By Quintin Smith on May 19th, 2011 at 10:11 am.
In a story that makes for one of the most double-take inducing headlines of 2011, Skyrim director Todd Howard last week told Norweigan outlet Gamer.no that Skyrim will have “an unlimited number of dragons”. You heard me right, people. Infinity dragons. If you were worrying about running out of dragons in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, well, don’t do that.
You can read parts one and two of the translated interview here and here. But wait! It gets better.
In PC Gamer’s own coverage of this news, they cooly added that the dragons will “be dynamically generated, and will be able to attack you almost anywhere.” Holy shit!
We’ll be facing off against infinity dragons who can attack from almost anywhere? Can they attack while we’re sleeping? While we’re talking to another NPC? In the main menu? Can they follow you onto the desktop after you’ve quit? What if they escape from the PC? I’m currently having some trouble with some of the fights in The Witcher 2, but Bethesda have put my difficulty woes in perspective.
Here’s a dragon I have a particularly fond memory of fighting. Thaxll’ssillyia from Baldur’s Gate 2. What a girl. But seriously, one of her was enough.
I love dragons, I wish I could own one. Would much rather have that as a giant dispenser of justice than a gun.
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What do you think the first mod for Skyrim is going to be. srsly
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(The second will be a mod that turns you into a dragon)
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A mod that allows you to have dragon companions of course.
Yes, you can sleep with your fluffy dragon.
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Dragon armor?
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Sorry for my ignorance, but what were the devs stance on Modding, will it be fairly easily done? (oblivion was had quite a few mods eh?) Or are they going the ID 5 route, of having an engine too advanced and powerful?
Also, I would have those mods! (I rarely mod games)
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“What do you think the first mod for Skyrim is going to be.”
Nude skins, obv.
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The third mod will be about making out with a dragon.
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What are you on? Ofc the first mod will add male and female sex organs to dragons.
Ever been bashed to death by 200 pound dragon boobs?
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yes
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That would be the first mod only if the dragon is also nude.
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Unlimited horse armour?
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Oh, puh-leeese can someone make a How To Train Your Dragon mod?!
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To answer your question corrupt tiki yes bethesda announced a long time ago a modding kit that’ll be released for skyrim and I remember as well that Id announced they were going to release a mod kit as well for rage
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Well, “turn dragon”-mod plus “own and ride Dragon”-mod plus “nude”-mod pretty much equals “Dragonsex”-mod, doesn’t it?
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@ Trooper, Thanks, I thought it was so, but wasn’t quite sure.
Also, I can not wait for the Dragon training mods etc, also, Naked mods!
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First mod will be nude_skin_mod of course…..FOR DRAGONS!
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The first mod in Skyrim and Dragons, will be Rule 34 inspired.
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The first Skryim mod will be called The Finite Dragon Mod.
Mod is short for Moderation, right?
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Nonono, the first mod will obviously be tentacle bears. Then comes the ridable/tameable/transformable dragons, then excessive quantities of Nord boobies, if Oblivion was any indication.
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Just be glad it’s not a Ubisoft game or we’d have Imagine Dragons. Well, that’s not the only reason to be glad it’s not a Ubisoft game, but it’s arguably the most significant.
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I am going to make a game and it will have unlimited pokemans.
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my god, that is a lot of pokemans
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OH MY GOD! IT’S… OVER 9000 POKEMANS!!!11one
P.S.: I have no idea if that over-9000 and the pokewhatever shows are the same or something different. (And I’m proud of it.)
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no they’re different shows
now you know, oops
go find something else to be proud of
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Dragons are fun.
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*Cough* …and in the game!
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Any game I produce shall feature random encounters in the main menu!
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“You have been wildly waylaid by video settings and must defend yourself.”
Something like this?
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‘The Video Settings attacks with High Bloom. You are blinded!’
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“Anti – Aliasing attacks you while you were sleeping” Anti – Aliasing deals 5 damage on first strike!
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“The V-Sync is enabled and tears you in two…”
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You are ambushed by Mouse Acceleration! Accuracy down 15%!
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Enemy uses Gamma! You suffer 5 (C/kg) of radiation damage.
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Somebody, please, go and make that happen.
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I’m afraid Ubisoft beat you to the punch years ago, guys!
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/04/27/embarrassed-cough/
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HAHA. YES.
