LE Shadow of Mordor for Skyrim

[LordSarcasm]

Shadow of Mordor, if you haven't played it yet, offers a unique and in-depth system that modifies your enemies based on their relationship with you. Each enemy in the game has a chance to become a chief, with their own unique name, their strengths and weaknesses, and relationships with other chiefs. They have their own internal power struggles, some field their own reinforcements, they can flee from a battle and return for a rematch. In addition, the player cannot permanently die, but that's a mixed blessing. Every time you die, all the chiefs become stronger, and if you were killed by a grunt, they get promoted to a chief.

 

I would love to see that applied to Skyrim's dragons. For starters there is a real shortage of named dragon bosses, and even with mods the vast majority of dragon battles go down the same way. With this system it would make fighting dragons a more dynamic and in-depth process that would require tactics and strategy instead of just spamming become ethereal and sniping them with your bow.

 

Perhaps if you get killed by a dragon, you learn that dragon's name as a new shout. To unlock their shout of course you have to kill three other dragons. But once it's unlocked you can summon them for a rematch. However, they might not be the same dragon, tactically speaking, that you fought earlier. That's why it would be important to gather intel on each dragon to find their particular strengths and weaknesses before you fight them. This could be done by finding notes about particular dragons reaking havoc in the wild, or by interrogating other dragons before you kill them. To do all of that you would need to implement a way to come back from the dead. Maybe when you die you appear in Sovngard, and then you must complete a small quest or talk to a certain NPC to bring you back to life for a penalty.

 

Likewise, there might be ways to defeat a dragon without eating their soul. Maybe the dragon knows when to foldem and flew way when they were at low health. Or, with this mod you can choose to spare the dragon. That wouldn't be the end of it though. Just like you can summon them for a rematch, they can come to for a rematch.

 

If you fight the same dragon multiple times and still fail to eat its soul, that dragon will become your nemesis and they will confront you in Skuldafn just before you head into Sovngard to fight Alduin, or in Solsteim protecting Miraak.