I need to whine a bit

[halieslade]

Please forgive me for venting my current anger right here.  But I'm about to burst at the seams with frustration.

 

First, a bit of background:  I've been a Skyrim player for 5 years (3 years but who's counting?), since the game was first released.  I remember how unstable it was back in those days but generally, Bethesda patched things and brought out updates so that I didn't feel like I was ready to quit.  I finished the main quest 3 or 4 times (some modded, a couple not) and then finished the DLCs.

 

I have always had the occasional random CTD, even before I came back last week and began modding the crap out of the game with all the great SexLab stuff.  At first it worked great.  But as I added more stuff, the game became more and more unstable.

 

Ok, I know what to do about that.  I backed out some of the mods I thought were troublesome.  I learned to use  Save Cleaner, TES5Edit, LOOT, BOSS and even switched over from my old NMM to Mod Organizer (best move ever).   My save games are all the standard 11k-16k in size.  I haven't had a single bloated save yet.

 

The past couple of days, I've noticed that if I die I cannot reload a save without crashing first.  On two occasions, the save seems to have been corrupted and unplayable.  In one of those cases, I had to go all the way 10 levels back to find a stable save to play. 

 

Rather than lose that much time, I just started a new game this morning and started my girl running from Solitude to Helgen.  That's the kind of excitement I like, not knowing if I will survive.   I finally made it, but then got the bad idea of going into RaceMenu because I wanted to change hair styles.  Changed hair, exited and .... crashed again.

Tried to reload the last Quicksave I'd grabbed just before Racemenu, and once again it Crashes.

 

I am a patient person.  You must be if you plan on adding mods to Skyrim.  But right now, my patience is completely frazzled.  I'm so sick of crashing I could scream.  I'm *THIS* close to just deleting the damned game and maybe one day reinstalling it if I get into another masochistic phase.  Right now?  I have better things to do with my time than to crash, restart, crash, restart and get 10 minutes of play time out of an hour's trying. 

 

I really don't want to delete all of my SexLab mods and start a plain vanilla game.  That doesn't even sound fun to me.  And I'm not sure all that work would ultimately be worth it.  Skyrim is an inherently unstable game, and that's the bottom line.

 

/whine over

 

Thanks for listening.

 

 

 

[gvman3670]

First off, quit using the quicksave function. It's always been broken. Make real saves instead. And there are save control type mods available on the Nexus as well.

 

That alone should eliminate a lot of your issues.

[RitualClarity]

 

The past couple of days, I've noticed that if I die I cannot reload a save without crashing first.  On two occasions, the save seems to have been corrupted and unplayable.  In one of those cases, I had to go all the way 10 levels back to find a stable save to play.

Whine much

 

Anyway long shot. The mods you are using might be just fine. No conflicts however you might be going over your personal plugin limit (Number/ type of mods). This can cause save corruption and cause other heavier scripted events to crash (The race menu hair thing got me a few times as well)

 

Test by removing 3 or 4 more mods making it a more simple profile. Start that profile and see if you still have those problems.

 

[gvman3670]

Are you using the SKSE memory patch? I also use a little mod called FreeMem. I don't crash anymore. And a pre-cache killer may be necessary if loading a female character (with lots of beautification mods, like brows, hairs and eyes installed) in showracemenu.

[halieslade]

 

 

The past couple of days, I've noticed that if I die I cannot reload a save without crashing first.  On two occasions, the save seems to have been corrupted and unplayable.  In one of those cases, I had to go all the way 10 levels back to find a stable save to play.

Whine much

 

Anyway long shot. The mods you are using might be just fine. No conflicts however you might be going over your personal plugin limit (Number/ type of mods). This can cause save corruption and cause other heavier scripted events to crash (The race menu hair thing got me a few times as well)

 

Test by removing 3 or 4 more mods making it a more simple profile. Start that profile and see if you still have those problems.

 

Gvman, I wasn't aware that Quicksave was broken!  That alone could solve some problems.

 

Ritual, I had almost 100 mods before all of this started.  I'm now down to about 60, which is a lot less than my system has had to handle in the past.  So, in my mind I'm already running a "simple profile".  If I have to get much simpler, I'm going to be back to vanilla    But advice accepted - I will pour through my load again and start cutting until it hurts.

