Blog (1-2-20): Looking Back at 2019 & Looking Forward to Ultimate Skyrim 5.0.0

The happiest of New Years to you all, and thank you for your patience between updates.

It’s tough knowing where to start with this post, as so much happened over 2019, and I expect 2020 to be equally packed — but let me begin with my most profound gratitude for all of you in the Ultimate Skyrim community: contributors, players, patrons, viewers, lurkers, and everyone between. One of my biggest personal 2019 milestones was that I could work on UltSky nearly full-time, which was entirely thanks to all of you. I simply could not pursue this work without your support, and from the bottom of my heart, thank you for placing your trust in me. I promise to treat it with the care and respect it deserves.

I’d like to give special thanks to my darling wife Liz, metherul, Connor (Drunk Hunter), hazarduss, Phinocio, LostDragonist, Nathan, Dunc Smith, Gatonegro, Runew0lf, LadieWinter, David Cobb, Alan_Foster, and LadyZeefa for all their help and contributions.

With all of that said, let’s take a look at what we accomplished in 2019, and what I expect to deliver in 2020.

2019: The Year of Ultimate Skyrim 4.0.0

2019 was the biggest year yet for Ultimate Skyrim:

The release of UltSky 4.0.0 was a huge learning experience for the team and I. 4.0.0 was the most ambitious version of Ultimate Skyrim by far, and as an amateur developer with no previous experience managing such a large project, it’s obvious now that I bit off more than I could chew and did a less-than-stellar job organizing the work. The result was a rushed product with some obvious rough edges, and some significant burnout for the team and I.

After some much needed rest and some stellar help from the team & the community, I was able to get back on my feet and release the first handful of patches for 4.0.0, which brought the release into a much smoother state. In the latter half of 2019, Liz helped me transition UltSky to the project development app JIRA, which was instrumental in the planning and development of 4.0.6 Hotfix 2, the current & final release in the 4.0.x series. I’d say Hotfix 2 is what 4.0.0 should’ve been on release, and I’m very happy with where it’s left the game for the time being.

While 4.0.x was hardly smooth, I’m very grateful for the lessons it brought and for the opportunity to mature as a developer. We now have much better processes for development and testing, which I look forward to using & improving as UltSky continues to grow.

Speaking of growth, this is probably a good time to talk about 2020. Without further adieu:

2020 and Ultimate Skyrim 5.0.0

The announcement of Ultimate Skyrim 5.0.0 may come as a shock to some of you, since the next release was supposed to be Ultimate Skyrim 4.1.0, but as Hazard and I dug our mitts into 4.1.0’s development, we found that we had too many exciting ideas to wait on — and thus, 5.0.0 was born.

Since I just spoke about the pitfalls of 4.0.0’s ambition, let me assure you that we’re being very careful in avoiding the mistakes of the past. In particular, we now have much stronger standards & procedures for testing, and I’ve chosen to avoid release dates until we’re absolutely confident we can deliver a quality release by the given date. (“A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.”)

With that said, here are some of the features you can look forward to in 5.0.0:

Completely overhauled visuals for environments & NPC’s, using the latest in flora/lighting/texture mods

Multiple performance profiles ranging from “Low” to “Ultra”

New religion mechanics from Enai’s Wintersun

New vampirism mechanics from the combo of Enai’s Sacrosanct & snbcj’s Requiem - Werewolf and Vampire Rebalance

New standing stone mechanics from the combo of Enai’s Andromeda & snbcj’s Requiem - Standing Stone Rebalance

New race mechanics from snbcj’s Requiem - Immersive Abilities

A full-fledged recipe crafting system built from scratch for Ultimate Skyrim

Another built-from-scratch system for cooking and food, fully integrated with kryptopyr’s Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul

New sounds from Cliffworms’ Sounds of Skyrim Complete

Tons of new music from Fantasy Sound Project, Yggdrasil Music, and more

Improved options for training non-lethal training, and more activities for non-violent characters

And more!

This is not a comprehensive list of the features & improvements you’ll find in UltSky 5.0.0; rather it’s a list of features we’re almost certain will make it to the release. We’re working on other features that may find their way in, but I’m keeping those closer to the chest in case they need pushing back to later versions.

I hope these features are as exciting to you guys as they are to me. I’m particularly stoked about the metric f**kton of new character builds possible through Enai & snbcj’s mods, and the performance profiles, which I think will really improve the experience for users with less powerful hardware.

On the YouTube side of things, I plan to release an updated introduction video alongside 5.0.0, and likely the first video(s) in the Ultimate Skyrim Survival Guide, which will feature basic tips and tricks for new players, as well as some advanced tips for veterans. More info on these to come.

I’ll speak to you all again as development progresses, but before I go, let me take the opportunity to thank you all again for making 2019 the best year for Ultimate Skyrim yet. This project lives on because of you, and I promise you my best efforts in making 2020 even better.

Happiest of New Years to you all, thank you again, and until next time,

BB

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