I understand that gamesas is trying to make the vampire threat seem more palpable by introducing these vampire and death hound raids and they do succeed.. however in not a good way at all.
So far I haven't had a problem with vampires killing any NPCs other than guards.. which I don't mind at all. However I cannot say the same when I encounter three to four death hounds attacking and slaying merchants and misc. quest-givers inside cities and towns. I find it baffling that death hounds are a larger threat to the life of NPCs than dragons and a civil war. For example, after playing vanilla Skyrim for six months (hundreds of hours) I've only ever received one letter of inheritance from a NPC. In the past three days after downloading Dawnguard I have already recieved thirteen. Bethesda really needs to change the rate at which these attacks occur and the ferocity at which they occur or else every city and town is going to be severely lacking in population. In my current game, Riften, Whiterun, Windhelm and Morthal are ghost towns.
All the outdoor merchants in Windhelm, Whiterun and Riften are now deceased. I cannot purchase horses from Markarth or Windhelm because the horse-sellers are dead. I cannot purchase Vigilance because the guy who sells him is dead. The aforementioned cities feel like ghost towns thus ruining my immersion. I loved what Bethesda did to Skyrim to make the cities feel more alive and vibrant than in any previous TES entry.. but with this new mechanic they have depopulated and made cities duller. These attacks have made the game broken to me.
If they could only patch the game to make these attacks less lethal, less frequent, didn't target merchants or only enable these massacres once the sun was blotted out I would probably like it.. but as it is now I hate it. I believe it is necessary for the player to feel the presence of a vampire threat and yadda-yadda but they need to tone it down. It seems to me now that vampires are more of a danger to the people of Skyrim than dragons, civil war, daedra and even bandit raids... which is a little overdoing it.
Please Bethesda.. fix this.. I have several friends who share the same sentiment. These vampire raids are becoming to much of a pain in the ass then a joy to be had. They are killing the experience with me. Please tone them down just a little, I don't want an empty world by the time the next DLC is released.