Ok, so I bought the Fallout 3 - Game of the Year edition on steam during the winter sale, but the damn thing won't work. I can start the game with no problem, and it runs just fine, but when I save the game, quit it, and start it up again then everything is gone. I have tried to re-install it, download a few bugfixing mods, but nothing works. I have even tried to use the "Remove G4WL Mod" just in case, and nothing still happened.

A friend told me that I was supposed to have a "save" folder in /documents/my games/fallout3 but all I have there is some text file named FalloutPrefs.
Please help me fix this, I spent a fair amout of money on this game and it svcks that I cannot use it.

I guess the question would be , were you getting any saved games before you disabled GFWL?
And do you see another folder along the same path for GFWL? look in there for a "Saves" file

Your also missing the Fallout. INI file in the same directory that prefs was in. There must be a way to edit where the game sends files and also looks for them. Id need a little more research to figure it out though.

On the " G4WL Mod " Did you see it in your Data option from the launch screen? and did you check the box by it? Im not familiar with that mod , just guessing here.

The thing is, I have never been able to save the game. It's been like this for over a month now, and I did all the things I did to try to fix it. Now I'm out of ideas, so I'm asking here.

The game is located in these places: documents/my games/fallout3, but after that it ends. I have a textfile named FalloutPrefs but that's it.
The other location is at /steam/steamapps/common/fallout 3 goty. I have all the neccesary files for the game to run here, but there is no save folder that I can find.

I think I got all the DLC′s with the Game of the Year edition, and I'm running on Windows 7. I'm not sure if that helps, but I thought I should mention it.

About the mod question: I can't answer that. I've never played the game for more than 20 minutes at a time, and each time I've had to start over since the game won't keep my saves. I only managed to get all those mods because a friend was helping me.

How do you launch the game? And do you see a medium sized window (not full screen)

That says : ???

Play
OPTIONS
DATA FILES
TECH SUPPORT
EXIT

from this screen select "DATA FILES" You will then see a small window with all the DLC's and Fallout.esm and anymods you have installed. For now only Fallout.esm should be clicked. And click the disable GFWL mod if you see it.

Also what was your install path of the game? Default will be "C:\Programfiles\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3 Or the (X86) programfiles if you have 64-bit

Ill be here watching for a bit. so type back if ya can.

Here's some awnsers Ive found on it >>>http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/918428-fallout-3/answers?qid=39581

I hope they help , because Ive never run the game with GFWL and havent ever used STEAM ,im sort of at a loss without being there infront of your comp with ya.

Im sure your awnsers are somewhere within those file paths or work arounds.

Under documents/games/fallout3, should be a sub-folder labeled Saves, which holds all your saves, along with a FALLOUT.ini file and a FalloutPrefs.ini. If you do not have all three of these, the game was not installed properly.

@Mktavish
Yes, I do see that window when I start the game via Steam. 2 windows pop up saying something like "Your game propertives have been put to this and this and will now run like that". The first times I tried to play the game, I only had the Fallout.esm files on, so that shouldn't be the problem. I have also tried to activate all of them with no luck. I've uninstalled the game, removed the mods, activated it with only Fallout.esm on and it still won't work.
There is no point focusing on the mods, since they are no longer a part of my fallout game folder. The problem was there before I put them in, when they where there, and when I removed them.

About the install folder, I'm not sure. I installed the game via steam, and it exist in the folders I've already named. I tried to find the Bethesda Softworks folder, but I can't seem to find it. My C:/ memory is basically full, so I can't install most games in their default positions.

Will check out the link now.

Edit: I believe I have read something similar, but it doesn't really adress my problem. He just had to change the location of his saves, while I completely lack the saves alltogether.

@M4815
I figured as much, but I've installed the game twice via steam now, and I've never been given the files you name.

