Save Game Questions

[Kodiak]

So after 66 hours of play on my oldest save game, I'm starting to experiance some interesting things. Namly, the steady FPS drop that occures by simply logging the character in. She loads in fine, everything seems smooth but then about a minute into it, you start to see frame stutter and video. It gets to the point where NPCs no longer walk across the street, they glide.

 

So far I've tested this indoors (a nightmare that usually results in CTD), outdoors in the wastes (playable just choppy) and on the Vegas strip (very choppy, difficult to move).

 

So my question is...much like Oblivion, is there a known probelm with save game bloating in NV and is there a fix for it? It never occured that it could be a possiblity since this is the first time I've experianced it, but this probelm is localized to only this save game. Mty next oldest game has 44 hours on it and works fine.

 

Second less important question...

 

Is there a way to change a player-chracters race without loading in and using the showracemenu? Maybe some sort of save game editor?

[KainsChylde]

In answer to your first question, yes save game bloat is an issue. I know the Willow mod in particular can make a mess of savegames if you make use of her campfire feature and don't clean up afterward, or when you make her use her bedroll and forget to pick it up. Presumably any other mod with similar features will have the same issue. And then of course theres adding/removing mods midgame.

 

As to your second question, I personally only know of one mod. The Desert Succubus race allows you to edit your race mid-game without using showracemenu, even adding a system for respecing your character (Skillpoint distribution, perk choices, etc). You can also reobtain used skillbooks and reset challenge perks like Lord Death as long as you know what levels you were at before starting the process. You can also abuse this system to get 10 of every skillbook and max out any challenge perks you already have (it notes what you have but not the level, so it uses the honor system to reset your perk levels). Downside is that you can only chose to be a woman, and I believe only become a Succubus.

[Kodiak]

Thanks Kain. In regards to the bloat, is there a way to clean it up?

 

As for the race change, I shou dbe more specific.

 

I need to change my chracters race outside of the game. Last night I formatted and today finally got my NV up and running again. Most everything is back exactly where it was before the wipe except one little thing. Some mysetery race that I had made the character in question.

 

As I recall, she was Caucasion...apparently though... not a vanilla caucasion because the save will not longer load, and its due to her race no longer being in the active load list.

 

I have no fracking idea what mod I used that woudl have added a duplicate caucasion race, but that is what it is.

 

I'm not terribly broken up over the loss of the save game, but if there is a way to save either of them I'd be grateful.

Basically right now, between the bloat in one and the mising race in the other... I'm starting over ... again lol.

[KainsChylde]

Only way I know of to fix the bloat is to find the mod that caused it and clean save without it.

 

If you have FOMM you're in luck in regards to your missing race. Open FOMM, and in the "tools" dropdown go to "Saved Games". Select the save you're having problems with and it'll show a list of mods that were active when the save was made. Currently installed mods will be marked with a green square, missing mods will be marked in red. Reinstall the missing mod and you should be good to go. I think Wrye Bash has a similar feature, but I'm not sure and don't know how to use it (Wrye is way too convoluted for my tastes).

[Kodiak]

Very cool, thanks much I'll see what I can turn up with FOMM. I've seen that save game tab before but it never dawned on me what it was actually for.

[Kashked]

I think that not using the autosave or quicksave reduces the problem with the saves, atleast making them last longer. There is a mod which allows you to make a "normal" save from the keyboard using F11, don't know what it is called when standalone though, but I have it through NVEC.

[New User]

I've read somewhere that overwriting many times the same save file may also corrupt it, so you'd better disable auto-save like Kashked suggested.

 

Also, when I save, I type in the console "save [first letter of my char's name followed by a number]"(ex.: "save m1", "save m2" etc, "save k1", "save k2" etc). I find this way of saving more organized and also a bit quicker than pressing esc/save.

 

 

About changing the race outside the game... well, you can import face/race/stats from/to an Oblivion save with Wrye Bash. Not sure if there's a program for NV that does that though.

[Kodiak]

Well I can honestly say I never knew that about the save overwrites. Odds are between the constant mod changes I was making trying to get the game where I wanted it and the fact that I ALWAYS use the same save file for a save game, I'm sure the two was enough to put me where I am currently.

 

My typical save architecture is just using the charatcers name and thats all I use. I hate messy save game folders is saves 1-50 of the same character.

 

As for the race change, I might just call ti a wash. I loved the character for her misadventures of starting with nothing on the streets of Freeside with her tits hanging out to level 19. If you guys don't use an alternate begining mod, I recommend giving it a try. Teh short backstory is that she was an escaped Ghammorah Prostitute. This means she started with a Shunned Rep on the Strip (since the Omertas are after her now) and a +3 to cha with pretty much some medical supplies, her whores outfit (hence her tits hangingout, and a piece of shit .22 pistol.

 

Thats was it.

 

She spawned in Freeside, level 1 and the first thing to happen was she was raped by a bum. So to play a character through from that sort of start, it was far more enjoyable then the bland old getting shot in the head start.

 

Yea I don't don't know if there is a wyrebash style program for NV. SO, yea, I may just chalk her up as a loss and start her over.

[srayesmanll]

Kashked (and everyone else) - the standalone mod that uses f11 as a full save hot key is called "SaveKey" (available on Nexus). You can also change the hot key to another by holding the original hotkey, then follow the on-screen instructions. Because I got so used to using the quicksave, I remapped the full save to f5 and changed the quicksave to f11.

[prideslayer]

I've read somewhere that overwriting many times the same save file may also corrupt it' date=' so you'd better disable auto-save like Kashked suggested.

[/quote']

 

This shouldn't cause any issues, I've never had my autosave corrupted.

 

Save files are actually just plugins really, their format is the same as esp/esm, Saving over the top of one just dumps the current state of the game there. If saving over the same game over and over causes problems, so should saving over the top of the same esp over and over.

[revanag]

I have no problem with save games as ingame saving system is somehow broken so I'm not using it.

My advice is to disable all autosaves, don't use game quicksaving, new saves make from time to time if you really have to.

And download this: http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/mods/36730

CASM - works fantastic, you have quicksaves, autosaves, profiles(all configurable).

Never had problem with saves.