By Craig Pearson on January 20th, 2012 at 10:24 am.
There’s so much to see and do in Skyrim that I might make a mod to hide half of it. I keep getting distracted by bears fighting dragons fighting the Forsworn, when all I really want to do is harvest some Nirnroot. Next week I’ll be able to start the long process of unfunning it when the mod tools, The Creation Kit, are released, alongside patch 1.4. You can pretend you were born on the first of January and look here for the full patch details. Read it in Max Von Sydow’s voice, for greater effect.
1.4 also brings the Skyrim’s Steam Workshop, a browseable mod store that players can use to upload, rate and download mods, all hosted on Steam. I’m fascinated: mods are usually treated like an unexploded bomb by publishers and developers, especially after Hot Coffee. They can plausibly deny the content and their connection to it if they just give the development tools and let you get on with it, but Valve and Bethesda are hosting player’s creations. They’re essentially publishing it. That’s rather brave.
20/01/2012 at 10:30 BoZo says:
Yes!
20/01/2012 at 10:33 Clavus says:
“They’re essentially publishing it. That’s rather brave.”
I don’t think they’ll allow the more questionable mods to be hosted. Luckily the Steam workshop isn’t required to install mods so the Skyrim Nexus should still function.
20/01/2012 at 10:59 kukouri says:
I’m excited. Hope Nexus still works, I like being able to get things through Steam, but I love Nexus as well.
20/01/2012 at 11:14 Bluerps says:
Yeah – I’d be surprised if the countless “change every female clothing to lingerie of some kind”-mods or the “give every woman the measurements of a pornstar”-mods would make it onto Steam (or stay there long, if they do).
20/01/2012 at 11:36 Monkey says:
As much as i like the nexuseses, having to trawl threw a thousand big boob, skimpy armour, guy with boner mods is a little annoying. They really need to put all that stuff in a separate category
It does need to be careful not to be sidelined as the “skyrim porn mod” site while steam takes the rest
20/01/2012 at 13:25 Calneon says:
There are top 100 lists for adult mods, and non adult mods. I generally have no problem avoiding the adult stuff.
20/01/2012 at 13:33 Cythraul says:
Monkey,
Calneon has already beat me to it, but I’ll reiterate: there are search options on Skyrim Nexus that can allow or block adult-only mods in your queries. In fact, if you’re not logged in to your Nexus account, the adult content mods don’t even show up at all, no matter how you’re searching.
20/01/2012 at 14:07 Monkey says:
I know there is a non-adult search. But go to the armour category and sort by endorsements. Most of them (not all i know) are skimpy female versions of armours. Its not the biggest problem in my life i grant you, but still
20/01/2012 at 14:13 Urthman says:
As much as i like the nexuseses, having to trawl threw a thousand big boob, skimpy armour, guy with boner mods is a little annoying.
Poor guy. I hope you never have to use Google image search.
20/01/2012 at 19:24 edwardoka says:
The irony of course is that I imagine that “adult” mods are more likely to be created and used by people who are rather immature – or am I being too judgemental? :/
20/01/2012 at 10:34 olemars says:
Desura has an excellent mod “store” that works wonderfully, even when the game the mod is for is installed through steam, so it’s not like this concept is such a novel thing.
Especially useful now that Megaupload is dragged into the dungeons, meaning 90% of download links for mods are dead…
20/01/2012 at 10:42 mjig says:
I don’t see why I would ever use the Steam Workshop over Skyrim Nexus, especially with how easy the mod manager is to use now. Seems like this only serves to make it more annoying to browse mods, since I will have to do it both places to make sure I haven’t missed anything awesome.
20/01/2012 at 10:58 Craig Pearson says:
The Steam store can be browsed on your phone, so you can queue up mods to be downloaded when you’re away from your PC.
20/01/2012 at 10:59 Kdansky says:
Because god help us if the player spots a few naked breasts while murdering hundreds of people.
20/01/2012 at 11:29 bigtoeohno says:
Breasts are very taboo.
20/01/2012 at 11:37 Monkey says:
taboob
20/01/2012 at 11:43 bigtoeohno says:
Breast pun ever!
20/01/2012 at 11:44 The Tupper says:
Not more puns! Nip it in the bud, says I.
