Welcome to Dwarven Mechanical Dragons: Guardians of Kagrenzel Edition!



Long before our time, the dwarves harnessed the power of the earth, and wielded
fire and hammers to reshape steel and bronze with a mechanical brilliance that
breathed life into these ancient constructs of metal and magic... amid the ceasless
droning of grinding gears and venting steam, they lie in wait to confound or
destroy would-be plunderers of the dwarven sanctums, as the grim watchmen of the
last vestiges of culture from a dead race.

- Herbane's Bestiary: Dwarven Automatons




Kagrenzel has always, in my opinion, been one of the most awe-inspiring Dwemer destinations in Skyrim. The memory of my first time entering the place is stamped into my mind -- not knowing what to expect, gasping with surprise as I fell for thousands upon thousands of feet through a glimmering tube of rock towards the unknown.

It is in the spirit of Kagrenzel, and Skyrim's Dwemer Lore, that I offer this special edition mod, built from Grohiik's amazing and original creation, the Dwarven Mechanical Dragons Mod. Those who've seen his Mecha Dragons before know how amazing they look, and how well-attuned they are to Skyrim's existing Dwemer Aesthetic.

Dwarven Mechanical Dragons: Guardians of Kagrenzel Edition is a major renovation of the original mod. The goal of this version is, above all, to make Dwarven Mechanical Dragons more lore-immersive, mysterious, and exciting. No longer will you witness a great number of Mecha Dragons aimlessly flying around the sky from miles away as you approach or pass by Dwarven ruins--instead, prepare to be ambushed as you approach their entrances! Hopefully this will help bring the Mechanical Dragons in line with Centurions and other rare Dwemer Animunculi in the sense that they will seem to be acting as powerful guardians who await their chance to attack potential intruders. In the process of making this mod I have also made numerous improvements to the dragons themselves, which should now scale much better with the player thanks to a greatly expanded leveled encounter list. Enough rambling though, on to the details.



=========================((( Features )))=========================


THE ENCOUNTERS

[*] The number of dragons has been decreased. You'll only find nine dragons
in total, and one is already dead.
[*] Only one dragon guards each ruin now, with the exception of Kagrenzel.
[*] Dragons now stay perched until approached.
[*] Entirely new placement. Dragons will no longer be found in locations that
don't make sense--like Dwarven Ruins that have an encampment of bandits or
other human NPCs living outside them. They will also now be found near some
of the "lesser" ruins without interiors.
[*] Each encounter area has been carefully prepared and tested for battle. More
than 40 unique dragon perch points have been added, meaning dragons will
now land on towers, arches, bridges, rocks, rubble, cliffs, and overhangs
as they try to kill you, making for some very exciting battles!


THE DRAGONS

[*] An extensive new leveled list for Mechanical Dragon encounters that is even
more comprehensive than vanilla dragon encounter lists. Seven different
leveled dragons with increasingly powerful shouts and bite attacks, and new
stats to go along with them.
[*] As a result, dragons will now scale much better with players, making battle
exciting at all levels. Dragons should scale well for characters at least up
to level 70.
[*] Fire resistance was scaled back for lower leveled dragon encounters, but will
now increase to full immunity at higher levels (dragons are already immune to
frost and poison, and resistant to magic, like all Dwemer Animunculi).
[*] Made dragons slightly more vulnerable to shock damage to balance their other
resistances.
[*] Removed a perk that Mecha Dragons shared with normal dragons, which previously
granted them the ability to resist 50% of all damage dealt to them by anyone
besides the Dragonborn.

THE LOCATIONS

[*] See the end of the ReadMe for a complete list of dragon locations.




========================((( Other Notes )))========================

Dragons WILL respawn during normal cell reset.

Fair Warning: Be prepared before heading to Kagrenzel (and have fun once you get there!)

If you would like, you can summon your own Dwarven Dragon by crafting a "Dragon Automaton Cube" from the Mecha Dynamo Core you will find on any that you kill. Head to your nearest smelter. (I have also updated this summon spell from the original mod to require two hands to cast--summoning a giant dragon with the effortless wave of one hand just looked... awkward :-D).




==================((( Compatibility, Etcetera )))===================

This mod should be compatible with just about anything--though if you are running any mod that modifies terrain or the exterior of any Dwemer Ruin sites, you may encounter visual peculiarities. Three or four small rocks have been added for the dragons to perch on.

The mod has been very carefully and thoroughly cleaned with TES5Edit, and uses no scripts. Guaranteed not to break anything!

Please do provide feedback! Especially about the difficulty level of the dragons and whether you encounter any peculiarities along the way. I will do my best to respond when possible. I had hoped to include an adjustible difficulty feature, but couldn't get it to work at the moment, perhaps in an update to come!

There will be a few clipping issues here and there with wings passing through rocks or walls, this is sort of unavoidable when placing gigantic creatures in the world, and it shouldn't be too noticeable. If you find any places where clipping is very bad though, let me know and I'll take care of it.

I would also encourage you all to share any photos or videos you have!

If you'd like to know the locations of all the dragons, take a look at the readme. It's always fun to be surprised, though.




================((( Installation/Uninstallation )))==================

This is a stand-alone mod. Please uninstall the original Dwarven Mechanical Dragons (if you have it) to ensure that this one functions correctly.

To install, unpack to your Skyrim/Data directory, or just use NMM. Or if uninstalling, do the reverse.

This mod should be safe to install or uninstall on a pre-existing save; though you may want to make sure you're not near any of the ruin exteriors.




============((( Credits, Permissions, Recommendations )))=============

A thousand thanks to Grohiik for creating the Dwarven Dragon model, and the original mod which inspired this one! Be sure to visit his mod page if you're not yet familiar with the dragons, and please seek out his permission if you'd like to include or alter these dragons in your own project.

These fantastic mods also include versions of the Dwarven Mechanical Dragons:
[url=http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/24587]Dwarven Mechanical Dragons--the original![/url]
[url=http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/24913]Immersive Creatures[/url]
[url=http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3829]Deadly Dragons[/url]
Grohiik's other Mods:
[url=http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/16659]Draman Skeleton[/url]
[url=http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/23911]Perfect Blood Hybrids[/url]
Enhance your Dwemer Experience:
[url=http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/34399]Animated Dwemer Lift Load Doors[/url]



Get out there already and enjoy the mod!!















=============((( Complete List of Dragon Locations )))================


Alftand
Avanchnzel
Deepfolk Crossing
Irkngthand
(this one starts dead--apparently the bandits killed it!)
Kagrenzel
(there are two of them here! It's where the mod gets its name, after all)
Mzulft
Reachwind Eyrie
Ruins of Rkund


Total: 8 Living, 1 Dead


Have suggestions for other lore-friendly locations? Please share in the discussion section!