As the title says I tried to find an answer to this question but seem to either have overlooked it or it wasn't mentioned.

For someone like me who actually spent more time modding Oblivion than actually playing it (and I spent countless hours playing it) my question is simple.

Is there a construction set for Skyrim, and will user made content (mods) be a feature in this Steam platform based game?

[Sub-question relating to the first].

In Oblivion we had great minds that worked on NifSkope to make importation of models into the game possible.
Will there be something like that for Skyrim?
If so will it be user created or Bethesda created?

My thoughts on Bethesda as a company were along the lines of, "Man, That is one smart business move to include a construction set, and allow players from around the world to add content to their game".
There have been many people I have convinced to buy Oblivion, and Morrowind based mainly on the shear amount of fantastic user made content that was available for free for them.

Please tell me that I have many more countless hours of modding for another fantastic Bethesda game in my future.

(One of many) Humble modder,
Nicoroshi

Bethesda has confirmed a "Creation Kit" and mods. So. Yes.

Mods are indeed possible, and a developer/someone important confirmed that Steam will not interfere with mods.

Yup, the "Creation Kit" is being released with the game, great move by Bethesda.

Well yes, of course. You can simply use the search function on the forums, there are plenty of threads about this.

Creation Kit was announced with the game back in December of last year. It will be a day one download or at least put up soon after. They retained the .NIF format because they already had the tools to use it and modders are familiar with it as well, having created tons of tools especially for it. It's one of the few small remaining bits of Gamebryo middleware in the engine. The game is activated via Steam but the executable is not encrypted, so it will not interfere with mods or future script extenders (if necessary) or anything like that.

Yes.

This is the answer I was looking for, and thank you Gregasaurus for the reply.
I have a few swords, and bows that I created (seems like a lifetime ago) that my first character would really love to have in Skyrim as they were used in Oblivion.
Nico is a happy camper.

Day 1 download isn't confirmed, but there will be one.

It may take about a week. IIRC that's what happened with FO3.

Tstststs! Don't jynx it! It will be released on day one!

Might not be apropriate right now and here but, Ive been wondering if you were out there planning to release some skyrim content, your work for oblivion is fantastic and my favourite so far, really looking forward to your releases. Youre quite an artist, thanks for sharing awesome content. Take care.