For those who play Skyrim on the consoles, you suffer many problems which include the amount of saves you can have for your account. Reported for the Playstation 3 solely by many different game blogs, the Xbox 360 as well can only have a maximum of six saves without seeing major frame rate issues. The question now is; what will Bethesda do to improve the game further for still existing glitches, and how will they be fixed? Bethesda has just announced the 1.4 patch and I’m going to breakdown the major problems explaining how it’ll effect your gameplay experiences.
As stated on the original post on the BethBlog, this is not the official 1.4 patch but, the one that will be released through Steam to fix different parts of Skyrim. Once the patch is internally certified, it’ll be sent in for console certification as soon as possible. After the 1.4 patch, Bethesda will continue to seek out different fixes that may be created by the current patch or instances that weren’t fixed in previous patches for future fixes. To reiterate, console patches are announced but a release date won’t happen right away. I’ll keep you posted though!
GameSpy has actually tested the 1.4 beta patch and increased their average framerate from 50 to 59. That’s a twelve percent increase in framerate as they continued to also say the title looks better than it ever has. Mike Sharkey reminds everyone to back up your saves though in case of a failure, in which you wouldn’t be able to retun to your original 1.3 save once you’ve made progress on the 1.4 beta patch.
Current 1.4 Changelog (all platforms unless noted)
NEW FEATURES
- Skyrim launcher support for Steam Workshop (PC)
I’m not exactly sure what the ‘Steam Workshop’ is going to be. Fallout has had a modding system and Bethesda talked about this being it for Skyrim. I guess PC gamers are finally getting the full version of the title after two months of the game being on retail shelves.
BUG FIXES
- General optimizations for memory and performance
This is pretty straight to the point. Through testing different PCs and the consoles, the patch team was able to create a more efficient system that’ll raise frame rate and overall performance issues that may have created a less-pleasing gaming experience.
- Fixed occasional issue with armor and clothing not displaying properly when placed on mannequin’s in player’s house. (PS3)
Fixed previously in 1.3 for the PC and Xbox 360, this fix simply fixes when you hang weapons on the walls of your houses or amulets that your character may wear that you may see those certain items during gameplay.
- Improved compiler optimization settings (PC)
Game developers have different technology languages that they communicate in. This optimization creates a quicker translation process between Bethesda’s originally coding to read out to the general languages for either of the platforms for the PC, PS3 or Xbox 360.
- Long term play optimizations for memory and performance (PS3)
For those gamers who go to the grocery store to get hot pockets and a few 12-packs of Mountain Dew for a Skyrim marathon, this is for you. Over time, temporary memory gets pretty full and Bethesda makes this build up a lot slower allowing for you to sit and play Skyrim for longer and with a better gameplay experience.
- Memory optimizations related to scripting
When you complete a quest the leads into another quest, sometimes you receive gameplay issues. Either framerate issues or inaccurate loading of particular characters that sometimes leads to unusual behavior of non-player characters. This update should make these issues go away or at least make them less frustrating.
- Fixed crashes related to pathing and AI
- Fixed crash in Haemar’s Shame if player had already completed “A Daedra’s Best Friend”
This is a quest-based crash. To explain it would spoil the game.
- Fixed rare crash with loading saved games
Sometimes, loading a game will lead to a fatal error corrupting the save to just incorrectly loading the save. Luckily, this is a very rare crash so not many people had to deal with losing potentially a few minutes or hours of gameplay.
- Fixed issue with accented characters not displaying properly at the end of a line
- Master Criminal achievement/trophy unlocks properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian
- Fixed issue where dragon priest masks would not render correctly
- Fixed issue where quests would incorrectly progress after reloading a save
- Fixed issues with placing and removing books from bookshelves in the player’s home
- Fixed issue where weapon racks and plaques would not work correctly in player’s house if player immediately visits their house before purchasing any furnishing.
- Fixed issue where the player house in Windhelm would not clean up properly
- Fixed crash related to giant attacks and absorb spells
- Fixed issue with ash piles not cleaning up properly
Ash piles are supposed to disappear after players take ‘fire salts’ or ‘vampire dust’ from thus ash piles. With this fix, you’ll have to make sure you get everything you want before you close the window as those remaining items may disappear.
- Fixed occasional issue where overwriting an existing save would fail
- Fixed memory crash with container menu
- Fixed infinite loop with bookshelves
- Fixed issue where traps in Shalidor’s Maze would not work properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian versions
- Fixed issue where transforming back to human from werewolf would occasionally not fail
- Bows and daggers will display properly when placed on weapon racks
Explained this above with mannequin problem.
The rest of the fixes deal with spoilers so I won’t explain them.
QUEST FIXES
- The Unusual Gem inside the Thalmor Embassy is now accessible after finishing “Diplomatic Immunity”
- In “Breaching Security”, the quest token is no longer required to receive a fortune reading from Olava the Feeble
- Fixed issue where Galmar would not complete Joining the Stormcloaks properly if “Season Unending” was an active quest
- Fixed issue where starting “Season Unending” after finishing “Joining the Stormcloaks” would prevent “The Jagged Crown” from starting properly.
- Fixed issue progressing through “Message to Whiterun” while “Season Unending” was still open would block progression for both quests.
- In “Arniel’s Endeavor”, fixed issue where a quest journal would trigger multiple times
- In “Forbidden Legend”, the amulet fragment can no longer disappear after player leaves a dungeon without taking it
- Fixed rare issue in “Forbidden Legend” where killing Mikrul Gauldurson while sneaking would make his corpse unaccessible
- In “The White Phial”, the phial can no longer disappear if player leaves dungeon without taking it
- “The White Phial” will now start properly if player already has a briar heart in their inventory
- Player can no longer get stuck in Misty Grove after completing “A Night to Remember”
- Fixed issue where leaving Riften during “A Chance Arrangement” would prevent quest from progressing
- In “Darkness Returns”, a door in Twilight Sepulcher will properly open if the player leaves the dungeon for an extended period of time before completing the quest
- In “Revealing the Unseen”, if the player leaves the Oculory for an extended period of time after placing the focusing crystal and returns, the quest will proceed correctly
- “Onmund’s Request” will now start properly if player has already found Enthir’s staff before receiving this quest
- Fixed instance where Tonilia would stop buying stolen items and also would not give Guild Leader Armor
- “Repairing the Phial” will start properly if player already has unmelting snow or mammoth tusk in their inventory
- Finding Pantea’s Flute before speaking with Pantea no longer prevents her quest from updating
- In “The Coming of the Dawn”, fixed rare instance where a quest object would spawn incorrectly on the Katariah during Hail Sithis
- Fixed rare issue in “The Mind of Madness” where player is unable to equip the Wabbajack
- Fixed issue in “Pieces of the Past” where Mehrunes Dagon’s Razor will not trigger properly if player leaves the cell for extended period of time before activating it
- “Blood’s Honor” will start properly if you visited and completed Driftshade and an extended period of time passes before starting the quest.
- Fixed rare issue where “Dampened Spirits” would not start properly
- Fixed issue where player would be unable to become Thane of Riften if they purchased a home first
- Fixed issue where killing guards in Cidhna Mine would block progression for “No One Escapes Cidhna Mine”
- Fixed numerous issues with “Blood on the Ice” not triggering properly
- In “Blood on the Ice”, Calixto can now be killed if player owns a house in Windhelm
- In “The Cure for Madness”, killing Cicero then resurrecting him no longer impedes quest progress
- Fixed rare issue in “To Kill an Empire” where an NPC would fail to die properly
- Clearing Knifepoint Ridge before starting “Boethiah’s Champion” no longer prevents quest from starting.