20/01/2012 at 11:45 TheWhippetLord says:
meh. ’tis naught but cheap titillation
20/01/2012 at 11:57 The Tupper says:
Areola hope that’s the end of these rather juvenile, fumbling puns.
20/01/2012 at 12:47 lamontagne says:
I missed a lot of the news on previous patches, are we still limited to 2GB of Mammary?
20/01/2012 at 12:50 The Tupper says:
I think there may be a community patch that paps it up a bit.
20/01/2012 at 13:15 WingNutZA says:
Bam! Tit job.
20/01/2012 at 14:36 Monkey says:
That nearly bust the pun chain
20/01/2012 at 14:50 neolith says:
Breast pun thread ever.
20/01/2012 at 14:59 Duffin says:
This patch is sure to send nipples through the community.
20/01/2012 at 16:46 Tams80 says:
Apocrine loud! Do your puns have no limits?!
20/01/2012 at 16:52 Grygus says:
I wonder how long we can milk this.
20/01/2012 at 17:00 The Tupper says:
Milk! That reminds me: off to the grocers to get some milk so I can have a lovely cup of tea. I’ll pour it into my favourite mug, adorned with hand-painted ceramic depicting famous ocean-liners and fishing boats.
It’s a sea cup.
22/01/2012 at 00:40 Hastur says:
Did the milk come in jugs?
20/01/2012 at 10:46 TheApologist says:
Good news, everyone!
As someone who is vaguely mod-wary given a mix of not quite knowing where to go, what to get and where to put it when I have it (make your own jokes), this is good news. All that great user-made stuff in a convenient place in Steam makes me happy.
20/01/2012 at 11:30 DickSocrates says:
It’s already all in a convient place called Skyrim Nexus. And the Nexus sites have single handedly kept all Bethesda games alive by providing mod space for the past 10 years.
20/01/2012 at 11:38 TheApologist says:
You’re right, of course. And I know it is just part laziness and part fear (of wrecking my game), but I think it being right there in Steam might mean I actually use them rather than just intending to.
I’m part of the problem :(
20/01/2012 at 12:13 Velvetmeds says:
You know what’s even more convenient than Nexus? Having them on Steam. Cause you need Steam to play the game, therefore Steam will likely be open, therefore you don’t even need to go to firefox, open a bookmark, etc. It’s right THERE ————————————> on steam
20/01/2012 at 12:57 Kent says:
Single… ? Dude, I went to all other kinds of places for my Morrowind mods. Heck, I still do. Even for Oblivion I went to several other places before giving nexus an eye once in a while. Why would I do that? Because Nexus hosts a lot… and I do mean a lot of low quality content. Believe it or not but I don’t need three different breast enhancement mods. I don’t need lousy animations made in sodding Blender and I definitely don’t need three hundred weapons that have the exact same models as the weapons already in the game.
20/01/2012 at 13:03 MajorManiac says:
@TheApologist:
If you’re unsure how to use mods for Skyrim, I think you’ll find the Nexus Mod Manager a very usful tool. It makes it possible to download and install a mod in 3 mouse clicks.
To install the Nexus Mod Manager follow this great youtube vid (which includes the link you need) – http://youtu.be/N_4RotEtks0
Then (as described in the video), go to the Nexus website – http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/top/alltime.php
This is the easiest way to install mods I’ve come across in 15 years of gaming. So I hope you find this useful.
20/01/2012 at 16:57 Grygus says:
That is why Nexus has a search function and endorsement system. Sort by endorsement, and the community favorites are at the top. There are also categories so that you can look for exactly the kind of mod you want. If you’re trying to find a mod by just clicking ‘Top 100 All Time’ and browsing the list, you’re doing it in the least efficient way available.
I also like the implicit faith that Steam will not host low quality mods, including a hundred sword retextures. I hope you are not too heart-broken.
20/01/2012 at 10:56 Khemm says:
When are they going to patch out Steam DRM? The game was essentially DRM-free once you got through the painful process of getting your retail copy to run, but of course they had to patch the DRM in !
20/01/2012 at 16:34 ResonanceCascade says:
It’s like listening to my crazy grandpa who still complains that the U.S. went off the gold standard. That ship has sailed.
