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New diary from Production Director Ashley Cheng:
With each game we release — Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and now Skyrim — modders continue to use our worlds as a canvas to build the most incredibly creative and fun mods in gaming. The fact that Morrowind’s modding community is still going strong 10 years after its release is a testament to how essential our community is to the success of our games.
We’re big believers that if we go the extra mile and make our games as moddable as possible, the game will only be better for it. So the gameplay of “do whatever you want” extends to “make the game do whatever you want.” As we were building Skyrim and its tools, we made it a goal to try and keep the transition from our previous titles to Skyrim as smooth as possible for modders. More importantly, we want to make it easier for more people to enjoy mods. So we teamed up with Valve and created the Skyrim Workshop. We couldn’t be more pleased with how it’s turning out. Mods are a big part of what makes our games special, so we urge everyone to try it out. We’re going to keep looking for ways to get mods to more people, and hopefully one day to our console audience.
With Skyrim Workshop, you can browse and search for the latest or highest rated mods, subscribe to any that interest you, rate your favorites and post feedback. Once you’ve subscribed to some mods, start the Skyrim launcher and you’ll see your subscribed mods automatically download. The launcher will even check if a mod has been updated and grab the latest version.
If you want to try making mods (and we think everybody should), the Creation Kit will be a free download via Steam under Tools. The Creation Kit has lots of new features, including the ability to build archives. Plus you’ll want to check out the Creation Kit Wiki, our online documentation and help file, for more details.
Of course, you’ll still be able to use popular fan-hosted mod sites like Skyrim Nexus to find great mods to play. We did not change any functionality to exclude the way mods worked previously. We even added a few features to help out — for instance, custom INI files can now be packaged into mods so you don’t need to backup your INI files anymore.
And we’re not done. Neither is Valve. Give us your feedback on the Creation Kit and Skyrim Workshop in our forums. We both have updates in the works, so give us your thoughts.
Big thanks to programmers Ken Cockerham, Mike Lipari, and Shannon Bailey for getting the Skyrim Workshop up and running with Skyrim. And special kudos to Joel Burgess (who originally brought up the idea of using Steam Workshop) for shepherding this process along the way.
We’d also like to give big shout outs to Valve. We are all big Valve fan boys. Thanks to David Sawyer, Josh Weier, Pieter Wycoff, Kurtis Chinn, Tom Bui, Alden Kroll and Jason Holtman.
Finally, we’d like to thank all the modders who volunteered to beta test the Creation Kit and Skyrim Workshop. Your feedback has been invaluable.
We can’t wait to see your work!
(Incomplete) list of changes in the CK compared to the CS and the Geck:
- New Scripting language, called Papyrus. Similarities to Ruby and Python.
- Scripts can be applied to references.
- Totally overhauled Dialogue Editor. (Unrecognisable!)
- Grass and water is viewable in the editor.
- Archives can be created in the kit itself.
- Mods can be uploaded directly to Steam Workshop (1GB file size limit) - but can also be saved, and uploaded to other sites, like the Nexus.
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A moderator has closed this comment topic for the time beingHowever, I would think that most serious modders would still use the Nexus (and even other sites) to advertise their mods the most, as well as to better reach their target audience: It's a lot easier to get feedback and offer support for your mods through a website like the Skyrim Nexus than it is through Steam (the forums aren't that great for Steam, either).
A simple commenting system for each mod uploaded would probably erase this need, however. Though I'll still be using the Skyrim Nexus. It's highly unlikely it'll die just because of the Steam Workshop. The network as a whole won't, because other games don't support this Steam-only feature, and because people will still prefer the Skyrim Nexus over Steam (especially pirates,
so the nexus will be filled with mods of 1GB plus and the Steam database is going to be filled with every other mod
Well, this was my only concern. Can't wait for the creation kit.
I think that it can be done - like make version A and B both different files, or have the auto-downloader download an .exe file that will install the mod. Or else, I'm sure, there might be a way to make the Steam Workshop downloader act as a sort of OMOD unpacker, not unlike the original program. We'll just have to see.
They probably won't have any, or else stick with the Upload/download at your own risk. As far as someone uploading a mod with a borked update because they ragequit, I'm sure there will be a report feature somewhere. Again, we'll have to see.
These are both good points, though. With some work, and luck, they can be avoided. We'll have to see if Steam has become competent with this all this yet.
As far as the surprise they are offering, I think it will just be some mods available on the workshop. Unless it's Morrowind or Daggerfall, I really can't see anything they could upload that would make me go DA DA DA DAAAAA! that wouldn't show up here within a week and be 10 times better.
With an auto-down loader, it doesn't look like the end user has an option to install texture / model option A, or B. What if you're mod comes with a number of options? Many do... The best yet was what we had with the OMOD platform; and a septate low-profile install script the Modder could make with almost endless install options. In addition it was simple to use.
Also, I'd like to know what Steams policies will be in regards to protecting our work against rippers, and people looking to sabotage a mod.
If their are any, I feel these could be the two weakest area's of the CK / Steam integration.
Cause most problems with custom textures and meshes - is that they automatically applied to ALL NPCs. That really pissed in Oblivion.
Built-in archive creator sounds good.