[RELz/WIPz] Unofficial Starfield Patch

[Arthmoor]

Unofficial Starfield Patch

Version: 1.0.0
By the Unofficial Patch Project Team

Download it from AFK Mods
Download it from Starfield Nexus
Download it from Bethesda.net - PC
Download it from Bethesda.net - XB1

Requires Starfield 1.xx.xx or greater.

Documentation + Credits - PC, XB1

USFP Discussion Forum on AFK Mods

This mod is an effort to fix the vast amount of bugs currently existing in Starfield. If you're experiencing a bug with Starfield, please report the bug to us in as much detail as possible on the USFP bugtracker. Please use search to ensure that you aren't submitting something that is already there. Please also confirm that the bug you are reporting happens with no mods other than the unofficial patches installed. A lot of Starfield bugs are actually the result of other mods doing things they're not supposed to. Thank you and we hope you have a better Starfield experience!

(Note that all fixes are retroactive unless otherwise noted)

When posting a bug report in our tracker, please also consider filing your report with the Bethesda Feedback Site as well. We would all prefer that bugs get fixed at an official level so that everyone can benefit from them. Especially in the case of things like engine bugs that won't be addressable on consoles.

Frequently Asked Questions - BUGS
Frequently Asked Questions - About the Project
Mods Made Obsolete by the USFP

Nothing yet, this post is currently just a placeholder for when things get going on the first release.

The complete changelog for PC and XBox One is available here.

[Arthmoor]

Reserved for beta announcements.

[lmstearn]

Good to see it on NexusMods too. 👍

[Guest]

Blah

Edited August 30, 2023 by CommunityFTW

[SkyLover]

Counter-reminder that the USFP will be helmed by a tried-and-true team that has years of experience managing unofficial patches, and that every single other attempt at an unofficial patch replacement project has either died off shortly after launch, or devolved into a quagmire of competing forks with different ideas of what is and isn't a bug.

[Guest]

blah

Edited August 30, 2023 by CommunityFTW

[jaywaddy]

Sorry just to make sure I’ve understood, is this the same unofficial patch that nexus mods have announced that have a variety of people working on it or is this a separate unofficial project from them? Thank you. 

[Arthmoor]

This is a separate project run by the UPP. We are not affiliated with the SCP.

[jaywaddy]

Thank you for clarifying, appreciate it.

[tortugapir8]

Thanks Arthmoor (and contributors) for the massive amount of time and effort you have put in the Unofficial Patches for BGS releases.  I'm less than thrilled to hear about the direction of Nexus / SCP and having been involved in many startups and open source projects I cannot imagine a scenario where this doesn't turn into a drama-laden forking nightmare.  The UPP has shown time and time again to be extremely professional and diligent in their long-term support; a big thank to all!

[LeviTheMetalGuy]

When i eventually get the game i'll be glad this is here. Love the support you guys always give.

[1ae0bfb8]

On 8/30/2023 at 9:31 PM, Arthmoor said:

This is a separate project run by the UPP. We are not affiliated with the SCP.

thank heavens for that. you guys know the score! more power to you!

[Relight]

On 8/30/2023 at 1:31 PM, Arthmoor said:

This is a separate project run by the UPP. We are not affiliated with the SCP.

Feel free to split this discussion into a separate thread if you wish, just wanted to add a couple comments here... I haven't really kept up with the news or anything re: Nexus, so I hope that the Unofficial team is still recognized in the community. It's too bad about the SCP, when you Google for "Unofficial Starfield Patch," all the top results are SCP. Who is even in charge of that project? That's one thing I don't like, it's very vague. Their site looks kind of nice though lol (although I'm not clear why it says 39 issues but only shows 10). And I see that they already have people reporting issues, while USFP doesn't have any yet, so I hope that this isn't going to take away from people reporting stuff here. I suppose you can always just reference their stuff if it becomes a problem.

It is also kind of disappointing that after all this time, Bethesda still hasn't made a better public tracker other than their ticket system, and encouraged the community to help by submitting issues through it, perhaps with an export function if fans want to track the details and possibly fix things they don't, bringing more visibility and detail overall to what they're fixing and updating. This could have also possibly eliminated the problem of multiple fan efforts, which can cause a lot of uncertainty or duplication of effort for fans reporting bugs, certainly at the beginning for fans having to report issues to both Bethesda and to fan patches, and then later to possibly have to track multiple projects to see their status. Of course, I have trusted the Unofficial team forever, and that hasn't changed. It was just annoying to find that the actual Unofficial Starfield Patch wasn't higher on Google when I searched for it.

Hope everyone is enjoying the game, it's been a blast so far!

Edited September 4, 2023 by Relight

[Arthmoor]

I wouldn't worry too much about the SEO performance. Google is already advancing us up the search list. We're "above the fold" now to use ancient terms. SCP has nothing actually released yet, neither do we, because both of us need to wait on the CK for plugins and script work, and on working mesh tools for mesh bugs. Textures thus far aren't really an issue and would be enough to kick things off.

