I started a new character 2 months ago and archived my first one.


I have found so many irreversible random game-breaking issues and errors in with the new character.


First time: made the mistake of visiting Treva's Watch below level 31, there's an invisible "level lock" in the area which means that if your first visit near there is below level 31, you will never get a guaranteed enchanter's elixir. I had no saves before then, so I restarted this save file from scratch.


Finished the "Dragon Rising" (Mirmulnir at the western watchtower) quest, didn't get an Axe of Whiterun. Had to restart from an earlier checkpoint to fix that.


Later on I found that some areas weren't respawning enemies. I can confirm that the zones are respawning because new treasure appears in chests and boxes, but there are no enemies. I also confirmed that none of my mods are causing this.


WHEN can I have JUST ONE save file with no irreversible undocumented errors? Does anyone have a save file editing/fixing utility? This has already cost me 10s of hours between having to restart, restart, and restart again. Does something have to irreversibly ruin my save file every time?


Meanwhile my solid state disk is probably burning out from having to save every few minutes over all the miscellaneous annoyances in Skyrim:

-Vampire attack in town -> NPCs die -> reload

-Accidentally friendly-fired traveling NPC -> reload

-Random crash -> reload

-Accidentally loaded because the menu didn't respond when I clicked "save" -> reload


So much reloading, Skyrim might as well be an FPS that uses my computer's disk integrity as ammo. I will no longer recommend Skyrim to anyone because of all these problems and general lack of support.


Could we get an in-memory save option so I can auto-save every half minute without burning my disk out?


I'm not even enjoying the game anymore. Having to restart every 10 hours because of some stupid error that goes undetected until it's too late is un-fun. I would port all my progress from previous saves over, but I wouldn't be surprised if even simple console commands like advskill and additem caused errors that only manifest 50 hours later.

This is probably not the game for you.

Several of the things you mention are not bugs. Most of the locations in Skyrim are leveled, and the leveled contents of a cell are "locked in" when you first enter the cell. Also, quite a few dungeons do not respawn.

The vampire attacks and friendly fire damage are part of the vanilla game. There are mods that deal with them, if they are a problem.

The Axe of Whiterun is not a particularly good weapon. It's just a random enchanted axe, and the one awarded is often useless (two-hand version given to a one-hand character, or vice versa.)

Unlikely that you're wearing out your SSD by using it as it's intended to be used (saving and loading files.)

Regarding wear on your SSD from repeated saves, that's a real issue since SSDs do wear out from repeated rewriting. That's why utilities like C Cleaner's data scrubbing utility warn not to use it on an SSD. I moved the My Documents folder (which contains the My Games folder where Skyrim saves are kept) from my main SSD to my backup HDD. Problem solved.


As for the main question, in a game like Skyrim you need some back up saves because you are likely to encounter bugs that can only be solved by reloading a prior save. However, much of what you describe are intended features, not bugs.

Ah, thanks. I learn something new every day (and usually forget it again by the next morning! ) And, yes, you have the obvious solution.

Well, you can rewrite to them a few thousand times before they start to wear out, but it's an easy enough fix to move My Documents. I figured it couldn't hurt, especially given how often I save in Skyrim and how big the save files are.

OP......pah you've got it easy.


Vanilla Xbox 360......not Skyrim's fault ( well I think) .....the machine freezes up randomly anywhere between two hours and eight hours of play. I have to save every couple of hours. Actually some if it is game bug fault too......the programme is known for getting stuck in the Rift.


Riding horses seems to tax the system even more. Rain and snow also add to the cpu/gpu throwing its hands up and going on strike!

Do you use the autosave feature? I have mine set to save whenever I go through a loading screen, at rest and every 15 minutes on the pause menu. I think this is default settings.


The only issue I have where I reload is when my PS3 decides to lock up and freeze so at the worst I lose 15 minutes of play.

Many people disable autosave because it is a suspected source of file corruption.....I dont know if its been proved solidly or not. The fear is that it resaves over its own location time after time until corruptions begin to build up....fine until you actually use an auto save to load your game then your playing a corrupted game. Each subsequent auto save use adds to it.....then the crashes start.


Is this real....is it true?.....I dont know, but I don't take the risk and mine's disabled.....maybe someday I'll test it out thoroughly.

I see, that is a worry.

Well so far, touch wood, I have seen no sign of corruption and haven't changed the autosave settings since I got the game. The game will occasionally freeze up the whole system causing me to reboot but I attribute these freezes more to the fact the TES games just like to crash rather than a more serious problem and these are not regular enough to be anything that a minor annoyance. In fact I would say that I am yet to see 90% of the bugs people regularly report, think I have some kinda wonderdisk!

Well some console crashes are attributable I am sure to over heating....maybe down to dust clogging inside. Consoles in particular seem to be designed with little or no safety margin in their cooling ability.


Some crashing IS the game code.....when it happens in almost the exact same spot for three consecutive reloads. Road to Riften, Gaaaa!

Regarding save game corruption, I don't know if auto saving corruption has been proven or not, but auto save on travel can't be good since your system should be concentrating on one thing at a time and autosave on travel combines saving and loading at the same time which puts unnecessary strain that could lead to issues.

Another thing to avoid if you want pristine saves is auto reloading or any reloading from in game. The reason is the game does not properly clear data when reloading from in game (as can be evidenced by reloading from in game and checking merchant's inventories, which won't have been cleared unless you punched them first). The junk data that is left behind from reloading in game builds up in your save file and can lead to problems down the road. Better to completely reboot the game from desktop or dashboard when loading a save.

Restarted for the third time, ran into the disappearing/missing spawns yet again. There's no documented fix for this anywhere.


That's it. I'm done with Skyrim, at least in the near term or until someone figures out how to fix this. I'm finished with potentially sinking dozens of hours into a game only to lose it to recurring, unpredictable, unfixable, and undocumented problems.


If I make a new character I will probably just fast-track it (start with 200K gold, free training, and advskill) Can anyone confirm that additem, addspell, and advskill have no chance of causing permanent save file errors?

Yeah, I save to my "normal" hdd. I don't want the SSD filling up with that stuff. Or "wearing out"....

Just out of curiosity, what's the location that's failing to respawn, and how long is it (game time) since you last visited the location?

On those console commands, there should be no problem arising from their use. They are the same scripting language that the game uses, and you're not doing anything that will conflict with anything.