I want to take a respite from Oblivion, which I have not been successful with stability with only a modest selection of mods. If not for this then I would love Oblivion. After having been on the Oblivion forums my conclusion is that it is a silent community agreement that a 'stable' modded Oblivion is one that crashes only 20% of the time. My assumption is that it is still likely for a modded Oblivion to be unstable despite BOSS, Wryebash, UOP, TES4 Edit, etc, because it WANTS to be that way.

So, a trek through Washington DC feels appropriate until I can summon the will to rectify my Oblivion.

I have two questions:

1. Is the Fallout 3 DLC worth it? Using Oblivion as an example will let me say that I think SI and KotN were worth it, but Mehrune's Razor was not.

2. Will my modded Fallout 3 experience be similar to Oblivions? I have six must have mods in mind:

* Fallout 3 Re-Animated v.22.1 by Alendor - an animation replacer, shouldn't have problems if it is the only one used
* Fallout 3 Project Beauty HD 2.7.2 by Dracomies and SpaceOden - shouldn't be troublesome if Gary Bash is used right
* EVE - Energy Visuals Enhanced 1.0 by weijiesen Cipscis - a plasma effect ( btw, I read the author's name as 'wages sin' )
* Fellout 1.23.456.7 by Hattix - removing the ubiquitous green atmosphere haze that is superimposed over everything
* Mart's Mutant Mod 1.0RC6.1 by Martigen - I am wary of this because of its scope and potential conflict with Project Beauty HD
* DIMONIZED TYPE3 female body 3.51 by dimon99 - a body replacer similar to what HGEC was for Oblivion

It's hard to say, if you have mods that don't conflict, it'll crash hardly ever.

If they do conflict, it'll crash all the time.

Also depends on your system specs.

I would anticipate problems between MMM and Project Beauty, but Gary Bash ( would be the equivalent of Wrye Bash for Oblivion ? ) will take care of it. The rest are just replacers.

System specs:

Intel Core2Duo 3.0GHz
4GB ram
ATI HD 4890
Soundblaster Live!
Windows XP 64 bit

Fallout 3 installed to C:\Playthings\Fallout 3

I would like to read some more responses, but the fact that you are not telling me to study and re-study each and every description, comments, and utility is a good sign.

Fallout 3, after being patched 7 times, is pretty stable. Ultimately it depends on what you mod it with. Sometimes mods will conflict and cause stability issues, though the likelihood of it becoming crashing hell is not likely.

It's called Wrye Flash now I have FWE-MMM-WMK-EVE-PB setup with a bunch of miscellanous mod thrown in, and crashes while exploring are not uncommmon. It crashes less frequently than New Vegas, but more frequently than FCOM Oblivion on my system (4x2.6GHz, 4GB RAM, GTS450 1GB).

I just checked the FOIP page and the only PB patch they have is for FWE, so I think PB should run okay with MMM. Of the ones on your list I'm running MMM, Fellout, and the Dimonized Type 3 (with a high-res texture). I'm running those with FWE, Ling's (in place of Project Beauty) and a number of others for a total of about 80 mods.

Overall, I'd call my game very stable, especially since I applied the quad core fix (which isn't an issue with your system). I still get occasional CTDs (as in, I can get in a 3 - 4 hour playing session and usually not have a CTD) and visual glitches, but a few of those are just going to be unavoidable.

All you can do is put in what you want to try out and use Gary Bash, FO3Edit and the other tools out there for resolving potential conflicts, and then see what happens.

I recall having more crashes with unmodded Fallout 3, since there are mods that fix things.

My Fallout 3 crashes less with 150-170 world-changing mods than my New Vegas does with 70 mostly fairly simple mods

You should be fine with that setup. Just make sure you have your load order and FOIP patches right. And to your other question, the DLC is worth it with perhaps two exceptions: Operation Anchorage is pretty short (has nice gear though) and Mothership Zeta is really only fun playing if you're a big fan of shooters. It is however, worth buying for the modding resources. http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8747 is a really fun quest mod.

Maybe in addition to your mods I recommend FWE. That is roughly the OOO equivalent for Fallout 3, at least in some ways. I also recommend "More where that came from" to add lots of great music.

