Skyrim - v1.5 Beta Available, Killcam Video

The latest Skyrim beta is now available on Steam, offering - among other things - the new killcams. Head to the Bethblog for the full notes, plus a video but here's a snip of the new features:

• New cinematic kill cameras for projectile weapons and spells
• New kill moves and animations for melee weapons
• Shadows on grass available (PC)
• Smithing skill increases now factor in the created item’s value
• Improved visual transition when going underwater
• Improved distance LOD transition for snowy landscapes

More information.

Don't care about the killcams, but the other things sound nice. I hope that they are also getting an expansion ready.

I really don't care much about the kill cam stuff. But the list of quest fixes makes me happy though I wish the quest fix list for 1.5 was twice as long. But still glad they are fixing quests at least.

I know it's not popular but I think I will enjoy the new kill animations and cams.

Nice to see them addressing quest bugs (lots more needed, though) and crash issues.

Friendly reminder - if you want to protect yourself from a future STEAM stealth update to Skyrim that breaks your modded game, now would be a good time to set STEAM to offline mode.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Friendly reminder - if you want to protect yourself from a future STEAM stealth update to Skyrim that breaks your modded game, now would be a good time to set STEAM to offline mode.

This is a beta update. You need to opt in to get it.

Kill cam for a long-distance bulls-eye shot sounds fun, stealth kill animation for melee weapons other than daggers also sounds good.

Didn't they talk about an economy/leveling re-haul down the road? Wish they had someone like J.E Sawyer willing to do that rebalance mod of his for FONV.
The opening song in the patch trailer sounds new so it's likely something from dawnguard.

Originally Posted by WorstUsernameEver
This is a beta update. You need to opt in to get it.

I know that. I am talking about the subsequent promotion and pushing by the Steam client once the beta is over, that happens whether you opt in or not.

Yeah, good to back up the exe, too.

What's that about followers sneaking properly? They did that last update!

Yeah - for all the bugs that still remain this is the best supported bethesda title in terms of patch support ever and I think the first one since morrowind where they added new features for free rather than exclusively in DLC.

I assume this improved support/investment in quality means they're gonna be selling expansions/dlcs for quite a while. FO4 is probably a long way off.

Just a FYI, you can disable the killcam in the ini or download a mod for it.

Originally Posted by Zloth
Yeah, good to back up the exe, too.

What's that about followers sneaking properly? They did that last update!

True on both counts! Faendal always sneaked for me from the get go (just not as well as my sneaky PC). Maybe certain other followers didn't?

It seems that patch 1.5.24 beta has caused some problems with the Creation Kit, so if you are in the middle of making a new mod, you may want to either roll back to the non-Beta, or hold off on working in the CK for the time being.

I suspect the official patch 1.5 will probably also patch the creation kit to address this. The problems with the CK are due to the fact that data being tracked for the cameras has changed. Whenever data-level changes are made the CK needs to be updated as well.