![Sad :-(](./images/smilies/sad5.gif)
Searching this annoying issue though comes up with a number of results on Google, but no real ideas why. Perhaps when the CK is released something may be found...maybe scripts, meshes or something that is location specific. I remember Anvil and the areas up to Kvatch in Oblivion having the same type of behaviour, which I did experience myself to varying degrees. Some of that, and particularly near Anvil itself, was apparently due to bad mesh optimization particularly at the city entrance. Many times I just avoided the whole Anvil area because of CTD's which was sad because it was my favourite landscape in the whole game. Elsweyr Anequina filled in that gap very nicely though and I spent a lot of gaming time there and with the WAC patch it was ideal.
Anyway, back to Skyrim...I should also mention I'm still using the 1.3 patch as I refuse to Beta test patches no matter that people seem to be having good results so I hope there's something in the general performance fixes that sorts out Riften and surrounds.
I've played over 222 hours with my first character and after getting past the initial teething troubles of the early patches and the constant freezes I was having, my game has been almost faultless.
That is, except for the areas directly surrounding and south of Riften. Now, the above mentioned character (I only have two) was able to complete all quests inside Riften, buy the house and become Thane, complete the Thieves Guild etc and has no trouble fast traveling directly to the inside the town. If I need to go anywhere south of Riften however the likelihood of a complete system freeze is absolutely inevitable....whether it's within a few minutes or an hour, different locations and situations. It also only happened in the exterior and never in caves or dungeons, so far.
Frustratingly, my latest character's first visit to Riften via carriage from Whiterun, didn't go so well. Within seconds of arrival a frost dragon appeared, (as expected since Fast travel or carriage rides practically guarantees a dragon spawn) and then the trouble started. The Khajiit merchants were there as well so they and the guards, plus some citizens (morons) along with myself decided to attack the dragon. Instant CTD. Tried this several times and the same result. Instant CTD. At least it wasn't a freeze so I didn't have to hard reset the PC.
I read in one of those Google results that some people seem to think the appearance of the frost dragon is the culprit here, which I actually think is quite reasonable since I was able to run around the stables to the town entrance preparing to enter, (and refusing to pay off the guard), until the dragon appeared, and before anyone attempted to engage it. It was also mentioned in the Google results that letting the guards kill the dragon may help so I tried that as well and it didn't make any difference. I could replicate the same result over and over...instant CTD when the dragon appears or within 10 seconds of aggro being established IF it was at the town entrance or near the stables.
I ended up riding from Ivarstead to Riften (on a roundabout path) after following a Companions quest and met the dragon on the road just past Goldenglow on the way to Riften, but this time I was able to kill it, a spriggan, several bandits and a bear at the same time, and continue on and into the town.
Another thing to note is that I have since killed two dragons at the Riften Stable area after exiting the town and have had no problems. One was a blood dragon and the other a normal one. Not that I think that frost dragons in particular are relevant as I've also killed several of them in other locations.
What MAY be significant is the initial visit to the town seems to have a scripted dragon encounter no matter whether the player (me in this case) fast travels, walks or takes a carriage to Riften, and that may be the cause of the CTD and possible ongoing corruption of saved games.
I'm fanatical about regular saving in this game in case of freezes, but this time since I've had no CTD's or freezes at all with this character up until level 20 or so, I'd gotten complacent so I lost a couple of hours progress. Wasn't too big a deal, but it reminded me to spam Quick Save again every few minutes (slight exaggeration, but not by much) and I have a TON of hard saves that I have to remove from the Saves folder because the game just hates having too many saves present. I have all autosaves turned off as they've always been a source of save corruption in TES and the Fallout games.
What's annoying me is once again and with this fresh character the game now freezes in Riften, in interiors such as the the Keep, as well as the surrounding areas south of the town. The rest of the ENTIRE game map is CTD and freeze free and I can play for hours without issues, until I go near Riften or south of it.
Last time, with my first character I verified the game cache which did nothing. I read on a Steam forum post that doing a "clean Save" procedure as in Oblivion can help but I haven't done that yet and can't see the point when a character hasn't even been anywhere near the area. But anything is worth a try I guess.