The Problem:
''why does Skyrim need a dragonborn when the dragon can be killed by a pack of bandits'' - Sinitar G

Great mods try to add spice to dragon combat, but it ultimately devolves into the same, boring slog-fest, with dragons constantly spamming one ability.

One mod caught my eye; the Elemental dragons mod. It added many abilities to dragons, but was ridden with flaws like the dragons only attacking the player, random CTDs, missing textures etc.

I began as a normal mod user, trying to "perfect" my game. In a year's time, i was able to completely clean out the mod whilst preserving its variety.

Then I saw the KS Dragon Overhaul 2 mod which implemented fantastic AI code, but had issues with hyperactive scripts. A similar story with Ultimate dragons and its brilliant animations, but unfinished abilities; Serio's inventive AI package quest system, but left the dragon brain's, a mashed potato between package down-times.

We all try to patch our games with mods we love, but the mods merely tolerate each other, and never truly act as one.

The Goal:

To Unite The Great Features of these mods - and remove the negatives.

But beyond that, I've always been fascinated by the lore of the Thu'um, and it seemed strange that dragons only spammed fire, frost or whatever breath that happened to deal the most damage.

So, after many long nights of research and trials, i figured out how the AI decides on which abilities to use. This allowed for the novel aspect of the mod; Dragons Use varied shouts, Consistently.

And the crowning jewel? I dug through the game's voice and sound files, and leveraged them in making new voiced lines for shouts that exist in Lore, some you may recognize from ESO (E.g., Gaar Toor Nah - Release Inferno Fury).

Finally, this brings us to the features!


The Features:

• Consistent Dragon Shout Variety: Dragons alternate regularly between their arsenal of shouts, using certain shouts, in certain situations to create combos or defend themselves. E.g., A dragon could use Ice-form, that shatter with Unrelenting force for more damage. Most of this was achieved with the base-game engine and minimal coding!
• Over 100 new lines of the Thu'um: This results in about 90 - 95% of dragon shouts, being voiced. This extends to unique dragons like our grand-master graybeard, Paarthurnax, Our Lord, Alduin, and Our bro, Odahviing. Efficient implementation using magic effect sounds to ensure consistent and snappy delivery.
• Dragons Use Stamina to maintain flight: At low stamina thresholds, they will attempt to land and recover. Their Magicka can also factor into the fight, but we will leave you to figure out how!
• Script fixes, optimization, and unification: Often, patches stop at resolving esp conflicts, leaving code in different mods that conflict in their goals. The past 1.5 years has been spent understanding the code across all the mods, uniting them, removing redundancy & bloat, and implementing best practices in coding.
• Many new Shout abilities: Paarthurnax, dedicated to the way of the voice will be able to support you in the fight against Alduin with e.g., Clear Skies, Elemental Fury, etc. Alduin, as you can imagine, has the most shouts in game. This logic applies to many dragons in game, resulting in unique abilities and exciting battles.
• Bug fixes and much more!
  

Some Previews (Please bear with me, as my recording setup is a mashed potato!; The first video's audio is really low but showcases many aspects of the mod. The second video has better audio)

First video (better showcase of features; not sound):


Second Video (better audio):


A Few Installation Guides:
Creatures Preview Dragon Animations By Distar


Diverse Dragons Collection Mod (mapped it's textures to some of Elemental Dragon meshes for visual variety):


GOT Dragons (I mapped them for my game but unfortunately, no permission yet from the author to release)
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Load Order:

Ensure the folders are in this order in your mod manager. (i recommend starting a new game)

•  Alduin V.3 - Elemental Dragons SE
• Dragon Animation Replacer OAR needed
• Elemental Dragons Special Edition
• Ultimate Dragons SE (Download from UD page)
• Ultimate Dragons Crash Stomp Fix (Download from UD page)
• uxKS Dragon Overhaul 2 (Special Edition)
• uxSerio's Enhanced Dragons Redone
• zxLeoneKingzz Dragon Project - UD Patch
• zzLeoneKingzz Dragon Project - KS2 Patch.
  

The Esps should look like this in your Load order. Esps in italics are esl-fied.

1) KS Dragon Overhaul 2.esp
2) Elemental_Dragons.esp
3) Serio's Enhanced Dragon Redone.esp
4) Alduin V1.esp
5) Ultimate Dragons.esp
6) LDP-UD Patch.esp
7) Dragons Shout with Voice - KS2 Patch
8) DragonCombatDialogue.esp
9) KS Dragon Overhaul 2 - UD Patch.esp
10) SEDR KS Dragons 2 Compatibility Patch.esp
11) KS2-Alduin V1 Patch.esp
12) SEDR Ultimate Dragons Compatibility Patch.esp


Credits and Special Thanks
This mod would not be possible without the incredible work by mod authors who inspired me into action. More importantly, their incredibly generous permission allowed me to add to the legacy of their work. You guys are the soul of the modding community and i thank you from the bottom of my heart <3

1) Kittytail - Beautiful Spell assets used in shouts.
2)EnaiSiaion - The backbone of our load orders - Shout assets from Thunderchild.
3)Keysmash2c - Beautiful shout assets from his Thoom mod.
4) L3st4t - The amazing Elemental Dragons SE mod with many new dragons and abilities
5)KuzakuSara - I still a-test that his mod introduces the most sophisticated Dragon AI, and I can't play Skyrim without it!
6)tktk1- Unmatched in-terms of new dragon animations
7)serio420 - From his amazing work implementing AI packages to give dragons varied shout. Clever code he devised (Learnt many things)
8)Satafinix - Our Senpai for Sounds - permission to include immersive dragon sounds
9)ShadauxCat - His code for individualized shout cooldowns (for the player) led to one of my eureka moments after found some amazing SKSE functions.
10) Distar from the modding guild - Blew my mind when i saw the new dragon animations. Hope he continues the good work!
11)ntn9713c & pauderek - For inspiration to create new voiced dragon shouts.
12) aliakpinar - Helped in researching good ways to implement shout dialogue.
13)Voeille - The fantastic Talkative dragons really add to the overall mod experience, making dragon feel truly alive.
14) Finally, credit to the niche forum and reddit posts i found, explaining complex and hidden things about the game. It was a game of chess, and managed to put the pieces together thanks to the hints from strange findings.