 

The thing is, I really wanted to try SexLab: Solutions for the extra dialog options but I can't even get the game to run long enough to feel like I can add another mod

 

Thanks, guys.  I will try this advice and see what I can do.  First move: Reload the last Autosave and then do a full save and see how that works.  Then I have to break myself of the habit of hitting "F5" so often.

 

 

[halieslade]

Are you using the SKSE memory patch? I also use a little mod called FreeMem. I don't crash anymore. And a pre-cache killer may be necessary if loading a female character (with lots of beautification mods, like brows, hairs and eyes installed) in showracemenu.

 

I used to run FreeMem, back when memory was an issue with Skyrim, but I haven't run it since returning to the game.  That's another good idea and I'll see if I can find a copy.  With 12GB of RAM, it'd probably help a lot by using more of that extra memory.

 

I'm running the latest version of SKSE I can find, I think.  If there's a memory patch I missed, that could also be a major oversight on my part.  I'll look for it.  Thank you!

[Ascian]

Didnt saw anyone mentioning this before:

 

Before you try to load a savegame try the console command "coc whiterun" before and then load a save. This pretty much fixed the issue with the ctd upon loading a savegame for me. 

[RitualClarity]

 

Ritual, I had almost 100 mods before all of this started.  I'm now down to about 60, which is a lot less than my system has had to handle in the past.  So, in my mind I'm already running a "simple profile".  If I have to get much simpler, I'm going to be back to vanilla    But advice accepted - I will pour through my load again and start cutting until it hurts.

You didn't have a load order.. anyway sounds like you resolved any problems that would have been the issue.

[Pantheress]

I've had similar experiences with crashing during quick load occasionally.

What helped, for me, was to load the very first save on that character, THEN load the quick save.

I'm using the Alternate Start mod, so my first save is always in that prison cell. Has saved the game for me a couple of times, when my quicksaves appeared corrupt.

 

Additionally, Jaxonz has a neat real-save mod: www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/60718/?

You can set up a hotkey to make a real save. And even include custom name/description, location and time in the savefile itself, so you always know what each save is.

[myuhinny]

The problem with quicksave is that you shoot yourself in the foot when using it if that is the only way you save because quicksaving saves over your original save file over and over again and when you hit a glitch/bug/corrupt save you are shit out of luck because you have no older save to go back to except maybe the one at the start of the game. That is why it is better to use the save in new spot instead you can always go to your folder that holds the saves and delete some of them if you start getting too many. I try to use the make new save as much as I can to prevent having to start way back there.

 

If a save crashes you can also try loading a older save and once it loads then load the one that is crashing or on the screen where the load/new game is open the console with the ~ key and typing in coc qasmoke hit enter this will warp you to the testinghall then try to load the save.

[WraithSlayer]

First off, quit using the quicksave function. It's always been broken. Make real saves instead. And there are save control type mods available on the Nexus as well.

 

That alone should eliminate a lot of your issues.

 

Maybe I'm just really lucky, but I run a heavily-modded game (170 ESPs and a bunch of file replacers) and never had any issues with quicksaving, which I use very often. I do make frequent full saves too though, always wise having earlier saves to fall back to when playing Bethesda games.

 

As for crashing when loading a save, I do have that, but only once per game session. Opening the console and typing coc ctest in the main menu, then loading my intended save, avoids the crashing issue for me, and I can then save and load as many times as I want during the session without any crashes occurring. Supposedly these crashes are something that was fixed with the latest version of SKSE but I still have the problem despite being up-to-date.

[nutluck]

 

Are you using the SKSE memory patch? I also use a little mod called FreeMem. I don't crash anymore. And a pre-cache killer may be necessary if loading a female character (with lots of beautification mods, like brows, hairs and eyes installed) in showracemenu.

 

I used to run FreeMem, back when memory was an issue with Skyrim, but I haven't run it since returning to the game.  That's another good idea and I'll see if I can find a copy.  With 12GB of RAM, it'd probably help a lot by using more of that extra memory.

 

I'm running the latest version of SKSE I can find, I think.  If there's a memory patch I missed, that could also be a major oversight on my part.  I'll look for it.  Thank you!

 

If you don't have the SKSE mem fix active(takes a ini file edit) that could be a big part of your problem.

 

[halieslade]

I installed the mempatch for SKSE and avoided Quicksave all the way from Morthal back to Riverwood for the 2nd time.  Got to town, entered the inn and have a number of full saves on the way.  I didn't crash at all on the way, but that alone isn't too different than it was before.

