On my first playthrough of skyrim I watched in awe as a dragon swooped down and carried a mammoth away dropping it to it's death... 11 years later and I have never seen a dragon swoop in to carry off another mammoth EVER!...
So I set out to fix that.
I increased the rate at which dragons swoop down and carry npc's away. It's a killmove so there are special conditions/circumstances and in messing with the swoop kills I had to mess with flying combat in general. I don't like lucy in the sky with dragons, I want my drago's on the ground so I had to find a sweet spot between more swoop killmoves and more flying in general. This is a good middle ground, causes them to ram you while flying (yes, they purposedly ram the player now, so I guess it's technically 2 new attacks I added) and swoop off npc's AND makes the dragons land at an almost vanilla rate.
I still haven't seen a mammoth get swooped, but I did watch a giant get swooped because of this mod just the other day, it was glorious!
Yes, Updating/fixing/patching all my mods, I'll mssge you and anyone else who wants me to, just post on this topic leave a comment telling me you want and update for esl and ill mssge you too when I get it done amigo.
In all my Skyrim time, I thought this was an attack unique to Alduin, who is scripted to use it in his attack on Helgen and in Sovngarde. The more you learn, hmm? Thank you!
Thank you for making this, it looks awesome! Will it work with https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/51310 Dragon War-A Dragon War Overhaul?
Swooping is a killmove. The chances of it happening to the player are very low, but the chances of it happening to an npc are now higher than before. Technically I think the dragon could use this swoop move on you the player but a few things have to happen first... You gotta have low HP, pretty easy condition EXCEPT you have to have low HP for long enough that the dragon can fly, lock on to you and you had better not have healed (or died) in the 20 seconds it took the dragon to get into place. Also it's a killmove so since I use mods like VIOLENS and I turn on player killmove immunity I personally HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS HAPPEN TO THE PLAYER ONLY SWOOP KILLS FOR NPC's... theorhetically I think the dragon could swoop kill the player BUT I HAVE NEVER SEEN IT MYSELF. Since the attack lines up an animation and takes a few seconds for it to play out movement might stop the swoop from happening to you. EXAMPLE: Npc's don't typically move as sporadically as the player, an npc's movement is more pre generated even with animation and attack mods the npc's behaviour is much more predictable for the game engine than say your movement is. Predictable behaviour might be a hidden requirement the game has for this killmove to initiate.
TLDR - I use mods that remove killmoves from happening to the player. I have never seen this swoop killmove happen to the player only to NPC's. I do think it is "possible" for a dragon to swoop kill your a$$ but do to some game mechanics I think it's about as rare as a worpeltinger. (aka doesn't happen) Basically, while it should be possible for the dragon to swoop a player, I didn't even think about that, I was focused on how often I get see the dragons swoop away npc's and as such made this mod to increase the amount of times i get to see dragons swoop down and carry off mammoths or other enemies.
They do ram you now however... and I run when I see them trying for this. The above methods mentioned by yourself might be effective at stopping the ram? Untested cannot confirm.
In my playtesting I noticed that if I was "higher" up like on a little rock or watchtower or even way up like in an imperial tower, anywhere that wasn't the ground level really that the dragons occasionally would fly straight at me, ramming me. The dragon would fly at me and forcibly hit me, causing me to sometimes just move over a foot and sometimes be carried off a ledge with like a 20 foot push if I suffered a direct hit.
I don't know about anyone else, but of all the creatures in skyrim I have a hard time keeping eyes on ice wraiths and the friggin massive dragons while in combat. Both those creatures I always find my character turning every direction trying to find where the F did it go? This is relevent because I had a few times that the dragon would hit me from behind or an angle I couldn't see it at so all of a sudden the dragon is literally up my bum pushing me 10-20 from where I was standing. These fly straight at you attacks or "bum rushing" makes dragon combat kinda funner for me. It doesn't do damage outright but can lead to you not standing where you want to or even falling from a height.
I'm not 100% that the bum rushing is caused solely by my mod, it might have beena combo of the dragon mods or an unexpected interaction between my mod and another dragon combat mod i was testing. either way with my mod enabled I did notice dragons dive bombing the player just not picking the player up with talons like they now do for npcs like you see in the screenshots. I suck at explaining what is in my head so I hope this makes sense.
I think it is a vanilla behaviour really. It is in even in the original skyrim trailer.
But it is a rare attack. Ive only seen it a handful of times.
