Broken Steel bugs

Bugs and glitches/exploits in the Fallout 3 DLC pack Broken Steel.

Installation

 * Several noted gameplay bugs are due to users not having installed the latest Fallout 3 patch before playing with Broken Steel installed. Broken Steel does not enforce the 1.5 patch, but it does need it for full compatibility. Check your version: From the title screen, select Settings, then Display. In the lower left hand corner, you'll then see the update number.


 * May 5th, 2009 - PC release downloads via Microsoft Games for Windows Live. Upon completion of download in the G4WL client a message may read: "Install of item Broken Steel failed. Not a cryptographic message or the cryptographic message is not formatted correctly. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8009200D)" This will happen after repeated downloads and the 'retry' button on the G4WL client will not work. Upon investigation of the DLC files themselves (located in C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\GFWLive\Downloads the winrar archive containing the DLC is corrupt and will not extract with Winrar or 7z. Note that this renders the whole DLC unusable. The DLC is currently not available to download from G4WL possibly due to this fault. Hopefully there will be more information after a day or two as to whether it's fixed or not.


 * Some users at the official forums have reported success downloading the DLC while Fallout 3's game client was running in the background. With Fallout 3 minimized, return to the GFWLive client, open 'My Media' tab, select 'Entire History' and download Broken Steel again.  This seems to only work for some in the United States with more sporadic results elsewhere.

There also seems to be a temporary mod fix for a specific part of the DLC, but as no one can actually get a hold of it at this time, it isn't much use yet.


 * if you have it installed, you may need to take off the unofficial patch that stops you from completing the game before installing Broken steel (Windows only)


 * May 7th, 2009 - PC release is once again available for purchase through Games for Windows Live.

Achievements
The support lines at Bethesda said that this problem is caused by the new achievements are not syncing up with the xbox live system and that the problem should work itself out with no loss of achievements.
 * May 5th, 2009 - Fallout 3 Broken Steel gives you the achievement but the score doesn't get added to your gamer score

- According to a May 7th, 2009, post on Bethesda's official blog, "Microsoft has resolved issues users were reporting with new achievements not being reflected in their Gamerscores. Any achievements that you receive at this point should show up in your Gamerscore as well. If you’re still experiencing issues, you may need to recover your Gamertag. If you have further questions, contact Xbox customer support." However, recovering your Gamertag will result in the loss of any achievements that were earned which did not reflect in your Gamerscore. Any achievements which did add to your score will still be unlocked.

Gameplay

 * May 5th 2009 - Broken Steel has a big bug on the Xbox360. When you beat the final chapter, the "2 weeks later" never appears, and the "Settings" menu, and downloads area, become "stick" and glitchy.
 * Download it again and wait a bit it should say broken steel has been loaded cap raised to 30


 * May 5th 2009 - Broken Steel has a bug on the Xbox 360 version, stopping players from activating Project Purity. Sarah Lyons becomes stuck on dialogue (when you choose not to kill col. Autumn) and does not initiate the dialogue choice of who should activate the purifier. Alternatively, if you do, she simply states "Let's make sure the control is secure before we do anything else," and will not continue. However, it is still possible to level up to level 30 and the improved enemies can still be found throughout the Wasteland.
 * It seems many people who experiencing this bug have not yet updated to version 1.5.


 * May 5th, 2009 - Broken Steel has a bug on the Xbox 360 version, greatly impeding progress for the players to reaching Project Purity. The Enclave soldiers apparently become invincible and do not take any damage unless inflicted by Liberty Prime, Sarah Lyons, or car explosions. Liberty Prime may also disappear.


 * May 5th, 2009 - A bug after the download of Fallout 3: Broken Steel is if you have not completed The American Dream, you may freeze within 5 feet of Elder Lyons and be unable to talk or move. The quest does not continue, and Elder Lyons does not speak.  Weapons cannot be draw upon entrance to laboratory.
 * To fix this, tell Sentinel Lyons that you aren't ready. Go out to the courtyard, and come back in to say that you are ready (needs conformation).


 * May 5th, 2009 - Attempting to gain the laser pistol next to the mini nuke at the end of the Presidential Metro results in the player becoming stuck and unable to get out without loading to the most recent save.


 * May 5th, 2009 - After installation of Broken Steel, and completion of original story line, some characters do not reward XP. (Ex: Super Mutant Behemoth at Capitol Building, and his companions.)


