I have been wanting to get this dlc since it came out but with all the complaints about how these attacks ruin town I have yet to pick it up. Every time I come to the forums to see if it has been fixed or if there is any new info on it being patched its always the same, people complaining and no word from anyone at the company. Is it safe to assume at this point it will never be fixed?

No, never. Why? It's a feature, a way to tell you "Hey, vampires are killing people! Go stop them!" in fact, if you kill their boss, guess what? The attacks will stop! Fixed.

the attacks arent even a bug. Why would you take something out of a game that gives Dawnguard the atmosphere? It gives the atmosphere to the game, telling you to watch out and protect (if you want to protect) I suggest getting Dawnguard. Anyway, the attacks stop after you have finished the main quest.

Yeah great feature,
Half the quest givers in towns are dead by the time you are finished. So there are loads of dead end quests in your journal for no reason, pointless childish feature IMHO. They start coming around at level 7 and you get the quest at level 10. Also they don't stop till you are completely finished with the questline. I played it for about 5 minutes and realized how it it was going to be when all the town quest givers would be dead. Then I uninstalled it and started over. It is the most ridiculous DLC I have ever seen Bethesda make. I am not giving up half the side quests in the game just to play some lame vampire/werewolf story everyone whinned they wanted after Skyrim release.

i finished Dawnguard awhile ago, and no one is dead cept for the vampires.

They will take features away if they are too annoying to the fanbase. Stage 4 vampirism is an example whether or not you agree with its removal or not, it was in high demand apparently. The vampire attacks have bothered a good amount of people as quest givers and shop keepers have died when lvl 50+ vampires attack lvl 5 or so citizens. Some people have "ghost towns" and complain that the vampire attacks are more devastating than dragon attacks and complaining about the horrible AI of the NPC's. You know, vampire attack, guards defend, and good old shop keeper runs straight for them to punch them.

There is however, what seems to be a bug where vampires continue to attack cities after the questline is done. Happened to me before.

Remember just because YOU are not bugged, does not mean no one is.

People were whinning for something interesting to happen like oh say vampire or bandit raids on towns and cities. Hmm imagine that, Dawngaurd gave them what they asked for and now they don't like it. I was... annoyed when a patch reduced the number of dragon attacks on cities. I LOVED fighting multiple Achient Dragons with the help of the town guard! These days having to fight more then one dragon at a time is like getting lycanthropy.. only happens once or twice in a playthrough if you're lucky.

People who plays Dawnguard must protect citizens if they want them not to die. You can't simply download it with the intention to play Skyrim like if the DLC isn't installed, or walk at night completely not caring vampires wait for it to kick asses. It is your responsibility to keep a 3rd eye open in Dawnguard, despite in the vanilla version, otherwise you and everyone playing bad will keep complaining for the rest of your lives without seeing any patch coming. STILL, if you're a bit strategic, there are many ways to cheat the attacks.

Oh my god, lets at least TRY to clear this up...

- IF YOU THINK THAT VAMP ATTACKS ARE GUARANTEED TO LEAVE YOUR TOWNS BARREN: Its a bug, and doesn't seem to be an overly common one either. I get an vamp attack, what, once in a blue moon? And even then, so long as you aren't a stupidly low level, they are easy enough to repel. If anything goes pete tong then revert to the last autosave (only had to do this once myself).

- IF YOU THINK VAMP ATTACKS ARE NOT A PROBLEM AT ALL: Bear in mind they can bug out and cause the attacks to happen with freakish regularity. That would be hugely irritating IMO.

I see how these attacks can urk some people, but honestly I don't see the big issue. I'm 20 Hours into Dawnguard and I've had one vampire attack and two Travelers. The Guards usually have taken care of it by the time I arrive on scene. 0 NPC's have been killed.

well you can start dawnguard at level 1 so if you want to avoid vampire attacks in towns then just go and do the questline. It can be quite annoying but so far I'm lucky enough to have avoided any civilian deaths.

I personally think dragons attacking town is more annoying, guards can get to the vampires easier but dragons just come out of nowhere and kill shopkeepers, if anything I wouldn't mind dragons being unable to attack place such as Riverwood or Falkreath.

Speaking only for myself, I find it too valuable to remove. It tests your crisis management skills. There are also plenty of ways to manage the random (that can't be stressed enough) vamp attacks. For instance do not fast travel directly into cities/towns, and save before entering the main gate. I have also found that killing the Master/Fledgling/Blooded vamps first and then going after thralls/hounds is much better at keeping the NPC's alive. As always, YMMV.

I don't mind when vampires come trough the front gate and give me a chance to kill them before anyone gets hurts, but everytime they attack riften it seems like they spawn in the market place and before I have a chance to interveen the battle is over. And so far 3 shop keepers are dead I wouldn't mind it if Beth made it so after, say a week or so in skyrim some new shop keeper would move in. I don't know if I can join the TG now because the owner of the Pawned prawn is among the dead shop keeper.

