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Fallout 3 bugs/Proposed

From The Vault

Older discussion: Archive 1

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No Guns/No Ammo (Xbox360) Sometime after downloading Broken Steel (and possibly one of the following patches) I've been noticing more NPCs not able to attack me because their weapon is glitched (and usually attached near their hand). Also ammo crates have a tendency to be empty before ever arriving, except locked ones, and no unusual amounts of ammo on nearby NPCs.


Fast Travel Glitch (Xbox 360) Not sure if this is a glitch or if it was programed in, but when fast traveling from Megaton,(will most likely work from anywhere) to the Super-Duper Mart I lnded, and was surrounded by 7 live frag mines. You can disarm them normaly, but if your not paying attention, you can be killed, or if your skill isn't real high, you will have a hard time disarming them.


Random Runaways

(PS3) During some random encounters out in the wasteland the NPCs that appear in those encounters will just up and runaway when I try to get near them. This even happens with important merchants at times.


Fawkes Recruitment Glitch On the PC. After going too the regulators HQ & handing over nearly 190 fingers my karma made me good(previously I was evil). So i decided to recruit Fawkes. When I went to the museum of history he wasn't their. Later, after recruiting Charon, I returned to the museum and Fawkes was walking back and forth. I talked too him to try and recruit him, BUT he was already counted as a follower AND he wouldn't follow me. First I tried dismissing him but the only speech option was to keep him for when you are confirming you want him to go. Next I tried dismissing Charon because I thought, A) maybe I couldn't have two followers, or B) since i had heard that Charon & Fawkes couldn't be with you at the same time, that getting rid of Charon might let him join you. That didn't work.

Nearly Infinite Caps

Related to the glitch described in "Gameplay Related glitches" about armor and weapons - This works with any Vendor or NPC that sells items. The only requirement is that they have 2 of the same item (weapon or armor) with different conditions. Buy the lower condition item, for example, a Laser rifle for 120 caps. Then sell it back and buy it again. The 2nd or 3rd time you buy it, it will be fully repaired and will sell for way more caps, i.e. 500+ caps for a laser rifle. When you sell the item, it will appear back in the vendor's inventory at the original lower condition and lower cost, but as soon as you buy it again, it will be worth more caps than what you bought it for. Repeat until the Vendor has no more caps.


Increase Vendor Repair skill to 100

Only works with Haley at Haley's Hardware (available in the Point Lookout DLC). Go to his repair screen and it should show that you can not repair anything beyond 50%, but if you fast travel away and back again (and enter his repair screen again) his Repair Skill will be at 53. Each time you do this (and enter his repair screen again), it will go up by 3; so after 15 or 16 fast travels, his repair skill will be 100. Repair all of your stuff and use the "Nearly infinite Caps" glitch* to get all your money back.

  • Only if he has 2 items in his inventory with different condition levels.

Auto-Save/Auto-Load Failure
(PC, Vista) On very rare occurrence, Fallout 3 will fail to both quicksave and quickload any games. Your previously quicksaved game will also disappear from the list of saved games when accessed from the Menu. This error occurs when Fallout.exe fails to access the "quicksave.fos" file (located in your Saved Games folder) due to a file permission issue. Using Unlocker 1.8.7 reveals that WerFault.exe had locked the file in question, preventing other programs (mainly Fallout itself) from accessing the file. This problem is fixed by allowing Unlocker or other similar programs to unlock the file in question.
The reason on why WerFault.exe (the Windows Error Reporting feature) would lock a saved game file instead of the Fallout program itself in case of any technical errors is currently unknown. Furthermore, this error had occurred on Vista with UAC, and may or may not occur on other versions of Windows.

Trippy Megaton guard
(Xbox360) Fallowing the exit from vault 101 early in the game-after stumbling across the entrance to Megaton City guarded by a protectbot and a man on an overhang-killing the robot and the guard (confirmed in that order, may work vise-versa) with the BB gun may end with the guard falling into the turbine above the door and being spun and distorted. After some time the guard should shake loose and fall to allow the player to loot his equipment.

The Runaways Glitch
If you have to engage with Talon Company Mercs at Anacostia Crossing when you go to retrieve C.J. and James, C.J. may completely disappear after the fight. James will still be there and you can talk to him and bring him back to Rivet City, but C.J. will still be reported as missing by the guards and her family. However, if you wait around Rivet City for awhile, a random message will appear telling you that you have received Good Karma. Although you haven't physically brought C.J. back to the city, she somehow reappears there, as long as James is brought back.

Out of Map From Seward Sq. Northwest
To your right while facing the Capitol Building there is a rusty fence and a wall with small gaps in between the sections. If you walk to the part of the wall nearest the Capitol Building you will see a piece of debris near a gap in the wall which you can jump on and then out of the area. Another possible way out is to climb the steps of the Capitol Building, turn right and walk along the ledge close to the wall. There will be a block but with a skilled jump you can get around it and out as well. Outside the area are some buildings and then just flat ground that goes on forever.


Contents

[edit] Operation Anchorage Helmet Glitch

Before I begin to explain it, please note that I have only tested this using a Recon Armor Helmet. After completing the simulation, go to the armory and take the Winterized T-51b Power Armor and Helmet. Open your Items -> Apparel up in the Pip-boy and equip your ordinary helmet first, THEN equip the Winterized T-51b Power Helmet. If it isn't just me, both helmets should remain equipped, giving you more defense and whatever skills your ordinary helmet adds. Confirmed with PC with all DLCs and updated game.

[edit] Vault 101 Security Armor Glitch

If you choose to kill the overseer before you leave the vault for the first time in the game, then leave and get the vault 101 distress signal and go back you should find Wally Mack's father as overseer. When you find a dialouge choice that has to do with killing him choose it after you kill him you can search his corpse and find Vault 101 Security armor equip it and another armor and you will have the Damage resistance of both items.   This was only tested once on Xbox 360.


