[SOLVED] Game-breaking (and very strange) bug in Witcher 3 (v4.04, PC)

[Alina_T]

I think that I have a bug connected to how many times you saved the game (not to the number of saves). Let me explain. Imagine that everything is OK, then you save the game (any save counts: auto, checkpoint, quick, manual) and load that save. After this you encounter the following bug: when you pick up (or receive in any way) an item it (may) not be added to your inventory, instead some seemingly random item is actually added (for example, you picked up a book and received a gwent card or a steel ingot). And this includes quest related items (which obviously brakes quests). Even Items added by console commands are randomized (actually randomized may not be the right word: if you try to add an item multiple times, you always receive the same item, but it may not be the item you actually added). I encountered this bug after ~300 hours of fine working gameplay on PC.

I think that the bug occurs due to too many saves, for example: I have four consequent saves, say A, B, C and D, where D is the latest and the bug is not present. If I load D, save the game and load the new save I receive the bug (so for D I have no more saves left), for C if I save the game and load the new save, everything is fine, but if I save and load again I receive the bug (so for C I have one save left). And for A I have three saves left. It does not matter if I override the old save or create a new one.

What I have tried (with no success):
I transfered saves A, B, C, D to PS 5 and got exactly the same situation. So I do not think that this bug is platform related (the initial saves are from PC, the game version is 4.04).
I turn of my mods (Brothers in arms and over 9000).
I reinstalled the game, removed all but one relatively old save from the saves' folder, loaded it and after ~50 saves received the same bug ( this convinced me that I am dealing with how many times i saved the game ).

If you encountered this bug or have some suggestions, please let me know.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Just few details
Mod datas and issues can remain in save files, so even if you removed the mods and completely reinstall the game, datas and issues related to mods can remains if you load a "modded save". In the same way, if you transfert a modded save on your PS5, mods datas and issues can also persist.

In short, the saves on which you encountered the issue (mod related or not) can be irremediably affected no matter what you do
The only way to be sure it's not mod related, it's to completely uninstall the game (also everything related to the game here > %UserProfile%\Documents\The Witcher 3\), then reinstall the game and start a new playthrough.

 

[Alina_T]

In short, the saves on which you encountered the issue (mod related or not) can be irremediably affected no matter what you do

Yeap, it is possible, but it is strange that I have ~300h of fine gameplay before the bug (I installed the mods at the beginning). And it seems that every save is going to be affected after some number of saves. Also, I have mote than 1500h in Witcher 3 (versions <=1.32) with these two mods and have never encountered this concrete bug. Actually, I think that it is some limitations of RED Engine (something like I cannot save the game more than 9999 times).

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Also, I have mote than 1500h in Witcher 3 (versions <=1.32) with these two mods and have never encountered this concrete bug.

Yep, but since the game have been updated and mods too.
So new "issues" that you never encountered once before can appear now in 4.0, or even just in 4.04 (maybe also the issue is triggered by a specific event in the game...)

So again, the only way to be sure it's not mod related (everything else is speculation).

Completely uninstall the game (also everything related to the game here > %UserProfile%\Documents\The Witcher 3\), then reinstall the game and start a new playthrough.

You can let your "old modded" saves in the save folder, and if it's not mod related, the issue should also appear on a brand new playthrough anyway.

 

[Alina_T]

So new "issues" that you never encountered once before can appear now in 4.0, or even just in 4.04 (maybe also the issue is triggered by a specific event in the game...)

You are right, I think I am going to write a script which will ran save / load cycle say 10000 times on the vanilla version of W3 (my "old" PC will do, I think).

Post automatically merged: Jul 31, 2023

I am not alone

Save Game Corruption PC (Version 1.3) Please Help!

Save Game Corruption PC (Version 1.3) Please Help! I've run into a game breaking issue in my current NG+ playthrough where my save games are repeatedly becoming corrupted after a certain number of saves. The symptoms are: glitchy invisible items appearing in inventory, normal items disappearing...

forums.cdprojektred.com

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Yep, but first, he used mods too. And two, take a look of the mods he used. There is one which you both used > over 9000.

I don't say, it's mandatory a mod issue, but chances are high.
Anyway, you can still send a ticket to the support if you want (it cost nothing), but I guess they'll ask you to remove all mods and try on a new playthrough like I did.
> "Contact Us" button
(There is no dedicated category, but this one should be fine)

I am unable to complete/progress in a quest — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | Technical Support — CD PROJEKT RED

Welcome to CD PROJEKT RED Technical Support! Here you will find help regarding our games and services, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

support.cdprojektred.com

 

[SigilFey]

Sorry, @Alina_T , but after reading through this thread, there's almost definitely nothing that CDPR will be able to do to help that situation. There's a list of things here that are going to be on your end:

• Mods are not supported in any way, and using them will eventually result in a situation such as this. Whenever a game is updated, there is a large chance that some or all of the mods for that game will need to be updated as well before they will work correctly. That means, unfortunately, that if using a number of mods, you may simply have to wait until ALL of them are updated or confirmed to be working with the latest game version by the authors.
• As stated, removing mods is very problematic. Again, the more you have, the more likely removing one or more will create an issue.
• There's also a limitation with the inventory IDs that can crop up in TW3 after either extremely long playtimes (900 hours+) or after a high volume of saves / loads. Basically, the IDs will become so long (especially if there are duplicate items in the inventory), that the game won't be able to assign another character, and it can corrupt the whole inventory. There is a utility made by players to correct this if it happens, but I'm not sure if it will be friendly with all mods. (Note: this utility may need an update before it works with v4.04. Generally, it's not recommended to carry around a large inventory of stuff for extended periods. Either sell off items that are not needed, or dump them into the stash after a while. This issue will only happen if people are carrying around huge inventories for long periods of gameplay.)