I'm running with FWE and OOO (and maybe some of your mods listed above, I'd have to check) and the game is very stable. I do seem to have some crash to desktops sometimes when entering some areas (like an area around Jury Street Station). But no game breaking bugs, and except for those few areas, very stable.

It is very important to check for conflicts, however; for example, my game keeps crashing whenever I try to fast-travel to the Jefferson Memorial, so I'm activating and deactivating mods to figure out which one is doing it. If you do get a crashing problem, they're usually pretty easy to figure out if you just put in the time to poke around a bit.

Indeed. A good modder always tests or conflicts with other mods. In fact, I would be more suspicious if the mod has no listed conflicts than if it did.

Perhaps fallout is more stable than Oblivion as it can actually make (limited) use of a second one of your cpu's cores.
I have ~30 mods installed for FO3 and get CTD's about once every four hours of play. Oblivion? 243 mods, CTD after an hour and a half.

Also, most peoples Oblivion instability is due to FCOM, and as no equivalent exists for FO3, it is much more stable

PS As for DLC, surely you're getting the GOTY version? I dunno where you are in the world, but on Amazon UK GOTY was ￡12 and normal was ￡24 - go figure :ahhh:

EVE will be the primary culprit, but it is very much worth it.

Just save a LOT more frequently, assuming you use Wrye Flash (as I do) for profiles, saves, etc.

If you don't use Wrye Flash, you could add CASM as a save game manager of sorts. I don't use it but some do as it automatically saves at certain points/times.

Generally, Fallout 3 is better than Oblivion for content because Beth learned lessons from Oblivion and applied them when developing FO3. That includes DLC; the developers have stated this in interviews.

However, FO3 crashes much more frequently for me than Oblivion ever did.

Ultimately, I think that this is because of specific mods rather than anything inherent in the game, though.

I find the modding for FO3 to be even more global and multicultural than Oblivion, but there is also a good deal of exchange going back and forth. For example, some of the most popular mods were ported from Oblivion originals.

Personally, I prefer Ling's over Project Beauty, but that's just me.

I have to have my Shojo Race, AEV, Pitt Girl Stats, Shojo Neko Race, Shojo Companions... and my Mysterious Fairy.

All I'm running is Fook, Fellout and NMCs Texture Pack for FO3 And I can't play for more than 15 mins without it crashing.

FOOK can be buggy and depending on your setup The texture pack can grind a less than perfect computer to a halt....

I ran into a serious glitch last night on my FWE-MMM setup at the Bethesda Ruins. I entered the east building and was immediately overwhelmed by ridiculous numbers of Raiders. I'm talking at least 20 or 30. No way I could handle that many in that little space. I died, reloaded, and then tried planting bottlecap mines at the door, ducking in, tossing a grenade and then leaving to get them to come outside where I had more room to deal with them.

A few would come out, but the game kept respawning them inside. I tried this a couple of times, but the respawning kept happening and soon my system started to grind to a halt - slideshow hell. Finally it just locked up and I had to shut down the game with the Task Manager. Restarted the game and it was okay. Still a lot of Raiders but nothing I couldn't handle.

What can you say. :shrug:

ETA - went back to Bethesda Ruins to clean out the Underworks and decided to wander the surrounding area for a bit. Killed a few Raiders and critters, and then headed back to the Ruins to hop on my bike and go back to Megaton to unload my loot. When I approached the ruins the game started doing the slideshow thing again and eventually locked up. This happened at the wrecked truck on the bridge with some loot just south(?) of the area. Again I restarted the game and was able to get to my bike and get out of there.

I think I have a corrupt spawn point in the east building. I'm going to stay away from Bethesda Ruins for a few days and see if the cell reset fixes the problem.

I started my modding career with FO3. Through a year of trial and error, I believe I have perfected the installation of mods. I reinstalled the game and all the DLC's (Save Zeta. Hate Zeta) along with NMC's, FOOK, MMM and a few other mods. The game and mods were all installed before NMC's finished downloading. Started the game up, and crashed. Played with the load order, searched for conflicts, tried again, spoted a missing master as I started and sorted it out. Played for six hours last night. Six hours straight. I was never able to play for six hours straight on NV or Oblivion.

Overall, I think it depends on such a large number of factors, it's impossible to tell someone that FO3 will be more stable on their machine with mods than any other game with mods.