Okies if your launching from Steam , I think thats where your problem lies. With you not putting it in a default directory.
Since you say C:/ is full. What drive letter are you installing on?
The paths weve been dicussion through documents and settings are not the actual game location. its just stuff like saves and user data.
The game is installed in a (drive)\Bethesda softworks\fallout 3
or might say games first after the drive letter Anyways ... inside the Fallout 3 folder is the Fallout launcher.exe Launch the game from this ... not steam. then save and check the default save location under Mydocuments/mygames/fallout3/saves.

But like M4815 says ... probably not installed correctly. But maybe the ini file your missing and saves are possibly some where else. sorry again , no familiar with steam.

I'm installing things on D:/.

Hmm... I've checked both C:/ and D:/, but I still can't find the Bethesda sofworks folder.

I'll try to activate the game from the Fallout launcher and see what happens.

Edit: ok, this may be problematic... The only launcher I can find is located in the steam folder, and launching it from there is like launching it from steam.
Since the game is installed with steam, the game is automatically installed on the steam folder. Since I bought it steam I have to install it from there.

So you have a path like "D:/Steam/Fallout3 ??? and its about 8.5 gigs in size with the DLC's downloaded ? err maybe less but definately bigger tha 2 gigs i'd imagine.

The exact location is "D:/program/steam/steamapps/common/fallout 3 goty"
I'm current'y re-installing it again, so I can't say how big it is.

Oh, and the /program file is a map that I've created myself. It's not the default map "Program files". I basically created a map named program on my other harddrive and then installed steam on it. The reason why I'm not using the C:/ is because it's ridicoulosly small, only 56 GB. My D:/ has 465 GB.

I won't be on again in a couple of hours, so if you write back it will take me about 8-10 hours

I cant find any info specifically for your problem. But you might try moving your Steam folder >>> http://www.ehow.com/how_8420659_change-steam-install-path.html

Not that your path is wrong , but youll force it to re anilyze.

I suggest what they say "D:\Steam

Alright, I'll try that.

I did as he said, and deleted every file and folder except the Steam.exe and the steamapps folder. However, after doing this my Steam.exe would no longer work. It just said that I needed internet conection, which I most certainly had. I just had to press "Ctrl+Z" a few times to get all the files back though.
There is a possibility that I missunderstood something. I don't quite get the point of "highlight the steam.exe folder and press Ctrl and V", since pressing Ctrl+V is just a hotkey for "Paste". Why would I want to paste a file I haven't copied yet?

This really svcks... I want to play the game, but these damn technical issues are getting in my way.

If you havent tried logging into GFWL try that.

Alright, will do. Although I have tried that... I think I've typed in the F4WL password about 4 times already, and it never remebers it.

Well the point with trying it is then check if you have a file with your (GFWL) "user name" in the default save file location. You can then Create a Folder in the Fallout 3 directory Named "Saves" (same one as the prefs) and drag drop the saves into the folder. Also bring the Fallout.INI in there next to the prefs.ini
Then try launching as normal. To see if you have some saves.

Just curious though to be sure, sorry for the dumb question ... But how exactly are you attempting to save in game?

If the save file for that user name is not there. You might try a search for it or just browse around till you find a folder with that "user name" And hopefully the saves are inside.

I just tried to run the game again, this time with a folder named saves and the fallout.INI file. I figured that I should try to download the game to my school computer and then send the files to my real one. It downloaded the right files to the /documents/my games/fallout3 folder, but the game wouldn't work on the schoolcomputer either... I got it up once, but now it just crashes when I try to launch it.
Anyway, I copied the neccecery files, put them in dropbox and sent them to my real computer. The game still won't save.

And to answer your question, I press esc, find the "save" alternative, and select a new save. I always check that the game really did save, and when I quit to the menu instead of quiting the game, I can still load my saves. It's when I quit the game that the saves dissapear

Were you doing this with GFWL running?
But also you might try looking for the Saves folder while the Game is running. Just Alt-Tab out ... Check temp folders too.
You just need to figure out where the game is putting them. Im 90ish % sure the game is looking in the default directory upon start up. It just unfortunatley is not putting them there upon exit.

