Postponing the Main Quest Options

[mALX]

I hate dragons and think they appear way too often. It really ruins my game.

I'll probably restart soon and play dragon free so I can actually enjoy myself.

So can I get a confirmation that the trigger for dragon spawns is actually getting and turning in the item and NOT killing the Whiterun dragon?

You can get the stone, just don't talk to the Court Mage afterward - you'll have to carry it with you in your inventory.

That also means best buy up all the spells you want from the Court Mage before going after the stone, it will be your last chance to talk to him and buy them if you aren't turning in the stone. (and he's got some great spells).

[SubRosa]

Don't turn in the dragon stone and you'll have a dragon free game. Leave it where you find it.

Yes. Basically just never pick it up. It weighs a ton, and there is no sense dragging it around with you if you are not going to complete the quest.

[mALX]

Don't turn in the dragon stone and you'll have a dragon free game. Leave it where you find it.

Yes. Basically just never pick it up. It weighs a ton, and there is no sense dragging it around with you if you are not going to complete the quest.

Good idea. It weighs like 25 pounds according to what your game journal says, but KC told me that weighted quest items were fixed with one of the patches. Better be safe than sorry and never pick it up though, SubRosa is right!

(DOH! Why didn't I think of that?)

[King Coin]

Good idea. It weighs like 25 pounds according to what your game journal says, but KC told me that weighted quest items were fixed with one of the patches. Better be safe than sorry and never pick it up though, SubRosa is right!

(DOH! Why didn't I think of that?)

Did I say that? They aren't, so don't grab it!

[Lady Saga]

I have had 3 Skyrim games with partial dragons in them. Those are the ones I did the Civil War with. The only dragons in those games were Alduin at the start, and the one at the Western Watchtower that you have to kill in order to do the civil war.

Dang...there's one during the Civil War? I mean, it would be okay if there was only that ONE dragon, but you're saying that random ones can start showing up after that one at Western Watchtower?

I hate dragons and think they appear way too often. It really ruins my game.

This is what I am afraid of; why I've never gone down the path of including dragons at all. In tabletop games like DnD, dragons can appear randomly, but it's usually a really small chance that this will happen. Like maybe 1 or 2 out of 100 chance to encounter a dragon. If they just show up all the time in Skyrim, not only would this get on my nerves, but encountering them would not be as special.



This post has been edited by Lady Saga: Feb 11 2013, 05:25 PM

[mALX]

This is what I am afraid of; why I've never gone down the path of including dragons at all. In tabletop games like DnD, dragons can appear randomly, but it's usually a really small chance that this will happen. Like maybe 1 or 2 out of 100 chance to encounter a dragon. If they just show up all the time in Skyrim, not only would this get on my nerves, but encountering them would not be as special.

QFT, and well said. Agreed.

[SubRosa]

Dang...there's one during the Civil War? I mean, it would be okay if there was only that ONE dragon, but you're saying that random ones can start showing up after that one at Western Watchtower?

To go past the 2nd or 3rd quest in the Civil War questline you have to deliver the Dragonstone to Farengar, and kill the dragon that appears at Whiterun's Western Watchtower immediately after. Once you deliver that stone and kill the dragon, dragons are unleashed upon the world. They appear at every dragon lair in Skyrim (about a dozen of them, places like Bownstrewn Crest, Mount Anhtor, Spearpoint, etc...) They also start appearing in random encounters which are timed to always happen every two or three days. So you will always be fighting dragons. Even after the main quest ends, the random dragons never stop, and unless you kill them, those in the lairs will never go away.

I hate dragons and think they appear way too often. It really ruins my game.

I like dragons, and think they appear way too often. I think that dragons ought to be a seriously high level boss. I don't mean the critter at the end of the dungeon with a lot of hit points. I mean they ought to be the leaders of guilds, manipulating kings and queens from behind the scenes with their machinations. As Renee feared, they cease to be something special. Skyrim turns them into cliffracers.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Aug 23 2015, 12:46 AM

[mALX]

I like dragons, and think they appear way too often. I think that dragons ought to be a seriously high level boss. I don't mean they critter at the end of the dungeon with a lot of hit points. I mean they ought to be the leaders of guilds, manipulating kings and queens from behind the scenes with their machinations. As Renee feared, they cease to be something special. Skyrim turns them into cliffracers.

That idea is huge! What a game and storyline that would make!

[Lady Saga]

Even after the main quest ends, the random dragons never stop, and unless you kill them, those in the lairs will never go away.

hamster cave god dammit. That hamster cave sucks. Guess I'm never doing Civil War then. EDIT: not until I have a PC, at least. I will CK that compassion away. Goodbye!



