Bethesda has announced that the Creation Kit for Skyrim will be released tomorrow. Aside from the release of the Creation Kit there is also a surprise in store for us. It is rumoured that this surprise might be an official high resolution texture pack, we will have to wait until tomorrow to find out if that's true!
See the official tweet from Bethesda's Pete Hines below.
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Bethesda has finished the 1.4 update for Skyrim and made it available to everyone on Steam. The update includes many quest and bug fixes, support for the upcoming Skyrim Workshop has been added as well.
The full changelog can be found below.
NEW FEATURES
- Skyrim launcher support for Skyrim Workshop (PC)
BUG FIXES
- General optimizations for memory and performance
- Fixed occasional issue with armor and clothing not displaying properly when placed on mannequins in player’s house (PS3)
- Long term play optimizations for memory and performance (PS3)
- Improved compiler optimization settings (PC)
- Memory optimizations related to scripting
- Fixed issue with dangling scripts not properly clearing from memory
- Fixed crashes related to pathing and AI
- Fixed crash in “Haemar’s Shame” if player had already completed “A Daedra’s Best Friend”
- Fixed rare crash with loading saved games
- Fixed issue with accented characters not displaying properly at the end of a line
- Fixed issue where dragon priest masks would not render correctly
- Fixed issue where quests would incorrectly progress after reloading a save
- Fixed issues with placing and removing books from bookshelves in the player’s home
- Optimized bookshelf script in player-owned houses that would occasionally block other scripts from properly firing off
- Fixed issue where weapon racks and plaques would not work correctly in player’s house if player immediately visits their house before purchasing any upgrades
- Fixed issue where the player house in Windhelm would not clean up properly
- Fixed crash related to giant attacks and absorb spells
- Fixed issue with ash piles not cleaning up properly
- Fixed occasional issue where overwriting an existing save would fail
- Fixed memory crash with container menu
- Fixed infinite loop with bookshelves
- Fixed issue where transforming back to human from werewolf would occasionally fail
- Bows and daggers will display properly when placed on weapon racks
- Fixed occasional audio issue that would play sound effects louder than intended
- Fixed bug related to hitching between cell boundaries
- Master Criminal achievement/trophy unlocks properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian
- Fixed issue where traps in Shalidor’s Maze would not work properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian versions
QUEST FIXES
- The Unusual Gem that was inside the Thalmor Embassy is now accessible after finishing “Diplomatic Immunity”
- In “Breaching Security”, the quest token is no longer required to receive a fortune reading from Olava the Feeble
- Fixed issue where Galmar would not complete Joining the Stormcloaks properly if “Season Unending” was an active quest
- Fixed issue where starting “Season Unending” after finishing “Joining the Stormcloaks” would prevent “The Jagged Crown” from starting properly
- Fixed issue where progressing through “Message to Whiterun” while “Season Unending” was still open would block progression for both quests
- In “Arniel’s Endeavor”, fixed issue where a quest journal would trigger multiple times
- In “Forbidden Legend”, the amulet fragment can no longer disappear after player leaves a dungeon without taking it
- Fixed rare issue in “Forbidden Legend” where killing Mikrul Gauldurson while sneaking would make his corpse unaccessible
- In “The White Phial”, the phial can no longer disappear if player leaves dungeon without taking it
- “The White Phial” will now start properly if player already has a briar heart in their inventory
- Player can no longer get stuck in Misty Grove after completing “A Night to Remember”
- Fixed issue where leaving Riften during “A Chance Arrangement” would prevent quest from progressing
- In “Darkness Returns”, a door in Twilight Sepulcher will properly open if the player leaves the dungeon for an extended period of time before completing the quest
- In “Revealing the Unseen”, if the player leaves the Oculory for an extended period of time after placing the focusing crystal and returns, the quest will proceed correctly
- “Onmund’s Request” will now start properly if player has already found Enthir’s staff before receiving this quest
- Fixed instance where Tonilia would stop buying stolen items and also would not give Guild Leader Armor
- “Repairing the Phial” will start properly if player already has unmelting snow or mammoth tusk in their inventory
- Finding Pantea’s Flute before speaking with Pantea no longer prevents her quest from updating
- In “The Break of Dawn”, fixed rare instance where a quest object would spawn incorrectly on the Katariah during Hail Sithis
- Fixed rare issue in “The Mind of Madness” where player is unable to equip the Wabbajack
- Fixed issue in “Pieces of the Past” where Mehrunes Dagon’s Razor will not trigger properly if player leaves the cell for extended period of time before activating it
- “Blood’s Honor” will start properly if you visited and completed Driftshade and an extended period of time passes before starting the quest.
- Fixed rare issue where “Dampened Spirits” would not start properly
- Fixed issue where player would be unable to become Thane of Riften if they purchased a home first
- Fixed issue where killing guards in Cidhna Mine would block progression for “No One Escapes Cidhna Mine”
- Fixed numerous issues with “Blood on the Ice” not triggering properly
- In “Blood on the Ice”, Calixto can now be killed if player owns a house in Windhelm
- In “The Cure for Madness”, killing Cicero then resurrecting him no longer impedes quest progress
- Fixed rare issue in “To Kill an Empire” where an NPC would fail to die properly
- Clearing Knifepoint Ridge before starting “Boethiah’s Champion” no longer prevents quest from starting.
Bethesda has released a video showing the Creation Kit in action. Check it out for a first look at Skyrim's modding tools!
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Read the diary from Production Director Ashley Cheng below for more information regarding the Creation Kit and the Steam Workshop.
Here’s Ash…
With each game we release — Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and now Skyrim — modders continue to use our worlds as a canvas to build the most incredibly creative and fun mods in gaming. The fact that Morrowind’s modding community is still going strong 10 years after its release is a testament to how essential our community is to the success of our games.
We’re big believers that if we go the extra mile and make our games as moddable as possible, the game will only be better for it. So the gameplay of “do whatever you want” extends to “make the game do whatever you want.” As we were building Skyrim and its tools, we made it a goal to try and keep the transition from our previous titles to Skyrim as smooth as possible for modders. More importantly, we want to make it easier for more people to enjoy mods. So we teamed up with Valve and created the Skyrim Workshop. We couldn’t be more pleased with how it’s turning out. Mods are a big part of what makes our games special, so we urge everyone to try it out. We’re going to keep looking for ways to get mods to more people, and hopefully one day to our console audience.
