New Skyrim patch, PC dev tools incoming

An "incremental" patch for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is due next week to address issues with the recent 1.2 update, publisher Bethesda has announced.

As detailed on the Bethesda Blog, it will be available on PC first, with console versions taking a little longer due to platform holder certification.

"Among other things, the update will fix issues like magic resistance not calculating properly and the rare, amazing backwards flying dragon," read the post.

More game updates are promised for early 2012 and beyond, "to fix whatever issues come up along with rebalancing portions of the game for difficulty or exploits."

"We plan on having a lot of these, not just a few," explained Bethesda. "Overall, you should expect updates to be hitting the PC and Steam earlier and more often, as that's a process we control. Console updates will follow, as they must be certified and processed by those manufacturers."

The publisher also expressed a little regret over the whole backwards-dragon brouhaha, conceding that it needs to take a little more care in future when patching the game.

"We all know this is a huge game, and everyone has a different experience. We'll continue to do everything we can to make the game better and better for as many people as possible every day.

"We've also realised that with the millions upon millions of people playing Skyrim, we need to treat our updates with greater care. If we get too aggressive trying to fix a minor issue, we run a risk of breaking something larger in a game like this.

"To be safe, we are prioritising code side fixes right now over data fixes. Quest and balance issues are usually data, and those will start rolling in a large way with the January updates."

In other news, Bethesda also announced that PC users will be able to download development tools for the game from January, along with a wiki and tutorial video to teach you how to use them.

Steam Workshop will be integrated in this Creation Kit, offering free user-generated content "with the push of a button".

"The Creation Kit will bundle your mod and upload it to the Workshop, where everyone can browse, rate, and flag mods for download. You'll be able to do this from any web device, including your smartphone."

You'll also be able to use existing fan-created modding sites, should you prefer.