Its sad because i think its one of the cooler attacks. If you can get a swing on the dragon while is diving toward you just like the trailer from 2011, it feels amazing.
18 comments
So I set out to fix that.
I increased the rate at which dragons swoop down and carry npc's away. It's a killmove so there are special conditions/circumstances and in messing with the swoop kills I had to mess with flying combat in general. I don't like lucy in the sky with dragons, I want my drago's on the ground so I had to find a sweet spot between more swoop killmoves and more flying in general. This is a good middle ground, causes them to ram you while flying (yes, they purposedly ram the player now, so I guess it's technically 2 new attacks I added) and swoop off npc's AND makes the dragons land at an almost vanilla rate.
I still haven't seen a mammoth get swooped, but I did watch a giant get swooped because of this mod just the other day, it was glorious!
the dragon got me with the dive attack
it was awesome
is it possible to get an esl-flagged version?
save the plugin
use ESLify to flag the plugin as ESPFE
Of the top of my head, heres the ways you could counter a dragon swooping in for you:
1. Become ethereal shout
2. Stagger the dragonwith dual cast destruction too.
3. Stagger the dragon with 3 word unrelenting force
4. Stagger the dragon with dragon rend shout.
Im wondering if there are any other ways to avoid being caught?
Does blocking work?
You gotta have low HP, pretty easy condition EXCEPT you have to have low HP for long enough that the dragon can fly, lock on to you and you had better not have healed (or died) in the 20 seconds it took the dragon to get into place.
Also it's a killmove so since I use mods like VIOLENS and I turn on player killmove immunity I personally HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS HAPPEN TO THE PLAYER ONLY SWOOP KILLS FOR NPC's... theorhetically I think the dragon could swoop kill the player BUT I HAVE NEVER SEEN IT MYSELF.
Since the attack lines up an animation and takes a few seconds for it to play out movement might stop the swoop from happening to you. EXAMPLE: Npc's don't typically move as sporadically as the player, an npc's movement is more pre generated even with animation and attack mods the npc's behaviour is much more predictable for the game engine than say your movement is. Predictable behaviour might be a hidden requirement the game has for this killmove to initiate.
TLDR - I use mods that remove killmoves from happening to the player. I have never seen this swoop killmove happen to the player only to NPC's. I do think it is "possible" for a dragon to swoop kill your a$$ but do to some game mechanics I think it's about as rare as a worpeltinger. (aka doesn't happen) Basically, while it should be possible for the dragon to swoop a player, I didn't even think about that, I was focused on how often I get see the dragons swoop away npc's and as such made this mod to increase the amount of times i get to see dragons swoop down and carry off mammoths or other enemies.
They do ram you now however... and I run when I see them trying for this. The above methods mentioned by yourself might be effective at stopping the ram? Untested cannot confirm.
Could you tell me more about the "ram" attack?
I havent seen it yet.I Spawned a few dragons with console commands but havent seen this attack yet.
They just fly at you you and strike while flying?
In my playtesting I noticed that if I was "higher" up like on a little rock or watchtower or even way up like in an imperial tower, anywhere that wasn't the ground level really that the dragons occasionally would fly straight at me, ramming me. The dragon would fly at me and forcibly hit me, causing me to sometimes just move over a foot and sometimes be carried off a ledge with like a 20 foot push if I suffered a direct hit.
I don't know about anyone else, but of all the creatures in skyrim I have a hard time keeping eyes on ice wraiths and the friggin massive dragons while in combat. Both those creatures I always find my character turning every direction trying to find where the F did it go? This is relevent because I had a few times that the dragon would hit me from behind or an angle I couldn't see it at so all of a sudden the dragon is literally up my bum pushing me 10-20 from where I was standing. These fly straight at you attacks or "bum rushing" makes dragon combat kinda funner for me. It doesn't do damage outright but can lead to you not standing where you want to or even falling from a height.
I'm not 100% that the bum rushing is caused solely by my mod, it might have beena combo of the dragon mods or an unexpected interaction between my mod and another dragon combat mod i was testing. either way with my mod enabled I did notice dragons dive bombing the player just not picking the player up with talons like they now do for npcs like you see in the screenshots. I suck at explaining what is in my head so I hope this makes sense.
I think it is a vanilla behaviour really. It is in even in the original skyrim trailer.
But it is a rare attack. Ive only seen it a handful of times.
Its sad because i think its one of the cooler attacks. If you can get a swing on the dragon while is diving toward you just like the trailer from 2011, it feels amazing.