I bought Dawnguard and noticed too late that I did a very bad mistake.

First vampire attack killed 13 npcs (I even have screenshot, but this board does not allow me to link it here) from Whiterun. In full daylight while I was running from Dragonsreach to the Whiterun gate.

Now I have non-playable game because if I continue, it will not take long before only npcs marked as essential are alive. Meaning that entire game is pretty much empty. No shops, no blacksmiths, half of quest givers dead etc. I am not happy. I wasted 20 euros and got my game destroyed.

Yeah, util sunlight actually kills vampires they will remain atrocities to lore.

yep tbh these vampire attacks SHOULD only happen during the night,that way npcs should be indoors by then (most of them at least lol)

They only spawn in towns if you are in the vicinity of the town's entrance/gates.

Its not as bad as many people believe, its just most people make the same mistakes over and over and blame the game for it.

Safest bet, trade only with the DLC's vendors til you beat the DLC..the attack on cities by vampires stop, if you are on the Vampire side..in my game at least everyone once in a while I'll get attacked by the Dawnguard and they'll have a note called "writ of dawn" on them, its very rare though.

I've experienced countless vampire attacks, the vampires have not killed any NPC's aside from nameless guards, which even then is rare.

Im begining to think you either watched the fight and did nothing,

Take a sword, slay them.
If you can't, deal with the consequences.

aren't town guards supposed to take care of monsters and town people should run away.

I just bought Dawnguard yesterday and have only played a bit with a lower level character. Saw one vampire attack, but nobody died. I wonder if the problem is worse with higher level characters?

It would most likey be worst with high level character cause the vampires will level up with you and the towns folk don't.

Any idea if the vampire attacks begin as soon as you load up a save with the content installed? I have a level 40+ nord warrior that I hadn't intended to use for Dawnguard, so is the only way to avoid this just to delete the content if I go back to playing that save? Or does the Dawnguard story have to progress to a certain point before the attacks start?

Sorry I am on PS3 I know really nothing about DG. But from what I heard they will most likely start right after you install it with your 40+ character because they start around level 7 and that without start the DLC. That what I heared so don't take my word for it.

They attack regardless of level, but are rather easy to kill. You're doing something wrong if you have 13 npcs die instantly.

The vampire attacks start around level 7.

[censored], 13 people? I'd struggle to name 13 non-essential npc's that wander around Whiterun.

I've never lost anyone to vampire attacks (I have only had 4-5 attacks in all my dawnguard hours though) because I get stuck in and fight the vampires.

It seems to be only worse if you let the vampires get away with doing what they want, even at high levels the guards and NPC's can usually take care of a few vampires. And losing non essential NPC's hardly makes your game unplayable, the OP wants to whine about it that much he should have just reloaded a save and tried again. Probably the vampires attacked when he first entered Whiterun, and he just blithely wandered off to Dragonreach. If he has no previous saves (a foolish error that would be) he should just leave Whiterun as a ghost town to remind himself not to make the same mistake again.

And you will not always get attacks when starting Dawnguard, depends on what rate of random events your character has, and what level they are. If your character has done just about everything in Skyrim, and is already being chased all over the place by dragons and multiple spawning enemies after the mounted combat patch, expect to be attacked on just about the first town you enter. You will get a brief warning from a guard about vampire attacks, then you will most likely instantly get an attack.

You did hardly any of the questlines, did not let Alduin wake any dragons, and have been leading the quiet life doing your own thing in Skyrim, you will likely not have to worry about vampire attacks in towns. The game might give you random attacks in the wild though, just because you were not getting much action before. Even after being warned about vampire attacks, a low achiever type character should be able to miss out on attacks. My second character had to actually go join the Dawnguard to get attacks, she went around 20 levels with Dawnguard installled with no town attacks. Eventually signed up for trouble after level 50 just for a bit of a challenge. Naturally the game decided to give her a high rate of attacks, although only attacks in one walled town.

I lost one guard and what's-her-name the smithing chick in the first vamp attack on whiterun with my (then) level 71 character...and I only found out about it just afterwards when I was walking from the market place to breezehome when a courier gave me a condolence and inheritance letter...sure, the vamp attacks might svck, but the postal service is first rate!

Losing 13 npc's? I can't see how, to be quite honest...that's two guards outside the gate, one guard inside, what's her name, and nine others? I don't think I've ever seen that many people within cooee distance of the main gate. Sorry, but I'm calling bs on that one.

The vamp attacks only happen, and are really only a threat, if you don't do something about them...and that means getting into the DG storyline, and taking precautions in your towns and cities. Don't fast travel into the city itself, do a quick scout around when you do enter the gates. The guards tell you that the vamps are getting to be a problem, which should be warning enough that you need to do something.

Do you guys not save very often? Some vampires were creeping inside Solitude and started dropping the locals. They killed Viarmo and one of the ladies that work at Radiant Raimant. I will not allow such nonsense so I reloaded and took those night walkers out before they could summon their first gargoyle. Problem solved.

Why don't you think about what you've said here.

