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from the stop-shipping-beta-quality-code dept.
combatserver writes:
"The folks over at Dark Side of Gaming are reporting an interesting development in the game modding community--a recently released modification for the blockbuster game from Bethesda, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC version). A long-running issue with the game since release has been recurring CTDs (crashes to desktop) and infinite loading screens that often bring the game to a grinding halt after just a few minutes of play, especially when heavily modded. Bethesda has tried to resolve the issue with several patches, to no avail.
Sheson, a member of the Skyrim modding community, fixed Skyrim. According to many user reports--thousands, in fact--Sheson's relatively minor adjustment to memory allocation has solved the vast majority of stability issues. The improvements have increased game performance far beyond what anyone had expected. Players are now merging mods to get around the hard-coded cap of 256 mods that Skyrim can load at any given time, effectively packing more content into the game. The fix also allows for Skyrim to run on lower-end PCs, widening the market for a game that has already sold over 20 million copies.
Since Sheson's patch released, the fix has been repackaged by other community members as a mod for Skyrim to make it even more accessible. Skyrim players who use the script-extender SKSE will be pleased to hear that the patch will be included in the next build."
[ED Note: Bottom line -- Bethesda shouldn't be packaging poorly written and untested code for sale, then requiring gamers to pay to play as beta testers. Kudos to Sheson for his hard work and effort.]
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by GeminiDomino on Thursday February 20 2014, @02:20PM
Is this Sheson guy the one who runs the linked blog or something? I can't imagine why else "Someone creates mod to fix buggy ass Bethesda" game might be newsworthy. Sure, it's cool and all, but it's not news. The UKSP [iguanadons.net] fixes what, hundreds of bugs, and is over 2 years old.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 5, Funny) by bryn on Thursday February 20 2014, @02:22PM
Wow, the slashdot-style "news/not news" people have moved over here too ;)
He who dares wins. He who hesitates, doesn't.
(Score: 4, Funny) by cwix on Thursday February 20 2014, @02:54PM
Makes you feel at home doesn't it?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:31PM
I find 'news' like this more akin to what the SD site used to be. I enjoy it. I do not enjoy the click-bait/argument/fest the other site has become. Many of the stories over on SD seem to be little more than argument generators.
(Score: 5, Informative) by SpallsHurgenson on Thursday February 20 2014, @02:27PM
The editorial comment at the end was uncalled for as well. For millions of players, Skyrim worked fine (or as well as any other piece of consumer-grade software) out of the box, and Bethesda poured a lot of after-release support into the game with additional patches and DLC. The problem fixed by the patch in TFA is largely encountered only by users who bolt on extra content using third-party mods and push the game's framework far further than it was ever expected to go. Now, that is not to diminish the work of Sheson or any of the excellent mods out there (at last count, my own Skyrim installation had close to 80) but one can hardly blame Bethesda for not supporting these configurations.
With that said, this patch truly is a lifesaver for Skyrim fans who do use third-party mods. The frequent crashes were getting really annoying! But I don't blame anyone for that problem but myself; had I returned to vanilla Skyrim the crashes would have vanished.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by spiritfiend on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:31PM
Yes, it certainly seems from the article that these problems were caused by using too many mods, and not the main game itself. Considering the game is no longer supported [egmnow.com], they could hardly be faulted for not fixing bugs caused by new mods.
(Score: 2, Informative) by mrcoolbp on Thursday February 20 2014, @06:30PM
I don't know, I played the console ver. (Un-modded, patched) and it still crashed a lot. Had to redo large portions a few times. Just my anecdote.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2, Informative) by Dopefish on Thursday February 20 2014, @11:48PM
Hi SpallsHurgenson,
Approving editor here. As someone who has played Skyrim, I can attest that my experience with the game in terms of stability were quite lacking. Although my comment at the end may have been out of line in your view, you also don't represent all gamers that played the game. I'm not here to start a flamefest, but point out that buggy code, especially from a AAA development house, especially on fixed console hardware, is simply unacceptable. I'm not the only one who feels this way. Google search the terms "Skyrim buggy" and you will get plenty of hits on the matter. I have linked a few examples below...
http://bitscreed.com/skyrim-is-a-buggy-broken-unpo lished-game/ [bitscreed.com]
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/615803-the-elder-sc rolls-v-skyrim/66700996 [gamefaqs.com]
(Score: 1) by darinbob on Friday February 21 2014, @03:15AM
I'd rather see editorial comments being down away from the article itself. Inserted inline feels wrong.
(Score: 1) by Dopefish on Friday February 21 2014, @06:18AM
My editorial remark on the topic (and on all submissions we approve here at SoylentNews) are clearly denoted with a "ED Note:" descriptor.
Inline insertion implies that my comments were added within the submission itself, which is clearly not the case here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2014, @02:28PM
I can't quite think of another example of where the community has taken matters into their own hands to solve problems socials with an original product. Must be something in the air at the moment but definitely very relevant news for soylent..
(Score: 2) by GeminiDomino on Thursday February 20 2014, @10:28PM
That was my point (which was apparently widely missed). Not only did the community take matters into their own hands with Skyrim, a long long time ago (in gaming terms): it wasn't even the first time. The Unofficial Oblivion Patch is even bigger than the Skyrim one.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 1) by darinbob on Friday February 21 2014, @03:18AM
And it's been done in Morrowind, Daggerfall, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Icewind Dale, and so on and so on. There's a long long history of community supported patches and the like.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Skarjak on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:10PM
You don't think it's relevant and interesting that one dude easily fixed a major bug with a AAA product that's been out for a while? To me, that is an important video game industry issue. It shows how low the standards for code are in these companies, that they think this is fine to release at full price. Also goes to show that when we wait for months for patches, it's not always because the fix is hard to implement...
(Score: 2) by GeminiDomino on Thursday February 20 2014, @10:30PM
You don't think it's relevant and interesting that one dude easily fixed a major bug with a AAA product that's been out for a while?
It was, but it's hardly the first time, and certainly not as noteworthy as some of the other bugfix mods that people have made to fix Bethesda's bug-fests.
Maybe I'm just the odd man out here because I'm familiar with the Elder Scrolls modding community, so this posting to me is like seeing a story about "Shady Chinese Firm puts Dirty Picture Gallery App on Google Play Store."
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"