A Little Blue

Playing mothership zeta on ps3. i was abducted thrown on the table and will not get past that screen. nothing happens you can see the aliens probing you. the game is not frozen though because i can go into the start menu. the save button is darkened so i think the game is saving and having trouble saving. i got tired of waiting and loaded my previous save and I WAS BLUE AND STILL BLUE. the same color blue when i was being beamed up.

From A Little To A Lot

This glitch is more helpful then harmful I was just finished Broken Steel DLC on the PS3, Lv 17 with very evil karma. I had found out a way to get more ammo out of one bullet. The first time i tried it was in my suite using the safe, with the repeater. I had deposited all my .44 ammo but one (i wanted to see how it would shoot). To my surprise I my ammo read 15/-14, so i tested by killing my robot and it worked and i checked my safe and i had only used one bullet. But when i changed my weapon to stabhappy, and switched it back it became 0/0. I then took 3058 5mm bullets and a minigun and headed out and found a random suitcase. i stored all my 5mm there except for 1 and my ammo read 240/-239. Later when i finished Operation Anchorage Lv 19 with neutral karma, i was testing out my new Chinese Stealth Armor and found out i could pickpocket dogmeat i tried storing items onto him but they just disappeared after i put them on, next i tired ammo, and to my surprise it worked. So i tried the ammo glitch again with the Wazer Wifle, and the ammo read 30/-29. i didn't want to recruit any followers so i didn't test it with them but it should work.

[edit] Main Story Skip

I was in the middle of 'Scientific Pursuits' and I got bored so I decided to do the 'Citadel Glitch' (The one where it allows the player enter the Citadel at any time in the game) I then started the Picking up the Trail Quest, on my Pip-Boy I still had Scientific Pursuits on there along with Picking up the Trail This allowed me to skip 2 main Quests, Tranquility Lane and The Waters of Life. This meant throughout the whole game, I never got to see Dad outside the vault. Whenever I talked to Madison Li it would not interact. Later on, I somehow managed to start the Tranquility Lane Quest, but for some unknown reason when I entered Vault 112 and went to the Robobrain which is supposed to give me the Vault 112 Jumpsuit, every time I talked to it, it just said it "could not talk now". This meant I could not take the Jumpsuit to complete the quest, and because this is the Xbox 360 version, you cannot get it through console commands. The closest I ever got to Dad outside Vault 101 was seeing him a Tranquility Lounger! To avoid this, DON'T do the Citadel glitch BEFORE the Tranquility Lane Quest. I hope this was some help. If it was, feel free to mail me to my Wikia account. Thank you, Rood Radish


During the 'Picking Up The Trail' quest I encountered a glitch that would not let me progress.  I had already spoken to Elder Lyons and located Little Lamplight, but I had not gone in and gained entrance to the caves.  I decided to sidestep and go to Vault 106 to get one of the Bobbleheads.  In the Vault you encounter several hallucinations, one of which is of your father looking over some notes.  Just before the hallucination sequence began, I got the quest completion notice for 'Picking Up The Trail' and it notated that I had found access to Vault 87.  When I went back to Little Lamplight, everything seemed normal, but all of the prompts to permit me to access Vault 87 were non existent.  I could not access Joseph's prompts to activate the power to the computer terminal, or gain access to Murder Pass via Princess or MacCready.  Essentially I was stuck and had to restart from a much earlier save.  In a previous game I had accessed Vault 106 before I even got the 'Picking Up The Trail' quest and had no problem.  My recommendation, is to NOT visit Vault 106 while the 'Picking Up The Trail' quest is active.    G. AWOL

[edit] Post Citadel Glitch

After reaching the Citadel, exit the map and head westward. (NOTE: Have little to no areas discovered in the west usually makes this worse) At some point in the high hills of the game, or where remains of burned trees tend to be, you may end up with the ground at a certain point very ungraphical next to the current ground around you. CAUTION! Attempting to walk on this will lead to your character falling through the ground for a matter of 5-10 seconds before hitting the actual "ground" itself. Other ways to spot this is if looking around in the wild and a beam of graphic/light is shown in the middle of the sky downward till ground and changes as you move. Simply reload 3-5 saves back and attempt the quest again. This will also happen as you near your fathers position where you undertake the simulation. DO NOT attempt to fast travel past this problem, as it will not remedy this and just create more saves which you must delete and load past.

[edit] Steel Ingot Glitch

After downloading Point Lookout, when collecting steel ingots in The Pitt. the roof where you climb the really long ladder there are some domes and a few ingots in the corner guarded by a Trog. the Roof is completely inaccessible now, every time i walk on it, i fall through the solid floor to my death, no matter what the approach angle. This never happened before adding Point Lookout. Can be obtained by dropping off roof onto pipe and dropping onto first aid box, then fast traveling after you get the ingots, so you don't fall through the floor.

[edit] Follower getting itself killed

When I was walking in the barracks in Rivet City my follower Clover started randomly shooting at the door to the armory. And because she was shooting at the turret inside the guards got pissed and shot at me and Clover, I escaped and she didn't I think it was caused by the turret being marked as hostile so Clover tried to kill it.

When I first entered the broken bow (this was through the "Locked Very Hard" door on land) my followers (Fawkes and Dogmeat) would fall through the floor. At first only Dogmeat fell and got killed by either drowning or by any Mirelurks on the floor below. I later loaded back the game and told Dogmeat to wait outside. Afterward, I walked inside and Fawkes fell through, though it being Fawkes he eventually killed off the Mirelurks below and came back up to my level.

