are the dragons supposed to still be attacking randomly and when i fast travel? cuz im gettin hit by random dragon attacks on the roads and when i fast travel at the same rate i was before finishing the main questline...id say about 1/4 the time i fast travel theres a dragon close by and when i take the scenic route on horseback i usually comne across one about half the time if im goin all the way across the map. is this common or is it bugged anf failed to reduce dragon encounters?

Yeah they attack randomly after the MQ. Fast travelling seems to help that along too, not sure if its a bug or not.

FT always spawns more dragon attacks though I have noticed since patch 1.9 the rate has dropped significantly as the patch is supposed to do. With 60 dragon souls in the bank it helps I'm not swatting 'Mosquitos' all of the time.

They certainly do get tedious.

This seems to be a theme in Bethesda games - they don't even take their own main quest seriously. The same happened in both Skyrim and Fallout 3...you complete this epic quest culminating in a supposedly world saving finale, and then the game continues as if nothing had happened.

This is a direct consequence of being able to continue playing after the main quest that TES fans love so much. The problem is that the main quest becomes completely invalidated by it as the need to retain the core gameplay elements directly conflicts with the actions you have just taken.

So why not just have the game end at the end of the main quest? This is a logical way of retiring any given character in a meaningful way. If you don't want the game to end just yet, then hold off completing the MQ. Seems logical enough to me, and New Vegas did it just fine.

NO 1,000,000% NO.

Agreed. There is a lot to do in game that could be short-circuited by a forced ending. I finished the MQ after a couple of hundred hours and am still going strong. Not to mention the quests the DLC added. Still so much to do, I'd never complete the MQ

I think you're missing the point of TES

The games are not there to be "beaten", the MQ is secondary. Indeed, some folks never do the MQ!

also Dragonborn and Vanilla MQ spoiler

And Dawnguard spoiler.

So if that's the case then surely it even supports my argument? If most players do not even touch the MQ, then there is even less reason not to make it end upon completion. Those who ignore it still get to play as they do now, but for those that complete it can hope for a more meaningful ending.

In my opinion, what we have now is the worst of both worlds - those who do complete the MQ have their actions completely ignored by the game. Your brave Dragonborn warrior saves the world by destroying a fearsome dragon, and then...everything continues just as before with no recognition of what you have done. On the other hand, those who do not do the MQ are presumably avoiding it for a reason. Maybe due to its inconsequential effect on the game, character and story? Again, if an ending to the game were added maybe there could be some actual meaningful choices along the way.

As always, there would be no compulsion or time limit to complete the story. So if you want to continue playing indefinitely, then just hold off completing the MQ. But every character will be retired at some stage, so why not do that by having an actual, meaningful, ending. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

People dont completely ignore your actions in the main quest.
they all know what the Dovahkiin done.

edit: you want an open world game with an ending. play fallout.

Recognition as well as tangible changes in the world are sorely lacking in Skyrim.

It has been a major gripe of mine since I first completed the MQ in 2011.

A few lines of dialogue from some NPCs, is that it? And are these the same guards that still call me a milk drinker, and ask if I'm the one that fetches the mead? Saving the world from the threat of malevolent dragons seems like a pretty big deal to me, and I would expect the one primary effect of completing the MQ would be that the dragon attacks finally cease. If nothing else happened, at least the dragons should finally disappear. But it doesn't happen.

I do play Fallout. In New Vegas, for example, your Courier's actions in the MQ define the political landscape of the Mojave for generations to come. Your decisions effect every town and individual in the game. Why would you not want this in TES?

By wanting to continue playing after the ending you are accepting that your character's agency is reduced as a result. New Vegas is a story, it has a beginning, a middle, and an end, just like all stories should. Skyrim, on the other hand, just has a beginning, a middle, and...well that's it. By having an ending you still get all the good stuff you have now, but with the not insignificant addition of a fitting and logical ending to the story.

why I wouldnt want it in TES-
1. I want to carry on playing the game after doimg the main quest.
2. Fallout had the endings, TES doesnt. Fallout is different to TES.
3. I might want my dragonborn to retire and settle down as a farmer.
4. my dragonborn is a hero of skyrim and has been asked to help the dawnguard because of her skills.
5. Endings are boring.
6. Lots of people would probably hate TES to have endings.
7. I dont like Fallout because of the endings. (I dont want to get broken steel)
8. I dont see how a TES game could have an ending.
9. everyones character is different, so it is best left unknown what happens to the dragonborn.
10. at the end of the main qest you get a shout to summon a hero of Sovngarde. if we ended it there, then whats the point in the shout.

