False "save corruption" during gameplay

[Arthmoor]

in the readme for the baldur,s gate mod for neverwinter 2, it is said that one must never save over a save, do not overwrite a save, save only on a new slot each time. there have been reports of save file corruption on overwrites.

---maybe some of the old data gets "transferred" onto the new save!

This is urban myth. If such a thing were possible it would mean there's a fundamental bug in Windows itself, and it would manifest itself in programs of all types, not just games. There is no proof that writing over a save file is at all dangerous, and the fact that autosaves work just fine is evidence enough of this.

 

I think the nexus overhaul, or the legacy of the dragonborn makers say that when you load up the game for the very first time, in the alternate start jail cell, when the game loads, do NOT do anything, go make a cup of coffee, wait at least five minutes so that all of the scripts can properly load, for the first time. this first game start problem might not show up with the normal cart start as the game is still loading while the cart is moving.

---probably not for each save load after that; brings me to wonder that maybe some times, in a heavy modded game, especially, that if you begin to play immediately, some scripts might become ruined as they try to load.

Nothing wrong with the advice, but it won't have any impact on whether the save eventually corrupts or not.

 

same with reloading a save, in the game. you die, a reload, then you want to go back to play Right Now. better to wait. how long to wait? I do not know, 10 seconds, 20 seconds? or longer?

Time has nothing to do with it. The reload bugs only apply if you're reloading from the same cell you saved in. There's also no guarantee it will bug out, because in most cases it doesn't. If this still bothers you enough to worry about it though, reload a save from a difference cell. Problem solved.

 

might also help to try to save only in indoor cells. less data to save.

might be dangerous, at least, to save if there is motion going on in the game.

Your save is your save. There's no difference in the amount of data it needs to keep track of just because you saved indoors.

 

Bottom line I guess is that none of the stuff you're pointing out would lead to these sorts of problems. Disk IO is a robust system in Windows. If it wasn't, computers would be useless.

[cdcooley]

 

 

There is a crazy theory floating around that autosaves cause crashes because the game frequently crashes at the time an autosave is made. The reality is that the developers knew when the game was most likely to crash (cell transitions, waiting, sleeping, etc.) and specifically trigger an autosave right before the crash is likely to happen so that if the game does crash you won't actually lose any game play time. Turning off those autosaves simply means if the crash happens you might need to go back to a much older save.

 

Well, I know that my own experience was that turning off the autosaves did indeed reduce or even eliminate crashes at those times, whichi was confirmed on a number of occasions when I reinstalled the game, began a fresh playthrough and forgot to do it beforehand...and I did it on the recommendation of others who had had the same experience. That's an awful lot of coincidences, if that's all it is. But, anecdotal evidence, if you like.

 

Lethiel

 

Yes, if your game was already close to the overload point then the small added burden of the autosave can make the crash more likely at that point. I can't deny that fact. But the alternative is that you continue to play for a while longer and then get a crash or unnoticed corruption added to your game. Those crashes after an autosave are actually a good thing because they prevent other more serious problems and the only problem you face is the need to restart the game.

[Gothpunk4Christ]

Ok, so playing with only form 44 in a brand new game, I can say I legit still got corruption.

I couldn't remember doing the fresh save last time so intent ahead and did it again to verify. I still got it running through crafting menus.

My internet has been down all weekend, so I have plenty of time to play skyrim, instead of doing that day long training I'm supposed to be doing... >.>;;

In other news, going through all this on a phone is really not fun.

 

*edit* ok, so based on the testing I did a LONG time ago, there doesn't seem to be a single type of mod that causes the issue. I ran a lot of crafting mods by themselves without issue, then removed those, ran a lot of npc additions (warzones/OBIS, etc) without issue. So long as they're run separate of each other I had no issues, couldn't reproduce. But I also noticed something odd as well. When I'd start a new game, I'd kill a bunch of stuff, go craft and no issues... running up and down all of my list, smelting everything, then crafting and leveling. What I DID notice this time... that before I'd put ANY points into crafting, no issue. Then load up a point or two into smithing and bam, soon as I start crafting more stuff, corruption. Could be coincidental at this point although putting the first 2 points into smithing opens a lot more crafting options to me. Scrolling through the list at that point makes it happen significantly faster.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Gothpunk4Christ

[Chag4]

Didn't someone mention that the mod only started after a game update from december or something?

Has anyone tried to roll back the game to the version before that and tested if the bug is still there?

Couldn't that prove to Beth that it's a problem with the game and not mods?

Is it even possible to get an older version of the game?

 

Ok, just checked the list of patches. Looks like there was just two patches prior to December, both in November.

