I liked how in oblivion, if you avoid the Kvatch quest, you can play through the game how you please without seeing randomly generated oblivion gates.

I hope this option is in Skyrim as well, because while I definitely plan on playing the main quest at some point with a Nord, I really don't want to have a Khajiit character who is dragonborn, you know?
If they made it so there's a quest that triggers the random dragon spawns, that would be sweet, because then you could avoid it, and just start a life say in the thieves guild, without killing dragons and absorbing their powers...

Probably not, I see what you mean but no, it should be a crisis and you have to face it no running away, stand and fight ! bliviongate:

I hope there will be a point in the MQ where after going past it the dragons will start to spawn.

And whats wrong with khajiit there awsome now :tops:

Khajiit is my #1 favorite race.

Can you not treat them how everyone else in Skyrim does by running away/ sheltering. It would be just another mob to avoid because it is too powerful.

If it is possible to successfully escape then I'd be fine with that, I just hope they don't follow you indefinitely until you kill them.

I think,Yes,unless you want to die,and keep reloading,due to Radient Story etc,They will come for you...

Nope, you can be a tasty snack too.

^They don't have anything to do with radiant story. They are a randomly spawning creature just like everything else in the game so the only escape is to edit them out of the leveled lists.

They already said finding out that you are dragonborn is part of the main quest and not something you have to do. I'd provide a link but I'm on my phone. That being said, I hope dragons are always in the game and you can fight them from as soon as you are past the tutorial. It should just be really hard to kill them and you don't get a dragonshout after. But after you find out you are dragonborn you should get any shouts you should have gotten for killing them.

I have read of three examples of the player avoiding dragons, running away/past them and in one instance, having no other option other than to stand and fight one (but that was in a dungeon), in the many previews, showcases etc. released so far.

From this, I'd go as far as to presume that as long as your careful about it, you can avoid the dragons until you are ready to fight them.

I thought It looked at how long since you encounted a Dragon and other such things to trigger an attack....?

I doubt it, I remember reading an example of the player coming out of the dungeon (it was the demo that's been shown to the 10000000 reporters a few days ago) and the dragon jumped the player. Todd said that you can try to avoid them, but sooner or later you'll have to fight them. A couple of people here mention the RAI, they are right, some such quests have dragons in them as mentioned, so I think it's eventually impossible for the player to infinitely dodge dragon encounters.

That said, they are just like any other creature in Skyrim only more dangerous (and have the main plot centers around them).

Remember, it is a demo. They make that stuff specifically for people to play to see the game's potential. They put the dragon there because dragons are a huge selling point.

That being said, I would almost guarantee that Todd was talking about main quest related dragons. At least I hope so. I don't want to be ushered into fighting them unless it's main quest related.

Agree with OP 100%.

I prefer TES games when I play a simple hermit with a simple life.

Every crisis has to start somewhere. The crisis doesn't have to be present from the very beginning of the game.

And the Elder Scrolls is supposed to be about freedom, it's about doing what you want, trying to force a certain path on the player is contrary to that point.



It sounded to me more like Radiant Story looks at how long it's been since you've fought a dragon to determine if it should give you a quest which will require fighting a dragon or not, but random dragon encounters can happen any time independent of Radiant Story.

But at this point, I really don't know how this sort of thing is handled, but the way Bethesda has talked about it, get the impression that dragons are present in the world from the start, no matter what you do, although I'd rather they only appear after some point in the main quest, so that if I don't want anything to do with dragons, I can avoid them. Now, even if they're present from the start, you can always run away when you see them, of course, but even so, if I can see them at all, it will serve as a constant reminder that there are dragons, and could potentially create a situation similar to Oblivion's main quest where even though I know that the gameplay will let me ignore it, it feels like I'm neglecting my own responsibilities to do so. Especially when you consider that dragons can attack towns, I'm sure that Bethesda has a way to prevent important NPCs from dying because a dragon attacked when you weren't around to do anything about it, but minor characters probably don't get the same luxury, and it's not going to feel right if towns keep getting depopulated of all random characters because I didn't want to do the main quest with my current character.

Jup, bit I guess the Jills(Alduins Dragons) can be avoided for some time. Pure speculation of course.

I think it'll be like Oblivion where, after a certain point things get real. So if you don't go that far you can do whatever you want.

I didn't even touch the main quest or even see an Oblivion gate until wayyyyyy into the game and by then I was already an accomplished mage and head of the Arcane University. I also owned several houses including the one in Skingrad.

So I think at the beginning you won't be told you are Dragonborn. You will be rescued and told to go to see the Greybeards. If you don't right away it'll be like the Kavatch mission. No dragons, just questing and chilling with no Dragonborn responsibility.

If you honestly think that you are on some kind of crazy timer then you havn't played an Elder Scrolls game before have you?

In Oblivion, I finished main quest few times, but I spent most of my time exploring, doing side quests ... And after I explored the whole map few times, and did all the quests, I decided to do some hardcoe roleplay ...
hardcoe roleplay, that means, no fast travel, have to eat,sleep,drink,etc. I never even start the main quest...

I will for sure finish the Skyrim MQ few times, but I want complete freedom, and a possibility not to do MQ.

They will probably start spawning after you go to see the greybeards.
If you never climb the steps to speak with them at High Hrothgar, I hope you never see a dragon.

You have three choices when facing a dragon, I reckon:

1. Fight.
2. Run.
3. Die.

Think of the dragons as any other monster. A PC that isn't Dragonborn and doesn't slay dragons will be the equivalent of a PC in Oblivion who isn't the CoC and doesn't slay, say, ogres. Or a PC in Morrowind who isn't the Nerevarine and doesn't slay... cliffracers.

That they're particularly iconic, powerful, and mobile monsters doesn't really change the amount of freedom we'll have, I think. Any archetype fits, it's just a matter of if, and how you survive in a hostile, rugged fantasy world. In the words of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, "Run away..!"

If they'll care to script them. and then debug them.

This is one of my fears as well. I generally make quite a few different characters, and only one of them is the 'hero.' I hope the dragons don't spawn until later in the MQ, or if they do, you can escape them, or they can be taken down by NPC's such as the town guard.

:facepalm:

Play the Sims, then.

You realize that a big draw for TES for a lot of people is that you can do whatever you want. If you want pure combat there is always Torchlight for you.