 * May 5th, 2009 - After installing Broken Steel, Scribe Rothchild becomes glitched while trying to complete the quest Picking Up the Trail. He tells you to follow him to gain information about Vault 87, but he does not move and you cannot speak to him again.
 * I had this happen without the DLC right after the 1.5 update. I pushed Rothchild out to the map and once he got there, he started talking and the quest proceeded normally.  Rotchild was in the area behind the map in a room with a sleeping soldier; it was the first time I had seen him there at that point of the quest, and wondered if the game couldn't figure out how to get him to the map automatically.


 * May 6th, 2009 - Attempting to start a new game - after completing the events of when the main character is 10 years old, the game stops responding, yet the player can still look around. Rather than Jonas taking the picture leading to a cutscene, the flash occurs and after that you are permanently stuck standing there with your father.


 * May 6th, 2009 - during the "Shock Value" quest after entering Old Olney and shooting a deathclaw with a plasma rifle. All deathclaws in the local vicinity proceeded to fly directly up in the air (about 6 in all) (XBox360)
 * Confirmed not to happen in all cases - ie, not seen.


 * May 6th, 2009 - Using multiple followers (neutral-karma RL3 Wait-Fire-Rehire glitch), this player fired all but RL3 just prior to entering the Rotunda and engaging Col. Autumn. Upon waking up from the coma (beginning of Broken Steel's main quest line), only RL3 returned home at any point, and Charon could be seen standing on an inaccessible roof atop the Jefferson Memorial.  The other two companions (Butch and Clover) were nowhere to be found. (X360)


 * May 6th, 2009, reported incidents of a "invisible barrier" appearing any certain points i.e., the utility door up the earth mount and the door to tesla coil leaving players trapped if they jumped in, this bug is on the Xbox 360 version, only one barrier appears to have dodgy coding and blocks important in-game places


 * May 6th, 2009 - After getting the Puppies! perk, there is a reported incident of no longer being able to have any follower other than Dogmeat's Puppy, even if the puppy is dead or at Vault 101. A related incident found that--on at least one occasion--if the player character kills Dogmeat's Puppy, even accidentally, the puppies will stop respawning, and the player still will not be able to add any other followers. (Xbox 360)


 * May 6th, 2009 - Fawkes disappears after the end of Take It Back!
 * Look for him outside of Project Purity. If you fired him before you went inside the chamber you can find him at project purity instead of the Museum of History.


 * May 7th, 2009 - After Broken Steel update, during Those! quest while in Marigold Station, player can become permanently stuck in VATS while action continues very slowly in background. (Xbox 360)


 * May 7th, 2009 - Clover vanished after the events of Take it Back, much later in the Broken Steel questline a message said she returned to Paradise falls, but cannot be re-hired, possibly related to the above Puppies! perk error, however, upon re-loading an earlier save and zoning in and out of the hospital, Clover was there and working as usual. (Xbox 360)
 * May 5th, 2009 - After completing Take it Back, everybody uses dialog for when the Purifier is taken by the Brotherhood such as, "The Purifier is ours!" and will make it hard to talk to them about quest related things.


 * May 7th, 2009 - After the Two Weeks Later screen, character wakes up under the gurney. Game gets stuck at this point--it doesn't freeze, but the camera just stays there under the gurney and nothing happens.
 * Possible fix for PC in patch 1.5.


 * May 7th, 2009 - The FEV Virus is considered "put in" if it is in your inventory upon entering the Rotunda rather than you having to put it in the console by the entrance to the Purifier (Xbox 360)
 * This doesn't seem to be a general problem; a sample of four saved games on three 360's did not see this bug.


 * May 8th 2009 - in the tunnels on the way to Adams air force base, feral ghoul reaver's glitch so that you cannot damage them, and if suffering knock back from the Gauss Rifle their mesh stretches through the wall and down the tunnel. they seemingly cannot damage your companion if glitched in this way. (XBox360) (Confirmed)


 * May 8th 2009 - After the Two Weeks Later screen, regardless of your decision, you get stuck with no HUD visible obviously waiting for Lyons to approach you but he gets stuck on his way and you cant do anything. Just make sure you have latest patch installed and it works no problem.


 * May 8th 2009 - If you have not completed the mission to escort Dr. Li and other members of Project Purity to the Citadel, you find a pulse barrier in the door that pass from sewers to enclave subs, and Three Dog (a RG) speaks about pure water in two weeks.


 * May 8th 2009 - After emerging on the Air force base side of the presidential metro, pulling up the world map shows that you are still in the capitol wasteland, under the White house. However, leaving the metro and heading outside brings up a new world map for the air force area itself.


