Perhaps you can save me some time.
I’m new to the concept of DLC ‘downloadable Content’, as I understand it it’s a patch I have to pay for. Ok, I’ll pay the $10, but I just can’t seem to find it. I have Steam and couldn’t find it, I’ve searched the Windows Live Gaming market and couldn’t find it, I looked on the Fallout 3 website and couldn’t find it, it was released 2 months ago, where the hell is it?!?!
Ok, I figured it out and downloaded it on Windows Live, it says it’s installed.
I’m at level 20 but haven’t yet beaten the original game, after installing Broken Steel I still don’t gain any experience after killing creatures, will I start getting experience after beating the original game or is this add-on not yet properly installed?
Broken Steel doesn’t appear to be in my Fallout 3 data folder.
Did you add it through the ‘Downloadable Content’ link in the main menu?
The ‘downloads’ in the main menu is darkened out.
Or did you mean the main menu of Windows Live?
THIS appears to say that I can’t start the Broken Steel missions until I complete the main quests in the original game (no surprise) but the way I read it I should already be able to advance in levels just messing around.
I’ve been playing like ten minutes killing scorpions but have gotten no ‘loaded content’ messages or get any experience for killing them.
Well I had a problem personally. Since I had leveled my char offline, and windows live knew nothing about it. So when I ran off line I had no new content. When I went online, I didn’t have my character. I can’t remeber exactly the step by step, but what I had to do was log into windows live, wait a few moments until the online content loaded. Then kill the live connection to get my old char with the new content. It took me about 3 hours to trial and error it, and it never gave much info on what was happening(It never said download content complete, and If I shut LIVE off too early it had a corruption and I had to task manager kill and start over)
I may have even had a thread about it.
Well, the DLC’s are just like regular mods, and somewhere there exists an .esm, wherever Windows Live downloads to - which varies depending on your OS. If you find those files and copy them into the appropriate places in the Fallout data file you can run it offline.
Make sure you’re fully patched up. There were some issues with DLC’s not loading correctly on some of the old patches.
Also if it’s correctly loaded you should get a message ‘Broken Steel loaded experience cap raised to 30’ the first time you load a game after its installed.
Darkhold, I patched it before I installed the Pitt and Operation Anchorage and they work fine, while looking for Broken Steel I saw Bethseda had a 1.6 patch and so I patched it again (it’s installed correctly and it tells me I’m playing Fallout 3 version 1.6.03 or something).
wolfman, I’ve only ever played my character online.
**Gorsnak **, yeah I can’t find anything resembling Broken Steel in the data file and when loading Fallout 3 before hitting ‘PLAY’ you can click on ‘DATA’ and it has the tick marks for Fallout, Pitt, and Anchorage but nothing else.
Stuff from Live goes into c:\documents and settings\user\application data\windows live\fallout3 or some such (on XP - the path is different in Vista). I’m probably getting that wrong, since I’m on my work laptop and not my home machine, but it’s definitely in the application data folder (note that this is a hidden folder, so you might have to modify your settings to see it). It never gets moved to the Fallout data folder - that’s why you have to log onto Live after starting the game and then it pauses while it tells you it’s loading extras. But you can manually copy the files into your Fallout data folder, and they behave like any other .esm file.
If the ‘Downloads’ in the main menu is greyed out, then you aren’t actually logged onto Windows Live, and the game won’t see the DLC (unless you’ve manually copied it). And if you’ve been playing without signing in, then I believe your saved games won’t be seen after you do, though there may be a way to transfer them.
The relevant files seem to be
BrokenSteel - Main.bsa
BrokenSteel - Sounds.bsa
If you can find them anywhere on your computer, stick them into \fallout3\data then run the launcher, click data, and then check those two files.
But when I start the game it says at the top that I’m logging on and I see my call sign, is that something else entirely?
Thanks for the advice guys, I’ll give it a try when I get home tonight.
Yeah, that’s GFWL firing up.
GFWL is a steaming pile of crap, there’s a mod which disables it and makes the game marginally quicker for it (unless you care for achievements, like some dirty console peasant! 
) It also means GFWL won’t fart about with your save files, creating a separate file for saves and all that horsepiss.
Here’s the mod, works a treat:
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1086
I just move all the DLC files (search your computer for .bsa/.esm files if you’re having a hard time finding the DLC itself) into the Fallout 3/Data folder, select them in the ‘data files’ option in the launcher and play them as if they were mods.
The thing that’ll let you know you have Broken Steel is a pop-up message about a minute into gameplay (you have to be outside) that says “Broken Steel has been loaded. Level cap raised to 30” or similar.
Ah, I was wrong about the download location. C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\XLive\DLC\ is where things are put if you’re using XP.
I have Vista, and cant seem to find any of the Broken Steel files despite the searching.
For a split second when the main screen lights up there is a message, it took me several starts to figure out what it says:
“Loading Content. Please wait.”
Then it’s gone and the ‘downloads’ button is dark.
I have a scary nagging suspicion I bought the Xbox version of this. Is that possible?
I did an advanced search and checked every hidden file, nothing with ‘Broken Steel’ in the title is on my hard drive, yet Windows Live says it’s installed and won’t let me download it again.
Fuck you Microsoft.
Sorry. Like I said my installation got screwed up too. but I was different. I think you are going to have to start bothering their support.
I can’t get a hold of their support. I called my credit card company and had the charge removed, if they want their $12.50 they can get a hold of me.