I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but since the 1.3 patch I have noticed that while dragons are no longer flying backwards, they seem to be contantly running away. I don't know if they are just getting distracted by every other creature dotting the landscape or what, but it seems I have to chase them down now. I had a random dragon encounter in Dawnstar, and the music started an what not, he landed on some roof tops and I was shooting arrows at him.... then all of a sudden he took off and started to make what seemed to be a really long circle around the town.... then he just straightened out and flew off over the hills and the music began to diminish. So I gave chase over the tundra and got the music goign again... he began strafing some random NPC bandits and hovered once for me to get a couple of more arrows into him.... then started that long circle again... then straightend out and headed away again.... the music diminshed again... so I gave chase again. Long story short this continued until I finall downed him in the marshes outside of Morthal. Just seemed kind of crazy to me.... there were plenty of NPCs in Dawnstar along with me to keep his attention. This is not the only occurance of this either.... (so I can cite more examples if needed) and it seems since the patch the random dragon encounters are not as often so I relish the chance to get the Dragon Souls, as there are not as many opportunities. Has anyone else noticed this behavior?

I think sometimes they just get bored with toying with you. Or maybe they had to go make the poopies?

If they have not spotted you after a certain time then they leave the area, but have to admit I've had them flying overhead totally ignoring my character then I have to chase them up a mountain side.

Im sometimes happy for that lol. Im kinda getting sick and tired of being attacked by dragons when i am trying to do a quest. Im glad they are like eh i ate someone else today. Ill get him later.

Sorta want a modder to implement a consistency slider for how often dragons appear.

I actually like how they sometimes fly around and not attack.

Agreed. They're out to [censored] some [censored] up in general, not to hunt down the Dovakiihn. They wouldn't always be headed for your vicinity.

Okay so it is not that they just fly around and do not attack... I enjoy seeing a dragon in the distance flying around and stretching his wings too.... I think it adds a cool aspect to the game and allows you to make the decsion as to whether you want to hunt him down or not. BUT... when I enter their lair... why would they fly off over the mountains where I cannot follow (which happened at Autmnwatch Tower) or they begin attacking and I have hit them a few times... then they fly away. It is not my issue that I see one in the distance and he doesn't attack... my issue is that they attack and then decide to fly off and not attack.

Well, I only started playing yesterday, and the only dragon I have fought so far was the one at the western guard tower. I think it's scripted that way, but it flew around for half the battle, spending much of the time on the other side of the tower. I fired my bow at it when it was flying, but went toe-to-toe with it in melee when it landed.

Dragons in my game like to hunt chickens and rabbits... Such valiant creatures...

They seem to have dumbed-down the AI, and given dragons cataracts...

That happened at a dragon lair? Ouch. That would be annoying. I guess the dragon just has a sense of self-preservation, though. Kinda makes sense if you think about it; after all, they can fly away if you're too tough, and you can't follow.

I totally agree. Dragons should be tougher and more rare and not always attack the player.