With Skyrim Workshop, you can browse and search for the latest or highest rated mods, subscribe to any that interest you, rate your favorites and post feedback. Once you’ve subscribed to some mods, start the Skyrim launcher and you’ll see your subscribed mods automatically download. The launcher will even check if a mod has been updated and grab the latest version.
If you want to try making mods (and we think everybody should), the Creation Kit will be a free download via Steam under Tools. The Creation Kit has lots of new features, including the ability to build archives. Plus you’ll want to check out the Creation Kit Wiki, our online documentation and help file, for more details.
Of course, you’ll still be able to use popular fan-hosted mod sites like Skyrim Nexus to find great mods to play. We did not change any functionality to exclude the way mods worked previously. We even added a few features to help out — for instance, custom INI files can now be packaged into mods so you don’t need to backup your INI files anymore.
And we’re not done. Neither is Valve. Give us your feedback on the Creation Kit and Skyrim Workshop in our forums. We both have updates in the works, so give us your thoughts.
Big thanks to programmers Ken Cockerham, Mike Lipari, and Shannon Bailey for getting the Skyrim Workshop up and running with Skyrim. And special kudos to Joel Burgess (who originally brought up the idea of using Steam Workshop) for shepherding this process along the way.
We’d also like to give big shout outs to Valve. We are all big Valve fan boys. Thanks to David Sawyer, Josh Weier, Pieter Wycoff, Kurtis Chinn, Tom Bui, Alden Kroll and Jason Holtman.
Finally, we’d like to thank all the modders who volunteered to beta test the Creation Kit and Skyrim Workshop. Your feedback has been invaluable.
We can’t wait to see your work!
The Skyrim 15k challenge is ending today. Newly submitted mods will no longer be eligible for participating in the contest. So far over 170 mods have been uploaded to Skyrim Forge and the amount is increasing every day. <span style="font-weight: normal;">Thanks to all of you for sharing your hard work and creativity with us!</span>
The winner of the grand prize will be announced around the 3rd of February.
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Our Skyrim Wiki can be found here.
Today we are highlighting two mods created by CaoMengde777: Automatons and Shurikens, Dwemer Schematics and Quest for Goldbrand. Both of these mods bring back items that were present in Morrowind and Oblivion.
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The first mod will add Dwemer Schematics to Skyrim, hidden in the Dwemer ruins scattered across the land. Besides adding these schematics they have also been made useful, unlike the ones found in Morrowind which served no purpose.
By using these schematics you can build various summonable Dwemer Automatons. They can be used to craft throwing stars as well, either enchanted or not.
The second mod adds Goldbrand, an ancient golden katana to the game and a quest to obtain it. You'll have to follow a trail of books and use a treasure map to complete this quest.
Once you own the sword you will be able to upgrade it into Eltonbrand, a more powerful version of the weapon.
Check these mods out if you were a fan of Skyrim's predecessors!
Find out more about the creation process of these mods below.
What inspired you to make these mods?
When I was like... hmm 14 or 15 when Morrowind came out, I used to mod that game more than I ever really played it haha, I never really made any really great mods, usually just silly things for me and my friends to mess around with, like boots that increase your speed 9999 or something like that, I did make a few areas for the Tamriel Rebuilt project, I got alot of experience modding games from Morrowind, and I tend to mess around making mods for most of the games I play, although I rarely release them to the public which is a shame....
How much time went into creating them?
Oh I am not sure, many many many hours, usually most the time is spent dawdling, just looking through the files and stuff trying to come up with some awesome ideas, or I tend to do a bit of the work, and then sit back and think about whats next... a lot of time wasting haha, sorta just making it up as I go along, If I had a proper plan of attack I'd make them much quicker.
Did you encounter any problems while working on your mods?
Many, many... too many to list, usually its because with somethings I make I screw up and misword a file path, or I forget something... but I go back and make sure it works.
Has it been difficult for you to mod without having the Creation Kit?
VERY, but after reading around websites I got a hang of it, I’m an electronics technician major, so I have some knowledge about hex code so I found it easy to mod the hex numbers. funny, I was adding objects into the game world by getting the object, then making a random change to the code, then load up the game..... and try another random number, (guess and checking)... recently I found out what these other modders that made the house mods were doing... jeez if I knew that method.... .... I’d have many more mods...
What tools did you use to make these mods possible?
Originally only Fallout Mod Manager's TESSnip, & NifSkope, also GIMP but for the newer mod, SkyEdit, Skyrim NPC Editor and Tamriel Rebuilt's name generator.
What did you like most about the development process of your mods?
What I like about modding, is it feels like I am inventing new things. and it's like artwork, but unlike a painting or drawing, it's an artwork you can interact with, and actually USE, so it feels like a really cool accomplishment. & I was looking in game to find a really epic location for the Goldbrand treasure... and I looked and looked all over, but then, I saw a shiny spot in the distance, and I was like whoooa!! thats soo cool thats what I needed to find :D :D
Are you planning to bring more features of previous Elder Scrolls games to Skyrim?
Well, I've added Goldbrand (morrowind and oblivion), and shurikens were something Morrowind had. I have retextured the caves and forts to look ashen, or daedric... I want to make an Oblivion Realm, the Hell level that Oblivion had, It will look different, have a different art style to it, but it will be pretty sweet... if I make it.... its alot of work... I was hoping to have the constuction kit for this contest, but I do have alot of the needed things already half made, I think I will take a short break from modding Skyrim, and then come back and complete the ideas I had (they are pretty epic, I have like 6 pages of a notebook FILLED with writings lol, new ideas too, like some sorcerers got stuck in Oblivion, one in particular is super powerful and has daedric metal dwemer robots, hopefully with machine guns and rocket launchers, which I already made a rocket launcher now as I write this :D) (im releasing a collection of new spells/ throwing items soon and the dwemer rocket launcher) and many more new ideas...
