New Vegas Keeps Freezing and I'm Not Emotionally Prepared Enough to Deal With this Shit

[KingArthur]

I don't know why, but New Vegas keeps freezing on me. For a while it kept CTD-ing, but I installed the 4gb patch and NVAC and that seemed to fix it. But NV is like my car; every time I fix one problem 2 more pop up. Now it's freezing both during gameplay and during loading screens and considering I'm trying to use NV to cope after my friend's wake, this is just a recipe for spiking my laptop off the ground. Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

My load order:
FalloutNV.esm
SomeguySeries.esm
DeadMoney.esm
HonestHearts.esm
LonesomeRoad.esm
OldWorldBlues.esm
TribalPack.esm
MercenaryPack.esm
ClassicPack.esm
CaravanPack.esm
GunRunnersArsenal.esm
Project Nevada - Core.esm
CFWNV.esm
Project Nevada - Equipment.esm
Project Nevada - Rebalance.esp
Project Nevada - Cyberware.esp
factions reloaded raiders v2.esp
NovacLegion.esp
Playable raider + Trait.esp
MAD - Core Gameplay.esp
MAD - GunsAddon.esp
Ghoulified.esp
v13classicSuit.esp
vault 13 suit and compact minigun.esp
NCR Battle Rifle.esp
NukaCola-Ojo.esp
Caesar's Legion More Lively.esp
LML-The Fort.esp
NCRTechnician.esp
KillableKids.esp
NCRCF.esp
KingOfTheRing.esp
Throwing Ninja's Weapon.esp
Glock Pack.esp
Classic Midwestern Power Armor.esp
Radio_Sinatra.esp
Radio Free Wasteland.esp
zmod_add_misc_RadioGaga.esp
VertibirdCrashSites.esp
UnlimitedTraits.esp
PowerArmorRevamped.esp
Riot Gear Neck Cover.esp
CourierRangerArmorV2.esp
LightUpAndSmokeThoseCigarettes_edisleado.esp
lightupandsmokethosecigarettes_dm.esp
PerkEveryLevel.esp
OldGhoulEye-NoHeadbandSlotForHeadgear.esp
OldGhoulEye-NoHeadbandSlotForHeadgearDLC.esp
OldGhoulEye.esp
OldGhoulEye-ProjectNevada.esp
Raider Pipboy.esp
familiar_faces_followers.esp
Fully Functional Raider Race Mod.esp
ClassicVaultNumbers.esp
Vault13Jumpsuits.esp
FolksFromFlagstaff.esp
NCR_DesertV2.esp
CNR_Beta.esp
Classic10mmPistol.esp
Classic Companion Config.esp
CFW-DLC.esp
UnlimitedCompanions.esp
UnlimitedCompanions SCRIPT FIX.esp
00BulletForBenny.esp
betterbenny.esp
bennyguards.esp
Benny's Lucky Lighter.esp
BennyReturns.esp
WeaponsSpecialtyTraits.esp
BR - Traits and Perks.esp
Be Merciful.esp
Tailor Maid - NV.esp
NewVegasKiller.esp
TheInheritance.esp
CheckpointGary.esp
classicambientmusic.esp
1nivVSLArmors.esp
1nivVSLArmors Cheat.esp
CShotgun.esp
Roberts_NewVegas.esp
Legion Quests Expanded.esp
NewVegasBounties.esp
TheBetterAngels.esp
NewVegasBountiesIII.esp
NewVegasBountiesII.esp
PPSh41.esp
AK47.esp
B92FS.esp
C1849.esp
FBSykes.esp
M1905.esp
NVFacePresets.esp
Millenia_Tokarev.esp
M16A2.esp
Makarov.esp
MAD - Day of the Dead.esp
Uncut Wasteland.esp
T60.esp
Tribal T-51b Helmet.esp
Vault 111 Suit.esp
RangerPatrolGasMasks.esp
Ranger Merc Helms - Duffle Bag.esp
Ranger Toughness.esp
Park_Ranger.esp
RangerVeteranBeforeEndgame.esp
M14.esp
SW38S.esp
1911.45ACP.esp
TOZ66.esp
DEagle.esp
Eldridge's Armor.esp
RangerHuntingCarbine.esp
mysteriouspeterv3.esp
ProjectRealityMkIv5HDR.esp
AmericanRevl.esp
Stormtroopers Early Release - Armors.esp
brayduck_classic.esp
Pipboy2501.esp
Uniforms of the American Civil War.esp
flintlock.esp
Historical Uniforms Pack.esp
Total active plugins: 121
Total plugins: 124

I also use FOMM, if anyone is wondering.

