It seems really strange and alarming that my anti-virus software allowed a program change to download and install itself without any notification or permission from me. Even things like Java and even Windows patches ASK first. It seems like an open window for viruses and other nasties, not that I don't trust Bethesda, but still. I really don't want stuff added to my computer without specifically allowing it. Why didn't any of my security software stop it?

Unfortunately that would be STEAM not Beth as it is their program that is doing the updates bypassing the authorization and when you installed it on your system you opened the door for them to be able to do so !

Looks like my prediction is correct. I need the CK update because a personal hotfix i made to a race mod I use stopped working for whatever reason. I also could get back to working on some of my own mods as well.

Because it runs under Steam, and your security software already gave Steam permissions.

Thank goodness for whoever it was on this forum that warned of the upcoming update. I've been running Steam in offline mode for almost 2 weeks now to avoid this very problem, and as a result I am able to work on my mods this weekend.

How do I remove Steam permissions?

Thanks so much for the update, GStaff

That's defiantly one of those "how do I do this in windows" things that nobody should touch with a ten foot pole. If someone instructs you to do it, and you do it wrong and then Skyrim or Steam never works right after that, then that will make it tough for you later to get it working again. Depending on what you do even an uninstall reinstall may not fix it.

I did something similar to this a while back trying to prevent my kids from deleting things out of iTunes. What ended up happening is that iTunes had no permissions to do anything and wouldn't run right. It looked like it worked at first, and I had my kids using it for months until I realized that nothing synced with iTunes and my phones. I had 20 copies of the same app in the folder and I couldn't delete them, because I set permissions to not allow it -- not iTunes. When I updated an app on my phone and synced it, iTunes said is was copying it form my phone to iTunes. Then when I went to sync it again later, it put the old version back on my phone.

Skyrim 1.8 is here, it's out, it makes changes, this happened with Oblivion when they changed plugin versions, it's not the first time. There will be a CK soon and Mod Makers have been needing to update their mods anyway. Now with TES5Edit and a newer CK they won't have an excuse not to do it.

We're getting a little off topic here. Please restrict the Steam-bashing and stick to the original discussion.

As a user, I find what remains of my sanity is preserved by adopting for software updates (of any kind) the same attitude I have for the British weather: whenever it rains, I take a deep breath and think, "I can't do anything about this, so I can either get really upset and angry, and then I'll be wet and upset and angry, or I can just sigh philosophically and ignore it and then I'll only be wet and not upset and angry." I spend an awful lot of time perfectly cheerful and soaked to the skin.

(Or, this weekend, reinstalling Morrowind and ignoring Skyrim.)

Fortunately I was able to find a backup copy of the Update.esm and Update.bsa on my machine, so I am back up and modding. Just have to swap out the two versions between updating and testing...

Thank you for the head's up! But it's still not good enough! I do not blame you at whatever level Gstaff, I know you try to keep things up in a manageable style, I'll would give you loads of kudos for it if this forum had the logic for it!

I have my issues with Bethesda in general and Steam or even ZeniMax, because this stupid 1.8 release issue is a QA issue because none whatever in the distribution line is using Six Sigma nor ISO9000 policy's before releasing anything at all! This is so amateurish handled that I really questioning that the shareholders of ZeniMax is aware of how mediocre things are handled in this business at all!

I fail to see what was so bad about the 1.8 release that warrants slamming the company in such a way.

Wow, little uncalled for? I'm seriously confused as to why people react so harshly to each patch. There's always a delay in the corresponding CK release. It's always been like this. If you're expecting otherwise then I don't know what to tell you.

And I don't know what Six Sigma or ISO9000 policy is, and I assume you put them in there just for the sake of having them in there, but it's like this with just about every single game company that exists. It's not like Bethesda is falling through the cracks below all other companies...

Awesome, thanks GStaff & Bethesda folks!

Thanks for the update, GStaff! Fingers crossed for Monday, then.

Many thanks for the update. And I'm guessing you and others at Bethesda and Valve are working at the weekend to get us the CK update as quickly as this?

Thanks !

Hope you weren't hit too badly by Sandy.

Both are logical rules and methods how to handle quality and production to assure customers that the product they buy and the updates or whatever released is usable in whatever the company that release the product put in their assurance of usability. This is legio in most industry business. If you claim game industry have all the right to be sloppy into what ever low level they think is right to distribute, then you and I have different mind's of what quality and care of customers is all about .
I don't compare Bethesda against any newbie on the market, Bethesda has been around for decades, they should in general know better before release an update that breaks other stuff.

This is somehow moving into a religious fanatical view and belief of whatever Bethesda delivers (and the pure divinity of it) and frankly I don't WANT TO BE A PART OF THAT NEVER! I love and like what Bethesda have delivered over the years from OB, MW, FO3 and FONV and I enjoy playing all of it still! I just want them to be more alert to how and when they slap us with new updates!

The product is Skyrim. People payed for Skyrim, not the Creation Kit. So Bethesda is following those rules... The patch has been released, I can go play Skyrim right now this very instant. Nothing is stopping me from it. They have complied and their product is usable.

The fact that they're working over the weekend following some exceedingly destructive and disruptive weather does nothing to moderate your tone? Two working days to deliver an update to a free product that brings them only indirect and unquantifiable revenue?

If you work in the industry or any other very large company delivering exceedingly complex products to a mass market and having to collaborate with even bigger business partners, and you know that Bethesda (or Valve, we don't know which) are actually falling down on the job, then fair enough. But the impression that comes across (perhaps unfairly) from your posts sounds rather out of proportion.

