Centre-on-Cell and Corpse Cleanup Bug - read this if you get a lot of crashes

[Kapteyn]

Please excuse the random title, I can't think of a better way to describe this in so few words (which is why it's so long).

 

Let's suppose I've just cleared a cave full of bandits and my inventory is chock-a-block of gizmos - so I need to head home to do something with it all. Actually, my first port of call isn't really a home, it's the Dwemer Storage Cube. After sorting it all out, I depart the cube and thus return to whence I came.

 

So what's happening here that might be a problem? Well, at first I mysteriously vanish from the cell and then who knows what the game is doing with it in my absence, my companions are still there probably wondering where the heck I went. When I return the cell has to update itself and here, I think, is where something goes wrong. I've noticed the same problem if I use the COC command.

 

My suspicion is that the game is trying to arrange a funeral for the people I killed. These "funerals" are held in a colourful morgue called WIDeadBodyCleanupCell - if you think I'm joking, check the screenshot. In a technical sense, what I suppose is happening here is that the game is trying to move the corpses to a holding cell to be dealt with when there's not too much going on (such as when the game is paused) - but when the player's original cell is departed in a way which the game doesn't expect, it develops personal problems. Yes, corpses hang about for a while but the point is that the game probably checks on them to see if it's time to send them to bandit hell.

 

So yeah, I go to loot somebody who the game is trying to arrange a funeral for, and it basically gives me an auto qqq.

 

I have a sneaky suspicion that this could be the cause of a lot of crash reports here.

 

The solution? Pretty simple, really...

 

Always use fast-travel immediately after switching to another cell using either the COC or Player.MoveTo command, or returning from any location such as the Dwemer Storage Cube, a Cloud Storage facility or by using a teleporting spell. This will allow the game to update the cell properly. If the game crashes before you can do this but you have enough time to bring the console up, enter COC HelgenExterior into it and when you arrive, immediately fast-travel to Helgen - then save your game, reload and try returning to where you were.

 

Here is Hert, I didn't like her eyes so I shoved my battleaxe into them...

Apparently she's waiting for her husband, maybe I'll meet him too.

Edited September 8, 2017 by Kapteyn