Some of the dragons were extremely easy to beat. However I remember the first time I fought Alduin, I was running from cover to cover trying to avoid his frost and fire breath, it was goddamn awesome.
Skyrim made Dragon Slaying boring
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I find that the difficulty settings in Fallout and TES have been always somewhat twisted. It only adds to the raw health, damage armor etc. values, instead of making the player play more skillfully. Of course you can argue that increasing these raw values forces the player to play better, but more often than not the fights turn into endurance tests that are extremely tiresome, rather than extreme tests of skill.minimacker said:
However, I admit that it's rare that games do anything else nowadays when it comes to difficulty.
It was a sad, sad moment when I discovered that last night's frost dragon attack had killed Alvar.thiosk said:
On topic, I have to agree that dragons are far too easy, but then again there's so much more you could be doing. Dragons are just one element of the game that is Skyrim. Personally, I don't really see what else they could be doing to make dragon battles any more interesting. Though I have reached the point where my fire-enchanted Daedric Sword (Legendary) can kill a dragon in 3 power attacks.
The first dragon? Yeah it was easy, the fights are harder when there's nothing around to distract the dragon at the later levels (Blood, Elder, etc.) so that all it's attention is focused on you.
Also @ Skywolf: Dragons can move after they land. They just don't crawl very fast, which is understandable considering they have to pretty much crawl on their hind legs and the end of their wings.
Also @ Skywolf: Dragons can move after they land. They just don't crawl very fast, which is understandable considering they have to pretty much crawl on their hind legs and the end of their wings.
I agree that dragon slaying in Skyrim should have been made more challenging and rewarding (i.e. base level of difficulty higher, not just the player having to manually put up the difficulty slider, but actually make dragon-killing-difficulty harder to scale with the rest of the game difficulty).
I think part of the problem is that there are waaaay too many dragons, and the reward for killing one is pretty small. The shouts were pretty useless to me, it seemed like my enchanted weapons and certain spells are way more useful in regular combat than shouts. One way they could improve the experience is to make shouts much more useful and integral to success (basically more powerful), but with the catch of dragon souls being rarer and harder to obtain. Otherwise, killing dragons and sucking up souls in Skyrim is akin to killing and skinning rats for pelt during a rat plague.
I think part of the problem is that there are waaaay too many dragons, and the reward for killing one is pretty small. The shouts were pretty useless to me, it seemed like my enchanted weapons and certain spells are way more useful in regular combat than shouts. One way they could improve the experience is to make shouts much more useful and integral to success (basically more powerful), but with the catch of dragon souls being rarer and harder to obtain. Otherwise, killing dragons and sucking up souls in Skyrim is akin to killing and skinning rats for pelt during a rat plague.
The thing is, immortal companions and conjured creatures can always be used to draw the dragon's attention away from you. As a rogue character, I could just shoot arrows in without even being touched by the dragon. As a mage, I stunlock dragons with the impact perk and dualcasting destruction spells.Trig0n said:
Bethesda approached the dragon encounters in the wrong way, IMO. They are rarely dangerous. They are just oversized lizards that use either frost or fire on you.
I agree simply because there is no variation. I'm hoping that in inevitable dlc that there are new Dragons unleashed like ones that have no wings or no long rang attacks.
Or have axes or just something to liven it up.
Or have axes or just something to liven it up.
The versatility and freedom of Skyrim comes at the price of context, for what you suggest (An Elder Scrolls game with the Bioware-esque story and emotional context) is simply impossible. Its both unfeasible economically and development-wise, for a studio would need such ungodly amounts of money and time to create anything even resembling what you suggested.Wintermute_ said:
And really, its okay. RPG's are okay where they are now and where they are heading. We got the Elder Scroll series there to give us freedom and exploration, and studios such as Bioware to give us story- and emotional-context. Demanding that one be like the other will only come out on the player, as it would lessen the versatility of the genre.
...every time I see someone complain that the dragon fights are too easy, or that the dragons have horrible AI, I get terribly confused.
Dragons flying around in the air? I can't aim for crap unless they stop to hover, at which point I'm trading frost breath in the face for one or maybe two bowshots, let alone finding cover. Dragons landing? See problem about trading breath for bowshots. Otherwise, weapon-switching times kick me in the ass (particularly if I'm switching between bow and two-hander). Cover helps a ton, but it's only a guarantee if it's fortress-level (ie the dragon has landed permanently, but can't reach me). The safest way to weather a breath weapon is a ward spell, but you have to anticipate the breath, or the ward gets broken. The only way I've consistently melee'd them to death is through strafing, which still leaves you open to wing and tail-slaps, but at least doesn't leave you open to that fucking auto-kill bite.
