I don't understand what the clientID has to do with server side code? Unfortuneately asp.net does not give full control over clientID but 4.0 will be introducing that feature for us.

I think your in a catch 22 with viewstate needed before you add your controls and your controls needing to be added in page_int so they can take advantage of viewstate.

I have not overriden the load or save viewstate events and I think it could be fraught with problems to add your own values that way. Me I'd probably just go for a cheap work around like stuffing those viewstate value somewhere else