I have been playing with this game for quite a few hours and..I H8 what Dawnguard did to the game. 1st and foremost, the DLC is full of "dirty edits" and is virtually Broken. Bethesda, I hope you are preparing a patch for that.. (there is an Unofficial patch in NMM, but it doesn't address ALL the problems)

Considering I bought TES-Skyrim as part of a Sale Pack from STEAM (including: Hunted-The Demon's Forge , Brink, Fallout New Vegas..etc. for $49.00 and got the Dawnguard DLC for $20.00 bucks, I felt cheated when the DLC was causing CTD's all the time, and random lag/FPS spikes/drops!

2ndly, when I first began playing the game, (B4 getting DawnGuard), the dragons came at you fast and furious, ( by lvl 18 I had 27 dragon kills, of which only maye 9 were hunted down via quest-line, or random 'roost finds'), ..after DawnGuard, I can't get enough souls to fill out my Shout list!!!

Finally, the whole "Vampire" thing has been DONE-TO-DEATH!!!!! There are no "thoughtfull, emotional, helpful Vampires" out there!! Vampires are Feral creatures, they EAT PEOPLE TO SURVIVE, PERIOD!! Please dig into your 'ideas hat' and pull out something new!!

All that said, I am still enjoying the game, mostly, and really having fun with the Creation Kit!!

I have personally designed 3 player homes for myself, (too self-conscious to upload them), which makes me happy you are giving that oportunity to all players via Hearthfire. =D

Thanks for your attention, Squashy

Dawnguard really isn't full of dirty edits, no more so than any other official DLC in the past, and is definitely not "virtually broken". Bethesda can't really patch DLCs easily either.

The DLC can't cause the issues described because it's just a DLC, it doesn't really alter anything much else, including dragons. That issue isn't related to Dawnguard.

Can't really comment on the whole vampire thing because that's personal opinion after all.

A good amount of people say that dawnguard reduces the dragon attacks, and that may have been done to keep from constant overwhelming attacks. This isn't the first I heard of it, and it would get really tedious.

Otherwise my main complaint, my playthrough was a bugfest.
Just like vanilla skyrim.

Hmmm.. I have to say CRAP to that! I started a new game for kicks today, (trying out a mod called "Alternate Start"), and I, having gotten to High Hrothgar and done 'Jurgen's Horn', have seen 2 dragons spawn...and I HAD TO CHASE THEM ALL OVER THE PLACE, JUST TO KILL THEM!!! No longer do they target you after a fast travel, (they spawn, sometimes), but they fly away if you attack/wound them!!! I am waiting to see if the 'Dragon Rend" shout is as useless as it was by the time I got to the Vamp castle, in my last game.. when I shouted at them using rend, they would just fly away, recuperate, then maybe, and I MEAN maybe, they would come back! This was DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE DAWNGUARD DLC!!
If DLC didn't alter all of the game, why are there Vampire attacks on the towns every night?? Right from the get-go? Also, the guards are incredibly persistent about joining the Dawnguard, so much so in fact, that I have murdered 10 guards already??

Anyway, I am tired and ranting, I'm nearly 60 and I should be in bed..lol Squashy

Dawnguard didn't change the frequency of random dragon encounters. They've always been extremely low for me in vanilla Skyrim. The longest I ever played a character was around level 30 and even in that one I only had between 5-10 random encounters, not including the first dragon and any roosts of course. I think it's just coincidence. Some people have high frequency of random dragon encounters, some have very low.

To be honest I think it has something to do with the way you play the game. I've noticed that certain random dragon encounters always happen in the same places. I've noticed this because I restart a lot. If you go back to Riverwood about a game-week after killing the first Whiterun dragon then you're almost guaranteed to get attacked by one in Riverwood. There's a very high chance of getting attacked by one on the road to Falkreath from Riverwood. About 1/4 of the way to Falkreath, just past the bandit camp where you find treasure map I. Several other places I've noticed I always seem to get a random dragon attack in each playthrough, which makes me think they're not entirely random but only partially random. If I'm right about that then the way you travel from place to place would have a huge effect on the number of dragon encounters.

I think you're right - I too have noticed there are sort of set places for 'random' dragon spawns. Like there'll tend to be one on the road to Markarth not far from Skyhaven temple. I've had fun luring it into a big three way fight with Delphine/Esbern vs forsworn vs dragon while I sit back and watch the annoying Delphine take a lot of knees.

I too find I'm able to predict where a lot of 'random' dragons are virtually guaranteed to show up. Then every so often the game goes crazy and several turn up in quick succession or all at once. I don't have Dawnguard so can't comment on any effect it has, but it should be easy for anyone who has noticed the pattern to establish if it still occurs.