 

[Black Angel]

First thing first, my condolences for your friends.

Second, paging @Risewild to help this poor soul, and also to correct if there's anything wrong in what I'm writing down here.

Now, what's your spec? Is it capable of running at least 2015 games smoothly, at least everything on High graphical setting while still retaining 60 fps? Because damn, that lots of mods would obviously put way too much weight on any rig below 2015 setup.

Also, FOMM? Well damn, that's gonna be a pain in the ass to re-install any mods. Why not consult us beforehand? I personally suggest using Mod Organizer instead; require a bit more time to learn about it and also setting it up, but the greatest thing about MO is that it created a virtual folder where the game will access the mods, so your vanilla New Vegas structure is virtually unchanged, so un-installing and re-installing mods are WAY more easier. However, if you're not up for moving onto a different mod manager, or even re-installing to make merged patches and bashed patch, then I guess the easiest thing to do for now is to follow this performance guide made by folks at TTW https://taleoftwowastelands.com/content/ttw-performance-guide

Oh right, as for the mods itself, have you make the aforementioned merged patches and bashed patch? It's the way to reduce plugin count and, in that way, reduce the weight taken by the game as they load extra, non-vanilla plugins. I'm not sure how far you've gone into playing the game itself, and even taking your time to re-install all those mods would surely pisses you off, but I'm suggesting you follow this guide if you're moving to MO http://wiki.step-project.com/User:EssArrBee/FalloutNewVegas. It's not updated anymore, and I'm not suggesting you follow the guide to the letter, but take note what kind of mods are being included in its merged patches and try to apply it to your own mods of choice. For example, you can add Traits/Perks mods and basically any gameplay changing mods into the 'Gameplay Merged Mods' patch listed in the guide. Similarly, any cut content, and mods from well-known modders like Yuki and Machienzo can be merged into its own patches like the guide shown. I'm also noticing that, apparently, you didn't install Yukichigai Unofficial Patches (YUP) which is basically suicide when playing New Vegas. There's also Unofficial Patches Plus (UP+) which adds more and fixes all the bugs that YUP were unable to fix by itself. There's also JSawyer, which is basically an 'official' patch of some sort released by Josh Sawyer himself, sometimes after they were done with the DLCs. By itself, however, Jsawyer needs to be tweaked and adjusted so it can be compatible with any other mods, but since you seems willing to mod the game so much, I'd suggest using JSawyer Ultimate Edition (JSUE) which, although it wasn't really a copy-paste of the original JSawyer, it adds a bit more and also much more readily compatible with other mods and have its own compatibility patches readily available on the Nexus.

Now, back to your rig, is it capable to run 2015 games smoothly? Or hell, any current year games while we're at it. Because if the answer is no, then I'm recommending against using any mods that adds extra NPCs and even extra enemies quantities, though I'm not sure if there's any of that in the lists since it's been a while since I last modding. While the MO guide I linked doesn't merge quests mods, I guess extra content mods (like Legion Quests Expanded) can be merged into a patch, either Gameplay Mods or its own kind.

Anyway, no matter what's your decision at this point, but if you're going to re-installing mods, always remember to read the descriptions and/or the readme!

While we're at it, I really want to ask Risewild about bashed patch. What is it, really? Does it merge mods bashed on its bash tags? Also, I'm noticing that including a lighting/weather mod into bashed patch actually screwed it up. For example, I was using Clarity - Dark Nights mod and included its .esp into bashed patch, and when I started a new game the lighting in Doc Mitchell's house got fucked. Then I re-make the bashed patch, this time without Clarity - Dark Nights.esp, and the lighting got back to normal. Is it a known problem among the modding community? Because I've had the exact same experience back in my old MO's setup, but back then we didn't really know what caused that problem and it was relatively worse (in some places, it's absurdly dark when it's daytime, and in other, absurdly bright at night).