Magic is the safest method overall, I'm seeing, but it's still nerve-wracking when I have lower health and lower room for error...which is about the time I've had dragons harass other monsters and lead them to me. It's hard to snipe a dragon when a couple of bears are biting your ass off or a bandit camp is trying to take care of the squishy potential looter first. The only ridiculously easy victory I've ever had so far was when the opposite happened, and a dragon stupidly tracked me to the middle of Riften. Say what you will about the corrupt jerks, the guards in Riften are numerous and very good shots.
Maybe I've just been winding up too high-leveled when I start consistently running into dragons. Even with tactical acumen, I often wind up beating dragons by drowning myself in health potions in the process. And even though I tend to hoard, I don't always have those.
Also, I'm on Apprentice difficulty.
...
I guess I'm saying I like the fights.
Dragons flying around in the air? I can't aim for crap unless they stop to hover, at which point I'm trading frost breath in the face for one or maybe two bowshots, let alone finding cover. Dragons landing? See problem about trading breath for bowshots. Otherwise, weapon-switching times kick me in the ass (particularly if I'm switching between bow and two-hander). Cover helps a ton, but it's only a guarantee if it's fortress-level (ie the dragon has landed permanently, but can't reach me). The safest way to weather a breath weapon is a ward spell, but you have to anticipate the breath, or the ward gets broken. The only way I've consistently melee'd them to death is through strafing, which still leaves you open to wing and tail-slaps, but at least doesn't leave you open to that fucking auto-kill bite.
Magic is the safest method overall, I'm seeing, but it's still nerve-wracking when I have lower health and lower room for error...which is about the time I've had dragons harass other monsters and lead them to me. It's hard to snipe a dragon when a couple of bears are biting your ass off or a bandit camp is trying to take care of the squishy potential looter first. The only ridiculously easy victory I've ever had so far was when the opposite happened, and a dragon stupidly tracked me to the middle of Riften. Say what you will about the corrupt jerks, the guards in Riften are numerous and very good shots.
Maybe I've just been winding up too high-leveled when I start consistently running into dragons. Even with tactical acumen, I often wind up beating dragons by drowning myself in health potions in the process. And even though I tend to hoard, I don't always have those.
Also, I'm on Apprentice difficulty.
...
I guess I'm saying I like the fights.
Ive clocked 150 hours of skyrim thus far and only now am i starting to actively avoid dragon encounters with sneaking and invisibility and the like (i wouldn't be if i didn't have 10+ souls to spare already) - ive had some incredibly epic battles with dragons, one of which lasted almost half an hour with me steadily climbing a mountain to reach my goal at the top while a powerful dragon harrassed me and was able to hack away 1/3 of my health with one swipe. we battled each other in fits and starts until i finally ran out of any kind of healing supplies/magic as his health dwindled to its last and the dragon cornered me and scorched me to death but i was just laughing because the whole thing had been so damn epic
in short, opinions. GOTY for me i really do think the game could stand to lower the spawn rate of dragons the more souls your carrying around though...
in short, opinions. GOTY for me
i really do think the game could stand to lower the spawn rate of dragons the more souls your carrying around though...
It was a dragon burial site map, delivered to the blades. Did you look at it?Wintermute_ said:
Because dragons usually send a notification via email before they swoop down from the skyWintermute_ said:
The story is about the threat of dragons attacking settlements. It was attacking a settlement. Not sure the Whiterun 'King' would be bothered if there was a dragon a vast distance away.Wintermute_ said:
My first dragon wouldn't bloody land. Varies I guess. -_-Wintermute_ said:
The Witcher 2 was flamed for including a difficult dragon-related experience at the start of the game. Skyrim would have made no friends by making it hard. Or, you can play on Master difficulty.Wintermute_ said:
This I get - Bethesda had to spread it's resources thinly, no doubt, and work hard on 'big picture' procedural systems to make the world feel alive rather than concentrating on fine detail. Mods can't come soon enough.Wintermute_ said:
I guess. In one of my saves I've only met 2 random dragons by level 26. Weird.wurrble182 said:
I went round to my friend's house today (along with 2 other friends), and there I saw my first Dragon encounter.
The dragon was hovering in the air. We (well, the one playing, but I'll keep on saying "we") shot at it and it began to, erm, fly backwards.
It then started doing this weird jiggly dance thing in midair. While going backwards. Then it went through a load of trees. And then a mountain.
It drunkenly flailed about and frostbreathed into the middle of nowhere. We cast Dragonrend on it. It went up. It kept going up. It disappeared out of sight. As my friend put it, "it's somebody else's problem now".
It came back, though. We nearly offed it for good. Then it went back inside the mountain (backwards), and this time it never came out.
