General:Cartogriffi's Posts

Is the Creation Club canon? (2017/03/10)

I am not an official arbiter of Bethesda lore, but I hope you don't mind if I chime in. Creations are official releases, but it's also understandable that a site like UESP or the Imperial Library would take CC with a grain of salt. We do consider lore implications when reviewing proposals, particularly something trying to heavily enmesh itself into the world. Connections to the world are great, but we also want to avoid anything being too impactful. That is, we want things to fit into the game world, but we're also not looking to greatly expand the lore of the game. With historic items, like artifacts, simply existing can have implications for the lore. Although artifacts in Tamriel do have a habit of disappearing and re-materializing in other places. I believe this was even noted in the description of Chrysamere in Daggerfall.

'''How are the Crusader's Relics added in the Creation Club carried by random bandits? (2017/10/26)

We are aware that in Oblivion, the crusader relics would be unequipped if you committed sufficient crimes. While they function differently in TES V, they are still divine relics. The bandits wearing them are not intended to be proper recipients of this equipment.

How is it possible that Sheogorath's staff, which supposedly grants his powers, is available to players in Skyrim? (2017/10/26)'''

Artifacts of Sheogorath are variable by their very nature. If this is the same staff physically, and there's no way to determine that, it doesn't necessarily mean it's still invested so intimately with his core being.

This is the Staff of Sheogorath. At least that's what it looks like, acts like, and is named. What that specifically entails with the Mad God is harder to pin down. You could call that convenient for me, but it wouldn't be the first time we've taken advantage of such conveniences.

'''What's Bethesda's relationship to lore and canon?  (2017/10/26)'''

We try not to make proclamations about the lore. So much of its richness comes from the fact that it's almost entirely encountered first-hand, and through texts written by in-world authors with their own biases, opinions, experience, and misconceptions.

What about items from other games? Are those canon, too? (2017/10/26)

Promotional items are sort of a category of their own.

Who are you?  (10/26/17)

I'm the Community Content Manager at BGS. I mostly work with modding and creation club.

Previously   analyst, and one of my ancillary duties was actually Customer Support's​ go-to-guy for lore questions. I also had the opportunity to assemble and run their introductory sessions for TES lore, which was a blast. Although this does not make me an arbitrator for TES lore, so please don't weigh anything I say will too much authority, because I'm not in a position to even make those proclamations I said I wouldn't.

'''Why does the Creation Club place Stendarr's Hammer into Markarth's Dwemer museum?  (10/26/17)'''

I wouldn't read too much into the dwemer thing for Stendarr's Hammer. Markarth only has one museum.

'''Was Cyrus part of the crew of the Dead Man's Dread? (2019/11/15)

The Cyrus quest simply brings you to where his equipment ended up. Whether he was with them at the time is intentionally left open.

On the existence of the previously missing Daedric X and Y (2019/11/15)'''

The missing letters were added in by Gary. While it's true this wasn't part of an official release and therefore not technically  , I'd say it's close enough.

But I guess one of them is in an official release now!

Is Jyggalag no longer associated with the Isles? (11/18/19)

There are many small nods to the Shivering Isles, and Shivering Isles, although we certainly aren't bringing over everything.

It's true Jyggalag has separated from Sheogorath, but I'd say it's incorrect there is no longer an association. It's presumably a different sort of connection than you'd get from something like Wabbajack, and no doubt more orderly.

On the Dwarven Armored Mudcrab Creation (2020/01/27)

It's a reference to a joke in PC gamer.

Is the next Creation Club release delayed because of COVID-19? (04/06/20)

Creators can still work on their projects, and many currently are. However, with the disruption from COVID-19, we aren't looking to launch any new content. Even after our situation starts returning to normal, it could be a while before things have settled down enough to consider the next release. There is simply too much up in the air at the moment to provide much information, so I do not expect to elaborate further.

Quests for future Creations (9/17/20)

The original plan with the Blades armors was not to have quests. They'd be craftable once you unlocked that material, and would occasionally appear on merchants/NPCs. If I remember correctly, this was nixed because if you weren't a smith, acquiring these came down to a matter of RNG. Given the large number of them, we did make them misc. objectives so they wouldn't fill up the main quest window for new characters. Strangely there was nearly zero commentary on this fact, but I guess no news is good news.

The Expanded Crossbow Pack took this a step further, with a really pared down quest. Folks didn't have a problem with this, and we did notice.

