Im a Vampire for long time and Im pretty sure that Vampires attack are associated with Volkihar.....
Randomly a group of 4 Dawnguard attack me while im travelling, never in city.
Vampires of course attack me but that ones in caves and forts.....

well for my game at least my vampire experienced many vampire attacks in towns in multiple playthroughs.

Maybe they attack you while you are in a "open" city, do they enter in solitude, windhelm or whiterun?
Those are my 3 preferred cities.

I'm almost always only in whiterun.

If it doesn't happen to everyone perhaps it was another bug in my game that I wasn't even aware of was a bug

Those stupid 'mysterious travelers' would get me every time. I'd waddle up to 'em thinking maybe we can indulge in some intellectual conversation but when I get close they drop their hood, start screaming and summon gargoyles while other vampires are popping out of no where. While I'm sticking my sword through the chest of the screamer, the other vampires are dropping all the locals. Well, needless to say, those fangers won't be fooling me again. I've made it my mission to eradicate every nightwalker inhabiting the province of Skyrim.


And yes, I've seen the vampires attack within the inner city walls of Solitude. I have no idea how they managed to sneak by those "trusty" guards but the dumb fangers even had a couple death hounds with them.

My first thought is that Yes, you should have to tiptoe around. Its a DLC revolving around Vampires ffs. As another poster said, its a sense of urgency. If you're ho-humming down the street, lolly-gagging everywhere you go then you're going to have a hard time with this. These are Vampires. They're sneak sobs and vicious as hell.
My second thought is why not? You spend about half of your game time "going out of your way" for just about everything.

Cease visiting towns until the DLC is completed would be a last resort. I would think that as a player you (in general) would have learned to save and save often, and then save some more so that you can step back to in case something horrible like this happens. That you (in general) don't is really your fault. If you can't handle the fights as they come, spontanious though they might be, then that generally is your fault. So your first solution should be figuring out what you did wrong and how you might do it differently for a better result on the next reload.
Trial and error.
Try, try again.
If all else fails, avoid it until your high enough level to compete. In this sense, Dawnguard is no different.

It varies. Depending on your level and the random lot you pull when that encounter pops up, they could be a lot of push over punks or one really vicious bastard that takes every available guard and your full Magika/Stamina pool to down.

All of mine have been random like this, both in numbers and levels. I've had one Volkihar level Vampire and a few dogs, a gaggle of thralls and one low level Vampire, I even had a Master, a Blooded, and a Fledgling Vampire team up on Windhelm guards. Usually whatever comes does so in pairs, but they've invaded in up to five for me. And that's just on my Vampire Lord character. I've also had a bunch of Dawnguard attack me in the city! That was fun...and by fun I mean a complete disaster but it was of my own making so...
My Werewolf (Dawnguard side) has had two of those black robed vamps attack. They summon atronachs that are just vicious! These took a bit to take down, but so far all of my attacks have been rather manageable. I've even reloaded once because they killed Avanicci, only to have it not happen!...to my luck.

Its a viable solution if you can't hack it. A solution we have all employed at one point even throughout our Vanilla play-through. If something is too rough for you right now, best to avoid triggering the event until you can handle your liquor like a man!

They do. Oooohhhh boy, they certainly do
I can't tell you how many times I've been jumped on the road by a pack of blood thirsty Vamps out to make a name for themselves. When they fail miserably, and they always do, then they try to fight into the city to get at me. Who are they kidding? Pfft...rookies.


[Edit] I may need to clarify my words. It's 3am as i'm posting this and I'm a bit "sleep-drunk"...so go easy on me please

So if you side with vampires you get both vamp and Dawnguard attacks in cities/towns, but if you side with the Dawnguard you only get the vamp attacks?

yeah pretty much that's what happened to me lol

I only got the Dawnguard attacks in cities but its a lot better than the Vampire raids..since they only go after you and the towns folk stay out of it, I usually run outta the town and they follow me just in case.

I don't mind the vampire attacks, because it not only makes me more cautious when travelling into a town/city at night, but it makes it feel like Skyrim has a vampire problem (as everyone keeps stating). Unlike the civil war, where there's not even any fighting soldiers on the road.
However, I do wish the NPC's would be actually inside their houses at night sleeping (except for guards patrolling around). It never made sense to me when walking into a town at 2:30 AM and seeing kids running around playing tag, people just hanging around in the streets, and houses empty. It's due to this that several NPCs in my game have been killed by master vampires before I can rush over and do anything (not to mention NPC lack of fear - they just charge the damn things they're so 'terrified' of)

I never understand why people delve into the rpg fantasy world, then claim a solution to a problem is to reload a previous save, and play the scene again, untilyou get it right...Why not use cheat codes?!? Ill bet you guys have perfect games, no failed quests, never lose a companion, no npc's die, youve never died, and your stats are near godly! "I didnt do perfect, ima reload, and retry, until i like how it turns out"!

Sounds like fun................................

Right. The Vampires attack everything in sight, while the Dawnguard only come after you. Occasionally a guard might get caught in the crossfire, but by and large the civilian NPCs stay out of it....as LBxFinalDeath stated.

it happens in the wilderness too.

I got attacked while walking by the second DB hideout

A lot of people probably wouldn't mind that much if some shopkeepers died, as long as they always got replaced by someone else.

I've been debating getting Dawnguard, but this is one of the things that makes me hesitant (others being all the bugs I keep hearing about). It'd be quite irritating to lose important merchants that don't get replaced; "Hey I did some quests/dungeon dives in such-and-such area, now it's time to travel halfway across the map so that I can actually sell my loot." And even if all merchants were flagged as essential, it can make the game feel less "alive" if too many non-generic NPCs get wiped out.

Vampire atacks arent a big problem ... I CANT DO REGULAR ATACKS!!!!!!!

I use a mod that prevents these attacks from happening.

These so called "cities" are underpopulated as it is, without having to worry about the 10 or so citizens drawing their iron daggers and charging to their death.

I actually used one until it turned out not to work.

I could not care less about attacks, but I do care about results as shopkeepers are permanently dead and do not get replaced.

This is the mod i used http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21615

It adds an amulet that you wear which sets the timer for town spawning vampires to a ridiculous number, so you no longer have to worry about them. You're also still able to wear necklaces.

Dawnguard is broken anyway. See this topic for what I'm talking about:

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1409936-well-thanks-bethesda-for-screwing-up-yet-another-dlc-for-me/

If I accidentally kill a merchant during a vampire attack, or I'm unable to save a favorite merchant from a vamp attack while within the city I frequent, then I'll consider a reload.
For instance I was running around with Aela on a different character. We attacked a group of Thalmor and in the melee I hit her with a wild axe swing. She fell dead. Up to that point I had thought she was essencial! I had messed up the attack anyways and was going to die, so I went ahead and reloaded.

For the most part I try and let things take their course. It makes the game more interesting to me. If a merchant that I don't frequent or an NPC that's not needed dies then so be it ...but I also try and keep a kind of balance because I play a vampire and a bit of a villain. On occasion I enjoy running through a city I seldom visit, slaughtering everything in sight, and then carrying on with my game play with no reload. I can't do that if random vamps are stealing my kills

So yea...I have a lot of fun

My next order of business is to try and soul trap my named assassinations, then enchanting that soul into an item, and naming it after that person.
Muahahahahaha....