Save Files

[Asimov]

In anticipation of a new STEP, what are the best tips for saving prior to redl'ding and installing new mods? Is there a place in game that is best to save? I will back up my mods folder prior to doing it but I was just wondering what else I should do.

[MontyMM]

Frihyland drew my attention to the Bethesda best practices guide, and this is the most significant quote from it:

 

"When you play Skyrim with a mod, in most cases, the new data for the mod

will be written into any new saved games you create. For example, if

you play Skyrim with Mod X and create a save, the next time you load

that save, the game will expect Mod X to also be loaded. If you no

longer want to play Skyrim with Mod X, it is best to unload Mod X (by

unchecking the plugin under Data Files in your Skyrim launcher) and

loading a save that does not require Mod X, usually an older save or a

backed up save."

 

My experience suggests that a good portion of the problems people suffer are related to this. The fact is, Bethesda's save scheme is just not very resilient to modding. In these terms, even an update would mean "Mod X' becomes "Mod X2", and so on. My recommendation is to tinker around with mods until you have a really solid setup, then start a new play through without making any changes at all. Some would probably consider that overkill - just my personal policy. I expect to be in the tinkering phase for a good while yet before I set off on a proper play through.

[Bealdwine]

@Asimov

Unfortunately Monty is right and there are no guaranteed ways to absolutly be sure an older save isn't still 'contaminated' by previous mods. I have reinstalled, remodded my game several times for testing and tweaking and usually just recreate and restart my character. However...

 

...Making no promises of success this is the usual procedure to attempt cleaning a save:

1) Get out of the main game 'grid'. So go to a city and into a nice small 'cell' that has not been modded, in other words go through a door transition to an indoor location.

2) Open the console in-game using the key directly below the [Esc] button - I believe this is the tilde (~) key on US keyboards.

3) Type pcb - press [Return] - close the console. (Doing this should have cleared the cell buffer).

4) Make a new full Save (not a quick save or a save over a previous one).

 

That is the save you will want to back up and try to use after your fresh install and remodding... and the very best of luck :) That's the best I can do if anyone else can add to that please feel free.

[z929669]

Just to throw a wrench in the whole thing, I have never yet experienced a corrupt save in Skyrim due to mod swapping (and I have done a LOT so far). This could be partly attributable to Wrye Bash's bashed patch, which does merge mods and leveled lists in Skyrim as of right now; however, it is also likely that I have not seen much of this since there are not a whole lot of big FAT overhaul mods in the mix yet with GMST tweaks and all of the other things that can cause compatibility problems. ... er .... maybe also because I am severely anal in maintaining my setup?

 

I saw more of this with Morrowind and Oblivion, but even then, I was usually able to get a crucial save cleaned up and continue with an old character :D

[MontyMM]

Yes, I think most of STEP is probably fairly innocuous in this regard.

But, one exception I can point to with certainty is RWTT. Removing that and continuing with a save that expects it has a very good chance of disappearing some waterfalls from the game, and can be pretty resilient to PCBing.

 

EDIT: In fact, I meant to mention this before - you may want to mention this specifically in the new STEP. I assume that RWTT is out, now that it is defunct, and there will almost certainly be users affected by this.

[frihyland]

QFT

I can add 2 points to the conversation.

 

1. Active magic effects should be minimized before using the pcb command and making an archive quality save. There are many many mods that interact with 'magic' effects in nonobvious ways and if you remove a mod while the effect is on you, best case your character will have a permanent new effect (if you were trying out a disease mod you will now have an incurable disease or you may end up uberpowered if you had a mighty enchantment going) and at worst your save wont load. I'd really like to see a mod that adds a clean save 'power' to the game to reduce the tedium of the steps required, in fact it may be my first mod.

 

2. Wrye Bash will list every mod that your save requires and even allow you to edit those dependencies. This by no means is a savegame cleaner, the game hasn't been decoded well enough to design one yet, but it can for instance swap a dependency for RWT to a dependency on WATER. I have seen no practical mention of this in any documentation or the forums so it remains another option to test.

[blacksol]

re 2 I did see that mentioned on one nexus thread (cannot remember which one).

 

I have also updated/swapped a fair few mods around and changed over from RWT to WATER. So far no issues and no missing textures (touch wood!) so will see how it goes.

 

This also includes using PISE (all options from a version a couple of months ago) and Deadly Dragons and turning them off. I have also tinkered around with Balanced Magic on and off (normally on) and when it was off no obvious issues.

 

as an aside - the traps part of deadly traps and diseases may be bugged as when I trigger say an arrow trap I keep losing health even if I am half a dungeon away and seemingly no way to stop it (although it would help in levelling restoration if it would stop!). So have now removed that mod.

[EisDrache]

Ya i have stoped useing the deadly traps mod too after a while the health degen does stop but it degens way to fast it would be better if it was degenning at a managable rate but right now litterly a blink of an eye you can have full health and you will be dead just that quick kinda sucks