 

Now, when I try to start Skyrim and load up one of my saves, it CTDs just like before.  I've tried 4 different saves that staged back along my trip and none of them want to load.

 

It would appear to me that the problem isn't with my load order (checks out with LOOT/MO, got rid of all the warnings I was getting) and the Papyrus log tweak I did shows that I'm not even touching 25 MB when the game is running (turned it off, though, as it was making the game stutter a tiny bit).   My theory is that there's another problem here with loading saves and I'm still at a loss

 

As an aside, my character is using the Temptress race ( http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/18717/? ) which I've used a number of times before -- the level 35 I just abandoned was an out-of-the-box Nord with the same issues, but when my Temptress tries to wear Elven armor, her boobs swell out to like a million XXX   Looks like a skeleton issue, to me, but I'm not sure it's related to the inability to load saves.

 

[chuckdm]

Just my two cents here:

 

I've never had any issues with quicksave that I didn't also get with manual saves.  That is, any time I am trying to diagnose a problem, I have a tendency to do a manual save AND a quicksave.  Every time I do this and cannot load the quicksave, the manual save fails too.  And this has been probably 50+ times over the course of 20+ reinstalls of skyrim, and across 3 different computers.

 

That said, a little trick you can try that has saved me occasionally is this.  If you attempt to load your quicksave and it fails, exit skyrim without making another quicksave.  Then go to the folder with your game save files in it (by default, C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Saves\ - or something like that, varies by windows version).  Take the file named quicksave.sav and rename it quicksave.bugged or something.  Then, take the file named quicksave.bak and rename it quicksave.sav.

 

Congratulations, you just moved your PREVIOUS quicksave to be your CURRENT quicksave, allowing you to step back to the quicksave-before-last.

 

If that doesn't work, your problem, whatever is it, probably predates this save-before-last and you're likely gonna have to start the whole playthrough over.  Good luck!

 

 

[Uncle64]

Thanks for one good laugh this early morning I have found out the same as you.

I can understand your problem, I to have played since day one.

And do get same problems as you.

The others in this tread have given you some good advice.

Follow those.

 

Hugs all and have one good Skyrim day.

[3Dmember]

I'm probably a dick for saying this but I think it should be said anyways,

 

"First, a bit of background:  I've been a Skyrim player for 5 years, since the game was first released.  I remember how unstable it was back in those days but generally, Bethesda patched things and brought out updates so that I didn't feel like I was ready to quit.  I finished the main quest 3 or 4 times (some modded, a couple not) and then finished the DLCs."

 

Umm skyrim has only been around for 3 years 2 months... just saying. ;-p

[gvman3670]

Temptress race, huh? Have you installed the XPMSE skeleton into that races appropriate folder? And an appropriate body mesh to go with the skeleton?

[halieslade]

Temptress race, huh? Have you installed the XPMSE skeleton into that races appropriate folder? And an appropriate body mesh to go with the skeleton?

 

Yes.  Two characters ago I played the whole game with a Temptress.

 

That said, the body bug I'm seeing with Elven armor indicates to me a skeleton issue.  I haven't had time yet today, but I intend to dig around and see what skeleton the Temptress uses (I'm guessing it's different from the standard Nord/Breton/et al, otherwise I wouldn't be seeing epically massive boobage when I wear Elven armor).  I can then copy my XP32/MSE nif files over, or if that's not it I could just reinstall the XPMSE files.  I wouldn't think that's related to my saved game issue, but we'll see.  It still needs fixing.

 

@carlgc:  Skyrim was originally released in Nov. 2011.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_V:_Skyrim.  I wasn't doing the detail math and should have said 4 (rounding up) instead of 5, but since I've also been an avid Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion player i think I deserve a break for not being pedantically accurate in a passing comment

[gvman3670]

If you are using HDT physics you'll have issues if everyone around, including your own character, isn't using the newest available skeleton. And the Temptress race is so old that it's unlikely to contain the proper skeleton. You can go into Mod Organizer/mods and find the Temptress race to add the skeleton and body mesh.

[halieslade]

If you are using HDT physics you'll have issues if everyone around, including your own character, isn't using the newest available skeleton. And the Temptress race is so old that it's unlikely to contain the proper skeleton. You can go into Mod Organizer/mods and find the Temptress race to add the skeleton and body mesh.

