Is this problem caused by a mod

[wayneout]

I was playing the game just fine without any problems. I added a couple of mods and then the game would crash on "save" . I deleted those two mods and still the game was crashing on "save". I checked my save file and it was 425mb. I deleted almost 300mb and still the same thing happenes. But now it has gotten worst. I got to Diamond City and when I tried to go into the Dugout Inn, it crashed. (CTD I think it is called) As far as my mods are concerned, I am back to the same mods that I had before the CTD started and it is still happening. Before I disable all the mods and try that, I thought I would see if there was another problem causing it. I even thought about wiping out all my save files and starting over. I usually save every 30 minutes over the same save file so I don't know if that caused the problem or not. If I disable all my mods and it is still happening, what could be causing it. I have seen a bunch of suggestions and so far most of them haven't worked. I re-installed my F4SE also. Thanks.

[StormWolf01]

Hi Wayne. Bethesda games have always had an issue with the way their games make saves. I mean, it says something when their games have always made save files that were at least 10 times bigger than anybody else's.

This problem is especially bad on the consoles like the xbox and ps4. But it's there for us PC users too. If the game crashes while making a savegame, I'd say that there's only a 20% chance that save is playable. 80% chance that it's corrupted.

And that's me being extremely generous. Extremely.

If the game crashes while you're saving, when you get the game started again, do not use Continue. Use Load, and go with a save that was prior to the crash.

 

This is something that may or may not be mod related. The vanilla game can do this too. But the chances of it happening can increase with the use of mods. (This is just a personal theory) but I think that part of it is because Bethesda really needs to get up to date with how their game uses scripts, and how their games save them. I think they also need to revamp the way that the game engine creates saves in general.

 

here is the really bad news that I don't really want to have to give you. The stability doesn't improve really. If it's getting to the point where you're crashing constantly, it will just get worse. Because all of the problems that are In your save game, STAY in your savegame. It's what we call "Baking" or "baked in".

 

A lot of these saving issues are script related. Especially from when we've been running a mod that uses scripts and then uninstall or disable that mod. The script is still there in the savegame, and doesn't have the info that it needs to run. We refer to those as "orphaned scripts".

 

I wish that I had good news for you Wayne. Unfortunately, unlike with Skyrim, we really don't have any save game cleaners or scrubbers that are 100% safe to use.

 

Here's a few things that I can give you as advice for trying to keep your saves as healthy as you can.

 

Start the game with only the bare minimum of mods that you need. If you don't need any, start the game vanilla. Do so, until after you exit the vault and give the game a minute or two to load everything up after you exit the vault.

Then you can exit the game, start up your load order, and then proceed to play with a modded game.

 

Do not test mods out on your active playthrough. This I cannot stress often enough. Don't do this on a character that you will be upset if you have to throw them away. Have test characters created to test mods out with.

The reason for this is because removing mods can and often times does have effects on your game, due to the problem issues getting baked into the save. So you use test characters, before deciding if that mod stays in your LO or not.

 

Backup your savegames on a regular basis. I try to backup mine at least twice a week, if I've been playing the game on a regular basis. After I backup my save folder, I then generally go through the one that my game is using and do some spring cleaning. Getting rid of the older files. And since I'm still using a Hard Disk Drive, not a Solid State, I can then go and have that area of my drive defragment. (that's just me being overly thorough tho. I often forget to do that last part more often than not.)

 

If you have a crash during the process of making a save, don't use or try to use that save. When the game starts back up, go into Load, select that save and delete it. Then use the save from before that. Assuming of course that the one before that is working.

[wayneout]

Thanks, I will try that. I am going to disable most of the mods I have and then try what you suggested.. If I have to start a new game, do you suggest that I delete everything from my save folder?

Thanks again.

[HadToRegister]

Thanks, I will try that. I am going to disable most of the mods I have and then try what you suggested.. If I have to start a new game, do you suggest that I delete everything from my save folder?

Thanks again.

 

 

328 mb for a savegame is waaaaaaaaay too big.

 

First and foremost, DO NOT, add or remove mods during a playthrough.

 

From the sound of it, because of the size of your savegame, it sounds like you have a massive amount of orphaned scripts just taking up space at this point, and you really need to abandon that play though, start a new playthrough and DO NOT Add/Remove mods.

 

You could TRY "Resaver" aka "Fallrim Tools" a script cleaner made for Fallout 4 and Skyrim SE, but your mileage may vary

[StormWolf01]

Thanks for chiming in with the backup about that HTR. Much appreciated :)

And yeah, I definitely have to agree, that's a pretty seriously bloated file, just for one save.

I had to go back and re-read that, I was thinking that was the total amount that had been deleted from the save folder.

 

Wayne - Well, usually I don't recommend a delete until you know for sure that it's the problem. In most cases, I recommend just moving it to someplace safe. Unless it's something that is really easy to replace, like downloaded mod files.

It is not very common for beth's saves to have savegame bleed over, as far as from one character to another. From the same character to the same character, yes. But from different characters, I personally haven't seen it happen. Doesn't mean that it can't tho, so better safe than sorry.

 

I'm also going to pass along a method that I call "Forking your savegame" for making test characters.

It's actually really simple, and just involves taking a character from a healthy savegame and changing the name for the character. Then saving. Since Beth saves the games per character name, this essentially creates a different branch... or fork in the tree... hence my name for it, for the saves.

