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From experience (in-game, and through discussion), it is generally advised not to store gear/treasure in a random barrel in a cave, because

  1. Obviously because you can easily lose where that barrel was
  2. More specifically, because the game can "reset" in that area, and delete your stash.

Is there actually any evidence that can be found to prove this (other than just situational), so I know where I can/cannot set up a "base". I.e. is there anything in the code (or elsewhere) that might indicate the difference between "Breezehome", an Inn, or a random cave?

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  • I think we already have a question about Skyrim, asking where it's safe to store your stuff. But, this is much less broad, so that's good. May want to edit the question a bit more to focus on the specifics, too. – Frank Sep 28 '16 at 23:51
  • Related: Aside from containers in bought houses or guilds/organizations, are there other 'safe' containers which will store items permanently (won't reset)?, Skyrim, short term storage in random container – Lord Harkon Sep 29 '16 at 0:12
  • @amaranth I'm terrible at titles. I have difficulty paraphrasing, so if you have something that works better, please feel free to edit the title :) – Ben Sep 29 '16 at 0:27
  • The tag provides the context, so I just removed it from the title. As for the answer, I'm looking for something like that, but specifically in relation to dwellings (like Breezehome for example), in contrast with everything else. Eg. "you can look for (variable) tied to each dwelling/container" – Ben Sep 29 '16 at 0:50
  • The difference wouldn't be the container itself but the area it is in. The same thing that tells enemies to respawn probably tells containers to refill themselves as well. – VanBuzzKill Sep 29 '16 at 1:23
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In Skyrim, there are two types of cells: cells that reset, and cells that are "safe" (don't reset). Whether a cell resets is based on the EncounterZone set in the cell's properties. When a cell resets, most things will respawn themselves -- including containers. If a container does not have the respawn flag set during the cell reset, its contents will be unchanged.

The designers generally made "dwellings" cells that don't reset (i.e. the cell's EncounterZone has the "Never Resets" flag set to true), but there are some exceptions. For "dwellings" that do reset, it seems that the devs tried to set the respawn flags to all containers in the cell to false, but there are definitely some oversights.

To find cells that never reset in the Creation Kit, browse the Encounter Zones in the Object Window (found in the WorldData section), and sort by Never Resets. For each encounter zone that you see where Never Resets has a value of Y, view the Use Info, and sort by Type. This will list all the cells that use this encounter zone. Encounter Zone Use Report

To find places that reset, but have lots of non-respawning containers with the Creation Kit, one can look through the container items, sort by whether they respawn, then look at the Use Count for those containers. Oftentimes, you'll see that a container is used multiple times in one location. For instance, just now, I found that all the coffins the Riften Mausoleum don't respawn. Nifty!

Creation Kit Screenshot

Source: Long-time modder, worked on QA for Skyrim

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