Alright, so I’ve been messing around with Fallout 4 again lately. You know, it’s one of those games I keep coming back to. But the recent updates? Man, they’ve been messing with my mods. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and get back to version 1.10.163. That’s where the sweet spot is, at least for my modded setup.
First things first, I had to figure out how to even downgrade the game. I’m not a big fan of pirated versions, you know, so I did some digging. I found out that Steam actually lets you download older versions of games, which are called “Depots.” You gotta use the Steam console for this, not something I do every day, but it’s not rocket science, I got the process.
So, I fired up my browser and typed in steam://open/console. This opened up the Steam console – looked kinda intimidating at first, but I rolled up my sleeves. I’d seen people online talking about a “Fallout 4 Downgrader” on the Nexus, but it seemed like it was doing the same thing, just with extra steps. I wanted to keep it simple and direct.
The hard part was figuring out which depots I needed. I knew the version I wanted was 1.10.163, but you need more than that. You need the depot IDs and a manifest ID – sounds complex, right? It kinda is, but you get used to it. Basically, you gotta find the right combination of these numbers to tell Steam exactly which files to download. You can find this info with some digging online.
- Open the steam console.
- Enter the correct depot download command, which will look something like this: download_depot <appid> <depotid> <manifestid>.
- Wait for it to download – it took a while for me since it’s a big game and all that.
Once the download finished, I had a bunch of files. The next step was copying these files over to my actual Fallout 4 installation folder. I made sure to back up my current game files first, you know, just in case something went wrong. I didn’t want to lose my saves or anything. Then I carefully moved the downloaded files into the Fallout 4 folder, replacing the newer files.
After all that, I launched the game, holding my breath a little. And boom, it worked! I was back on 1.10.163, and all my mods were working again. It felt good to have my game back the way I liked it. Plus, I learned a thing or two about how Steam works behind the scenes. It’s not as scary as it looks.
Honestly, it’s a bit of a hassle, but if you’re really into modding Fallout 4 and these new updates are giving you a headache, it’s worth looking into. Just make sure you double-check all the depot IDs and manifest numbers before you start downloading stuff. It’s easy to mess up if you’re not careful.
Anyway, that’s my little adventure in downgrading Fallout 4. Hope this helps someone out there who’s in the same boat as me. Game on, folks!
