Unofficial Skyrim Modder’s Patch – USMP
A large, community-collected compilation of fixes for the many bugs, inconsistencies, and errors that can come to light from a modded install of Skyrim and its DLCs. Curated with both mod-makers and players in mind to aid the in-game experience, and serve as a base so that mod authors don’t need to keep finding, fixing, and working around the s
I regret to announce that USMP is now officially no longer supported. However, it may be used as a modder’s resource to all. Thank you for your understanding.
Skyrim is an epic game, and modding is the epic minigame that goes along with it! Still, it’s not without its issues and once you get under the hood it doesn’t take long before you notice the many inconsistencies, shortcuts, half finished changes, and plain old mistakes that Bethesda made when they were putting together this fantastic game. This is where the Unofficial Skyrim Modder’s Patch comes in!
USMP is a large, community-collected compilation of fixes for the many bugs, inconsistencies, and errors that are either completely visual (placement of objects, or object models not being set up correctly) or only come to light from a modded install of Skyrim and its DLCs. Curated with both mod-makers and players in mind to aid the in-game experience, and serve as a base so that mod authors don’t need to keep finding, fixing, and working around the same old problems. With all of these in a single ESP, it means it’s load order friendly too so you can add more mods instead of using up your precious ESP limit just trying to fix things!
For a full list of everything that has been fixed so far, please see the ‘Changes’ tab above ^^.
We will be seeking out and contacting publishers of bug fixes to include their work in USMP, but if you’re a mod-maker and have found a bug, error or inconsistency that wouldn’t normally be an issue for the vanilla game, but is totally an issue with your mod in mind, then let us know! Read through the FAQ section below, and then report it using the ‘Bugs’ tab above ^^.
This isn’t the first mod to try to fix the underlying issues with Skyrim, but it IS the first to attempt to fix the issues that make modding the game such a minefield in such a comprehensive way.
This mod is in no way affiliated with, nor endorsed by, the Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch team, nor should they be expected to do so. The team there work to a very specific design goal and it differs from ours, so please don’t nag them about this mod or fixes contained within it!
Q: Doesn’t the Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch do this already?
Well, not really, no…
You see, the USLEEP team have a very specific goal for their mod. Their intention is to address bugs and issues that effect vanilla gameplay, and the fixes they apply are designed not to effect the vanilla experience in a negative way. This is an entirely understandable goal, and the work they’ve done to achieve this is as admirable as it is impressive.
However, this means that bugs and errors that only come to light or cause problems in a modded Skyrim install are excluded from USLEEP. For instance:
a bug that prevents hair being hidden when a Redguard child wears a hat isn’t a problem USLEEP will address, as no Redguard children wear hats in the vanilla game. But if you have a mod that makes children into followers, this could be a real annoyance
a bug that causes a once-unique item, the Gaulder Amulet, to display incorrectly is fixed by USLEEP in a way that makes it just another Ancient Nord Amulet. Not a problem in a vanilla game, but if you have a mod that retextures all unique items it would be a problem
a configuration issue that prevents Astrid from wearing any items of clothing besides her standard outfit doesn’t even appear in the vanilla game. But if you wanted her as a follower…
These unaddressed bugs are why USMP was created.
Q: So what bugs will you include?
We are seeking to includes fixes for inconsistencies, errors, oversights and downright laziness in esm data and meshes included with the vanilla game and DLCs. This could be everything from keyword assignments for weapons, to the placement of floating rocks; miss-assigned races on armor, to UV mapping on meshes.
Inconsistencies and errors will mainly be identified by looking at the other data available in the vanilla files (i.e. a dagger-related keyword on every dagger in game, except one; or a UV map that is quite obviously wrong when you look at the shape of the mesh it’s applied to).
We will accept script fixes, but these need to have already seen thorough testing and positive feedback (i.e. through being released as an independent fix mod on the Nexus) before we include them. This is simply due to the limited time available to correct code, bug check, and thoroughly test all eventualities.
Q: What issues won’t you include?
We won’t be tackling things that are entirely subjective. For instance, we won’t be rebalancing all weapon damage to make the game more challenging, and we won’t be adjusting lighting throughout all dungeons to make it darker. We won’t be providing visual overhauls for NPCs, or improved textures for weapons. All of these are things which are entirely to the taste of the player, and everyone’s taste is different. The purpose of USMP is to provide a solid and consistent platform for modding, so that everyone can mod to their own personal tastes.
Lastly, we won’t address most issues already covered by the Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch. We firmly believe that the basis of a solid modded game is a solid vanilla game, and the team over there already do an amazing job of this. However, in a very few cases, their solution is entirely workable for vanilla install of Skyrim, but doesn’t work well for a modded install (the handling in USLEEP of the Gaulder’s Amulet being a prime example of this, where this was intended to be a unique item, but USLEEP’s fix makes it just another Ancient Nord Amulet). In these extreme examples there may a need to provide an alternate, more complete solution that better supports a modded game.
Q: Will you be reporting USMP bugs to USLEEP?
In a word… no. The types of bugs that USMP seeks to fix are generally of the type rejected by the USLEEP team for inclusion, so there would be little reason to use our resource AND spam the USLEEP bug tracker with them. If one of the bugfixes in USMP is duplicated in USLEEP however, we will remove it from USMP as it will no longer be required (provided the USLEEP fix supports the modded install as well as the vanilla game).
Q: Will you make a non-legendary version of USMP for people that don’t have all the DLCs?
Sadly, no. The task we’ve taken on is going to be large enough without having to maintain multiple versions. Also USLEEP is a requirement as we have to respect the fixes already contained in it, and that needs you to have all of the DLCs anyway.
Since all relevant changes have been carried forward from the Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch, that mod is required by this one, and Skyrim will not start without it.
Both USLEEP and USMP require the full “Legendary” edition of Skyrim:
TESV: Skyrim
Official Skyrim patch
Official Dawnguard DLC
Official Hearthfire DLC
Official Dragonborn DLC
Once all of the requirements and USMP are installed, your load order should be:
Skyrim.esm
Update.esm
Dawnguard.esm
Hearthfires.esm
Dragonborn.esm
Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch.esp
Unofficial Skyrim Modder’s Patch.esp
[Your other ESM files]
[The rest of your mods]
Many of the fixes included in USMP are not addressed anywhere else, so they will be highly compatible with almost all mods. Additionally, all relevant changes from USLEEP have been carried forward into this package, so there will be no conflicts there either.
Since we have marked the USMP .ESP file with a “fake” ESM flag it should be automatically sorted at the top of your load order, allowing all your other mods to load after it.Therefore, the worst case that will occur is that you miss some of the USMP fixes in your game because another of your mods has reverted back to the vanilla data. This is a “hard conflict”.
If you find this is the case, please politely draw the mod author’s attention to USMP as the team here are unlikely to be able to provide patches without their permission, and it would be more appropriate for them to carry forward the fixes from this mod than for us to provide patches for them.
The only other mods that are likely to have “soft conflicts” with USMP are those that attempt to fix the same issues. As a guide, the mods (or indicated parts of mods) in the Credits section have been incorporated into USMP and will change the same things. It won’t cause any problems, it’s just not necessary to have two or more mods that fix the same issue (which is the entire purpose of releasing USMP!)
INSTALLATION
Simply download with your mod manager of choice and activate!
