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djwolf001's avatar
djwolf001
5 years ago
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Mass Effect 3 crashes when importing ME2 character - PC

When starting a new Mass Effect 3 game it CTD as I import a ME 2 character on Windows 10.  It happens at exactly the same place each time.  I import the ME 2 save and get a list of its decisions.  I choose "imported face" and all is fine but as soon as I get to class selection, the screen freezes and with any mouse click it all disappears in a CTD.

I have experimented and tried to import other saves with the same result and all of them have already been imported in previous play throughs.

I saw a post here that was similar only it was occurring on PlayStation 360.  The suggestions to overcome this just weren't that great.

Here is what I know.  There is nothing wrong with my ME3 game.  I have imported ME2 characters before.  There is nothing wrong with my ME2 saves - I have imported some of those that now fail before.

  • djwolf001's avatar
    djwolf001
    5 years ago
    @holger1405 Thanks Holger and you are absolutely right.

    However, the mod that caused the issue was the "Ashley Marksman Fix". Apparently, the game was shipped with Ashley's Marksman skill not working.

    And I want to be really clear here. I regard the Mass Effect games to be one of the greatest Science Fiction narratives to ever be written. They are certainly richer than Star Wars or even Star Trek and deserve remakes over the next 50 years or so. Where would we be had Beethoven decided that he had performed his 9th Symphony for the people he wanted to impress and so had no need to preserve the score?

    Regardless, I make no claims about what happened after this but I do want to explain since most people will do as I did. The moment I got past the game's introduction, I saved and re-installed the Ashley fix. When I tried to re-launch the game I got the error that my DLC could not be authorized. The fix for this error was to paste binkw23.dll and binkw32.dll to ...\Mass Effect 3\Binaries\Win32. These files can be found with a quick Google search and I'm sure that the end result is a game closer to what the developers intended.

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  • djwolf001's avatar
    djwolf001
    5 years ago

    I have solved this problem myself.  EA and Bioware appear to hate "cheats" with a vengeance with their overbearing and controlling ways to prevent any player input.  To me this is insane.  My Shepherd isn't challenged by mall cops, farmers or even footsoldiers.  My Shepherd is motivated by the story and its epic nature but he needs mods to emulate that.  These developers should be setting up mod desks where a couple of knowledgeable techs could advise modders on how to best get the 7 billion potential customers... you know, the 85% non-gamers who could come to know the genius of Mass Effect is they could get a playstyle that matched their temperament.... But no!  They are two busy shooting themselves in the feet.  (Facepalm)

    Anyway, in Origin, under "Help", I found "Repair" and set about repairing Mass Effect 3.  This removed a mod but that's okay.  I repeated the import of the Mass Effect 2 save it all went without a hitch.  

  • holger1405's avatar
    holger1405
    Hero+
    5 years ago

    @djwolf001 

    It is not Bioware's responsibility to make the game compatible to mods or cheats, the Moder is responsibility to make his mod compatible to the game.

    Also, ME3 has a story mode. 🙂

  • djwolf001's avatar
    djwolf001
    5 years ago
    @holger1405 Thanks Holger and you are absolutely right.

    However, the mod that caused the issue was the "Ashley Marksman Fix". Apparently, the game was shipped with Ashley's Marksman skill not working.

    And I want to be really clear here. I regard the Mass Effect games to be one of the greatest Science Fiction narratives to ever be written. They are certainly richer than Star Wars or even Star Trek and deserve remakes over the next 50 years or so. Where would we be had Beethoven decided that he had performed his 9th Symphony for the people he wanted to impress and so had no need to preserve the score?

    Regardless, I make no claims about what happened after this but I do want to explain since most people will do as I did. The moment I got past the game's introduction, I saved and re-installed the Ashley fix. When I tried to re-launch the game I got the error that my DLC could not be authorized. The fix for this error was to paste binkw23.dll and binkw32.dll to ...\Mass Effect 3\Binaries\Win32. These files can be found with a quick Google search and I'm sure that the end result is a game closer to what the developers intended.
  • holger1405's avatar
    holger1405
    Hero+
    5 years ago

    @djwolf001 

    These dll's are necessary for all Mods that change DLC files because the hash of the DLC is different after changing it.

    Most mods that needs this dll's bring them along in this days, as the "Ashley Marksman Fix" Mod does as well.

    They are in the main download folder of the mod in the "For Placement in Binaries_Win32 Folder" folder. 

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