A Table of Drafting Doom

Been quite a weekend. Almost wish I played still since it wasn't too far away. The final draft table is going to be vicious…

My Own Kind of Help

Normally I try to enter a couple of helpful lines about where I was and what I was doing. But there have been a lot more crashes lately, so I'm done with all that…

Skyrim Main Forced Into Early Retirement

My "Main Character" Aenara has started crashing pretty regularly now that she's level 53. It's pretty frustrating since I've taken care to avoid adding mods to her saves. The file itself doesn't seem terribly bloated as it's up 13.3mb with all three DLCs going. Turned off all the auto-saves and made a clean save before Dragonborn downloaded.

The debug logs do show a repeating problem with "dunBluePalaceArenaSCRIPT". A Google search turned up a thread on Nexus that said they were having the same problem. That thread goes on to identify a number of different conflicts and mod issues. Since it's a Scripting error inside an OnUpdate() event there's nothing that can be done. The "solution" is to revert to a save before doing the Mind of Madness quest. *sigh*

This is the reason for my Papyrus rant earlier today. It's also prompting me to take a very active role in what mods are used and quests are completed on my next "Main." Not going to activate the DLCs until I'm ready for them. I may not use Hearthfire at all since it seems to be the source of many scripting errors and save game bloat.

Going to make my own esp for custom resources. Initially I'll have one of Apachii's male hairs and Krisan's glowing eyes. I've also built a custom blend of textures based on Vano89's Bethesda Hi-Res DLC Optimized. Going to get a game going with nothing else. Need to do reading and research before getting attached to another character again.

Griselbrand Brings the Cards

Been watching SCG's Legacy Open in Cincinatti. Saw an insane match in Round 6/9 with Caleb Durward playing something called Tin Fins destroying Ben Porter's Sneak & Show. Technically it was a turn two kill because of Emrakul but still. Wow. Haven't seen a deck like that play out so well in a while. Couple weeks back SCG did a deck tech on a variant Greg Mitchell calls Reanimator Tendrils. Same concept, not sure how I missed it.

Speaking of missing… they caught Justin Uppal on screen for a few minutes. I think he was playing Jund. Such a cute little guy and a great player.

Moving Forward On Skaky Ground

Skyrim is definitely a step forward from Morrowind and Oblivion in terms of story, game play, and technology. Yet sometimes the price of progress is pain. A good deal of pain.

I cannot count the times I've encountered this type of vitriol expressed in varying levels of rage:

NEVER AGAIN. Not starting another save.

F§CK OFF.
3rd f*cking save file, 70 hours played on each save.
F*cking wasted time.
EVERY DAMN TIME a bug, a glitch, or whaterver bulls*it this game has, it ruins my save file.
I'm ????ing tired of this s*it.
I even bought two dlcs and I never fuc*ing got to play them because my save file got ruined before even being able to spend some time on them.
I can't stand this.
a total of 200+ hours wasted on this game is enough time to understand that it is bad and I won't play it anymore.
I don't even use ANY mods, disabled the steam cloud system too, nothing helped.
How can people reach the f*ucking high levels in this game?
Once I was able to get to level 47, then the game decided to start crashing randomly, 10 seconds into the game.
The second time everyone got mad and started chasing me and trying to kill me (like vampirism lvl 4 but I didn't have vampirism.
This last time, my lakeview house DISAPPEARED, it vanished, just gone, for no reason, with all the stuff and the time I put into it.
I get blocked by bulls*it whenever i try to make any progress in this game.

ENOUGH.

If you are here looking for an advice, don't buy this game, it's a waste of time.

His last comment there is rather amusing. Aren't all games a waste of time? But I digress…

Though it's mostly a rant there was more conversation wherein some questionable mod usage came into play. In my estimation the source of all the save-game woes is Papyrus.

As a former software engineer I understand the desire to evolve. Revamping the old scripting engine must have been a sexy concept. It feels "right" to move from last century's functional coding into modern objects. There are plenty of gains in performance and efficiency to justify it. Yet the scope of Bethesda's scripting engine seems to fall short. Consider one of the dev's feedback on the forums:

Some clarification seems to be in order. :)

All instances of a script will have their variable values saved. If the game deletes the object the script is attached to, and there are NO variables or registrations pointing at that script object, and no currently running functions on that object, then the data will be cleaned up. (There is some very basic circular-reference checking, but it's safer to clear out the variables yourself by setting them to NONE) If the object is deleted in the editor or a mod is removed the data will NOT be cleaned (as Papyrus simply assumes the object is not loaded and will be loaded at some point in the future).

The above, as well as any script referenced by any of the above scripts will also have some basic type information saved (which lets the save game load process patch up the object's memory if you add/remove/change variables between save/load). This is what usually will throw the "missing script" errors as it's trying to compare the save game's type information with the type information on disk.

Any running event/function gets its byte code saved as well. (As well as all other functions/events in the same call stack)

Non-running functions at the time of save do not get any byte code saved.

Event registrations and inventory filters are saved. (Again, if a form is removed in the editor or a mod removed, Papyrus assumes the form is simply not loaded, and so will not clean up registrations)

As Arathmoor pointed out - uninstallation of mods is not official supported. Updating of mods is supported, within the guidelines specified on the wiki.

Wiki Page on Papyrus and Save Games

The dev points out the source of much pain: "If the object is deleted in the editor or a mod is removed the data will NOT be cleaned (as Papyrus simply assumes the object is not loaded and will be loaded at some point in the future)." Absolutely horrible design.

It's really an excuse or rationalization. The save game's file header tracks all mods that were active when the save was made. At run-time the Papyrus engine know all of the mods that are running. The environment thus exists to then remove any forms/scripts that no longer have parents. That is not being done.

