Point Lookout bugs

Bugs and glitches/exploits in the Fallout 3 add-on Point Lookout.

All platforms
Note: That seems to be on purpose, meaning this is a long trip on the ship, which takes a month. This is NOT a bug.
 * Every time you travel between Point Lookout and the Capital Wasteland in either direction, your game date will advance one month. (Confirmed on Xbox 360, PC, PS3).


 * After all quests are finished, all enemies disappear. (Needs Confirmation)


 * During Walking with Spirits, the game is prone to freezing and/or crashing after activating the Mother Punga and the hallucinations begin
 * Exiting and entering the bog again might fix this glitch (Xbox 360)
 * During the quest The Dark Heart of Blackhall, if you opt to take the book to the Dunwich Building your quest marker may point to Springvale instead of Dunwich. 2 markers may even appear near Springvale: one on the cliffside, other in one ruined house.
 * Selecting a different active quest and then switching back may fix this.
 * For this editor, murdering Obadiah Blackhall with a sneak attack critical after obtaining the book (but before going to the Dunwich Building or seeing the Massacre) caused the dual Mission indicators, because it marked his corpse as a quest target.
 * During the same quest, when the player is in the Dunwich Building, the quest markers leading back to Point Lookout and to the obelisk will not be placed at the doors, but outside the building map.
 * Haley of Haley's Hardware has a glitch whereby his Repair skill is stacked by five from his initial repair skill of 16 (11 base +5 for his Handyman Jumpsuit) on every reload of his interior cell. By repeatedly leaving the store, getting a certain distance away or waiting a certain amount of time, and returning Haley's Repair skill may increase to 100, higher than any other vendor in the game. Although some of his game data, viewable in the GECK, is marked differently than other vendors, in testing this has no effect on the glitch. Surprisingly the solution is to move Haley's reference in the store slightly. Upon adding this tiny mod to the game the glitch disappears and Haley's Repair returns to 16 where it remains.
 * Even if you have killed Professor Calvert during A Meeting of the Minds, sometimes the message "The Brain is unconscious" may appear on the screen. The cause for this bug is explained here.
 * The conditions for the Ghoul Ecology perk are set up incorrectly resulting in the +5 damage bonus applying to any target rather than being limited to ghouls. The +5 bonus stacks with the +5 bonus from standing still from the Superior Defender perk greatly increasing one's damage, especially in the case of automatic weapons which gain a bonus per bullet rather than per burst. A mod is available to correct this issue.
 * After coming back to the Capital Wasteland, it may not be possible to re-hire any of your followers. A message will appear, stating; "You may only have one follower.", despite the fact that no one is following you. (Confirmed on Xbox 360)
 * When placing map markers while in Point Lookout and upon returning to the Wasteland, HUD icon does not lead in the right direction to the marker. Opening and closing your PipBoy may solve this issue.
 * When meeting Jackson, leader of the Tribals, some of his dialogue doesn't match the subtitles. (confirmed: XBOX 360, PC, PS3).
 * Wearing the Ghoul Mask when activating the Mother Punga Plant will result in ghouls in Point Lookout not attacking you regardless of wearing it.
 * When you leave the Sacred Bog during Walking With Spirits, the game should unequip head gear and prevent you from re-equiping it (temporarily). When you're wearing infinite durability head gear however, such as Three Dog's Head Wrap, it will not be unequipped. The same applies to the Winterized T-51b power helmet. (Confirmed Xbox)
 * After completing the mission where you lead Desmond to the brain, you get to a room with a ladder in it which reaches the surface. After scaling the ladder, you are attacked by something which isn't there but you can hear and your reticule sometimes goes red. This is believed to be an untextured Swamplurk which slipped through to the final add-on.


 * If you have not yet completed Who Dares Wins, during the course of Point Lookout the game may alert you that you've discovered the presidential metro location. The "Who Dares, Wins" quest now has "enter Presidential Metro" marked as completed.

PC

 * Paladin Hoss may be found inside the engine room of the Duchess Gambit, he and a Brotherhood of steel Paladin have followed the player to Point Lookout.


 * Game crashes to desktop after using the cot on the boat, making it impossible to even arrive in Point Lookout.
 * This can be fixed by loading a (very) old save.
 * Also resolved same CTD issue by deleting the DLC files and downloading again from GFWL
 * This bug will cause you to crash because you are standing on the FRONT (bow) of the deck  at Point Lookout. While the ferry is at the dock in the wasteland, no problem--you can walk all over the ferry. This happens only where you are at Point Lookout. Well when you click the cot, and the game loads, guess where you arrive? Yep, on the front deck of the ferry. Your screen goes black & you crash to your desktop -- never seeing Point Lookout. Here's the work around that I've discovered...Before you click on the cot, hit your TILDE key and key in TCL. This puts you into no-clip (ghost) mode so you can fly thru walls (handy when you get stuck). Elevate yourself about 2 feet above the cot & click. When you arrive at Point Lookout, you will be 2 feet above the deck. Walk (on air) to land and again, hit your TILDE key and key in TCL. This will toggle OFF the noclip-mode and you'll hit the ground. Save the game. If you walk back to the ferry and step on the front deck, you will crash. Any other part of the ferry is okay. -Dale Franklin


 * There is a missing water texture in the Ritual Chamber.


