The best way to fight dragons is with dragons. :nod:

Well if we spend all our efforts on making stuff look pretty, then you must sacrafice quests, dungeons, etc. Who needs a shiny fireball?

I can make my own dungeons, I can't make my own dragon fireballs.

Mod it.

I think it's an interesting idea. Essentially, you have multi-second duration spells. Instead of casting one fireball, you maybe cast a torrent of fire (let's forget about the dragon for ONE second) which is basically a magical flame thrower. Wherever the spell is pointed is where is continues to do damage. This is very useful as a crowd control spell...as long as the AI is good enough that even if being set on fire doesn't kill them, the enemy will probably run away.

Back to the dragon...this would be a good aspect of the spell in that it is further demoralizing. Getting burned is one thing, getting burned by a giant winged lizard made of fire is another. This maybe in addition to doing fire damage (and whatever the AI response is to being set on fire) maybe it will have a "demoralize" effect, like some Illusion spells.

Further, I don't think either is too hard to do. It's really just a matter of animation. There's not much coding beyond what is normally done for other weapon/spell attacks. There is the initial creation of a "controllable spell" type, but that template can be applied to fire, water, lightning, poison. I also think you should be able to somewhat control the creatures you summon, like telling your skeleton to go after the mage while you kill the archer etc.

I'll stick with aiming better. I admit it's interesting to control your spells but I think it would be hard to use in a game such has TES, for the simple fact that wwhile you were controlling your spell another enemy would be chopping you...

I would like some kind of "Flame Storm" or some such spell, wherein the caster has to remain in the same position to continue casting it. It would look kinda absurd if you casted it and walked to the side to see flame continually erupting from nowhere, it somehow makes more sense with it continues to emit from your open (preferably shaking) hand.

Still not a fan of the dragon though. For one thing you'd be looking the dragon's ass the whole time, never actually seeing it until an NPC cast it. There'd also inevitably be serious clipping issues and likely slowdown.

because dragons are awesome..duh