Do you have any advice for others who would like to start modding?
There is ALOT of information available, I have most of my experience just by modding other games, and I’ve modded ALOT of games hehe... but, It is actually very easy to learn, once you get into it, it is very easy... modding without the creation kit is really something you would have needed to know about how to mod oblivion first... but when the creation kit is out, it should be a breeze. The first part of anything is an Idea
Thanks to CaoMengde777 for creating these mods and for participating in the interview.
For today's mod highlight we are featuring Shawkab's latest creation: the Dovahkiin Hideout.
This mod adds an enormous basement to all of Skyrim's player homes. The hideout is shared by all homes, it basically connects them, making it an interesting alternative to the existing ways of travelling. It includes plenty of storage room, a library, crafting facilities and more.
Nickoli002 has created a video demonstrating the mod, check it out below to see the mod in action!
You can find our interview with Shawkab here.
This time we are taking a look at Overlook Tower, a mod created by SLuckyD.
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Similar to the last mod highlight we are looking at yet another player home. But this is not just any home! In fact, this mod will grant you access to a huge tower on top of a mountain.
If you enjoy hoarding as much loot as possible, this tower is for you. It offers plenty of storage space; each item category gets its own chest. Also there are crafting facilities available, such as an alchemy lab, a forge and more. This tower has everything you will need in one place. But that’s not everything: if you take the stairs to the top of the tower you will also get a great view of the landscape surrounding the tower.
Due to the lack of the Creation Kit making this mod was quite a challenging process for the creator. At the moment you will get free access to the tower, this might change in the future.
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<span style="font-size: small;">Video by nickoli002</span>
</center>Find out more about the creation process of this mod below.
What was your inspiration for creating this mod?
I wanted to release a simple player home, winding up to the summit of some mountain having a scenic view. I literally FLEW (tcl) around all of Skyrim, reconnoitering ALL the prime locations. It isn't my style to just alter a Vanilla home; so I assembled a 'new' one using the Winterhold College kitset. Basically it was something to keep me busy before beginning work on my BIG projects. Oftentimes I find that making mods and creating new content is hella more fun than playing the actual game! (no offense, Ma Beth.. <wink>)
How much time have you spent working on it?
The mod itself, a few hours... maybe 5 or 6, tops. It was figuring out HOW to do it all, without the 'new' CK software... that took a WHILE; but I did most of the R&D during the making of my earlier 'proof of concept' mods.
Did you come across any problems while making your mod?
The only thing that gave me trouble, and I STILL haven't gotten to work, is the ability to have companions enter the home with Player. The 'old' navMeshes apparently aren't compatible with Skyrim; this is the "pathing" which NPCs, monsters, and companions use to 'find their way.' Without working navMeshes, they 'don't know how' to enter or to move around obstacles, even if they WERE inside the Tower. I plan to fix this as soon as Ma Beth releases the newCK.
I'm also unable to add scripting to a mod, which is in a relatively new format - compiled in a way which neither I, nor anyone else seems to be able to create something meaningful with. This precludes any 'true' quests, dialog, or other aspects which I believe are incremental to the elevation of a plain mod to something GOOD.
Has it been difficult for you to mod without the Creation Kit?
In the beginning, it took some time to see what 'old' data is compatible with Skyrim; and to develop the procedures to get that data into a working, playable form. I wouldn't say it's been "difficult" though... it's been great practice and familiarization for when that new software finally IS released!
What tools did you use to make this mod possible?
- Fallout 3's GECK v1.5 - to create and arrange the interiors, and make new/custom items
- TESvSnip - editing the mod's raw data, and to copy/paste some Vanilla stuff which GECK can't do
- FO3Edit - for placing/arranging objects in SkyNilla's worldSpace ('Vanilla Skyrim' is just the plain game, WITHOUT any modifications)
- 3DSMax 2010x64 - to convert Skyrim's NIFs to Fallout 3's format, enabling me to literally SEE the objects I place and arrange in GECK (as opposed to the intolerable !red! exclamation-point-triangles)
- NifSkope - to tweak and modify those NIFs converted by 3DSMax
What did you like most about the development process of your mod?
The 'thrill of the chase,' as in the R&D, trial & error, and ultimate discovery of the methods to get all this stuff working and cohesive. There have been PLENTY of "Eureka!" moments the past two months! (I had NO idea we'd be able to pull this much off!) Second to that would be the actual arranging and placement of everything, as well as seeing my 'vision' working in-game and, ideally, enjoyed by others.
Are you planning to expand your mod when the Creation Kit is available?
ABSOLUTELY! There's a list a mile long of things I intend to add, change, or fix... then another list FIVE miles long of user requests I have no intention of doing myself. I'm MORE than willing to sanction others to make 'addons' or alternate versions of these things; though it seems few are willing to give 'true' modding a go 'preCK.' I foresee that after the new software is released, many may forget about or lose interest in this mod... in favor of making their own; somewhere else, and the way THEY want it from the get-go (NO hard feelings y'all!).
Could you tell us about any other mods you currently have in progress or planned for the future?
I'm currently working on my 'Gokstad Sailable Ship & Portable Player Home' mod; which itself is a standalone prequel to my future masterpiece - 'Stone Unhenged.' The former's title says quite a bit, and I've posted some details in the download section for that mod (which has a very basic, but working BETA version available).
Stone Unhenged is a HUGE project I've developed, which could EASILY evolve into another whole TES installment. It takes Player to the Lost Continent of Yokuda (aboard the Gokstad), a NEW worldSpace as large as Skyrim itself! Quests, lore, voice-acting, cities & NPCs, and even a 1:1 scale model of the REAL Stonehenge monument - which Player will be able to REBUILD and harness its power! There's simply TOO much to go into here. Much of this I've already done in/for Oblivion (though never released it, in anticipation of Skyrim). I only hope that I'll continue to have enough free time, energy, and resources to complete these projects and release them for Skyrim!
Do you have any advice for others who would like to start modding?
DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Start small and basic; THEN expand and complicate! Before asking questions, go to the MANY websites already dedicated to modding and asset creation; specifically the ones relating to Oblivion and Fallout 3 (and the different programs needed to do it with). Eventually there'll be Skyrim sites for this as well, but too much is still unknown and the 'old' ways will still carry a LOT of weight! Search for tutorials on specific methods, read forums and wikis for overcoming problems or 'sticky' situations, and make sure you follow directions! Trial & error, practice, and even the help files of software are invaluable.
I learned ALL I know about modding this way, the information is already out there SOMEWHERE... you just have to know what you need to be looking for and where to find it! Failing ALL that, THEN ask questions - many people would appreciate not having to type a single answer for something a thousand times. I LOVE to help others, but I've spent more time commenting, responding, documenting, and posting information than I've spent on actually developing and making the mods I've released! Of course I mean no offense to those I've personally helped... this is just general advice to anyone who is 'new' to the community! (or the few who want others to do everything FOR them.. heheheh)
Thanks to SLuckyD for creating this mod and for participating in the interview.
Bethesda has announced an approximate release date for both the Creation Kit and the 1.4 update. The Creation Kit will be ready for a release near the end of the month. The update is currently being tested on all platforms and will most likely be available next week, it will contain various bug and quest fixes.
It’s been a few weeks since our last update on Skyrim’s status, so we wanted to share details on what we’re working on.
The Creation Kit and Steam Workshop are nearly ready. We’re currently working with members of Valve and our modding community to do some final testing, and we’re on track for a public release near the end of the month. We think Skyrim modding is one of the game’s best features, and we have the best modders of any game. It’s been a lot of exciting work for us, and we can’t wait to unleash it.
Skyrim’s 1.4 update is currently undergoing testing on all three platforms. The update will include fixes and optimizations for the most common issues people have been reporting (see below). We’re hoping to finalize this next week, and submit it to the console manufacturers for certification, as well as release on PC.
Our current update plan for the PC is to first release our updates as “beta” versions through Steam. This is something you’ll be able to opt into through Steam and back-out of if needed. This is an extra safety check for everyone going forward and should expedite and improve our updating process for our PC users. We’ll have more info soon on how this will work.
Echoing what we said back in December, we’ll continue to look into issues that are being reported and subsequent updates will follow. You have all supported Skyrim in a huge way, and we’ll be supporting all of you, and continue to make the game better.
We have an important announcement to make about the ongoing Skyrim $15,000 challenge!
The Skyrim 15k challenge is nearing its end. If you would like to participate you can still do so, just make sure you submit your mod before the deadline. So far over 160 mods have been uploaded to Skyrim Forge and the amount is still growing daily.
To look back on the contest we have listed all of the mod highlights that we have done so far below. We will keep doing these regularly, so don’t worry if your mod has not been featured yet, it might just be the next one!
Skyrim First Week Modding Highlights
Curse Skyrim Challenge Update and Modder Interviews!
First of three-day mod features, and exciting Curse Skyrim $15k giveaway update!
Mod Feature Highlight - Day 2
Mod Feature Highlight - Day 3
New Curse.com Mod Video Features!
Happy Holidays from Curse - Skyrim Style!
New Video: Introducing Weightless Items and the Recipe Bundle!
Mod interview with KrimsonLust
Mod interview with Shawkab
The categories “UI/Maps” and “Dungeons/Quests” are still open! Mods uploaded under these categories will still be eligible for the prizes listed on the chart.
If your mod falls under one of the closed categories it does not mean that you are entirely out of luck! If the mod submitted would have been an eligible submission, it will be entered in our $3,000 grand prize giveaway so long as it’s submitted before our deadline, January 31st.
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Today we will take a look at Hillside Home Quest, a mod created by Shawkab.
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While we are still waiting for the Creation Kit to get released various mods have been created that were thought to be impossible at this moment, like new quests and player homes. Shawkab’s Hillside Home Quest is one of those creations.
This mod will not only add a new player home to the game, but also a quest that needs to be completed in order to obtain it. So that means you will have to do a little more than paying a sum of gold to get access to your new home! It all starts in Breezehome, the player home situated in Whiterun. Before installing this mod, make sure you have the house fully decorated, or else the quest will not start. The quest itself will be more challenging than most quests in the game; due to the lack of any map markers you will have to do some exploration to complete it.
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Find out more about the creation process of this mod below.
What was your inspiration for creating this mod?
The location was my main inspiration, I found it way before I knew anything about modding and wanted to have a house there.
How much time have you spent developing it?
Way too much... Everything needs to be placed individually, I found a few tricks to make it a little simpler for me but I think we're looking at around 40+ hours for this one so far, most of that was spent after I released the beta because of bugs, etc.
Did you come across any problems while working on your mod?
A lot, The problem right now is I can't create a NAV Mesh (Navigation Mesh,) which allows spouses/companions to move and live in your house, this is something I wanted to keep intact but I slowly realized how impossible it would be to keep in.
Since I released this mod I have had to recreate the entire thing from scratch, placing every piece of celery and every wall individually so that it could be in its own Cell (zone.) I also had issues with bookshelves, weapon racks, and mannequins which were activating oddly during a load... they're now working 100% for my 0.2 update.
Has it been difficult for you to mod without the Creation Kit?
I guess with my complaining so far it would seem so :)
It's hard, but I find it is the best way to learn. Things may be hard now but when they become easy, it will just seem that much easier for those who learned it the hard way after the construction kit is released.
What tools did you use in the development process of your mod?
TESSnip, FNVEdit, and a small amount of GECK to create a new Cell.
Are you planning to make any changes to your mod when the Creation Kit is available?
I still think I can make most of the changes before the CK, but after the CK I plan to add a Navigation Mesh which allows players to have their followers and spouses come in the house with them. I want to eventually code a house pet, or a personal maid, etc.
Could you tell us about any other mods you have planned for the future?
I like doing things that no one else does, pushing what is possible at the moment so I am always learning something. I have a few ideas for some quests, and more houses. When I learn something new I try to make something out of all I have learned.
