Fallout 4: game breaker, volume 1

Over the years I've learned that some of the most interesting things about video games occur when I break them. Whether it's seeing random stuff disappear due to memory leaks (Oblivion comes to mind), NPCs fall from the sky (Skyrim, anyone?), enemies disappear and then reappear in a previous location (just about any online multiplayer game), or story quests failing to trigger (the death of Revenant) the ride is always a unique one. The beautiful thing to me is when I can recreate the glitch/bug, because reporting it can lead to patches to correct the issue(s), and being able to record it for posterity.

This focus of this - my first entry in the game breaker series - is Bethesda's Fallout 4. Here's mud in your eye.

Let's break down this volume's conglomeration of strange occurrences.

(Separated by video time stamp.)

1. "0.00" Disappearing Combat Sentry Prototype MKIV.
2. "0.10" Scavenger stuck under ladder.
3. "0.22" Disappearing Mr. Handys.
4. "0.28" & "0.49" & "1.06" Boomer trapped under ladder.
5. "0.37" Lagging/teleporting mirelurk.
6. "0.55" Attack Dog abnormal behavior.
7. "1.13" Legendary Radscorpion Hunter abnormal behavior.
8. "1.42" Map boundary glitch.
9. "1.53" Levitating Scavenger.
10. "1.57" Disappearing mines and tripwire.
11. "2.20" Mr. Handy stuck/jumpy ragdoll physics.
12. "2.29" Reappearing dead Mole Rat.
13. "2.35" Lake texture rendering glitch.
14. "2.46" Companion path following/collision detection glitch.

1. The Combat Sentry Prototype MKIV has a couple of different bugs that need to be worked out. The first bug, as shown in the screenshot on the right, causes the bot to stop cooling down its fusion cores once they begin to glow red. It steamed like that for a solid 5 minutes. This occurred when I sent it to clear out the nearby base (Olivia) of hostiles. It killed one raider there before returning to its starting position at the Robotics Disposal Ground (it didn't give the "all clear" alert, so maybe this is why it glitched out). I noticed that the visible temperature of its fusion pack at the time of killing the raider is where it froze. Once I chose a new destination for it to provide support at it began the intermittent cooling process like nothing had happened. My guess here is that it only heats/cools during times when it is sent to provide support somewhere and unfortunately whatever phase of that process it's at when finished is where it stays until the next run. Either that or mine was just buggy as a 2 week old corpse from the outset (and don't say "it IS a prototype after all"). This leads me to the second bug, which is more than just an audio/visual annoyance. After sending it the second location it returned to the first location (I think it was just passing by while en route) where it killed a Mongrel (as seen in the video). Next thing I know it gives the all clear alert and POOF! It pulls a vanishing act. I know it's a prototype but this is ridiculous. I can only imagine what could have happened to the MKI - MKIII models...

3. The disappearing Mr. Handys in the General Atomics Galleria occurred every time I entered the clothing outlet for the first time, went upstairs, and stepped behind the clothes rack immediately to the left from the top of the stairwell (as featured in the video). I would come out as if shouting "here I am" and POOF! More Houdini mimicry. I sense the presence of the MKIV here as well...

8. This is the easiest one to reproduce. It may not even be a glitch, actually, but rather just the way Bethesda chose to handle players attempting to jump through the map boundary. In any case if you are high enough you can stay suspended from the ground for almost a minute thus providing you with more than enough time for a well placed couple of shots against a creature you just cheated out of its next meal waiting below you. This one I'm calling an exploit. Just be careful not to stop moving against the boundary while aiming otherwise you may discover that you're a couple of feet shorter than you remember due to your legs now being wedged up your backside from the fall.

10. & 12. The disappearing tripwires, mines, and animal parts is also easy to recreate. Simply save your game before entering into an area laced with traps. Now run through the traps like a mad person paying attention to set each one of them off. Now reload your game and POOF! The traps are still gone as if you had just sprung them all on this instance of your save. To return the traps simply fast travel outside of that region and then back (in the video I loaded a save that is outside of the region where the traps/animal parts are then loaded back which is why they reappeared; same difference when using the fast travel method). As much as I hate these types of exploits, anyone who didn't want to have to maneuver through a minefield, for example, might just be tempted to try this. A very usefu- uh, cheap way to get through Tucker Memorial Bridge... o_O

14. This one is just sad. Anyone who has played this game from release until the writing of this blog knows just how idiotic the companion AI is. For anyone who just started playing the game, grab a sniper rifle and start aiming. You'll figure it out for yourself within a minute or two (if that long). They're out to get someone killed and they don't give a damn who. Heck they'll even get themselves killed (temporarily). Trying to sneak up close to that Boomer, so as to avoid taking a mini-nuke to the chest? Well, it's party time to them and they'll bring the beer. Taking careful aim, so as to lob that last grenade just perfectly to catch a small group of unsuspecting ghouls in the blast radius? Enters Elmer Fudd to start shooting up the joint - while he's standing right beside you, no less. As seen in this video they don't even appear to have the self preservation instinct of a "fainting goat" (<--- YouTube that, it's awesome). This is frickin' 2015, not 1995! There is literally no excuse for modern AI that is this dumb. But hey, at least their path finding sucks.

All thing considered I haven't had this much fun breaking a game since Fable 3, but that was for a whole different reason...