20/01/2012 at 17:02 Grygus says:
Yeah I’m of the opinion that current DRM solutions are a complete waste of time and money, but Steam has grown beyond mere DRM; it has actual benefits and some tens of millions of users. You may as well welcome your new Steam overlords.
It’s okay to still hate Origin, though. Just copy and paste all your objections there, plus add a bullet point at the bottom about how it isn’t even as good as Steam, a service you can barely bring yourself to accept. Instant Internet acceptance.
20/01/2012 at 17:07 Kaira- says:
Steam’s few benefits aren’t something that explains the need for the DRM, those services could well be offered without tying them to the DRM-side.
20/01/2012 at 19:16 Zelius says:
@Kaira,
That’s exactly the point. The benefits of Steam are there because DRM is there. They’re meant to “distract” people from the downsides of DRM use. When Gabe Newell said “piracy is a service issue”, he was specifically talking about this idea. Providing better service and benefits over the benefits pirating might have, like a DRM-free (and free in general) product.
21/01/2012 at 18:01 Josh W says:
Hmm, so if you stop skyrim receiving patches, it’s drm free forever? But the moment you get patches you get DRM too? Seems quite an elegant solution actually, choose one or the other.
20/01/2012 at 10:59 Schadenfreude says:
Which Max Von Sydow voice? His actual voice or the terrible impersonator who seems to provide half of his character’s lines?
Seriously, what was up with that? Jarringly stupid and insulting that they thought people wouldn’t notice.
20/01/2012 at 11:36 The Tupper says:
Max Von Sydow’s in the game!?! I’m 300 hours in and I haven’t heard him (I think). Is he hiding in Solitude? I haven’t explored much there.
20/01/2012 at 12:13 RobF says:
Yeah, that was a really weird thing to do.
20/01/2012 at 16:06 Schadenfreude says:
@ The Tupper
If you go through the main quest you can’t miss him; he won’t turn up otherwise.
20/01/2012 at 17:02 The Tupper says:
That’ll be the reason then – I still haven’t quite finished the main quest line. Thanks.
20/01/2012 at 17:39 Burning Man says:
Wow this is a real thing? o.O Can you like me to a place with more details? I never noticed it myself, but even if I did, I doubt I would have indulged the thought.
20/01/2012 at 11:07 terry says:
I’m excited by this, but hopefully there’s a robust conflict detection system. BOSS was a godsend for this with Oblivion, and I’m assuming there’s going to be some sort of master list. I’m sort of worried that people will scroll down the list installing everything and then melting down when Sexy Raindrops.esm makes Whiterun turn pink.
20/01/2012 at 11:12 Recidivist says:
Psssst, it’s Nirnroot :>
Also; Yay.
20/01/2012 at 11:15 TheApologist says:
*googles*
Oh yeah, so it is! How on earth have I read that wrong for literally hundreds of hours?!
20/01/2012 at 11:17 Craig Pearson says:
I totally read it wrong every single time.
20/01/2012 at 11:38 The Tupper says:
I only realised two days ago that it’s ‘HAGraven’ rather than ‘HARGraven’. Makes sense, in retrospect.
21/01/2012 at 11:28 MultiVaC says:
Wow, I read “Hagraven” as “Hargraven” for quite a while as well. Weird.
20/01/2012 at 11:15 Davee says:
HECK YES! Now I just need to come up with a good mod idea.
20/01/2012 at 11:19 Nemon says:
Well, how about announcing a huge epic province mod – only to have the entire project take an arrow in the knee when it turns out no one is capable of making the required gazillion meshes, textures and scripts required? Those are always fun to watch.
20/01/2012 at 13:25 westyfield says:
Have you considered maybe something involving… breasts?
20/01/2012 at 13:49 Shatners Bassoon says:
Davee! You Vikingr sod, tis Aethelwulf. Shall harass you on Steam sometime as well we have a few ideas up our sleeves, I have about 12 pages of ideas but yes the more help the merrier if your interested that is.
20/01/2012 at 13:52 Shatners Bassoon says:
Yarr Davee you Vikingr sod! Tis Aethelwulf here, I shall pester you on Steam sometime as I and some of the lads have several pages worth of ideas and one bloody large one. The more help the merrier, if your interested that is.