This post has been edited by Lady Saga: Feb 11 2013, 07:59 PM

[SubRosa]

hamster cave god dammit. That hamster cave sucks. Guess I'm never doing Civil War then. EDIT: not until I have a PC, at least. I will CK that compassion away. Goodbye!

It is not that hard to do thankfully. There is a mod out there that removes the random dragon encounters already. I took that and further modded it to remove all the dragons from their lairs. Presto, no dragons except for the ones spawned by quests.

[PhonAntiPhon]

Just to add my 10 pence, and admittedly I play on PC - (really Phon? Would never have guessed) - because I want my cake and I want to eat it too, my Skyrim has dragons anyway and the word walls don't work and the actual main quest itself is effectively disabled.
It's just Skyrim. With dragons occasionally and with fancy walls covered with script. And a lot of social unrest...

Equally though it's not all mod managed as neither Eilidh nor Niamh have any intention of mucking about with any of that anyway, they have their own agendas...

[ghastley]

Just saw that cdcooley released Not so Fast which slows the MQ progression - It's adjustable, and looks like you could put in some silly large numbers to stop it completely. I like some of the other things it does, like letting the player retrieve the horn of Jorgen Windcaller directly.

[Acadian]

Thanks, ghastley. I noticed that too and can certainly vouch for the talent of cdcooley. For those who don't know, he's responsible for most of the technical stuff in the standard-making Vilja mods.

I'm looking at Timing is Everything - primarily for its ability to adjust random dragon spawn frequency to whatever you like, while leaving normal respawning dragons (on dragon wall/lairs) alone. It also has the ability to pretty much shut down the MQ if you want by starting it ridiculously far out in the future. I think we've got a couple folks here who use Timing is Everything.

[hazmick]

I know i'm late to the topic, and this might be irrelevant now, but hey ho.

I'm pretty sure that while giving Farengar the stone does indeed introduce dragons, they are restricted to their lairs (and that lone dragon at the watchtower) until you deliver the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller to Delphine a little later in the MQ. That's what I do so I can still get dragon bones and do the Civil War questline but NPC's are safe from unexpected dragon attacks.

[Lopov]

I'm looking at Timing is Everything - primarily for its ability to adjust random dragon spawn frequency to whatever you like, while leaving normal respawning dragons (on dragon wall/lairs) alone. It also has the ability to pretty much shut down the MQ if you want by starting it ridiculously far out in the future. I think we've got a couple folks here who use Timing is Everything.

Timing is Everything has been an essential mod for me for a long time. Not only it allows you to customize dragon spawning and quest requirements, it also allows you to edit a chance of vampire / werewolf attacks, customize requirements for joining the Thieves Guild, a number of assaults to initiate a DB attack, it also has several options regarding Dawnguard and Dragonborn and so on and so forth - it really has a lot of features that add to better gameplay without too many forced quests.

[Acadian]

hazmick, I've played a couple of Buffy's playthoughs as 'Dragons Lite'. Do the MQ up to where Delphine gives you the horn and wants to talk to you, then tell her you don't have time for her. UESPwiki says as long as her quest 'A Blade in the Dark' is open and unfinished, dragon spawns are restricted to just their walls/lairs. This has worked perfectly for us. Those dragons stay on or close to their walls unless someone/something gets close. This routinely happens out in the 'hot springs flat' where the dragon on that wall things the mammoths and giants are too close and routinely goes after them.

Although I have not used or tested it, somewhere I picked up and noted a console command to disable random dragon spawns. As I said, I haven't tried it but here is the info I have:

set MQ106TurnOffRandomDragons to x (1=no dragons, 0=yes dragons)
I do know that the command: help dragons 3 will give you a readout consistent with the above command to tell you if random dragon attacks are on or off.

Lopov, thanks for the info and endorsement of Timing is Everything - I thought I recalled you saying you used it and that is what got me looking into it.

[Lopov]

UESPwiki says as long as her quest 'A Blade in the Dark' is open and unfinished, dragon spawns are restricted to just their walls/lairs. This has worked perfectly for us.

That's true but only when you start 'A Blade in the Dark', before this quest dragons spawn randomly, at least in my game they started appearing as soon as Mirmulnir was killed and I didn't officially finish Dragon Rising quest. I know that Lucius was attacked by a random dragon in wilderness a few days after killing Mirmulnir, and it wasn't a dragon from a word wall.

This post has been edited by Lopov: Feb 22 2015, 10:59 AM

[Acadian]

Lopov, thanks for sharing that confirmation. I wasn't sure on that point. Because I was afraid that might happen, we proceeded quickly from Whiterun through the point where we could start and walk away from Delphine's quest. Luckily, no random dragons for us during that short time.