I really thought Hearthfire finally prevent stuff from flying every where... So yesterday I built a Storage Room in one of my house and put my artifacts in there (One more thing: Why on EARTH would they put barrels (I didn't even build them) on a very large and a perfectly EMPTY table ).

The dragon claws were a to put upright and facing the right way; so was gray fox's bust (Because ALL of them face upside down). I also put the priest masks on a table; while selected jewelry, gold ingots and DG paragons in one of those big glass display upstair; and among other things...


So I went to get the rest of the masks; and when I came back, the storage room literally explode. All of the jewelries fly all the way downstair, the claws were littered throughout the room; so was the rest of the masks, and now I can't seem to find Morokei's!

I figured that if you stuff things to tightly together, they tend to fly apart... Is that true? Is that the ONLY reason why my things exploded? If SO, that's not a good reason... since how difficult is it, to have my things peacefully together, without it looking like someone raided the house and stole Morokei's!!!!???

Any tips on placements and where Morokei might be would be really appreciated. Thanks

Objects will teleport to the location you dropped them, it's a bug and an annoying one at that. I think there's a way around it but I just don't bother as it's too tedious. You have to drop and place your objects, exit the room (cell) and then save, saving in the room you dropped and moved the items will cause them to move on reload.

You would think with the release of Hearthfire, they would get around to fixing this bug, but that remains to be seen. It seems most patches fix bugs that I've never encountered.

I didn't recall dropping the jewelries downstair! Or the dragon claws on the other side of the room!

I'll try your method. I'll gladly accept some tediousness as long as things stay where they are.

Some for EACH object, you have to drop, place, get out of the room, then save?. What if things that doesn't belong in a room, like if I put stuff on the dining table? Would your method still work if I get out of the house?

In Breezehome, I had a set of armor on a shelf and weapons in the corner (didn't seem to move an inch) that have just been there since I put them... Got lucky, I guess...

Not sure if this will be any help, but I've noticed different behaviour of different types of objects after dropping and arranging them (in Hjerim in particular).

- dragon scales and dragon bone: after re-entering the house, they were where I first dropped them and I had to arrange them once again; same goes for different types of ore samples and ingots;
- things that did stay in their right place when I dropped and aranged them: a dwarven centurion sphere and amulets.

Maybe it depends on the weight of the item or something?

I never saved and have done a lot of home decorating, I just dump everything on the floor in a place someone is not going to walk through it, rush out the door, rush back and start decorating. Heavy things like weapons will usually not need that, but it is always best to be sure before spending that long arranging the things. With fiddly things like arranging a lot of ore samples, ingredients or gems I prefer dropping them where I want them, but it can take a few goes to line them up.

Yes, but that makes sense, and sense is at a premium over at Bethesda headquarters. For example, the devs finally gave those mills a purpose by allowing players to use them to convert wheat into flour. Good idea, no?

Well, it might have been. If someone else didn't decide that sacks of flour should be added to the list of random crap found in the barrels and sacks that litter Skyrim--- making sacks of flour so commonplace that they might as well not even have bothered with the new mill mechanic.

So essentially: Dump everything, run out of the house, then run back in?

I'll probably try playing with the placement system for a while, see how it works out. Then I'll probably post the solution on the wiki or something.

But meanwhile; would a simple fix be too much, Bethesda?

There's no reliable way to fix it currently. Leaving and re-entering the cell works sometimes, but not always. Saving in another cell works sometimes, but not always. Waiting for a full day works sometimes, but not always. Any combination of those things works sometimes but not always.

It seems that Skyrim just doesn't register the position of misc. clutter objects (this does not apply to weapons or armor) correctly, and the only reliable way to have that happen is to keep placing them back where they're supposed to be until the change is recorded.

It would be nice if gamesas fixed this, because it's an insanely irritating blunder on their part.

That's it, it must not be returned to your inventory before you place it though. The occasional unique item will not sit, but then they will sink through anything but the floor. Badly balanced things will tend to tip when you reload, that Honningbrew decanter is a prime example of that problem, someone forgot to put the superglue on the base of it, Braggen's is currently attempting to escape from one of those washstands. The honey nut treats will also tend to roll of a plate.

Also, don't replace any items placed by game (even the silly stuff like clothes irons and saws), because they will reset and reappear, knocking all your carefully placed treasures all over the floor

Another thing that I’ve found is that when I move an object that was already there (a goblet in Uthgerd’s house for example), the object eventually moves back to its original position. I have to pick the item up into inventory, drop it and perform the leave cell/reenter cell ritual, then place the object. Then as pointed out above, respawning surfaces will eventually put a new goblet there.

Worth mentioning: when dropping things for decorating purposes, it is wise to ask followers to wait outside. Some fools will endlessly fight over one little garnet. (I’m looking at you, Calder and Stenvar.)

And yeah, I would love for things to stop flipping over when they’re picked up.

I am gradually getting faster at decorating Braggens houses, although enthusiasm is waning fast on the fourth (or was it fifth) attempt. The last batch of houses missed out on a few things due to glitches (I was in a hurry and could not be bothered gathering everything first), and Braggen ended up killing Lydia (she refused to stay with the house)in order to get an entryway furnished, and finally see that doormat. Lydia will be missed and might be why I would do this yet again. I dumped a ton of stuff in Lakeview Manor cellar yesterday and arranged it all and there were no extra problems some of the others are having with that house. The mannequin up and moved over when it was surrounded by skulls at one point. But a reload got it to move back and it has not moved since.