The only 'patch' they'd need to do would be for the the people who continue to get attacks after the MQ for DG since that is the only thing that is unintentional.

Still no vamp attacks for me. -Sigh- I'm missing out on all the action .

This is why vamp attacks are pissing people off. There IS a bug that YOU ALL ARE NOT getting.

It's like playing skyrim and everyone got that water freeze bug but you didn't and you just say it's not there. Look all throughout the threads and it's people complaining that so many are dead.

Several things they could do, level scaled NPC's. MAKE THE FU***NG SHOP KEEPERS RUN INSIDE OR GIVE THEM A FREAKING WEAPON INSTEAD OF BEAR KNUCKLING THEIR WAY THROUGH VAMPIRE AND GARGOYLE HORDS THAT ARE 50 LEVELS OVER THEM!!!

Let the freaking guards deal with it cause it's annoying as hell when the guards swamp a vampire and you cant get in to attack, and the shop keeper is right in the middle of it.

A lot of it would be fixed with a more logical NPC AI, and that's what people have proposed. I mean if I'm not a fighter and my town is being attacked, I'd run home. Why do the lvl 5 shop keepers with no weapons run straight for the guys with swords in the first place?


Like half the non essential NPC's and non shop keepers run straight into their home. It's only the ones you happen to want to stay alive and need that stay out to die.

I finished the questline and still get them. Is that because I sided with the vampires.

nah has nothing to do with it

Besides they attack you, clearly they aren't on your side.

I finished DG with no crucial NPC deaths. Plenty of attacks, you just gotta have some strategy - it was a good challenge. I still get random vampire attacks but only out in the wilds. Biggest issue was being jumped by two gargoyles on my way to sarthall at level 4 or so.

I understand in wilds, but in cities should definitely stop.

It's a hit and miss kind of thing. If you're lvl 81 then the shop keepers will be hit once and die from overpowered vamps.

Some people seem to be bugged with the vampire attacks, which I can believe because I have my fair share of bugs... Not that in particular, but bugs like constant daytime attacks and entire towns attacking me for no reason. So I can believe it quite easily.

The attacks should cease when you've cleared out Dawnguard's main quest.

I had this issue only a few times when I first installed Dawnguard, I suspect its the same type of bug of when you fast travel directly to a town with Dead Thralls, sometimes they get lost along the way and you have to go outside the city and wait an hour for them to catch up.

It seems the only time I got a group of vampires inside a town was when I was fast travling to Whiterun or Winterhold. They kind of follow you in. But if you fast travel to the stables then walk in. I have only ever gotten the one in Whiterun. 1 vampire and his two dogs, that start the quest chain as Durak is right there waiting to talk to you.

So to fix this, just fast travel to the stables outside the town and walk into the town. Now I only get attacked by the wandering vampire groups in the wild.

My question is why do they start at level 10 regardless of whether you've started the quest or not?

Am I playing a fragile character/stealth character that won't get better until higher levels? No problem; I just don't do Dragon Rising, and I don't have to fight any Dragons until I want to!
Get to level 10 with DG on the Xbox? SUDDENLYVAMPIRES! In much the same way that Skyrim seems hellbent on *forcing* you towards the Mages Guild and Thieves guild (Main quest and several side quests are all guilty of this) DG doesn't give you any damn option, it FORCES you to do the now somewhat arduous questline (Soul Cairn AND Black Reach? Gimme a break...) if you don't want the constant hassle of vampire attacks ruining the use of Fast Travel, which is also a feature of the game, for all those people bleating about it being 'a feature'.

Skyrim is supposed to be about options and choice. And no, uninstalling Dawnguard is not 'an option', because then I can't play my main character, and I can't use all the non-annoying parts of the DLC which I paid for, thank you very much. If I don't start the DG questline by speaking to Isran, I shouldn't get Vampire attacks. It's that simple. Then everyone wins. Those of us who hate being mercilessly hassled by crap we didn't ask for get what we want, and those who think the random NPC slaughters 'add depth' get what they want. How is that so hard to understand?

A DLC that can potentially wreak the vanilla atmosphere of Skyrim with less NPCs in towns and cities along with dead quest givers/merchants isn't worth purchasing for me. Maybe if beth programmed weak NPCs to run away from vampires instead of punching vampires I would pick it up. Towns and cities dont re populate either in skyrim. Towns and cities are about for me getting quests, talking with npcs, selling/buying loot and relaxing. If I want a dungeon crawl I will go to caves or bandit strongholds. I dont want cities and towns to be dungeon crawls, especially if weak NPCs act in a unrealistic derpy way.

Would it really be hard for Bethesda to make these attacks optional? I don't like to resort to blatant cheating to be able to deal with them, especially when the vampires spawn on the other side of the town.