That was a fucking menu challange.
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“Gamma has been set to 0.0. It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.”
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You used slider on mouse sensitivity…
It’s not very effective…
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Ubershading enabled, your are slowed to 33% your normal speed.
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“DirectX 11 mode activated! The ability appears to have no effect…”
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So they’re basically like Cliff Racers?
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Now that’s an amusing thought.
Hopefully they’ll have their own obnoxious sounds and all.
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Skrreeee!
you’ve contracted Helljoint
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I just cancelled my preorder.
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Dragon inflation is something to be careful with and makes it this sound like Skyrim is the 1930s equivalent of Germany for inflation rates.
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My first thought was how would an ecosystem support infinite top level predators.
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Infinite princesses?
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Mario has infinite princesses.. Well.. Kinda.
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Duh, obviously there is a plethora of Super Meat Boys running around to feed the ravenous beasts
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@frightlever:
By creating an infinite amount of… everything else.
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Infinite squidbear!
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Think of the CO2!
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Firkraag > Thaxll’ssillyia
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Nothing with flappy wings is bigger than a nice, stinking Cloudkill!
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OH YES
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go for the eyes boo.
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Twisted Rune at lvl 12…. i call bullshit. Whats he got it on? Super easy?
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Uh. “This video contains content from SME, who have blocked it in your country on copyright grounds”.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s “The internet contains content from SME…”
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I wish I could see what you wrote, but it says your post contains content from SME…
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I can’t see it either, well I guess I’l have to pirate the game [from that movie, not Skyrim, I never pirate Bethesda games] so I can get to that point to see what happens in that movie which copyright laws are preventing me to watch. It’s a harsh world.
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Baldur’s Gate II video is blocked in my country. It probably contains spoilers the editor doesn’t want on the internet. Boo booo !
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Infinity dragons, go ‘head.
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aah aah ah
uh uh-uh uh uh-uh uh-uh
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@ Puffins
I wanted to make that joke!
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Bugger I was just about to do that too :)
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Somebody signal Horace!
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dammit, you beat me to the punch.
Unlimited Dragons + Endless Bear = Infinite Fun
Srsly though, i still need to finish The Witcher 1 now. stupid fights, really really stupid fights.
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Horace the Endless Bear vs Barrington the Unlimited Dragon?
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If I ever had a pet that was unlimited, I would name it Tonnes.
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With the first name of “metric fuck”
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Hi, I am an unlimited pet dragon and my middle name is Fuck.
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I hate when you are in subway and you go to refill your dragons and they say sorry, no refills, bastards.
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I wonder if they’re using Speed Dragon for the procedural generation.
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So my dream of driving the accursed species from the land and making their monstrous line extinct is but a pipe dream? Zounds.
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Clearly, then, better than Witcher 2, which has only had one dragon I’ve seen so far.
And as said above, after the inevitable first non-dragon-related mod, Skyrim will have infinitely more boobies as well.
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Hopefully not boobies on Dragons, though. That’d be weird.
Besides, the first non-Dragon related mod needs to be a choir of NPCs that follow you round singing the theme song.
They sing quietly when you go into stealth mode, obviously.
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That. Would. Be. AMAZING!
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Oh god. Someone has to make that NPC choir mod, it would complete my life forever.
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So, like Cliff Racers then, except larger and scalier and more fire-breatingy.
We all remember how much fun cliff racers were.
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I can imagine Todd Howard all like “People complained when every game since Daggerfall HAD no dragons? Well, we’re giving them ALL the dragons! All of them! At the same time! So as I pray, UNLIMITED DRAGON WORKS!”
And then he cackles madly and eats a muffin.
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I always wanted a game based on cliff racers!
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Ah memories of Baldur’s Gate, remember everyone, watch that video and then repeat after me
“Bioware Games have not been dumbed down”
“Bioware games have not been dumbed down”
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I think, after the iron hand of EA gripped Biow.. WAIT! WH-WHO ARE YOU?! LET ME GO! WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME?
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“We’ll be facing off against infinity dragons who can attack from almost anywhere? Can they attack while we’re sleeping? While we’re talking to another NPC? In the main menu? Can they follow you onto the desktop after you’ve quit? What if they escape from the PC? I’m currently having some trouble with some of the fights in The Witcher 2, but Bethesda have put my difficulty woes in perspective.”
