SO I was playing my relatively new archer. She's explored most of the Whiterun hold, but hasn't left it. She's barely started the main quest and just barely joined the Circle in the Companions. And yet, as I was nearing Swindlers Den, I started to get the pauses. The telltale signs of severe save game bloat, pauses a couple times a minute. I exited the game, and was shocked at what I saw. My melee character who has completed almost every quest in Skyrim, visited almost every location, has a save game file size of about 14MB. Fairly hefty, but not unusual for the amount he's seen. Now this sapling archer, who hasn't stepped foot out of the hold of Whiterun, has a save game file size of 26MB. That can't be right. The only logical conclusion I can think of is that stray arrows are killing my save. Any ideas on how to go about fixing this?

And just to make it abundantly clear, I loaded up my warrior, and he doesn't have a single sign of these pauses.

I've had a few archer characters and haven't seen anything like this even after completing the MQ and a significant portion of others.

Sounds like a corrupt save file or misbehaving mods.

Both characters are using the same mods... Corrupt save is possible, but I dunno... Worth mentioning that I'm using Faendal as a follower, who is also using a bow.

Here's my mod list, if you see any issues feel free to point them out...



Shadow Striping Fix.esp, Divine Intervention.esp, and Trader Taklas.esp are created by me, so you can ignore those.

Use the http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=4528 mod (a savegame debloatifier mod) or just its 'less arrows' module:

An alternative mod with the same feature: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=8216

(Do not use both mods at the same time.)

I'm already using Mart's :\ Maybe it isn't arrows, but I can't think of anything else that's been significantly different between this and my other characters. Are there any tools that can open up a save and see what kind of records are filling it up?

1.5 patch makes arrows clean propperly. Maybe the algorithm doing this, while effective uses something similar to registerforupdate wrongly.

I believe part of the problem is due to the fact that you haven't left Whiterun hold. Arrows are cleaned up now when a cell is reset. A cell is reset on a timer, but if you keep returning to a cell before the timer has expired, it will never reset. Try exploring the rest of the world and you may find that this problem sorts itself out. You can also try the Unofficial Skyrim Patch, which addresses several issues related to cleanup of cells, including not only arrows but corpses, ash piles, ice piles, etc.

hm I'm already using the USKP. I'll try the exploring the other areas, but it's getting harder and harder to play an archer with random pauses... I suppose I could just coc somewhere and wait 30 days or whatever eh

Why do you feel you need to resort to console commands? The console is a debugging tool. Adopting a cavalier attitude towards its use will likely lead to problems down the road, as it's not meant to be used in such a manner. Just fast travel or walk to another city and wait for 72 hours. If that doesn't work, try 30 days, preferably with a mod that allows for "faster" waiting.

Arrows are deleted when you shot new ones. In previous versions this didn't workd when you are far from the cell you left your arrows in, but now it works. So, no need to go to another cell and wait. This wasn't even needed before. Just fire more arrows. There can only be 15 arrows in the world.

Now, if this system that now seems to work like a charm, is causing bloatting, that's another question.

Resorting to debugging tools to fix a bug, not to play... It's getting almost impossible to play effectively as it is, and I don't have any fast travel locations outside of whiterun hold, so that leaves COC. Just to teleport out, wait, teleport back in and pick up where I left off.

Walk or take a carriage to another city. There's no need to use the 'coc' command unless you are in an interior location and the game is crashing when you attempt to transition to an exterior location. The console is not meant to be used during normal play - and as soon as you save your game after using a console command, that is considered to be using it during normal play.

Right... well, waiting 30 days seems to have helped, thanks. Just not sure how it got so bloated in the first place.

I did notice I'm getting a significant delay when I go to rest or wait... Is this a side effect of the extra cleanup added by Mart's debloatifier, or another issue to work out?

Well this is interesting. After waiting for 30 days, the save size was down to 10MB. I then fast traveled back to swindlers den, and a frost dragon appeared. killed it and saved, now the save is almost 12MB. I then fired about 100 arrows off into the distance and saved, and now my save is almost 14MB. And now the pauses are coming back, though not as strong as before. It pauses for about half a second now instead of the 2-3 seconds it was before. It's almost like the cell loading pause, but it happens even if I'm standing still.



Okay it's REALLY weird. Apparently the bloating and the stuttering are separate issues that may or may not have the same root cause. And arrows may or may not be a part of that cause, but not all of it. I loaded up my warrior again. He's at 14.2MB saves. still no pausing at all on him. Grabbed a bow and a couple hundred arrows. fired all of them off into the distance. Save size actually dropped by about 30kb. Still no pausing. I'm completely stumped now. In any case if a mod wants to rename this topic that would be cool, since it doesn't quite cover the issue.