I really hope they make a GOOD work on the dragons, because I want to have some freaking epic battles with them, not just normal ecounters.

If they had the same amount of employees and resources when they made oblivion then yes it would be a bad idea. Not now though. They are much bigger and they have developed much better compression techniques so that more voice acting is available along side other additions. Don't worry so much

They already had the formula of filling their world with content, all they need to do is add depth as you stated. This game should be the one to do it. I'm just not sure if it will with the overwhelming focus on dragons. The only reason why I even thought about this topic is because of the article that said one of the enemy's didn't react when the Todd Howard killed one of the guys next to him. To me that's important, even Fallout 3 and New Vegas had some sort of reactions from the Npc's when one of its faction members were killed. And you guys cant say that this is an early build of the game because they have been working on it for five years now...

Yeah, and with that logic, every feature in TES is bad, because its resources could have gone to something else.

The dragons are one of the features of the game. And since we don't even know exactly what's going to be in the game, we don't even know if they'll be leaving anything out. You may find that everything you ever dreamed of is already in place, and that it is your perfect game even with the dragons.

........lol. When i saw the topic title, i just *HAD* to see this. Dude, dragons are perfectly lore-fitting, and they won't take any resources away. They have a separate team working on them, get your facts straight <_<

Yep, 6 to be exact. That is 6% of the labor devoted to the main enemy in the game.

...And honestly, who are you to say how one aspect of development will affect others? Are you a triple A game developer posting here in your spare time? Even if you were you would not be able to comment on any one aspect without knowing about all the aspects. At this point unless you actually work at Bethesda your in no position to criticize development choices.

And how do you know that the focus on dragons is overwhelming, have you been sitting in on their design meetings? As already mentioned, the team working on the dragons is quite small compared to the whole project.



That's just a glitch that they have plenty of time to fix. I'm sure there's lots of little bugs in the game here and there, it's far from being completed. There's absolutely no reason to fear that working on some new creature is going to screw up something as important as character AI.

I'm not concluding anything, I'm simply stating possibilities.

You say "Monsters" but only speak of a dragon. But in fact I'm a big fan of monsters, and what if including dragons took ten different new monsters out the game. I'm especially looking forward to werewolves, what if they were taken out? What if mounted combat on horses was scrapped? That is all I'm saying...

Well they did tell of their return, it was an inevitable event. Now man up and save skyrim before it is too late!

The dragons are the whole point of the game, plus Bethesda had plenty of time and EVEN MORE ORGANIZATION and clever use of their time for its development.

Only half of skyrim will be dragons, the other half is awesome new features and a breathing world.

I like dragons...

So are people who ignore the forum rules they agreed to abide by when they joined. Let's see....

In addition, please do not take it upon yourself to be a spelling and grammar cop.

7. Flaming is not allowed.

Insulting individuals or groups of members and name calling are flames. Any remark that is made to insult another member or group of members will be considered a flame and thus you may receive a warning for it.
Calling people a troll or an apologist for instance can both be considered a flame as can calling someone stupid or ADD. Attacking Xbox players, PS3 players or PC players is not allowed and calling them "console kiddies" or in anyway indicating someone is in some way a lesser person because of their choice is considered a flame here.

Calling people trolls is a bad idea, m'kay? If you think there is a problem with a post, use the report button and let the mods deal with it.

Like I said yes they might have had a separate team to work on the dragons, but all of the other 80 people had to have been involved. Whose working on the sounds, quest, art direction, animations, etc. Everyone.

You're not understanding.

I'm of the mind that if they didn't spend the time and resources on dragons, they just spend it on a different antagonist, primary threat, etc. Like in Oblivion, there really weren't any crazy cool, epic, legendary beasts for the most part, but they obviously spent the time they could have worked on those working on the Oblivion gates and different planes of Oblivion. No matter how you slice it, the primary quest, antagonist, protagonist, and their respective "minions" will get the most time and resources. Whether that's dragons, demons, giant moths from hell, pokemon or what doesn't matter in the end.