I never have followers when decorating, and for these houses I would watch those light fingered bards as well. Two of Braggens houses are missing bards till I finish decorating. The last one built and funished has a bard, will test her out eventually.

A warning on the fireplace mantle!

I thought the mantle over the fireplace would be a nice spot for my insect-in-a-jar collection. What I found, however, is that occasionally when I enter the house Ysolda would be standing in-between the mantle and the cooking pot, knocking the insect-in-a-jar on the ground.

Hooray! for piss-poor phsyics implementation.

yeah this is wut i miss most about oblivion..i had the house in skingrad...the one with the long book shelf section...well i collected helmets and had them all lined up on those shelves...looked so cool...i cant do this in skyrim due to everyone wanting to fight over them, they wont turn upright when i grab them, and they explode all over the room when a skeever farts next to the shelves..FIX THIS SHYT gamesas

You are wasting your time using the mantle anyway, everything in the house respawns, so what was there originally will come back if you leave the house for too long. Meeko went and knocked everything off the fireplace mantle of the house he was originally in, Meeko never got adopted again, he knocked quiet a few things down. I dumped two insect jars on top of the shelves in the trophy room. Not a feat recommended for a learner decorator though, you had to be quick to get them up there. Would have killed them to actually have left some empty shelves for us to use, but no every shelf in the trophy room is taken. My bee stays with Honeyside, and I have not worked out where the dragonfly and moth came from yet. Braggen appears to have been slacking off and only has one of each. Lots of butterflies and torchbugs though. Can you get more than one dragonfly and moth? Those ones are at Hjerim in the enchanting/alchemy room, so I am not moving them for any new house, I just want to be greedy and get more.

I've read that insects in jars respawn in the location you've found them in when that location resets, so theoretically, you could get any number of each. I haven't tried that out myself, though.

I can confirm that this happens with at least the one jar that can be found in the Alchemist's Shack. Presumably, it's the same with all of them.

I think it worked. So far Grayfox's Bust managed to stay still, some potions got tipped over but it didn't make any significant change. And the mask lost wasn't Morokei. It was the Wooden Mask; and I think that it disappear due to the fact that that mask was found on the ground in Labyrinth. So I really hope that it would eventually come back to Labyrinth.

Most of my stuff I just put them into the Storage Room; and I use that house only for collecting so I only have a steward to watch it... So I'm not too worried about Eola bumping into things.

That Goldenglow estate must never respawn then, because Braggen has gone back a few times looking for another bee. I think it was Aussie went looking for another dragonfly and was disappointed, the last batch of bugs were collected ages ago by Braggen, so no moth or dragonfly this time I will give up.

Just consoluted wikia about this. The locations containing the bee and the dragonfly indeed do not respawn, so you can only ge one of each. However, the locations with the butterfly, torchbug and moth respawn in 10 or 30 days, so if you want any duplicates, try these.

Prior to HF, I never considered decorating my house(s). I thought: What's the point? Seems ridiculous. But then, leave it to fellow TES players to show us what can be done with customization, and dang, what a difference! Some people really had fun... in the older games.

Although Skyrim does allow us to customize, I'm wondering why in the world developers didn't see turning things upside down was a problem. It boggles the mind. Yet, despite this issue, it seems quite a few out there didn't let this stop them from trying. There's even tips on how to flip objects before setting them. Time consuming, but I tried it anyway.

I did read one had to leave the cell (autosave is usually automatic) and return before setting objects, and that's what I've been doing. So far, no problems. I've a large case filled with soul gem fragments, another filled with a drum, lute, and flute, and candlesticks and lanterns all about.

However, this will only be done with Lakeview Manor. I won't be customizing my other two homes because of the major PitA it was. For example, to set the drum, lute, and flute in the large case took so much patience because setting one object usually bumped another from its place because the (360) controller doesn't allow for precise movement despite barely moving the control stick (an issue that plagues the hell out of drawn bow view too).

Don't expect this to be fixed in Skyrim. It's clear the control mechanism is built so into the code, a "fix" would mean Skyrim 2.0, and that's not an option I'm willing to hold my breath for. Still, though, it's a great game to play.

What also bugs me is that Skyrim supposedly uses the same or very similar engine to Fallout NV. Why couldn't the devs just implement the solution used in that game? In FNV object manipulation is really simple and intuitive. No stuff turning upside down.

+1
I thought Oblivion's item placement was a pain......I would gladly take it back now

It seems a bit better than it was a while back, so I am getting used to it, it takes a lot of practice though. They do seem to have recently changed slightly the way some things are manipulated, the bottles (drinks) will almost arrange themselves now if you have a steady hand and give them the right direction. I do not have steady hands, and am lousy at working out what direction it should be going in, especially when they changed the way I would normally get a bottle upright. It is certainly slow and requires patience to convince a bottle of Surilie Brothers Wine to sit up. But I arranged a lot of them recently, so might have a go at some skooma next and see if it works on them. I could not be bothered and just took the chickens way out and dumped them all in a bowl after a recent failure. But the less frequent drinks like the double-distilled skooma, balmora blue and red skooma would look nice sitting up somewhere. I could before Hearthfire get the odd one to sit up, when I tried the last time I was arranging drinks in one of the new houses I could not. I have had a bit more practice at it now so might have another go.

I have yet to work out where to try arranging a potions collection, but am starting to look around the houses with that in mind.