Disproportionate Difficulty

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:49 am

Am I the only who thinks it's goofy that a mammoth is trickier to tackle than a dragon? Watching a dragon attack what basically amounts to a furry elephant and lose is strangely...demoralizing. Dragons, tough as they are, just aren't feeling to me like the top of the food chain. You'd think an intelligent, armored, flying, fire-breathing behemoth of legend would be able to take care of a hairy, malodorous circus animal. Just sayin'.
User avatar
Hayley Bristow
 
Posts: 3467
Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:24 am

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 1:45 pm

It's because they have four tusks.

Nah, it's probably because mammoths really aren't a staple part of your every-day questing, so they can be given a cranked-up difficulty without much issue, where-as if Dragons were the same way, you could run into quest-progression difficulty-walls. I guess Bethesda just didn't want this happening.
User avatar
City Swagga
 
Posts: 3498
Joined: Sat May 12, 2007 1:04 am

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 1:55 am

As you level up this will change. I'm pretty sure a blood dragon would mess up a mammoth pretty badly, and elder/ancient dragons will have a field day. Also, a part of the strength of dragons is that they can fly around breathing fire/frost down on their enemies. As most players have some kind of ranged damage and/or healing this won't be too much of a problem, but that doesn't count for everyone.

A nice lore reasoning for this is that you're the dragonborn, so the dragons are more vulnerable to you, or being near you.
User avatar
Lori Joe
 
Posts: 3539
Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2006 6:10 am

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 5:30 am

Have you ever attacked an elephant? Go out into the wilds of Africa and report back with your findings.
User avatar
Lillian Cawfield
 
Posts: 3387
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:22 pm

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 8:27 am

You do realize that the mammoths are a good six tons or whatever? The dragons would be tougher if they either (1) never landed and just roasted your butt from the air or (2) landed and stayed landed and chomped your guts out. Many times a dragon has gotten me blow half health, then it takes to the air again, allowing me time to magically re-heal myself. Then it lands and I whack it.
User avatar
Sophie Morrell
 
Posts: 3364
Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2006 11:13 am

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 12:42 pm

The most dangerous enemies in the early game has to be bandit chief, bears and sabertooth. All of those can easily 2 shot you in early game on master before you can get to use any kind of character progression to stand a chance. Especially sabertooth. My goodness do they attack fast.

Dragons on the other hand give you plenty of warning to prepare and telegraph all their attacks for easy evasion.
User avatar
victoria gillis
 
Posts: 3329
Joined: Wed Jan 10, 2007 7:50 pm

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 7:21 am

It will be the opposite when you level up a bit. Also you have a great tool when fighting mammoths, a medium sized rock. Just walk around the rock attacking them with bow/spells and they can't get you.
User avatar
SEXY QUEEN
 
Posts: 3417
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:54 pm

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 5:31 pm

If you tackle a mammoth on open ground, you will struggle. I like how difficult they are as it forces you to think - you do not run in and shout BLAARGH, you stalk the thing, you hunt it like a caveman, and once you've found a raised bit of ground that it cannot reach you take advantage of its overly aggressive nature and rain arrows on it until it falls.
User avatar
Ownie Zuliana
 
Posts: 3375
Joined: Thu Jun 15, 2006 4:31 am

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 10:31 am

Yeah, I know elephants are tough, aggressive, weigh six tons, have big tusks, and so on. My point isn't that they shouldn't be hard to take down, not at all, but I just found it peculiar to watch Dumbo violently curb-stomp Smaug; not unlike a dead baby joke, it was both horrifying and strangely funny. But it comforts me to learn that dragons get tougher as I level, and will soon be putting the mammoths in their place, thanks.
User avatar
QuinDINGDONGcey
 
Posts: 3369
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:11 pm

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:48 pm

I chalk this up to the dragons not making full use of their strongest ability which is FLIGHT. Basically a dragon should never voluntarily get into melee. That's silly. If dragons never landed and just strafed the mammoths with fire and ice breath, things would be quite different. You should have to force a dragon to land with arrows and spells before you can hack on it with a sword (or tusk).
User avatar
Sunny Under
 
Posts: 3368
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 5:31 pm

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 7:54 am

I chalk this up to the dragons not making full use of their strongest ability which is FLIGHT. Basically a dragon should never voluntarily get into melee. That's silly. If dragons never landed and just strafed the mammoths with fire and ice breath, things would be quite different. You should have to force a dragon to land with arrows and spells before you can hack on it with a sword (or tusk).


Definitely. The enemies in this game shouldn't try to fight you on your terms, shouldn't make their imminent method of attack obvious, and just generally shouldn't ever do anything to level the playing field for you. They should ruthlessly exploit your shortcomings and hammer your weaknesses. Strafing is their most effective method of attack - so why don't they do it more than they do?
User avatar
KRistina Karlsson
 
Posts: 3383
Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2006 9:22 pm

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 1:40 am

Dragons? Intelligent?

Sure sure, they've got speech and culture. But get back to me when they have tools. Bloody firebreathing geckos can't even use a dagger properly.
User avatar
Josh Dagreat
 
Posts: 3438
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2007 3:07 am

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:19 am

Definitely. The enemies in this game shouldn't try to fight you on your terms, shouldn't make their imminent method of attack obvious, and just generally shouldn't ever do anything to level the playing field for you. They should ruthlessly exploit your shortcomings and hammer your weaknesses. Strafing is their most effective method of attack - so why don't they do it more than they do?

why does a murderer bandit kill someone with knives swords instead of guns bows? personal preference, there should be some dragons that like to sit there and eat you alive and some that would rather take flight to fight with their breath attacks (and there should be dragons for every tactic inbetween)
User avatar
Robert Jr
 
Posts: 3447
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2007 7:49 pm

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 8:34 am

Indeed.

I think it would already make the situation far better if they had more types of melee attacks. Now they just stay still and try to bite you. Only thing they do while flying is breath fire/frost. Why not add a flying melee attack? Fly at stuff with their claws or jaws and rip it apart. They seem agile despite their size so why not use that.
User avatar
Anne marie
 
Posts: 3454
Joined: Tue Jul 11, 2006 1:05 pm

Post » Mon Dec 12, 2011 11:38 am

Dragons? Intelligent?

Sure sure, they've got speech and culture. But get back to me when they have tools. Bloody firebreathing geckos can't even use a dagger properly.


They do indeed have tools - several six-inch long knives strapped to the ends of their appendages. Which is to say nothing of the flamethrower they can shout to their service. They can cook and cut their food with the best of us, my friend.
User avatar
jessica sonny
 
Posts: 3531
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:27 pm


Return to V - Skyrim