So if it WAS a patch that did it, it would be from November 14th, version 1.2.

Though I suppose since the patch just before that was on November 7th, not long before it might have been that one too and it only took a while longer of playing before anyone noticed the bug.

Ah heck, the game was of course released only a short while before that again, on October 28th, so I guess with that logic it's entirely possible it was always in the game and no one noticed until December.

Considering not everone get's the bug at all, and a lot of people don't mod, and adoption rate of SSE probably wasn't sky high in the first couple of months due to lack of mods, AND you have to play a while with a lot of mods before the bug is likely to appear, it is entirely possible it took three months for anyone to get it AND say anything about it.

Edited November 7, 2017 by Chag4

[kkemno]

Didn't someone mention that the mod only started after a game update from december or something?

Has anyone tried to roll back the game to the version before that and tested if the bug is still there?

Couldn't that prove to Beth that it's a problem with the game and not mods?

Is it even possible to get an older version of the game?

 

Ok, just checked the list of patches. Looks like there was just two patches prior to December, both in November.

So if it WAS a patch that did it, it would be from November 14th, version 1.2.

Though I suppose since the patch just before that was on November 7th, not long before it might have been that one too and it only took a while longer of playing before anyone noticed the bug.

Even if we could roll back, wouldn't that mean some mods won't be compatible? USSEP for instance, which is well, you know... really important.

[Chag4]

 

Didn't someone mention that the mod only started after a game update from december or something?

Has anyone tried to roll back the game to the version before that and tested if the bug is still there?

Couldn't that prove to Beth that it's a problem with the game and not mods?

Is it even possible to get an older version of the game?

 

Ok, just checked the list of patches. Looks like there was just two patches prior to December, both in November.

So if it WAS a patch that did it, it would be from November 14th, version 1.2.

Though I suppose since the patch just before that was on November 7th, not long before it might have been that one too and it only took a while longer of playing before anyone noticed the bug.

Even if we could roll back, wouldn't that mean some mods won't be compatible? USSEP for instance, which is well, you know... really important.

 

 

Probably, and I'm still playing with all my mods even though I get the bug, because I wouldn't want to play at all without most of them, so I'm not about to go back permanently even if it fixed it.

But if we could test it we might be able to deduce wether or not it is a problem with the game rather than mods, and in that case prove it to Beth, and maaaaaaaaaybe they will actually look into it and do something about it.

That is IF it is a problem with one of the patches rather than any of the other theories people have.

[kkemno]

 

 

Didn't someone mention that the mod only started after a game update from december or something?

Has anyone tried to roll back the game to the version before that and tested if the bug is still there?

Couldn't that prove to Beth that it's a problem with the game and not mods?

Is it even possible to get an older version of the game?

 

Ok, just checked the list of patches. Looks like there was just two patches prior to December, both in November.

So if it WAS a patch that did it, it would be from November 14th, version 1.2.

Though I suppose since the patch just before that was on November 7th, not long before it might have been that one too and it only took a while longer of playing before anyone noticed the bug.

Even if we could roll back, wouldn't that mean some mods won't be compatible? USSEP for instance, which is well, you know... really important.

 

 

Probably, and I'm still playing with all my mods even though I get the bug, because I wouldn't want to play at all without most of them, so I'm not about to go back permanently even if it fixed it.

But if we could test it we might be able to deduce wether or not it is a problem with the game rather than mods, and in that case prove it to Beth, and maaaaaaaaaybe they will actually look into it and do something about it.

That is IF it is a problem with one of the patches rather than any of the other theories people have.

 

So do I, but I'm starting to get really annoyed with bug lol. My best record is 1 hour before the bug kicked in and ruined the mood. Reinstalling both game and mods many times is really boring, but I even haven't -never- finished the game!

[sheak15]

In trying to make sure everything in my mod list is properly ported, I noticed in SSEEdit that my Skyrim.exe file itself is Form 43. Is that normal, or does one dare change it?

[cdcooley]

The game's own ESM files don't have to follow the rules for mods and 43 is fine for them. You can even find some form version numbers on individual records in Skyrim.ESM that are even earlier than 43. Apparently there are special routines for loading the game master files that aren't used for plugins because if you copy those records into an ESP they will cause problems. In the ESP those records need to be upgraded. And no, just changing the number in SSEEdit isn't a proper upgrade, it has to be done by opening the ESP in the CK and then saving it again.

[Gothpunk4Christ]

I'm still sort of thinking that the sheer amount of items my game has to load in crafting menus could be one of the several ways to make the bug appear. It's how I consistently encounter the bug, desired (testing) or not (playing).