Skyrim patch 1.6 detailed, adds mounted combat

The wonderful folks over at Bethesda have detailed the changes coming to Skyrim with the 1.6 patch. The most exciting change shows that the team has not just been fixing errors, they have been adding new content as well. Players will now be able to indulge in a little mounted combat, though this probably won’t be that effective against dragons (unless you’d like to buy another horse).

The beta version of the patch is now available through Steam but, as always, you’ll be installing it at your own risk should you opt for a little on-the-go testing during your questing. We have the full patch notes below.

1.6 Update (all platforms unless specified)

NEW FEATURES

• Mounted Combat - Skyrim now allows you to do melee and ranged combat while riding a horse

BUG FIXES

• General stability and memory optimizations
• General AI pathfinding optimizations and bug fixes
• Optimizations and crash fixes for data leaks
• Fixed rare crash with lighting
• Fixed crashes related to loading and saving games
• Fixed crash with summoned creatures/NPCs
• Fixed rare issue where saves would be corrupted
• Improved logic for when ranged kill cams are played
• Fixed issue with ranged kill cams while killing a dragon
• Fixed rare issue with certain ranged kill cams not playing properly
• Fixed issue with nirnroot lighting not properly cleaning up
• Fixed issue where bow damage was being calculated incorrectly
• Fixed rare problem with werewolf kill moves would not finish animating properly
• In “The Break of Dawn” fixed rare issue where Meridia’s Beacon would disappear from player’s inventory
• Fixed occasional issue where followers would disappear after player pays off a bounty after committing a crime
• Fixed issue where certain creatures and NPCs would fail to respawn properly
• Fixed rare issue with dialogue subtitles not displaying properly
• Fixed issue with water appearing blurry when loading a saved game after creating a save underwater
• Fixed issue where map cursor would occasionally disappear after closing a message box with Kinect enabled  (Xbox 360)
• Fixed rare issue with shouts only performing the first level and not other unlocked levels with Kinect enabled  (Xbox 360)
• Fixed issue where the shout buttons would stop working properly if users mashed LB and RB during cooldown with Kinect enabled  (Xbox 360)

There is no launch date for the update yet. We’ll let you know as soon as there is.

Source : Bethesda Blog