It should come as no surprise that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim launched with a whole host of bugs. Bethesda RPGs are renowned for their massive worlds, but with that size comes a greater propensity for stuff to just plain go wrong. Having been through this before, Bethesda started working on a major patch soon after release, and it looks like they're finally ready to deliver.
Wednesday’s patch, which has already gone live for PlayStation 3 users, is dubbed “Skyrim 1.2” and aims to fix a whole host of actual bugs. Here’s the full list of changes, straight from Bethesda:
- Improved occasional performance issues resulting from long term play (PlayStation 3)
- Fixed issue where textures would not properly upgrade when installed to drive (Xbox 360)
- Fixed crash on startup when audio is set to sample rate other than 44100Hz (PC)
- Fixed issue where projectiles did not properly fade away
- Fixed occasional issue where a guest would arrive to the player’s wedding dead
- Dragon corpses now clean up properly
- Fixed rare issue where dragons would not attack
- Fixed rare NPC sleeping animation bug
- Fixed rare issue with dead corpses being cleared up prematurely
- Skeleton Key will now work properly if player has no lockpicks in their inventory
- Fixed rare issue with renaming enchanted weapons and armor
- Fixed rare issue with dragons not properly giving souls after death
- ESC button can now be used to exit menus (PC)
- Fixed occasional mouse sensitivity issues (PC)
- General functionality fixes related to remapping buttons and controls (PC)
Note that this patch is separate from a minor one released last week that properly tied the game’s PC executable to Steam. This had the side effect of removing a bunch of mods upon update and subsequently limiting one’s ability to tamper with the game, such as installing a third-party large address aware patch that enabled Skyrim to draw on more than just 2 GB of system RAM. (There is now a workaround for those who’d like to take full advantage of their PC’s hardware.)
This likely won't be the last Skyrim patch, and future DLC packs will likely come with their own bugs and hiccups. But this should improve the game for scores of players (that texture bug on the 360 is a big one) just in time for the holidays.
Source: Bethesda via Giant Bomb
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far327 - Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - link
Sounds like most of the "bugs" I keep hearing about are simply because people are moving through the UI menus to quickly and creating errors for themselves. How about slow down a bit so you don't press the wrong button on accident. This happened to me, but I decided I was rushing through the inventory to quickly. I now relax a bit more in UI and have enjoyed the way it was created since.Leonick - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - link
I think I know what you are talking about... You are clicking too far to the left, hitting just left of the actual menu item, why they wouldn't let that run the whole width of the menu is a good question, or why missing it would close the menu.far327 - Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - link
Doesn't happen for me. Maybe an ID10T errorCisephys - Monday, November 28, 2011 - link
I'll be happy for the HD install fix on the 360 -- though I will say, I haven't been all that bothered by the load times from disc. I think devs are pretty clever about that these days. Still, nice change, hope it shaves some seconds here and there.And kinda interesting about the dragons-not-attacking thing; in my time so far I've encountered maybe 5-6 non-story dragons, and two of them wouldn't attack, just circled around overhead. Pretty high percentage for a rare bug. The effect wasn't without worth though; it's kind of unnerving to have a dragon hanging around, wondering when the other shoe (claw?) will drop. Fun effect if you get into it.
Souka - Monday, November 28, 2011 - link
I shot some magic/arrow at one of those dragons...he came after me right away.At the time, I didn't even think it was a bug.. .just part of the game.
Iketh - Monday, November 28, 2011 - link
Yea that gave the dragons personality. Not sure why that is considered a bug.Iketh - Monday, November 28, 2011 - link
...except in that it wasn't planned. There are a ton of other aspects about the game that make me scratch my head along the same lines, such as Lydia saying the same damn thing over and over when you want to look at her inventory, AND the game makes you listen to it unless you click a button repeatedly... They should fire their testers.Daveman509 - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - link
I'm not sure if you've ever been in QA before. They don't decide what get's fixed, the product managers/owners do. Some of the QA stories from the gaming industry are grim. The PM will go through and set a demarcation line, all bugs under it don't get fixed in the shipping product. That could be in the 1,000s. Whether or not any of the ones in Skyrim are/were/should have been show stoppers is a matter of debate, but blaming the testing/QA staff shows some ignorance on the development cycle.Iketh - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - link
No sir, you're the ignorant one. First off, what I mentioned are not bugs. Noone said a word about bugs. They are intentional parts of the game that are annoying. My point was, who the hell decided that was ok? The time to change what I mentioned in code is literally less than a minute, ie she shuts up after the first 5 iterations...The only people in their team who would find Lydia annoying are the testers.
Yes I have been in QA, and yes I am now a programmer. Again, they should fire their testers.
mpschan - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - link
I'm confused. You blame the testers, then say that these are design decisions and not bugs (indicating it's not a QA issue), and then go right back and say fire the QA team again.Daveman509 is right. Deadlines are set all the time by people who are not as concerned by the quality of the product, but rather the bottom line. If you don't understand this, then I can't imagine what environment you've tested/programmed in.
Our testing team finds bugs and occasionally (but rarely) design issues all the time that don't get fixed due to deadlines set by our CEO. Just because software is released with bugs or design issues, doesn't mean the QA team didn't find them.