Bug: K-9 joins, exceeds party limit.

[stcaFylnO]

I have an illegally large party. K-9 joins and exceeds the expected party limits

I don't normally play with companions/followers, but I picked a few up this time. As listed below, I should not be able to recruit K-9, unless I dismiss someone and boost my CH. He is not listed on wiki as exempt. Additionally, a test in the following post, indiacates that K-9 is not exempt.

0) CH 2
1) Recruit Sulik
2) Originally visted K-9, killed Schreber, initiated repair dialogue, but did not repair K-9
3) CH 3 (implant)
4) Eat Mentats x2, wear Mirrored Shades
5) CH6
6) Hire Cassidy and Vic
7) Remove Mentat and MS effects
8) CH 3 (Retain all 3 humans, unless dismissed, then boost CH to re-hire)
9) Eliminated everyone at Navarro base
10) Repair and recruit K-9 in Navarro
11) Party Limit: 4/1 at CH3, 4/3 at CH 6 (K-9 is illegal member of party)

Ref:
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Party_Limit

[stcaFylnO]

Editing OP: This looks like a bug/glitch. As an exploit it is extremely minor, since K-9 isn't very useful (no armor, no weapons, cannot mule). If a player needed a decoy, it might be helpful.

Possible Cause:
I originally visited Navarro early, killed his master and initiated repair dialogue, but didn't complete any repairs afterwards. Then, upon revisting Navarro, everyone was killed in and outside of the base. After that, K-9 was repaired and joined party illegally. There are many other variables, like Pariah being active, but not visited; however, the interactions with Navarro, K-9, and Dr. Schreber, seem the most likely.

Party Limit Test:
Myron refused to join after boosting CH to 6. Cassidy was dismissed, Myron still refused. Sulik was dismissed, then Myron would join for an appropriate total of 3 (including K-9).

[stcaFylnO]

Originally posted by stcaFylnO:

Prevention, reversion, and avoidance may be the only recourse.

I'm going to seed this reply in all posts listed below, so we can easily jump from page to page. It might be a good idea to re-title your OP, since the Mad Brahmin event is the location of issue, not the actual bug.

I had that error recently. It was every time I tried planting eplosives on Bishop's safe, the game would crash to desktop. Eventually I had to revert to a previous save, then kill him with Stimpaks instead. Reason? I had already picked, unarmed, and emptied safe in a previous visit.

I know my thread regarding save corruptions seems like a different bug, but the location and behavior aside, there are a lot of details to help workaround the issues.

Save corruptions, like my Sulik one, are not always immediately apparent. They may be asymptomatic for a long period of time. So, always have an archived "safety" for reversion. Example: Before visiting a new area. If symptoms develop within a slot, revert to a safety point, delete any assumed corrupted slots (or overwrite), then replay from that point.

Remember to NEVER save the game while explosive timers are active. There are many posts online regarding corruptions in this manner. I'm so nervous, I never save while Super stimpaks are active either, not to mention any timers, events, or active NPCs.

Beware of revisits! I've also had a helpful corruption (minor exploit), since K-9 joined party while illegally exceeding the party limits.

There is also another thread where someone used a utility to fix a corrupted save. I'll list some references below.

Refs:
Fallout 2 Game save files bugged, Please help!
https://steamcommunity.com/app/38410/discussions/0/530645446324071811/
Especially the post by "TheNextToLastMetroid", for his save game editor/utility

Fallout 2 Crash
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2045037
Note: The support page recommended these already, but neither of us had success with them.

Bug: K-9 joins, exceeds party limit.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/38410/discussions/0/154644349173009966/
Another example of inconsistent program behaviors upon revisiting areas

Bug: Save Corruptions
http://steamcommunity.com/app/38410/discussions/0/154643982160672462/
See the "Workarounds" in both posts

Mad Brahmin glitch
http://steamcommunity.com/app/38410/discussions/0/154644349169323027/

The Instruction at 0x referenced memory at 0x The memory could not be read
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1274-uohk-5653

[RAW]

im having this in fallout 1, plus a painfull headache now. and gotta blame myself for not stock savegames, now i need to start another campaign

[Cardan]

Originally posted by BIG MOOD:

im having this in fallout 1, plus a painfull headache now. and gotta blame myself for not stock savegames, now i need to start another campaign

you can get all the companions in fallout regardless of your charisma, not that they are of much use after you get the water chip