You made a MISTAKE in the way you're playing The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and for that MISTAKE of going into a town while having Dawnguard installed we're going to kill off some of your shop keepers and misc quest givers.

You shouldn't have to be tiptoeing around something as ridiculous as this to keep content in your game available for a character. A lot of people don't like this feature and it just isn't something you can ignore in game. You have to go out of your way to avoid NPC deaths at higher levels, whether it's constantly saving/loading or avoiding settlements entirely.

This is why i love the new spells that the dawnguard give me,does damage to ONLY undead and not the living meaning when dumb [censored] shopkeepers like to get in my way i can just twin cast those spells,doing damage to them AND stuning them

I don't have Dawnguard, mostly because I don't buy anything until it comes down in price (it's really not a slight against the DLC itself), but your post makes no sense. Adding new content to the game that immediately makes it essentially impossible to continue to play the game normally is never the player's fault. If this DLC really results in persistent lore-breaking and game-altering attacks despite the player doing nothing different, it is a flaw (bug, if you will) in the DLC itself. Telling someone that by adding new content they have to just stop visiting all the towns and shops that are part of the base game until after they have completed the new content is absolutely ludicrous.

The reaction you got from some people was...interesting. These attacks ARE indeed bugged for some people. Not over-exaggerated but bugged.

Edit: If you want some advice on some the attacks people say that you should limit how many times you fast travel. Also if you choose to block the sun expect to have a lot more vamp attacks to happen. That's all I know. I don't get that many vamp attacks and when I do its once in a blood blue moon.

I only ever reloaded two attacks to avoid the consequences, and one was not even a vampire attack. It would have been three reloads if I had realised one attack had occurred but it took ages for the courier to catch up to my character with the bad news, I could not be bothered going back that far just to save two NPC's in Riften I did not need. They were the only two NPC's lost permanently due to vampire attacks. Only my first character had any problems, the second one learned from his mistakes. One reload was a dragon attack on Riften, caused by the same silly mistake that lost the first two NPC's. Having lost two I was not going to lose any more and reloaded, first to try and beat the dragon with no fatalities, then I gave up and just went straight to Riften instead of going to the stables, which avoided the problem. The second reload was something I had no way of knowing would happen, the vampires spawned a long way up the road, I waited, nothing appeared I thought it was safe. Stuffed it up and lost an NPC while being stuck in a conversation. Reloaded a few times, ended up charging up the road and killed the sods before they got to the town. My first two characters were high level ones, not specialising in magic. They seemed to always have enough time to get rid of the problem before any NPC fatalities happened (although most of my NPC's were well armed and stocked with health potions), it was only not being ready for the attack that caused problems. The dragon was a hopeless situation, he was determined to kill NPC's.

I admit in the end my first character decided avoiding towns was the best idea, but he had already had 6 odd attacks by then, and the only walled town he missed getting an attack for was Solitude. He had no further reason to visit towns, he was just dropping off all that extra loot. Having finished most of the side quests he is currently waiting to test out if anything with fangs is planning on attacking him on his next town visit. My second character was still doing smaller quests while doing Dawngard, but being a better fighter had no problems knocking off her horde of fanged invaders. I never once needed to reload any of her town attacks, all she lost was one guard, who was quickly replaced.

So no you do not have to constantly reload just to get through Dawnguard. Some might, but most should be able to easily manage a bit of a fight. Does no harm to save just in case though.

I am level 53 in the game. Like I clearly told I run from Dragonsreach to the gate and killed the master vampite as soon as I could. At that point it and its thrall had killed at least 4 guards. In total I counted 13 corpses or ash piles after it was over. Running from other side of the town to the gate is too slow to prevent npc deaths.

Those master vampires are like terminators running in the cities. City guards are just minor hindrance to them while they keep killing everything. Yes, _I_ can kill them without bigger problems, but my problem is that I cannot be everywhere and NPCs are totally useless against them.

If Bethesda wants those goddamned attacks to happen, they should at the very least scale city guards with player level. Actually they should do that to every single city npc if you ask me.

Untick Dawnguard from the launcher (or set it to not load if you're on XBox, not sure how that works), continue with current character until you are ready to accept that this was a bad design decision from Bethesda.

Or just start a fresh new character for Dawnguard only.

Or if you're on PC, wait for a mod that addresses this issue if you insist on continuing your level 53 character.

Do you have a save game you can go back to, to try it again? Once you have one attack for that 'day' you will not get another in the same location so are free to wander around the town for that day. You could try loading an earlier save and fast travelling to Whiterun and wait and see if anything happens, if not then go in a door near the gate (like Breezehome) and try and tempt them out. Do not go up to Dragonsreach till they attack, or save up there before you come out and keep reloading till they fail to appear. They would have either spawned when you first entered Whiterun, or spawned when you came out the Dragonsreach door. You seem to have lost a lot of NPC's just for the short time it should have taken to get down to the merchant area. If you are Thane, you could leave Lydia near the gate properly equiped for a fight and then wander off, just remember to save in case she gets killed.