Right now I'm working on a quest for thieves. It will include a underground passage under a major city, and inside the passage there will be ten chests. To receive the contents of those chests you will need to find the 10 keys that open the chests; these ten keys are hidden throughout the city. The keys can be somewhere as simple as a barrel, but as difficult as a Jarl's bedroom in a locked strongbox, or maybe even in the Jarl's pocket. You might even find notes leading you to some of the harder keys.
Do you have any advice for others who would like to start modding?
If you really love Skyrim, finish it first, then start modding. Modding can tend to taint your perspective of the game.
With that said, just jump in, it’s fun as hell and there are tons of tutorials and resources online right now, specially for texturing and modeling.
Thanks to Shawkab for creating this mod and for participating in the interview.
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Curse has an exciting announcement to make about the ongoing Skyrim $15,000 challenge!
The NPCs/Character contest category has been the second category to hit the 35 submission limit! This means that we've given out our prize pool for the "NPCs/Character" subsection of the contest. Any mods that are submitted that would fall under this category will no longer be eligible to earn the prize amounts listed on our Skyrim contest chart below.
Only the following categories are still eligible:
- Dungeons/Quests
- UI/Maps
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However, that doesn't mean that you're entirely out of luck! If the mod submitted would have been an eligible submission, it will be entered in our $3,000 grand prize giveaway so long as it's submitted before our deadline, January 31st.
Keep those mods coming! We're excited to have already given out that much cash to authors. Thanks to all of you for sharing your hard work and creativity with us!
Happy New Year everybody! We wish you a happy 2012! Be safe and enjoy New Years Day!
Today we will be featuring two mods created by KrimsonLust: Female Warpaints and Male Warpaints.
The character creation system of Skyrim brought us a lot of new features that were not present in its predecessor Oblivion, allowing us to customize our characters even more. One of those features is the ability to choose from a selection of warpaint patterns.
When the Creation Kit for Skyrim is available this will likely be one of the aspects that will be expanded upon by many mod authors, similar to what happened with eyes and hairstyles for Oblivion.
We still have to wait until the Creation Kit gets released in January, but KrimsonLust already went ahead and created two mods that replace 20 existing warpaint patterns, 10 for each gender. The designs vary in style, which makes them suitable for different characters and races. You will still be able to use the race-specific warpaint, as these mods only replace the generic warpaint that is available to all races (except the beast races).
Find out more about the creation process of these mods below.
Quote:What was the inspiration for the creation of your mods?
My inspiration for creating the warpaints was at first because I wanted my character to have more of a tribal look. After posting my first few I started getting requests for different warpaints so I continued doing it for other people.How much time have you spent on the development?
Each warpaint only takes me about 20 minutes. A pack of ten warpaints can take up to 4 hours. It can be a bit time consuming because most of the time if I change a file in the texture folder it doesn't register in the game until I restart it. I haven't found a better way to view the warpaints as I create them... yet :)Did you come across any problems while working on these mods?
The warpaints are fairly straight forward and easily done since you are only working with a black and white picture. The only problem I have really encountered is where the image stretches on certain faces, but that isn't anything I can really fix.What tools did you use in the process of making your mods?
To edit the .dds files I use Photoshop CS5 and my trusty Wacom Graphire tablet.Currently your war paint mods are replacements, will you change them into add-ons when the Creation Kit is available?
Yes, I will change the warpaints to be add-ons so people will have the option to keep the original warpaints if they desire.Are you planning to add more content to your current mods?
No, the warpaint packs that are out will stay the same for now, but I will be making additional packs for males and females to download, as well as taking more requests.Do you have any advice for others who would like to start modding?
Start with something you're interested in, or something you have skill in. It was easy for me to edit texture files because I have skill with Photoshop. Don't get frustrated if something doesn't work right away. Take a break and come back to it and it will probably be something simple that you overlooked... either that or search the forums :)Could you tell us about any other mods you have planned for the future?
I'm currently learning how to mesh with 3d studio max because I've been wanting to design my own armor and amulets, so stay tuned :)
Thanks to KrimsonLust for creating these mods and for participating in the interview.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! Those of you with plans, have a safe and fun filled day with family and friends... those that don't... well... have fun by yourself!
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This week, Nickoli002 shares with us two extremly useful Skyrim mods!
Both the Recipe Bundle and the Weightless Items mods by Wolferoo provide convenience in different ways – The Recipe Bundle allows users to use cooking as an alternative to alchemy for buffs and healing, and the Weightless Items mod gives players the freedom to not rely on a companion for extra carry weight.
Even better, both of these mods are available from within our Curse Client for easy-one click installations! Just click “Get More Mods” with Skyrim selected.
Check them out in action below!
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Mod authors: Be sure you're using our easy, user-friendly Packager to get your mods in our Curse Client!
This week, we are proud to announce that Curse has integrated Skyrim support into our Curse Client!
What does this mean for you? It's now incredibly easy and simple to install and manage mods with one click-installs, search for mods in a browseable database, and manage existing .esp and .esm files: complete with load order rearrangement! The client also creates multiple backups during the install and uninstall process, so you will never have to reinstall Skyrim due to one faulty mod!
Check out this video walkthrough below to see just how straightforward our Client makes mod management!
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</center>Authors: Don't forget to use our Packager to get your mods into the Client, gaining you more downloads and exposure, as well as giving your users the simplist method of installation! More information on how the Packager works is available here.
The Curse team would like to wish all of our Dovakhiins happy holidays in a very special way -- Skyrim style!
Thanks to an awesome mod from Thegal, our resident modder Nickoli002 was able to share witih us a very special story of how good ol' Saint Nick goes about punishing the rather naughty population of Tamriel. Because in Skyrim, no one is safe from his list: not even the chickens.
Happy Holidays, from all of the Curse Team!
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Mod Authors: Don't forget to download our brand new Packager to get your mods integrated into the Curse Client, getting you even more downloads, installs, and exposure! You can check out more on how it works here.
Curse is excited to announce the official inclusion of the latest Elder Scrolls games -- most notably Skyrim -- into our Curse Client!
This means that now you can use all of the excellent Curse Client features such as automatic one-click installations, update checks, and in-client addon discovery!