<3
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Mechanic spoiler. Sad face.
I now know I can never kill all the dragons, it’s programmed that way.
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That’s a good thing, because they are so pretty
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Just because there are infinite dragons, doesn’t mean you can’t kill all of them. Infinity is fun!
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Well are we talking about countably infinite dragons? What is the cardinality of the set of dragons? (Aleph-dragon?)
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Clearly they haven’t learned their lesson from Morrowind’s cliff racers.
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Dear RPS Comments Thread. I love you.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/05/19/unlimiteddragons/comment-page-1/#comment-692710
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RPS comment threads are always (usually, half the time) excellent. I think that’s what half the charm of the site comes from, the friendly atmosphere and people who visit it.
NO NOT YOU! YOU FILTHY BEGGAR! GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! …Ahem.
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I want to be a dragon!
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Maybe when you’re older, son.
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I was going to make a Horace joke, but others beat me to it…
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Ugh, endless dragon fights could really drag on after a while.
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I’ll wait to see how Bethesda scales the difficulty. If I have to claw my way through the game I’ll incinerate it with a fire-breathing review.
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Guys, don’t start a flame war here. I’m sure the RPS guys are talonted enough to spot it.
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Stop flapping about nothing.
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The best solution to dragons in BG2 is doom-doom-doom-chromatic orb (ideally spell-sequenced). Throw in a cloudkill as well for good luck.
Fairly good chance of 1-shotting them before they even get started.
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There were some fairly cheesy ways to kill them, but then they were pretty cheesy themselves to begin with. All that magic resistance!
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Yeah, but fuck that demi-lich.
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There were a couple exploits to beat the dragons with relative ease. I used none of them, instead charged right at them with my paladin in a futile attempt to be heroic.
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If it also has unlimited mammoths then, well – unlimited dragons *and* unlimited wooly mammoths. How can it fail to be the greatest game there has ever been?
A Howard quote from the PCG story:
“One of our designers actually put in a random event I encountered, where I ended up being chased by three dragons and I thought “who the hell did this? I felt like Frodo in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. So I asked him to remove it”
I hope they didn’t remove it, because that sounds brilliant. I want to play that.
Apparently you can talk to the dragons, so that’s pretty great too. I wonder if you can talk to the mammoths?
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So you can “talk it out” with those three dragons chasing you?
-OK, timeout. I am fucking warning you guys. I know Avalon the Silver Dragon. She Polymorphed me into a drow once.
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I think it was “Adalon”.
My poor old, tired gamer brain!
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I read that and thought the same thing Colthor, I so want to play that encounter.
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Who would win in a fight between unlimited dragons and unlimited woolly mammoths?
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@Jimbo
We’d all win.
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If those mammoths are anything like Elephants… Those poor dragons… They’ll never stand a chance. We must defend ourselves against the mammoths! Pump the magma! Open the valves! Flood the world! Get me new socks!
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I’m starting to get the distinct feeling that the game is going to revolve around repeatedly and repetitively killing Dragons much like in Oblivion with the Oblivion Gates and those funny orbs. Here’s hoping I’m wrong…
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Haha, yeah, that would be bad. And then if you can’t be bothered, you end up giving an epic speech to like four guys. Good times…
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At least you wouldn’t have to forsake the pretty wilderness for, uh, uninspired reds and blacks!
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dragons = oblivion gates?
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No of course not but the Oblivion gates were a repetitive part of the game and the Dragons appear to be so as well. You have to kill the Dragons to absorb their power much like the Oblivion gates and collecting the orbs.
Considering the amount of press that the Dragons are getting I find it hard to believe that they won’t be a major part of the main quest.
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From the translated interview:
“- How are sword fighting? Can you choose to swing your sword to the left or right?
- Yes, you choose the direction with the control stick. It is also possible to perform different combo attacks, jump back and stuff.”
I don’t have a control stick, you stupid dev. I’m a PC gamer, dammit.
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You get sword gestures.
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Wii-like waggle with the mouse?
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I just preordered my cancel.
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Unlimited overgrown cliff racers.
Joy.
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D:
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I can see the groundbreaking interactions between the various NPCs.
“I saw a dragon the other day! Disgusting creatures. I steer clear of them. Nasty things, but I hear the meat’s not too bad.”
Wait, never mind.
