Ok, so far I have killed 2 Dragons. The first 1 was the one at Whiterun and part of the main quest. The second time was out in the middle of no-where.
A few times since then I have heard the big roar and seen a Dragon in the skies on a couple of occasions, but they dont seem to want to attack. They circle round a few time, I attempt to hit them with arrows, then they fly off.
Is there something I am doing wrong to attract them as I could do with a few more dragon souls, or whaver they are.
Cheers
V.

When was the last time you bathed?

No, JK on that...

There seems to be two types of dragon encounters in the game.

"Random" ones where the dragon spawns and attacks anything near it, and ones associated with a location (like an outdoor word wall.) (Not including named ones you encounter at specific points.)

What is likely happening is that you are seeing the ones associated with a location as they fly around. There is probably a word wall nearby that they are circling. They won't attack you unless you approach the wall.

For example, I see one quite frequently around Winterhold that simply will not land or attack. It circles 5 or 6 times and then flies off, probably back to the word wall it is associated with.

I hope that's clear enough. Someone familiar with the actual mechanics may be able to explain it better.

It is frustrating I know. You can try shouting (dragon shout) at them. Sometimes that gets their attention.

ketchup. dragons love ketchup.

Yeah tried a Dagon shout, tried alot of things to attract its attention, but nothing.

I didnt realise there were 2 types of Dragon. If that is the case, they must be the random ones. If they are associated with a word wall, then surely that must be a good way of finding word walls.

When they're outdoors, they're represented by the little dragon skull icon on the map. I don't know how far away the dragons associated with them will travel, but I'm fairly confident that is the reason they won't attack you. The truly random dragons have no qualms about swooping right in at you, even if you weren't trying to attract them.

Sometimes it's Alduin flying about. You can't attack him and eventually he will just fly off to another part of the map.

I came in here to make this exact joke since I have nothing useful to say on the subject seeing as how I don't really know the game mechanics and everything else was already covered. But you beat me to it, by a longshot. Kudos, sir.

Either way, I hope the problem is resolved and dragons start attacking you. Weird thing to wish for, if you really think about it

Yes, I suppose it is. lol. Attack me dam you, I want your soul.

I saw this happen on Lex Plays Skyrim, he spent a good 10 minutes trying everything to hit it with no luck before giving up. People told him it was a "decorative" dragon, which seems a little odd to me. The word wall one makes more sense.

Isn't there technically 3 types of dragon? The ones you see being ressurected by Alduin if you stumble across their burial mounds?

I have seen a dragon flying near Whiterun going from West to East. It might roar. It never attacks and might have been Alduin as it did not circle a particular area and there were no mountains near. I seem to get in a lot of dragon fights after fast traveling. Try that a few times. Go somewhere that has lots of archers. Most towns and cities should have plenty of help. You should get lucky.

That could be the one that lands at Shearpoint northeast of the city. Guards even mention him.

Will do thank you.

One time, just outside Whiterun, a dragon attacked me. It circled overhead a couple of times, used fire breath in my general direction, all of that... I was a low level mage and didn't have any spells that would hit it from a decent range, so I shouted at it. My Fus (I think this is all I had at the time) hit it, and it flew away.

I also once had a Frost Dragon fly up just as I was finishing off an Ancient Dragon. He had time to attack once before I started absorbing the soul of the one I had just killed, then he turned tail and flew off back where he came from. I don't know if that was an AI glitch or what, but I had to laugh.

My point? Sometimes dragons are chickens.

Yes, yes they are.

Or maybe Dragons taste like chicken? Hmmm... either way, once you advance more in the main quest you will get a neat little shout that may force a dragon to, well let's just say, not just run off...

They still need a place to land though. I've hit them with it before only to have them circle until it wears off because there isn't a place to land.

They could be afraid of the only being in existence that can absorb their soul. Just sayin'...

edit: I get frustrated by this too.

Nah, the lore says they're naturally aggressive and dominating. They badly want to beat you. If you leave Parthurnaax alive, he goes off to teach other dragons to use the way of the voice peacefully.

LOL yup, that could very well be the real reason! I also found that it's easier to get a dragon to land, if there are more people around, like a bandit fort for example. The dragon is more likely to engage in combat then. If I'm all alone and see one circle around, I just shrug and be on my way. There are other dragons to fight LOL Trust me, I have 11 un-used dragon souls on me right now and I've found most of the shouts.


Well, yes, you don't just randomly hit them with it. You select your battlefield, like a good General!

That's easier said then done when they're already attacking. Particularly if you're in a town or very near one. For example, I seem to run into them all the time right outside of Windhelm along that bridge into town. The dragon will only land on the banks of the river and it's very difficult to get to them before it wears off and they start to fly again.

When I first started the game I loved fighting Dragons, now I just dont care and they become more of an annoyance than anything else. Even when I go make a new char I still find them annoying to fight now, they always come when I fast travel to a town. Thats how I collected most of my Dragon Souls, but I found I have to be careful when fighting one in Town and make sure the Dragon didnt kill any named person that sounds important.

Clearly you aren't worth their time. Milk drinker.

It could be one of the dragons associated with a word wall, but it's not quite true that they won't attack unless you get fairly close to the wall. I was particularly trying to get to the word wall near the Shrine of Azura, and not doing very well at getting there because I was on the wrong side of the mountain. I ended up actually just making it to the shrine instead, and that's when the dragon attacked. I was lucky he didn't kill the priestess. Anyway, after killing him, it was still a bit of a trek to actually get to his word wall.

As far as the dragons attacking or not attacking, it seems to me that this happened to me a lot when I was lower level, and after having reached somewhere around 10-15, they ALWAYS swooped down for the attack. This might also just be that they always do the exact opposite of what you want. Nowadays I don't really need more souls, gold, or parts, and try to avoid them if I am busy with something else, and they pretty much always want a fight. The more I try to avoid them, the more they want to pursue me.

Excellent, thank you all for your comments.