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Black Orchid

Death Incarnate
Let me just start by saying that I love this game. But I'm starting to have a real problem with the A.I. for dragons.

I realize that they get sidetracked on occasion, but this had me quite frustrated (it's no joke either, although I wish it was at the time):

My mage was running around looking for critters to fry up for soul gem food the other day. After about an hour I hear an all too familiar roaring sound and flapping of wings. I don't know about you guys, but I still get excited and fearful at the same time when I hear a dragon coming at me.

Anyway, I'm drinking potions, casting various protection spells, and getting my character's most bad-ass, dual-cast Destruction magic ready. Looking up into the sky, I wait. No dragon shows up.

I run like hell, drinking a stamina potion in the meantime. I travel alone, except for my Atronach Thralls when I need them. I finally catch up to where the dragon is swooping down, attacking a couple of bandits with frost breath. I blast the dragon a couple of times with electricity, hurt the dragon a little bit, and then it finally wastes both of the bandits.

It proceeds to fly off in another direction (with my character chasing after it once again) and begins attacking something else; this time it's a group of Mudcrabs. It kills the Mudcrabs in one fell swoop using its frost breath (poor Mudcrabs didn't stand a chance, muhahahaha!! Yes, I despise Mudcrabs).

Before I can fire off a single attack, the dragon flies off again. I get over the next small hill to find it attacking a Giant this time (no Mammoths). Cool, now I can kill it with the Giant's help. So I blast away at the dragon until it's only got about a quarter of it's life left, but decide I want to fry the dragon with my own bare hands (yes, I must always be the one to kill the dragon). I finally destroy the Giant with the dragon's help. One more shot and the dragon will be toast. Crap, out of Magicka, and Magicka potions. Dragon suddenly flies off just out of range of my Thunderbolt once it's finally ready.

At this point, I'm jumping up and down, pleading for the dragon to PLEEEAAAZE COME BAAAACK!!! and fight me. No. It finds a lone Hunter walking besides his horse. The Hunter shoots a few arrows at it before the dragon finally is too weak to fly and lands on the ground beside him. It breaths frost and damages the Hunter. I'm out of Stamina potions and Stamina from trying to keep up with the dragon (my max Stamina is still at 100). Dragon chomps down on the Hunter, finally killing him just as I get close enough to blast it with a single Thunderbolt. The dragon still has a sliver of life left after my spell slams into his side.

Then the unthinkable happens:

the Hunter's horse, forgotten about in all of the commotion, rears up and pummels the dragon with its hooves, finishing it off (first time I've ever seen a common horse kill a dragon).

I didn't scream; I didn't snap my keyboard in half. I just quietly sat there at my computer desk for a moment and then began laughing maniacally. The damn horse killed my dragon, and then trots off casually as if it was just another day in the happy lands of Skyrim.

Please, someone tell me there's a mod or something to make dragons smarter. Considering they're a main theme in the game, they seem to be the dumbest creatures in all of Tamriel.
 

Naginata

Huntress of the Shadows
Nope, no way to make em smarter, unless you're on the PC I guess. But I noticed that, I'll be killing a dragon and it will fly away from me to mess with a wolf just minding its own business in the forest somewhere.

SERIOUSLY, DRAGON? Seriously. Get your scaly butt back here.

It bothers me a lot, but it also bothers me when they fly in circles endlessly, looking for a place to land. Especially if you're in a settlement or a tight area like a mountain pass with no real place to land.
 

ColleenG

When in doubt, follow the fox.
You're not quite understanding the role of dragons with regard to your role as Dovakiin. You are dragon. You and dragons are one. The dragons are actually on your side, right up to the point at which they want to kill you. They do things for you all the time. You ran off trying to kill the dragon that was HELPING YOU. That being said, if you don't kill the dragon, it will eventually fall down dead. Such is the way of life in Skyrim. Even Meeko has killed a dragon before.
 

Black Orchid

Death Incarnate
You're not quite understanding the role of dragons with regard to your role as Dovakiin. You are dragon. You and dragons are one. The dragons are actually on your side, right up to the point at which they want to kill you. They do things for you all the time. You ran off trying to kill the dragon that was HELPING YOU. That being said, if you don't kill the dragon, it will eventually fall down dead. Such is the way of life in Skyrim. Even Meeko has killed a dragon before.

Interesting idea. I guess I've never really thought of it that way.

Btw, who is Meeko?
 

Naginata

Huntress of the Shadows
You're not quite understanding the role of dragons with regard to your role as Dovakiin. You are dragon. You and dragons are one. The dragons are actually on your side, right up to the point at which they want to kill you. They do things for you all the time. You ran off trying to kill the dragon that was HELPING YOU. That being said, if you don't kill the dragon, it will eventually fall down dead. Such is the way of life in Skyrim. Even Meeko has killed a dragon before.

Interesting idea. I guess I've never really thought of it that way.

Btw, who is Meeko?


Meeko is a dog follower you can get, correct? I think I have seen him.
 

Black Orchid

Death Incarnate
You're not quite understanding the role of dragons with regard to your role as Dovakiin. You are dragon. You and dragons are one. The dragons are actually on your side, right up to the point at which they want to kill you. They do things for you all the time. You ran off trying to kill the dragon that was HELPING YOU. That being said, if you don't kill the dragon, it will eventually fall down dead. Such is the way of life in Skyrim. Even Meeko has killed a dragon before.

Interesting idea. I guess I've never really thought of it that way.

Btw, who is Meeko?


Meeko is a dog follower you can get, correct? I think I have seen him.

Oh yea, that's right. I remember now. I'm sure I've seen Meeko somewhere in my many travels.
 

ColleenG

When in doubt, follow the fox.

