I've seen it said that generally, savegames should be around 10 MB... My current game has almost 200 hours on it and my load order has 207 masters and plugins, and my save files are almost 14 MB... is that too big? What contributes to the size of save files and is there anything I can do in-game to shrink my saves? Thanks

Saves can get fairly large with enough hours and mods. As long as you have not noticed any significant jumps in size, it is probably okay. Have your saves gradually increased to that size over time? I do not know about that 10 MB estimate. Where did you hear that? However, people using more than 200 mods on a regular basis is probably a more recent trend, so that 10 MB estimate may be out-of-date. I think you are okay if this size is not bizarre compared to your past save size trend.

Edit: The size increases as your character "interacts" with more mods, more of their data and so on. They keep track of a lot you know.

There's not been a sudden jump... I just hate seeing it slowly getting bigger... it makes me feel like there's some defined cap to the size, whereupon my game will be over Is there any safe way to reduce size, or is it just an inevitable consequence of time played and mods used?

[EDIT] 200+ modlists may be a recent trend, but I've been using that many mods since the day the game was released. Well, not that long, since there weren't that many mods the day it was released, but you get the idea Every reinstall, I tell myself I'm going to keep it under control, and I start out with maybe a hundred files, but it always doubles within a few weeks. Hello, my name's Ish, and I'm a modaholic :rofl:

Yeah...I know what you mean. I have a setup of ~370. As more mods data is incorporated into your PC's experience, the save file is going to get bigger. If you add lots of quests and what not, all of the updates have to be kept recorded. I do not know how large saves can grow, but if the increase is not abnormal, then do not bother about it. The amount of time you play is not the real factor, although that probably takes up a few bits in the save file; rather, over time you interact with more of the data in your 200+ mod setup. If you have only played few a very small percentage of the quests you have installed, expect your save file to continue growing for a while. Theoretically, the save would stop growing significantly once you have experienced 100% of all of your mods. Every new land, NPC, item, cell, whatever adds up to something in the save file. ReferenceIDs, referenceIDs and more refIDs...

The last save games of of my 400+ mods, 1000 hours playing time game were 35 MB.

Okay, so now I know that my worries are purely psychological... I just have to get over them Thanks for the replies, guys

Dependent on mods, exploration and game hours a save can get quite large.
A character with 2000+ playing time, FCOM and around a dozen quest mods put mine to almost 44MB. The game played fine - although it did take forever to load.
Use the remove bloat feature of Wrye Bash on a regular basis even though nothing may appear. It also helps creating new save files after approx 25 hours, replacing the eldest save as you proceed.
These steps probably won't reduce the size of your save file but I've found it significantly reduces the chances of a corrupted save.

Wait...are you talking about individual save game files, not the whole folder of saves? If so, that explains why mine was 954 mb...

954 MB is ridiculously large. That sounds like an actual problem.

I have a number of characters who are near or above the 400-hour mark, and the largest save file is ~12mb ... while my load list has 360 actual entries, I generally run only 150-160 (non-merged) mods per savegame. Interestingly enough, the three oldest characters--the ones who have done the most vanilla quests--only weigh in at around 8mb.

You can reduce the savegame size somewhat by selling off or storing some of your character's excess inventory. If your PC is a packrat who likes to show off his collection of armor (on mannequins, for instance), these items are still in the game world and the savegame must keep track of them; versus selling or putting them in a storage chest removes them from 'active' status. I saw a marked drop in the size of my save files (and a decrease in loading times) when I did this.

If it's 954 MB (!) then it must contain lots and lots of bloat.
I'd be curious to learn how much using the Remove Bloat function of Wrye Bash would reduce your save game.

Depends on if he is talking about the whole folder, or one save..... If that's the whole folder, should prolly clean it out. if that is one save, then there is most certainly a problem.

It's the whole folder, so yeah, I should clean it out. I save far too often. I'm guessing that's why my game takes ages to load and start up, as my latest save is only 8.94 mb, despite all the mods I have installed.

Do you use save profiles? I keep about 70 saves in a single profile. I will probably tone that down after my character is sufficiently comfortable in the new setup, however.

No, is this via Wyre Bash?

Yes, but you can turn on profiles in the INI yourself actually. I think the setting is "UseProfiles" or "UseSaveProfiles." There is also a path to set the profile in the INI as well, of course.