[edit] Follower Becoming Dead in Vault 87

After completing the main quest I returned to Vault 87 with Fawkes, Dogmeat and Charon to pick up the items I'd stashed pre-capture, and to take care of the Overlords I'd sneaked past previously (I have Broken Steel loaded). The Living Quarters area was fine, however any attempt to enter the Test Labs with all three follwers resulted in Charon becoming dead. He didn't die; I received no 'Charon has died!' message, he still showed as friendly on my radar, and pointing at him showed a 'Talk Charon' option, however actually trying to converse with his body showed the standard inventory listing you'd get when interacting with any other corpse - only without the T51-b armour he was wearing.

I tried telling him to wait in the Living Quarters, however stepping through into the Test Labs and then back again caused him to become a crumpled corpse at the foot of the door. I took him back to Megaton and left him waiting in my house then returned to the Test Labs with Fawkes and Dogmeat. Imagine my surprise when turning a corner in the labs I walked into - Charon! I told him to stop waiting and follow and I finally made it around and out of the labs with all my party alive. (360)

[edit] Rivet City Armory Turret Glitch

In Rivet City at the armory section of the ship, there is a droid guarding the entrance to the armory. At random times, if you go near the door, a red enemy will appear on your radar. After this, Rivet City citizens will flee away from you and guards MAY attack you, or flee. The reason is because your follower will detect the turret (the red enemy) inside the armory as hostile and either attack at the door or growl at it (dogmeat). If this happens load a previous save point and ignore the minor inconvenience. To make sure this glitch does not happen again, do not take your follower into the armory. The best thing to do is leave your follower at your house whenever entering Rivet City.

[edit] General Bugs, (getting unstuck)

There are multiple places you can get yourself stuck and have to resort to fast travel, sleeping, sitting in chairs, and such to get unstuck, but there are also places none of those options are available, (see Moriarty's Saloon). It may still be possible to escape by grabbing a nearby item like a wooden crate or even dropping something from inventory and grabbing it, then dragging this item to where your feet would be to nudge you.


Shotgun Revolver

Paulson's Revolver (Mothership Zeta) suddenly started firing like a shotgun. Several bullets are fired but only 1 .44 Magnum round is used.

[edit] PC: Take It Back! to Broken Steel bug

During "Take it back," right after liberty prime broke down the last electron field, I rushed inside to the purifier, instantly VATS killed COL Autumn. I tried to get Lyons to follow me in so I could get either her or myself to enter the code. She didn't follow, so i "TCL" (turned clipping on), entered the purifier & entered the code. When 2 weeks were over, Elder lyons gave me his spiel about the water purifier missions, but no mention of 3 main storyline missions. Everytime I talk to him he just says "You're reporting to sarah..." Icannot hack the take it back or (enter the FEV virus) missions to be completed, so i can get lyons to let me continue. If I enter purifier, I get locked in with no way out. Help?

[edit] Increased weapon damage glitch

Am not sure if this counts for other weapons but with the 10mm pistol, it's silenced counterpart, the hunting rifle and Ol'painless If you repair it with 100 repair skill and barely noticeable deterioration to it is possible to increase the Damage from 9 to 10 (pistol) you need a 100 repair skill and patience as this may take a few tries this could prove beneficial (If only by a margin) the increase is permanent the next time you will repair your weapon it will always be that new number

[edit] General Bugs, VATS glitches

  • Shooting in VATS will occasionally result in unbelievably low damage to a target.
  • Shooting in VATS will occasionally crash the game (tends to happen more with railgun, minigun and fatman).
  • Shooting in VATS slows down running enemies to a ridiculous degree, making enemies run in place.
  • Shooting in VATS weapons out of enemies hands, while the enemy is scripted not to let go of the weapon, will not damage the enemy, neither it will even lower weapon's condition.
  • Throwing grenades in VATS will occasionally cause no damage at all to a target whilst dealing full damage to nearby objects.
  • Throwing grenades in VATS will occasionally make grenades simply disappear from player's inventory.
  • Throwing grenades in VATS will occasionally make neutral character hostile, even thought the grenade will never hit them, cause any damage, were thrown in the opposite direction and cause no such effect when thrown in real-time (example-defending a town from super mutant attacks quest)
  • Aiming in VATS will occasionally show 0% hit chance (enemy may be two feet away with a player's weapon trained right at them with full skill in that weapon category) or higher chance that is (VATS show 95% but a thrown grenade lands far short of a target while having a clear sky to travel).
  • Aiming in VATS will occasionally not show chances to hit at all along with the target sectioning.
  • Aiming in VATS will occasionally not stop certain npcs from moving around behind the player.
  • Aiming in VATS, and later canceling it will sometimes give player perks or play level-up sound, followed by a spectacular blue screen of death.
  • Aiming in VATS will often not consider nearby objects shapes, resulting in a shot hitting the object rather than a target (shooting behind a tree in real-time without problems, shots hitting the tree when firing in VATS).
  • Aiming in VATS at something attacking you outside of Vault 101, while facing and including The Capital Building, will crash your computer because it also targets the Behemoth inside.
  • After downloading DLC, the main character and their weapons become invisible(in 1st and 3rd person mode). The problem is not fixed by loading the save used.
  • Shooting in VATS occasionally makes the target light on fire with a non incendiary weapon and sometimes explode, causing damage to nearby characters and followers. This is not a result of shooting explosive devices as this has happened outdoors in the Wasteland.
  • Sometimes after entering VATS without enough AP to fire, you can cycle between targets and their target areas but not exit VATS, even though the RETURN option looks to be available.

[edit] Gotta Shoot Em'In the Head Glitch

This happened on the 360 version. Somehow I received the achievement for this quest without actually doing anything related to it. I never killed any of the people. Tenpenny wasn't dead because I killed the ghouls during the Tenpenny Tower quest. I had just glitched the Head of State quest (by agreeing to help the slavers then killing them) and decided to go to the other locations around the Lincoln Memorial. In Underworld I talked to Mister Crowley and got the quest. After that I found Reilly and got the Reilly's Rangers quest. I decided to not do either quest at the time and explored a little bit more. Once I had almost maxed out what I could carry I went back to my house in Megaton. I took the stuff Fawkes was carrying and when I finished talking to him the achievement popped up. When I talked to Mister Crowley after that he said that I "took what was rightful his" and nothing else. I checked on Tennpenny, Dave, and Ted. They were all still alive. Then I went back to Underworld and Mister Crowley was gone.

