So, I'm trying to understand some Bethesda decisions, and I would like your opinions about a simple matter...

How long does it take to fix something like the never despawning weapons and ashes problem? Isn't it just some script lines away from working as it should? Do you think big issues requiring small fixes are ignored in the official patches? And if it is the case, why we have this situation?

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong section, but since I'm not asking a technical question about the modding tools, but the opinions of the modder community about this, I thought it shouldn't go in the Creation Kit subforum.

It's a bit deeper than that.

Seemingly simple things are usually the hardest ones, because usually those things are hard-coded. Then again, there are seemingly simple things that are indeed THAT simple.

For example, ashes. When people disintegrate, they don't really disintegrate into ashes. Instead, they disappear and an ash is dropped right where they were. You can attach a script to that ash and every other ash of that type (so basically everyone's ash) will also get that script. Removing that ash is as simple as typing a few lines of code.

The weapons, on the other hand, is a bit more complex. IIRC in vanilla Skyrim there is no way to attach a script to weapons that fall out of enemies' hands, so you'll need to set up a Cloak spell, tweak its radius, have it check for weapons that lie around, and clean it up.

Most gameplay mechanics are... well... hard-coded. You can get around it with a bit of creativity, but most times things are harder than it looks.

I see. About the weapons, I thought the same mechanism which removes the bodies and other stuff from the game could be used.

I would use the kit myself to take a look at this sort of thing but I don't have the game for PC.

you dont need the game i think check this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDKivlGmia4for the tutorials and how to install the Kit

I think the OP is asking about why Bethesda doesn't fix things in their official patches when USKP etc does. Even a hard-coded problem could be fixed by Bethesda.

I think it is to do with time, money and the laziness of modern business and the fact that time is money.

If 80% of the result comes from 20% of the effort, why bother with the extra 80% of the effort to achieve a return that becomes vanishingly small in proportion to the effort and doesn't increase sales? The game sells well as it is. The official patches were mainly to fix game-breaking issues but mostly (with some of them) to introduce new features required by the unreleased (at the time) DLC.

The Unofficial Patch team, however, are not doing it for money but for love. And they are striving for PERFECTION with the passion of an Uber-Geek, with no financial concerns to blur the lines of when enough is enough. For them, it will never be enough until every bug is squished and every error is fixed.

~.~

Maybe bethesda doesn′t do it because they know other ones can add it to the game

The reason Bethesda doesn't address "it" because "it" never ends. The game is published, it's done, it's complete. Their job on it's finished. They allow some development time and funding for patching whatever bugs may come up afterwords but can't continue to work on it forever.

You got it right, but I'm going further. What I can't understand is, why wouldn't they fix in the last patches infamous bugs and mistakes that don't require a lot of work or resources? Time and money don't seem to be the case, and lazyness to considerably polish the product with just a small effort? For me, this is a mistery.

You totally lost the "point".

It has always been this way. For decades Bethesda has been renowned for two things: 1) creating open world games and 2) never fixing the infamous bugs in those games. There is a broken skill in Morrowind. That is arguably worse than any bug in Skyrim. Devs were informed twice about Oblivion's bow reach bug and did nothing about it. But it's even worse than that: not only did they do nothing about the bow reach bug in the base game after they had informed about it twice, they actually perpetuated the bug when Shivering Isles came out. It still isn't fixed.

I love Bethesda. They're my favorite game studio. But their customer service has always been wretched. That said, I think they have done better at patching Skyrim than all of their previous games put together. My hope is that they continue to improve their patching services with their next game and improve some more with the game after that. Eventually, they may achieve mediocrity.