Mothership Zeta Bug?

Vern1961 · 8 Oct 2010 at 18:26

About 2/3 of the way through Mothership Zeta a bug occurs which prevents you moving through a door and advancing to the next mission. I discovered (retrospectively) that this is documented on many of the Fallout wikia style pages, but no fix issued other than to start back from an older save - unfortunately in my case overwritten as I wandered around the ship trying to find the other characters.

I've emailed Bethesda support but not expecting much joy. However, surely Bethesda/Live should not be selling this content with known issues which prevent players finishing it. Strictly speaking I should be entitled to a refund as the addon is not fit for purpose, however it appears MS/Live operate a "no refund" policy and there appears to be no way of contacting their customer service by email or web-form, just an expensive phone call.

I want my money (or at least Live purchase points) back, where do I stand?

SiriusB · 8 Oct 2010 at 18:41

Use the console and noclip your way through the door?

Tonnes of commands here: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Console

Assuming PC version.

Vern1961 · 8 Oct 2010 at 20:58

Okay I'll try that though didn't really want to cheat.

SiriusB · 8 Oct 2010 at 21:44

It's hardly cheating if you are doing it to free yourself. Find the no-clip command, or the move to next quest objective command, use it. Save the game, then carry on as normal.

If it is indeed a bug and there is no way out, what else can you do - apart from start over.

Schnippzle · 8 Oct 2010 at 22:07

I think the noclip command is tlc or something along those lines. I encountered similar bugs as well

Vern1961 · 9 Oct 2010 at 15:21

Well I have a response from Bethesda - not their problem...

Charming.

If a company issued a batch of DVD's or Blu-Rays, all of which had a manufacturing defect that stopped playback 2/3 through, they would be expected to fix the fault or take the product back for a refund.

Unfortunately I used the Delta card to purchase the Live points not my Mastercard, otherwise I would file a complaint/claim through the CC company.

Guess the moral of the tale is before buying non-refundable (seemingly) DLC, do some research first.

Samshirley00 · 9 Oct 2010 at 15:24

right, if you want to unlock the door

press the console key (on the left of the 1 key)

click on the door, and some code will appear over it

type unlock

press enter

if it doesn't work, then do the same, just type activate instead

SiriusB · 9 Oct 2010 at 17:59

Vern1961 said:
Well I have a response from Bethesda - not their problem...

Charming.

To be fair thousands upon thousands of people probably had no issue with it. Also, there are mechanisms available to you to solve the problem. 30 seconds with the console and you're sorted.

HangTime · 9 Oct 2010 at 20:13

I had the same issue, had to cheat to get through.
Was also another bug where I was wandering around the 'factory' area and some quest randomly completed?

MZ is definitely the buggiest part of FO3.

arc@css · 9 Oct 2010 at 20:56

Sorry to hijack this thread but rather than make a new one I am curious about a 'code' I hear you can buy from stores which allows you to download Mothership Zeta. If this is possible I'd rather do this instead of buying the GOTY edition. I've played all the other expansions and would also like to play this one.

Ravenger · 9 Oct 2010 at 22:07

I had to install a mod to let me revisit the various areas of Mothership Zeta because I missed one audio recording the first time round, then found that you can't go back to get them later - it's a one way trip only.

That really annoys me when there's only ever one opportunity to pick up a unique collectable. There's one bobblehead in the main game that you only have one chance to pick up too.

Meridian · 9 Oct 2010 at 22:25

Ravenger said:
That really annoys me when there's only ever one opportunity to pick up a unique collectable. There's one bobblehead in the main game that you only have one chance to pick up too.

If you mean the medicine one then there's a second chance later, but only if you play the MQ. And I like the fact that you only get one chance: actions - or lack of them - should have consequences.

M

SiriusB · 9 Oct 2010 at 23:58

arc@css said:
Sorry to hijack this thread but rather than make a new one I am curious about a 'code' I hear you can buy from stores which allows you to download Mothership Zeta. If this is possible I'd rather do this instead of buying the GOTY edition. I've played all the other expansions and would also like to play this one.

Can you not get individual DLC through GWL?

arc@css · 10 Oct 2010 at 01:31

I have tried to purchase the DLC through Steam but it says I cannot download it because I do not own FO3, which I do.

Ravenger · 10 Oct 2010 at 11:38

Meridian said:
If you mean the medicine one then there's a second chance later, but only if you play the MQ. And I like the fact that you only get one chance: actions - or lack of them - should have consequences.

There's one bobble head at Raven Rock, and it's very easy to miss. I don't agree with putting unique collectables in places you can only visit once. It's very frustrating for players to have to reload a save and do a chunk of gameplay again once they realise they've missed one. By all means make storybased gameplay decisions once only -e.g. who to save, who to kill, etc, but incidental stuff that counts towards completion scores should always be accessible whatever the state of the story.