Dragon Overhall

[mal85]

Personally I would like to see the following changes to Dragons...

 

-Different age and size categories (Older dragon's would have more health and strength as well as have more abilities than younger dragon's. Older dragon's being rarer as well as giving better XP and drops.)

-Different varieties of dragon's based on color (Each would have a different breathe weapon, fighting style and spells)

-Better AI in general, and their strategies and behaviors would differ by the type of dragon. Target priority needs to be adjusted as mentioned above.

-Named Dragon's will be especially potent and will have special abilities not found amongst the random wandering dragons.

-More shouts and the ability to cast powerful spells. (Many unique to dragon's themselves.)

-Life Increased across the board.

-More varieties of attacks.

 

A few examples of different types... (Stats are theoretical at best, but should give you the general idea compared to other types of Dragons.)

 

Mature Firestorm Dragon - (Standard Red Dragon, Fire-Based)

100% Health (Increases with age)

100% Magic (Increases with age)

100% Ground Movement (Decreases with age)

100% Air Speed (Decreases with age)

100% Size (Increases with age)

50% Fire Resistance (Increases with age)

Breathe Weapon - Flame Jet (may catch you on fire, causing burn damage, as well as igniting the ground for 15 seconds injuring anyone who passes through, removes snow in the burned area.)

Spells - Fire based magic, Flame, Fire Shield, Strength Buffing Spells.

Fighting Preference (Air/Ground - 40%/60%) (Melee- 50%, Ranged- 25%, Breathe- 25%)

AI - Aggressive use of it's breathe weapon while airborne. Will make heavy use of melee attack's while on the ground with the occasional use of it's spell's and breathe weapon.

 

Mature BlackCrest Dragon - (Standard Black Dragon, Poison-Based)

80% Health (Increases with age)

100% Magic (Increases with age)

130% Ground Movement (Decreases with age)

130% Air Speed (Decreases with age)

90% Size (Increases with age)

Poison Immunity

Breathe Weapon - Acidic Breathe (Causes poison and corrodes the durability of items) (As I would like to see weapon and armor durability make a comeback as well.)

Spells - Poison based magic, Affliction stacking and Ability Draining

Fighting Preference (Air/Ground - 70%/30%) (Melee- 20%, Ranged- 40%, Breathe- 40%)

AI - Aggressive use of it's breathe weapon and spells while airborne. Will make heavy use of it's spells and breathe weapons while on the ground and will attempt to keep the player at bay, avoiding melee and using ranged attacks.

 

Anyways that's my thought's, I could throw plenty of other types of dragon's out there but I think you get the idea. I think this would be far more interesting and make dragon's a lot more fun, as they are supposed to be the focus of this game.

[PertiProfa]

There's indeed a lack of diversity, slaying dragons becomes a way to pass time between exploring instead of discovering new terrors lurking in the wild.

As for the AI changes, most of it I approve with altho I doubt it would be possible, besides the Fear effect which should be rather simple considering there is already a magical effect to make creatures flee.

 

But the thing that bugs me the most about the dragons isn't their AI or that they all are genetical twins, but rather the flight patterns they tend to use.

Dragons should be indeed agile as they are in game, but the animations seem a bit off, a dragon suddenly taking a 75 degree turn in 0.00002 seconds seem kind of sluggish.

Bigger areas of patrol and agro range on dragons, making them able to patrol around with in a larger area and presents more ways of approaching the player, being it swooping down from above for a single precisive fireball strike upon the player, a long and carefully coordinated strafe ravaging the landscape with frost and fire or a simple head on approach from afar, scorching the land with every step it takes and mauling everything out of its way with talons and teeth to you would be more enjoyable.

 

Long story short, more diverse/realistic flight patterns/attack formations, which provides dynamic and unpredictable combat.

Edited November 19, 2011 by PertiProfa

[Blobb]

Make them much, much harder to defeat.

 

Make them a lot rarer.

 

Make them drop extremely good loot.

 

That's really the basics of what I would want from a dragon overhaul, can't be too difficult.

[Inathero]

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)

 

the thu'um IS what the dragons use for their breath. It's the exact same thing. However humans are limited to only a few word combinations and power whereas dragons do not have this limitation.

[darkblayd]

I actually had a pretty hard time fighting the first dragon as a dual axe wielder, was a lot of fun.

