Just a bit of a thought [MINOR SPOILER}

[BurningKatanaa]

Someone posted a topic a few days back referencing a (frankly, bogus) claim to leaked DLC info... and the point that most people argued against was that dragon-riding was immersion-breaking, and how it was totally unfounded in the lore... Yet, during the Dragonborn Questline... you... ride a dragon in order to go to the portal to Sovngarde(sp?). Why is it so immersion-breaking and absurd when it's ALREADY HAPPENED? :P Just because having it happen often is crazy or what?

 

I'm not here to discuss the technical aspects, because I know how... complicated... a flight system would be to toss in there for players, especially without adding really awkward animations (3rd person swimming anyone?). I'm just here to ask why people think it's so wrong.

[Tidus44]

Sadly, there is a faction out there (total membership numbers unknown) who believe that if every single person who owns a copy of Skyrim does not play the game exactly the same way as how these faction members want to play it, then Skyrim is ruined. The typical arguements against anything they feel is inappropriate to add to the game generally regard such issues as it is not "lore friendly", it isn't acceptable "realism" or it breaks "immersion". The difficult part of this is that no two members of this faction can agree upon what "lore friendly", acceptable "realism" or "immersion" consist of, thus those not within the faction are left wondering exactly where the rules are, what the rules say, and where can they down load these rules so they play the game properly. If you happen to find out anything about these rules, please post the link here at the Nexus as there are a number of us interested in seeing these rules.

 

There are two concepts that the faction members have a very difficult time understanding. The first being that the game is a single player game and anything anyone does within their own game has no effect on anyone else's game. There is huge resistance to this concept by faction members and they will argue vehemently that anyone adding anything to the game they do not like is violating the sanctity of the game and destroying the game makers ideas and hard work, because the game was made soley out of the love of making games by the game makers and how dare anyone do anything the game makers did not envision for or in the game.

 

The second concept is "if you do not like it, don't download it and install it in your game". I am not sure, but it seems that at least some of the members of this faction download and install every single mod made, solely for the pleasure of lamenting the ruination of their game. I have no absolute proof on this, but it does appear to be so for at least some.

 

The one area they do hold a fairly close consensus on is that they know exactly what is best for you and how you should play the game and what you may or may not add to the game.

 

As for me, I avoid all the controversy and just follow what the game developer says right on the game box. That is:

 

Play any type of character you can imagine, and do whatever you want; the legendary freedom of choice, storytelling, and adventure of The Elder Scrolls is realized like never before.

Choose from hundreds of weapons, spells, and abilities. The new character system allows you to play any way you want and define yourself through your actions.

 

Have fun!

[Thoreai]

I dont have a problem with the idea riding a dragon...im more concerned of the polish and quality...so far all of tes games felt unfinished and unpolished and if they continue this trend, wich they probably will, then i can understand why some people have problem with it.

 

When it comes to lore, i never really cared...for me is important having fun when playing, even if i would ride a giant rat, that has toxic fumes coming out of ears, as long as its interesting and creative i dont see a problem.

[zetenrisiel]

*tosses in a couple pennies*

 

I see where the argument can be made. One overarching property of the sort of dragons we are dealing with is pride. You wouldn't catch a wolf letting a rabbit strap a saddle on it and command it around. The problem is even worse for dragons, as they would rather die than be made into a mount. Frankly I was kind of surprised that

Odahviing was so easily cowed,

as this kind of went against the whole image that Bethesda created of the dragons in the story thus far.

 

The filp side is that

 

1. The Dovahkiin isn't exactly your average human, and due to his/her thu'um, the dragons recognize him/her as more of a leader that an exceptionally strong human. The argument can be made that a dragon would not shy away from carrying his flightless brother, as it would not sting his pride to help one of his own.

 

2. Very little matters in the long run. It's not like when TESVI comes around everyone will be hailing dragon taxi's. Think of all the hard work the Chamion of Cyrodiil put into the Mage's Guild, Dark Brotherhood and/or the Theives guild. Heck even saving the empire didn't seem to do much good in the long run. Point is, the way bethesda tells the Elder Scrolls story has very little to do with the way the game is played. If MaxJohnson9001 the Dovahkiin decides to saddle up and ride a dragon around picking flowers, it's not likely to be remembered 300 years from now. And by my guess the way they played out the civil war quests we are probably going to see the collapse of the empire shortly after the game, since how do you explain to someone who assassinated the emporer and marched Ulfric Stormcloak right into Solitude that the empire actually won the whole thing. same goes for the other side.

 

anyway I got a little off topic there, but for my money, when a space pod falling from the sky and following you around is considered ok, then give me a big sparkly polkadotted dragon and let me take to the sky!

[Handofbane]

While the lore side of things doesn't bother me, personally, that much, I can see a major problem with this being implemented: Bethesda itself. As mentioned, we have hundreds of examples of things they either put in-game incomplete, or failed to consider at all as possibilities the player would choose, causing certain actions/choices to be either unavailable or game-breaking. Hell, just take a walk around for an hour, ignoring everything but the terrain itself - get a count on how many rocks and trees you find that don't actually sit on the ground itself, instead either having gaps under half, or outright levitating above the ground completely - I know I can find easily 30-40 examples inside that hour alone. And remember those things can and will affect pathing of NPCs as well as mounts (ever been stuck on an invisible object/wall, or something you thought was low enough to jump over while on horseback?). Now take that and expand it to include controlled mounted dragon-flight. Just how many places will the player be able to either smack into an invisible wall at the top of a tower/house/castle? How will it affect flying over actual enclosed cities, where you *must* go through the gate to enter (barring using an open-cities mod)? How many places will a player be able to try to land and end up trapped because they got caught landing barely under a rock, and fall through the floor of the world, getting stuck with no way to actually touch down?

 

There are just too many possible problems that can crop up, and Bethesda has shown themselves across *every game they have released* to not put much if any time into actually testing things before they release it.

[porroone]

Well I have to speak as a modder here and tell that flying isnt engine friendly, from the game crashing or not rendering things properly, to collision issues as mentioned before (problem isnt colliding with things, is to actually collide with things, predicting collision when you go at X speed becomes hard), as a mod yes, we could have dragon mounts, as a DLC I really doubt it unless bethesda decides to change the whole engine.