 * During the quest The Velvet Curtain, if the terminal in the bunker is activated (triggering the radiation traps) before speaking to the Protectron, the Protectron continues to tell the user to leave the area. If the codeword is given to the Protectron, it returns to the terminal area.


 * If the Robotics Expert perk is used to deactivate the Protectron inside the bunker, the deactivated robot sometimes appears standing on top of the hatch leading to the bunker.


 * Panada seems to grow a head taller than the player when she leans back against the counter. It's especially noticeable when she finally stands up and shrinks back to normal size. This is because her leaning Idle Markers are misplaced well above the ground. See Image


 * If you return directly to Obadiah with The Krivbeknih without first visiting Marcella, the dialogue will assume you discovered her fate even though you couldn't possibly know.


 * Marcella's holotape from the Disaster Relief Outpost has the same bug as the Holy Water Pamphlet from Broken Steel. This bug may not appear if Broken Steel isn't active.


 * Going into crouch mode with Chinese Stealth Armor and a Shovel/Axe or the unique version of these weapons makes them appear on the player's back much larger than normal and half offscreen. It is not known if Stealth Boys cause the same bug.


 * Occasionally the double barreled shotgun will have no sound when firing. It is unclear why this happens.


 * The game may crash and upon restart you re-appear at Point Lookout with all progress made kept. Subsequent saves (manual, quick or auto) will not be kept. Restarting the game seemed to fix this.
 * When having to choose between killing Desmond Lockheart and Professor Calvert, killing all of the Protectrons that can activate before attacking or speaking to either may cause Calvert to become uninteractable and indestructible, as well as resetting Desmond's quest info leaving him only to say "I'm Desmond." when you speak to him.
 * Temporary followers from the Wasteland (e.g. Sydney) that are following the player when departing for Point Lookout may reappear when fast travelling within Point Lookout.

Xbox 360

 * Some players may not be able to complete the quest 'The Velvet Curtain', as the bunker will not open despite the correct code being entered.
 * The bunker may be opened by entering the code twice. Further explanation on the Velvet Curtain Quest Page.
 * The bunker may open if you reload a past save


 * When in V.A.T.S. and you only have 1 Shotgun Shell left the game does not say you have "no ammo", it just fires with a clicking noise but repeatedly. This will end after about 30 seconds.


 * The water may become discolored due to a dithering glitch. This can happen both inside Point Lookout and in the Capital Wasteland.


 * The Ol' Painless may disappear from your inventory when reaching Point Lookout.


 * Once Point Lookout is visited, the game appears much more prone to freezing. This is very common in the PC release also.


 * If you are standing on the bridge to or on the Duchess Gambit, you may notice your feet sink into them. It is possible to fall into them. Sometimes you simply are underwater, while sometimes you are trapped "below" the water and must reload a previous save to escape.


 * After you see Mister Break blow up the Megaton Bomb (During the Punga Hallucinations), the game may freeze right after the loading screen. You will have to start at your last save.


 * Using the Flamer on large natural gas swamp area may cause the game to crash. Small swamp areas may not cause any crashes.


 * The game may crash to the desktop upon entering The Sacred Bog, but will not crash if you remain on the threshold and do not step forward. Tcl will fix this by flying around and through the surrounding rocks, but there is no known fix for Xbox.
 * The tunnel entrances to Sacred Bog are bugged as well; when entering them, the player can often get stuck in the door somehow, with the game autosaving continually. To get unstuck, simply load the most recent autosave.


 * Once you've killed the Tribals in the Calvert Mansion, Desmond Lockheart may freeze, stopping you from playing on. He says "Help me take out these bastards, whilst I figure out a plan." But all of the enemies are dead, and you cannot proceed. Reloading to a point either before entering the mansion or the auto-save after entering the mansion fixes this.


 * When Desmond asks you to help him defend against the last wave of Tribals, the Tribals may never come.


 * When entering and exiting a building a two minute or longer load time may occur.


 * Tobar the Ferryman may not appear by on the Duchess Gambit, leaving you unable to go to Point Lookout.


 * During The Velvet Curtain, after initiating the self-destruct protocol in the Chinese submarine and exiting the game may freeze.


 * After Talking to Marcella and retrieving the book for the "Dark Heart of Blackhall" Quest, the holotape and the message on the wall of her tent may not appear, and she is nowhere to be found. She may have been killed on the way back to her tent.


 * Holotape in lighthouse may not register as received, and thus no message can be activated.


 * When deciding to either kill Desmond or the Brain, if you chose to kill Desmond and the Brain sends his robots on you, sometimes they will not move or attack you, and it may be hard to tell the difference between the enemies and the inactive ones.


 * When you first enter the mansion and kill the Tribals and then talk to Desmond, he will just stand and stare at the TV's in the back room (supply room), when you try to speak to him he says something like "You take out the rest of the Tribals while I watch the security cameras" and doesn't allow you to go into a dialogue sequence or continue the quest with him opening the west door where the Tribals blow through the wall. To solve this, simply reload the last save.


