Disable or Mark for Delete?

[nt5raham]

Not sure if this will help with your decision, but if you look at the major mod authors out there, when they want to get rid of something from the vanilla game (i.e. a bush that would show up in the middle of the living room of your new house), they often change the position of the object rather than delete it. This is what I usually do with trees, as I mentioned before. Objects are positioned using a standard x,y,z coordinate system. A common tactic is to change the z (elevation) to -30000, which essentially buries the object far underground without actually deleting it. I have done the same using xEdit when a slight adjustment in position wouldn't work for a particular situation.

 

Food for thought.

[anjenthedog]

A simple google/bing/etc search produces at least one why (regardless of the explanation I was offered and I referred to you)

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/761666-disable-mark-for-delet/

 

fwiw, when I want to remove something permanently, (for instance, all those stupid cobwebs in Fort Dawnguard... I mean, doesn't anyone ever sweep the freaking floors and clear cobwebs?) I disable it first, to ensure I've chosen the right item. Then I reenable it and then use mark for delete (because now I am positive I have targeted the "correct" item.)

 

Having said that, I do not use mark-for-delete on "living" assets (Including dead bodies) . EVER. Instead, I let the game clear those.

 

And for an explanation of why I noted my original comment, wven though it differs from the link I provided above, as I recall, it's because I was debugging why some island of stuff was floating way up in the sky above the giant's camp (or close enough to "above" it) and whomever replied asked me if I'd disabled anything, (answer: yes, I had..in fact a big chunk of mountain that stuck through a Lakeview addon pool ) then went on to tell me that I should always use mark-for-delete rather than disable... blah blah blah.

 

idk...ymmv do as you like.

[nt5raham]

@anjenthedog, thanks for the link, and it agrees with what I was saying. They talked briefly about "save bloat" and yes, when disabled it is still in the save. That is exactly why I use it, so it can be brought back if needed, if I find out a mod was using it, or whatever. Most of us don't have a problem with save size, but if we do then a tree here or there isn't generally the source of the problem and it isn't going to make a big difference.

 

Edit: BTW, my earlier post about mod authors moving objects to z -30000 is also keeping the object in the save. That is probably why they do it as well, so they are not making irreversible changes.

[Algabar]

Interesting discussion.

 

+1 from me for "disable". About the same reasons as nt5raham: disable fullfills the purpose - unwanted objects or NPCs are gone. Besides that, it shoudn't do any damage to save games though.

 

On a side note:

 

  On 10/3/2020 at 9:25 PM, anjenthedog said:

FTR, It is generally advised to use mark for delete rather than disable if you're removing a placed asset.

 

As I recall, (or the way it was explained to me) it has to do with disabled objects often ending up populating the space at Skyrim's geographic origin, somewhere nearby and above the Bleakwood Basin giant's camp, which can cause game instabilities.

 

My understanding is that this issue doesn't come from "mark for delete" or "disable" console commands. AFAIK, it's a problem with unclean mods containing deleted references. If I remember right, there was a longer explanation by Arthmoor somewhere on the web, but I can't find it any more.

 

Here's a very short statement from him on the issue.

[nt5raham]

@Algabar - LOL I love the OP screenshot from the thread you provided! Skyrim meets The Wizard of Oz! So then, we have confirmed that there is an alien spacecraft at the center of the Bermuda Triangle after all...and it is running Bethesda's game engine!

 

Seriously, thanks for the info. It was most helpful.

[Leeker]

That's why there are walls and random objects there . Also a ton of trees ?

[nt5raham]

@Leeker, here's a link with a brief but precise explanation. The floating objects at cell 0,0 (above Bleakwind Basin) are actually not part of the original discussion for this thread. The floating objects there were introduced in this thread as a possible side-effect, but then after further discussion it was ruled out as only possible by a MOD deleting a reference that does not belong to it (specifically in Creation Kit).

 

A player using markfordelete or disable will not cause floating objects above Bleakwind Basin.

 

However, having a large number of objects floating there would be unusual. This is usually something that happens with a few isolated objects because not that many mods cause this problem. By your description of "...walls and random objects there . Also a ton of trees..." I would suspect that you have uninstalled/reinstalled/installed one or more mods during a playthrough. Is this correct?