Informative Twitter Thread On Treasure Hack In Skyrim

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mattstaff
Aug 29, 2021 10:00 PM EDT

Skyrim is one of those games that'll fade off the grid for a hot minute, and then pick up steam right where it left off — all thanks to another fun Twitter thread from one of its creators, game designer Joel Burgess. In this case, we have a formal investigation being launched as to whether or not the "treasure bug" — in which chasing a fox anywhere for long enough will lead a player to one of the treasure chests game developers hid across the game's expansive world — actually works, and how it wound up in the game in the first place.

Burgess' story shows that when Skyrim launched and rumors of the "treasure bug" first made their way across the internet, employees at Bethesda Game Studios investigated the situation and found that due to the way the game's artificial intelligence for CPUs is programmed, foxes — which don't actually fight the human player or other CPUs ever — are programmed to flee and naturally strive toward treasure because of the way the game's navigation systems and pathways work.

Sounds like this bug is most definitely worth giving a shot if you're playing Skyrim and looking for more treasure. For another fun Twitter thread about Skyrim, check out this Twitter thread where a guy details his ridiculous Skyrim adventures.

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  • 01
    Font - Joel Burgess @JoelBurgess · Aug 18, 2021 Replying to @JoelBurgess Among Skyrim players, you'll occasionally see this tip: if you see a wild fox, follow it and you'll be led to treasure. Sometime shortly after shipping, we saw this going around online, and an informal investigation started. Who made foxes do this?! Joel Burgess @JoelBurgess The usual suspects got interrogated - myself, @jean_simonet @Jonahlobe and @Markiepo0, among others. Nobody confessed. I got curious and started diggin
    via @JoelBurgess
  • 02
    Green - Joel Burgess @JoelBurgess · Aug 18, 2021 Replying to @JoelBurgess Skyrim uses something called 'navmesh' for Al navigation. For non-dev folks, this is an invisible 3D sheet of polygons that is laid over the world, telling Al where it can and cannot go. This red stuff is navmesh. You can read about it here: creationkit.com/index.php?titl.. RE E lldaw Joel Burgess @JoelBurgess In most situations, you're seeing Al decide what do to (run at player, hide in cover, etc), use navmesh to make a
    via @JoelBurgess
  • 03
    Font - Joel Burgess @JoelBurgess · Aug 18, 2021 Replying to @JoelBurgess So foxes flee. Why would they flee towards treasure? This is where it gets interesting. If you're close to an Al, it's in "High Process", or the most fancy, cpu-intensive pathfinding. It uses the full navmesh and will do things like line of sight and distance checks. Joel Burgess @JoelBurgess To contrast, there's also "Low Process" - used for stuff like NPCS walking a trade route across the world. world. These are only upda
    via @JoelBurgess
  • 04
    Plant - Joel Burgess @JoelBurgess · Aug 18, 2021 Replying to @JoelBurgess So @jean_simonet knew something that I didn't (as usual) There is a sort of "Medium Process" for characters nearby, but who didn't need the complex pathing of combat. Because of the way the fox's Al worked (always be fleeing!) it's basically ONLY using this process. Joel Burgess @JoelBurgess This is where understanding of how Skyrim uses navmesh comes in. Swaths of the outdoor world have simple navmesh. You don't need to a
    via @JoelBurgess
  • 05
    Photograph - Joel Burgess @JoelBurgess · Aug 18, 2021 Replying to @JoelBurgess When you stumble across something like a camp, however, navmesh gets way more detailed. Added visual detail means added navmesh detail, and if we're placing NPCS of any kind, we also tend to add even more detail. So Points of Interest = big number of small triangles. GIF Joel Burgess @JoelBurgess You see where this is going? The Fox isn't trying to get 100 meters away - it's trying to get 100 *triangles* away. You kno
    via @JoelBurgess

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