Hey guys, just reporting in I have noticed some Save file bloating, my saves were pretty stable around 10meg until 1.5 update.

I thought it would be a incompatibility with some of the mods, so i disabled all mods and deleted everything in the DATA folder and used steam to check files and redownload that data.

unfortunately with this Vanilla 1.5.24, after doing 2 more quests the save file is still bloating up from 10meg to 17meg. Altho its bloating slower than it was with some of the mods installed (Economys of Skyrim & Frostfall)

Maybe there is something at fault here in the 1.5.24 update that is made worse by mods, but also exsists in the vanilla game?

Is anyone else noticing there save files have increased in size dramatically with this new update?

One of the side effects ive noticed when the save file bloats is i get lags, and freezes every few minutes or so even though my graphics are set to a level which shouldnt tax my card. (if i let the bloat get too big, which it has done due to a mod before now, once it got to 40meg and the game was lagging and freezing a lot)

Is anyone else experiencing Save File bloating with no mods? is there anything I can try to help?

(PS I waited 31 days in game, and the save file with no mods dropped 1meg, to 16meg, and with the mods i was running actually shot up from 17 to 25)

I haven't noticed my save files bloating but I'll have to go back and check. I do get graphic stuttering and occasional (and irritating) freezes, but I'm not getting CTDs anymore *knocks on wood*. I haven't updated to 1.5.24, so I'll have to get back to you on that bloating issue. Wow I just went in a circle twice. *facepalms* I don't have anymore than 9 or ten mods and they only add a little bit of stuff to the game without changing script or anything with graphics. For the most part, my save files from what I can recall are either 6 to 8kb (or was in in mg?). It sounds like maybe Bethesda has altered something that causes the game to save in larger files than it should (when you have mods).If the mods were incompatible with Skyrim, the game itself would be acting weird or just not run. I doubt bloating save files are from "incompatible mods", but I'm not a technical genius. Maybe you can get the attention of Bethesda if you keep addressing this issue.

For whatever its worth, since 1.5 my saves have stayed stable at about 9 megs. Hope you find the culprit.

So I jumped onto the new Beta update 1.5.26, the save files are still bloating I started from my 10meg save, mod free, vanilla skyrim and played through the same sequence of quests as I did before which previously (1.5.24) took me to 17meg, the save file now only bloated to 14meg, still its increasing but not as bad.

I also had a go with Marts Save Game Mod, and Possesive Corpses, both these mods actually made the bloating much worse, save game size shot up.

Get rid of those mods asap. Try reinstalling the game completely if you haven't already. I don't suggest touching any of your saves after you renistall the game; don't even install mods. I want to know if Skyrim will work for you and not have bloated saves after the re-install.

I had an issue where my save files were bloated to 600MB. I uninstalled all mods (and esp's), ran vanilla for a while on the reloaded bloated save file. Waited 24 hours ingame. Reinstalled mods i deemed 'necessary' i.e. HD graphical mods, reloaded the bloated save.

The file has now shrunk from 600MB to 12MB. Maybe give that a try.

Mods imo still using an old version of Amegpo's anitbloat and it still is doing its job. One of my two addons try and keep it as lean as possible until the patches subside imo.

Mod Free, it still bloats as I play through a few MQ quests. Not as quickly mind, but enough for me to stop playing for now as after a single quest its gone from 10-14meg and I found the Size of the save file starts to cause issues with smooth gaming around 20meg.

All my save files are stored on an SSD drive aswell haha, so speed aint a problem there.

Jrsusi I think i actually read about your bloat, tried everything in that, have tried waiting 31 days actually, and with mods the Save File actually balooned in size doing that and without mods it decreased but only by about 1 megabyte so still around 13 meg and still rising even after wait.

EDIT:

Think we need something like this for Slyrim http://www.gamesas.com/save-file-anti-bloating-crash-prevention-mod-like-oblivion-t140572.html

It exists and works: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=4528

Lv 45 9.2 MB save file
Thane of 7 Holds
Civil War Imperial Questline Complete
Over 10 Side Quests(wanted Sideways)
Half the Thieves Guild
Companions Complete
Halfway through MQ
Bards College Complete
6 Daedric Quests Complete
Plus Tons of Miscellaneous
Oh and 0 nirnroots harvested

I should note the above mod is the only mod that I use aside from Warglaives of Azzinoth

Hey, I thought i mentioned it but, yes i have been using that mod, when enabled th bloat gets worse tho...weird huh?

