Dragon Overhall

[Aluminumfoil]

It looks like you and I are on the same page about dragons and a Fear effect, Btasty. http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/462721-suggestions-requested-aoe-disablefear-from-dragons/ I'd be happy to collaborate if you're planning on turning this into a mod.

[Vagrant0]

What's the problem of punching dragons to death? Ok, several things, but this is Elder Scrolls, a godly main character is kinda par for the course.

 

Mods that add more varieties of dragons is something that will certainly come into play.

 

But, fleeing dragons would just be annoying as hell. As is I'm sitting on about 15 words of power trying to actually find the dragons to kill (at level 40ish). So having to chase them down again and again would just make me kill with console.

 

Not sure on the other AI suggestions. Usually the dragon ignores everything else but me as soon as I get close enough or start attacking. Dragons attacking other stuff until then, well that's kinda how they're designed. They're supposed to fly around killing things and torching the countryside. You probably wouldn't be able to see them if they weren't. It's when you have a dragon being killed by a pair of bears that you kinda have to laugh.

[monkeyboi]

some ideas:

a custom bow that has a very slow draw time and a custom enchantment that makes it hit dragons relatively hard, this bow needs to have a vert fast projectile speend so you can hit a flying dragon easier, thus getting it's attention. also it needs to be useless against anything but a flying dragon.

 

also a shout that equates "COME AT ME BRO" in dragon, so that a nearby dragon will attack you.

[Vagrant0]

some ideas:

a custom bow that has a very slow draw time and a custom enchantment that makes it hit dragons relatively hard, this bow needs to have a vert fast projectile speend so you can hit a flying dragon easier, thus getting it's attention. also it needs to be useless against anything but a flying dragon.

 

also a shout that equates "COME AT ME BRO" in dragon, so that a nearby dragon will attack you.

Bow perks, upgraded elven bow, orcish or better arrows. Do some pretty high damage with each draw hit, especially if you've added an enchantment. Only takes me about 5-6 hits to cripple.

[monkeyboi]

some ideas:

a custom bow that has a very slow draw time and a custom enchantment that makes it hit dragons relatively hard, this bow needs to have a vert fast projectile speend so you can hit a flying dragon easier, thus getting it's attention. also it needs to be useless against anything but a flying dragon.

 

also a shout that equates "COME AT ME BRO" in dragon, so that a nearby dragon will attack you.

Bow perks, upgraded elven bow, orcish or better arrows. Do some pretty high damage with each draw hit, especially if you've added an enchantment. Only takes me about 5-6 hits to cripple.

 

i meant more along the lines of grabbing it's attention, rather than killing it with the bow.

 

personally i can't hit the damn things when they're in the air

[Vagrant0]

i meant more along the lines of grabbing it's attention, rather than killing it with the bow.

 

personally i can't hit the damn things when they're in the air

Better arrows have higher speed and less drop. You don't get much range at all with Iron or even Steel arrows. If you can't hit it when moving, it will often stop and hover when it breathes down on something, can hit it then.

 

Alternatively, using Unrelenting Force seems to work well in getting their attention if you can aim it right and are close enough.

 

 

Really though, part of the problem is that all the guards, bandits, mages, foresworn, drugars, and the like that the dragons would attack tend to have their damage scale quite quickly, so trying to outdo that damage can be hard early on. And on that end, the problem is very hard to fix... Either you're buffing up the player, and making all encounters too easy... or you're nerfing enemies, only making certain encounters easier, but increasing the chance of a whole town being ravaged by a wandering bear. With the AI, there really isn't any way to make the dragon more likely to attack the player in a way which can't be over-written by the actions of other NPCs, while still having the ability for the dragon to attack anything other than the player. Having the dragon completely ignore a band of foresworn attacking it in favor of attacking the player who is watching in the distance would probably not make much sense when you really think about it from the dragon's perspective. From a lore standpoint, they can't sense you're Dovakin otherwise that first dragon wouldn't have been surprised by it, and all those ancient dragons flying around would just gather up and slaughter you.

[centurion101]

I don't have very many hours into the game yet (maybe 10), and only killed one dragon thus far, but I agree on the points here. It is as I feared, the dragons are too easy to kill because beth doesn't want to scare off new players who think they are really bad-ass at level 3 and want to kill a dragon.

 

I think the dragons should have all kinds of magic abilities and shouts, if anybody remember the dragon fights in Baldurs Gate 2 they were proper hard. The dragon would hit you with spell like innate abilities over and over, high health and resistances, all kind of fear and charm effects, spawn monsters, take control of your party members and so on. Once we get a more follower than one mod going we can I think make dragons much harder! So speech chars can hire a bunch of goons to take on the dragon, while true mage or combat character might be able to tackle a level-appropriate dragon if prepared. If not -> run away and fight another day.

 

Concrete list of ideas:

-I second the fear effect. Animals should run away, always.

-Charm ability to take control of NPCs/guards/followers. If a master vampire can turn my follower against me, so should a dragon be able to.

-Maybe a spawn spell, for example spawn the undead nords whose name escape me?

-Reanimate fallen creatures and NPCs (maybe appropriate for "black dragons")

-Not only firebreath flamethrower but fireball who explodes also.

-Knockdown "wing flap" effect, ie radius effect that knocks down everybody or stuns

[Ulfar]

I would like to see dragons use area extra area effect abilities as shouts as they fly overhead, they are after all meant to highly magical creatures.

 

In addition to fear which has already been mentioned how about other types of attack which would depend on how the the dragon is being attacked :

 

Fury causing everyone to enter a mass melee.

Animate dead, after it has killed a few people casting this to reanimate them and to cause more confusion in the ranks.

Darkness, really gonna hurt the archers.

Silence this would hurt the mages.

Lightning breath.

All sorts of drain abilities/auras.

 

In addition to this I would like to see the dragons buffed up either as a permanent ability or as a temporary :

 

Invisibility, this would be a nightmare dragon flying overhead and it goes invisible.

Highly resistant to magic.

Use of wards depending on how its being attacked.

They should be much faster on the ground.

 

 

There are so many ways dragons could be made harder and each dragon could be varied depending on type. I also agree with a previous poster that they could be scaled so that you have a variety of dragon sizes that denote age and power.

[Y0kenB]

I don't see how dragons can really learn magic outside of their breaths?

 

 

You do realise that Dragons are magical right?! They don't need to "learn" magic, they are magic!

[huntsman2310]

Well if the thu'um is similar to what Dragons use for their breath, then maybe Dragons can use shouts as well. Hell they already use Yor Tool (fire breath)