 

Here's a video that will show you what all is involved. and how to do it. Not my video, but I do use it a lot, so if you don't mind hitting the like button to show some appreciation to the author of the vid, that would be really cool ;)

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRJUdf0Yu0g

 

 

I just change the name to something like Test1 Test2 Test3 etc etc etc. That way it's really easy to figure out which ones I want to load while testing, or which ones to delete, afterwards.

 

After you have played through the game a couple of times, you can also fork a previously made character from an early save game to avoid having to go through pre-war sanctuary and the vault scenes again, if you don't want to use a mod that will let you skip them. ;)

Just change the name, and use slm 14 in the console to change the character's appearance, if you're using looksmenu. ;)

 

Cheers!

Take care out there guys!

-Storm

[wayneout]

Good news so far. I deleted all my save game files. Then disabled the mods I needed need for opening. Got rid of some mods that I do not use. Then I started a new game. After I got to the old homestead, I saved and it worked. I then exited with no problem. I enabled all the mods I was going to use and still everything worked okay.

Now for a couple of followup questions about the save file so I don't have this problem again. Right now my save file is 32.2mb. There are F4SE files which are just about 3kb. But then there are FOS files which are quite big. There is a bunch of autosave files. One exit file save. And I have 4 manual saves. What can I delete with no problem?

When I start the game should I go with continue or load my last save? Usually they are about the same because after I save, I exit.

[HadToRegister]

Good news so far. I deleted all my save game files. Then disabled the mods I needed need for opening. Got rid of some mods that I do not use. Then I started a new game. After I got to the old homestead, I saved and it worked. I then exited with no problem. I enabled all the mods I was going to use and still everything worked okay.

Now for a couple of followup questions about the save file so I don't have this problem again. Right now my save file is 32.2mb. There are F4SE files which are just about 3kb. But then there are FOS files which are quite big. There is a bunch of autosave files. One exit file save. And I have 4 manual saves. What can I delete with no problem?

When I start the game should I go with continue or load my last save? Usually they are about the same because after I save, I exit.

 

 

With Bethesda games I always use LOAD MY LAST SAVE, because there was a quirk with Skyrim that the game would randomly crash if you hit CONTINUE

 

 

So you didn't try the FALLRIM TOOLS Script Cleaner on any of your old save like I suggested?

[StormWolf01]

Heya Wayne! That's really good to hear. I'm definitely glad that you're getting a better, smoother experience. I know from this and some of your other threads that this has been a rough start for you.

I sadly cannot answer your question about the f4se saves. I've opened them up before, and I don't know what some of the references (well most of actually) are. I know that my plugins.txt list is in there, but it's not my LO, because that's not the way that My LO is listed.

 

Also, there's something to check, about your regular FOS saves. Check the figures. Are they listed in KB or MB? If they're KB, that's nowhere near as big as it looks. ;D

There is 1,024 kb to equal 1 (one) MB (megabyte). So if it says that a file is something like 8,248 KB, it's still less than a 7 meg file.

 

The exit save file is the one that is loaded if you choose Continue from the in game menu. It's created whenever you shut down or leave the game. I usually go ahead and keep those. Quicksaves, well, those are kind of like disposeable saves. The game will over write those when you make new ones, if they're not seperated by regular autosaves.

Autosaves are the files that the game creates when you go through different cells (loading screens), when you sleep, if you have your game set up to make saves at regular intervals (default value there is once every ten minutes).

 

Myself, I delete my saves through the in game menu. It's a bit more tedious, but the game menu gives me information that windows explorer does not. Like where the character is, what name character I'm looking at, how long the gameplay is for that character, etc.

Also for myself, I tend to keep the Pre-War Sanctuary and the V-111 autosaves. I tend to keep 3 of the most recent autosaves after the gaming. Thats in case that one or two of them are bad.

However, I also have a 2nd hard drive, that I backup all of my files to, by date, before I start deleting them.

[StormWolf01]

 

Good news so far. I deleted all my save game files. Then disabled the mods I needed need for opening. Got rid of some mods that I do not use. Then I started a new game. After I got to the old homestead, I saved and it worked. I then exited with no problem. I enabled all the mods I was going to use and still everything worked okay.

Now for a couple of followup questions about the save file so I don't have this problem again. Right now my save file is 32.2mb. There are F4SE files which are just about 3kb. But then there are FOS files which are quite big. There is a bunch of autosave files. One exit file save. And I have 4 manual saves. What can I delete with no problem?

When I start the game should I go with continue or load my last save? Usually they are about the same because after I save, I exit.

 

 

With Bethesda games I always use LOAD MY LAST SAVE, because there was a quirk with Skyrim that the game would randomly crash if you hit CONTINUE

 

 

So you didn't try the FALLRIM TOOLS Script Cleaner on any of your old save like I suggested?

 

I totally agree and will return the favor of chiming in with backup in regards to that. I almost NEVER choose "Continue". For much the same reason. Due to the fact that the save is being created while the game is shutting down. For the most part, I always manually choose which save to load up.

[wayneout]

Thanks for all the info.

I did download the tool and couldn't figure out how to use it. It kept asking for a folder and when I pointed to my save folder it didn't do anything.

I am going to look on youtube for a video and will show me how to use it. Do you have to load each save in? If so, that is where I went wrong.

I thought I had Java on my computer with windows 10 but I had to install it.

 

Update: I found a video by Jim Cambridge and he explained so I could understand it. I will try it out if I have any more problem. It is not that

hard once you know what you are doing.