I completely disagree. While I think it's awesome that we have the CK, I don't think it's in any way a 'major part' of Skyrim. Yes it can do some hefty altering and tailor the experience, but you can still play Skyrim without it just fine. I don't agree with your anologies. You say, "Skyrim without a Creation Kit is like a pub with no beer or an ocean without any water." That would imply that the user cannot use Skyrim without the Creation Kit, and that just isn't true. It would be far more accurate to say The 'Creation Kit is to Skyrim, as the ability to special order any imported beer from almost anywhere on Earth is to a pub.' The pub still offers you a variety of drinks, but if you can have almost anything, it's an addition. Or 'CK to Skyrim, is like an Ocean where you cannot purify the water.' Again, it's an added option, but you can still use the ocean, and the ocean is still there.

I have a huge number of friends that play Skyrim on console. No Creation Kit. They still love it. Sure, if given the choice for more variety, very few would deny that, but the Creation Kit is simply an additional tool given to us by BGS. It is in no way a 'requirement' to play the game.

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The loss of an integral part does not necessarily disable the whole. If melee, ranged combat, or magic were periodically disabled by an update, you could still play Skyrim - just differently. By differently, it wouldn't be the same and it would not meet many expectations of play. This problem with the Creation Kit is no different.
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TES have always been RPGs, so it would be inappropriate to specify a continuation of TES, in the form of Skyrim, as something else (such as an FPS). The fact that Skyrim belongs to a series of role-playing games is what makes the Creation Kit an integral part of the game. This is because dungeon-mastering is half of the role play and freeplay is the other half. In fact, no game that lacks either freeplay or plug-in development tools can be honestly called a role playing game. This goes back to the first commercial RPGs, such as Dungeons & Dragons, whose evolution and popularity was driven by independent dungeon-mastering.
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With respect to consoles, I would not enjoy Skyrim on console. Never mind a pub with no beer, playing Skyrim on console would be like visiting a pub with nothing but tea -albeit 40,000 varieties of tea- and nothing else. Some people do enjoy tea-houses more than pubs so this is a question of horses for courses, but a tea house is done no favours when it is called a "pub". And, for this reason, you would be unwise to operate a tea-house under a hotel franchise.
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However, Skyrim is part of The Elder Scrolls, which have always been full function RPGs (well at least since Morrowind). However, consoles have always been and will always be a cut-down computer with more disabilities than abilities, which is why it is impossible to make a full function RPG for console. Whereas Skyrim on PC operates as a full function RPG (most of the time), Skyrim on console is not an RPG and console users tend to consider Skyrim more an FPS like Borderlands or Far Cry II, for example - which is probably why there are so many arguments over balance versus role-play. The Console users want balance because they think Skyrim is an FPS and the PC users want role-play because The Elder Scrolls 'franchise', under which Skyrim is sold, promises full function role-play. This is because TES is originally an RPG and a PC game going back to Morrowind and beyond - which makes the full function implementation of TES games problematic on cut-down computers such as consoles.

One could ask why you're being so hysterically hostile toward them as well. Your reaction is way out of proportion to the scope of the issue. ESPECIALLY considering the DC area was hit by the hurricane too.

No, you bought Skyrim. You weren't really paying for some hidden second program as that has been well and truly established as a free utility they offer for us to use to modify the game with. They were, and never have been, under any obligation to provide such things for us.

The game is entirely playable from start to finish without the kit. So comparing it to a D&D session doesn't really work here.

Please stay on topic; personal preferences regarding which platform is used isn't really on topic for the Creation Kit update.

One completely off-topic post went away.

As a temporary way of getting back to work, one can change the version in Update.ESM's file header from 1.70 to 0.94 for the interim with TES5Edit. Update.ESM and plugins dependent upon it will then load in the CK and, since it's an ESM and is not active, the current CK will merely complain about chunk discrepancies but not alter Update.ESM. Come Monday (or whenever the CK's updated) it's just a matter of reverting the version number back to 1.70.