Note that these features only apply to files installed via the Client; if you would like to manage existing .ESP files in the Client, it can do that, too! Just click on the "Tools" icon, and then select "Plugin Load Order". The following screen will show below, letting you manage your pre-existing addons (and re-arrange load order!) in this window.
Just open the client and click “Get More Addons”, make sure either Skyrim or Oblivion is set in the drop down box, and all the great mods that are up on Curse.com and packaged for the Client are at your fingertips!
We know that mod installation for these games can seem daunting, especially uninstallation, and made sure to develop a solution that should ease any worries. The Curse Client keeps multiple backups of installed and uninstalled files to prevent users from ever having to completely reinstall the game. The goal of the client has always been to simplify your addon and modding needs, and our goal is to make the integration of these new games just as simple.
For the mod authors themselves, feel free to start packaging your mods so that they can be integrated into the Client! Note that you must do this for your mods to be in the client. Be sure to download our packager to get started and to get your files into our client for even more exposure! For any bug reports, oddities, feedback, or even general discussion regarding these new features, please post in our SkyrimForge forums dedicated to this to bring it to our attention!
</div>Curse.com has another exciting feature planned: Mod author videos showing off their awesome work! The first video to be released features DeckardCain85’s amazing Whiterun HQ Texture Pack.
The video, embedded below, was submitted by the mod author himself and features choice screenshots which showcase just how much of a difference this mod can make. Some of the retextures were redrawn up to four times their normal resolution as DeckardCain85 worked to make Whiterun more vivid and realistic.
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</center>Thanks so much for taking the time to make the video, DeckardCain85! Be sure to keep an eye out for even more Skyrim related videos on the CurseNetwork youtube channel, as there will be more to come soon! As always, if you would like your mod to be featured, please contact me -- Wishfire -- for more information.
Hi guys!
On Thursday December the 8th at 12:30PM CST we'll be taking the site off line for a maintenance window. During this time the website and is related services will be offline. We expect the downtime to last for less than two hours.
Thank you for your patience during this inconvenience.
UPDATE 1:30 PM CST: The maintenance has been completed.
For the last day of our three day mod feature, we take a look at a texture mod that seeks to make Skyrim an even more beautiful place by improving one of the most important aspects of the game – the people of Skyrim themselves. Just like the previous days, we were lucky enough to get an interview with this author to understand the process behind its creation.
Be sure to look at both Day 1 and Day 2 of our feature as well to get caught up if you haven’t already!
Be sure to click the above image for a higher resolution one, as it’s difficult to see just how much of a difference it makes in the thumbnail!
Xenius01 – normally known as just ‘Xenius’ – is no stranger to the modding community, having created quite a number of well-respected character and race mods for Oblivion. Skyrim is no exception for this author, as he has already pushed out texture replacements for just about all features of the various races of Tamriel. Even more impressive is that they are all meant to work together, making truly seamless and complete textures become a reality.
Detailed Bodies takes all non-beast races (although he’s got a mod for that, too!) and their vanilla textures, and then goes and doubles them. Specular maps got a rework too, making these textures look as high-res as they actually are. This means that bodies are smoother, more detailed, and all the blockiness (and most of the artifacts) have been removed.
Below are Xenius01’s thoughts on the creation process and the ideas behind his work.
How much work goes into making the vanilla textures higher res?
Xenius01: For me it didn’t take that much time, since modding and creating textures is nothing new to me. For Oblivion I’ve made a lot of custom races which mostly involved creating unique skin textures. Due to that I already had the skills and resources to improve Skyrim’s textures.
It’s hard to say exactly how much time it took as I didn’t count it, I’d say a few hours and that’s without testing and creating updates to improve on it, so all in all it would be a lot more than that.
Also I made this after I created the Detailed Faces mod, so I mostly knew how it would look in the game and how the lighting would affect the textures, which saved time as well. The reason for creating the Detailed Bodies was to make the bodies fit better to the Detailed Faces. The original body textures were already quite high resolution compared to the face textures, so that was not the most important reason for doing this.
In your opinion, what’s the most difficult aspect of Skyrim to retexture?
Xenius01: I mostly focus on character design and custom races. For me the most difficult aspect to improve would be the game world: architecture, landscape, plants, dungeons, and stuff like that. Most modders focus on one specific area (so others may find character design the most difficult), and for me that’s character design, although I’ve done a few other things before like weapons and clothing (textures only).
Can you tell us about any mods you have planned for the future?
Xenius01: I still have to update some of my mods here on SkyrimForge, also I created a compilation consisting of all of my character enhancements, this package will be available soon. It is meant for those who use all of my stuff and to make things easier by only having to download and update one file instead of a bunch of small ones.
Once the Creation Kit is available I also plan to start creating custom races for Skyrim, just like I did for Oblivion.
That does it for this week’s mod feature extravaganza!
In this second day of mod feature highlights for Skyrim, we’ll be featuring a wonderful compilation package of mods from a hard-working author who truly loves what she does. Just like yesterday, we also managed to snag a rather informative interview to gain further insight into just what work goes into these sorts of mods.
If you missed yesterday’s feature highlight and interview, you can catch up here!
Skyrimforge author Wolferoo decided that while the new food recipes and cooking skill in Skyrim were a wonderful additions, they just weren't refined enough. In fact, the idea for the mod came to her as she was forced to use console commands to obtain items like Baked Potatoes, which were oddly enough in the game, but had no cooking recipe.
Enter the gigantic, often-updated mod by the name of Cooking Recipe Bundle – a compilation of all the cooking mods Wolferoo had released at that point – adding over 60 new recipes, almost 50 entirely new items, and a super refined cooking experience. Skills and short-term food buffs were added, allowing for even more food options. Taking this customization even further is the existence of four separate files, so users can get exactly what they want.
Below, Wolferoo shares her thoughts and goals with the project from creation to execution.
What considerations did you have to try to keep the new recipes and the edits balanced to the original ones from the game?
Wolferoo: My goal was for resulting items to have similar quality to existing items, and scaled to the ease of acquisition. I can best explain this through examples...
