So Bethesda dropped another Skyrim update, with some patches for the new Creations menu added onto the game’s main menu.

Which of course meant that all the core community mods had to update again. Which meant everybody’s modded playthroughs got borked.

(Not calling this a hot take, because that would imply I actually have a heated opinion on this. And there isn’t any particular heat here. So call this a clement take if you like!)

Got up this morning to the news that Bethesda has dropped a new significant update to Skyrim. The main point of this appears to be an enhancement to the Creation Club functionality, which they’re merging with the game’s previous in-game “Mods” menu. The idea here appears to be to enhance the ability of mod/creation authors to get their work out into the hands of other players.

However, there are also substantial bug fixes, mostly for PC players, but with a small number of fixes on consoles as well. I found a full list of patch notes on Bethesda’s Help site.

I see a bunch of fixes in there I’ve personally observed in my playthroughs, notably:

1. Not being able to summon Arvak in the Forgotten Vale
2. The extra Emerald Paragon holder in Bloodchill Manor
3. The creation of Trueflame being broken on the Switch
4. Not being able to sell Dwarven Scrap Metal

Of the fixes, I think the one I’m actually most happy about is the ability to summon Arvak in the Forgotten Vale and the Deadlands! This will certainly help me out when running the Vale in particular, since I do tend to get super overloaded running that part of the Dawnguard quest line.

What I do not see in this announcement, though, is any sign of when this patch will show up on the Switch. Fixing the creation of Trueflame is really nice, but there are also other significant bugs in Solstheim on the Switch in particular. I did check my Switch this morning and can confirm that there’s no sign of any update to Skyrim on that device. So for now, my recommendation for Switch owners still stands: do not run the full Anniversary Edition on that device if you can avoid it. Run the base Special Edition instead. You should still have access to Survival Mode, Fishing, Rare Curios, and Saints and Seducers if you do that.

I have also now done a sweep through my various load orders to check the status of my mods. The Skyrim Script Extender has dropped an update. So you should be able to pull that down from skse.silverlock.org or directly off of Nexus.

Likewise, the Address Library for SKSE Plugins has also updated. It is now on version 9.

However, both of my major modded playthroughs, Elessir and Kendeshel, are currently not loadable. A bunch of mods on their lists are now bitching at me about version mismatches with the SKSE. Notably, RaceMenu and moreHUD are unhappy. So a bunch more updates to mods need to come in before I can resume playing those characters.

I can however load my last Skyrim Together Reborn save. So the slow playthrough I’m doing with Dara and Mel on that should be able to proceed, we were hoping to play this weekend, more to come on whether that is successful!

And until more of my current load orders update, I’m going to focus probably for the rest of this week on playing Finds-The-Way. With possible diversions to Morrowind or Oblivion, and also additional ESO activity as well. I have plenty of things to play while I wait for the mods to all get caught up!