Just came back as I'd forgotten to endorse. But also to impart advice to future users. Though these fixes work in that they make the mod fairly usable, they don't/can't fix all the minor quest issues/glitches and silly story elements that get worse as you progress. My advice, sadly, is to only complete the first half of the story - that is, to the point where you gain a player home in Arefu (see my spoiler note below).
Even getting that far has some irritating glitches & sillinesses, but bearable ones (and you may need to scan the mod's comments for solutions). Don't bother getting McLafferty's daughter's gang back together because these issues only get worse. And upon completing it your reward of running a caravan is empty because none of the contracts you're supposed to take actually work - they're all either broken or non-existant. Having got that far I wished I'd left the daughter plying her trade at Canterbury Commons because at least she's a useful merchant there! But to get her to even appear you first have to speak to McLafferty and agree to talk to her - he then tells you where she'll be, at the west end of Canterbury. She'll then stay there with her brahmin and trade until/unless you try to get her gang back together...
Also note, if you clean the mod with FO3edit you'll find 16 deleted navmeshes. I went to the effort of experimentally undeleting them but NPCs then act weirder - facing/walking into walls, stutters worse, an enemy radscorp bothering them that shouldn't etc. So accept them as they are.
Spoiler Note about the home:
Spoiler:
Show
The home you earn isn't the one you think - there's a hidden one, not easy to find and hard to activate - see 2nd spoiler if you struggle:
Spoiler:
Show
in your new shack home, with the lights off, you see a light through a hole in the wall. iirc, you're supposed to use the pencil in the shack to poke into the hole and it opens a secret elevator to a pretty neat lair. But you see in just this example the annoyances of this mod, because you can't stick your finger nor anything else in the hole. Also note companions don't really use the elevator well - they might magically appear after you exit the elevator, but you may have to manually teleport them. There's no companion bed either but space enough to squeeze one in (I put a portable bed in the armoury). Companions do sandbox a bit but there's only one or maybe two markers for them. Very limited sadly. And iirc there's no fast travel from the lair, either go back up the lift or out an escape into a cave and then on and out through the cave (which is the same one as you may have found ingredients in earlier in the quest).
You're an absolute legend for this fix; literally no crashing problems with Arefu Expanded when this is installed. Fixes every issue shown in LOOT too; without this mod one of the best mods for F3 is unusable. Thanks for all the work you put into this!
Are these fixes compatible with standalone Arefu Expanded? The reason I ask is because The Crimson Caravan never seems to work properly for me and Arefu Expanded crashes a lot. However... Putting these fixes on Arefu Expanded seems to have stopped the constant crashes and everything working alright so far. Though I havent gone far in it. Does it affect stuff that may cause problems later on? Thanks
Did you ever find any issues later on? It's maybe possible as fixes mostly relate to Arefu itself rather than the Crimson extension. A big thing for gamers to note is given by fixes author hikky71 in an earlier response - namely to put the main Arefu mod very early in your load order, immediately after main game and DLCs, so that it doesn't conflict with big mods like DC Interiors combo edition, etc.
However, prob not much point in using the older version of the mod - just use the newer one and don't do the extra stuff it adds.
Maybe I'm a big dumbass, but there's no installation instructions in this mod when you have to do it manually. I just extracted to my data file and it's not working. Can someone help me install this seven year old mod?
According to" LOOT" Real Time Settlements incompatible with Arefu Expanded which is included in the Crimson Caravan. "It took me a while to figure that out since I am not a modder." Does this resolve that conflict? If not can you please add something that will fix the problem so only one patch is needed?
Hi,i can't start this because i get ctd everytime i get near arefu.Part of npc's are "wearing" red exlamation marks.I have tried masterupdate/restore and deleted couple npc mods i have but still ctd's.Quick help needed,please! Edit:after quick testing without fixes it didn't crash.I tested about 1 minute and didn't talk to anyone.Still got those "exlamation marks" on most of arefu npc's.And performance without fixes is terrible.
Hi,i can't start this because i get ctd everytime i get near arefu.Part of npc's are "wearing" red exlamation marks.I have tried masterupdate/restore and deleted couple npc mods i have but still ctd's.Quick help needed,please! Edit:after quick testing without fixes it didn't crash.I tested about 1 minute and didn't talk to anyone.Still got those "exlamation marks" on most of arefu npc's.And performance without fixes is terrible.