 * Upon making any choice at the Purifier (Sacrifice, Send Lyons), the ending cutscene plays, a loading screen comes up, but then the games crashes.


 * May 9th, 2009 - After leaving Old Olney in the "Shock Value" quest, the game crashes when trying to quick, auto, or normal save. (PC)

Minor Glitches

 * May 5th, 2009 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXtFfZDqD3w Military Base Map Glitch, walk outside the map on xbox 360
 * May 5th, 2009 - GNR may begin playing information about the completed Project Purity, discussing plot details ahead of time. (confirmed Xbox 360).

While in the Citadel can become extremely glitchy at times. During Broken Steel, for example, when going into third-person view character may not display properly. Important note: Many glitches have been deleted due to the fact that they either existed before Broken Steel or were duplicate entries. Also, please check your grammar before saving an entry. Try not to use "I", "my", or related words because it is a Wiki of Fallout, not "Johnny Smith from Ms. Clemson's third grade class" Wiki.
 * May 5th, 2009 - Unable to save games in Fallout 3 after Broken Steel has been downloaded (Xbox 360 version). Doing so creates "Disc is Unreadable" error.  Autosave still works.  After getting the "Unreadable" error, cannot get to the loading screen to load another saved point.
 * May 5th, 2009 - Reported incident of Lyons' Pride, apart from Sarah Lyons, refusing to cross the bridge en route to Project Purity. (Xbox 360)
 * May 5th, 2009 - Liberty Prime may not hit the wall to the relay station, and the wall may just fall apart without any motion from Prime a few seconds later.
 * May 5th, 2009 - Follower could not leave the room that the player appears in after Take It Back! Pushing the follower through the open doorway fixes the problem.
 * May 6th, 2009 - Some followers do not appear beside your bed when you wake up after completing take it back. This happened to me with Charon and Butch. To repair this you can exit the area, re-enter and they will be waiting beside your hospital bed in the citadel.
 * May 6th, 2009 - Star Paladin refuses to follow you when she appears beside your hospital bed in the citadel after you've completed take it back. After telling her to follow you she stays put, yet her dialogue options change as if she was following you. The only way to repair this is to fire and re-hire her.
 * May 6th, 2009 - Once you have beaten the game and move on to the "2 weeks later" section the "pip boy" display stays blank. Saving and re loading the game fixes this minor glitch (XBox 360 version)
 * May 6th, 2009 - After Take it Back!, water in the Capital Wasteland still radiates you. (X-Box 360) [May not be a glitch,as the purifier only cleans the water in the basin(Pond)]
 * May 6th, 2009 - If you kill the Feral Ghoul Reaver with an Alien Blaster, the screen may turn green until the Reaver is an Ashpile.
 * May 6th, 2009 - while outside the enclave mobile platform, dropped a Heavy Incinerator from Pip-Boy. After exiting Pip-Boy Incinerator became attached to characters leg and pulled him up into the air to the ceiling of the level. If you pick the object back up it will cause your character to fall to it's death.
 * May 7th, 2009 - after installing broken steel, after entering the presidential metro for the first time, the feral goul reavers may spazz out and not be able to be hit but they can still hit you, there is no known fix for this bug
 * May 7th, 2009 - Dead bodies out on the Adams AFB turf disappear and are not able to be looted. (X-360)
 * May 7th, 2009 - Enclave mind controlled deathclaws attack PC even if the Player has the deathclaw mind control device on them. (360)
 * May 7th, 2009 - Mind controlled deathclaws that are obeying you sometimes die for no apparent reason. Fortunately the optional quest event to use the deathclaws is still completed even if you have only had one follow for a few steps.
 * May 7th, 2009 - Paladin Bael, the unnamed bos paladin and the sentry bot in front of the citadel main gate disappear after Take It Back! quest is completed. (X-360)
 * May 8th, 2009 - Sometimes Enclave Soldiers will be seen around the Capital Wasteland without having reached the appropriate stage of the main quest. This author found Enclave Soldiers around Dukov's Place without having gotten that far in the main quest, and experienced the GNR plot details bug mentioned above.
 * May 8th, 2009 - Most if not all edibles that previously gave your character radiation have the effect stated as "+0 rads." For example, Nuka-cola's description is similar to "+10 HP, +0 rads."
 * May 8th, 2009 - Upon Entering Craterside Supply; Billy Creel, Harden Simms, Moira Brown and the Mercenary all fell through the floor. Upon moving in any direction, your character will fall through the floor. (Xbox 360)