 

That's helpful, gvman.  While I was having the same crash issues with my Nord, right now I'm about to launch a crusade to clear out my Skyrim and start over with only trustworthy mods.  During the process of reviewing my load order over this past week, I continually stumble on old mods I've had for years that I cannot guarantee were completely removed (.esp deleted, but were any textures/scripts/animations?).  As old as my game installation is, I have a choice I think:  either completely remove everything and start over, enabling me to eventually play?  Or do I just want to give up on Skyrim?

 

Right now, before I get any more frustrated, the answer is going to be uninstall.  I have a backup drive with 2TB where I can copy my skyrim data files and saves.  Then I can play Attila the Hun with this install and get Steam to reinstall everything.  It's been so long since I bought the actual discs I don't think I can remember where they were.

 

I did try typing "coc whiterun" from the load screen, then load a previous save and once again it crashed.  I also read on another (old) post on a skyrim board somewhere that the mod "Crossbow Basic Collection" was causing someone else problems, too.  I disabled it, but it didn't help.  Nonetheless, I'm willing to give up all of my lovely crossbows if I can just get the game running again.

 

Thanks to everyone for their help.  If this doesn't work, I expect I'll be looking for another game to play and won't be back.  Crossing my fingers!

[nutluck]

Keep in mind sometimes especially if you have uninstalled some mods it just eventually breaks the game. Even Gopher a pretty well known modder had his first lets play with his orc stiv end up ending because he removed a mod and it just screwed up his saves. He would crash trying to log in, when he did get logged in he would constantly crash etc.

 

In the end he removed everything did a clean installed and started again with his new lets play with Richard, since then he has not been having trouble because he learned some lessons about removing mods etc.

 

Same thing happened to me the first time, but me saying it is less impressive than a modder like Gopher having the same problemish.

[halieslade]

Wow.  Who knew my Skyrim folders totalled 54GB, not including saved games? 

[halieslade]

Keep in mind sometimes especially if you have uninstalled some mods it just eventually breaks the game. Even Gopher a pretty well known modder had his first lets play with his orc stiv end up ending because he removed a mod and it just screwed up his saves. He would crash trying to log in, when he did get logged in he would constantly crash etc.

 

In the end he removed everything did a clean installed and started again with his new lets play with Richard, since then he has not been having trouble because he learned some lessons about removing mods etc.

 

Same thing happened to me the first time, but me saying it is less impressive than a modder like Gopher having the same problemish.

 

Oh, I've read  your posts here, nutluck.  If you say it, I'm prone to believing it.

 

As I watch the progress bar slowly advance, I'm musing on why there isn't a way to link scripts/textures/etc to a mod so that removing it can be a clean and complete process?  I realize some mods overwrite original game data, but if there's a backup available that shouldn't be a problem.

 

I'm a lazy modder and I admit it.  If a mod looks great enough to me to get excited, I'm not about to make backups of all my data folder (54 GB? seriously?) just to be able to uninstall it later.  But I need to start thinking about that because I don't want to end up in this situation in another month where I'm faced with either doing a clean install or quitting Skyrim.  At that point I'm afraid Skyrim would lose the argument.

[gvman3670]

If you're using MO your Skyrim folder should be under 10gig. So you have a dirty, dirty Skyrim install. The whole point of Mod Organizer is to keep that Skyrim folder clean. It doesn't add anything to that folder at all.

 

I would strongly suggest reinstalling Skyrim and using only Mod Organizer for adding your mods. Do not add anything to the Skyrim/data folder that doesn't absolutely require being in there (almost nothing does, though).

 

This is probably the source of your issues. The left over "junk" in your Skyrim folder.

[nutluck]

Well I wouldn't take what I say as anything important. I try to be helpful when I can, but I am fair from knowing everything, so always take anything I say with a pitch of salt and double check.

 

Though I agree with gvman if you plan to install and uninstall mods fairly often you should use MO. Uninstalling mods is a bigger issue and can break your saves. Especially scripted mods, you have enough orphaned scripts and it causes real problems eventually.

 

I try to wait and when I play not change mods, I might updated some if the update is good enough. But I try not to remove mods. That is why I spend a lot of time testing mods. I test them out on a test character, see how they work and decided then if that is the mod for me. That way when I play I won't need to remove or want to remove mods if I find I don't like them.

 

It took me three tries before I got a system down for modding that works for me and doesn't leave me with broken games.