Well, I'm glad I managed to find this. -1 to the author of Crimson Caravan for neither informing us that Arefu Expanded (standalone) is outdated nor preventing the chewing of FPS on even middling-low graphics settings. I'm hoping this mod will fix my performance issues; I swear I was getting single digit FPS when in Arefu exterior cells.
@ pablosplinter I assume you have already sorted it out as this is a somewhat late reply, but if not (and for anyone else wondering) simply load my fixes after the ArefuExpandedByAzar.esm plugin.
As for the ArefuExpandedByAzar-Radio.esp, my cleaned version of it should replace the old one. It's not terribly important to replace this though as the cleanup was relatively minor.
Regarding the general load order, I recommend loading ArefuExpandedByAzar.esm early (either directly after Fallout3.esm or after the DLCs) as it modifies many navmeshes. This can be a problem for other mods which adds stuff in the same area.
For example there is a navmesh conflict with the latest DC Interiors which adds new interiors to NW Seneca. If ArefuExpandedByAzar.esm is loaded after DCInteriors_ComboEdition.esm, followers won't be able to follow the player inside the new interiors. Loading ArefuExpanded before DCI, fixes it.
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Even getting that far has some irritating glitches & sillinesses, but bearable ones (and you may need to scan the mod's comments for solutions). Don't bother getting McLafferty's daughter's gang back together because these issues only get worse. And upon completing it your reward of running a caravan is empty because none of the contracts you're supposed to take actually work - they're all either broken or non-existant. Having got that far I wished I'd left the daughter plying her trade at Canterbury Commons because at least she's a useful merchant there! But to get her to even appear you first have to speak to McLafferty and agree to talk to her - he then tells you where she'll be, at the west end of Canterbury. She'll then stay there with her brahmin and trade until/unless you try to get her gang back together...
Also note, if you clean the mod with FO3edit you'll find 16 deleted navmeshes. I went to the effort of experimentally undeleting them but NPCs then act weirder - facing/walking into walls, stutters worse, an enemy radscorp bothering them that shouldn't etc. So accept them as they are.
Spoiler Note about the home:
The reason I ask is because The Crimson Caravan never seems to work properly for me and Arefu Expanded crashes a lot.
However... Putting these fixes on Arefu Expanded seems to have stopped the constant crashes and everything working alright so far. Though I havent gone far in it. Does it affect stuff that may cause problems later on?
Thanks
However, prob not much point in using the older version of the mod - just use the newer one and don't do the extra stuff it adds.
According to" LOOT" Real Time Settlements incompatible with Arefu Expanded which is included in the Crimson Caravan. "It took me a while to figure that out since I am not a modder." Does this resolve that conflict? If not can you please add something that will fix the problem so only one patch is needed?
Edit:after quick testing without fixes it didn't crash.I tested about 1 minute and didn't talk to anyone.Still got those "exlamation marks" on most of arefu npc's.And performance without fixes is terrible.
Edit:after quick testing without fixes it didn't crash.I tested about 1 minute and didn't talk to anyone.Still got those "exlamation marks" on most of arefu npc's.And performance without fixes is terrible.
I'm happy you like it! Enjoy :-)
@ pablosplinter
I assume you have already sorted it out as this is a somewhat late reply, but if not (and for anyone else wondering) simply load my fixes after the ArefuExpandedByAzar.esm plugin.
As for the ArefuExpandedByAzar-Radio.esp, my cleaned version of it should replace the old one. It's not terribly important to replace this though as the cleanup was relatively minor.
Regarding the general load order, I recommend loading ArefuExpandedByAzar.esm early (either directly after Fallout3.esm or after the DLCs) as it modifies many navmeshes. This can be a problem for other mods which adds stuff in the same area.
For example there is a navmesh conflict with the latest DC Interiors which adds new interiors to NW Seneca. If ArefuExpandedByAzar.esm is loaded after DCInteriors_ComboEdition.esm, followers won't be able to follow the player inside the new interiors. Loading ArefuExpanded before DCI, fixes it.