On the other hand that the "do not automatically download updates" regulatory breaks is an major problem. yes I understand that Steam might override this in special cases. But the majority of updates is just gameplay patches.

I have to quit following the topic since it morphed into something I didn't intend. I'll just watch for the new version of the CK.

The ck is now available again.

This is weird. I managed to load my mod into the ck two minutes ago. I quit and relaunch it and I get the error message about update.esm being a higher version, etc. What's going on?

Okay, now it's working again. I've been able to load my mod again but I notice that the ck loaded skyrim.esm only instead of both skyrim.esm and update.esm. False good news I'm afraid. Sorry.

thank you

Sorry, sorry, we'll get this back on topic.

I think we need to spread this news around as it's a great way to just bypass the issue until the CK is updated.

That wouldn't be a very good idea (changing the version number) because if you're working on a mod that happens to use the same records, you'll end up with garbage for data since CK 1.6.89 can't handle the new subrecords.

Besides, seriously, the CK (hopefully) is getting updated tomorrow. What's the big rush that everyone needs access to it right now?

Glad to know we're getting the update soon. My question then becomes: are we getting the HF source scripts with the update?

Our creation kit. Our preciousssss! Stolen it from us they has. We hates them! We hates them forever!

Is it weird that I read that in Gollum's voice before I even knew that's what you were going for?

No, it's not weird at all, since that's exactly how I started reading it too

Oh hey... Hearthfires.ESM doesn't have Update.ESM as a master.

**** yeah I can still work on something at least.

Well the line is so classic that it's hard not to start reading it in Gollum's voice, though in my case I was imagining Gollum himself saying it rather than reading it out loud.

Anyway, a DLC trailer tomorrow and hopefully a CK update tomorrow. Hopefully there won't be disappointment.

Am just debating as to whether I dare put Steam back online, I think I will wait until I hear other people whooping "Yay the CK is updated..." and in the meantime continue working on my mod with the backup of the 1.7 Update.esm that I found loitering on my external HDD. Something good did come out of my recent rig death and rebuild then hehe . I do need the CK to do what I want to do as it involves having a poke around with the infernal custom races and Dawnguard vampire tarradiddle. As no-one posting in any custom race thread over at Nexus seems interested in playing as anything other than a vampire (cannot understand the fascination myself), I need to try and stop the bawling if I can.

Now in fairness to Bethesda (and that's not something I feel especially inclined to), something was said about we got the dev kit at release with the other games, but wasn't it FO3 or FONV where actually we didn't?

But yeah, I do share the concerns of posters who are not too impressed with Bethesda's QA, and the fact that new content is going in before previous issues are fixed. It's like continuing driving a car when the fuel gauge is screaming at you that you're on empty and the oil pressure light says you haven't got any lube. Eventually, it will go "meh not playing no more..."

Modding isn't going to take away from explosion the trailer is going to bring

Well, it works and the odds against one editing the same forms is approximately 3,720: 1, though I'd still be inclined to check with TES5Edit (of course).

Thankfully, none of my stuff depends on Update.ESM, so this hasn't been a problem for me, but for others I can only imagine it would be frustrating having to go without access to their work, so just offerng a working ...stop-gap for the interim.

On my machine I can work in the Ck with the Skyrim.esm and the Hearthfires.esm; just not Dawnguard.

I just had a face palm moment and laughed. It was fuuny, I don't think I can top that.

Although the 1.6.91 release of the CK a while back, that suddenly disappeard could have a Star Wars reference. Hmmm: No this isn't the new CK you are looking for. Move along...

And if we are making movie references in response to the pain and anguish of not having a CK until tomorrow, possibly, if everything goes well with Valve, I could make a Star Trek reference:

Sybok: Your pain runs deep, share it with me...

No true Trek fan acknowledges #5. Just sayin

I do just as much as I acknowledge the existence of a new CK tomorrow.

I happen to like Star Trek V, and I consider myself a huge trek fan. Infact, there isn't any out of the 11 star trek films that I don't like. Too bad though.. I think Mr.Abrams doesn't care for it too much.