Random attacks from Dragons fine that's cool now random attacks from vampires? now we have random attacks on our homes that we have to defend? they're really svcking the fun out of the game making us have to defend everything. No thanks I'm not even going to bother with this download I don't care if it's 5 dollars I'm tired of random attacks like this

Really, random attacks make the game harder. Maybe you should turn down the difficulty if you cant handle the vampires. Or if they attack others then protect them. its really up to you.

Yeah, because THAT'S great logic. I, personally, don't find the vampire attacks hard.

The same cannot be said for the brain-dead and feckless idiot NPCs, who will wade in en mass against a Master Vampire with their FISTS. And how the hell am I meant to protect them when;
1) They are all clustered around the enemies making friendly fire very likely?
2) They spawn half the town away and about three people are dead by the time I get there?
3) There is no way of predicting the attacks?

So. Any more pointless, unhelpful comments to make?

How about finishing the Dawnguard main questline to stop the attacks, it only take a couple of hours.

agree with this


Normally my npc can hold there own till I get there so no deaths

Skyrim has always had random attacks, you cannot even walk down the road without being attacked by something. The DLC has the same balance of fighting as the main game, so yes it has random attacks, you want Dawnguard vampires on top of that you could do the Dawnguard questline while living out in the wilds. Personally I prefer my new homes to not have uninvited vampires, now if Braggen could have Lakeview manor dragon free as well I would be even happier. But why would the dragons give him a break at his new home when they attack him else where, especially at Falkreath. The smaller pests are just free goodies going door to door instead of having to go out and chase them

This.

If you have the unfortunate bugged vamp attacks, then yeah you might want to hold off getting HF, it seems to carry over into this DLC too....

I see a lot of silly suggestions like "Finish the Dawnguard first" or "Turn the difficulty down".

Forcing yourself to finish the dawnguard first just takes away the fun from adventuring, it sounds more like a chore.
Everytime you start the first you have to do is finish the Dawnguard first.

I'd just delete/disable it and then download it whenever you want to play it, you're not missing out on much.

+1

I uninstalled DG and I dont even bother with HF. Kinda upset about how DG turned out. Not that much about HF tho. I mean this was just a small DLC for inbetween. I hope they dont mess up the next ''big'' DLC as bad as DG.

No they don't - they just make it tedious.

I quite fancied getting Hearthfire when it's out on PC. But since I use houses as a place to stash all my stuff, why do I want extra houses where I'm going to be be plagued with pointless attacks every time I pop in to drop some stuff off when I can already dump my stuff in a selection of houses that aren't plagued by pointless attacks? So what's the point of buying it?
Similarly one of the several reasons I didn't buy Dawnguard was I don't want to pay for something where I have to apply a mod just to stop NPCs being pointlessly killed by suicidal vampires - that doesn't make the game difficult, it just makes it irritating.

NPC attacks in town, annoying. Most of the villagers can't hold their own and when a vendor dies, well then it's over. Attacks at my house, not so much. It doesn't take me much to take care of the problem.

I still don't understand the major complaints with DG. Yes, the vamp attacks could be annoying on occasion, especially when happening too far away from me, but this was rare and just required a reload or two. I found the whole story and adventure very worth it. And I kinda enjoyed entering a town and quickly scouting the place for a hooded stranger to kill (accidentally gacked that mage in Morthal once; teach him to dress like a vamp).

Now in HF I've not played a HUGE amount yet, but I've got the entry and main hall done. I still go adventuring, looking for materials (I prefer buying as little as possible from vendors), and every time I leave my home I arm myself and walk out, sword drawn, expecting something nasty to be waiting for me. I haven't encountered anything, yet, but I'm certainly ready to defend my property (get the shotgun, Aela).

agreed ai with no survival instinct or common sense is what makes random attacks annoying theyre no challenge for a player character but pitiful town npcs usually die in 1 or 2 hits from creatures only slightly below the player level at some point in the leveling the vampires in the attacks are so powerful npc deaths are unavoidable and you can only pray that the only npcs that die are guards.

I have finished Dawnguard and it was a chore to play through, I don't mind that I'm getting attacked that's part of roleplaying and exploring but when you have to defend the people from Vampire attacks and Dragon attacks, then defend your house from random attacks well that's just tedious micromanaging I don't want to worry about having to defend other stuff everywhere I go that's not fun that gets old rather quickly

I ignored the vampire attacks in DG, Worlds fairly empty now.

