A bunch of .bsa files dated to 2008 - what are these?

[belegost]

In anticipation of upcoming update breaking my current mod load order I decided to back up main .exe and .esm files. However  when looking through Data folder I also found a bunch of Skyrim - <insert name>.bsa files dated to 2008 (please see the attached picture for reference). I assume these are modded files, however my initial Google-Fu could not find anything of value in the flood of unrelated, generic information.

 

Nevertheless I decided to back them up as well just in case. Where are these files from?

 

 

[coolfreaky]

those are main gameplay files  !!!   not to touch , not to delete !!!     you can make a backup in case they were or will be modified !

( better play safe than sorry ) .

[belegost]

1 hour ago, coolfreaky said:

those are main gameplay files  !!!   not to touch , not to delete !!!     you can make a backup in case they were or will be modified !

( better play safe than sorry ) .

 

That's fine, but why are they dated 2008? This is weird, I would assume they would have the installation date as virtually every other vanilla file.

[anjenthedog]

where exactly did you find these? I can't see any files that are dated before early 2019 in my game directories.  (I installed Skyrim SE in Feb 2019)

[belegost]

5 hours ago, anjenthedog said:

where exactly did you find these? I can't see any files that are dated before early 2019 in my game directories.  (I installed Skyrim SE in Feb 2019)

 

9 hours ago, belegost said:

looking through Data folder

 

[anjenthedog]

I saw that. My point is, they sure don't appear in my game, which was installed in early 2019.

 

(My post was intended to imply to you that no, they aren't a normal part of the Skyrim distribution, which means you got them elsewhere, or perhaps you were some sort of early Skyrim player or something in the "wayback" and got them back in 2012 or so, periodically upgrading the game, and these are leftovers from that wayback-when event)

 

[ttts1]

I just checked my file and mine are September 2021 since I reinstalled SkyrimSE recently. 

 

I've had it on my computer before, but each of those files in your screenshot are listed as the installed date for my most recent install in September.  I know because I had to uninstall and reinstall everything Skyrim related to fix some problems I had just a few weeks ago.  The files are from that date and not a date from the previous install.

[belegost]

1 hour ago, anjenthedog said:

I saw that. My point is, they sure don't appear in my game, which was installed in early 2019.

 

(My post was intended to imply to you that no, they aren't a normal part of the Skyrim distribution, which means you got them elsewhere, or perhaps you were some sort of early Skyrim player or something in the "wayback" and got them back in 2012 or so, periodically upgrading the game, and these are leftovers from that wayback-when event)

 

 

It would be hard to install Special Edition prior to 2016. Oldrim installs into a completely separate folder and the last time I played Oldrim was 2015.

 

I'm getting conflicting information. The person before you claimed those are regular game files, you claim the opposite. It'd be nice if someone could verify their origin with certainty.

[belegost]

41 minutes ago, ttts1 said:

I just checked my file and mine are September 2021 since I reinstalled SkyrimSE recently. 

 

I've had it on my computer before, but each of those files in your screenshot are listed as the installed date for my most recent install in September.  I know because I had to uninstall and reinstall everything Skyrim related to fix some problems I had just a few weeks ago.  The files are from that date and not a date from the previous install.

 

Interesting. Seems like date tagging for those files got borked on my PC for some reason. The executables and main, Update and Dragonborn master files have the correct date of most recent install, Dawnguard is later probably because that was when I cleaned ITM records. All other files (not listed here) have correct dates as well.

 

EDIT: curiously, PamaPrisonAlternative.esm is dated to year 2000, but that file has the same date in original archive, so I assume it was borked on modder's end.

[coolfreaky]

i think it all normal you have a version of the game without ' Heartfire '  might be a mirror download to get this copy :

- the base game ( files might be dated as when they were created / packed  ) +  2 dlc  ( it is not the complet remastered !  ) .

 

it is not importante , Bethesda did only an engine ( fix and update ) until now , not the contenant files as we always need the unoficial patch .

 

i do not know !

[pinky6225]

Have the same, i would guess something (CK maybe) screwed over the last modified date

 

 

These are all loaded by default in the skyrim.ini and creationkit.ini

 

[Archive]
bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
bUseArchives=0
sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes0.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes1.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa
SResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices_en0.bsa, Skyrim - Textures0.bsa, Skyrim - Textures1.bsa, Skyrim - Textures2.bsa, Skyrim - Textures3.bsa, Skyrim - Textures4.bsa, Skyrim - Textures5.bsa, Skyrim - Textures6.bsa, Skyrim - Textures7.bsa, Skyrim - Textures8.bsa, Skyrim - Patch.bsa

 

 

Game works fine so i wouldnt worry about, maybe change the date that gets shown in file explorer from date modified to date created as that looks to be about right

[Fotogen]

Skyrim game engine uses a file to manage load order. But in old days, like Oblivion, engine used mods  date/time for load order.

 

Its what original, old mod managers did. change mods date/time so you could control this load order. Old/original as in "morrowind". Yeah, like really old stuff.

 

Now, some mod managers for Skyrim have old roots. They've been around since Oblivion times. Some even support miltiple games. So its possible, they use morrowind/oblivion tricks on Skyrim, even if its not required. Or maybe you had at one point "old" mod manager (that used date/time trick), but then you upgraded.

 

Anyway, this date/time is harmless and pointless. It does not effect Skyrim game.

 

P.S.:

CK, when you load a mod, still shows mods sorted by date/time. Old, legacy stuff.

[belegost]

6 hours ago, pinky6225 said:

These are all loaded by default in the skyrim.ini and creationkit.ini

 

Thanks for the confirmation. appreciated

 

5 hours ago, Fotogen said:

Its what original, old mod managers did. change mods date/time so you could control this load order. Old/original as in "morrowind". Yeah, like really old stuff.

 

I see, very interesting, thanks for the explanation.

 

Amusingly, since the first TES game I played was Daggerfall I never considered Morrowind as "old". Maybe I should finally change this view, it's been what? 20 years?