This is the SE version of the mod. The LE version can be found here: Intuitive Dragon Ride Control

Watch this video to learn more on IDRC:

Summary

"Intuitive Dragon Ride Control" (IDRC) provides you with full control over any dragon ride! Watch the videos in the "Video" section to see how this looks like.

IDRC can be used with any bend-willed vanilla dragon, including Durnehviir and Odahviing, and with most dragon follower mods.

For an easy entry point to dragon riding, consider to use IDRC in combination with Ride Dragon Shouts (SE). It adds three new Shouts that will call Durnehviir, Odahviing, or a Levelled dragon, and directly make them land for riding.

Dragon Ride Controls

The following modes are available while riding a bend-willed dragon, or a dragon follower:

• "Flying Mode" - Fly in the direction commanded by the player
• "Hovering Mode" - Hover above a fixed position
• "Perch Mode" - the dragon perches on a building or rock. Only if a perch seat is nearby when commanding to perch
• "Land Mode" - the dragon is landed
  

You can control the dragon while mounted by using the following commands:

• [Forward] key (default: 'W') - When airborne this key accelerates the dragon (Hover -> Fly). When grounded, pressing the [Forward] key will command the dragon to walk forwards.
• [Strafe Left] / [Strafe Right] key (default: 'A' / 'D') - Turn the dragon as long as the key is pressed.
• [Back] key (default: 'S') - Slow down the dragon (Fly -> Hover -> Land). Keep key pressed to skip modes, eg to directly go from Flying to Land mode. When grounded, pressing [Back] will make the dragon take-off.
• [Up] key (default: 'U') - In Flying mode, as long as this key is pressed, the dragon flys upwards. When grounded, pressing [Up] will make the dragon take-off.
• [Down] key (default: 'H') - In Flying Mode, as long as this key is pressed, the dragon flys downwards.
• [Run] key (default: 'Shift') - 'Fast Mode': as long as this key is pressed, the dragon turns (via [Strafe Left] / [Strafe Right] movements) in a smaller radius, and changes altitude 2x faster (via [Up] / [Down] keys).
• [Toggle Always Run] key (default: 'CAPS lock') - toggles the fast turning mode on / off. No need to keep [Run] pressed while turning or changing altitude.
• [Sneak] key (default: 'Left CTRL') - Commands the dragon to attack.
• [Toggle Combat Mode] key (default: 'G') - toggles between manual and automatic combat mode.
  

You can unmount the dragon at any time by using the [Activate] key. This is the same as in the vanilla dragon riding of the Dragonborn DLC.

Octodirectional controls: You can vary the dragon's turn speed via:

• [Gamepad] holding the stick diagonally
• [Keyboard] pressing left/right and forward/backwards simultaneously
  

Directing the dragon diagonally forward triggers a slow turn, directing it left/right a normal turn, directing it diagonally backwards triggers a fast turn. Keep your controls pressed and vary direction to continuously adjust the turn speed.

Ground travel

When pressing the [Forward] key (default: 'W') while grounded, the dragon will walk forwards. Turn the dragon on the ground via [Strafe Left] / [Strafe Right] keys (default: 'A' / 'D'). The dragon will take off if you press either the [Back] key (default: 'S') or the [Up] key (default: 'U').

Perching

If a dragon perch is nearby, you can command your dragon to perch instead of land by pressing the [Back] key together with the Land command ([Run] key) while hovering.

Fast Mode

Fast mode is toggled via the [Run] and [Toggle Always Run] controls. As long as the dragon is in Fast Mode it turns (via [Strafe Left] / [Strafe Right] movements) in a smaller radius, and changes altitude faster (via [Up] / [Down] keys).

Fast travel while mounted

After you selected a fast travel target on the map, your dragon will fly with you to this target in real time (no load screen).

You can interrupt this trip at any time using the movement keys (as described above).

Combat while mounted

After mounting the dragon is in Manual combat mode (you can change this default in the MCM menu). You can toggle between Manual and Automatic combat mode at any time with the [Toggle Combat Mode] key (default 'G').

In Manual combat mode you have full control over the dragon during combat. It will not attack unless you command it to.

In Automatic mode the dragon will be automatically selecting and attacking its combat targets.

In both combat modes you can command a dragon attack via the [Sneak] key (default: 'Ctrl'). The dragon attack will be triggered upon release of the [Sneak] key. The dragon then will either breath immediately, or close up to the target first before breathing.

In case the dragon knows the Unrelenting Force Shout, you can command it to use that shout by keeping the [Run] key (default: 'Shift') pressed while commanding an attack (via [Sneak]).

In both combat modes you can also make full use of the Dragonborn DLC vanilla dragon combat commands to control the dragon's attacks. I.e. use [Jump] key (default: [Space]) to activate / deactivate the vanilla combat mode. While in vanilla combat mode:

• press '1' and '2' to cycle through the combat targets
• press [Sneak] key (default: [Ctrl]) to command an attack on the current target
  

In any mounted combat the player can assist the dragon in battle through certain (but not all) spells and shouts, and other forms of combat. This is the same as in the vanilla Dragonborn DLC. Note that this requires Dawnguard DLC to be loaded before Dragonborn DLC in your load order!

Silent Mode Options

You have several MCM options that influence the immersion you get while riding.

• "Dragon Roars" option - You can stop the dragon from roaring during flight.
• "Dragon Comments" option - You can de-activate the dragon's comments on the player's attack commands. 
• "Display Ride Mode" option - You can de-activate flying mode update messages.
  