 

[Risewild]

First thing that jumps in my mind is that you have too many plugins. You should try to make your load order be less than 100 plugins, my advice is no more than 90 just to be safe. Also remove from your data folder any mod you're not using, since the game still indexes the plugins that are not active.

If you plan on moving from FOMM to Mod Organizer, then I suggest Mod Organizer 2, since the first one has a problem with FNV (I can't remember what it is from the top of my head, since I don't use MO), but MO2 does not have that problem.

I second Black Angel. Merge patches are pretty essential when you have a long load order. The TTW Performance guide is the most up to date FNV guide available, so I also strongly suggest it.

I will have to suggest not to use JSawyer Ultimate Edition unless you know what you're doing, it is known to cause problems, incompatibilities and crashes in some parts. It would require you to know what to look for to fix them and it would probably be more work for you to fix it than it is worth.

CFW is known to have a lot of problems and can cause troubles. There are a lot of mods there I am not familiar, so I can't say if they are known to cause problems or not.

If your machine is using Windows 10 and you're using NVSR, then stop using NVSR because Windows broke it.

While we're at it, I really want to ask Risewild about bashed patch. What is it, really? Does it merge mods bashed on its bash tags? Also

Bash patches are not recommended to be honest. While it does the same as a merge patch, it only works if the mods are tagged correctly and 90% of the mods are not tagged at all. If you know how to make a merge patch, do it instead.
Never merge weather mods or mods with their own MCM menus. They cause problems as you already found out.

 

[Black Angel]

If you plan on moving from FOMM to Mod Organizer, then I suggest Mod Organizer 2, since the first one has a problem with FNV (I can't remember what it is from the top of my head, since I don't use MO), but MO2 does not have that problem.

Ah! So, can I use MO2 like I would MO1? Can I retroactively use Fear&Loathing in New Vegas guide with MO2? Or is there something I need to be aware of when using MO2 to mod New Vegas?

Bash patches are not recommended to be honest. While it does the same as a merge patch, it only works if the mods are tagged correctly and 90% of the mods are not tagged at all. If you know how to make a merge patch, do it instead.

F&LNV guide tells me to 'Apply Script' -> 'Generate Bash Tags' to literally every non-vanilla plugins using FNVEdit, and then there's 1nivVSLArmors.esp in particular that had one of its tag incorrectly removed, so I had to manually add the tag through Wrye Flash before building the bashed patch. Does this step would make some problems occurs? Is there some way to know what tags were supposed to be added on a plugin? Or perhaps bashed patch should just be a last resort?

Also, seems like I mistaken 'merged patches' with 'merged plugins'. They are two different things, right? 'Merged plugins' meant to reduce plugin count, while 'merged patches' meant to make two different mods compatible with one another by having one of the mod overwriting the other's functionality through FNVEdit, right?

Oh right @AureliusofPhoenix when I said 'merged patches' I actually meant 'merged plugins' using Merge Plugins Standalone application that's available on the Nexus and is recommended by MO's guide. From what I know, it only works for mods that has similar purpose like gameplay changes, cut content etc etc.

Never merge weather mods or mods with their own MCM menus. They cause problems as you already found out.

Aye aye, captain!

 

[KingArthur]

Thanks to both of you; I'll definitely look into MO and the merged plugins. And as for my rig, it's a laptop running Windows 10 that I bought as a poor college student to do my homework on. It runs Fallout 2 damn well and was pretty decent with vanilla NV, it's just now deciding to be a real bitch. But again, I appreciate the help. With any luck I'll get this sorted out soon, sanity intact.

 

[KingArthur]

so it stopped freezing, but I'm having another fun fucking issue. The game goes through the title cards, then when the splash comes up there's no text, no cursor, nothing. When I exit the game it tells me Error: Cannot find Master File. Everything (the main game and all the DLCs) is checked and first up in my load order; YUP is immediately after them as recommended. I used FNVEdit to find the problem and this is the message I got:

I'm really just so over this shit.

EDIT: Never mind, I found the uncooperative mod in my load order. Derp. I feel like a fucking idiot, but at least it's fixed.