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I don’t know about that. I think that if there were finite number of dragons, it would force player to cherish one instead of just going/waiting for another one to show up after the old one dies of old age or mutilation.
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Dragons are the new cliffracers !!! 1
Seriously, unlimited dragons, unlimited boots!
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That’s great and all but will they have infinite CRIMINAL SCUM!
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As long as they don’t torch my house. Coming home after a long days adventuring to find my home burnt to ash…well, that just ain’t kosha.
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Is this a sign that it will be open ended? Once the main quest is complete we’re free to hunt dragons until the end of time? I’m hoping dragons have the same emotional impact as fighting a Big Daddy does. I felt awful after killing those big lovely fellas.
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Or killing a colossus in Shadow of the Colossus.
…actually that is a game I would love to have infinite dragons on, or infinite colossi for that matter.
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As long as they do not turn out to be like Deathclaws in fallout 3 i’m okay with infinite dragons.
Those Stupid deathclaws were always spawning when i fast travel to settlements and then they went all beserk on my Questgivers >.<.
Please Bethasda it's okay to have random spawning dragons, but either not let them spawn near my precious NPCs or make sure NPCs are strong enough to actually protect themself against spawning critters like deathclaws and dragons.
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AHAHAHAHA Bethesda laughs at your request!
More Deathclaws to JimK’s house!!!!
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This thread has made me really wish for a “like” button, or something worded in a less sterile manner.
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I really don’t want to be that guy, but I’ll fill in for him until he gets here. In the lore, aren’t dragons meant to be rare?
Great, now I’m waiting for someone to make a joke about how you cook them…
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In soviet russia, you cook dragons!
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woooaw unlimited? really? i mean 100 would have been great but unlimited is just to much.
seriously though what else is there except dragons?
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I hope it won’t be dragon’s who ignore everything else and attack only the player from everywhere. That would make for some horrible immersion breaking gameplay.
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Marketing is a funny thing: they say “unlimited,” and I just hear “respawning.”
Like, you’re never going to end up in the Dragon Dimension, which is nothing but dragons as far as the eye can see. You’re not going to find the world perched upon the back of a dragon, which in turn stands on the back of another, larger dragon, and then when you jump off the edge it turns out it’s dragons all the way down.
Nope. What’ll happens is that you’ll go somewhere and kill a dragon, and the next time you pass through the dragon’ll be back! Sort of like how ever Mega Man game has “unlimited enemies” for you if you backtrack.
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Sounds very much like Oblivion gates in being tied to the main quest – infinite random spawn until you complete the main quest, then probably no more dragons.
Not sure what I think of this, other gameplay elements are of greater importance to me though.
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Witcher 2 had one dragon. One. It was enough.
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I shall name this phenomenon “Dawn of the Infinigons”.
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For guys who are supposed to be Ubar Game Designers, they sure know how to lay some eggs.
‘Hey, the most important foe in our game. We’ll make them unscripted and continuous, that will really make them special, just like those demon castles in the Big O!’
There’s a reason that I have not bought a Bethesda game since Oblivion. And even if I fall to the dark side, I will not do it opening day, only at the very low discount price, much later on.
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Unlimited Drakkens? As in the mid 90′s smash (not so) RPG hit Drakken order of the flame?
They should just have added unlimited horse armor.
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I ride dragons now. Dragons are cool.
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I am the bone of my wings
Scales are my body and fire is my breath
I have created over a thousand dragons
Unknown to Soultrap, Nor known to Blight
Have withstood fatigue to create many dragons
Yet, those claws will never hold anything
So as I fly, UNLIMITED DRAGON WORKS
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Goes very well with your username ;)
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From the interview: “Can you finally sleep in someone’s bed when they are dead?”
I would like to know this. And in the game.
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I believe they have said that dragon encounters will be like the ‘random encounters’ with NPCs in Fallout 3 (scripted events that can occur anywhere), not dragons that spawn at a particular place. Also, that the game will track how long it’s been since you last had ran into one to make sure there’s a nice even flow of them. I’m a TES fanboi, what can I say?
I’m off to reinstall BG2.
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Why the hell is Baldur’s Gate 2 gameplay footage “restricted from my market”?
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@ Stochastic
I believe you need to play more pokemons, as it’s “Direct X 11 Is ineffective!”
Although, must admit, still got a lol out of me :>
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