So dragons in Skyrim have been compared to other creatures in the world in so much as they are found out and about and the player can expect to run into them every once in a while. This got me worried that like other creatures, dragons will eventually respawn once the PC slays them and leaves the area for awhile. Does anyone else know if dragons will operate like this or in fact there will be a unique number of them and once they're slain, they stay dead?

they are infinite at the moment.

Ugh, I hope they change this! I think one of the reasons dragons hold such a legendary place in fantasy lore (and in our minds) is because they are so mythic and unique. If they indeed are infinite they will lose their grandeur eventually, I think...

The dragons are invading Skyrim for a reason, so they are going in full strength.

Hell yea, if they are gonna do dragons might as well go hard!

the numbers are not exactly concrete at the moment but they do respawn. since they can band together if there is another dragon relatively close to there location i hope there are very few of them maybe 10 or 15 at the most

So what if they operate like that? Nobody is talking of them being special or anything of the sort. What part of DRAGONS INVADING TAMRIEL is so hard to grasp?

They want to destroy the world, find out there's one last Dragonborn roaming the place...and they are gonna come two at a time every 30 hours of gameplay?

So? That doesn't mean that there is going to be an infinite number of them, which is the point I'm arguing.

Typical fantasy lore is that dragons mature to from babies to advlts to ancient dragons over many thousands of years. And AFAIK females do not lay tons of eggs.

I would be very disappointed if dragons became such a regular occurrence that 1) I would just shrug my shoulders at the sight, 2) I could choose to ignore it and not worry about getting its soul because I knew I'd have as many chances as I would need to stock up.

I really think there should a good number of dragons across the world, but the number should ultimately be limited. If you're concerned that the story might suffer if too many of the dragons are killed "prematurely", then don't have all of them accessible right away.

TES =/= typical fantasy. Get your typical fantasy away from Skyrim and have 100000 dragons attack me at once! :disguise:

I thought dragons in TES were supposed to be immensely powerful; almost god-like.

Uhm, TES is squarely based in a typical fantasy setting. Sure, Bethesda has added their own twists and the overall gameplay and presentation is unmatched on computers/consoles, but the foundation of TES is definitely good ol' fashioned fantasy.

More like almost demi-god like.

TES dragons are not normal animals, I was pretty sure they were divine agents of a god. Said god is trying to conquer the world so he can eat it, I dont expect that he will send children when he can send fully grown soldiers instead as his invasion force.

TES is low fantasy buddy. Not typical fantasy.

Low-fantasy is just sub-genre of traditional fantasy. Dragons are still dragons in either one.

Don't expect them to pop up every time you go out in the wilds. Their Boss fights + radiant story will keep track how it long has been since you had one to fight.
And there are a few scripted for the main quest. Probably you'll see 15-25 given how long you spend on one character.

Source?

Source?

Now that is where the difference comes in. Have it your way, be disappointed by TES not being as every other fantasy game out there, I'm not going to be.

I hope they respawn. However, I want the respawn rate to decrease each time a Dragon is spawned. Eventually give me a miniscule spawn rate and stop the rate lowering, so any time after I've killed a bunch would merely be a case of "OH WTF!". Any we see would be seen as stragglers.

I also don't want them to start spawning until a certain part of the main quest.

Also, typical fantasy cliche's aren't always a bad thing. If we kept that thinking, we would be rid of shields, swords, fire magic, etc. because they're some of the most common parts of typical fantasy worlds. Sure, it's nice to have unique twists in a game world, but it's also often nice to see some of the better cliché's.

Special/Boss dragons should be fixed and limited to one occurrence in the entire game.

Normal dragons should respawn.

Alduin is as far as we know, the antagonist. He is also related to Akatosh the god of time either by being the same god, or a duality/dark side. The dragons are to him, what angels are to god. Someone else more lore savvy would probably have a link somewhere.