Regenerate Dragon Health

If activated via MCM, the dragon will regenerate health during combat. Otherwise it will only regenerate health when not in combat (which is the vanilla Skyrim behavior).

Display Ride Mode

When 'Display Ride Mode' is activated (via MCM), a message is displayed each time the player triggers a command ("Commanding <..> Mode"). Once the new ride mode is reached, another message is displayed ("Entered <...> Mode"). These messages can be very helpful when first learning to control the dragon rides.

Display Dragon Health

While riding you can also display the dragon's health by pressing the [Ready Weapon] key (default: 'R'). Dragons will loose their ability to fly once their health is below 35% (vanilla behavior). So it is always a good idea to keep an eye on your dragon's health, and steer him away from danger in case he's at risk. The key binding can be changed in the Config Menu.

Dragon Speed

You can set the dragon's flying speed between 0.5 and 2.0 in the Config Menu. Default is 1.0.

Turning Speed

You can set the dragon's base turning speed between 0.5 (larger turn radius) and 2.0 (smaller turn radius) in the Config Menu. Default is 1.0.

Configuration Menu (MCM)

In the MCM Configuration Menu you can change several settings, and most control key bindings.

Controller Support

For native Controller (GamePad) support to work, you must have both powerofthree's Papyrus Extender and dTry's Key Utils installed.

Installation

Add the package to your game via a mod manager (recommended), or manually place the files from the package into the Data folder of your Skyrim installation.

Requirements

• SKSE64
• Skyrim Papyrus Tweaks NG. Make sure to activate the "Speed up native calls (Formerly "Run Scripts
  On Main Thread")" setting in the Papyrus Tweaks ini file.
• Required if you want to have native Controller support:
  • powerofthree's Papyrus Extender
  • dTry's Key Utils
    
  
  

Compatibility

• Mods which provide dragon ride control
  Other mods which provide the user with the option to control the dragon ride (eg Command Dragon - Ultimate Dragon Riding MOD, Real-Time Dragon Fast Travel) may interfere with this mod, and likely will cause issues. It's recommended to deactivate them while using the "Intuitive Dragon Ride Control" mod.

• Mods which modify dragon shouts (eg Deadly Dragons) may require a patch in order to be able to command dragon breath attacks.
  

Changelog v4.0.0

• Octodirectional controls. You can now vary the dragon's turn speed via the direction of the control stick (Gamepad) / by pressing multiple directional controls simultaneously (keyboard). See section "Dragon Ride Controls" for details.
• The controls are more responsive and no longer sensitive to "spamming". This is particularly improving the usability when using a Gamepad, but also should improve gameplay with the keyboard.
• Significantly improved overall stability. Should see much less unexpected behavior and other issues.
• Reworked dragon attacks.
• Fixed the issue that the dragon is uncontrollable in high mountain regions.
• No more issues at the Skyrim / Solstheim borders.
  

Updating from an older IDRC version - IMPORTANT - IDRC will not work correctly if you do not follow these steps!

• Remove older IDRC version from your load order
• Load your savegame. A message will say that the save relies on content that is no longer available. This is ok.
• Re-save your game without "Intuitive Dragon Ride Control" in the load order
• Add latest IDRC version to your load order
• Continue playing with the new save
  

My other mods

Please have a look at my other mods:

• GoT Dragon Companions
• Caistorshold Isle
• Philmorex
• Ride Dragon Shouts
  

Silah Ride Dialogue Add-On

An optional package ("SilahRideDialogue") is provided in the download section which adds a dialogue to Silah to ride her. It can be used without "Intuitive Dragon Ride Control", and provides vanilla dragon riding (ie orbiting only) in that case. When "Intuitive Dragon Ride Control" is in your load order as well, you will be able to use the ride controls for Silah!

Important notes:

• "SilahRideDialogue" needs to be after Silah in your load order.
• Ride controls for Silah will only work if you also have the "Intuitive Dragon Ride Control" mod in your load order.
• "SilahRideDialogue" is currently in beta stage. You will sometimes observe that Silah will not take off after you have mounted her via the dialogue. In that case, save your game while mounted, and then reload this save (no need to re-start Skyrim). Then Silah should take off automatically. (Alternatively you can dismount and remount her after you called her down again.)
  

 

Why this mod

This mod is an extract from the dragon follower mod Philmorex - A Rideable Steerable Dragon Follower (SE) (which in turn is a spin-off from Caistorshold Isle). I originally implemented Philmorex because I wanted a dragon follower with full ride control. The ride control got positive feedback, and it was suggested I provide it to all dragons. So, here it is :-)

Credits & References

I'd like to thank Darkfox127 for providing so many educative video tutorials on Skyrim modding. Without his videos it would have been much harder to ramp up on the CK, and papyrus scripting.

Thanks to Mrowr Purr for providing her videos and sources on SKSE Plugin development!

This mod would not exist without drawing heavily on the resources from Command Dragon - Ultimate Dragon Riding MOD (by rongphale).

Thanks to SpiderAkiraC for supporting the Silah integration.

Thanks to GiraPomba for providing the implementation of the gamepad support, and also for his beta testing of v2.0.0.

Thanks a lot to Tlam99 for providing a solution to the Faster HDT-SMP incompatibility.

Thanks a lot to ToeKnee for helping debug the VR support, and to Natakiro for additional VR testing.

Finally, thanks to LoeKnight, SpiderAkiraC, kcaz25, felinefine12,  eletrohero and blobkingg who have been helping with the beta testing of this mod.