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A broken bee (code bug) almost ruined Skyrim's iconic opening

Nickolaidas

Banned
Random: A Broken Bee Almost Ruined Skyrim's Iconic Intro - Xbox News (purexbox.com)

We all know the introduction to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Even if you haven't played the game, there's a ton of memes, clips and other amusing compilations out there referencing it. However, it was something that proved challenging to make according to one former developer on the game, as a rogue bee was causing all sorts of problems.

Nate Purkeypile, who previously worked on the game, shared the story on Twitter. While many have previously believed the intro cart ride was on rails, it's actually said to be a physically simulated event in the game. Of course, with programming situations such as that, there are issues. Purkeypile spoke about times "the cart [would] start to shake violently and all of a sudden WHOOSH!"

This was an issue that was hard to replicate as it wasn't happening every time, resulting in Purkeypile replaying the same segment of the game over and over again. So, what was the culprit?

It was a single bee.

During the game's development, the team discovered that bees in the game couldn't be picked up. The bug was fixed, but it also made it so that bees could collide into things. As you can expect with the dynamic world of Skyrim and the non-scripted introduction to the game, if the two came into contact it was met with disastrous results.

Thankfully, this was an issue that was resolved by the time the game launched, but we can imagine there would have been some interesting stories if this was kept in. It reminds us of the mystical swing in Grand Theft Auto IV, which saw players that drove into it be thrown across the map.

If Bethesda wants to add the bee collision in as a mod, we wouldn't say no.

Jesus fucking Christ.

They playtested the intro a hundred times before realizing that the kart would go apeshit because of a(n in-game) bee. How much more of a clusterfuck can a game engine be?

Creation Engine? More like Snowflake Engine.
 
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R6Rider

Gold Member
nicolas cage bees GIF
 

iHaunter

Member
What a shitty take. Instead of appreciating what the engine did and how many hours of fun the game has, you go into a rage fit because of a physics bug? Jesus christ. Get over yourself.
You're missing the point, the engine worked fine for Skyrim. I think the worry is ES6.
 

K' Dash

Member
it actually doesn't mean anything, stuff like this happens on software development all the time, specially hard to reproduce bugs like this one.

OPs ignorance about how software development works on a basic level should be enough to refrain talking shit he doesn't know anything about, it just shows how a >60 IQ works.

As a developer an issue like this is just wednesday.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
This was an issue that was hard to replicate as it wasn't happening every time, resulting in Purkeypile replaying the same segment of the game over and over again.
This sounds awful. The real life of someone who makes video games.
 

Nickolaidas

Banned
it actually doesn't mean anything, stuff like this happens on software development all the time, specially hard to reproduce bugs like this one.

OPs ignorance about how software development works on a basic level should be enough to refrain talking shit he doesn't know anything about, it just shows how a >60 IQ works.

As a developer an issue like this is just wednesday.
Yeah, the PS3 version having a save game bug which would eventually kill your game no matter what you did is totally Wednesday. But I guess that shows how a <60 IQ works.
What a shitty take. Instead of appreciating what the engine did and how many hours of fun the game has, you go into a rage fit because of a physics bug? Jesus christ. Get over yourself.
Ah, I missed your hyperboles!! How you've been keeping, my dude?
 

Saber

Gold Member
I would rather have a stable engine than remembering where I put mostly useless items in-game.

It was so frustating. My original first save was doomed because I put one of unique elder masks on the manneqin and mask dissapear in the game for good, blocking me from doing the masks quest.
 
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Nickolaidas

Banned
I’m pretty sure he meant something other than hyperboles - “hyperboles” doesn’t make sense really in this context
Doesn't 'hyperbole' mean exaggeration? I meant that him talking about me having a rage fit was a hyperbole, because this isn't a rage fit - this is me just mocking Bethesda's shitty bug testing.
 

K' Dash

Member
Yeah, the PS3 version having a save game bug which would eventually kill your game no matter what you did is totally Wednesday. But I guess that shows how a <60 IQ works.

Ah, I missed your hyperboles!! How you've been keeping, my dude?

We're not talking about the PS3 issue, but yeah we can talk about that if you want.

Usually all these crippling bugs like that one on PS3 is well documented and we'll known, if the issue persists until the end of the project the MANAGEMENT decides if the project can be deployed or not.

In this case they decided to sacrifice the PS community. Again, this is just how software development works...
 

Kilau

Gold Member
Their crappy engine is why I only play these games on PC, so I can use the console commands to fix things when the game inevitably shits the bed.
 

Nickolaidas

Banned
I think it's a beautiful engine, despite it's numerous flaws.
I agree, somewhat. It's shitty, but also versatile. And the fact that the majority of the bugs were fixed with mods is proof that it's more of a piss poor bug testing issue (or an unwillingness to address the bugs due to time constraints), rather than an engine issue.
 
Doesn't 'hyperbole' mean exaggeration? I meant that him talking about me having a rage fit was a hyperbole, because this isn't a rage fit - this is me just mocking Bethesda's shitty bug testing.
Oh yeah i thought you were referring to the “shitty take” comment. Could work regarding rage fit
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.

Miles708

Member
That actually makes me appreciate it even more, just like the "cheat" of putting a bucket on the head of a merchant to rob him in front of his face.
The behaviour is wrong, yes, but that also means that the merchant (like the bee and the cart) react to real world rules in real time, in this case: the simulated field of vision of every NPC.

To make a game this big, with so much content, with so many rules and systems, and to make the items, NPC and enemies react to it in a simulated, coherent and non-scripted way... it's a miracle.

People like to shit on Skyrim but the fact that this game exists at all is an incredible feat.

(Never mind the fact that is a joy to play and explore)
 
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bender

What time is it?
People like to shit on Skyrim but the fact that this game exists at all is an incredible feat.

People shit on Skyrim because gameplay systems in TES have been dumbed down with each new release with Oblivion and Skyrim being the biggest offenders. Skyrim is no miracle as earlier games in the series did what it did, but with more variety in landscapes and better systems.
 

Kikorin

Member
This is a good thing actually IMHO. You can say Skyrim was shit because of so many bugs, but I take these kind of bugs all day in a truly dynamic world instead of a less buggy game in a static world.
 
I've said it before, but no amount of Bethesda bugs takes away from the hilarity of getting uppity with a giant for the first time. My sides followed my corpse into orbit.
 

catvonpee

Member
All this means is the bee could not pass though the solid cart so it would fling it into the air. This is possible because the engines physics are advanced enough to calculate all those collisions and physics.

I love how all sperate objects can exist and have realistic collision in Bethesda games. It's part of the charm the game has. Part of the fun was dropping objects on the ground and putting them in cases and on shelves. Or running across a pristinely made table setting and listening to the NPCs reactions. I think it was even better in Oblivion and I would dupe millions of items with the arrow glitch. It's amazing the the individual objects all stay in there places over hundreds of hours and many saves.
 
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