Loading an older save?

[Wynd]

Somehow I either lost Lydia or she died. I tried going to her via console command but it took me to a field but no Lydia. So I tried bringing her to me instead. I think that was a mistake and I may have copied her several times. I checked all the usual places including the catacombs. Finally I resurrected her but all the stuff she was carrying is gone. So I want to load an older save to get my stuff back but the saves that show up to load are the last 5 which are after she ended up borked.

TL;DR How to load an older save. Thanks in advance

[JDaremo Fireheart]

if there is no save file listed, there is no save file. the game over writes the save.
Keep many many running saved you cycle through for occasions like this.
As it stands, you will have to start all over again. Especially since you said you used (I would presume) player.placeatme. Never use that one. it only creates duplicates.

edit . . . how did you resurrect her without a body???

[Wynd]

Originally posted by JDaremo Fireheart:

if there is no save file listed, there is no save file. the game over writes the save.
Keep many many running saved you cycle through for occasions like this.
As it stands, you will have to start all over again. Especially since you said you used (I would presume) player.placeatme. Never use that one. it only creates duplicates.

edit . . . how did you resurrect her without a body???

Thanks for that info. I definitely did not use the placeatme command. I used player.moveto a2c94 and then I used a2c94.moveto player. But I never actually saw Lydia. I tried getting a new follower to see if it would tell me I already had one and I was able to get a new follower so I figured that meant Lydia was dead even though I could not find a crypt.

I ended up using the player.moveto a2c94 and it took me to that field again. So I entered the resurrect 1 command and she appeared and said it was nice to see me again. Unfortunately all my inventory that she had is gone. I don't want to start over because I have already done too much. I guess I will have to live without my stuff.

The other odd thing is when I enter prid a2c94 and hit enter I get this: (000A2C94)[D]. I assume the D means dead?

[smr1957]

Absolutely what JD said - you will have to start a new game - unfortunate, but that's the way it is - in this case, since you have no save to fall back on, there is no alternative.

Here's an extended explanation of why resurrect console command should not be used (probably much more than you want to know, but it does point out how using a simple command on the console can break your game). Next time you have a problem with the game (even if you think it's no big deal), ask in the forum first - there are plently of us here to help out, no matter how minor or trivial the problem may seem to be. Now onto the long winded explanation:

Re: Resurrecting Named Characters (quoted from post by Ilja)

"You should never resurrect any named characters in Skryim. Game runs death scripts for each of them. Using resurrect command does not undo these scripts and there is no known way to reverse them.

Resurrecting character that has death script records in save file usually ends up badly. In best case scenario you get a useless NPC that is not tied to any quest and is cut out of the progress. In worse case scenario you get NPC that is comes constantly more and more bugged, tangling game scripts even further and ends up making a real mess out of your game.

Resurrect is among commands that has been classed as dangerous and should not be used in a game. It is a developer test command and should be treated as such. If you already made a mistake of using that command, then load a save before that." -Ilja

Ilja:
I think it is best to explain resurrect a bit further. I might actually make a full post about it.

Biggest risks come down to scenes. Each character participating scenes has an alias. These aliases are required to be filled by Papyrus, when the scene starts. Here are few common cases about how the use of console can affect to them.

Scene starts, but character is dead. There is no character to fill alias. If script does not intercept the event, then Papyrus will try to fill the alias - over and over again. This will reserve all available Papyrus time, often preventing other scripts from running.

In this case locating the missing character, resurrecting them and bringing them to scene to fill alias can be helpful. Of course, you would need to have a log and know what you are looking at, including how to get rid of such character later, so that using console would not break the game even further.

Second scenario. Scene starts. Game considers one of the participants dead, but player has actually resurrected that character. Scripts may bring this character in to scene and attempts to fill alias. This may or may not work, depending on scene and other scripts (including mod scripts) running around.

Again, Papyrus will get stuck, trying to figure out which alias it needs to fill. Solution sounds easy: load a previous save and kill the character.

Reality is not that easy. Scene may have been initialized several saves ago, if you have been running around the area. Script to cut it may fail, because it is going against Bethesda's design, while trying to fill alias for a present "dead" character. Again: you might have to start making logs and trying to figure out when and where the scene got stuck - if you even figure out what is going on.

The more characters you have resurrected, the more changes the game has to use at some point initialize a scene. This also means that game has even more changes to fail filling aliases and completing the scene.

Civil War is a PITA in this. There are plenty of scenes and civilian characters are prompted to locations around times. This means that game will try to fill more than few aliases at the same time. Each character that is affected - and not necessarily even a quest giver or merchant - will be positioned.

For example: Battle of Whiterun, where some characters you have moved away from the city through HF DLC (or mods) will be there to get involved. If game finds such characters, then it will bring them in to scenes. Them being "dead" may still cause game to attempt fill aliases and cause Papyrus exceed it's limits.

I really do not recommend resurrecting characters, just because you can. If you do resurrect a character, then do that only for 1st scenario (if you know what you are doing) and then get rid of them for good. Otherwise: find and load an earlier save, where scene is not stuck.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/133256959379908095/?tscn=1487016428#c133256959380839601

[Wynd]

thank you for that information @smr1957. I had hoped I could load an earlier save from my Saves folder but the game only sees the 4 most recent. I guess I can start over. At least I know what things I need to do. It's just unfortunate to get so far and have a newbie mistake on my part mess it up.

One last question - why couldn't I find her crypt with my stuff? Does that no longer work?