Deleting cells/refs from an existing save

[pra]

So I made an oopsie and released a mod with a bunch of temporary building cells still in it. I am now too paranoid to delete them, because we all know that deleting refs = bad.

 

However: why exactly is it bad, and what other manipulations could I do? And, were the cells empty, would deleting them also be bad?

 

 

For once, these cells should never ever have been loaded, and they have no persistent refs. Does this make them "safer" to delete?

 

Then, I was thinking of some alternatives:

• delete the refs and the cells, but note their FormIDs. Then create a bunch of dummy other records (STATs, MISCs, maybe Layers) with exactly the same FormIDs.
• Move the refs into a "trashcan" cell.
• Change the refs' base object to something as simple and low-impact as possible. Possibly in combination with the trashcan cell.

I am fairly confident that I could do any of these via xEdit. But I don't know enough to tell which would be safe to do, if any. Can someone more knowledgeable help me here?

[SKKmods]

Deleting stuff seems to be bad because of uncertainty.

 

Whatever manages indexes and reference pointers both in memory and on the database does not *SEEM* to be that good at scavenging orphans, so things with links can end up with holes that crash code.

 

Linked references seem to cope with deleted endpoints as a common usecase but I have seen script properties, script arrays, quest reference aliases, locations with RefTypes all cause issues on delete. Not instantrly on the first one, but insidiously over time, like a slow memory leak.

 

Most of my mods now have a holding cell (renamed copy of BOSHoldingCell) to store replaced, disabled or demised ObjectRefs to avoid such issues. If moving live actors best to KillEssential so scripts can release them (assuming quality scripts always have an OnDeath release handler).

[pra]

That does sound like it's safe to relocate them into another cell at least. This is only about refs of STATs and such, not actors.

 

Or were you meaning, you move them into the cell in-game? I was talking about, in the CK, between ESP updates.

 

Mostly I wonder whenever I can recycle the FormIDs of refs for other mod content.

[SKKmods]

Its how I handle dynamic in game replacing of Object References, mostly actors but some items/furniture/static stuff as well.

 

Any updates that modify existing in game Object References, whether editor placed or spawn created, are always scripted so I can test and handle success/fail issues.

 

No actual experience of removing static Object References with CK between saves in active games though.

[niston]

Deleting stuff is generally bad because, if something tries to access the deleted stuff --> CTD.

However, if the stuff you delete was added by yourself in the first place, it will mostly be a non-issue - As nothing else is going to try and access it anyways.

 

If someone scraps something from your mod and then you delete it in an update, that does -from experience thus far- not cause a CTD either.