Let's see. You say that both my mod and Mart's increase your bloating. The point's in common in both mods (and unofficial patch), are the nirnroot glow and root and ash like object deletion. Objectives that are achieved with different methods.

Your game was already bloating and if it's because of a script, adding more scripts will only increase the bloat speed, as sharing the script time make the bloating script behave even worse. Both my mod's and Mart's scripts are really light, only executing on cell changes, but are scripts anyway.

So, my conclusion is that one or more of the mods you installed previously, caused this with a registerforupdate instruction not working correctly. This indeed may have exploded the moment you uninstalled this mod, and if so, you will have this problem even with no mods installed. Maybe the new Skyrim version give less CPU time to scripts than previous ones, which could make the problem worse, or even could trigger the problem if your save was prone to it.

If uninstalling your mods (and deleting the scripts from the scripts folder) didn't help, starting a new game should fix the issue.

Add to this:
- after a combat always retrieve everything that is laying on the floor (weapons, shields, whatever). If you don't want them, put them back in a corpse, so that they disappear with it. If you don't, the corpses will disappear after a while but the weapons won't.
- when you have ice piles, or ashes piles, or any other pile, open the console click on them and disable them, all of them. You'll notice that some of them are actually several piles piled on the top of one another.
- never drop anything on the floor, wherever you are. If you can't keep something because you're over-encumbered, put it a container.
- etc.

guys whats so bad about save bloating, does it have a negitive impact on the game or something?

amgepo, thanks for your input,

just to note though, i am always going back to the save file before any mods or any bloat.

i will try going back a little further later tonigh when I get a moment, I do tend to be thinking down the bad scripts being left over in the save file like you said.

ill go back to a save from which I can see that the save file stayed stable for a couple of days play, and see what that save then does on Vanilla skyrim, if it was stable and untouched back then, it still should be fine now with vanilla right?

I have over 2,000 save game files in Skyrim the PC version and I have "53" really great Mods installed and patch version is "1.5.24.0.5", but, ... I still get random crashes to desktop in Skyrim, random loading screens freezes, and random black screen freezes and random freezes during gameplay sessions, and are the random crashes to desktop, freezes, black screen freezes, loading screen freezes and etc. issues and bugs been fixed in patch version "1.5.26" correctly and properly???, please reply today.

11.5mb for my currently 109h long playthrough.

Amegpo's mod cleans up a vanilla game I should have said......I can't speak for a highly modded game world. What I do know is the bloat from the core game is handled and handled well. My last level character at the equivalent point had a save file size of 17MB.

8,20 Mb after 132h 49min and 39s. I play as I described earlier and I don't use any fancy cleaning mod.

do you like being Skyrim's trash collector?

Can you read? Me: "8,20 Mb after 132h 49min and 39s"; BounceDK: "11.5mb for my currently 109h long playthrough.". Who's the trash collector?

I have a 9.2 MB save file not doing any of the stuff you described with 162 hours and most all of the game complete.
The mod is far from fancy....it simply ties all those weapons and shields you spend time picking up and thus they are deleted with the corpse.
It solves the 3 most common causes of vanilla game bloat.

What Toth mean is that you are actually playing the role of Skyrim's trash collerctor. You should ask yourself how much of your 132h 49 min and 39 s have been just collecting trash instead of actual playing.

And you are comparing your file size with the save of someone that may not be using a cleaning mod. BounceDK said, "11.5mb for my currently 109h long playthrough.". No mention to any antibloating mod.


Another thing: If you continue using your system, you need to actually delete the nirnroot glows, disabling them only spares you the view. You need to type markfordelete once the glow has been disabled. But nirnroot plants didn't spawns only glows, they do the same with their roots.

**Wishes Bethesda had a delete option for posts**

Talking to the one who plays a Khajiit, what do you think? lol I just had to joke.

edit: I haven't been seeing bloating on my files (well, not too much at least). I don't use a ton of mods either, and for the person who asked if save file bloating was bad, it is bad. It makes it so you can't run the game after a certain point because the save file gets too big. Something to that effect at least.