Really? Since i don't get random dragon attacks, period, maybe this would make them happen in my game

Just like dragons, Dwemer elves, Nords, Thalmor and everything else. You think there is something "thoughtful, emotional and helpful," aboutbeing a guy/girl who belches shouts? Let us get real here. Vampires have been a part of the Elder Scrolls since the very first game, and they will ALWAYS be there. Sooner or later a DLC about them would be released. Sorry to poke and burst your bubble pal. But I see where you are coming from.

This makes me not want to download Dawnguard. I was pretty much only going to buy it for the extra monsters and higher level dragons...

Very sorry to hear you didn't like Dawnguard, OP.


Still... I did like it, so at least that's something, eh?

Well I enjoyed it immensely, especially towards the end and now I have Serana who's a really cool follower of course!

I played Dawnguard on a PC...I thought it wasn't so great...It was basically just Go here; find this; kill him; get that.

It would be nice to at least be able to play it I just Ctd all time ....

Except the just go here was like from riften to the exact opposite side of the map, almost every single time.

It had so many time sinks.

Prometheus_ts have you checked your system, you don't have a bad ram chip or something lurking? I can't believe your having so many problems with Dawnguard and CTD's, if anything my system feels more stable now with Dawnguard, can't actually remember the last time I had a CTD.

I didn't care for the main quest, but I liked Dawnguard for everything else. Dragon weapons, some nods to Snow Elves/lore, and generally furthering the dragonborn's mystical role (Moth Priests, Soul Cairn, etc). Only the College of Winterhold touched a little on that in the main game.

Vampires otoh are played out and boring to me.. and I dislike Serana. I like that she's an intelligent follower, but the character itself is annoying. I wanted to be a ruthless vampire killer, not reenact some lame scene from Twilight.

Why? I do not ctd without dwg or with mods.

Ok! You are right! I didn't get into the Elder Scrolls till Oblivion, and then , I was having trouble with just surviving...LoL
I didn't get very far because I was "turned on" to DDO by my *Mad Gamer Buddy*. So, I apologize for flaming the whole vampire thing! Now that I have more of the TES games in my inventory, I see the necessity for vamps, due to the game Lore.
BUT.. I still hate them!! LoL
As to the Dragon attacks, i have tried 3 new starts , with different play strategies, to lvl 25, with no differing results, since getting the DLC, i : a, don't get the "fast-travel" attacks i did the 1st time thru.. and b, have to chase the dang things all over the place, because they have gotten Dovakiin-shy!!! Also, they seem to be nearly IMMUNE to Dragon Rend!! I hit them with it and they fly off over some mountain and MAYBE .. they come back..usually, NOT!
This is not my imagination, this is tried and true fact, (in my experience, at least). i just wish there was a way to disable/remove the DLC without breaking the game, but, i have tried, and STEAM just puts it back in ;(

So, i thank you all for reading, commenting, and correcting me!! I will just have to live with it and HUNT HARDER for those pesky Chicken-S**t Dragons!! =D

I MUST LOVE THIS GAME, I JUST PAST 1000 HOURS OF PLAYTIME !!!!

PS: to Werewolf&Vampire; the last good vampire books i found were by a guy named Brian Lumley, called the Necroscope series...worth a check out at the local library!!! (after reading those, you will get my point ever so much better! =D )

I'd say get it. Those who dont like it are in the minority. I for one loved every second of it and still do.

Is that it? lol talk to me when you're over 2000.

Well I think in your load order before you start the game, where the mods would go, you can uncheck dawnguard. It'll stay on your PC and be installed, but not function in your skyrim. I heard others say they did it, I haven't however.

Just thought it might be helpfull for you but if your fine with not trying things that might fix it then be my guest hope you enjoy your CTD's in silence in the future.

Yup..tried that , (unchecking the dawnguard)..nope, just loaded anyway..Oh Well...Grin and bear it!! =D

Well, this is certainly interesting information. I'm now confident the number of attacks is dependent on how many have been killed in Skyrim game play.

I never spoke to Delphine until lvl 59, to which I literally ran through the MQ and finished it. Alduin never had a chance to open more mounds, because the game was over by the time he could get to them.

Now, I've dragons everywhere, literally. Coming back from Markarth to Whiterun, there were 7 dragons total, 3 attacks. One my way to Riverwood, another dragon. Riften to Windhelm has 4.

It seems the MQ didn't "clear out" the mound dragons. I'm guessing the game flagged them as "active", rather than "respawn". Needless to say, it's been very entertaining. I love running away from dragons and listening to their flapping wings above me.


DG is going to be very interesting to play with these things flying around all the time.

I pretty much put off the entire MQ after the first dragon attack on whiterun xD

And the dragon attacks will never stop I thought, right? Even after Alduin is gone, more dragons will come?