Notes - I was level 30 at the time. I had completed the main story, The Pitt, Operation Anchorage, but not Broken Steel. Crystal9487 23:25, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

You can complete the quest early by putting the Winterized T-51b in your inventory.GodPlageon 23:34, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

I had the Reilly's Rangers quest active and on my way to the ranger compound. I also had the Gotta shoot them in the head quest available but inactive. At the entrance to the alley with the bomb nut (opposite end to the wastelander trapped) there were two mailboxes. I placed my whole inventory into the right hand one (as you face the alley) then closed the mailbox. I re-opened the mailbox and removed all using the take all command and it then said I'd completed the Gotta shoot them in the head quest


This also happened to me on the PS3 version of Fallout 3, I had none of the DLC packages, and again, I had the Reilly's Rangers quest active also active and had finished the main story line at level 19.  I recieved the trophy randomly in the middle of the quest.

[edit] Tenpenny Tower Glitch

After choosing to blow up megaton, I approached the tower where Roy was on the intercom and killed roy. Later when I got the quest from gustavo I killed him too yet the quest remained active. Only solution is to not kill roy before the quest is activated. Sometimes when fast traveling to Vault 101, two of the bigots will appear, but they will have the same dialog options(Confirmed on PS3, need to be confirm on other platforms).

[edit] V.A.T.S./Gameplay Glitch

Sometimes while in VATS, the target seems to 'leave' or 'phase out' of the camera angle; you can hear all your shots fire off in a rapid succession but none hit. The bullets don't miss or strike walls etc, they just vanish. Upon exiting VATS, your AP is depleted and the ammo removed but the target is unharmed. To be clear, this is not the target just moving behind an obstacle. This seems to happen once every 100-200 VATS rounds, multiple characters, play-throughs.

[edit] Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head Glitch (2)

On Xbox 360: After delivering the keys to Mr. Crowley, I proceeded to follow him through the Underworld exit to the museum entrance. Upon passing through the door, I realized that Crowley was stuck/clipping between the (facing Underworld entrance) right pillar and the wall. There is about a 6-7ft radius that the player cannot step into, and this is the area he was stuck in facing the wall. I tried to talk to him and kill him, but neither worked. He disappeared after completing Take it Back and beginning Death From Above. The glitch could have been caused by following too close behind him and passing through the door almost simultaneously, but this is not confirmed.

[edit] Broken Steel Achievement Glitch (Xbox 360)

I bought Broken Steel the day it came out and that may be the cause of the problem, but directly after downloading I played and finished the first two quests and got the two achievements. (Shock Value, Death From Above) I had gotten the achievements, but none of my friends could see them, and about a week after, they were completely gone. I re-completed the quests and the achievements stayed, but it was a large douche. (Confirmed on Xbox 360)

[edit] Right Stick Glitch (Xbox 360)

On certain doors that you can lockpick to go thru, and then if you get killed afterward (before saving again), the autosave re-load will "lock" the use of the right stick to look around (but still works in the Pip-Boy). The only way I have found to fix this is to find something to trigger the lockpick mini-game and then you can play again as normal (just enter it and exit). Obviously this can be annoying if there is nothing nearby to lockpick or high enough to hit with the cursor (as you can't look down either). I had to use V.A.T.S. to move my view to turn around enough to get through a door. A console restart did not fix, only other method is an earlier save. Happened twice out of playing thru 3 times, so not sure how common this is.

[edit] Messed Up Graphics While Following Liberty Prime (Xbox 360)

I was following Liberty Prime, (i was playing for about 6 hours nonstop) And when we came to the bridge with the enclave barrier at the end of it whenever you looked toward the barrier my screen would go INSANE. It would be like a pink,purple, and white kaleidoscope. But when you look a different way it would stop. Restarting the console fixed it.


as i was following liberty prime, he suddenly stopped and and started moving in circles and he just kept doing that. So i had to load back like a half hour before. But i have not tried again since then.


This happened to me various times, but not while following Liberty Prime. The screen would mesh up with the colors on screen. It first happened in first point of view, then it happened in 3rd point of view and whenever I switched them it would return to normal. But if I fast traveled the screen froze.

[edit] Game Freezes when shooting too close to enemies with VATS (PS3)

It seems like every time you attack an enemy with VATS, the game have a great chance to freeze, and keeping that way by a few minutes.

[edit] Walking off the map in The Pitt (Xbox 360)

Here is a way you can actually walk off the map in Pitt! Go outside where the steel ingots are. Climb up the stairs past Wild Bill's Body. Reach the platform where the Turret is located. In the middle of this platform is a big radiation hole with bones in the bottom of it. You need to get on the outer "wall" or edge of this platform. Perform this by going to the walkway right above it. It is the long walkway that leads down to the rooftops. From the walkway, jump down to the edge of the large platform. It is like tight rope walking. Save it here in case you fall off. Now walk along the ridge until you reach the Southernmost point. There is a rooftop below you that is too far away. So jump off and save it right before you die. When you load, you will start on the rooftop totally okay. Now jump off of this roof to the West, to a lower rooftop that runs North. Take it all the way to the giant silo that was previously inaccessible. Keep going North and you will go into the city of Pittsburgh with all kinds of floating buildings. There is a giant river there too. You can actually swim across it and go to the other side. Check the world map. You will be off it!