Why are you so hysterically protective? This is closing into a dark jealousy drama, it's still just a game isn't it? I love and like what you do and done, you're the guy that is determined to be employed by Bethesda one day right? To be protective and loyal is great but there's more into it than just that part.

MW was released with CS, OB was also. FO3 had GECK and FONV was released with it too. Skyrim after a while had CK. Bethesda is one of extremely few game companies that released tools to create mods in a level no other ever done. period! So if I was a console dude, sure I would never know of this other world and only relay on and play with what ever was released as you told and for sure it probably would work also. But had you ever been at the level of knowledge you are now if Bethesda had made the decision to never ever release CS, GECK or CK?

I will not continue in this thread since it's completely starting to get out of bounds, I like you all, I just wish Bethesda or some higher level up treated loyal users a bit more just than currently, claiming it's always been like this is not assuring at all. I want Bethesda to be the best of all but this is not the right way to threat lovers!

Thank you for the update GStaff.

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When I bought Skyrim, what I was really shelling out my money for was the Creation Kit. The number of hours I spend playing the Creation Kit as is easily more than 10 times what I spend playing Skyrim. This is important because the business of making money revolves around what the customer wants, or the customer puts the money back in the bank - which is very bad for everyone. Although I greatly appreciate the response from GStaff, the feedback on this thread is, nonetheless, a very clear indication of what customers want improved. Bethesda couldn't get better advice if they were paying a high-end consultant at $10,000.oo per day.
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On a practical note, if users go to Steam > Skyrim > Properties > Updates > Automatic Updates and turn off the automatic update, this problem can be avoided in the future - at least for those of us who know how and, additionally, remember to go get the Skyrim update once the Creation Kit update comes on line. However, I think it would be better if Bethesda and Valve collaborate on a solution (as I suggested in my last post on this thread) because it is a fact of life that customers will be disappointed if they don't get everything they think they've shelled out their money for - and, right or wrong, unhappy customers eventually go elsewhere.

Not hysterically protective, just having a discussion. You are saying that Bethesda needs to ensure that their product works, and you are disgruntled that they are not. I'm simply trying to point out that their product is Skyrim, which works just fine, so they're doing just that and those are not grounds on which to be angry because of.

Yes and 'I bought Skyrim for the CK' has been an argument for a while, and I'm not saying that's not valid. I'm simply saying their product is Skyrim, which works just fine. On top of that, as others have said, they're (People at BGS and/or Valve) working the weekend after a major natural disaster just hit them to get us the CK on Monday.

On the note of turning off automatic updates, for those that don't know; this doesn't really work. I had it off, and Steam decided to update my game for the heck of it anyway. That's something that Valve needs to fix ASAP...

Yup, I'm sorry to tell I do know the big company ways of doing things for bad or good.
Most development teams have a very good knowledge of the current weakness and strong points in what they aim to release and they have trimmed these changes for weeks. Normally there is an overseer that check that releases is in >90% sync both to the different times that is acquired for creating and checking binary releases and the differences in this case of time needed for a game patch release and CK release, since this is surely handled by different persons. Some way in this chain it failed, the bad part is that is not the first, second, third or fourth time it happened, we are drilled to think this is normal.

As you say gruesome things happened to this part of US but none has told us how ill it hit Bethesda or it's employees and families. I read about lot of families that lost members and peoples dreams crushed for ever. This is terrible to try grasp or understand fully.

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Firstly:
Skyrim is supposed to be an RPG. That makes the Creation kit as integral a part of Skyrim as the graphics engine. Imagine Dungeons & Dragons without dungeon-mastering. Skyrim without a Creation Kit is like a pub with no beer or an ocean without any water, which is why all too many console users wind up feeling short-changed - after all, how could it be possible to make the Creation Kit workable without a proper computer?
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I think that it is unreasonable not to expect people to feel disappointed when such an integral part of the game stops working due to an update. The fact that people take the time to express that disappointment in writing indicates that

• The solution of the problem is very important to them
  
• That the consumer relationship is important enough to write home about

Unsolicited written feedback is always worth considering and nearly always a goldmine for serious niche-market enterprises.
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Secondly:
That major natural disaster would be another good reason to have put the game-update on hold for a couple of weeks. How are people supposed to concentrate under those conditions?
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Thirdly:
As for the Steam problem, I totally agree with you that it needs to be fixed ASAP. It should have been there on release years ago. This Steam problem probably has something to do with the lack of any "Manual Update" or "Check for Updates" item on the game/tools context menu which also needs to be fixed ASAP.
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I think it would probably cost Valve a song to add the option to delay game updates until the tool-updates are available to the Automatic Update drop-down option list.
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The problem with the problem raised by this thread is that it's. technically, not really any more of a Bethesda problem than a Valve problem and the only way it's ever going to be solved is if one of the parties takes the initiative and does something about it. I think that again, technically, this is a Creation Kit bug, because it's the Creation Kit and not Steam which is broken every time the timing of updates is out of sync (which also may result in the Creation Kit update being more of a rush job than for the corresponding update for the rest of the game). However, it is problem for the Creation Kit only because the necessary options in Steam are unavailable or do not work. This situation is sometimes referred to as chain of causality and, as long as everyone thinks that somebody-else can do something about it, it's never going to be fixed. The most improbable accidents (e.g. North Sea disaster) have been guaranteed by this little social issue.
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The only way to solve a chain of causality problem in the workplace is if everyone does what they can to mitigate the problem.