Alright, so as we all know, one of the things that is supposed to stand out about Skyrim is its "epic" dragon battles. This is really what drew me in to this game. Todd Howard has described this as "shout battles". My greatest worry is that the fights between us and these giant dragons will become repetitive. Such as, you shout at it, it falls, a couple of hacks with a sword, it flys away, shout again, attack with sword again, flys away.....etc.
Now, dont get me wrong, I have all the faith that the dragons will be awesome. I guess im just paranoid because we have yet to see a demo of the game with a dragon fight in it or any kind of demo at all. We saw the gameplay trailer but it is difficult to say that is how dragon fights will be because we did not see it through the eyes of the player. With E3 right around the corner, I hope we see our dragon fight.

In no way am I saying that the dragon fights are the best thing about Skyrim, it is merely what drew me into the game.

Im really interested to hear your guy's opinion. How do you think the fights/encounters will go? Do you think they fears of them being repetitive are legitimate?
Thanks!

I have a feeling it will resemble Oblivion Gates. Fun at first, but then boring (understatement) later. Although, the dragons will have multiple shouts, which could make things more interesting.

I just hope we aren't forced into fighting them. I want to delay the main quest so I can carry on with my life without the fear of Dragons every 5 minutes.

i beleive it was said somewhere that different drgons have different powers like one breathes fire and another pukes ice(or something like that)

and when the dragons cant kill you with their breath or puke then the swoop down and to try and attack by passes and all the other epic movie dragon attack moves that im pretty sure weve all seen at some point

Providing they don't attack every 5 minutes it won't be so bad. Anyway they are pretty big so you should be able to see them in the distance flying round the summit of a mountain or sitting on top of a ruin, just means if you don't want to fight it you'll have to take the long way round, survival tactics may play a roll in this game

They already sound like the have more variety than the gates. Plus, they're simply cooler.

The thing with Oblivion gates is that you had to roam around the Planes of Oblivion to destroy the sigil stone...with a dragon fight it's (seems) much more straightforward:
See dragon>kill>move on.

Well you know all can become repetitive when player are skilled enough, if vanilla dragon battles will too boring for you always can install some good mods thats will change battles in significant way, just like thats done for Oblivion before.


Well for enhance of your Oblivion experience you can use Oblivion Gate Closer Spell
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34868

As well I think there will be no such frequent dragon encounters in Skyrim, since if I remember well Todd mentioned thats dragons will attack PC if he close enough and in less numbers so ultimately only few dragons will chase you, as well I think they will fly away after some time if cannot reach target.

You kill 1000s of the same enemies all the time in Oblivion and Morrowind. Does that become boring?

Of course it gets repretitive at some point, provided the dragons are not a finite number. You can make the fights different yourself, by using different tactics, weapons and shouts. I'm positively sure the dragons won't be as boring as the gates, it can't take that long to kill a dragon.

Like Oblivion Gates, if all else fails, use the console

This. Though you can also say the same for Obelisks of order.

...When the sons of Skyrim would spill their own blood.

I agree it is possible that it will get repetitive but since it seems like you can fight them anywhere outdoors I assume it will look interesting
EDIT:I think the Oblivion Gates looked cool from outside when I saw the moons/starsky with the gate that always caught me

I also am afraid that the Dragons will be as common as Oblivion Gates.....

I remember walking through the roads and seeing the Sky suddenly turn a pale Red
and annoyingly begin making that Hum-sound that Oblivion gates make.

So i would run as fast as i could away from it, not wanting to deal with it at the moment.
But only a FEW seconds later i suddenly run into another DAMNED(No pun intended) Oblivion Gate! bliviongate:


If Dragons are like this....you can expect me to keep the receipt when buying the game......well maybe thats a bit extreme

But the Console might work too. But it will ANNOY THE HELL out of me.

I don't think it will be a Zelda or Mario boss if that is what you are trying to imply. I think these battles will be draining on your resources (as Todd mentioned) and difficult as to defeat it. In comparison to Oblivion gates, these were long and repetitive, where as the dragon battles will probably be more diverse and dynamic.

I don't think this will be like Oblvion gates as they took up to 30 minutes, while I don't think dragons will take more than 5 to 10 minutes to defeat.

So yeah, they might be more like obelisks of order, except more varied than that...

I hope so....but don't count on it

I had two problems with Oblivion Gates. They were all the exact same, not in layout necessarily, but in visual design. They needed more artistic care individually. The other thing is, there were just too many. However, a more varied look between them might have helped quite a bit in making them fun to traverse.

With dragons, you may have to fight them often, and they will be tough as we've heard. However, They should be like fighting any other magical monster, just tougher and airborne. There's also the strategic element that the different shouts they have provide. Also we won't be traversing some plain that looks the same, we'll be traversing dungeons, but only if you are aiming to get shouts and finish the main quest, and they won't be suddenly just popping up everywhere. They're also said to be much more varied than the dungeons in Oblivion. It sounds like much less of a hassle to me than Oblivion was and much more optional. It might not turn out that way as you seem to think, but I'm not that worried about it myself.

what you gotta remeber is that dragons use different shouts and you can only shout once then its got a cooldown like the birthsign powers had. Plus you gotta remeber than combat in this game is gotta be alot better with the dragon just swatting away you with its tail and stuff. Also your gonna have to use the shout that stuns to knock it down with shouts, which is like saying you got one missle with shouts too hit it, which of course would be easy to miss.

Also morrwind didn't have things like dragons or gates and it was still amazing.

did you see the [censored] trailer? how in the world can that get repetitive
also there will be a lot of different weapon combinations so it will be fun

Unfortunately we are forced to fight them in a way. Todd said the game keeps track of how long it has been since you last fought a Dragon and when the game decides it's been to long since your last Dragon fight a Dragon WILL find you. His example was someone was playing (forget if it was him or someone else) and they left a cave and the game decided it was time he needed a Dragon encounter so there was a Dragon waiting outside of the cave for him.

I dont remember where I read it because it was awhile ago.

Also I don't think Dragons will get boring. They put so so much work into them it is crazy. I am expecting epic battles and because there are multiple Dragon types and powers its not like we would get the same Dragon over and over. Hoping for the best.

I actually can't wait to see dragons. It will be awesome to fight such massive flying lizards! Man I wish I could go back in time and see dinosaurs! :sadvaultboy: But without getting eaten or trampled. <_<

IIRC Todd said this will not happen. Dragons will be included in quests, I think, and spaced apart so they don't get overwhelming and/or old.

I'm just saying, dragon battles will be great, but Skyrim will have soooo much more to offer than just fighting dragons. If you're not satisfied with the dragon fighting, you'll be blown away by the depth, freedom, customization, or any of the other aspects that TES is known for.

Do any of you think we might get new info on dragons/dragon encounters next week at e3?