So, the "Bedrolls" mod, versions 1.1 and 1.2, use the "placeatme" and "disable" commands to perform their functionality. The 1.4 version of the mod replaces this with the "moveto" style to avoid save game bloat, but at the cost of no longer being able to drop a bedroll somewhere, and then drop another bedroll somewhere else. My question is, is the potential for save game bloat with the previous method really THAT bad? I mean it is just one object being dropped and picked up every once in a while... I would imagine it would take around 1,000 bedrolls just to increase the size of the save game by any noticeable amount, but I am also no expert, which is why I am coming to the experts to see what you guys think... what are your thoughts of how dangerous this older version of the mod really is?

You could simply use http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=24649, and possibly even toggling all its options off except the portable bedrolls part if you aren't that interested in sleep mechanics, and solve any and all problems. TNO is one of the top scripters around and his mod has no savegame bloat issues at all.

That said, the potential for savegame bloat isn't that bad unless the offending mod creates gazillions of PlaceAtMe references, but its there, and can't be removed easily. Wrye Bash has some semi-experimental stuff that removes the references created with PlaceAtMe by a mod, but only if the mod they come from is no longer active AND the base object from those references belong exclusively to the mod. If that bedroll mod is placing vanilla bedrolls around, they can't be removed, but if it uses its own bedroll forms they can once the mod is uninstalled.

Finally, the main problem with that mod and many others which used PlaceAtMe is that DeleteReference didn't exist when they were created, or the authors wrongly believed that Disable would get rid of the issue. A mod can use PlaceAtMe safely as long as it ensures that those PlaceAtMe references are kept in check so that the mod can use Disable followed by DeleteReference when they are no longer needed or upon uninstalling.

Edit: I had a drop lit torch mod that created something like 600 placeatme references, and they increased the size of the savegame in 30 Kb.

I quite dislike save game bloat. That said, normal, modless gameplay will also give you save game bloat - run through a vanilla dungeon, kill everything in it, loot nothing, leave. Every leveled list NPC and every level list item they were carrying is now effectively bloat until you go back in there after a cell reset. So I'd say unless you are planning on dropping a thousand bedrolls, it's probably trivial.

If you're handy with scripting at all, sneak in a "DeleteReference" after the "Disable" bit of the script in the PlaceAtMe version, and that would remove the bloat one way or the other.

Edit: Whoops, sorry migck, we posted simultaneously there. XD

Just wanted to note that it's not that easy. DeleteReference will only work if the game engime has already had time to disable the object, which means that it will (usually, maybe always) fail if you call it in the same frame. So to ensure that DeleteReference works, you must check in later frames whether the object has really become disabled, and then call DeleteReference after that. This is what Real Sleep Extended does.

Real Sleep Extended's bedrolls also have a few other advantages (IMHO of course), like the fact that the ones you place can get taken away if placed in unsafe locations (outdoors mainly), and that beggars will often replace the ones you take with other bedrolls.