I've recently installed Dragonborn, and fearing the possibility of save file bloat in the instance of adding new DLC to an on-going character (whom I do not want to abandon for a new play-through), I decided to test out the DLC. Fast travelled to Windhelm, hopped on a boat to Solstheim, and played for a bit, even fighting a Frost Dragon.

The moment I switched from my old saves to my new ones with Dragonborn applied, at 65 hours and 55 minutes the file size is 7,187kb (7.2mb). Before that I had an average size of 6.7-6.8mb, and I understand that adding mods and DLC will increase the save file size immediately.

Upon entering Solstheim, my save file size is 7.35-7.4mb. After 15 minutes there, it's at 7,437kb (it did drop below 7.3 in the Retching Netch, to about 7,283kb, and back up to 7,417kb upon leaving the interior cell).

If this were the save file bloat I've heard about when applying new DLC to on-going characters, would it have increased far more in this short space of time? Over the last 5 minutes of test-play, the size varied between 7,417kb, 7,393kb, 7,416kb, 7,413kb and 7,437kb. I know variances like that are fine, but I'm a little paranoid about screwing up this character save...

My mod load order is:

Unofficial Skyrim Patch

Unoffical Dawnguard Patch

Unofficial Hearthfire Patch

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch

RaceMenu

RaceMenuPlugin

SkyUI

VikingArmor

DeadlyDragons

SkyRe_EncounterZones

SkyRe_EnemyAI

SkyRe_EnemyScaling

When Vampires Attack

SkyrimSpeeds

TOL_Core_by_Brevi (Tales of Lycanthropy)

Alternate Start - Live Another Life

SkyRe_Races

I haven't tweaked SkyRe for Dragonborn, it's actually the last version before Dragonborn. I don't use the main module (perks, spells, etc), so hopefully I'll be fine (sadly I could not get any answer on the Nexus forums in the main download thread...). I haven't got the latest versions of the other unofficial patches, didn't notice they'd been updated since mid-April.

No you're good, if it was save file bloat your save file would have jumped up to around 10-12mb. The highest I've seen ( with my saves ) is 16-17mb which leads to an unplayable game, at 16mb the game would freeze and or crash every 2 minutes. As of late ( with extra care ) I've managed to keep my save file in the 7-8mb range and it's been smooth sailing ever since. Try your best to keep your save file under 10mb, I find that anything over 10mb and you start to experience the signs of save file bloat, the crashing, freezing, random and very odd texture glitches etc...etc...

You are fine though, you seem to be bouncing between 7 and 9mb so you should be good

Thanks. I take it that save file bloat happens very quickly when it does happen *touch wood*.

This seems to describe my gameplay experience perfectly, and after checking my current save (my longest character at level 48) has a size of 13.5mb.

Do you know how I can reduce save file bloat in my save or is it a goner?

Yep, I've been fighting with save file bloat for quite sometime now. Just remember to play janitor as you adventure, I know you shouldn't have to but.....

Make sure to pick up anything dropped by people that you kill, don't over do it when it comes to decorating your home, and do a little " spring cleaning " with your storage ( chests, barrels etc...etc...) ditch anything that you don't really need or any extras you have in armor and weapons by selling them or by placing them into a re-spawning container. This will help keep save file bloat away and you will be a happy adventurer

The best way is to play a tidy game. If you see a sword laying around after a battle, pick it up and put it on a corpse if you don't want it. Close doors you open, only clean out chests that you want or need something from. Things like that. Also, and this is hard to do in this game, is to have as few active quests going at once as possible. Note, accepting most quests is OK, just don't start one until you think you can focus on it.

With the unofficial patches, I don't have to play janitor. All dropped items are bound to an NPC's inventory, so you have to access their inventory to pick up their weapons and shields. NPCs disappear very shortly after leaving a location (most times), and so does any of their dropped loot.

Clean out your player home of any unneeded things such as extra weapons and armors, pretty much anything that you don't need. You can sell it off for the coin or you can place it into a container that re-spawns, next check your key inventory. Sometimes the keys have a nasty habit of duplicating in your inventory without you knowing, you only need one key to get into a place so if you have doubles or triples you should ditch the extras in a re-spawning container.

Next would be to pick up the " trash " that builds up as you adventure. By trash I mean any weapons, shields or what ever dropped by fallen enemies. Pick them up and place them back onto the corpse after killing him/her and have an eye for anything left behind from older battles. Pick it up and sell it or place it on a fresh corpse so that it re-spawns

With the unofficial patch you should be Ok, just have an eye to you save file size. There's an arms length list of things that could cause save file bloat BUT the unofficial patch should help with most of them.

There was someone on the PS3 forum that got a 93mb save file...

On PC the highest I've had is 7mb up to now

What?!?!? 93mb.....

I think my Xbox would explode if I reached 93mb, poor guy must had a VERY horrid time with his/her game. An experience like that would turn a person from the game for life. Poor guy

I saw on PC, bloated save files can go over 100MB...

But on PS3...how he managed that ????

Thanks! I'll try it out. I'm considering trying out the unofficial patch too...

I really hope that Bethesda builds a new engine from scratch for future TES/FO games that would eliminate these kinds of problems.

I would recommend that you do use the unofficial patch(es), they will save you from quite a few headaches.