[edit] Wear multiple headgear (Xbox 360)

After completing the Operation Anchorage DLC you gain access to an armory. Inside is a Chinese Stealth Armor. When equipping it you will be able to equip headgear even though it is a full body suit. That is easily understandable but, while wearing this suit, you can equip many head gears at once. I have only tested it with four, specifically the shady hat, Button's Wig, the ghoul mask, and the winterized T-51b helmet. When you equip a different body armor all the hats stay on until you remove one of them at which point all will be removed. So far I have only been able to get the effects of two of the four equipped hats to take effect but I did have all four in effect at one point. I think this is caused by the game reading the armor as a body armor even though it clearly has its own head gear.

The glitch works with as many helmets as you can carry. Also, I have found a way to become headless!! Well, more like the invisible man, because if you wear glasses, they will still be there. Use the above method, but have two of the same item in inventory (I used 2 pre-war hats. PER +1) when you try to equip the duplicate item, it wont switch, but still count the added benefit. My PER was up to about 77 last night, and if you try to equip the duplicate item around 5 times, when you exit from the pip boy, you will have no head!! When you switch from stealth suit, head returns, also, head returns upon weapon switch, and fast travel. Works for PC, and 360. I found bug in point lookout, but I don't see why it wouldn't work anywhere else.

[edit] Damage and Defense Increase

While playing the Point Lookout DLC I noticed that my weapon damage is way higher than it should be. The damage listed for my Sydney's 10mm "Ultra" SMG is at 130, my Xuanlong Assault Rifle is at 123, and my Lincoln's Repeater is at 63. Also, my Defense Rating is at 13 when I'm naked and 68 with all of the Winterized T-51b Power Armor equipped. I think that this glitch could be tied to the Superior Defender perk, as it did not occur before I got it.

Actually the glitch is most likely due to the definitely glitched Ghoul Ecology Perk where the conditions were put in the wrong place giving the bonus to damage against every enemy, not just ghouls. The superior defender is set up correctly, but when stacked with the Ghoul perk it looks like an ungodly amount of damage, at least for automatics. I tested and took screen caps of all the variations today and with the ghoul perk removed or the ghoul perk mod fix in place the Xuanlong offers a deadly but perhaps reasonable 96 damage rather than its usual 68. That's only while standing still as per the Superior Defender perk condition.
I had the same problem too, but I really think it's because of the Superior Defender perk. Before I had even gotten the Ghoul Ecology perk the damage glitch was in effect. My Perforator silenced assault rifle's damage was at 45-50 before i had gotten the Superior Defender perk and after I had gotten Superior Defender it slowly increased to 89 damage! All my weapons have gotten damage increases by 45% and still rising. And all this occurred before I had the Ghoul Ecology Perk.

[edit] G.O.A.T. freeze bug (PS3)

when I sat down to take the G.O.A.T., the game didn't freeze, but I could not leve the seat, nor did the test start. I could see one desk unfilled, maybe this caused it. Problem fixed by restarting from last save, I don't know if it happened again because I chose the "do I really have to take this stupid test" option and so prevented it happening again.

-- This bug is caused by another bug that happens when Amata is being harassed by the Tunnel snakes. After you finish the dialogue with them, they are supposed to go inside the classroom for the test but sometimes either Amata or Butch will stay outside "forever" no matter what you do. If you enter the classroom and choose to take the GOAT you will be seated but Mr. Brotch will remain "waiting" for the person outside to enter. This will make the game unplayable and a reload will be required. If the game was saved after the "Future Imperfect" quest started this glitch may persist in the save slot with the quest. If your save file is glitched then you'll have to skip the GOAT. 206.248.93.112Palo

[edit] Big Trouble In Big Town Robots

While playing on the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3, I noticed a peculiar glitch at the end of Big Trouble In Big Town. The glitch occurs after you've rescued Shorty and Red from the Germantown Police HQ. If you have a high Science skill while speaking with Red, you can offer to fix the towns Robots to help defend against the Super Mutants. Everyone in the vicinity of Big Town (including Red) explains that the Robots are in the Junk Yard at the edge of town. No matter how long you search, there just doesn't seem to be any Robots, or anything to prompt you to repair the Robots. After searching every nook and cranny in Big Town (not just the Junk Yard), I loaded a saved game from earlier. And yet again, there were no Robots at all. I eventually started a different game with a Science Skill of 100, and returned to Big Town after rescuing Shorty and Red. Once again I offered to repair the robots. And of course, they were non- existent. After three trials, I encountered the same glitch. I ask fellow players of Fallout 3 to look into this further, especially if you have the Xbox 360 version.( Confirmed on PC) Thank You Anonymous

the robot may have flown away if you look at the big town page it will tell you to put the robot in a place where it can not float away.BigDogW 20:40, 27 July 2009 (UTC)


I did research on this topic, and found that in earlier copies of the game, Bethesda forgot to code for these robots, but coded the dialogue in the quest to attempt to program them. This can only be fixed on pc versions by downloading an update, or (note: this following part I am only about 75% sure of) buying a newer copy of the game.--Valoopy

[edit] Take it back!

i was playing and prime for what ever the hell his name is would not move!!!!

[edit] Fawkes Movement Troubles

Due to Fawkes size he will continuously get stuck in terrain and also not be able to move in certain areas because objects are blocking him and his size as well as block the player. There are many areas he can't go due to his size restricting his movement. Moving to another location will fix this usually (E.g going through to another area and fast travel) but it will strongly effect gameplay as the player will have to keep going back and trying to move him, or he will just stay frozen. This goes back to the getting stuck in terrain generally in fallout 3 and many methods can be used to stop this but this can take a while/ not work at all.

[edit] See-Your-Player's-Name Glitch

Ok, so occasionally, when using V.A.T.S, I can see my player's name! For example, my character's name is Buttface, and when I shot an Enclave soldier with a missile launcher, the display at the bottom of the screen showed, in red, "Buttface", with half of the health gone. Half of my health was gone, so that would fit! This was on the patch on the Xbox before I got Patch 1.5 Theory: It showed red obviously because I hit myself with splash damage. But the real question: how did it happen?!