Semi-related, the next release was supposed to contain an experiment in the opposite direction: creations that were only quests, rather than focused on new equipment or house as the reward. We approved one for each game, but with the delay both have since picked up some new items. 

The large Crossbow back instead because our test case for generally lacking a quest.

'''I'm guessing content was completed but because of the situation it couldn't be released so now we have a years worth of content. Sounds quite enticing indeed. (10/2/20)'''

Yep.

Finally my chance to get this off my chest: Skyrim had a scheduled Creation Club release for the end of March. Content was locked. Screenshots taken. Patch was ready to upload to XB/PS/Steam. Scheduling was set. Sneak Peek was ready to be formatted. 

Then, on the Monday we were supposed to upload the patch and begin final QA, the entire company transitioned to Work From Home. I can't go into detail, but release became impossible.

This, by the way, is why we won't discuss dates until a Sneak Peek goes live. Because things can get derailed quickly.

'''They actually have a creation coming out that's focused on questing. (10/29/20)'''

We have something that was initially created to be an experiment in simply being a quest. Now that it includes "loot" it's closer to traditional fare. We think folks will enjoy what it does differently, but if you jump to conclusions you'll just set expectations it can't reach. Or pass things on half-remembered and potentially create rumors I need to stamp down.

It's been a long wait with a lot of uncertainty, we understand. It's been a long wait with a lot of uncertainty for everyone working on this as well. But please be careful passing along information.

On changes to post-release Creations (11/6/20)

Most patches have included updates for some creations. The suggestions that we don't update, or even that we don't allow updates, is incorrect and unhelpful. 

Many creators chose to be anonymous. 

All creators work with internal developers on their content.

Criticism is welcome, but it needs to be kept civil and constructive. 

On alternatives to getting Creation Club quests naturally rather than all at once (11/27/20)

The original plan for Creation Club was an essential merchant who would sell the more mundane CClub additions, as well as "tips" that would start any quests. There were many advantages of this model, but there were also many problems, and it was dropped.

We've revisited it a few times, as we would also like to avoid starting a ton of quests at once, but there are no good ways to resolve these matters. And changing these quests retroactively adds a large additional complexity. We may revisit it again, but I'm not optimistic we can properly resolve these matters.

Modding on the official BGS Discord (2021/05/24)

I first joined the Bethesda forums in the summer of 2000. I lurked a little prior to that, including on the Redguard bulletin board that proceeded the UBB forums. When I joined there were maybe 3000 registered accounts, only a handful of active members. Although two years on there were tens of thousands more accounts, and they all wanted to know the location of the Dwemer Puzzle Box.

I was a volunteer forum moderator from August 2002 to October 2012, at which point I “went pro” and joined Custom Support as a social analyst. While I assisted on social media as well, my focus was the Elder Scrolls Online forums. I even had the opportunity to serve as acting producer for those forums, and later assisted with the launch of the Bethesda.net forums, and moreso their re-launch with NodeBB.

Shortly thereafter I landed my current job at BGS, working with our modding communities.

You will not find someone who has been more involved across so many levels of the Bethesda forums. I have been here for over half my lifetime. I am the “forum guru.” My participation here eventually got me into the industry, and then into BGS itself.

It’s the end of an era, and I’m very sad to see them go.

But I look forward to continuing to work with the modding communities. I even have to admit that the majority of my community the engagement the past few years has been on Discord, albeit in smaller author servers. 

I look forward to working with everyone moving forward, even if we're meeting elsewhere on the internet!'

On Scourge being wielded by the Dremora Valkyn Gatanas (11/11/21)

Scourge being wielded by a daedra was a mistake. We were working off of the Morrowind lore, with some adjustments given the differences in magic system, and forgot it has been in Battlespire. We'll look at getting it fixed.

(Personally, if we'd realized I think it would have been more fun to give this to the daedra and explain why this was possible, since we could also touch on the difference in enchantment. But as a bug fix, it's easier to just move it off the NPC.)

Shadybunny mod and cc or one in the same because they are not made by the devs but by modders that’s endorsed by the devs (12/14/2021)

When we use the term "mod" we are referring to content made and released by the community.

We use "creation" to refer to content that is developed within our official pipeline, and released officially. 

Many in the community don't make this distinction, which is understandable. But this is how we use those two terms.

While this did have official involvement, it is a mod, and will be available through the Bethesda.net Mods system, not Creation Club or other channels for official content.