 * There is a small boat East-Northeast of the Coastal Grotto. If you fall into the broken window you can become stuck.
 * It is possible to fast travel to another location to fix this.


 * In Point Lookout, framerate issues (not freezing) may occur. The only known way of fixing this is to save the game, exit to the dashboard and reload the game.


 * The framerate may slow down around the Ark & Dove Cathedral.


 * The game may crash when activating the locker in the bank.


 * After visiting Point Lookout and returning to the Capital Wasteland, all soil, and grass may not load, causing objects to fall through it, and causing the player to "bounce", making you unable to inflict damage unless you stand still for 3+ seconds. This may also happen in Point Lookout its self.


 * While walking in and around the Boadwalk area (area with the pier, Ferris wheel, motel etc), the framerate begins to suffer badly, and occasionally the game will freeze temporarily. Especially noticeable after applying the jamming device to the Ferris Wheel, when the game spawns an ambush of Tribals; from then on the game may become nearly unplayable in that area. These performance issues seem to lessen the further away from the broadwalk area you go, to the point where normal gameplay is possible lag-free in the northernmost area of Point Lookout.


 * When going to the Homestead Motel you can glitch into the fence right before the parking lot. Fix this by trying to get back out the way you got or by fast traveling to another location.


 * The Dismemberer, if equipped during the Megaton Explosion will increase to 400321 Damage. Every time you try to attack with it the game will crash.


 * After completing Point Lookout and returning to your home, if you found one of the giant Teddy Bears and left them on display, they may return to the size of a normal teddy bear. Even more interestingly, the once giant teddy bear floats in midair, until picked up or bumped into.


 * On certain points of the map, you will notice a very clear map marker indicating a place you have not yet visited. Walking in this direction may cause the marker to vanish. Continually walking towards this mark on the map will add it to your world map as the L'il Tyke Playhouse.


 * During the side quest Plik's Safari, when trying to fend off the ghouls, they may just stop coming and you're stuck there with no way out. The only solution is to load a save previous to going in. It is also possible that some ghouls fell off and landed in the water below the platforms. If you kill them, the game should move on.


 * After killing Desmond or Professor Calvert, you may be unable to leave the room where you need the Alpha Security Badge. This makes the game unplayable as you are unable to leave the underground lab, even after reloading a saved game.


 * When using weapons that are silenced (dart gun, Perforator, Infiltrator, Silenced 10mm) the enemies head straight for the player while they are in [caution].


 * When using mines, the enemies will head straight for the player, even if the player is out of range/sight.


 * When you kill Croatoa for the Fertilizer Shovel he will have 2 in his inventory, when you take one they both disappear from his inventory but when you look in your Pip-Boy you only have one.


 * Sometimes while having the Double-Barrel Shotgun equipped and playing in third person the gun will leave your hands and float in mid air. It will only fire from that point instead of being fired from it's normal location in your hands. Switching back to first person will fix this however going back to third person, the shotgun may remain floating in whatever location it was.
 * If you had Dogmeat follow you and he's mysteriously disappeared, there is a slight chance they he may reappear at Point Lookout.
 * At the beginning of the mansion part, after blowing up the wall, Desmond will tell you to follow him and then not move. Fixed by loading a save.
 * The Double-Barrel Shotgun seems broken in my game. After testing it in and out of V.A.T.S., it appears to do less damage then a regular Hunting Rifle.  I have tested out the damage on about 2 dozen Raiders and I notice that despite the Shotgun being rated (currently) 40 points of more damage, it is half as damaging as my Hunting Rifle.  Even when the two critical, the Hunting Rifle is still doing more damage.  This lack of damage occurs even when all pellets hit, so its not based around pellets missing the target.
 * Before entering Haley's Hardware, There is a Holotape on the deck to the right of the door. Picking up this Holotape may cause all your Notes to disappear in the Pip-Boy, not allowing you to read or listen to anything again.  The only solution is to load a previous save.


 * After putting the device on the ferris wheel and killing all the tribals...if you go to hotel and rest, screen could go blank. Game may no longer load (includes any previous saves, even after clearing game and system cache and redownloading the content)....will load on another profile, but if that is not yours, doesn't appear to a fix.

PS3

 * Sometimes after fast-traveling between locations in Point Lookout, or simply emerging from areas that cause the main map to reload, the player is treated to a massive slowdown and a hail of spinning, flying, exploding cars. It seems that cars all over the map can be catapulted into the air with sudden and extraordinary velocity, following ballistic trajectories and exploding wherever they land. The cars appear to settle after a few minutes, but the game continues to lag until the player saves/reloads or fast-travels to another location. (confirmed)
 * When in Pilks Safari, Dogmeats puppy may appear. (Needs Confirmation)
 * Objects that spawn outside of the Ark and Dove cathedral may be frozen in mid-air, as well as some other places like by the truck wreck. This is particularly pesky since it can put the lighthouse light bulb effectively out of reach.
 * Bad frame rate and/or freezing may occur.