Papyrus is external to the game engine so perhaps it can't look at what mods are currently active. Perhaps it doesn't track the source of forms/scripts that it is running. Maybe Papyrus has it's own development team and it's an internal product that will be used on multiple titles. Being on the outside I don't know what's "really" going on. I can only guess at why Papyrus isn't being clean and responsible.

The result of this? Bethesda support asserts as the dev above did: "uninstallation of mods is not (officially) supported." Yet a basic design question can be asked: if un-installation is not supported, why is it allowed? The only warning the user ever gets is:

There's no mention of what content is missing. There's no understanding of what the impact of "Some objects may no longer be available." is. And this message will no longer be displayed once a new save is made.

The responsible course here would be a message that says, "This save requires content from 'Mod Title' and cannot be safely loaded without it." Sure it might be frustrating to the player but it will save the product from repeated PR attacks like the one above.

The next step would be responsible object handling in Papyrus. So "Papyrus simply assumes the object is not loaded and will be loaded at some point in the future." That's understandable. But after about the 50th attempt to access a form it might be safe to say it isn't going to be loaded. Remove the code, stack, and memory allocated to it.

The next step would be a file analyzer that could clean up fragments outside the game in hopes of  circumventing CTDs. This is what the community will end up providing.

Morrowind and Oblivion were such fun games to mod—yet creating a clean save to remove mods was incredibly easy. My heart goes out to Bethseda as they are tarnishing this legacy. If they're going to improve their technology, they need to improve the support for that technology. Otherwise they need to change the modular paradigm they no longer intend to support.

Of course all of this speaks to the PC platform and its save game bloat. Not sure what the hell is going on with the console folks. Just glad I don't try to play on a PS3. *lol*

Your Destiny Looms

The first wave of official Destiny information has been unleashed. Now there's a flood of points and impressions. There's even a Pre-Order button on the site… which seems pretty aggressive for a game that isn't due to release for more than a year.

What I found most amusing was their attempt to distance themselves from being an MMO:

"These are living, open worlds with evolving stories, changing time of day…and every one is full of players," says engineering lead Chris Butcher. "Destiny is an always online experience, but it's not an MMO."

It's certainly been a fun fifteen plus years since Ultima Online started going so it is time to make MMO a dirty word. But ... it's an MMO. *lol*

I've been largely impressed with everything brought to life in the Halo universe. From what's out there now this will addition will not disappoint.

Remember... It's Okay to Steal

I hate when people in groups need on things that are offspec without asking or even caring. I always wait for mainspec people to roll or ask if they're taking a while. Make me expect the same courtesy.

Been leveling the warrior and hit 89 last night, so I've been queue'd while questing. Takes anywhere from 10-25 minutes a pop. So on the 19th attempt it was a relief when the Choker of the Pure Heart finally dropped. Unfortunately the healer was paladin and he rolled:

Amazingly the next queue it dropped again. Sadly the tank was a DK. *sigh* Annoyed enough to post and tweet.

While it's frustrating it's not unexpected. It really wouldn't bother me if the timing weren't so bad. A 480 neck would be a helpful iLevel boost as I'm about to hit 90—making heroics and LFR that much easier to get into. Well that and I've been repeating Shadowfang Keep so many damn times for nothing.

So the next time I feel like rolling on something, I will. Spread the karma.

You Picked a Bad Time to Patch, Friend

Spent a little time over on the new Island then came back to Skyrim to wrap up some minor quests and store all my new reagents/armor. Had a couple of crashes so decided to restart the computer. Trying to launch the game I was just greeted with:

The Update News button was useless. Just a link to the Skyrim newsfeed where the official announcement was up along with a "63 days later here we go PC users!" blurb. Nosing around the folders there was nothing new except in the Data folder. There's another 1gb texture file: HighResTexturePack03. Yay!

Erm… maybe. Starting to wonder if all these crashes are due to my video card getting max'd out. Might be time to upgrade the old GeForce 450.

Yay for Real... Maybe

There we go. Something a little more beefy. Nothing's changed in the game folder so poked around some. Found Dragonborn.esm and Dragonborn.bsa downloading to C:\steam\steamapps\downloading\72850\Data. Weeee!

Something Just Happened.... but What?

Yay! Well kinda…

It went really fast. The TESV executable is the same. And there's no new ESM. Will try launching the game and restarting Steam. Maybe do a verify files…

Tick-Tock, Dragonborn

Ended up pre-ordering Dragonborn from Green Man Gaming since they had it for $16. While it's only four dollars less it's the principle of the thing. I hate how the DLC concept drives the industry. Bethesda hasn't milked it like Capcom or most EA game yet it I'm loathe to contribute. Usually I'm fine waiting a couple of months until they go on sale. But … yeah. This is Skyrim.

Got an eMail from GMG about an hour ago with the key. According to Steam it unlocks in less than two hours. I spent some time last night clearing up my main character's file. Finished the Dawnguard story line, dismissed Serana, sold of some junk, did some Smithing, et cetera. Also got the Skyrim directory cleared out. I actually have ten different characters so it took time to get their saves compressed and add-ons organized.

Then there was the Clean Save process. I've been pretty good about trying out mods with the other toons while keeping few on Aenara. Currently she's attached only to the official DLCs, the Portal 2 mod, and the Shadow Striping Fix. I like the SSF since it doesn't use scripts or have any resources. I attached my own BSA to it with custom meshes and textures. I hate loose files. All of this made it easy to clean-up and prepare for Dragonborn.

It's going to be difficult to play without SkyUI and Categorized Favorites Menu. The geniuses at SKSE code so fast hopefully it will be back soon. And I really, really hope this doesn't break Wrye Bash for too long. Then there's the CK... how long will it be til it gets updated? And what new functions and resources will be available to mod with?! *excitement*