It seems that this wasn't a once in a lifetime glitch. When I was on my other (evil) profile, I threw a frag at a Mutant in close proximity. For a moment, my pc's name flashed red with almost full health at the bottom of the screen. However, this was on the Patch 1.5, so it wasn't fixed.

I'm sure that explosives of some kind are used to reproduce the glitch. In both occurrences, I was using explosives (missiles, frags). In both times, I also received self-damage from the explosion. Try to reproduce and confirm, please.


I agree. Me and my brother both noticed this as I played Mothership Zeta. I was using the Heavy Incinerator and (non-VATS) shot an Alien standing right in front of me. It showed my name in red, but with a lot less health than I had. I believe this a glitch, caused by the console showing your name during self damage. My theory is that it realizes damage to the enemy and you at the same time, and, since your target was an enemy, registers you as an enemy you have caused damage to.--Valoopy


I can also confirm seeing this, but I have only seen it on the Xbox 360, never the PC. (Have both versions and have tested this.) Happened to me when playing Operation: Anchorage, and wouldn't you know it - same thing as well - it was a moment after I had thrown a frag grenade at a Chimera Tank that was somewhat close in proximity. It seems to disappear after a split second, and happens very infrequently. Seems to be limited to Big Guns that use splash damage (Fat Man, Heavy Incinerator, Missile Launcher.) and virtually almost any explosive except mines. (Frag Grenade, Pulse Grenade, Plasma Grenade, Nuka Grenade.) Although it causes no internal problems, I'm unsure if seeing yourself as "hostile" will trigger followers to go hostile on you because you hit yourself. Your own worst enemy I suppose...? --24.90.156.106 23:11, October 31, 2009 (UTC)


Happened to me to when I was throwing grenades around. Never play with frag grenades. - Chiefsean16

[edit] Rapid-fire VATS

I've noticed on several instances when using VATS that the last one or two shots are animated in fast-forward motion followed by a quick cut to normal mode. These rapid shots often miss, though occasionally at most one out out of two does hit. This glitch began only after installing Point Lookout DLC and the 1.6 FO3 patch.


I can confirm this, but I have tested this with the Xbox 360 version (1.5.0.23) and with no DLC. Post-Point Lookout glitch may be coincidence. --24.90.156.106 23:15, October 31, 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Tenpenny Tower "Ghouls Option" Bug

When you are in the generator room meeting with Roy though the window, he is supposed to say "Meet me out from I have something for you so the ferals don't eat your face" or something to that nature...well with mine he said "Meet me out front" and when I got there he never offered the "Ghoul Mask", and after the ferals attack and kill the Tenpenny residents the ghouls moved in and I still never received the "Completed Mission" or "Ghoul Mask" and I had to go back to a previous save point and start over.

[edit] Enclave Soldier before The Waters of life

I was heading to GNR to find dad when an Enclave soldier appeared north west of Super Duper Mart. I don't know how he got there and he shouldnt even spawn until The Waters of Life quest.


I can confirm this bug, and have a very good idea of what causes it - it appears to be a bug of Broken Steel that carries over into the main game. Tried this while not having Broken Steel installed, went to where the Enclave camp would supposedly be north of Super Duper Mart, and the soldier did not appear. Tried it again with another camp location outside the Car Dealership just east of Fairfax Ruins. No Enclave soldier. Lastly, tried it with the Enclave camp location at Rockbreaker's Last Gas. No Enclave soldier. However, upon installing Broken Steel, Enclave soldiers showed up at all three locations (With the exception of the Car Dealership, I had to actually enter the building and exit to get the soldier to appear.) all before ANY advancement in the main quest except exiting Vault 101, but they were by themselves - meaning that there was only one of them at each location tested, no more. The camps were also not present either. I have tested this all on the Xbox 360 version, patch 1.5.0.23, all five DLC installed. If you could clarify if you had Broken Steel installed or not, it might help to confirm whether it is actually Broken Steel that causes it, or just simply an isolated incident. --24.90.156.106 06:23, November 1, 2009 (UTC)

[edit] PC Only

While running Fallout 3 via Steam under Windows XP, attempts to re-maximize the game after alt-tabbing out of the game may fail. Bringing up the in-game menu (Esc) and/or activating the console (~) may or may not help in returning to the game. In the case of being unable to return to the game, the game must be restarted.

Neither Steam nor XP are relevant. I'm running from a disc, on Vista x64, and the same problem exists. And like your bug, it seems to be less likely to occur if I pause with Esc prior to Alt-Tabbing away.

[edit] Alexandria Arms Fire Extinguisher Glitch

In the Alexandria Arms hotel, if you enter the room; not the north-eastern most room, but the one across the hall; and turn to the right, there will be a fire extinguisher resting against a hole in the drywall. Grab it briefly and let it go. If done correctly, the fire extinguisher will fall through the floor, only to fall from the top of the hole and fall through again. For me, the process repeated about 6 times before the fire extinguisher got stuck into the wood at the top of the hole. The picture below is a screenshot of the fire extinguisher after it stuck. Sorry about the quality. All I had was my Mac and the TV has a glass front.

File:Fire_extinguisher_glitch.jpg 

Update: I don't know why I didn't think of this, but the glitch works on any item small enough to lift.  But, if a larger object such as the fire extinguisher gets stuck, the portal is shut.  I don't know if there is a way to remove the blockage, but luckily, the fire extinguisher was explosive, and after shooting it, the resulting debris was small enough to pass through the portal wihtout blocking it.  I already have proof of it for the 360 (the picture), but please confirm this on PS3 and PC.  Thanks. --kemosabi4

[edit] Reilly's Rangers glitch

- While walking towards the rangers on the statesman hotel roof, i got a random message saying "Reilly's rangers are now hostile toward you" and "quest failed: Reilly's rangers"

I'm not so sure whether or not this is a glitch. This is known to happen if you have Fawkes with you, as the Rangers are hostile to Super Mutants, obviously. If you had Fawkes with you, that would be the reason why. Also, should this part be deleted as this is possibly not a glitch?