As far as who runs SCP, that's Halgari and SimonMagus, under the banner of Nexus Mods. Picky is their staff member running things from their end. It's a very corpo style they've chosen to deal with things, with loads of complicated development tools being employed for the usual trendy reasons.

We may not be the fanciest operation out there, but this is a community project, it doesn't need GitHub integrations and overengineered tools to make it work. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

It would be a great thing indeed if Bethesda ran a public bug tracker, but their feedback system works well enough for now, and IMO it's where all bug reports should be getting send until there's actually a CK to work from.

[Relight]

6 hours ago, Arthmoor said:

...both of us need to wait on the CK for plugins and script work, and on working mesh tools for mesh bugs.

...and IMO it's where all bug reports should be getting send until there's actually a CK to work from.

Great points. I have already submitted 19 UI issues to Bethesda today, more to come 

Edited September 5, 2023 by Relight
16->17->18->19 lol

[lmstearn]

At least Bing based searches put the USFP at Nexus at the top and USFP at afkmods at 2, 3, 4...

[Rohal2]

is this patch gonna be open source like SCP or closed source?

[Arthmoor]

Since "open source" means being able to examine the source code to something, then yes.

[Rohal2]

open source meaning examining the source code and being able to change and redistribute it

[Scythe Bearer]

9 hours ago, Rohal2 said:

open source meaning examining the source code and being able to change and redistribute it

 

You are conflating "open source" with "open license".  

"Open license" describes a usage license which permits the modification of the original source, recompiling a new executable and redistributing that new executable.  Given that most software is covered under copyright law, an open license is required before one is allowed to modify, recompile and redistribute any software, including mods.  If you read the advertisements on the SCP, you will see it is released under the MIT Open Distribution license.  That license (viewable at https://github.com/Starfield-Community-Patch/Starfield-Community-Patch/blob/main/LICENSE) states:
 

Quote

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2023 Starfield Community Patch Team

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

 

The Unofficial Patch has no "open" license. 

Edited September 9, 2023 by Scythe Bearer

[Rohal2]

ok so the answer is no regarding the open source question. what a pity.

[DayDreamer]

2 hours ago, Rohal2 said:

ok so the answer is no regarding the open source question. what a pity.

Depends on your style of FOSS. It's Free. It's Open. It's community-based. Although the maintainer is a bit of a rigid stickler....

Having lived through the licensing wars from the '70s and '80s and '90s, and most recently as a Red Hat employee, I've been immersed in many of the variant licenses. The thing to remember: all publications have a license of some sort by default, until they enter the public domain.

In this case, Bethesda claims all trademarks and rights for anything built by the Creation Kit, including Unofficial Patches. You cannot redistribute the Bethesda software, or modify it and claim it as your own work.

Likewise, you cannot redistribute this Unofficial patch itself, or modify it and claim it as your own work.

By their nature, you can always patch this unofficial patch, and redistribute your own patches. Bethesda's software will (usually) apply the patches in the order you specify.

The so-called NexusMods Starfield Community Patch has a MIT license. You can copy and modify and redistribute it as your own (under the same license).

Practically though, the NexusMods site has deleted all copies or similarly named patches, and seems to be claiming a form of site copyright. IMnsHO, they've chosen the wrong license, and by their actions are not abiding by the license terms. But NexusMods is under UK law, and there are likely nuances that are beyond my ken.

 

Edited September 10, 2023 by DayDreamer

[Relight]

5 hours ago, Rohal2 said:

ok so the answer is no regarding the open source question. what a pity.

So the proven Unofficial Patch team is doing the same thing with Starfield, and SCP can't just take all the hard work they'll do and throw it into SCP? Doesn't sound like a pity to me.

In the meantime, unlike USFP, SCP is not encouraging anyone to report bugs to Bethesda so they'll actually be fixed (I've already submitted 30 issues and bugs, and I have a long list of more and a collection of screenshots to work through). Instead, SCP seems determined to "win" by popularity, with journos writing fluff articles about them. "100 reported fixes" it tries to claim at one point in the article. No, they are not fixed lol, and they are not "fixes" until they are FIXED. And 100 reported issues is not some big deal that you have to write an article about it. And yes, they clearly think it's a big deal, because "100 flagged issues" is the title of the article.

I heard Nexus Mods is policing and censoring mods now. Maybe this was already a thing in the past and I just wasn't aware of it, but I haven't followed Nexus Mods for a while, I guess over the years they've become big and famous or something. I don't really care what the content of the mods is, it's irrelevant. Mods are meant to change the content of a game, for any purpose. As soon as you start censoring that, you've lost me. I would have been happy to submit reports to both USFP and SCP, but I don't think I'll be supporting SCP anymore.

Edited September 10, 2023 by Relight

[Arthmoor]

The bottom line with Nexus is that when they hatched plans to offer modpacks (and let's face it, that's what they are) they went full corpo and turned on the very people who made them what they are today.

[SkyLover]

So if Bethesda technically owns whatever you make with the CK, then isn't releasing the SCP under the MIT license a violation of the CK's end-user license agreement?