Hello,

I had Fallout 3 GOTY on my PS3 and had over 150 Hrs on my main and almost 100% completion (quests). However, my file grew to about 15MB and the lag and crashes grew so bad it was almost unplayable. Everytime I used VATS my game would lag and freeze.

I was just wondering if Obsidian would make the file smaller or make the game less laggy.

Thoughts?

Thats a good question, and one that would be hard to draw conclusions from Fallout3.

The file size is very much dependant on how much of the content in the game is "Persistent" (meaning it's state/condition are saved in the player save file so that they will be persistent even when the player leaves the area). Persistent references are also used for things that you don't want to reset/respawn, for every XMarker that we lay down (like a flag), etc. Many quest variables, stages and information are also stored in the player file.

How many of these persistent references are in the game, how many static and quest variables/stages are in the game and other factors all go into how big that save file ultimately gets. Only QA testers that have played up to level 30, been to all the areas and done all the quests will have an idea on how big the save files will ultimately get - they would have to share their insights with us on that score.

Miax

Not likely, according to http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1113879-hopin-a-dev-sees-this/ about the same subject. The file's not that big just for giggles, but because it's got to track every object you've moved and place you've explored.

In an Open Ended Sandbox RPG the file size will get larger and larger as you play. Each time you move something or do something it is saved.

I however never had a problem with saves that went through the entire game on the PC. Can't speak to the Consoles about that.

Since New Vegas will not let you do everything as Faction choices are supposed to matter, you should not be able to do as much on each save and you could in FO3, so the save size could be smaller after a complete game. This game will require multiple playthroughs to do everything.

Thanks.

Its just that on Oblivion, I have OVER 260 Hours and my file is only 5MB, with Shivering Isles and KOTN.

They've been spending a lot of time trying to fix any possible frame-rate drops and lagging, so maybe that'll help you. Maybe it's because you were playing the PS3 version. It wasn't very well ported and there were always all kinds of issues. I never had any problems on the 360 version.

Well, if nothing else, I really hope they do something about 'persistent' NPC corpses, once you loot them, they are useless and a waste of file space.

What? How limited are we going to be?

it woll probbably be like.

work for NCR. cancels out missions with Casears legion.

working for the powder gangers, makes working for good spring impossible because the powder gangers want to destroy goodsprings.

thats just what i think.

ps. kind of funny. the librarian at my high school saw me on this website in the library before school. i expected to be in trouble.

he said "is that fallout new vegas"
me-"uh yeah"
him-"its gonna be awesome"
me-"i pre ordered the classic pack"
him- "me too"
i then carried on and finished my comment
i see him at gamestop all the time. and when i saw his school desktop. it had a vaultboy as the background image

^ haha..that's cool.

limited to the choices you make, but thats what multiple playthroughs are for.

on the topic, ive never had a problem of my game freezing while going into VATS. im also pretty sure my file size isnt ungoddly huge, but i think i may check in a bit just to see.

Exploration of the world isn't going to be gimped though is it?

There may be, or rather, should be, areas that you can not access until certain parts of the game, or at all, depending on your faction choices. However most of the world should be open to explore.

My Obliv saves get bigger than that, under 50 hours.... but then, I'm obsessive about harvesting every plant I see. And keeping the info on which plants were harvested (and when - so they can regrow in 30 days) has got to svck up alot of space.

How could 15mb even be a problem? PS3 has like a 60 gig standard. Unless I'm missing something here. Never ever had any problems like this before.

I believe he's talking about lag and instability while playing, probably due to the game having some issues with how many variables it's keeping track of in the save file. Not problems finding enough space to make the actual save. (i.e, if the save file is 15mb, then all those numbers are being held in memory while you play. This could svck up memory that you need for other minor things, like the world around you, AI, etc. Especially in a console, where you can't just add 2gb more RAM.)

Is that a mod that keeps info on the plants harvested because the vanilla game doesn't have that?

i thought only quests were limited?

No, I mean that the game remembers all of that. That's why a plant's "empty" when you walk up to it again the next time you're in the area.... until enough time passes that it regrows.

I think some areas should naturally be locked off from you depending on choices made. I know there were a few areas in the first two Fallouts that were like this. Why should you be able to access every area on a single playthrough?

It's sort of like the areas in FO3 that had skill lockouts, but with factions.

And Kiralyn2000 is right. The size of the Hard drive isn't why a 15 MB save file bogs down gameplay and causes lag. The reason is that all those variables and information must be held in the RAM while the game is being played, and since the consoles have no more than 512 MB of RAM available, that 15 MB file eats into the room for holding textures and models and AI information, causing a stutter or lag when the game has to pause to remove some old textures to render new ones. That is why the DLC seems to make the issue worse on consoles, because the game is having to keep up with a lot of new variables and information from those new NPCs, monsters, quests, items, etc. It must continue to keep track of everything you have done as a player, or else your actions would be forgotten, and not only enemies, but quests would get reset.

There is really no way around this in an open world, sand box game. Games like Modern Warfare or Killzone 3 don't have this problem because once you finish a level, they know you are not going back there, and can delete that data and those variables, meaning each new stage is sort of a 'clean slate'. Fallout 3 and New Vegas never have an opportunity to 'clear the board' so to speak, so eventually the build up of data and variables can overwhelm the hardware.

I've never had an issue with save file size or the game bogging down as I spend more time on a character, but I play on PC. It appears to rare on consoles as well, and likely involves doing a lot of extraneous things that the game will have to remember, like picking all the plants you see in Oblivion, as was mentioned, etc. because the game has to remember that those plants are gone, and when they should come back.

You can in the elder scrolls iv.

And I felt it cheapened the consequences of your actions, just like you could be head of the fighter's guild, arena champion, High Mage, leader of all thieves in Cyrodill, mysterious leader of all assassins, and, oh yeah, a god. All on the same playthrough and with the same character. Some of those positions aren't mutually exclusive, but a lot are.

That's what role-playing should be about, C&C or Choices and Consequences. You should be forced to decide what you want to do and who you want to be. If no choice locks you out of other choices, then there is no reason to think about or debate which choice to make, right? All roads lead to Rome in the end so to speak.

New Vegas is going to have a definitive end anyway, unlike Oblivion. Having to make multiple different characters and make drastically different choices to see everything is a good incentive to replay the game. It also makes roleplaying a certain type of character more organic, as opposed to Oblivion, where to play as say a genius mage and herbalist, you had to actively restrict yourself and actions to avoid becoming a Jack of All Trades.

Besides, not being able to go everywhere in a single playthrough would certainly help with this file size issue some console players seem to care so much about.

What?

As in, it makes sense for a character to be able to lead both the thieves and assassins, or to be both the head of the fighters guild and arena champion, but it makes no sense to be high mage and leader of the fighter's guild at the same time. In fact, if I remember correctly, one of the thieves guild quests had you stealing the head mage's staff, which was ridiculous if you also happened to be the head mage. Sure, it made the quest easy (you're basically stealing from yourself), but shouldn't that have come up or be mentioned? Something along the lines of - "Hey! I'm the head mage. Why the hell are you putting out a contract to steal my staff?"

Its a true open world where your free to do whatever you want.

If your already the arch mage there's not much that can be done to prevent that going into that questline.