No i did not have Fawkes with me i killed him because he did not give me his supersledge. with me, i had dogmeat, rl-3, and Sydney and i wasn't even up the steps to the platform that they were on

[edit] SatCom Array NW-07C moon glitch

this glitch/bug occurred when I fast traveled to SatCom Array NW-07C. The date was 04.10.78 and the time was 20.12. I spawned at the Array as planned but when I looked up the moon was slightly green-colored,the color changed to yellow a few seconds later from bottom to top, The same thing happened again with the moon changing to blue and red in the same way as yellow. After the changing to red , the clouds covered the moon. I reloaded the Auto-save and fast traveled to SatCom Array NW-07C again and the glitch occurred again. Can anybody confirm this glitch? (this was discovered on a Xbox 360 with no updates). /Jarpasmannen

===Megaton House results in Freeze===
NOTE: This was on my X360. I had this glitch on my "evil" profile, where I decided to attack some of megaton. I first pickpocketed Lucas Simms for his House/Armory Key. I then went into the armory for the weapons, which caused the robot there to attack me. I then ran away, while all of megaton was chasing me, into my house. I then slept for a day, and repeated going into armory, etc. Unfortunately, 4 people had got into my house, and Wadsworth killed them all. Among these people were 2 megaton settlers, Nathan (the Enclave supporter) and Lucas Simms. I did all this just after I finished "Following in His Footsteps". About 3/4 into the game (at the quest where player must retrieve the G.E.C.K.) I returned to my megaton house for healing/sleeping, and the game was loading (as in the timer at the bottom appeared and the screen black) and upon loading the game froze at the loading screen (as in screen did not change, loading timer froze). I reloaded my save several times with the same experience. I think it may be to do with the dead bodies ragdoll physics (as the dead bodies did not disappear and remained in my house, and "ragdoll" every time I was entering my house) Summary of this glitch: Killing Megaton people in Megaton House results in dead bodies not disappearing and eventually causing game to freeze upon entry of Megaton House.

Actually, I don't think it had to do with the dead bodies. I notice (on the XBox 360 version), when the karma is set to "evil" and continue it...the negative karma causes the game to freeze. I noticed this when I was trying to become evil to get the companions, Jericho and Clover via the Puppies! perk. While I was attempting to hack Moriarty's terminal countless times, the game began to glitch upon leaving his saloon, saving, using "wait". It ain't the terminal because I notice that when I'm roaming the wasteland killing things, getting negative karma, once I reach "evil", when it autosaves or I enter a different cell (e.g. through a door) it would freeze. I am 99.9% certain that the game freezes due to this scripting error. I experimented and finally came to the conclusion that everything I did to fluctuate the karma balance toward evil, it would freeze. Somehow the script in the game caused it to freeze. Solution: prepare to be in an area cell that allows you to gain positive karma before exiting a cell, saving, or using 'wait'.RekonDog 02:45, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Rory Maclaren Glitch

During the "Rescue from Paradise" mission I freed Rory and, rather then follow as requested, took up weapons and started pulverizing the slavers. He wound up with the break and a supersledge and very little health, and did not make a run for it when we emerged from the gate but rather continued to creep after me in a crouching position. He followed on a fast travel to Megaton. When I talk to him, he says, "Hey, talk fast, they hate it when I talk to customers." I reply "see you later." He replies; "Bye." and continues to follow me. I attempted to escort him to Little Lamplight for want of any better ideas and he was gunned down by raiders. Xbox 360, no patches.

I found Rory dead when I opened 'The Box'. - Chiefsean16

[edit] Automatic weapon firing glitch/bug

Whenever you fire an full-automatic weapon (i.e. Chinese AR, Perferator, Gatling Laser, etc) while t-bagging, it appears to be shooting (you can see the weapon doing the firing animation) but there is no shots that come out of the gun. (confirmed XBox 360)

[edit] Start Up Glitch

Ok, I don't really know if this glitch has already been posted, or if this website already posted how to fix my startup glitch, I would like to know how to fix it( I REALLY want to play) . Im playing on the PC version of the game, and when i press "Play" on the startup screen, it startup's(Or i suppose it does) and then the screen automaticly turns black, then im back at the place you get to when you start up your computer. (not login) I don't know how to fix this, and im having trouble finding anything. Im playing WITHOUT any patches, because when i click on the link to it, It says 404 not found. So if the patch fixes it, please send me the DOWNLOAD. xreallbe@yahoo.com

[edit] Super Deathclaws 

This happened three time before we came to a conclusion that when a deathclaw flys into the air then respawns sometimes glitching to cam to lag once a second was a glitch that we i think is caused by it being stuck and still running at you. This makes it gets stuck energy builds to make it get out and it flys off tha map into the clouds were it goes into orbit.(on the 360) first time occurred at MDPL-05 power plant when it got stuck between the two trees closest to the power line pole.

Happened to me, but in a different place on PS3. Happened at night. - Chiefsean16

[edit] broken steel character glitch 

Okay so i was at the purifier about to finish the game and go on to broken steel content i had Fawkes with me so i told him to wait in the rotunda and when i woke up 2 weeks later Fawkes was gone and hes not in the museum entrance and whenever i try to recruit another character it says i already have one.