20/01/2012 at 17:06 Grygus says:
Unsolicited advice: start small. The most important thing for your first mod, even more than originality or quality, is to actually complete it.
20/01/2012 at 11:33 DickSocrates says:
Hopefully all the stuff still appears on Skyrim Nexus, or perhaps just have the unreasonably large mods on Steam. Still, seems like a bit of a kick in the teeth for Nexus, which has been superb for so long. Will just have to wait and see what it does to Nexus.
AND another thing, most of the mods people have been joking about here already exist and didn’t need the Creation tools. Modding is already quite advanced for Skyrim and I wouldn’t play the game without a certain combination of 10 mods that undoubtedly improve the game. None of those mods are naked women, btw. I got that particular fetish out of my system during Fallout 3.
20/01/2012 at 14:47 Furius says:
You can’t go five minutes in a Skyrim Mod thread without someone denouncing the nudie mods. Well I love the nudie mods. I even downloaded the nudie men one. In fact I recently upgraded to a more comically proportioned nudie mod as I was bored of the semi-realistic one i had. And I’m 28. so there. (To be fair though at least you’re saying you did it in FO3)
20/01/2012 at 11:40 Ian says:
Is it wrong that what I want most at this moment in time is a room with a bunch of armor stands?
I’ve got all the houses but not enough armor stands to put all the sets I’ve collected on. :( Preferably one inside one of them secret cupboards so I can put ones like my DB gear and, er, the Emperor’s clothes in there.
20/01/2012 at 13:29 Warlokk says:
Check this one out… it’s fairly new but so far it works really well, and it should give you what you need.
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6032
21/01/2012 at 12:39 Ian says:
That looks just the ticket. Ta muchly. :)
20/01/2012 at 11:41 The Tupper says:
Just a quick shout for the SkyUI mod if anyone still isn’t using it. It’s the inventory mod that was mentioned here a month or so ago and is brilliant. It’s been updated recently as well, now covering spells/effects.
Edit: Btw – I’ve always been a bit shy of changing my games from vanilla. SkyUI’s the only mod I’ve ever used for anything, I think.
20/01/2012 at 11:43 Monkey says:
Agreed SkyUI is a big big improvement
20/01/2012 at 12:32 Sp4rkR4t says:
SkyUI is so unfinished it’s actually worse then the default to me, QD Inventory is a far better alternative to me.
20/01/2012 at 12:38 Donkeyfumbler says:
It’s certainly unfinished, in that they have certain aspects of the UI still to work on, but those they have change are so much better that I struggle to see how you could say that it’s worse than the default.
SkyUI and the Categorized favourites menu (with, optionally, Headbomb’s better sorting) make a huge difference to the amount of time spent fiddling with the UI, especially if you bother with Alchemy/enchanting/smithing.
20/01/2012 at 14:35 soylentrobot says:
i guess steam workshop will allow them to control the inevitable and terrible horde of dreadful anime mods that plagued oblivion
and i never get the enter your age to proceed thing. it let me in and i said i was born in 1862, its not exactly difficult for a child to fool it
20/01/2012 at 15:22 TooMiserable says:
But I… But I WAS born on the first of january…
In any case, OH GOD FINALLY!
20/01/2012 at 16:48 Tams80 says:
Hey, Hot Coffee was a rather… expected mod. Don’t go decrying it!
20/01/2012 at 17:08 engion3 says:
Noooo I just got my game perfect with all my mods. I can’t even imagine all the stuff that will come out with a development kit. Check it outtt
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970431892/screenshots/
I have been going to the Nexus since Oblivion. The Nexus has the most devoted modders I have ever seen for any games. I’ll surely still go there but the steamworks could be a great entry point for people to by introduced to modding.
20/01/2012 at 17:13 DigitalSignalX says:
Anything that exposes more people to mods and the mod community is a good thing. My hope is once the truly virgin users get used to what Steam can do to improve their game, they’ll graduate to Nexus where they can drill down into the minutia of all the amazing things that likely will never make its way to Steam – simply because the majority of the established community doesn’t reside there.