I've tried to show mercy to many a bandit that has surrendered to me, but they always just get back and attack you again. Even if you have murdered their 10 buddies and they are the only one left, yeah sure they still stand a chance.

Yesterday I killed a dragon with the help of a patrol of Whiterun guards, immediately after absorbing it's soul and with 4 guards standing next to me in awe, a thief ran up and demanded I give him all my valuables. It went about as well for him as you'd imagine.

The day before that, a skoomer dealer tried to push some drugs on me. When I pointed out to him that this was illegal, he called me a snitch and tried to murder me. He was unarmed, unarmored, outnumbered and died in about 2 seconds.

It's like all the criminal types you encounter in the world are suicidal. I know they only exist to give you more things to kill but would it hurt if they at least pretended to value their own lives and occasionally make good judgement calls about who is and isn't appropriate to mug? Pro-tip - the dragonslayer in daedric armor carrying a flaming greatsword isn't appropriate to mug.

Haha. That's awesome.

Every now and then a bandit will run away from you but it's rare. It is rather ridiculous though. You can go into a camp, slay 5 guys without breaking a sweat, dragon shout another 5 off a cliff, and that last dude with the iron dagger and hide armor keeps coming somehow thinking "I've got you now!"

You never should have come here.

If Bethesda doesn't recognize this as a problem, modders will fix it. After an enemy yields, a script (or whatever) will force them to flee, then (if they're generic) despawn once the player is X number of cells away.

If you're on the console, I'd say you have a 50/50 chance of Bethesda fixing this.

Just use the racial power of the nord.

Especially when the only weapon that you have on hand is a Skooma jug.

I'm with you, mods will surely fix that. I always find it funny when I see a bandit in fur armor and a knife running towards my fully armored, warhammer wielding, Orc character.

Why do people think its a problem with script... They say they yield to trick you, hope you turn your back get some more health and try and strike again.

They are about as smart as the bandits we have in real life. The real ones just don't die by the sword as often.

How smart to do have to be to wake up in the morning and decide you are going to take your sword and go rob some random person?

sometimes thugs in real life arent too smart either. Theyre about as smart as henchmen in the movies

I have never tried to do this, but you are supposed to be able to stop combat and yield by sheathing your sword, has anyone tried that when the bandit is trying to yield?

Me, I kill them as they cower.

I have Draugr fleeing from me constantly. Bandits? No. They are apparently more braindead than a...dead brain?

hey OP, like my new sig?

I know! I just asked the dealer what he was selling, and the only dialogue options I'm giving are to tell him that's illegal, intimidate him into giving me his valuables, or say no and walk away. I was actually planning to buy some moonsugar from him anyway, since I'm an alchemist, but strangely there is no option to say "I don't care, give me some skooma!" So I picked the first option, assuming he would have some sarcastic remark for that since he was confident enough to openly push the drugs on me in the first place while being completely unarmed, and he seemed like a laid back kind of dude.

Instead he goes apepoop and tries to punch me to death. Sigh. Guess he must have been strung out on drugs himself or something. Worked out for me though since I just took the moonsugar from his corpse.

Forgive the double post, but for some reason it is impossible to edit my posts in either chrome or firefox and I'm not using internet explorer.


I've tried, they just get back up after a bit and attack you again.


Lol, yeah that's great. First time I've ever been quoted in someone's forum sig!

Because if they are clever then they won't have to resort to a life of crime.

Bet one is when they practically trip over their friends corpses and say muat have been my imagination" yes your imagination killed all of your friends and lodged arrows in their skulls.

AI svcks.

Hell one time my first shot didnt kill, the guy fter 5 minutes "must have been hearing things" he said with n arrow in his lung.

It's a good thing they are. If those Marauders got organised they could wipe out the Stormcloaks, empire, thalmor and Alduin without breaking a sweat :cold:

That's because the insanely powerful, epically geared, slayer of dragonslayers, bandit chief''s got their back

This is indeed a problem. In Oblivion it wasn't so obvious because once you were a daedric clad wielder of a flaming greatsword, so were all the bandits. Well, they fixed that issue, but now we are left with the turdsh*t AI in all its glory.

1. Improve bandit equipment as you level, but not as much as they did in Oblivion. At least give them steel/orcish/elven armor and some strong weapons.
2. Allow you to press "E" on a yielding enemy to force him to flee. I feel bad about killing surrendering npcs.
3. Obviously if they flee you lose out on some loot, so have the game make him drop his valuables prior to fleeing. Maybe the game could spawn a satchel that you could loot.

I actually did try that, but they still got up and tried to attack me 3 seconds later, so I killed them. I actually tried this 4 or 5 times just to be sure, but I've never seen one of them actually go out of battle. They just heal and attack again, and die.

The other thing is, most often, even if enemies *would* yield, My warhammer kills them far before they would have a chance to yield. They go from like 50% health to dead in one blow or finishing move most of the time.

Let's say that you're a bandit. You're waiting behind some bushes for some helpless, defenseless fool to pass by with nice rings and shoes. You have a knife in your pocket and a piece of "armor" you fashioned out of goat skin. Then you see an Orc in a full set of heavy orcish armor with a big dwemer two-handed warhammer in his hands. At which point do you go: "Ah! Perfect target!". Then you run up to the guy while he's staring at you thinking "Seriously?", you make two scratches in his shiny armor with your rusty knife before you're hit over the head with the hammer. You fall on your ass, you might have some broken bones and you almost pass out so you cover up and beg for the Orc not to kill you. Now, at which point do you go, "I can barely stand on my feet now, I think I'm about to die and he's obviously perfectly healthy so... let's try that again!"

Of course, what you're saying could make sense on some situations, like a close fight if he thinks you're also about to die and you turned your back on him, or if the attacker is defending something important enough that it's worth his life, or if others have jumped on you in the meantime and he thinks they still have a chance. Those would be exceptions depending on the context, it shouldn't be the rule.

Clearly, a lot of improvements could be done to the scripting of their behavior...

I guess you haven't read Fark lately. People are incredibly stupid. This is the most realistic portrayal of criminals you'll ever see.

not entirely true
research shows that in the US the states with the highest gun rates have the lowest violent crime rates
you don't go robbing random people when 9 out of 10 is armed

"Hey. My name is Bandit. I hang around the roads, kill people, and take their cash. It's all cool.

Hey look, it's Sheogorath, Prince of Madness, level 30, with fully enchanted Daedric Armour, Spells that turn him invisible and kill anyone in one hit. Plus a wide array of customized weapons.
Also, this guy has got the most powerful dagger in the world, defeated the entire Mythic Dawn cult, has a castle and a tower, a few hideouts and a Daedric Realm.

I, on the other hand, have some fur armour and a rusty iron dagger. And one HUGE ego.

I can take him easily."