At least they spent the time on something totally awesome, legendary, and important to the lore.

Also, please note that the team is significantly bigger this time around, and they had a separate team for making the dragons and as such I doubt much of the game suffered horribly from it.

No I want dragons lets make that clear. I just thought that dragons might have hurt the overall game from a gameplay standpoint. I honestly don't know because I haven't played the game yet, this is basically speculation.

Really? Every feature requires two years and a full team of people to implement?

poinless flame removed

i think there is some confusion here between gameplay and game story - the point of the dragons is tied to the central theme of the Elder scrolls as in the prophetic scrolls not the series - the dragons arrival drive the story events - they are not just included as an extra creature to fight but rather are tied to the central story - why the blades came about, their link to the septims and the reason the Dragonborn exists. as a plot device i think that's really cool compared to here's a new monster go fight that for no other reason than it exists.

God forbid they add things to the game you don't like, because they should be able to read your mind magically and add the things that you do like by saving time. I think that Bethesda should have removed the realm of Oblivion from Oblivion, because adding Morrowind would be so much better...

While we're at it, why don't we make dragons a toggle option? :glare:

I always hate topics like this. "If the developers didn't focus on this central feature, they could have added (name niche gameplay mechanic here)"

Heres is the simple answer: This game is Bethesda's game, and they are going to build it how THEY want it. If they want dragons, then damn it they are going to add dragons, especially since they are important to the story/lore of the game and series as a whole. You also make a mistake in assuming that if they didn't add dragons, they would have more time/resources to add other features, but thats not always true. Its very possible they would have simply used a smaller team or had a shorter development time if they didn't add in certain features. Thats not even getting into the fact that none of the features you mentioned would be important... as I alluded to, they are niche features that would not be important to everyone. Dragons on the other hand are a huge part of the story of the game, so its kinda hard to say they should have been scraqed for a handful of non-essential features. This would be like someone saying "You know... if Infinity Ward didn't spend all their time adding guns in COD, they could have made a Mount and Blade clone". That might not be the best example, but its pretty much the same thing.

The bottom line is, if you want to dictate what is or isn't an important feature in a AAA video game... go to school, get a degree, become a game designer, and THEN you can decide that some niche climbing system is more important then dragons in a game thats suppose to be about dragons. Good luck getting a job with decision making like that though.

But they didn't, there's going to be a wide variety of new creatures to battle. That's like saying that in Oblivion they shouldn't have worked on adding Daedra, they could have devoted those resources for something else instead. So what if they were a key part of the storyline?



Again, that's simply not true. Dragons will only be one part of the game and their production will have little impact on everything else. As was mentioned, the dragon team is only made up of 6 people out of a team of 80+.



Then why are you carrying on about it?

First point out where werewolves were ever supposed to be in the game in the first place. Riding horses hasn't been confirmed yet, let alone mounted combat. None of this is the central focus to the game. Ten different new monsters wouldn't necessarily fit in the lore. I don't think they would have created new random creatures just because it would be teh cool or something.

Dragons were always in the game, as soon as they were chosen to be the main focus of the game. Considering the dragon shouts and the prophecy are the main theme of the game, they pretty much put emphasis on the dragons.

I must be the only person who agrees with you op.

While I like dragons...I found them to be more compelling when I was 10. I don't think dragons are bad for TES but they are a little overdone. I would of rather they focus on little things...like interesting plot lines where the conflict isn't 'go slay the uber monster cus it wants to take over dah whole world and it is like a god n stuff.

That's probably too harsh but seriously I'm not 5 yrs old.

I remember reading A song of ice and fire and being annoyed when G R R Martin introduced the dragons. It was so unnecessary, and I had already been strained by the 'white walkers'.

Still Skyrim will be awesome and I'm sure the dragons will be very well done, I just hope the next game has something a little more original.