I'm level 8.

I haven't even started the Dawnguard questline yet. The guards shouldn't start mentioning it until level 10.

However they are starting to mention it and on my last visit to Whiterun a Vampire Attack killed off the nice Blacksmith lady (first shop on your right as you enter Whiterun).

I appreciate that Vampire attacks must feature in the content of this new DLC but are the Vampire attacks supposed to be so robust?

Killing useful shopkeeps doesn't really help my game!!!

Is it supposed to be this way or do the developers need to fine tune the A.I. a bit?

Az

Idk the attacks need to be taken out of cities/villages entirely though.

Yep, they are punishing you for playing the game for any length of time. Makes sense to me for an open-world RPG. /sarcasm

yeah these attacks are really game breaking. there have been countless posts on this annoying issue and most of them have been locked

Everythime I travel to Whiterun, the half town gets slaughtered by 3 vampires...

you dont just start it at level 10 you can start it at anytime level means guards and or courier will tell you about it. If your in Solitude for example theres a DawnGuard person there who tells you about it or if you already know the location you can just walk there and go straight into it

i'm lvl 81 (nolife). i've only encounter 1 vampire attack in this past week. it was in riften. when i became the vampire lord. i've never seen any more of these kind of attacks.

I hate that these damn attacks I've been forced to start a new game because of them killing of to many people. I had almost 100 hours on that guy aswell smh.

It's happened to me a few times when fast travelling to Whiterun. I just reload the auto save before fast travelling. Eventually I managed to killer the vampire before he killed the blacksmith and I haven't had any issues in Whiterun since.

It's annoying for many players.

The question from a "Hardware and Software Support" perspective is:

"Should shopkeepers be killed - and if so are they being replaced - and if not can the Developers:

- Code the game so named Shopkeepers are not killed.
- Code the game so someone will take their place if they are killed.

I think the idea is just fine, but Bethesda should fix it in two directions:
- Make the vamps on cities more weak.
- Fix the AI for no-warrior npcs, like shopkeepers or any toher small soul that only knows oh to get an axe and cut wood.

That would be enough... and yup, losing a shopkeeper is too much of a loose, if somebody has to die i prefer the wood cutters or the vagabonds i don't mind to give them the chance to run thought

Good ideas, Azrael. One possibility of many. I would also suggest adding to the list:
Quest Givers
Quest Reward givers
Quest targets

To the point, an Add-On should never become a Take-Away.
I have no problem with the vamp attacks in theory. Nor do I want the game world populated with excessive essential npc's.
But I've found myself having to choose between playing Skyrim -or- Dawnguard. The two simply do not get along. To play Skyrim with Dawnguard installed jeopardizes actual gameplay. The list of broken quests has become out of control for one of my characters.

Example?
Certainly.

Shor's Stone:
1. I had never been to the hamlet nor anywhere near its game cell.
2. Walked over to pick up an item for a Riften resident. Simple enough.
3. Upon arrival, remnants of a slaughter that occurred long before I arrived.
4. Slumped dead on their stools by the fire:
- Filnjar (quest now broken)
- Sylgja (possible quest now unavailable, possible marriage now unavailable)
- Grogmar gro-Burzag (ore merchant now unavailable)
- Other bodies were 1 Vampire, 2 Death Hounds and 1 Riften Guard.
- Remaining citizenry are Odfel and a Guard.

This is just one of many settlement examples in my current Dawnguard game. The dead vamp, hounds and guard would have been sufficient to exemplify the battle presence in the Rift. But if an attack occurs before you even arrive, I can find no reason to limit gameplay by killing npc's essential for questing or bartering. Nor should these questing/bartering npc's be threatened when you are actually present for an attack. I'll fight the vamps. Or side with them as the case may be. That is not the issue. The potential for random deaths is not the issue either. They can target all the non-quest/barter npc's they want. I'll fight the vamps as best I can.

To be clear, I'm enjoying the Dawnguard gameplay. I like the quests and also the new items and areas. I feel I've gotten more than my $20 worth and thank the devs for the storyline and additions. Overall it has been fun, though I won't be purchasing it for my PC version. The additions are nice but these chaotic vamp attacks killing (what I consider) rather essential npc's have rendered the rest of the province nothing more than a hassle and journal log clutter-fest. Some basic quests cannot be finished or started, quest items are now stuck in one's inventory, and the economy is in shambles. This cannot have been the devs' intent. I'll mark it down as an oversight and await the fix. But as it stands I can play either Skyrim -or- Dawnguard, but not both.

To eliminate the availability of potential quests, break quests in progress, remove merchants from the game...
These should not be the desired effects for an Add-On. These mechanics, by their very nature, make Dawnguard a Skyrim Take-Away.

I want the Vampire attacks out of the game entirely.Non existent!Its just the safest way to keep our towns safe.If they become only random encounters in the wild I will be ok with that but for now I have no plans to buy this on pc when it arrives just for this reason alone.

yep, I lost my smithy as well.

I chime in on this as well. Not a fan of the vampire attacks in town, especially at low levels.

Was going outside of Whiterun to buy my 1st horse and fast travelled from Dragonreachs door to the stables. It was the first vampire attack for me so I was confused about what was going on but, needless to say, dude who sells the horses ended up dead. svcked so much I reloaded.

And I thought Dragons were a problem! Good thing I sided with the vampires!

Exactly the same thing happened to me, I was playing with my new level 9 character, and I was walking toward the city gates of Whiterun around 4 am and passed a guard and he told me about vampires getting out of control. I thought this was strange because I wasn't level 10, and at that moment that stupid vampire appeared and attacked the guards, thus I killed it. After doing some business in the city I went outside the city gates for another quest around 9 am (thus daylight time), and I heard some fighting down by the horse stall where I saw two of those death hounds. One npc was already dead. I don't get it I thought that these things would not occur before level 10, and the sun was shining bright. I just don't want to start a new character only to visit ghost towns when I'm level 50 or so. I truly hope they are going to solve this problem because it makes the game less fun to play.