Again, sorry that this happened, but from the description, I'm also pretty sure that it's going to boil down to a mod-related thing. Both of the mods you mention will likely be updated, though! Send the authors a message and hang tight!

 

[Alina_T]

I don't say, it's mandatory a mod issue, but chances are high.

No, after reading the history of solving the problem, I am almost sure that this has nothing to do with mods. It is actually not even a bug per se, it is a natural result of a limitation of the RED Engine.
Fortunately, the proposed ingenious solution helped me.
This "bug" has existed since the beginning of W3 and I do not think that CDPR is going to address it.

Post automatically merged: Aug 1, 2023

This "bug" has existed since the beginning of W3 and I do not think that CDPR is going to address it.

Nope, it is engine related.

 

[016R35]

Mods are not supported in any way

I don't understand this, several times I've read that this game doesn't support mods and that's why it's so unstable with them. If it doesn't support mods, why does the game recognise the "Mods" folder and start a script compilation process when you install one? If it didn't support mods, nothing would happen when creating that folder or putting mods into that folder, it would just ignore it as happens in many other games that don't really support mods.

 

[John_Russell]

He means mods aren't supported by the CDPR support team. Although they usually do try to help you if you are using mods they are really under no obligation to fix problems caused by using mods. When you mod any game you do so at your own risk. If you mod a game that is still being updated then expect your game to break after an update.

CDPR allowing you to mod their game (Technically and under most country's laws they don't have to) and CDPR supporting a modded game are two entirely different things.

 

[SigilFey]

I don't understand this, several times I've read that this game doesn't support mods and that's why it's so unstable with them. If it doesn't support mods, why does the game recognise the "Mods" folder and start a script compilation process when you install one? If it didn't support mods, nothing would happen when creating that folder or putting mods into that folder, it would just ignore it as happens in many other games that don't really support mods.

There's a difference between a studio allowing the use of mods and even creating tools for them...and a studio officially supporting mods themselves and devoting manpower and resources to help players get them working correctly. When a player mods a game, they are on their own, for better or worse. Mods are not officially supported.

When you mod a game, you do so at your own risk. The only company that I'm aware of that has ever officially supported mods was Bethesda, who licensed mods from independent creators, then officially put them up for sale. (This didn't last long. Even now, most Bethesda mods on Steam Workshop or Bethesda.NET are at the user's risk. They are offered, available, and allowed, but only those officially released by Bethesda themselves are officially supported, like DLC.)

For the rest of the world, mods are not supported in any way. There is nothing that a studio will be able to do if you get yourself into trouble, corrupt a saved game, lose progress, bork an entire playthough, etc. Therefore, please ensure that you are always backing up your saved game files before making changes to mods. That won't guarantee that you avoid modding issues or lose progress, but it can mitigate it.

 

[SigilFey]

No, after reading the history of solving the problem, I am almost sure that this has nothing to do with mods. It is actually not even a bug per se, it is a natural result of a limitation of the RED Engine.
Fortunately, the proposed ingenious solution helped me.
This "bug" has existed since the beginning of W3 and I do not think that CDPR is going to address it.

Could be, but...how often did you save and load? 300 hours is not that long. From the testing that other group I linked to performed, the itemID issue would not manifest until something like >2,500 reloads.

There's also another bug known as the "rune / glyph bomb" which was similar but unrelated. This one could happen even very early in the game if Gerlat happened to have large stacks of runes and glyphs sitting in his active inventory.

Do you think it might be one of these? If so, the following has worked in the past for some players:

1. Load a working saved game.
2. Travel to a stash location. Dump Geralts ENTIRE inventory into it, including all equipped items.
3. Use the world map to fast-travel to a different world location (for example, go from Velen to White Orchard or Skellige.)
4. Head to stash location there and pick up all your stuff again. That can reset itemIDs when you put them back in your inventory.

 

[Alina_T]

There's also another bug known as the "rune / glyph bomb" which was similar but unrelated. This one could happen even very early in the game if Gerlat happened to have large stacks of runes and glyphs sitting in his active inventory.

This one is the culprit in my case (I have a lot of stacks of runes and gluph). So I had like +150 to the max ID every save/load and travel to the different lication. Also I like to loot evething (and every non-stackable item, like a sword, adds +1 ). So the most important step to prevent the "bug" is to not have large stacks of these runes/glyphs.

1. Load a working saved game.

No need, since I manafe to reset my max ID (so basically I cured my save). I also believe that I can do this "reset" again if/when the "bug" hits me the second time.

