Skyrim Patch Notes Released

[Greg Tito]

Skyrim Patch Notes Released

Bethesda released its PS3 patch today with a PC and Xbox 360 version imminent.

Skyrim may be a near-perfect RPG experience, but it still sucks when a programming glitch results in something unexpected. Office-mate [user]Susan Arendt[/user] reported losing her housecarl inexplicably this weekend, and some PS3 players have experienced unplayable lag after playing a while from the large save files. While I'm not sure if Susan will ever get Lydia back, the PS3 issue and many other bugs are squashed with Patch 1.2 released today by Bethesda. Skyrim is already eligible for a patch on the PS3, and PC and Xbox 360 users will have the patch available some time this week, probably by Wednesday, November 30th.

The full patch notes are here with specific platforms listed:


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)


While I'm sure that this patch will fix many issues, there are always more popping up. Bethesda says it will keep monitoring forums for complaints and fix what they can, so be sure to tell someone about the dragon that flies into the tower or books mysteriously disappearing from shelves.

Speaking of books, why not download a file with all the books from Skyrim [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114406-Take-Every-Book-in-Skyrim-with-You]?

Source: Bethblog [http://www.bethblog.com/index.php/2011/11/28/skyrim-1-2-update/]

Permalink

 

[Pandaman1911]

...that bug where arrows and ice spikes get permanently stuck on you will remain unchanged...

Fixed issue where projectiles did not properly fade away

That's what they meant by that. The rest of your gripes, no such luck, I'm afraid.

 

[Souplex]

Does it fix the bug where after you complete the Markarth conspiracy quest it's impossible to lose your bounty?
I can't go to jail to repay my debt to society, I can't pay the fine, I'm a criminal for life!

 

[Averant]

Ooooh... I was wondering where my housecarl went...

 

[Swyftstar]

Grrr, why do I have to wait until Wednesday? Bask in my impatience! Bask I say!!

 

[hazabaza1]

So can I still shoot Dragon bones with Ice Spikes?

 

[mikey7339]

Crap, I already forgot about the patch and wasn't going to play today. Might as well turn it on and get it updated for later this week.

Do they have any more technical info on any of these issues; the PS3 degraded performance issue in-particular. It seemed like some weird type of memory leak to me.

 

[ImperialSunlight]

Fixed rare issue with renaming enchanted weapons and armor


You can do this? Um, how?

Also, excellent news about the lag on PS3, mine is starting to get worse.

 

[DustyDrB]

Hmm...I've experienced two bugs (one I just noticed today), and neither look like they will be addressed.

-Meridia said she'd reveal the location of her beacon to me, but it never showed up on my map. I'll have to find it by pure chance now, since it spawns in a random location.

-Aela won't use any bow I give her, but instead uses her hunting bow. So that Legendary Ebony bow I gave her is doing nothing. There's a pretty big damage difference between the two, and would be even larger if I gave her an enchanted one.

 

[YunikoYokai5]

Well, downloaded it, went to do part of a main quest, killed a dragon and as I rode past the corpse my game froze...first time its done that. I'll give it one more shot but if it freezes again I'm deleting the patch. The lag was only minor in my case but I may not be as far in as some other people (in fact I know I'm not XD )

 

[ZenoX969]

Fixed rare issue where dragons would not attack

I thought that was just because the dragons were too scared to come after me. Such as low level Dragons, where I had to hit them with Dragonrend (or any offensive spell/shout) to get them to attack me.

Also... I have a more annoying bug that literally makes it impossible for me to continue the main story around Act 2, shortly after learning Dragonrend.

Spoiler

It's when you're supposed to trap Odahviing in Dragonsreach. After I hit him with Dragonrend and forced him to land, he doesn't follow me into the trap, instead he stops halfway there. Standing there invincible, with all the NPC's shouting "Quick, lure him into the trap before we all get killed!" and with me jumping around inches infront of his face without a single reaction. Tried to solve this many different ways but I always ended with the same result.

So I really hope it'll be fixed soon (if it's not already fixed in this patch) so that I can continue my game. And this is on Xbox 360.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Hmm...I've experienced two bugs (one I just noticed today), and neither look like they will be addressed.