That DLC storyline started reasonably well. Then after the filling the ewer it took a nose dive of a cliff...

should have done your chores

They aren't hard. They are just annoying and a nuisance. I don't want random attack to occur everywhere I go.

What's the matter gonna cry? Go home to your mother milk drinker! lol

Once I hit the soul cairn, it took a dive for me. The whole ewer thing was a pain, I couldn't wait to finish the DLC and move on.

What's beth going to add next? Bandit raids?

I havent seen a single vampire attack on my house, and i havent beaten DG on this char either

The soul cairn was just boring. The ewer thing was padded to hell, the 10second "boss" fight was alright. But the trudging 50miles through 10,000 falmer was just tedious. And then in the end I had to wonder WTF the point was. I finished the final fight without ever using the item we got during the ewer quest. I could have finished DG about 10seconds after having made it to the castle...

Well,
with heartfire i started an new char, rping an male Ork.
Hes only living in the wilderness, never talked to the jarl of whiterun, so no dragons in this save.
He didn't visit dawnguard either, nor did he enter any other faction.
For the vampires, simply don't enter any town or village at nighttime.
He's lvl 45 now and there have been no peasant casulaties until now.

Family house:
Seaview manor, bought the land with lvl 5
Defenders:
Steward: Ork (combatant)
Wife: Ork (combatant)
both added with lvl 8, btw
Housecarl: Sayya
Kids: Alesan and Sofie
Dog: Meeko

Had some attacks at early lvl's, bandits, vampires, rats
First giant with lvl 16, next with lvl 32, the last with lvl 44 and im always fasttraveling home......
So thats realy not a big deal!

Braggen's first go at housebuilding only lead to stress at Lakeview Manor with a dragon attacking him on all but one occasion, lots of Dawnguard, a few bandits and occasional other things, no fatalities resulted, there was nothing major at the other two houses.

Aussie was the first to get werewolf vagr at Lakeview, and a few wolves, nothing much at the other two houses, she had a nice quiet life in the country.

Now Braggen's second attempt (he was not happy with the shoddy house furnishing) is rapidly going seriously wrong, the game is out to get him. I went back to a save a bit before hearthfire, did exactly the same things before starting to attempt land acquisition, unlike previously Braggen now has no trouble attracting legendary dragons, sometimes several. A few restarts due to the massive fatalities that caused and he finally got his Lakeview house built and it is almost furnished. The two chickens were lost yesterday to the first giant attack, decided today I would replay the last hour to save two chickens, I really like the chickens. Got back to where it was left yesterday with everything still alive. Lost the horse to a legendary dragon, well Shodowmere needed a stable anyway, although I am still not happy about that. I notice the cow and chickens run off a fair way during some of these attacks, they never did that before. Took a long time for them to return after the dragon. The third fatal attack got at least a chicken, no sign of the cow anywhere. I believe this game has finally outfoxed me, I am going to have to put some effort into getting more reinforcements. 2 werewolf vagr, a bandit chief, 2 bandits and three Dawnguard all attacking at the same time almost proved too much for Vilkas (steward), Llewellyn (bard), Lydia (follower), Braggen and a conjured Dremora Lord. There was no sign of Rayya the housecarl, she seemed to have decided to fall asleep on the job. Alas a chicken was killed and there is still no sign of the cow.

I do this again Braggen will be turning up with an army in tow. I will add Shadowmere, an immortal brat or two, Serana and Erandur (instead of Lydia) into the fray and see if we can manage to keep two chickens, a cow and a horse alive. Then I will get the brats to adopt Meeko again, he did well guarding those chickens the first time. I might even add Durnehviir flying around the house as well, he sometimes comes with his own army. Talk about a real-estate war, it's a battle for the chickens!

Edit
Replayed the big fight and still lost a chicken, its little body was found down by the pond with the mudcrabs and nirnroot. There was also a lot of bandit bodies along the road along with a couple of elk, seems the werewolves might have been having some fun before they got to the house. The game did start to stutter a bit, I think all the action happening around the house might be causing that.

Will go back before the dragon toasted the horse and see if Braggen can make an escape from the house of doom without getting anything killed. Just restarting the console for a fresh attempt.

Edit 2
Alas I cannot have Serana and Erandur as followers, that must only be if you have not finished the Dawnguard questline, went with Serana. And Braggen almost inflicted a legendary dragon on Riften when picking up Shadowmere from the stables, he did take off in the other direction very fast. Returned to Riften for some goat horns, got the usual random events and started his own personal vampire war on Riften (had to reload yet again before Serana killed them all). Now to send the wife and some brats off to the house of doom, Aventus has missed his chance.