The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim patch next week; Steam Workshop-powered mods in January

Valve's Steam Workshop will support The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim mods after the Creation Kit mod tools are released in January, developer Bethesda announced today. "Continued game updates" are also promised, starting with a small update next week.

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Next week will bring an "incremental update" to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim with fixes for the infamous backwards-flying dragon and other recently-introduced bugs. After that, developer Bethesda has revealed, there'll be "continued game updates," and mod tools will be released for PC in January, using Valve's Steam Workshop.

Fixes for broken resistances and the silly dragons are confirmed for next week's patch, but Bethesda isn't sharing the full changelog just yet. Beyond that, Bethesda plans to release "full title updates" plus "a lot... not just a few" smaller "gameplay updates" after the holidays. PC will get more frequent, and faster, fixes, as Steam doesn't have the rigid certification process of consoles.

After the fun of the backwards dragons, and less fun broken resistances, Bethesda says, "we need to treat our updates with greater care. If we get too aggressive trying to fix a minor issue, we run a risk of breaking something larger in a game like this." It's prioritizing code-side fixes over data-based quest and balance fixes at first, "to be safe."

The real long-term Skyrim excitement, however, will come from January's release of the Creation Kit for PC. It'll be integrated with the Steam Workshop, allowing mod authors to upload their work directly to Steam, where it can be browsed, rated, and easily installed for free.

"The Creation Kit will bundle your mod and upload it to the Workshop, where everyone can browse, rate, and flag mods for download. You'll be able to do this from any web device, including your smartphone," Bethesda explains. "Like a live Netflix queue, when you fire up Skyrim, mods you flagged will be automatically downloaded and installed."

The Steam Workshop initially launched for Team Fortress 2 to track user-made items submitted to Valve in the hope of becoming official.

Mod authors will still be able to release mods the old-fashioned way, if they so fancy. Or, one imagines, if they have particularly lewd content to distribute.

From The Chatty
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    December 1, 2011 2:00 PM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim patch next week; Steam Workshop-powered mods in January.

    Valve's Steam Workshop will support The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim mods after the Creation Kit mod tools are released in January, developer Bethesda announced today. "Continued game updates" are also promised, starting with a small update next week.

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      December 1, 2011 2:00 PM

      Holy shit that's amazing. If I never have to use Skyrim Nexus again, I'll be a happy fucking man

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        December 1, 2011 2:04 PM

        I like the nexus sites. Good resource for mods, easy searching and sorting, usually good descriptions of how the mods work along with detailed instructions for use, and on top of rating they have well comments for each mod and forums for discussing any issues, plus screenshots if it does something visual.

        Skyrim Nexus is extremely sparse right now because the tools aren't out yet, I've had no real problems with it though I'm sure it will be a lot easier to download something through steam workshop directly, if you know what you are looking for and can find it right away.

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          December 1, 2011 2:13 PM

          They're slow, broken, filled with WAY too many ads, and take forever to actually download a file. They're just plain bad.

          But yeah it's where the content is so I'll use it until that changes.

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            December 1, 2011 3:47 PM

            Weird. I never noticed ads but there's like probably a good reason for that on a modern browser with extension support.

            As for speed, most of the real construction set mods are so tiny it doesn't matter, but the Skyrim Nexus site itself seems snappy. Huh. My only beef is that you have to login to download.

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              December 1, 2011 5:01 PM

              At least it's the same login across all nexus sites. Been using mine since I think Oblivion.

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              December 2, 2011 6:33 AM

              How do you miss the ads when they start out with the sound blaring?

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              December 2, 2011 7:00 AM

              You do? I didn't login to download the two mods I downloaded. Maybe noscript breaks their login requirement?

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            December 1, 2011 5:02 PM

            Eh, I got the lifetime thing ages ago so it works pretty well for me and no ads.

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          December 1, 2011 5:02 PM

          Easy searching and sorting? I've found searching for mods there to be kind of a pain in the ass.