I had one more experiment you might try ... Albiet its a workaround.

Useing the console comand accessable through the "~" key , here are the comands

Game

• save save name - save current game with description
  
• save save name 1 - save current game with description and output a .txt file with game information.
  
• load save name - load a game from a previous named save
  
• exit - exits the current game, displays some credits, then goes to the starting menu.
  
• quitgame or qqq - exits Fallout 3 without going through any menus.
  
• saq - END GAME

Here's the link to all the comands if you want >>> http://misc.thefullwiki.org/Fallout_3_console_commands#Game

But also if your haveing problems with GFWL you might need to update it. And Ill see if I can find where I saw how to do that. Since Im running into the same problem with my GFWL. Wont sign in and never remembers user names

lol sorry the console comands didnt copy past properly ... but youll find em in that link under Game from the index short cut.

Add edit: I couldnt figure out GFWL issue ... downloading the lastest app for it didnt work ... infact it made things worse for me. Im running XP sp3 . So I unistalled that craptacular peice of software. Then it made me reinstall Fallout 3 though to get the original GFWL that came with the disk install. That never works.

I hope the console comand save and Load works for ya. Albiet its sort of a pain work around

Thanks for finding them, I'll se if they work. At this point I don't really care how the game gets saves, as long as it does. And I have already tried to use alt-tab and see if the saves are where they should be. They haven't been so far. I'm pretty sure I've done the save thing with and without GFWL running. God that software is awful... It takes forever ta accept my code even after I've typed it in.

Sorry about your Fallout 3, I hope you didn't lose anything important.

The commands didn't work... I feel bad about this, with you finding all these things without me being able to fix the game with them. It must be because I'm playing it through Steam. I'll see if someone has had a similar problem over there.

I see you are in Win 7. Try this: go to the place where you see FalloutPrefs. Now navigate back up one step and you should see just a Fallout3 folder. Now right-click on the Fallout3 folder and go to security tab. Make sure all of the permissions boxes are checked for your user account. In other words, click each account listed there and see if any of them do not have all of the boxes checked. Those ones, you need to get all of the boxes checked. And when it asks you if you want to apply to all subfolders and subdirectories, yes you do want that.

I'm thinking when F3 tries to save, it finds it can't access the saves folder because of the [censored] win 7 system of default restricted access for your user account when you are the only one who uses the computer. grrr. So it just saves in some mystery folder probably a temp folder that gets deleted when you exit F3. Then when you try to load, it looks where it's supposed to but obviously it saved somewhere else before and so can't find the file.

By enabling all permissions, it will hopefully start saving where it's supposed to and then you can load.

edit - also do the same thing on your saves folder - verify that all boxes are checked for all accounts.

That sounded reasonable, but it's not the problem. I just checked, and all boxes are checked, both in the save folder and the Fallout3 folder. It's also checked for all users.

try to do a search of your entire computer for "autosave.fos" or maybe "*.fos", or "Save*.fos"

if found, note where it is. If it's different than where it's supposed to be, I can't be of further help, but maybe someone else can put that info to use.

edit:

You can also try:
- disable GFWL using the downloadable package (its here in this forum section under one of the stickies)
- (annoying option) go buy the GOTY disc at the store (incredibly still widely available) and play with that instead

I can't find any save files with .fos at the end.
I can try to disable GFWL again, though I doubt it will do anything useful. And the other option is no option at all. I've never seen fallout in any gamestore except steam, and if I payed for it, I'm damn well gonna play it.
I appreciate your effort though.

I do not use Steam or GFWL for the very reasons you are having problems. However, from what I understand, you have to be logged in on Steam when you play and that is where your save games are located. Again, I do not use Steam, but that is my understanding of how it works. When you play, do you log on to Steam?
I have found that Walmart has Fallout 3, GOTY available online and might have it in a local store. That is one alternative to your problem.