[SOLVED] Game keeps crashing

[Smork Alam]

Yoohoo, I know there's a grand forum that helps with this, but none of the current solutions on the board are helping me right now.

I've recently started playing and I cannot stress how insane it is for this game to have so many issues all at once. So lets go through my problem and what I've attempted to fix it.

Frame buffering turned off
Installed the 4gb patch (LAA)
Windowed the game
Limit the game to one CPU affinity
Cleared Steam's cache
Probably a bunch that I cant name

There are two fights in particular that seem to be breaking my game, and I'm... At an impasse, there's nothing I can do but quit the game in its entirety if I don't want to deal with the crashing - Okay, enough whining. I'm at the Ruined Temple and I keep getting into a fight that ends up crashing the game, one with two mages and a lot of cultists, I mean A LOT. I think that has to do with it, the loading and management of too many things at once. Same with the other fight, one that surprises you while you're on the road with two emissaries and an alpha, the one with two gazillion traps on the floor. I know it's probably the game that's struggling to hold up with the loading of so many objects, but I don't know how to fix it. If my laptop can handle split screen multiplayer Baldur's Gate 3 with 171+ mods, I don't understand why it's struggling so hard with these two combats in particular. I'm scared it's going to get worse down the line.

Yes I do have mods, and while I could try removing them I'm scared it'll break the game. I'm using Alistair gay romance mods and Grey Wardens of Ferelden, the two I'm most scared of removing, since I feel like they would break the game the most. And I'm not keen on starting this all over again - for the *third time*

[bushwookie]

Do you crash during the fight or afterwards?

The 4GB patch doesn't actually fix anything. It just prolongs your ability to play. You eventually have to quit and restart to "fix" the memory leaking. If you don't the game will eventualy freeze.

For me, that cultist temple part had me fighting 2 sections and after the enemies die it just slows down and starts lagging. Restarting fixes that but you have to be careful so it doesn't crash midfight. I don't think there is a solution yet other than to quick save and play like this, slowly grinding foward during enemy heavy sections.

I don't think those 2 mods will cause this. Re-texture mods increase RAM usage.

It might be worth it to try this performance fix mod:
https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/6435

It might give you more time before it crashes.

You didn't mention this but disable Steam overlay as well. It also causes issues.

[boudicca13]

I can't even get the game to start. So frustrating.

[Smork Alam]

Originally posted by analogueman:

Do you crash during the fight or afterwards?

The 4GB patch doesn't actually fix anything. It just prolongs your ability to play. You eventually have to quit and restart to "fix" the memory leaking. If you don't the game will eventualy freeze.

For me, that cultist temple part had me fighting 2 sections and after the enemies die it just slows down and starts lagging. Restarting fixes that but you have to be careful so it doesn't crash midfight. I don't think there is a solution yet other than to quick save and play like this, slowly grinding foward during enemy heavy sections.

I don't think those 2 mods will cause this. Re-texture mods increase RAM usage.

It might be worth it to try this performance fix mod:
https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/6435

It might give you more time before it crashes.

You didn't mention this but disable Steam overlay as well. It also causes issues.

It's mid fight or before hand. I asked Reddit and thought I got a solution before it nuked again... So frustrating.

Plus I'm not sure how to save and then get back into the fight? I've tried saving mid fight but the game doesn't do that, because it's a horrendously heavy fight, in the cultists barracks where there are 20 enemies and I can't just whittle them down, the game just won't work unfortunately.

[bushwookie]

Originally posted by Smork Alam:

It's mid fight or before hand. I asked Reddit and thought I got a solution before it nuked again... So frustrating.

Plus I'm not sure how to save and then get back into the fight? I've tried saving mid fight but the game doesn't do that, because it's a horrendously heavy fight, in the cultists barracks where there are 20 enemies and I can't just whittle them down, the game just won't work unfortunately.

To be more specific i save before and after fights so i can reload just in case the lagging starts.