It was... interesting.
The dragon was hovering in the air. We (well, the one playing, but I'll keep on saying "we") shot at it and it began to, erm, fly backwards.
It then started doing this weird jiggly dance thing in midair. While going backwards. Then it went through a load of trees. And then a mountain.
It drunkenly flailed about and frostbreathed into the middle of nowhere. We cast Dragonrend on it. It went up. It kept going up. It disappeared out of sight. As my friend put it, "it's somebody else's problem now".
It came back, though. We nearly offed it for good. Then it went back inside the mountain (backwards), and this time it never came out.
It was... interesting.
It sounds like you had a bad experience with that fight, or the AI just went derpy for a second (Dragon AI tends to do that). I found that fight harrowing, and though you're right in that it's not particularly difficult thanks to your unkillable NPC friends, I still found myself getting straffed or flamethrowered from the sky and going "eeep"!
The dragons do have a range of attacks, and they do shout - higher level dragons shout more and have a bigger range of shouts (if you have the general subtitles on it translates their growling into shouts just like it does with the draugr). They won't be freezing you into ice or blasting you around, but they definitely have a weakened form of Fus Ro Dah.
I do think the weakest dragons in the game are incredibly weak. I think they had to be so that level 2 or 3 players could still beat them, the Dragons do ramp up in difficulty though. I've been killed by them occasionally at every level for doing dumb things.
What does kind of annoy me is that certain playstyles suit dragon fighting much better than others. Your illusionist might be an unstoppable badass for most of the game, but in a Dragon fight.. yeah, don't try to frenzy Sahloknir.
The dragons do have a range of attacks, and they do shout - higher level dragons shout more and have a bigger range of shouts (if you have the general subtitles on it translates their growling into shouts just like it does with the draugr). They won't be freezing you into ice or blasting you around, but they definitely have a weakened form of Fus Ro Dah.
I do think the weakest dragons in the game are incredibly weak. I think they had to be so that level 2 or 3 players could still beat them, the Dragons do ramp up in difficulty though. I've been killed by them occasionally at every level for doing dumb things.
What does kind of annoy me is that certain playstyles suit dragon fighting much better than others. Your illusionist might be an unstoppable badass for most of the game, but in a Dragon fight.. yeah, don't try to frenzy Sahloknir.
Ohhhh don't worry it's just the first dragon it needs to be easy, it gets harder and harder until eventually you finish off the game with an epic battle to the death with Alduin World-Eater...Wintermute_ said:
Or so I wish I could say. Just for a little perspective:
I defeated Alduin in about twenty seconds, taking NO damage at all, and needing only to take one stamina potion. It was fucking retarded.
Really? I found fighting dragons to be pretty exhilarating. Especially when you're fighting a higher tier dragon solo.
I admit though, they do become a bit easier the more I leveled up. But hey, that only shows how much my character has grown and improved since the beginning of the game. First time I actually faced a non-quest line dragon, I had to hide and rely on the help of a mammoth in order to take it down. Now, I'm able to solo Frost Dragons with little to no issue.
I admit though, they do become a bit easier the more I leveled up. But hey, that only shows how much my character has grown and improved since the beginning of the game. First time I actually faced a non-quest line dragon, I had to hide and rely on the help of a mammoth in order to take it down. Now, I'm able to solo Frost Dragons with little to no issue.
For me, the dragons are the worst bit of skyrim. I fast travel anywhere and they turn up to try and ruin my day. I wouldn't mind so much if it was a straight up fight where it actually made a proper attempt at killing me.
But instead they just fly round the sky endlessly not doing much except distracting my followers and stopping me from fast travelling further. They stop, blast me for 70% of my HP and bugger off again.
Now, i just summon my 2 atronachs and just let them beat it for me, literally because the fights are so dull its pointless.
Fighting the draugr on the other hand is fun experience, some of those fuckers just keep coming and coming. despie the fact the whole worlds been blown into oblivion by fireballs.
The games strengths for me, like the other games are the faction based missions. Dark brotherhood was immense, mages guild was meh, companions was fairly cool, on to the thieves guild.
But instead they just fly round the sky endlessly not doing much except distracting my followers and stopping me from fast travelling further. They stop, blast me for 70% of my HP and bugger off again.
Now, i just summon my 2 atronachs and just let them beat it for me, literally because the fights are so dull its pointless.
Fighting the draugr on the other hand is fun experience, some of those fuckers just keep coming and coming. despie the fact the whole worlds been blown into oblivion by fireballs.
The games strengths for me, like the other games are the faction based missions. Dark brotherhood was immense, mages guild was meh, companions was fairly cool, on to the thieves guild.