Most efficient way of saving?

[Vitals]

This may be a dumb question to some people, especially since I've been playing Skyrim for a couple years, but it also probably makes sense because I just recently started modding my game heavily.

Is it just to hit esc, save, and then delete previous saves when it gets to be too much? (What I do now) I hate having clutters of saves so I delete some ones that I know I won't end up needing to reload to incase of bugs.

Is it to use a mod such as http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/17329/?

Is it to quicksave/quick load? (Obviously not)

Or use console commands: Save 'name'

What do you guys who mod your skyrim heavily, and by that I mean get the occasional unexpected crashes due to many mods, or any sort of bugs do to save the game so that no scripts are breaking, or so you don't lose your save?

Just wondering because I sorta almost just lost my save I played for about 200 hours straight. ._. Using method 1, It turned out I only had 1 recent save aha so I was being dumb and it was completely my fault.

[Delta 1038]

I honestly just deal with the clutter and at most, I save over the older ones. For playthrough management I actually don't use any mods for that, I do it manually; drag & drop current saves to a folder and drag & drop other playthrough into save folder.

[gnewna]

I just create a sub-folder in my Saves folder with the name of my character (or each character if I have more than one) and after I finish playing I drag all but the most recent four or five saves into the sub-folder. This also has the benefit of letting the Save/Load screens run much more smoothly, if I let the saves pile up it can take up to a minute to actually go through the Save process.

I have auto-saves turned off, and I never quicksave, as I've had too many occasions where one of those options has crashed my game. It's a bit tedious and a little immersion breaking, but I'll take that over worrying about CTD any day.

[Zefram Cochrane]

I keep all my old saves all the way back to riding in the cart. Sometimes a save gets borked so no alternative but to load a previous one. wouldn't want to have start all over again. Handy for testing mods too sometimes.

You could just navigate to the save folder and delete the oldest ones, they're all numbered. The higher the number, the more recent.

[Vitals]

Yeah I'll prob just do the sub folder thing as well. If I didn't delete saves I would have way too many saves a day. I save every 10 minutes because I never know when to expect a CTD with my mods.

[Lulzshock]

I quicksave frequently when playing, and create a new save only after significant events. Quicksaving overwrites the last quick save every time you do it, so you really cut down on clutter.

I would also recommend making a new save right before any major action or decision. Other than this, quick saving seems to be a perfectly fine way of keeping your progress. This has resulted in my have about 10 save files over 45 hours of play. 1 Quicksave (most recent) and several saves throughout the game that are at major points, after beating a hard boss, or hitting a cornerstone level like 25.



At the most you could create an actual save every time you quit, and use quicksaves to manage a "checkpoint" system for yourself.


Just BTW : I mod my skyrim in the same way. Every now and again I crash, and this method has always prevented me from losing much gameplay. I lost half an hour once, and that was my own fault for not remembering to tap F5.

[Vitals]

My save was right after beating the main quest (Defeating Alduin), and the one before that was in Solitude omw to get Tullius to join the Greybeard's council, and I almost lost my save due to re-installing some mods. Lol

[Uncle64]

Do always one new save before one mayor event, before entering one cave etc. Then you have one "clean" save before. You dont need that in one city.

[Clever Monkey]

console save name at key points; end of quest lines, before starting some quest lines, level ups. other than that you can use auto save but at the end your day make a hard save and delete the auto saves and be sure to hard save inbetween the auto saves as well. delete saves that are in dungeons when done with the dungeon.

[MageThis]

If the save/data is important don't forget to make a backup to an external device: I use two usb thumb drives. Consumer grade hard drives have a 1 year warranty for very good reasons.

[SpeedFreak1972]

I always make a save before every quest for instance I had several times an issue with the companions quest in the beginning where I had to clear a bandit lair however I cleared that already ( no respawn) so in that case I load the save before that and try another one of the companions for a quest. and indeed I always make a backup on an external device .... for the rest I use a savegame manager.

[EbonHawk]

Originally posted by gnewna:

I just create a sub-folder in my Saves folder with the name of my character (or each character if I have more than one) and after I finish playing I drag all but the most recent four or five saves into the sub-folder. This also has the benefit of letting the Save/Load screens run much more smoothly, if I let the saves pile up it can take up to a minute to actually go through the Save process.

This is my preferred way of doing it too. Has worked for me for quite awhile, for most games.

[SimbaTao]

Console saves are more stable as sometimes just opening the menu can crash you and it's not so likely if you open the console. Depends how many mods you are using too, I have 127 going right now so I feel a need to be careful, never know when it will CTD, although it's been pretty stable this run through. <knock wood>

[Vitals]

Yea I have about 130 going right now so I'm very cautious. I really don't feel I can add 1 more mod lol