What do I do to keep my save file from getting corrupt?

[DucksAreReal]

I use a million mods so I'm paranoid about my save file's health.

 

Right now, the only thing I'm doing to avoid getting corrupt is using BOSS, are there any other things I need to keep in mind?

 

Is it true quick saving and autosaving tend to corrupt?

Edited May 1, 2014 by DucksAreReal

[MODinsane]

Autosave and any of the Bethesda autosaves have been the little dirty secret of causing CTD's. Remove all of the autosave features, they cause problems. Now the questions are:

 

Do you use TES5, WryeBash and BOSS? Use them all. Dirty edits in the actual DLC's are also in need of removal, Gopher did a Youtube VID on this very issue using TES5.

 

If you have orphaned scripts, they need to be removed too. The following on Nexus and Youtube fixed this issue for me:

 

Save game script cleaner by Hadoram
Skyrim » Utilities

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52363/?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CeX-8MDOBQ#aid=P-LKEtoFk24

 

Every time you install or uninstall a MOD, you must use TES5 to clean up your game. I use TES5, then WyreBash, then recreate the BASH Patch and go into BOSS to force the order. I look back at NMM to make sure all is well.

[Hyacathusarullistad]

I can't speak for quick saves, as I've never actually used them. But I've never had any issues I can comfortably attribute to auto saves. If someone can provide direct evidence rather than hearsay though, by all means avoid using it. I've always kept auto save on though, personally.

The following is assuming you're starting a new game and want to maintain stability. Sadly, cleaning up a save to attain stability is much more difficult and not actually 100% possible, even with save cleaning utilities and the like.

 

• Make sure you're using the Unofficial Patch(es), and keeping up to date with the newest versions.
• Make sure you're running the latest version (2.2.0) of BOSS. You could use the v3 beta, which is called LOOT; but it isn't generally recommended for larger load orders yet.
• Carefully double and triple check download pages for compatibility patches. Some mods package all their patches into one handy scripted installer, and others offer individual downloads for each patch. Find them all, and use them.
• Trim the fat. Seriously consider which mods you "must" have, and which you could stand to play without in favour of something else. Prioritise, and try to keep your load order as small as possible.
• Once you've run BOSS, manually sort any plugins it doesn't recognise. Which will likely include many of the inter-mod patches you just downloaded. This also requires you have a full understanding of what the mods you're installing do, and how they might interact other mods. A mod's description page can sometimes offer advice on load order as well.
• Check your BOSS log for errors, warnings, and dirty edits. This will almost certainly require downloading TES5Edit to address dirty edits, especially in the official DLCs. Only clean files that BOSS tags as requiring cleaning. Andb efore cleaning a mod check it's description and comments pages carefully to make sure it's safe to do so. Usually an author will specify. If they don't, err on the side of caution and clean it.
• Download Wrye Bash, and generate a bashed patch. You may find that some of the inter-mod patches you've downloaded are fully integrateable. Let it do it's thing unless you're 100% sure it's wrong (which it almost certainly won't be).
• Be wary of .ini "tweaks". Do not make any such tweaks to the [Papyrus] section, or you're playing with fire. Your game will become unstable if you mess with Papyrus. Guaranteed.
• Download and install the Skyrim Startup Memory Editor. If you're using v1.7.0alpha of SKSE, this is already built in. I personally prefer 1.6.16 with SSME installed separately, but YMMV.
• Many rave about the stability granted them by ENBoost. I've personally had absolutely nothing but trouble with it. In fact it actually seems to make my game more unstable than anything else. I suspect it has something to do with my AMD video card, as others I've spoken to experiencing the issue also have AMD cards. But it's a suspicion and nothing more. By all means give it a shot and see how it treats you.
• Whenever possible, install a 1K version of a texture instead of the 2K or 4K.
• Avoid too many expansive quest/DLC style mods - Wyrmstooth, Falskaar, Helgen Reborn, Civil War Overhaul, etc... pick maybe two for now, and see how it goes. Especially if one of those two is CWO, which breaks easily if you're running a ton of scripted mods.
• DO NOT UNINSTALL MODS IN THE MIDDLE OF A PLAYTHROUGH. There's no need for save cleaners and script removers and the like. When you install a mod on a playthrough, accept that it's there for good and if you want to play without it, then start a new game. There are some exceptions - texture/mesh replacements, basic armour or weapon mods, maybe the odd NPC or follower mod (provided the game hasn't spawned them yet). But when in doubt, leave it or restart. It's just not worth the hassle.
• Installing mods mid-playthrough is "safer", but still not recommended for the more complicated scripted mods. If a mod says it needs to be used on a new game, it isn't just an idle suggestion. It's a rule. Follow it. Seriously, it's important.
• Most importantly, know your system and its limitations, and respect the limitations of the game itself. Keep in mind that Skyrim was designed to run "as is", not heavily modded. The capacity to run with mods means little. Even with all the tools and extensions designed by the community to prop up a modded Skyrim, doing so still requires common sense and forethought. It doesn't matter how powerful your system is, Skyrim is not and cannot be made to behave like a next-gen game.

Good luck.

Edited May 1, 2014 by Hyacathusarullistad

[velve666]

nice post hyac follow his advice thoroughly.

 

Just to add my $.002, This is not following hearsay and not really about save corruption but I can personally suggest using manual saves, Since the saves are self contained there is no room for data overwriting within your os. I used to use autosaves, and once I got further in the game I consistently had problems loading my saves. No matter what situation the autosave was in, indoors/outdoors, I would have problems loading it.