[edit] Climb a Bus

Literally just east of Chevy Chase East, there is a broken down bus. Approaching it from the end that doesn't have wheels, (or not as they've been robbed) you should be able to just run up the front of it and stay on top. Whether this works for NPCs I do not know, but I was wearing BOS Power Armour and Helmet and had a Hunting Rifle equipped at the time. (Xbox 360)


[edit] VATS Targeting Bug

There is a glitch where, on occasion, if you try to target an NPC in VATS as he/she travels through a loading screen door (I.E., any door that does not have an opening animation, rather, you select it, then spawn in a new location), it will sometimes freeze the game. (360)


[edit] GOAT test glitch

Occasionally, on the PS3 version, you will site down to take the GOAT and the game will not progress. You will not be able to take the test, just sit there. This may be caused by running past the Tunnel Snake/ Amata encounter and sitting in Butch's seat, this is how it occurred for me, this happened when I beat up the tunnel snakes, then sat in the seat in the front right, it fixed itself when I reloaded.

[edit] Jefferson Rotunda

(SPOILERS)For an unknown reason, during the Scientific Pursuits quest, during the scene where you dad is killed by Autumn, the door to the rotunda will not close at the programmed time, so if you move quick, you can get in the door before it closes, and watch the encounter from inside the rotunda. Also, you can loot Colonel Autumns corpse, and retrieve is 10mm pistol and overcoat. Also, since your dad is essential and technically not dead, you can talk to him while he is laying on the floor and carry out a conversation with him. The only problem is that after you enter the rotunda, you cannot exit, and you must reload a previous save. If you load the recent autosave from entering the rotunda and letting the door close as its supposed to, it will cause no permanent harm to your game, and you can continue as if it never happened.


[edit] Freeing Little-Lamplighters from Slavery

IF you choose to leave Penny when freeing the Lamplighters from slavery, she will stay in the slave pen, and act as if you saved her. She will have dialogue options as if she was in lamplight.

[edit] Stuck In The Memorial Rotunda

During "The Water's Of Life" Quest where you must return to the rotunda to find your Father, if you run to the entrance of the Emergency Bulkhead you may be able to make it inside before the doors close, when your father sacrifices himself you will become irradiated with no means of escape. You will be able to however loot all characters and get Colonel Autumn's Coat

[edit] Stuck at Enclave Capture Scene

In Vault 87 when getting captured by the enclave while leaving, when the Colonel tells the soldiers to retrieve the G.E.C.K from you nothing happens. The Colonel and the soldiers stay standing next to you and the screen continues to wobble around as if you were dazed so you cant move or go anywhere or click on anything. I have reloaded six times with the same result, i have Cross as a companion and i have tried having her wait and follow, but every time results in the same thing with no way to progress. I have not been able to figure out what causes this, although this character is the first one I have made that has gotten this far on the main quest so i have nothing to compare.


[edit] Gibson Comes to Life

I'm unsure on how to replicate the glitch, but I had found the headless body of Gibson in The Capital Post, and retrieved his note and key. Later, upon re-entering The Capital Post, Gibson was alive and shooting at me! I killed him and again took the note and key. A third inspection of The Capital Post yielded Gibson's Ash Pile (which I had made), and AGAIN had his note and key. This has happened on the XBOX 360 version.

This happens to me on every character I make, so I doubt it's a glitch.

Megaton House Glitch

After playing for a long time on my ps3 I went to use my first laboratory or whatever it is called. While doing that i noticed something very strange it took 25 hours instead of 24 hours to make a chem! i tried reloading and the same thing happened. i even used my backup file from a long time ago and it still took 25 hours. I think that it may have to do to the firmwire 3.0 ps3 update but i doubt it, i think it is just another one of those random annoying glitches. I started a new file today and don't have the laboratory for my house yet but my farthest save from about a year ago didn't have the glitch so i am guessing that starting a new file or reloading a very old save is the cure. I do not know how to replicate this glitch nor do i know how anyone would want to because it just wastes time.


[edit] Underworld Glitch

When the user wants to speak with Azrakhal to recruit Charon and once he agrees and you promptly tell Charon you're his new employer, if the user quicksaves whilst Charon is telling Azrakhal that he is leaving him both of those characters freeze and no interaction between them is at all possible they don't even finish their conversation. But however if you shoot at any other ghoul in underworld both Charon AND Azrakhal become hostile towards you. Reloading the save does NOT fix the glitch. (Done on PS3)

[edit] Crippled Limb Glitch

After stepping on a frag mine, being knocked over and having your leg crippled, sleep in an unowned bed. After sleeping, your leg will be registered as at full-health in your Pip-Boy, but in 3rd person the leg will still appear to be crippled. Walking speed seems to be unaffected. (On PS3).


[edit] Permeable Ground Glitch

While following Hannibal to the Lincoln Memorial there are two Ghouls (at level 30 a Feral Ghoul Reaver and a Glowing One) that appear at the upper-left corner of map grid (15,10) under the overpass.  On multiple occasions the Glowing One has 'fallen' into the earth, and been free to run around underground attacking the player.  The Glowing One can be targeted in V.A.T.S but cannot be struck, and NPCs (at least Fawkes) will endlessly attack it.


[edit] Anchorage weapons glitch

I'm not sure if glitch is the best word for what happanded, but I was using the more than one weapon package exploit (dropping weapons for more) and after I got my weapons I went and talked to one of the chinese captives randomly, however as soon as I did this I got the messages telling me my old package was removed (which it was) and my new package was given to me (which also was, giving two of the same weapon). This happaned to me the Xbox version but if anyone else could also confirm for other systems that would help.


[edit] undead followers

I dont know how this glitch occurs but charon had died in my game and it had been some time but i was in my megaton house and waited for one hour and i got messages saying"RL-3 has returned to canterberry comms","Star paladin cross has returned to the citadel" and "Charon has returned to the ninth circle". i was playing the GOTY edition on PS3 and had finished the DLC.i do know someone who had the same glitch just after they got the message about broken steel raising the level cap.

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