I'm in agreement with the general consensus in that the Dragon was likely of a lower caste, therefore, much weaker. I've observed some of this illicit gameplay and I can say that Dragonborn was getting his [censored] pushed in on numerous occasions. So, if it helps, difficulty should be of no concern, especially in the early stages at least.

The race thing was killed off to make getting in to the game faster

To get playing

To skip all that cumbersome character building and thought

Race now is ALMOST only an aesthetics choice

I guess that is more realistic. I can get behind that.

As it should be, god forbid you like a look but dont choose it cause it's weak in a lot of areas

Well said.

I'll always sacrifice dramatic racial variation if it means I actually have incentive to play each race based on aesthetics and lore rather than on becoming a "power character" through manipulation of race-related stats.

Don't worry OP, the lore will remain quite intact, whilst the gameplay will be better than ever.

3 against 1 seems fair. If the player can take a Dragon alone, I'm sure three experienced fighters should do as well

Except for the couple races that had significant racial penalties, race already was an aesthetic choice in Oblivion. Minor differences in starting skill levels & attributes leveled out over time, eventually hitting the same exact 100/100/100 that every other character ended up with.

They just don't breed bandits in Cyrodil like they do in Skyrim, OP

On a serious note, it doesn't bother me so badly. I'd like it if the strengths of enemies was varied in such a way that this could happen. Some dragons should be weak, some bandits should be strong. I like to imagine bandits as being similar to myself in-game - fellow adventurers. If I can kill one, why not them?

When sensible, it's okay to sacrifice some lore for gameplay. What people usually complain about is when lore is changed for non-gameplay reasons. Eastern Cyrodiil was pretty much the opposite lore-wise of what we got in Oblivion, for example.

That said, racial abilities aren't really "lore". Redguards aren't that good at magic, mostly because their culture dislikes western magic. They're fine with their own sword-related magic, however. Speed is probably the same way. If a someone exercise, lore wise they'd run faster than someone who doesn't.

Yes, dragons are tough lore wise. But if you stab it, it will die.

dont even bother trying to argue on this forum mate.....

SInce it is a game and not a book, I'd say so.

Gameplay is the most important factor.

Dragons have to be leveled. They can randomly drop in on you out of nowhere, no matter where you are.

I did see a character getting their butts kicked by a dragon early game, and a giant came up and polished the dragon off right quick.....and then the character ran

Or in the words of Dutch in Predator: "If it bleeds, we can kill it."

I can't wait to see all the crazy events that can happen in the game between NPCs and dragons, let alone all the other enemies.

I've seen footage of the Mimulnir fight. He's only "easy" because the character takes no less than six helpers with him. I've seen bits and pieces of other fights and if you have any concerns about them being easy, then let me put it this way.

You are wrong. You are very, very, very, very wrong.

I'm fine with that. I've always hated the rampant racism in fantasy.

It's really not. Bonuses and racial differences are still present in Skyrim. Altmer still have more magic, Argonians can still breath underwater, Orcs have the berserk power, etc.

Just wanted to quote this so I could agree with it. Some races were just objectively better in past games, but for the most part there wasn't much to distinguish most of them apart from racial powers. Starting stats didn't matter as much as some people seem to remember them mattering, as far as race goes.

I agree with you unification for sake of easy start was wrong idea, I will mod racial abilities, Birthsigns and possible traits back as fast as possible when Creation Kit will available I cant justify such wrong changes as total unification and overall drop of challenge for sake of beginners gameplay.

Those seem like rather small details for me atleast

Gameplay is the main priority, but if they sacrificed too much of the lore it wouldn't be TES. A very large portion of Skyrims audience are going to be people who appreciate the world and lore but don't nit pick over every detail and want to play a good game first and foremost.

It's like when I went to see March of the Penguins in the cinema. I didn't know what it was I just knew it had penguins (I love penguins =]) so I was like yeah ok we'll go see that. It's basically a documentary film which I'm sure would've been very interesting if I was in the mood for watching a documentary but I went in wanting to watch an entertainment film. Same principle here, most people are first and foremost going to play Skyrim in the hope it's an entertaining and fun game to play.

If it was picture perfect to the lore but the core game mechanics suffered because of it then a very large portion of audience would call it a bad 'game' because the lore is only a small part to them which in turn could backfire on Bethesda as I imagine Skyrim cost a disgusting amount of money to make.

Another quick point would be games within a series which may not be that good but are fun for people who like the series the game is for. Warhammer 40K; Space Marine is a good example. Personally I quite enjoyed the game because of it's attention to the cannon and just being able to play a space marine from the table top game. Looking at it critically though it's a fairly bland third person shooter so to most people who do not like or know about 40K it will be just that: a bland shooter game based on some table top game.

This. Gameplay > anything for me. I read up on the lore obsessively, but lore is lore, and gameplay is gameplay. And if I have to trade one, it'll be lore.

Why is everyone surprised? If the dragon needs be killed by a lower level player in order to keep the story moving AND a group bandits need to be defeatable by lower level player (even while still posing a challenge) if you do the math, the group of bandits will also be able to kill the dragon.

You can only make dragons undefeatable at lower levels if they didn't show up so early in the story. From the moment they NEED to be killed by lower level players, they also become defeatable by lower level NPCs, especially when banded together. I suppose a giant would make short work of a dragon, judging from the press coverage.

Something also to keep in mind: Bandits probably have bows. NPCs stuck with melee weapons only might not be as fortunate.

By the way we should all be celebrating. If a group of lowly bandits is smart enough to keep moving instead of becoming easy dragon bait, it's a huge step forward for the AI, and we'll spend more time fighting bandits and humanoid enemies than the eventual dragon.