 

In this playthough I have used a hard manual save on every save and I have never had a problem loading a save. Bottom line just rather use manual saves, believe me once you start doing it enough, pressing escape, save, new slot will come naturally and almost as fast as pressing F5.

[Hyacathusarullistad]

Anecdotal evidence is still hearsay, mate. My experience is different from yours, and suggests that auto-saves are perfectly fine. But neither is definitive proof.

 

If you use something like this, however, then the discussion is a moot point anyway. Disable the game's default autosaves, set the mod to save at these times instead, and tell it to create manual saves in place of autos. You get the functionality of the game's basic auto-saves without the worry about whether or not they're entirely safe.

Actually looking at the comments, I wouldn't recommend that specific mod after all. But there are other similar tools around that do much the same thing.

Edited May 1, 2014 by Hyacathusarullistad

[notmyhome]

...Or you just tell yourself "Fry this shaft, I want to PLAY modded skyrim and not STUDY it", go on a mad run, install a ton of mods and uninstall them whenever you see fit. It can actually work for a while; I kept my totally bugged up first modded character alive for something like 150 hours. Had to deal with frequent CTD's, though, and one day it passed away peacefully... more or less so.

[Hyacathusarullistad]

See, I don't tolerate CTDs in my saves anymore. Like, pretty much at all. The odd freak crash once a "session" (or whatever less asinine word you want to use for a day of gaming) is one thing. But if it happens more than twice a day, I start investigating what might be causing it. And if it happens four or more times in a day? f*** it, I'm not battling with save cleaners, console commands, etc. to try and salvage a save. I want to play Skyrim, not play doctor. And by following the procedures I listed above, I haven't had to scrap a playthrough due to crashes in... well, long enough that I couldn't tell you exactly when it was. Sometime around Christmas I believe. Hanging load screens are more common for me these days, and even they don't happen anymore thanks to SSME.

 

150 hours for me is laughable, to be blunt. I typically spend ~200-500 on even my shortest of characters, and I like it that way.

Edited May 1, 2014 by Hyacathusarullistad

[DucksAreReal]

See, I don't tolerate CTDs in my saves anymore. Like, pretty much at all. The odd freak crash once a "session" (or whatever less asinine word you want to use for a day of gaming) is one thing. But if it happens more than twice a day, I start investigating what might be causing it. And if it happens four or more times in a day? f*** it, I'm not battling with save cleaners, console commands, etc. to try and salvage a save. I want to play Skyrim, not play doctor. And by following the procedures I listed above, I haven't had to scrap a playthrough due to crashes in... well, long enough that I couldn't tell you exactly when it was. Sometime around Christmas I believe. Hanging load screens are more common for me these days, and even they don't happen anymore thanks to SSME.

 

150 hours for me is laughable, to be blunt. I typically spend ~200-500 on even my shortest of characters, and I like it that way.

How many mods at a time do you have installed?

[Hyacathusarullistad]

It varies. The most mods I've ever run in a single playthrough was 212. I got to level 60something, and finished the main quest and both DLCs. A lot of those were weapon and armour mods that I never actually used, and several of them were multi-plugin mods like Realistic Lighting Overhaul, Climates of Tamriel, etc. What finally killed that playthrough, actually, was me thinking I was adept enough to change lighting and weather mods in the middle of a playthrough. Which I wasn't at the time, and probably wouldn't attempt now either.

 

I'm currently running a similar playthrough, but with a more streamlined load order - 164 plugins, with about five more disabled for now until I'm ready to activate Wyrmstooth. Excluding the 13 plugins that consist the basic game, it's DLCs, and the Unofficial Patches, that means 151 mod plugins. And a large[/b] portion of those are from multi-plugin mods. A dozen from the skill overhaul mod I use, another eight from RLO, six from RW2, six from Immersive Armours and Heavy Weaponry, five more from Immersive Sounds (which I effectively consider one mod), another five for the Enhanced Towns and Villages suite... and a whole host of mods that come with separate plugins for their DLC content - some for one DLC, others for two, others for all three. Then there's compatibility patches, many of which make their respective mods follow cues set by Complete Crafting Overhaul Remade. After all is said and done I'm probably only running ~75 different mods.

 

Thing is, I've lost heaps of both time and sanity to playthroughs that got unstable on only 40 plugins, because I didn't pay attention to what I was doing. It's not necessarily the number of mods you use, but the mods themselves. You can have a load order of only 20 mods - but if you're running a host of demanding/heavily scripted mods - Open Cities, the Civil War Overhaul, Wet & Cold, Footprints, Inconsequential NPCs, the Populated Series, and a half dozen DLC sized mods (Falskaar, Wyrmstooth, Moonpath to Elsweyr, Helgen Reborn, etc) all at once then you're going to overtax the game engine, even if your plugin count is only around 50. Or you could be running only ten mods, but if two of them don't cooperate well together and you didn't read the description carefully enough to know this, then you're going to end up with problems. In the same breath, you can also reach the 255 plugin max and hardly see a dent in performance or stability if you're careful, methodical, and sensible about it.

[DucksAreReal]

Is there a list of heavily scripted mods? How can I tell if a mod is heavily scripted? From the list yo made up just now is it correct to assume heavily scripted mods are the mods that affect a large number of npc's? Is OBIS a heavily scripted mod?