-Baked potatoes was the first recipe I added. Cooking the base potato into the baked potato gave an increase in quality from 1 HP to 5 HP for the work of carrying the potato to a cook pot. The quality increase was small but so was the effort required.
-Cheesy bread results in a greater difference between ingredient quality and product quality, but takes a little more effort on behalf of the player. He must find two different ingredients, and possibly use recipes to cut the cheese into wedges before using them. Also when compared to other items of similar purpose, it is not overpowered. Its strength is equal to a standard quality restore health potion from an alchemy shop, or something an intermediate level alchemy character could produce.
-Draugr Porridge and a few others provide long term but fairly weak buffs, and require collecting several ingredients from various sources. I felt the difficulty in acquiring ingredients countered the long duration, and it would be too overpowered to have a strong buff with a long duration under any circumstance. As far as what enhancements to group together, I took inspiration from WoW on this one. The foods in this set are loosely based on classes, with the melee skills accompanied by stamina regeneration and the caster skills accompanied by majicka regeneration.
-Poached Warbler Egg and a dozen others were designed as an alchemy alternative. The ingredients are based on the ingredients' effects for potions. However the quantity required is greater than the two needed for creating a potion because there is no skill needed to create these items which have a greater quality than what a novice alchemist could create. Some characters may not want to learn alchemy, but want something more satisfying than buying buff potions from an NPC.
What methods did you use to add all these recipes? Was it difficult?
Wolferoo: I made the recipes using TESsnip. I got started by taking about two hours to go through a tutorial by Samutz on using TESsnip and trying out my own ideas for items to combine. Once I understood the pattern, which variables meant inputs outputs and quantities, making the mod was easy. I explored more of the data inside TESsnip and looked at what other modders were creating to get ideas for things I could make myself using the same patterns. Learning where spell IDs and variables were stored really opened up the possibilities because then I could put any buff on any item I created with whatever duration and strength I chose.
I have a background in programming, so understanding byte fields and how variables interact was simple for me. But a lack of prior experience doesn't need to scare off anyone interested in doing mods. If you have the patience to walk through the steps, learning about one field at a time, you can figure out how to change things too. And once the CK comes out, these modifications will have a much easier interface.
I'd estimate the time spent on the pack at about 8 hours, but it's hard to say because I expanded it in several stages. The learning curve is steep at first but once you've created a new item and a new recipe, most of the pain is over.
If you're interested in making recipe mods, or changing the attributes of items, open up a mod in TESsnip and poke around. Read what others have done both in the .esp or in their words on forum posts. And don't be afraid to ask questions. I'll gladly answer any PMs about where to find certain data I've manipulated and I'm sure there are other modders out there willing to help too.
Can you tell us about any mods you have planned for the future?
Wolferoo: My latest addition to the recipe package was the ability to refine sugar from honey, and then use the sugar as an ingredient. I plan to add flour in my next update, and then many recipes involving flour, sugar, and eggs. I would like to also add milk, perhaps sold by a farmer NPC, but I may wait until the Creation Kit for this addition. Depends on how ambitious I get, and how long until the CK is out.
Be sure to keep an eye out for updates from this author, as well as our next and final mod feature highlight and interview for this week tomorrow!
Today marks the beginning of a series of mod feature highlights, as well as an important announcement regarding our Curse Skyrim $15,000 giveaway!
Over the course of the next three days, we'll be featuring fantastic mods that not only improve gameplay, but help to immerse you even further in the world of Skyrim. To top it off, we've even got interviews with the authors themselves!
Starting off this week's mod feature is Arrowsmith – Simple Fletching. Mod author Samutz used some serious trial and error to come up with an excellent mod that allows you to create your own arrows at a blacksmithing forge – crafting them in bundles of 50 with the right items – letting your character live off the land.
With this mod enabled it feels almost as though fletching shipped with the game, as Samutz took care to make realistic recipes; with some only able to be crafted with proper blacksmithing skill perks or at Whiterun's infamous Skyforge.
Read on for some insight on how the mod was created, as well as a tutorial for how to create your own crafting recipes!
How did you create something like this without the toolkit being released?
Samutz<span style="font-weight: normal;">: I used the FallOut Mod Manager's TESsnip tool. With a little bit of tweaking, it can be used with Skyrim's master and plugin files, although with some limitations. After I figured out how to make my own plugin files, a lot of trial and error was needed to figure out what the different things did and how to make them do what I wanted.</span>
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</span>What considerations did you take to keep it balanced to fit the game world?
Samutz<span style="font-weight: normal;">: The first version actually wasn't balanced and mostly a proof of concept release. This was because I was still only a few hours in to the game and hadn't seen the higher level items yet.</span>
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</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">The second release rebalanced the smithing recipes based on feedback I received from the modding community and based on my experience playing a stealth archer character.</span>
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</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Since the second release, weaker arrows require cheaper or easy to find materials, while more powerful arrows require more expensive or rare materials, all while making enough arrows to last you a while so that you're not running back to town to make new arrows often.</span>
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</span>Can you tell us about any mods you have planned for the future?
Samutz<span style="font-weight: normal;">: I don't have any more mods planned. The original idea was for Arrowsmith to be a proof of concept for other modders to expand on. So I released a tutorial on how to make smithing recipes (which you can find here) which other modders have used to make their own mods.</span>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Curse has an exciting second announcement to make about the ongoing Skyrim $15,000 challenge!</span>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">The Items contest category has been the first category to hit the 35 submission limit! All this means is that we've given out our prize pool for the "Items" subsection of the contest. Any mods that are submitted that would fall under this category will no longer be eligible to earn the prize amounts listed on our Skyrim contest chart.</span>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">That doesn't mean that you're entirely out of luck, however! </span>If the mod submitted would have been an eligible submission, it will be entered in our $3,000 grand prize giveaway<span style="font-weight: normal;"> so long as it's submitted before our deadline, January 31st.</span>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Keep those mods coming! We're excited to have already given out that much cash to authors. Thanks to all of you for sharing your hard work and creativity with us!</span>
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We at Curse are proud to announce that our Skyrim modding community based on SkyrimForge.com is growing strong!