I went through that part recently actually and I didn't have any issues which goes to show how broken this game actually is sadly. Everyone seems to have unique issues.
I also use mods such as Dragon Age Remastered and i managed to get through the temple part though the caverns later on are somewhat laggier for me.
I did encounter a corrupted/damaged save error just yesterday which was a first, yay. Probably caused by installing the Improved Atmosphere mod. If you use it as well it might be causing issues for you as it changes NPC clothing.

I did some digging and the Grey Warden armor mod does seem to cause crashing in some specific areas including the Cultist temple you are having issues with.

Someone wrote this:
"God, I really want to love this mod, I really do, but it somehow causes my game to crash. There's a crash after the Archdemon camp cutscene unless I remove all of this mods items from my party, there's a crash just walking around camp sometimes, and I couldn't even get through the temple of sacred ashes because I was crashing so much.

MAde a new playthrough without this mod, went perfectly fine, completed it with no problems.
Started yet another playthrough with this mod reinstalled, and I'm having the camp crashes again."

and later this

"I know it's late, but I figured out the issue. It seems to just be a problem with the Mage armors. If I never use them there's zero crashes."

Try removing the mentioned mage armor off your characters and put on some generic clothing/armor. See if that changes anything. I don't use the Grey Warden mod so that may be why i did not crash fighting the cultist.

[Smork Alam]

Originally posted by analogueman:

Originally posted by Smork Alam:

It's mid fight or before hand. I asked Reddit and thought I got a solution before it nuked again... So frustrating.

Plus I'm not sure how to save and then get back into the fight? I've tried saving mid fight but the game doesn't do that, because it's a horrendously heavy fight, in the cultists barracks where there are 20 enemies and I can't just whittle them down, the game just won't work unfortunately.

To be more specific i save before and after fights so i can reload just in case the lagging starts.

I went through that part recently actually and I didn't have any issues which goes to show how broken this game actually is sadly. Everyone seems to have unique issues.
I also use mods such as Dragon Age Remastered and i managed to get through the temple part though the caverns later on are somewhat laggier for me.
I did encounter a corrupted/damaged save error just yesterday which was a first, yay. Probably caused by installing the Improved Atmosphere mod. If you use it as well it might be causing issues for you as it changes NPC clothing.

I did some digging and the Grey Warden armor mod does seem to cause crashing in some specific areas including the Cultist temple you are having issues with.

Someone wrote this:
"God, I really want to love this mod, I really do, but it somehow causes my game to crash. There's a crash after the Archdemon camp cutscene unless I remove all of this mods items from my party, there's a crash just walking around camp sometimes, and I couldn't even get through the temple of sacred ashes because I was crashing so much.

MAde a new playthrough without this mod, went perfectly fine, completed it with no problems.
Started yet another playthrough with this mod reinstalled, and I'm having the camp crashes again."

and later this

"I know it's late, but I figured out the issue. It seems to just be a problem with the Mage armors. If I never use them there's zero crashes."

Try removing the mentioned mage armor off your characters and put on some generic clothing/armor. See if that changes anything. I don't use the Grey Warden mod so that may be why i did not crash fighting the cultist.

At the end I realized that out of everything, Grey Warden's of Ferelden — the armour mod, is what's bugging the game out, and from what I can tell, is the only mod of mine breaking the game so horrendously. Which is deeply ironic, since everywhere I have gone to fix my issues have said that this mod is NOT an issue.

In the end I either have to exile the Mage wearing the modded armour or go commando for certain cutscenes that break unforgivably when wearing armour. And it's all the modded armours causing the issue — or simply because people at camp are wearing it. I don't know, I don't care to test.

The game still bugs and glitches, but that's just... How it is, I guess. Using the skip fight mod and what I know know has permitted me to avoid terribly buggy fights or scenes that won't allow me to walk around no matter what I do.

Thanks for the help, by the way.