Skyrim: is it time?

[The Tupper]

Hello all.

This is almost embarrassing to admit: inspired by the RPS review and other bits and pieces picked up from the Web, I made a decision early on in my exploration of Skyrim not to activate the Dragonborn quest line (beyond the first one that allows me to buy a house). I had heard that dragon battles ended up being somewhat over-implemented, spoiling an otherwise pleasant gallop through the countryside.

I'm now almost 200 hours into the game (I still haven't covered at least fifty per cent of the map though) but realise that it's now getting a bit ridiculous. That poor girl's been waiting for me by the western watchtower at Whiterun for weeks - she must be freezing her arse off. Every time I ride past, I pretend to be looking at something in the distance to hide my shame.

My question is this: am I worrying needlessly about the dragons? Are the battles fun? I quite like the idea of shouting people to death (and, ahem, in the game) so is it time for me go a-dragonslaying?

Hugs,

TT

[Vexing Vision]

Personally, I have waited 60 hours into the game to progress the main story-line - and I sincerely regret it, becaues most of the battles are far too easy by now.

A second play-through will have me activating that questline much, much earlier. The battles, especially as a weaker character, can be amazing fun.

[Drake Sigar]

The shouts aren't anything special. The battles are fun for a while, but once activated you're stuck with them forever. You can try and retire as a cabbage farmer, but dragons keep showing up to remind you of your epic destiny.

[DVD773]

I think the intensity and frequency of dragon encounters increases as you do the quest chain. So you can unlock the ability to shout, without having too many dragons flying about.

[Ian]

I dunno about the rest of the main quest, as 80 hours in I've barely touched it. But the dragon encounters have never bothered me. When you're weak they're quite exciting, and after that they're no more or less "annoying" than being hindered by a bunch of bandits.

[Ravelle]

I was more afraid of snowtrolls than Dragons.

[The Tupper]

When you're weak they're quite exciting, and after that they're no more or less "annoying" than being hindered by a bunch of bandits

Dunno if this is a stupid question, but is there an average time between them showing up? I mean, if I were to ride between Winterhold in the north and Whiterun could I expect to definitely encounter one? Or more?

[Malawi Frontier Guard]

The thing that is actually puzzling about this is how you need to ask the internet about it.

Are you always this hesitant? Do you also have trouble choosing between orange and lemon-lime?

[The Tupper]

The thing that is actually puzzling about this is how you need to ask the internet about it.

Are you always this hesitant? Do you also have trouble choosing between orange and lemon-lime?

Because once the quest line is started, the game changes permanently and irrevocably.

Tell me: do you make that same comment in every post or are you saving it just for me? It could be applied to anyone asking anything about any game and it would be equally fatuous.

[Skalpadda]

I quite enjoy the random dragons and they're not all that common. In an evening with a couple of hours of playtime I'll get maybe one or two. They're a nuisance at times but there's always the option to run away if you don't feel like fighting them and you can also end up in some pretty epic fights when they come suddenly swooping in when you're engaged with other enemies.

Normal dragons and the Blood variety are very easy when you're higher level, but the Ancient Dragons that start turning up when you get close to level 50 can be quite a challenge if you don't have amazing gear.

If you want to try out some dragon fights you could go find some at their roosts, marked by dragon heads on your map and compass. Since those dragons are usually guarding walls I assume they will be there whether you've started the main quest or not.

[Duckee]

The official recommendation is that you do the main quest at level 24-32 (cited in the official guide, apparently...).

I did it at lvl 50+ and it was very underwhelming.. and do not worry about dragons popping up, they are not too difficult, but they do cause some random havoc and fun for your npc friends. For instance a nice dragon landing in Solitude..

[Berzee]

Because once the quest line is started, the game changes permanently and irrevocably.

You could just remember your last non-Dragonborn save game and reload it if you don't like it. ^_^

Or you could do what I might do, which is to make a new character who is very traditionally Dovahkiin-like, and with him I will head straight for the main quest line and never look back until it is complete. But I might not do that after all; who can say? It's a big decision for such a small man.

In other news, my kitchen faucet just turned on all by itself. Sooo....I'm gonna go look into that.

[Vexing Vision]

My favourite dragon-moment - I was about to turn in a fed-ex quest. A dragon lands between me and the questgiver. I swear the sucker grinned at me, turned around and fried my questgiver, popping up the second ever "quest failed" title. It was ridiculously epic nevertheless.

[Giaddon]

At 200 hours, you should be able to answer this for yourself -- are you ready to fight some dragons, or not? In any given A to B journey, like say the Whiterun-Winterhold journey, in my experience you can expect to fight between zero and two dragons. And most dragon battles are quite easy to avoid (actually, the challenge can be getting them to engage you and some random mudcrab!) I've played the game for over a hundred hours, and I'd say I kill a dragon once every six hours or so (this is without hunting them, just random encounters).

[Ian]

Some of these comments are making me think I should revisit the main quest earlier than I'd planned. I'm level 41 and I've not even fetched the horn of Jurgen Windcaller yet. D:

My favourite dragon-moment - I was about to turn in a fed-ex quest. A dragon lands between me and the questgiver. I swear the sucker grinned at me, turned around and fried my questgiver, popping up the second ever "quest failed" title. It was ridiculously epic nevertheless.

"Our demands? That you play the main story and give us the respect we deserve. We will kill a crucial quest NPC once every hour until our demands are met."

[Drake Sigar]

my favourite dragon-moment - i was about to turn in a fed-ex quest. A dragon lands between me and the questgiver. I swear the sucker grinned at me, turned around and fried my questgiver, popping up the second ever "quest failed" title. It was ridiculously epic nevertheless.

FAWKU YUU DWAGON!!!

*Sigh* I'm so racist.

[Skalpadda]

I just did a quest where I was escorting two NPCs and had Lydia along with me. We came across a large Forsworn camp and alerted all of it, so it was the four of us with two summons against maybe 10 Forsworn and a Hagraven. Suddenly a dragon roars in and strafes across the battlefield, setting everything on fire. In a split second it turned into a three-way battle where everyone was scrambling to get a very angry fire-breathing dragon out of the sky while also trying to murder their original foes.

So yeah, they can be a nuisance but they also offer moments of sudden greatness.

[The Tupper]

Nice story, Skalpadda. And thanks to everyone else for the responses as well. I think it is indeed time: I'll head back to Whiterun this evening, I think, and see what happens.

[lasikbear]

I did some of the main quest immediately and I feel there have been no negatives to it (besides having far too many dragon bits sitting in my house waiting to be used for dragon bit armor). You periodically encounter dragons, but you don't even have to fight them. In my experience its sometimes hard to get them to pay attention to you at all, they seem happy to dragon about on their own and pay you no mind.

[Giaddon]

Not to mention that the faint call of a dragon in the distance is the perfect sound to put you in the mood for adventure.