Disclaimer:
42 hours played
Level 25
File size (pre-patch) 9.5MB

As many of us, I was experiencing serious framerate issues when in a major city or while fighting. I've explored much of the land and also have entered (and completed) well over 40 caves. I don't just stick to one area. I have around 35 active quests (Story, Side & Misc). I downloaded the patch and noticed my file size decrease to about 8.5MB. I play roughly 2.5 hours per night and since then, my file has now shrunk to about 7.8MB. I do nothing different meaning I still go and clear caves and visit major cities, yet my file is slowely shrinking. Why?

I never sleep in an Inn or anywhere to let time pass (I find that kinda dumb). However, I never fast travel. I wonder if my walking the land (which allows time to pass) is part of the reason. I play the game as if I'm a real person in the game. There are many times when I had cross great distances to finish a current quest I'm on. I wonder if playing a certain way might actually help. I know most don't play like this and never will, but just a thought. I must still admit: THERE IS STILL MINOR FRAMERATE ISSUES, but it is much better than pre-patch area.

Everyone's save file has initially shrunk--this is because the dungeons and certain areas of the game are now resetting (or refreshing) properly after a certain amount of time in the game has passed. Before, it wasn't doing this. Thus, every bowl you knocked over in a dungeon was being remembered by the game. That's a lot of data to remember.

This is interesting. Does anyone else have an example of their save file shrinking by that much? Almost 2 mb is quite a bit.

I completely understand that. However, my file is continually shrinking. I've tested this in many ways being I play over 2 hours per night:

If I clear a cave and save, my file increase slightly. I will then walk to the next location to finish the quest (can sometimes take 10-15 to walk it). I will then save after quest is complete and my file has shrunk back to before entering the cave. I will then go to next area to either sell stuff or start next quest. I'll save then and my file has shrunk even more (little, but shrunk none-the-less).

Overall, my file is slowely shrinking . . . I think it might be because of the way I play. Just a thought.

Alright, I played for 2 hours last night and in that time, my file actually grew slightly.
My theory might actually be wrong.
Admitted!

The save files aren't growing as fast as previously, but they are still growing.

How many real people do you know who never ever sleep?

I have played over 170 hours on my save file on the PS3. And it's still going higher even after the patch. I have around 14 MB right now.

The only game I can remember doing the same (that wasn't developed by Bethesda) was Bioshock. But that was because I was saving almost every ten minutes on the hardest difficulty. The only difference is...that game didn't lag or had framerate problems with a save file that big.

Before the patch my save file stayed under 10mb now I can go from 10mb to 11mb in only a few seconds.
I have 130 hours of game play and the lag is really bad.
The only way for me to keep playing is to sleep for 3 days save and reload. I might be lucky to get 2 hr of game play before the lag returns.
I have tired selling off alot of my stuff to see if that helps and NOPE it don't.
But before the patch I could sleep the 3 days and bring down the save size from 10mb down to around 9700 or so. Now it just jumps 10mb 11mb.
My Husband also has been playing and has 145 hr of play and only now that he did the patch is he having lag. Also his save files jump from 10mb to 11mb.

I have a few Bug or glitches, but I can live with them but the lag is making it very hard to live with.

I have played Morrowind and put in over 300 hr or more and never had lag. OB with over 80 hr and never lag.
BUT that was on the XBOX. I changed over to ps3 do to the fact that xbox had the ring of death 4 or 5 times.

I just want to walk from point a to b with out the Lag.

My save file size was 6.5 MB before the patch, went down to 6MB post-patch (I was level 20).
But since then it's been slowly rising and now it's at 7MB (I'm level 33 now).
And the stutters are gradually getting worse.

Just as an aside did you know that resting in beds increases your learning skills?

https://twitter.com/#!/ElderScrolls/status/142304571757314048

Hmmm good to know. Thanks for the info.

Out of curiosity, how is your game handling the patch? I'm on the fence about installing it as I don't want to introduce any more bugs, but I'm getting to the point where the framerate is bottoming out fairly quickly.

I checked my save size before putting Azura Star on alter and after and it had raised about 50kb.

Before the patch I barely had a bug or glitch. I had one quest bug (Forsworn Conspiracy) that didn't let me finish the quest, but I am not the only person with this problem I soon found out. Beside that I encountered the occasional bug where people fell through the floor when they were killed (spiders to). And of course the lag/framerate problem after a couple of hours. So when I was around +- level 20, I switched off all auto-save functions and It helped a lot. But I had to reload saves often (once every 4 hours I think) and reboot the console at least 2 times a day.

After the patch I encounter the lag/framerate problem not so quickly as before, but I still have them. I still have to reboot at least once a day and I still have to reload my game after a couple of hours. So to put it short, the Patch doesn't help. But Skyrim is to epic for me to put it away, I did the same thing with Fallout 3 and New Vegas. It's a shame that every game released since Fallout 3 has this problem, but you know it will happpen, but you don't care to much if the game is as great as it was told it would be.

Thanks for the honest, and rage-free response.

Try saving in interior spaces always. By interior i mean houses not dungeons. Decreases my save file every time.