And there is 100's of others as well. TES does not mean to have endings, only new beginnings

Indeed.

And if Dovah attacks stopped how would we unlock all the shouts

A miracle Bug that adds dragon souls to our characters.

Exactly.

My reasoning is yes, you've defeated Alduin, but why WOULD that stop the Dragons attacking?

If (for example) during WW2, Churchill had been killed by the Axis Forces, Britain wouldn't have said "Oh, our Leader is dead. Better give up now." It's just logical that the fight goes on! (Please note, I am not trying to incite a historical discussion, this is merely an example to put across my point).

Also, why would EVERYONE recognise you at the end of the game? This is TES, they don't have TV's or the internet. People would only know you IF they'd seen you as Dragonborn (shouting or absorbing Dragon Souls).

Although a lot of your arguments boil down to 'because I don't wanna', let's look at each one in turn.

That's a very personal statement. I, on the other hand, would prefer the game to actually end meaningfully. So who's right? Both and neither, so lets's stick to the objective pros and cons of the ending argument.

Well traditionally that has always been the case, but Fallout 3 changed that. Because of the TES fan backlash, Bethesda created Broken Steel to allow TES fans to continue playing Fallout 3 after the MQ. So this isn't a TES/Fallout thing, this is a Bethesda/every other developer thing. Just because things have always been a certain way doesn't mean that it can never change. This is how progress is made.

So rather than having the game end with your Dragonborn going out as a hero, defeating Alduin in a blaze of glory and changing the world forever, you'd prefer to sacrifice all of that because 'he might want to be a farmer'. Though its good that you have a retirement and pension plan for your Dragonborn's twilight years, I'd still prefer a main quest where my character actually achieves something and my character is defined in this way.

I don't have Dawnguard as I'm on PS3, which is another story altogther. However, though the Dragonborn is undoubtedly a hero, is the Dawnguard story actually dependent on having completed the MQ? From what I've read, I don't think that it is - its just an add-on pack with quests that occur outside of, and separate from, the Skyrim base game. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Ok then.

Have you asked all of them? Conversely, maybe lots of people would prefer their TES main quests to have a main quests with decisions and events that change the world. Just because things have always been a certain way, doesn't mean that they can never change.

Well, I can't make you get Broken Steel, but if you did, you might like Fallout 3 a bit more. You can then play it just like a TES game with a main quest that ultimately changes nothing. You would love it.

Its not that difficult to imagine, is it?

The thing is that so much happens during before the main ending your character should be defined in this way. Make your character's decisions during the main game itself the focus of the game, so that everything culminates in a logical way at the end.

Well, that's true enough. But then again we are just talking about just one shout in the entire game. That's very little content to justify your argument. If completing the main quest changed the world in a noticeable way, and opened up new quests and content (like Broken Steel does), then that would be another thing entirely. But its not the case, and one solitary shout is not a strong argument for continuing the game.

@winawer

If you don't like it, why dont you just "Start, Exit, Main Menu" on completing the MQ?

Killing Alduin isn't going to make all the dragons suddenly fall belly-side up and die. It'll just ensure that for a good long while, they don't have to worry about him running around reviving all the dragons. Now Dovahkiin can resume killing the dragons one by one. Considering how many dragons must be there, I wager it would take quite a few years before the last dragon finally got killed.

Well if I just wanted the game to end, then I can achieve that whenever I like. But that's not the point.

This thread started because the OP was querying whether continuing dragon attacks should still be occurring after having completed the main quest. Specifically, you defeat the game's main antagonist, therefore supposedly ridding the world of the dragon threat in the process.... and then nothing actually changes after you achieve that. I am arguing that this comes as a direct consequence of the play-after-the-ending philosophy of TES. My argument is that because TES fans apparently want the game to continue indefinitely the main quest cannot actually achieve anything as a consequence.

For example, people still want to presumably collect dragon shouts throughout the game, and having defeated Alduin dragons should really disappear from Skyrim forever. So we have a conflict between a core gameplay element, and the logic of the story itself. As Bethesda doesn't want to restrict the player in any way at all, what we end up with is a generic main quest that ultimately achieves nothing.