Critical Miss: The Dragonslayer

[unacomn]

"barely tolerated Morrowind "
Street cred lost.

 

[John the Gamer]

The game is pretty good, but (as many have said before me) the dragons could use some mayor tweaking.

Their health is good, but they don't do any damage at all(to anyone except the player that is) and they suck at flying.

Often I'll get a dragon that flies head-first into the ground, only to bounce back up to continue flying. What? Are they drunk or something?

It would also be awesome if they had nests in caves and on mountains where you can sneak up on them whilst they're sleeping. I miss that feature a lot. Dragons have to sleep too you know? Give a stealthy non-combat character a chance at doing a 15x sneak attack on those eil lizards. Please?

I also think the settlements are too small. Whiterun is supposed to be an ancient city, yet it has only like 12 houses and 30 people living in it(what have they been doing the past thousands of years?). No wonder the Empire lost the war with the Thalmor/High elves during the 200 years since Oblivion; One of it's most important provinces has only a few hundred inhabitants. I call bullcrap on that and am waiting for some kind of huge-skyrim-cities overhaul mod or something.

It's still a very fun game though. Very much so indeed.

Spoiler: You can also kill kids now. Yay (mod)

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=774

 

[lacktheknack]

If it is anything like Fallout or the previous Elder Scroll games, the NPCs that walk around town, give you quests, and often remark on how they're too weak to do those things themselves just have a flag in their AI that says what they are hostile too. If a dragon shows up, or the player steals a breadknife and is spotted, the entire town population starts fighting with the same AI routines and animations as the biggest badass soldiers you fight with.

It's not an uncommon problem. In the new Deus Ex, you can use the takedown moves on anyone, and some of the animations involve Adam blocking high level martial arts moves from the target as part of the takedown. So you end up with wrinkly old ladies doing a roundhouse kick. Smaller groups of bandits in Mount and Blade run away from you, but if caught will try to demand gold from you in exchange for your life. And they will charge you happily on the battlemap (though later games do make them run if they are losing the battle. But they start with a spirited attack.)

Untill a dev team has so much money to blow that they create separate AI routines and animations for all kinds of NPCs, we'll be stuck with either this or NPCs that can only cower in a corner while a dragon is om-nom-noming their kids.

Or you can let the modders do it, but AI scripting is hard. The only good mod I remember doing this for F3 and ES4 was Martigen. And his mod was GLORIOUS. Hopefully he does it again.

 

[otakon17]

I've had this happen more than once. Damn dumb NPC's you have NO armor, no healing pots, and are using piss-weak weapons. JUST RUN AND HIDE! I've lost a trainer/follower and a blacksmith that way, those courageous dumbasses.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

I'm assuming the reason he fears mudcrabs more than a dragon is because those mudcrabs have evolved sentience and have developed assault rifles...

The Elder Scrolls VI: Tyranny of Crabs.

 

[freaper]

Is his chesthair shaped like Skyrim? If it is, mad props to you good madam (sir? never figured)!

 

[Jaranja]

I think the NPCs are communists.

If one of them has a problem, the entire city will fight to the death to resolve it,

Y'know... I terrified myself earlier.

I was walking through Riverwood and I was a bit pissed off. I ended up punching a chicken that was roaming around. The second my blow landed, I heard an uproar from behind me. It turns out that chicken was their mayor in disguise or something because I got chased out of town by every single person and their Mum.

Ended up having to turn myself in at Whiterun to be able to complete quests.

 

[newwiseman]

This is too true not to laugh, I can't tell you how many merchant I've let die before engaging the dragon just to avoid the murder charge for them getting in the way of my magic.

 

[Rensenhito]

...my huscarl...

Wow, is it weird that I didn't notice the connection between housecarl and huscarl until you pointed it out? That makes perfect freaking sense.
I do also agree on your point about the dragons. The fact that they appear throughout the game is, I believe, the reason behind their lack of difficulty. Also contributing to that factor is the fact that they'll often land on their own and stand perfectly still so that you can stab them in the flank a good few times. I mean, seriously, when you can fly while breathing fire at that tiny little critter on the ground who's desperately trying to hit you with a Fus-Ro-Dah, WHY LAND? Skyrim dragons are not as bright as the game makes them out to be.

 

[aquarius87]

reminds me of the rpg Gothic.

specially the (worst game evar) Gothic 3 Forsaken Gods

Old Guy: "what lovely weather we're having..."
[I pull me weapon]
Old Guy jumps up and with a lower voice: "I'll tear you're f***ing head off!"

 

[SnakeoilSage]

Alright I admit it. I lol'ed.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

You have to take your hat off to the citizens of Skyrim, and their sky-forged steel nutsacks. I've seen many a townsfolk fight armed bandit hoards and creatures from the depth of nightmares with nothing more than their bare fists and their massive brass balls.

Then again you can rob them blind as long as you place buckets on their heads so maybe they're more rock stupid than rock hard.

 

[nyysjan]

I think the NPCs are communists.

If one of them has a problem, the entire city will fight to the death to resolve it,

Y'know... I terrified myself earlier.

I was walking through Riverwood and I was a bit pissed off. I ended up punching a chicken that was roaming around. The second my blow landed, I heard an uproar from behind me. It turns out that chicken was their mayor in disguise or something because I got chased out of town by every single person and their Mum.

Ended up having to turn myself in at Whiterun to be able to complete quests.

Which goes to show how good a survival strategy that is for the communities.
You mess with one of them, and you mess with all of them, and they all kick your ass.
So you end up not messing with them at all out of self preservation.

 

[Tharwen]

I think you mean 'Let's do this motherf-aaargh!'

 

[Thyunda]

They're Nords. What do you expect? Nords aren't afraid of anything, they'd discover a new land just to beat somebody up in it.

 

[Dango]

You might want to fix those italics on Elder Scrolls.

OT: I should really have this game by now...

 

[DTWolfwood]

...my huscarl...

Wow, is it weird that I didn't notice the connection between housecarl and huscarl until you pointed it out? That makes perfect freaking sense.
I do also agree on your point about the dragons. The fact that they appear throughout the game is, I believe, the reason behind their lack of difficulty. Also contributing to that factor is the fact that they'll often land on their own and stand perfectly still so that you can stab them in the flank a good few times. I mean, seriously, when you can fly while breathing fire at that tiny little critter on the ground who's desperately trying to hit you with a Fus-Ro-Dah, WHY LAND? Skyrim dragons are not as bright as the game makes them out to be.

glad to be of help

Im sure some intrepid modder is working hard to make the dragons beastly. can't wait to play the game over with it installed, saying of course i manage to finish the game i'm currently on. 90+ hours and i've yet to do the main quest pass getting the full force shout

 

[AbstractStream]

CRAB BATTLE!
Oops, sorry. Wrong game. It just seemed to fit so well.