 

Problem is they just don't scale with you as you level, and the first dragon you fight probably has the best AI out of the lot, they steadily get dumber/quirkier from there.

 

Still, it is insanely cool to have these fights in an elder scrolls game, and it would be amazing to have other massive scripted enemies as well.

[chrismgtis]

I think priority #1 for a dragon mod is just to fix things like: invulnerable horses that kill dragons (or attack them at all), stop dragons from attacking random animals for no reason, etc. Fix all these things and similar issues and things will be so much better.

[imperialforce]

I think that if I were to ever tackle a dragon mod(not that I have the skills), and ignoring extraneous factors, I would focus on making dragon encounters something special. For a start, I would go round the map and find a location near each dragon burial mound which would be a suitable lair for such a creature, and then try to figure out a system whereby once Alduin raises a dragon, that process creates a specific named creature which would move to the lair location and call it home. Each named dragon would have a custom AI package and abilities to make battling them more challenging and unique, and to make the creatures territorial. They would attack creatures, NPCs, and habitation centres within a radius of their lairs, occasionally venturing outside that area to challenge each other, or to attack within another dragon's territory(which would result in said dragon defending against the interloper). If a dragon is slain(by the player, another dragon, or NPCs), the lair would be repopulated after a period of time that would be random but within a defined range(would need to somehow create a system by which the game could generate a creature from a list of names, AI packages, and appearances if such doesn't already exist). Combined with the modifications to non-dragon creature AI that have already been suggested(ie, critters display an appropriate amount of fear and respect), it should result in the entire dragonhunting aspect of the game feeling much more immersive.

 

Other than my lack of knowledge of whether what I suggest is even possible, the main problem I can foresee is how to ensure the Thu'um/souls system doesn't break down, as it seems rather dependent on constantly spamming the player with easy to defeat dragons which pop up randomly during travel, thus anything which moves away from that model would need to be thoroughly tested.

 

Anyway, I hope that made sense, I'm on my third night of no sleep and I fear I'm at the point where what seems completely coherent to me comes across to other people as "whurrbleburbledragonssnarf" :woot:

[Deleted1212710User]

Correction: Overhaul

 

Anyway, I'd just like to see the dragons use more diversity...

 

Such as:

 

When a dragon is flying around, make it dive down to try to GRAB you and drop you.

Dragon is more likely to just chomp you when you engage it inmelee, instead of breathing fire 90% of the time.

Maybe even make it TRY to eat you, and you can slice your way out of it before it's stomach acids disolve you. (Make a bigger dragon)

Edited November 20, 2011 by Guest

[Btasty]

Correction: Overhaul

 

Yeah I noticed this the morning after I posted it... Can't believe you are the first one to point this out. But I'm a programmer its required that I don't have any sense of grammar or spelling.

 

 

Maybe even make it TRY to eat you, and you can slice your way out of it before it's stomach acids disolve you. (Make a bigger dragon)

 

Men In Black anyone?

[vanisher911]

all in all, a good idea to redo dragons for the better, but i've a few comments on some of your ideas:

 

a minor thought; you said that "lower level" dragons ought to, in a sense, keep their distance or avoid "high level" players. in a realistic point of view, why should they? these are beasts, predators. they know not of your capabilities, nor do they care. plus, it adds much more excitement and immersion to the game, regardless of difficulty, when any random dragon spots you as its next meal. if it happens to be an easy kill, so be it. more souls for you. point being, dragons, like every other animal, shouldnt be taking their victims abilities into consideration. how could they? regardless of their theoretical mystical intelligence, how could they possibly interpret armor, spell casts, or strategy?

 

also, you mentioned that they should flee if weakened. this would be, not only unrealistic, but also very frustrating to the player, who has spent so much time at damaging it so that players may obtain its soul. if the dragon were to fly off, how would you ever be able to catch up to it? all in all, it seems like you're over thinking terms of reality, and simply, making it more of a hassle to face a dragon as opposed to "realism = fun factor". besides, damaging something to a fatal point would definitely cripple the foe. i seriously doubt the dragon would be able to fly, in a "realistic" perspective, as you've been slicing at its wings, legs, tail...

 

your other ideas seem to make sense, and should add much needed realistic aspects of a dragon confrontation.