Abyssion

Member
Let me just start by saying that I love this game. But I'm starting to have a real problem with the A.I. for dragons.

I realize that they get sidetracked on occasion, but this had me quite frustrated (it's no joke either, although I wish it was at the time):

My mage was running around looking for critters to fry up for soul gem food the other day. After about an hour I hear an all too familiar roaring sound and flapping of wings. I don't know about you guys, but I still get excited and fearful at the same time when I hear a dragon coming at me.

Anyway, I'm drinking potions, casting various protection spells, and getting my character's most bad-ass, dual-cast Destruction magic ready. Looking up into the sky, I wait. No dragon shows up.

I run like hell, drinking a stamina potion in the meantime. I travel alone, except for my Atronach Thralls when I need them. I finally catch up to where the dragon is swooping down, attacking a couple of bandits with frost breath. I blast the dragon a couple of times with electricity, hurt the dragon a little bit, and then it finally wastes both of the bandits.

It proceeds to fly off in another direction (with my character chasing after it once again) and begins attacking something else; this time it's a group of Mudcrabs. It kills the Mudcrabs in one fell swoop using its frost breath (poor Mudcrabs didn't stand a chance, muhahahaha!! Yes, I despise Mudcrabs).

Before I can fire off a single attack, the dragon flies off again. I get over the next small hill to find it attacking a Giant this time (no Mammoths). Cool, now I can kill it with the Giant's help. So I blast away at the dragon until it's only got about a quarter of it's life left, but decide I want to fry the dragon with my own bare hands (yes, I must always be the one to kill the dragon). I finally destroy the Giant with the dragon's help. One more shot and the dragon will be toast. Crap, out of Magicka, and Magicka potions. Dragon suddenly flies off just out of range of my Thunderbolt once it's finally ready.

At this point, I'm jumping up and down, pleading for the dragon to PLEEEAAAZE COME BAAAACK!!! and fight me. No. It finds a lone Hunter walking besides his horse. The Hunter shoots a few arrows at it before the dragon finally is too weak to fly and lands on the ground beside him. It breaths frost and damages the Hunter. I'm out of Stamina potions and Stamina from trying to keep up with the dragon (my max Stamina is still at 100). Dragon chomps down on the Hunter, finally killing him just as I get close enough to blast it with a single Thunderbolt. The dragon still has a sliver of life left after my spell slams into his side.

Then the unthinkable happens:

the Hunter's horse, forgotten about in all of the commotion, rears up and pummels the dragon with its hooves, finishing it off (first time I've ever seen a common horse kill a dragon).

I didn't scream; I didn't snap my keyboard in half. I just quietly sat there at my computer desk for a moment and then began laughing maniacally. The damn horse killed my dragon, and then trots off casually as if it was just another day in the happy lands of Skyrim.

Please, someone tell me there's a mod or something to make dragons smarter. Considering they're a main theme in the game, they seem to be the dumbest creatures in all of Tamriel.

Ahhh that old chestnut, I remember them days back on console....BUUUUT I have your solution right here; http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3829/?tab=1&navtag=/ajax/moddescription/?id=3829&preview=&pUp=1
annnnnnnd this!; http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/32597/?tab=1&navtag=/ajax/moddescription/?id=32597&preview=&pUp=1
 

Abyssion

Member
Dragon combat overhaul and DD should completely cover your dragon needs...it makes them friggin relentless, adds new abilities, each dragon spawned has its own A.I effectively.
 

Black Orchid

Death Incarnate

Abyssion

Member

Thank you, Abyssion; this is exactly what I was looking for.:)

Your welcome, but I have a feeling that your thank you may be retracted when you run into some of the new dragons within DD :D
 

ShenziSixaxis

Article Writer
I can't believe no one really suggested DD/DCO until the above post (seeing as you mentioned playing on PC).

DCO: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/32597
DD: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3829

They're really great. DCO is built along with DD, so I highly recommend running them together, though I think you could forgo DD if you wanted. However, it does have a 'loremonger' version that doesn't add new dragons, but personally I like the new ones, especially at level 104 for challenge. You can also customize how powerful they are.

DCO doesn't have any real customization, but it doesn't seem to need it. It does, however, help to make dragons more focused on you, since Apollo has rocked their world and given them brains.

I have a few decent videos of non derp/glitch of DCO here, and one video here. However, these are running DCO V6; the current version of DCO is 8.2, which is greatly improved, and version 9 is on its way. If you scour the comments of DCO, you'll see that Apollo has streamlined/optimized DCO's scripts in V9 for even less performance hit, found out how to effect Alduin, and just made a bunch of awesome changes.
 

Abyssion

Member
Your welcome, but I have a feeling that your thank you may be retracted when you run into some of the new dragons within DD :D

Well, I finally got Enchanting up to 100 and am getting ready to throw some 'Extra Effect' enchantments on my character's armor, so hopefully that will even the playing field a bit.

There's a dragon type, Nether; that can turn invisible :D
also it makes the last mission a harrowing experience.
 

Abyssion

Member
There's a dragon type, Nether; that can turn invisible :D
also it makes the last mission a harrowing experience.

I'm assuming that it's just like Illusion's Invisibility spell, which the first action you take turns you visible again? As long as that's the case, I think I can handle that dragon (finds a large rock to cower behind).:eek:

Its more like the shadow stone ability; where it can be used so many times in a set period. I think you may need that rock. From memory Nether's don't usually appear till level 30-35+. If you lose, then just make a Rocky training montage and you should win the rematch!
 

ShenziSixaxis

Article Writer
It turns back visible when it attacks.

Nether dragons, and the one that also uses its breath attack (spectral? shadow? can't remember), are a pain in the arse just because of the FPS hit I get when they use their breath attack. At least I can look away and it goes back to normal. Phff.
 

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