Skyrim: New update brings back feature that drove fans up the wall years ago

Bethesda dares to make another foray into paid mods in Skyrim. We summarize for you what exactly is changing now

We recently reported that Starfield is set to be as long-lasting as Skyrim. And now there’s news about the most successful of all Bethesda games. Its Special Edition has received a fairly extensive update with some bug fixes, comfort improvements and more.

The biggest and most controversial new features, however, are the so-called Creations You can find out exactly what’s behind them here

Return of the paid mods

After Bethesda and Valve backfired spectacularly in 2015 with the announcement of paid mods and the rather immature plans were quickly discontinued, the Creation Club was introduced in 2017. This allowed selected modders to offer their creations for Fallout 4 and Skyrim directly in the game for a fee and collect royalties in return.

This model was in operation until 2023, but will be discontinued with the new update in favor of Bethesda Game Studios Creations . This new platform for the Special Edition of Skyrim now combines free and paid fan content, and is intended to enable other modders to earn money with their work. Here’s a brief summary of what exactly is changing:

• Verified Modders: In the future, modders will be able to apply to participate in the Verified Creator Program and if they are accepted, they will be able to earn money beforehand. If accepted, they will be able to offer mods that have been previously verified by Bethesda at a price of their choice and receive an unspecified share of the proceeds. Verified modders can also continue to publish mods on the platform free of charge.
• What happens to my mods?  Existing free mods cannot be charged for afterwards. Only completely new creations will be accepted. So you don’t have to worry about your favorite mods.
• What happens to Creation Club credits and paid content? &nbspIf you have already purchased mods from the Creation Club, these will of course be retained. You can also spend your credits on the new creations.
• Are there already creations?  The update for Skyrim already brings the first paid content from well-known modders for the new platform. This includes various houses, clothing, weapons, dungeons, companions and more.

What will happen in the future?

It remains to be seen how successful the new model for paid mods will be. Initial community reactions on (Reddit) range from mere disinterest, to concerns about previously free mods, to rejection and anger. How the modding community will accept Bethesda’s offer cannot be predicted at the moment.

Of course, it is to be expected that Bethesda will offer the creations in other games sooner or later. In a FAQ it says:

Two other obvious candidates would be Fallout 4 and Starfield. The post-apocalyptic role-playing game is likely to receive a next-gen update next year, which could also introduce the new mod platform. Starfield will receive official mod support in 2024, which would also be a suitable time to release the first creations

Other new features in the update In addition to the switch to the new creations, the Skyrim update also contains other notable new features. Among other things, the Special Edition now supports the Steam Deck, as well as ultrawide monitors with formats such as 21:9 or 32:9.

Patch Notes

New functions

• The menus for mods and the Creation Club have been merged into one Creations menu.
• Added function to check for missing creations in case creations are missing when loading a save state.
• The current load order can now be saved and retrieved on Bethesda.net.
• The ESL selection has been doubled and now has 4,096 entries. Source Scripts for Fishing, Rare Curiosities, Saints and Temptresses, and Survival Mode are now Creator Resources.
• A resource pack has been added to the game to support Creators.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when fighting the Dwarf Ballista.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when transferring large amounts of arrows to a companion.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent “A Kind Judgment” from starting when certain NPCs were dead.
• Fixed a bug that caused the game to slow down with many creations.
• Fixed a bug that caused the game world to be underwater after fast travel.
• Fixed a bug that caused NPCs to repeatedly sit down and stand up when using furniture.
• Fixed a bug that caused the controls to freeze when eating a corpse in survival mode while Namira’s ring was equipped.
• Added missing dirt in slot 1 for female faces.
• Fixed a bug that prevented trading with some hunters.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented Miraak from appearing when stealing Dragon Souls.
• Arvak can now be summoned in the Forgotten Vale.
• The faces of vampire cattle in Volkihar Fortress are no longer black.
• Fixed a bug that caused the sky of the Soul Tomb to be incorrect after leaving the Reaper’s Den.
• Restored the cobblestones in the execution area of Helgen.
• Non-lootable NPCs in the Cave of the Rocks can now be looted again.
• Fixed incorrect alpha properties in some Solitude assets.
• Fixed incorrect alpha properties for the Blade Armor and Blood Dragon.
• Fixed incorrect values for these weapons: Volcanic Glass Warhammer, Wrought Draugr Waraxe, Ebony Mace, Ebony Waraxe, and most daggers.
• Fixed bugs with orcish war axes that were using the wrong model.
• Fixed a bug that caused vampire-equipped ebony ore shields to be invisible.
• Corrected the value of the Restoration’s Banded Iron Armor.
• Dwarven Scrap Metal can now be sold to Blacksmiths.
• Honeycomb can now be sold to the appropriate merchants.
• An incorrect obstacle marker west of Windhelm has been removed.
• Fixed a bug that could cause collisions after lowering the drawbridge during “The Battle for Whitewater”.
• Fixed an issue that could sometimes cause the portals in the Forgotten Vale to lack visual effects.
• Fixed an issue that caused the portals in the Forgotten Valley to turn purple when opened.
• Fixed incorrect geometry on the pillars in Vyrthur’s Throne Room.
• Removed an incorrect “Activate” indicator on the Wheat Windmills.
• Talos’ Blessing now displays a 20% reduction in the Active Effects menu as intended, instead of 0%.
• The Argonian Report, Volume II, now uses the correct world model.
• Fixed a clipping bug with the cell door of the kidnapped NPC in Treva’s Watch.
• Adjusted the position of an iron ore vein so that the player camera no longer collides with a mammoth skull trap in the Standing Stream camp.
• Fixed a bug that caused the stones on the bridge under Solitude to float.
• Fixed a bug where there was a gap in the area west of the blood shard mines.
• Fixed a bug where there was a hole in the wolf skull cave.
• Fixed a bug where there was a hole in the Argonian Quarters.
• Fixed a bug where there was a height difference in Nchuand-Zel: Control Center.
• Fixed a bug that caused flickering in Largashbur.
• Fixed a bug that caused a gap in the rocks near Lake Ilinalta.
• Removed obsolete files for grass from the “Other” archive.
• Improved the performance in Vyrthur’s Throne Room.
• General performance improvements.
• Fixed various spelling and localization errors.