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            December 1, 2011 5:32 PM

            The filtering of files is 100% broken. Try saying you want to view top mods released in the last 2 days; it doesn't do anything. And the "recently added" section only goes 10 pages. So if it's not relatively new or one of the top mods of all time, it's very, very hard to discover cool mods.

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            December 1, 2011 5:36 PM

            I've never had problems finding mods for Oblivion and Fallout 3 on their respective nexus sites. And the few I looked for with Skyrim I found right away? Their database is rather small at the moment because the tools aren't out yet so searching may not be the best solution right now (still worked for me), but if you go to files > categories every mod will be listed there, and you can sort by date / size / rating / etc.

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        December 1, 2011 8:23 PM

        I liked the Nexus sites up until they redesigned their websites recently it's nowhere near as convenient to navigate through them now.

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      December 1, 2011 2:09 PM

      [deleted]

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        December 1, 2011 2:29 PM

        [deleted]

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          December 1, 2011 2:29 PM

          [deleted]

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          December 1, 2011 3:49 PM

          You mean every time you want to download a file, you don't have to wait for a popup to decide that your download is "ready"? Sometimes you even have to select what server to download from! It's like some fileplanet shit up ins.

          To be fair it's not that bad. But I'd love something better.

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            December 2, 2011 7:38 AM

            Actually that happens to me too. Most times I just have to wait for the download, but like 1 of 5 times I'll have to tell it to use the dallas servers.

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      December 1, 2011 3:30 PM

      Thanks to Bethesda Games for releasing mod tools to their game so quickly after release, in comparison to other PC games:

      Call of Duty: Black Ops: released November 9, 2011; mod tools beta released via Steam on June 22, 2011: http://www.gamefront.com/treyarch-quietly-launches-black-ops-mod-tools/

      Rage: released October 4, 2011; still no mod tools, despite promising an editor on release (the console command "idStudio" does nothing): http://www.shacknews.com/article/68361/rage-will-ship-with-level

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        December 1, 2011 3:41 PM

        yeah, Bethesda games can do no wrong. I've been playing their games faithfully since Morrowind.

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        December 1, 2011 3:51 PM

        oops; CoD:BLOPS release should read November 9, 2010.

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      December 1, 2011 3:42 PM

      Now this is amazing. More games that use Steam Workshop please! :)

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      December 1, 2011 4:46 PM

      I did not know about Steam Workshop. That sounds like a killer feature. Bringing some order and ease of use to the unmitigated chaos of the mod scene has big potential. Is there a tip jar or way to compensate mod makers through Steam Workshop?

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        December 1, 2011 4:50 PM

        [deleted]

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          December 1, 2011 8:32 PM

          I would bet a bunch on this. ESPECIALLY after they went out of their way for TF2 players to support map makers through the stamp system, and for people who designed items to be compensated through Mann Co. Store sales.

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        December 1, 2011 8:14 PM

        Well you have to pay for the current TF2 items that are available, so yes.
        You can browse the Steam Workshop here - http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse?browsesort=accepted&p=1
        Items have to be approved by Valve before they can be downloaded. I'm guessing this won't be the case for Skyrim.

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        December 2, 2011 8:12 AM

        Desura does this pretty well. Add you game to the list, download mods from ModDB.
        Not sure about Skyrim, but it's worked well for lots of other stuff I have, like Source, Crysis, and Homeworld 2.

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      December 1, 2011 5:00 PM

      Value adding DRM. Thats how you do it. (Assuming that it'd be too much effort to pirate workshop only mods)

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      December 1, 2011 5:02 PM

      tits on mudcrabs.

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        December 1, 2011 5:03 PM

        A giant boob on top of the mudcrab, and a vagina for a mouth.

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      December 2, 2011 6:38 AM

      I've ended up just unplugging my ethernet cable when I want to play to avoid patching it.

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