Is my save file cleaned?

[ZaO]

I've just joined this site after beginning to go through S.T.E.P for the first time. First of all I just want to thank everyone that is a part of this great site and it's guides :)

 

Now with that said that I would like to ask for a little bit of advice here. I just followed the instructions in this guide: https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Troubleshooting#tab=Mods_and_Savegames

2 times in a row. The second time, running it on the last save file that I created after the first time. So it was sorta doubled up if you get me? The only thing I did different to the guide each time was the fact that I had absolutely no mods (other than the one to do with waiting for 31 days which you are told to get) installed at any point during this process. The reason being is that I am obviously going to install S.T.E.P and don't even know what mods I will be using yet. I figured I should get the save file clean before installing S.T.E.P right? Also, what if I want to play the game with no mods - I figured this would be the process?

 

Something I noticed during the process is that when I tried the "dispelallspells" command. I'm not sure it actually worked. Because after doing that, my character still had some active affects. One of them being resistant to disease from wolfs blood. I tried a few more times but it was the same.

 

The final thing is my Papyrus log file. I don't really understand the thing. But there are tonnes and tonnes of lines to it. I tried to copy and paste it here. But that made my browser lock up for a minute or so! Then the site would fail everytime I tried to post this thread haha. The papyrus text file itself is 5.6MB. That's a hell of a lot of text..... So much that I couldn't even upload it here as an attachment. But what I can tell you about it is that it seems to be complaining a lot. Lots of lines saying things like "cannot be initialized because the script no longer contains that property".

 

So I take it my save file isn't clean eh? Really don't want to start a new game after all the hours I've put in and the progress I've made. Would really kill me to do that :( Do you guys have any idea what's gone wrong here? Would be really grateful for some help here :) Thanks all.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

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[ZaO]

I too don't understand the "dispelallspells" command. it doesn't seem to do anything. I'm not sure how important that part is though. 

 

Yeh maybe that doesn't work anymore due to a patch or something. Either way, my papyrus log file has loads of stuff in it. This is my first time running through this process but I feel fairly sure it wouldn't be saying all that stuff if this process worked properly :/ Hopefully someone will know what's gone wrong here seeing as running through the process again didn't seem to work. Cheers.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

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[eberkain]

I found this article from the Deadly Dragons author very helpful.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

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[ZaO]

I found this article from the Deadly Dragons author very helpful.

That's a good read thankyou :) But it just seems to conclude that I need to start a new character, right? I mean, has anyone successfully cleaned their save file with the method listed on this site? Surely they have.... Also I'm wondering whether I should set my ugrids back to 5 now. I've always played with them at default. But just the other day I put them at 7 with the exterior cell buffer at 64 and was really pleased with the difference! It does eat up a bit to much vram for my liking, but I would hate to have to go back...

 

I'm still stalling on installing step, and playing skyrim all together actually. Until I can figure out a definitive answer. I really hope my save game can be "saved". Excuse the pun lol......

I await your replies :)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

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[ZaO]

I've done the clean save procedure a ton of times (the one where you wait for 31 days). The only problems I've encountered with my save game actually screwing up is a few miscellaneous quests that I have completed and won't disappear off my menu. Other than that, I get CTD around Windhelm but I'm attributing it to the 3.1 GB RAM cap and not save game corruption. All the mods I've installed have been S.T.E.P. mods so when a new version comes out, I just install the latest versions of the all the step mods and the only ones that don't get reinstalled are the ones that STEP removes. I am still unable to tell whether or not my save game is corrupt. It seems to be fine for the most part. 

 

Did you have all the papyrus complaining after you cleaned your saves? I never really knew any of this stuff until just before I posted this thread. I played Skyrim loads from release day, right up until sometime late last summer. I had the same character the whole time (and it's still the only character I have). And I can't tell you how many mods I have recklessly installed/uninstalled in that time!! Whenever I had CTD's (which really wasn't that often), I usually figured out it was a mod conflict just by mildly educated guess work. I would reorganize my load order and which files overwrite which etc, then things would be sweet. So when I read how all this stuff is permanently tied to saves, even after saving again with mods uninstalled. Well I was really surprised!

 

Whatever happens now I think I wont be messing with ugrids. I'm also going to try and stick pretty strictly to step. Other than a few gameplay enhancing mods that is. Doing a completely fresh install of Skyrim now which hopefully means I wont have to do that esm cleaning stuff. I don't really understand what the hell that is to be honest, but I want to actually play this game sometime soon so am trying to avoid having it turn this process into doing a phd lol....

 

Hopefully someone will know one way or the other and can tell me what I need to do to get my original save file clean. But in the meantime I will start running through this step guide and at least try my old save game with it. Hopefully using that old savegame wont somehow mess with the game installation.... I have no idea!

 

Thanks for the replies so far :)

 

Edit: Btw, what RAM cap? I thought they fixed that with an offical patch a while back??

[Kelmych]

I too don't understand the "dispelallspells" command. it doesn't seem to do anything. I'm not sure how important that part is though. 

Yeh maybe that doesn't work anymore due to a patch or something. Either way, my papyrus log file has loads of stuff in it. This is my first time running through this process but I feel fairly sure it wouldn't be saying all that stuff if this process worked properly :/ Hopefully someone will know what's gone wrong here seeing as running through the process again didn't seem to work. Cheers.

The dispelallspells command in console mode does what it is supposed to do. If you don't have any temporary spells active then it does nothing, as you would expect. Before using the command open the magic menu and choose the rightmost icon. This shows all current effects including permanent and temporary ones. Temporary ones have a time limit as shown in one of the columns of this menu. If there are any temporary spells effects, then when you use the dispelallspells console command and return to this menu, you will see that the temporary spell effects are gone.

[Kelmych]

Unfortunately, clean saves don't help with a number of the problems with save games. Arthmoor, the lead of the Unofficial Skyrim patch group, recently commented that he no longer recommends doing this in all cases since it can cause problems with some quests and can cause problems with some mods.

[ZaO]

The dispelallspells command in console mode does what it is supposed to do. If you don't have any temporary spells active then it does nothing, as you would expect. Before using the command open the magic menu and choose the rightmost icon. This shows all current effects including permanent and temporary ones. Temporary ones have a time limit as shown in one of the columns of this menu. If there are any temporary spells effects, then when you use the dispelallspells console command and return to this menu, you will see that the temporary spell effects are gone.

Yeh I did check when I did it. I think I just misunderstood it. I thought it was supposed to remove all active effects. Or at least the one to do with being a warewolf...

 

Unfortunately clean saves don't help with a number of the problems with save games. Arthmoor, the lead of the Unofficial Skyrim patch group, recently commented that he no longer recommends doing this in all cases since it can cause problems with some quests and can cause problems with some mods.

Yeh well I guess it seems so in my case eh :/ So I think what I will do now is start following the step guide and be prepared to start a new character. One thing I would really like to know though if anyone can help, is if I do this and decide to try using my old save game at any point - will it mess with my game installation and cause any problems with my new character?

 

Thanks for the help everyone :)