We have over 60 mods available for download on our Skyrim mod portal and many more being planned for development once the creation kit is released. We've already given out $5,170 to the creative and hard working authors participating in our Skyrim $15k Modding Challenge! That means there's still almost $7,000 just waiting to be claimed by authors who are up to the task, plus the chance of winning the $3,000 grand prize.
If you're interested in participating, head over to SkyrimForge.com and start uploading. Any mod that is uploaded before January 31st, whether it qualifies as one of the first 35 mods uploaded for that category or not, is eligible to win the grand prize!
Also, keep an eye on SkyrimForge.com for more information on Skyrim Curse client integration! The feature is about to head into closed beta testing and there will be more news soon.
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Below we have two interviews from two different perspectives of the mod author community!
Nickoli002 has already submitted numerous retextures such as his Glass Weapon Set Recolor, and the removal of the Ebony armor smoke effect. Kenneywings has become known for Lockpick Pro, a mod that allows you to pick locks with ease, and his Bethesda intro skip.
Both are talented modders who have provided some insight into modding without a toolkit!
<div> <div>Has it been difficult for you to mod without the toolkit?</div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>Nickoli002: Only to a certain extent. I have had to put some of my mods on hold since I cannot access the relevant files and have instead decided to do simple retextures/reskins of models in game. This is because it is very easy to access and identify the relevant files based on the item names and it requires relatively little knowledge to recolor/skin them for release.</div> <div><div> <div>Thanks so much to KenneyWings and Nickoli002 for chatting with us! </div> <div> </div> <div>Don't forget to check out the latest Skyrim mods on Curse.com and upload your mod to be entered to win the $3,000 grand prize!</div> <div> </div> <div> </div> </div>
</div> <div>KenneyWings: Difficult - no. It's a lot of work get everything working since you're basically 'hacking' into the games resource files so you're bound to miss files or classes to work with. I just had the right tools to work with (I'm a Flash game developer/designer) and that helped the process get along without any hitches.</div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>Nickolo002, can you explain how you've been creating such high-quality textures? For example, your glass weapon recolors not only have tons of detail, but also fit in the world perfectly.</div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>nickoli002: They are simply of the same quality of the originals, the creators did a great job with this game, and it shows in the model quality. Compared to them, I am merely coloring them with crayons! But I do extensive checking in game to make sure all of the model colors fit together, that there is no odd discoloration or errors. I also switch genders (via the “sexchange” command in console) in game to make sure that they work and fit on both male and female characters.</div> <div> <div> <div>
</div> <div>Can you explain how you are finding the individual texture files, and applying your new textures?</div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>nickoli002: Well the first step is to identify what model you want. Once that is done I use FOMM (Fallout Mod Manager) to browse the .bsa files located in the Skryim folder. Weapon and Armor models (as well as all textures) are located in the Skyrim – Textures.bsa. So once I identify which .bsa I want to extract files from, I open in it FOMM and browse to find the item I want. This is done by either searching by name or simply browsing the categories on the left.</div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>Once I find the relevant texture file I export it to a folder of my choosing. From there I open the .dds files in Photoshop with nvidia's DDS plugin. From there it is easy to modify the .dds file as with any image file. For the most part I am simply masking off each layer of detail that I want in Photoshop then overlaying custom color schemes, applying brightness/contrast, and change hues, etc. as desired.</div> <div> </div> <div>Once I achieve something I find decent I save the file as new .dds file, as well as creating new mipmaps in the process. Then I create the required folder structure within the Skyrim install directory and drop my new model there. Once the game is loaded, my new file is loaded instead of the one within the game and voila, you see the new color/model/etc. Then it is just back and forth between Photoshop and Skyrim to check model consistency, color, errors, etc.</div> </div> </div> <div> <div> <div>
</div> <div>And Kenneywings, can you explain how you've been interlacing your mods so seamlessly with the UI? Design-wise, your "Display time on loading screen mod" is integrated so well by design.</div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>KenneyWings: Well as I said, I'm a designer myself and over the course of years I've designed numerous of game interfaces so it wasn't a problem for me to take the Skyrim UI style and add onto it.</div> </div> </div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div> <div> <div>Can you explain how you are finding things like the algorithms for your mod "Lockpick Pro"?</div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>KenneyWings: While browsing the files I found that the data for the mod was in the game. I re-added in into the game and made sure it fit well with the rest of the UI.</div> </div> </div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>For returning modders, do you believe Archive Invalidation is going to be needed as with past Bethesda games?</div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>nickoli002: We will have to see if it is an issue as with past games. I don't know if they have fixed it or not, but since they never did with Oblivion (to my knowledge) I expect it will be needed.</div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>Do you have any advice for modders who can't wait for the toolkit, and want to start modding now?</div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>nickoli002: Sure. The biggest piece of advice I can come up with is to just get started on something. It's relatively easy, fun, and there are many tutorials on how to do it. If you need help there are many great places to start and it's never to late to learn. Obviously without the toolkit there are limitations but learning how to do modding, recoloring, and creating your own things is a fun trip, and very satisfying.</div> <div> </div> <div>KenneyWings: Unless you've had previous knowledge of Flash you might not want to start with modding the UI. Start with textures, sounds or data/strings. Those are all packed neatly in the game files and can be exchanged and altered without problems.</div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>Are you planning on going back and revising any of your mods once the toolkit is released?</div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>nickoli002: Oh yes, most if not all of them. I plan to make all of them separate entities and not just reskins (though I will leave the reskin versions of course). This is because some of the items have bad stats but look amazing, and I want people to wear items they like and not sacrifice game playability.</div> <div> </div> <div> <div> <div>KenneyWings: Depends on what the toolkit includes, I don't think it will include data or source files to change the UI but if it does I will go back and revise the mods. Data from Bethesda is always better than data I decompiled.</div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div>My next project is a complete overhaul of the UI, completely made from scratch and not using any Skyrim files. The UI is going to closely resemble the default UI of Skyrim but it'll be tailored to the PC (not gamepads). You can see a preview here. </div> </div> </div> </div>
Happy Thanksgiving to those that celebrate it, enjoy the time with your friends and families, and be safe on Black Friday. Enjoy!