I have been playing through Fallout 3 for the first time. When it came time for the quest to see Doctor Li in Rivet City, I went there. When I got there, the aircraft carrier was gone. There was the starting platform with the guy asking for water. I talked on the intercom and they extended the bridge, but there was nothing on the other side. There were only floating people and floating planes, and when I try to walk over there, I just fall into the water. I have tried leaving and coming back, and I have tried reloading, but my only save is on that platform. I cant get the city to appear. What do I do?

The first thing I'd suggest is that you fast travel somewhere far away and then wait 72 hours. If you return and the boat is still missing I'm guessing one of the data files is corrupted - but I suspect you can replace this without too much hassle. If you tell me what platform you're playing on I'll move this to the appropriate hardware forum so you can get the necessary advise on fixing this.

Reinstall the game, without deleting your save, that should work,

In new Vegas a few places didnt appear to me, but after i reinstalled the game they suddenly came. I know its [censored] up, but it should work to reinstall

I tried leaving and waiting 72 hours, and it still isn't there. As for reinstalling it or replacing a file, I am playing on 360, so that isn't an option. I would probably be able to fix it if it were on my PC, but it's not.

I tried leaving and waiting 72 hours, and it still isn't there. As for reinstalling it or replacing a file, I am playing on 360, so that isn't an option. I would probably be able to fix it if it were on my PC, but it's not.

Rivet City has disappeared before. Cells don't always render correctly.

Go to a different cell, save then exit the game, turn off the 360, then start everything back up again and launch the game and load the save you just made.

I am playing on ps3 and reinstalling worked fine for me, and my save did not get deleted or anything. Im pretty sure it should work for xbox too if it works for ps3

You don't have to install things on the 360. You just put it in and play. I can't "reinstall".

Saving in a different cell and re-starting the 360 didn't work either. So now what? Do I just start a new game? That would really svck.

Dude. Put your saves on a USB stick or something. You will first need to format the stick, so that your 360 will recognize it.
Put saves on stick. Save in another spot if you are freaked out, and trust me, we've all been there.
Delete FO3 and all DLC.
Reinstall.
Load save.
Waltz onto the carrier.

Let this be a lesson:
I have 15 hard saves per character.
I save before every quest, and before I walk into a dungeon.
I also save every 30 minutes or so out in the wastes.
Always create a new save, never overwriting.
Go back and delete old saves every once in a while.
I keep my first save, just inside the Vault 101 door, so I don't have to do the tutorial again.

This has never happened to me
I guess it maybe a glich in your saved game.
If it hasn't returned in a while I would suggested restarting the game.

Maybe they just had enough of being parked there by the Jefferson Memorial, and wanted to see what else the coast had to offer?

Or they're just gone fishin

They cant man a nuked aircraft carrier.

And its not smart to fish for irradiated (and probably mutated) fishes.

Hey thanks for that. It worked. I just backed up all my saves, deleted them, then put them back on my hard drive and the carrier was there. Thanks.

Awesome, glad it worked out.