As soon as i get paid im thinking of Pre-Purchasing or Pre-Ordering skyrim, and im worried about wether or not Steam will allow mods to be used easily or not, so do you guys think it will limit what i can do? If i do end up going steam and they do limit it, i could of course just download a non-steam version to use but prefer to play legit even if i have bought it already
I think Skyrim will be using steamworks so it'll make little difference if you buy it on steam or not. You'll still end up using steam.
I don't think Steam has ever seriously impacted upon mod-ability of games, as long as the mods are designed from the ground up to cope with Steamworks.
Modding games which use steamworks isn't a problem (For example Shogun 2: Total War is steamworks and fully supports mods). The modding community for TES is massive, I'm sure there would be bloody murder if the devs or Steam prevented it otherwise.
I've read in some places that Oblivion had problems getting some mods to work at all, and to get the Mod Launcher to work in the first place was annoying too :/ Ahh, if that is true i'll just go for the Pre-Purchase on steam lol, not too worried about price but want to be able to PreLoad it so its playable on release date ;D (Assuming preloads available)
Oblivion didn't use steamworks. My only guess would be its late edition to the Steam library brought along some coding which wasn't compatible with the way the mods were created. As Skyrim will be on Steam from release I'd be confident in saying such issues will be minimal.
Tbh you can get it cheaper elsewhere and still have it in your hands on release date. For example I got the augmented version of DX:HR from amazon for £27 including first class delivery and it was in my hands the day before the UK release date. Luckily I have access to a US VPN so I could get it activated rather than spend a day just looking at it
Being "Steamworks" does this mean that wether i purchase on disc or from steam i'll be able to download and install it from steam after activation? Asking mainly cause im not one for keeping discs in great condition
It means it requires steam. You'll be able to use disk or download, providing you register the CD code.
I can confirm from first hand experience that getting mods to work (as an end user) with the steam version at most means installing a different package. The vast majority of the time it makes absolutely no difference. This is of course 6 years into a game's life so that might be a factor. But seeing as Skyrim will be steamworks every copy will be identical.
Mods most certainly work with Steam! Look at Counter Strike: Source, one of the first games available on Steam and supportive of a massive mod community. As said before, the only conflict which might occur is mods which aren't made with Steam in mind, which is irrelevant with a Steamworks game.
There have been problems in the past with modding and Steam, but only because the Steam games folder is (by default at least) installed in Program Files and thus protected by UAC in Vista/7. I can't think of any mods that don't work with Steam games any more though.
Steam can get in the way sometimes, it's meant to be a nuisance when you are modding Arma 2, but that's just what I've heard. I don't buy much on steam, I get the disks cheap from amazon or play.com or whatever.
Just be careful where you order from if you go for the physical media option. My pre order of Deus Ex turned up this morning rather than Friday No more pre orders from HMV for me!
This is true - look at Fallout NV. Also - Remember that Skyrim will be having a engine, so the modding system may be VERY different from what it is now. though I don't think Bethesda Softworks is that stupid, seeing as mods prolonged thier games far into the "unnatural"