-Meridia said she'd reveal the location of her beacon to me, but it never showed up on my map. I'll have to find it by pure chance now, since it spawns in a random location.

-Aela won't use any bow I give her, but instead uses her hunting bow. So that Legendary Ebony bow I gave her is doing nothing. There's a pretty big damage difference between the two, and would be even larger if I gave her an enchanted one.

Yeah, the way companions only sometimes equip certain items that you give them is really annoying.

OT: Thought there would be way more fixes this patch, considering I'm tripping over a rather large amount of bugs constantly in this game. I suppose this is better than nothing, but regardless, it's irritating.

 

[dmase]

...well at least they got the lag, the rest seems mostly unimportant. But looking through this list it doesn't even touch the numerous glitches I've had or seen on the TES wikis. For the most part the glitches are small but why did they prioritize a rare NPC sleeping animation bug over me not being able to get rid of the fucking instruments from the bards college. I don't know if they add actual weight but I think they do if so that is 8 lbs or so of loot I can't put on my pack mule/redguard.

 

[D0WNT0WN]

ESC button can now be used to exit menus (PC)

This should not have been needed to be patched in, what the hell?

 

[TimeLord]

Fixed occasional issue where a guest would arrive to the player's wedding dead

Thank the gods! That damn bug made me give up on Marrige since the guest arrives dead your bride turns on you and refuses to marry you!

 

[isometry]

So the interface will remain buggy and unchanged, that bug where arrows and ice spikes get permanently stuck on you will remain unchanged, the STUPID STUPID STUPID key bindings for containers (what's that, game? I just ate ALL my potion ingredients? but I click on things to take them out of the container, so I must click on them to put them.... aaah, I see. For some reason you guys decided that being able to eat potion ingredients, read books and equip armour and weapons while rifling through a chest was so important that you mapped "place item" to the FUCKING "R" key) will remain unchanged, the issue where NPC's would halt mission-critical movements and actions to have a chat because you got a little too close to them will remain unchanged, the bug that causes items in player-owned houses to fly around at random, making item placement pointless and causing an enormous mess will remain unchanged.

Colour me unimpressed.

Just get a programmable keyboard, or what I do is play on PC using an Xbox controller with custom key-mappings (I don't use the built-in xbox controller support because I want to completely customize the interface, which I do with pinnacle profiler).

Research in software development shows that normal users criticize any interface that is unfamiliar to them. The interfaces that are rated highly are the ones they are able to learn quickly. Conversely, we like user interfaces we are familiar with, no matter how poorly designed they are (e.g. the QWERTY keyboard layout).

I can't remember the last time I played a new game where I did not have to customize the interface to my liking using third-party software to reprogram keys. That's part of why I game on PC: by default most games have very limited options for remapping keys, and no options for macro keys, and so I need third party software to do it properly.

I'm not trying to excuse Bethesda or defend their interface. Like I said, I gave up on default UIs for all games years ago and took the matter into my own hands using programmable keys; IMO all developers these days fail by not making their UIs customizable enough. On the otherhand, third party software and programmable keyboards completely solve the problem for UI snobs like me, and that's why I recommend them to anyone who has trouble with the UI in any game.

 

[Pinstar]

General functionality fixes related to remapping buttons and controls (PC)


Such as... maybe the keypad keys for lefties?

 

[DustyDrB]

Hmm...I've experienced two bugs (one I just noticed today), and neither look like they will be addressed.

-Meridia said she'd reveal the location of her beacon to me, but it never showed up on my map. I'll have to find it by pure chance now, since it spawns in a random location.

-Aela won't use any bow I give her, but instead uses her hunting bow. So that Legendary Ebony bow I gave her is doing nothing. There's a pretty big damage difference between the two, and would be even larger if I gave her an enchanted one.

Yeah, the way companions only sometimes equip certain items that you give them is really annoying.

OT: Thought there would be way more fixes this patch, considering I'm tripping over a rather large amount of bugs constantly in this game. I suppose this is better than nothing, but regardless, it's irritating.

I haven't experienced this with any other companion. I've mostly used Erandur (best companion in the game), but have gone with Lydia, Kharjo, and that priest of Azura (whatever her name is) some too. Aela does use the swords and shields I give her, though. But at level 40, the hunting bow just sucks. It kind of sucks at level 4.