1. Travel to a stash location. Dump Geralts ENTIRE inventory into it, including all equipped items.
2. Use the world map to fast-travel to a different world location (for example, go from Velen to White Orchard or Skellige.)
3. Head to stash location there and pick up all your stuff again. That can reset itemIDs when you put them back in your inventory.

Don't think this will work, but thanks for the suggestion.

BTW, Geralt's head is a hidden item and it adds +1 to the max ID every save/load and travel, which meant that we basically cannot do this actions more than 2^16=65536 times

 

[SigilFey]

This one is the culprit in my case (I have a lot of stacks of runes and gluph). So I had like +150 to the max ID every save/load and travel to the different lication. Also I like to loot evething (and every non-stackable item, like a sword, adds +1 ). So the most important step to prevent the "bug" is to not have large stacks of these runes/glyphs.

This isn't the same thing as the itemID overflow that can happen with regular inventory items. It's weird. Don't think the cause for the rune bomb was ever found. Normally, I carry no more than 10 of each, combine them to upgrade them as soon as possible, and sell off the others immediately. (Actually, I eventually stopped even looting creatures unless I needed something. I found myself swimming in oceans of coin the first few times I played. Now, I mostly fight and walk away unless I'm looking for specific mutagens or what not.)

No need, since I manafe to reset my max ID (so basically I cured my save). I also believe that I can do this "reset" again if/when the "bug" hits me the second time.

Did you do this with the utility? So, it's working for 4.04?

Don't think this will work, but thanks for the suggestion.

BTW, Geralt's head is a hidden item and it adds +1 to the max ID every save/load and travel, which meant that we basically cannot do this actions more than 2^16=65536 times

That's about the size of it! It was probably something that the devs never thought would actually happen in a million years. But...just add humans...and...

 

[Alina_T]

I eventually stopped even looting creatures unless I needed something. I found myself swimming in oceans of coin the first few times I played. Now, I mostly fight and walk away unless I'm looking for specific mutagens or what not

I cannot do this, if I see loot, I must loot it (I killed so many guards for something like an apple...). So by the end of the game, I usually have more then 10M crowns (should be enough to buy the city Beauclair, right?).

Did you do this with the utility? So, it's working for 4.04?

To cure a save (from v4.04), I used modDebugItemID mod (to prepare the save) and a hex editor (to modify the prepared save; one need to do it twice).

Actually, if we have a save in which the bug is not present, then it is relatively easy to reset the max ID (and CDPR definitely could do this without any problem). But if the save file is already having the bug, then it is much harder to cure it (but possible!). So now I'm just using a mod which tracks my max ID and if/when it will be nearing 2^16 I will just reset it.

That's about the size of it! It was probably something that the devs never thought would actually happen in a million years. But...just add humans...and...

Actually, the same bug may be present in Cyberpunk 2077, to see that this is the case or not, one, for example, can do the following: load a save, pick up 2^16+1 non-stackable items (a pistol or something like that), then save and load. But I am too lazy to check it.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

I cannot do this, if I see loot, I must loot it (I killed so many guards for something like an apple...). So by the end of the game, I usually have more then 10M crowns (should be enough to buy the city Beauclair, right?).

A bit strange, that's exactly what I did since release and I never encounter any issue
(the same in Cyberpunk by the way, I loot absolutely everything I come across. Night City is always almost empty at the end of my playthroughs^^).

Actually, the same bug may be present in Cyberpunk 2077, to see that this is the case or not, one, for example, can do the following: load a save, pick up 2^16+1 non-stackable items (a pistol or something like that), then save and load. But I am too lazy to check it.

Just to understand, you mean 2^16+1 non-stackable items like handgun, at once in your inventory?

 

[Alina_T]

Just to understand, you mean 2^16+1 non-stackable items like handgun, at once in your inventory?

At once or one by one --- should be the same.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

At once or one by one --- should be the same.

I mean, all of them at once in your inventory (i.e having 2^16+1 non-stackable items in your inventory in total). Or you can sell/dismantle/drop/whatever a part of them in the process and the issue will still occure.
Because, in a vanilla game, the weight limit will prevent you from picking up items way before reaching this quantity anyway.

 

[Alina_T]

I mean, all of them at once in your inventory (i.e having 2^16+1 non-stackable items in your inventory in total).

This.

Or you can sell/dismantle/drop/whatever a part of them in the process and the issue will still occure.

This may or may not work, to be shure one need to know the code.

Because, in a vanilla game, the weight limit will prevent you from picking up items way before reaching this quantity anyway.

I thought it will just cause an overweight, but items can still be added, no? If not, then you can try to find a non-stackable item with weight 0 (or use a mod and set the weight limit to the sky).

 

[LeKill3rFou]

I thought it will just cause an overweight, but items can still be added, no? If not, then you can try to find a non-stackable item with weight 0 (or use a mod and set the weight limit to the sky).

Yes, you still can add items, but being over-weighted pretty much prevent you to play normally.
So it seem to be a "game issue", but it's an issue which can't happen without mods (over 9000, I guess) and why I never encountered such issue on any of my playthroughs since release (because, yeah, I loot everything possible too).