test this by your own maybe i dont wait long enough)
I try the other Fix with console command but nothing even that don't work.
So i start to Test the Mods first vanilla and it Works without Mods you can fasttravel direct there.
So i try the Mods 1 by 1 and i find out its the Sim settlement main Mod that cause your CTD.But i don't know what exact from it. As i have 3-1.Destroying the Settlement with the Remote option from Holotype don't Work even i come close enough to run it.The Console Command Fix don't Work and Cell Reset even don't Work.
So you can ask Kinggath if he know some other way to Clean full the Settlement or maybe only the Building if it possible as you know what you have Build there.
You can go on with your Game and do nothing maybe some Day some other find a Fix.
You can Disable Sim Settlement and all ADD(thats important) load your Save Save again go out of your game enable again all your SS Mods restart your Game reload the new Save game will Work with no problems CTD is Fixed but you must restart Sim Settlement by getting again a new Holotype and load it into your Pipboy same as the first time.In this way you fix your Save but you lose all SS things that you build before in all Settlements only the Vanilla Buildings remain.
Edit:try one more time this time i let Clean SS and then i make the Console Fix after i fly near over the Settlement and delete all what i can see but nothing if i go to close and the Nord side of the settlement load the game Crash so the Building that make this must be at the Nord border of your Settlement

 

[msalaba]

This fix does not work for me. The 5x5 around Sunshine Tidings is a permanent CTD zone.
The strange part is I did not have a ROTC build there.
The only other mod I have that could botch this workshop would be better manufacturing with the linked extractor.

I did have some suspicious looking junk attached to the reference.
View attachment 3131
Ignore the onedrive popup. Stupid windows..........

edit: I have Fallout 4 with season pass version. (all DLC loaded)

I do not believe I have any mods that edit any workshops other than Sim Settlements, IDEKs Logistic station and Uncapped Settlement Surplus. Maybe We are the Minutemen.

Going back to an older save I determined that the save died sometime during the Far Harbor DLC.

The only thing I can think off SS related is Hancock was in Sunshine Tidings (Not as a Leader) when I assigned him to Echo Lake Lumber as a leader. I do not have a save just prior to starting Echo Lake Lumber to verify, as my only hard save is just prior to entering Far Harbor. I do remember hearing that Far Harbor was buggy with ROTC.

I can upload my save and mod list later when I'm at my gaming rig.

tldr; I think I'm the victim of cell corruption. It would be nice to know what caused it. I got up and running by loading an earlier save. I Learned that I need to make more hard saves.

Modlist/Loadorder https://1drv.ms/t/s!AqkY1xBJqJoMg9oDPdEWXfcFd1pb7A

Save with bad cell in Sunshine Tidings Coop https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqkY1xBJqJoMg9oFvnKqzllwcc1noQ

I read a bug report in this post https://www.simsettlements.com/site/index.php?threads/some-magazine-issues-robot-morale.7622/
I do have a magazine press in this settlement. I was not in the Commonwealth for the entirety of the Far Harbor quest line. Maybe related? There are too many variables and I am not familiar enough with the engine.

@kinggath Is this something you want to look at?

I have reverted to an older save from before doing the Far Harbor quest line. I have continued playing on this older save doing quests in the Commonwealth. So far so good. I have been returning to Sunshine Tidings periodically and so far no problems. My guess is it has something to do with Far Harbor. I had all 4 Far Harbor settlements running ROTC city plans.

I did have an issue at the museum in Longfellows. If I looked at a plaque in an unpopulated exibit no problem. If I clicked on a populated one, instant CTD.

If you want the older save that works to compare, let me know.