Really weird issue with lists/leveled items I haven't heard of bef

[Matchew]

Alright, so I recently started using the Creation Kit and following along some of the tutorials to build a foundation. Right now, I'm following the level design series and I'm on chapter 3, up to the (Obviously) leveled item section. I placed two dummy items, a book and a helmet, just pulling a helmet list and a book list out at random to go with each. Then I placed down an urn with a custom leveled item, which was a robe list (Psijic, Archmage, Thalmor, and Graybeard). After running the preview calculator a few times, I wanted to see how it went in-game. The initial load-up was fine. I had a 22% chance NONE set for the leveled item, so when I re-loaded, the urn was empty. But, when I reloaded a second time, there were dummies and the urn was empty again. I knew the dummies had 0 chance NONE, but thought I'd reload again and see what happened. Again, no dummies and the urn was empty, an empty urn being understandable with a 22% chance none. So I re-loaded a few times more... to no dummies and an empty urn.

My next move was to quit to desktop and re-launch the game, which after doing so, I was happy to find a book and a helmet, and two robes inside my urn. Great! So I re-loaded. Again, I had a book and a helmet, and two different robes in my urn (Double wowie). Second re-load: Kind of the same, in that the dummies were missing again, but there were two robed in the urn--The same two robes as in the previous load. I loaded a few more times, the urn kept spawning the same two robes and the dummies were gone.

So I re-launched. Same problem. After the second re-load (third load), in a single launch session, dummies disappear and the leveled item in the urn locks to the contents of the urn in the first re-load (second load).

This is a huge problem. Suppose somebody downloads a mod I make a few months down the line and they've been reloading a bunch of times, enters my custom dungeon and finds nothing, thinking I was screwing them.

[unuroboros]

I don't think this is a problem with dummies themselves and multiple re-loads, per se... consider after all that you're using the same mechanics the game itself uses. I bet you've never noticed a dungeon strangely empty of loot in a game you happen to have saved and loaded more than a few times. :)

 

The thing is, certain changes remain in effect as long as the Skyrim executable is running. You can observe this most easily with some SKSE functions like SetWeight and SetGoldValue. They persist as long as Skyrim is running, even if you F9 or switch to a completely different save than the one which had the script that made that change. However, as soon as Skyrim shuts down, the change is lost. (For this reason, mod authors who use those functions need a re-instantiation routine, usually with OnPlayerLoadGame.)

 

My guess is that somehow you're getting stuck in this state only because of how you're testing. Try shutting down and re-launching Skyrim to test four or five times in a row. Do you get the results you expect?

 

Or, enter some other dungeon where you've found a dummy with a % chance of none, and use the same pattern of F5 / F9 to see if the same thing happens there?

[Matchew]

Every time I do a re-launch, I get the desired results. I've found some other small interiors in the actual game that have dummy items and tested them with re-loads multiple times--With no problems. So I'm not sure if this is a situation where, like you said, some changes remain in effect. You wouldn't think that would happen with dummy items. It does seem to be related to having been in the tomb itself prior to re-load because if I launch and re-load multiple times before ever COC'ing to the tomb, and then enter the tomb, items are there... until the third load after having already entered the tomb twice, and on the third entry. It doesn't matter if I leave the tomb prior to re-load. The results are the same.

 

I wonder, though, if it could be an SKSE problem. I suppose it's unwise to test your mods with mods already installed first (Then again, it could work for the purposes of seeing compatibility), but the other thing I've noticed is that after my third RE-load, I hear a clinking sound, as if something is being dropped when the file loads up. I investigated with TFC and sure enough, a shield I gave Lydia using my "Dress Better" command for UFO was dropped and Lydia was using her default setup with the "Dress Better" command turned off. I don't know if they're related, but maybe I should just work through the tutorial first and worry about this s#*! at a later date.

Edited March 16, 2013 by Matchew

[jet4571]

Reloading from a save without exiting is really a bad idea anyway. the game remembers some of what was going on in the first load and will use it in the second. This causes corrupt saves. All you are doing is discovering that Skyrim does remember things from a previous load.