» Tue Jan 18, 2011 5:33 am How difficult are they going to be? This comes as a problem because of the following:
1) Todd repeatedly said that dragons in skyrim are going to
be difficult, almost boss-like. In fact an encounter with one should be so intimidating that the PC may choose to run instead. However...
2) Todd also said that we'd fight a dragon early on, people on the forum are speculating that it may happen as early as in the tutorial. So that means dragons have to be difficult but easy enough to kill within levels 1-5 (rough estimate). But wouldn't that make dragons too easy at later levels?
3) Another issue although not quite as huge is that dragons in skyrim can't be so powerful as to wipe out entire towns. We already know that dragons will attack towns but I doubt Bethesda would make it so that when a single dragon attacks, all npc's die. The town's garrison and population should be enough to fend off the dragon
Now there are 3 ways Todd can manage to keep dragons difficult throughout the game but easy at the beginning and that is:
1) level scaling. Probably the worst option IMO. This was one of the biggest issues with oblivion and I would hate for it to plague skyrim. Todd mentions that he fixed this and acknowledges that it was an issue with OB. I'm sure he wouldn't allow level scaling to this degree with one of skyrims most important features
2) Numbers. Alright, so maybe one dragon isn't too hard, maybe it'd when they fly at you in groups that makes them powerful. This is another bad idea because it would mean that dragons would be no more powerful than goblins or mudcrabs seeing as they can be killed early on. Todd said however that 3 dragons was way too difficult when he encountered them in the game. And I doubt he would throw a dozen at us at later levels.
3) This is the only point I think makes sense but also involves the highest amount of speculation. We know that dragons are just beginning to appear in skyrim by the time our character comes into play. Maybe only the weaker dragons are showing up first and that stronger dragons are coming with time, climixing with anduin? This is basically a modified version of level scaling but at least with an explanation like this it wouldn't be too much of an issue. So long as there's a visible difference between a weak and strong dragon anyways. Or maybe the strength of dragons in the area are linked to the power of the dragonborn destined to kill them all?
So what are your thoughts? Also I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistake because in typing this up on my iPhone and the keyboard isn't exactly ideal.