Alternative Armor – Ebony Plate

• Fixed localization errors.

Alternative Armor – Elven Hunter

• Localization errors have been fixed.

Alternate Armor – Orcish Scales

• The armor can now be found in the forge under “Orc”, no longer under “Miscellaneous”.

Alternative armor – leather

• The quest description now fits the quest better.

Alternative Armor – Silver

• Localization errors have been fixed.

Alternative Armor – Soldier’s Steel

• Aldepius no longer talks about the Moth Priest in the dialog selection during the Prophet quest.

Bloodfrost Lord’s House

• The surplus emerald shining piece holder has been replaced by the previously missing holder for the sapphire shining piece.

Bone wolf

• Fixed an issue that prevented zombies from spawning in certain locations when Bone Wolves were present.
• Fixed a translation error during encounters in the wilderness.

The Occasion

• Arvak can now be summoned in the lands of the dead.
• Plants in the Deadlands now react to the talent “Green Thumb”.
• Localization errors have been fixed.

Champions of the Civil War

• Missing translations have been added.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a crash after obtaining the associated armor.

The competition

• Randagulf’s fists can now be hardened.

Deadly Horror

• Fixed a bug that caused the meshes for the legs to be missing on equipped captain boots.

Advanced crossbow package

• Fixed localization errors.

Fishing

• The dwarf sunfish is now correctly described in the quest description of “Whenever it rains”.
• The Draugr weapon textures now match the rest of the set better.
• Localization errors have been fixed.

Ghosts of the Tribunal

• Fixed a bug that could cause the screen to freeze if the Trueflame ritual was performed too quickly.

Grimoire of the Necromancer

• Arrows of the summoned skeleton archer can no longer be looted.
• Localization errors have been fixed.

Saints and Seductresses

• The plants in the root tunnels now react to the “Green Thumb” talent.
• Fixed the low value of the Madness Ore Sword.
• Fixed localization errors.

Shadow Crack

• Items can no longer be stolen from the shadow.
• Localization errors have been fixed.

Staff of Sheogorath

• Localization errors have been fixed.

Soul Thunder & Soul Protection

• Localization errors have been fixed.

Survival mode

• Fixed an issue where players could continue to use magic without end even though it was already exhausted.

Wild Horses

• Localization errors have been fixed.

On PC only

FEATURE: Support for ultrawide monitors (16:9, 16:10, 21:9, 32:9)

FEATURE: Support for Steam Deck.

FEATURE: Various improvements to the console.

• CTRL+C can now be used to copy the selected reference in the console.
• CTRL+V can now be used to paste text from the clipboard into the console.
• “KAH” (kill all hostiles) has been added to the console as a command to kill all enemies.
• “GetSelectedRefBase” has been added to the console as a command to retrieve the base form ID for the selected reference.
• The Base Form ID is now displayed together with the selected Reference ID.
• The “Help” command can now be used to filter by form type.

FEATURE: “sStartingCell”, “sStartingCellX” and “sStartingCellY” can now be added to the General section of your SkyrimCustom.ini to automatically load at specified locations at game startup.

FEATURE: Support for macros.

• In your game directory you will find the new file “SkyrimConsoleDefault.ini”. This contains the layout and the latest basic commands. You can customize this list by creating a file with the name “SkyrimConsole.ini” in the same folder.
• Fixed an issue that caused the screen to become smaller after using Alt+Tab.
• General stability improvements and optimizations.

Only for Epic

• Fixed an issue where Xbox controllers were not recognized.

On PlayStation only

• Fixed an issue that caused the player camera to face north when exiting the character menu while sitting on a horse.
• Fixed an issue where action prompts would sometimes freeze on screen after loading a save.
• Fixed an issue that caused flickering in the Shattered Bottle Cistern.
• PS4: Fixed a bug with the option button icon.
• PS5: Fixed a bug that caused the sub-items in the quest list to be misaligned.

On Xbox only

• General stability improvements in Morthal.

Creation Kit

• Stability improvements.
• New checkbox for “Show Edited Forms Only” in the object window.
• The data menu now has a “Modified Date” column.
• Plug-ins and Masterfiles can now be sorted by clicking on the category names in the data menu.
• The title bar now shows whether a plug-in is ESL-compliant based on the last save status.
• The borders for landscapes can now be switched between “visible”, “visible over all geometry” and “off”.
• RoboVoice is now available so you can easily add placeholders for voice output.
• LipFuzer is now available so you can create final FUZ files.
• LipGenerator has been updated to 64-bit.
• Users:inside can now select existing language files directly from the “Edit Response” window in the file explorer.
• The Creation Kit now warns you if your plug-in is write-protected.

New functions for Papyrus

Function SetContainerAllowStolenItems(bool setAllowStolenItems) native.

• Determines whether stolen items appear in the menu (only for containers).

int Function GetAllItemsCount() native

• Gets the number of items from a container or inventory.

bool Function IsContainerEmpty() native

• Returns if the container or inventory is empty.

Function RemoveAllStolenItems(ObjectReference akTransferTo = None) native

• Removes all stolen items and transfers them to the other object.