Before i got Dawnguard for the pc, i kept hearing people mention about lots of vampire attacks at night so that got me excited because i would love my boring towns to get attacked after the letdown of having no dragon attacks inside a walled town ever for over 500 hours since november 11 2011. When i finally got dawnguard i had only two attacks one in whiterun and one in riften after beating the vampire questline twice and the dawnguard once. Anyone know why my towns aren't getting attacked as often as people say? did they patched the game or something?

It's bugged for a lot of people. Me? Unless I I don't get vampire attacks.

yeah people have bugs where they get many vampire attacks, and even in mid day. And in large cities it's hard to keep track of so you don't even know NPC's are dying, and the lvl 5 shop keepers just run in and try to punch them to death and die, so people just keep getting mad, and again it happens in the middle of the day and at night (probably an auriels bow glitch?)

My experience has been that most of the attacks have occurred before retrieving the bow. Also people that don't use fast travel say they don't have the attacks. I can't say for sure because with my DG character, I always fast travel and roughly 80% of the time that I fast travel into a city or town and it is night when I arrive there is an attack. I have only had daylight attacks happen 3-4 times and it was from the "Traveler" character, not the usual 2-4 Vampire strike team. It doesn't feel like the attacks are a glitch, but the AI definitely needs a tune-up to make it not such a crisis. Not a crisis because they are hard or its a challenge to manage them, I mean crisis as in quest-givers and shop-keepers WILL die, and sometimes its unpreventable.

Also they cease after you beat the DG main quest. If you powered through the expansion, you might not have gotten the opportunity to see one of these. I spent more than the quoted 20 hours playing DG, mixing in many quest lines from vanilla Skyrim at the same time, so I experienced many attacks along the way.

Also, also, I played from the Dawnguard side, not the Vampire side... I don't know if that effects the attacks.

I haven't seen too many full on city takedowns but I've experienced my fair share of vampire fights within the inner walls of a city. I've come across quit a few mysterious travelers though. Stupid guys start screaming, drop their hoods and start summoning Gargoyles and other vampires.

The only time an attack has come close to a possible issue is when I was lvl 8. A pair of vamps attacked Riften, and cleared out the market circle along with a few guards, and half of those that were inside the Bee and Barb. During the day. ...it was awesome to watch.

I would have left it like that since I never use Riften (aside from visiting the thieves guild from time to time), but for some reason I decided to step in and take a few swipes. Only succeeded in pissing one off, and then promptly joined the dead market circle. When I reloaded I figured I wasn't ready, so I just avoided going outside (waited 13 hours). I was all clear, they didn't spawn, no one died.

Other than that, my fights have been painless because I've been at higher levels. If the guards and NPCs don't take care of them, it only takes two or three swipes and they're down.

There is far more chance of a vamp attack if you fast travel into the city, rather than to the stables outside. It's also far more likely before you finish the DG questline.

You have to Fast Travel More. They don't happen often though

I've certainly gotten some vampires attacking in town... but they've always gotten immediately mobbed by a large number of people and immediately killed. No real need to worry about anyone's safety!

I have seen only once a master vampire attacking on Riften. Otherwise all vampires in cities has been "travelers" who won't fight until you go too close of them.

The vampire attacks have never happened even during the main quest and after. So never really experienced it. I did have a group of dawnguard start killing everyone in riften once but no vampire.

Oh snap, look what you guys did. I'm all in here talking about how little vampire trouble I've experienced then today I roll into Solitude and three vampires and a couple hell hounds are inside the city walls dropping the locals. They killed Viarmo damnit! He was my crazy haired drinking buddy at the Winking Skeever. Heh, thank you autosaves.

i got attacked in white run,markath and winterhold

A group of Dawnguard? I have never seen any of them outside the Dayspring Canyon. I thought the player character is only one operating outside of the fort.

Its a rare thing pretty much, only happens if you are in a town for a bit and they only spawn if you go near the gate.

People were just trying to find a reason to complain basically.

I've experienced a few attacks. Just recently I was in Whiterun and heading to the gate and there was a dead vampire just laying by the entrance. I didn't even see the fight or anything.

They seem to be on a timer, and yeah fast travelling pushes this forward faster.
I saw a vampire attack happen as I was following Maddenach, the King in Rags, from Markarth to his new hidey hole, we were halfway up a hill moving towards the Lover's Stone.
I lost track of him there as a dragon deceided to also appear at that moment.

On a wierd note: I found a dead dragon inside Riften when I emerged from the sewers with Esburn.
Not a dead person in sight either.

You know its funny I fast travel everywhere and still don't experience any vampire attacks.

Is it only in my game that the town guards have no problem killing the Vampire squads very easily before they cause any problem? One particularly funny incident was when a Vamp squad attacked Winterhold, near the College. At that point it so happened that there were 3 guards nearby + 2~3 mages from the College + me and Serana... Needless to say that the Vamps went down in secs

PS My current character is level 65+

I never get the Vampire Attacks.

Because I never do anything in the cities during the night hours.

Since completing Dawnguard, I haven't had a single vampire attack. While in the middle of the Dawnguard questline though, I had a few attacks on the road, and barely in the towns; and if they did attack the towns, the guards took care of them with ease. Though there was that mysterious traveler I saw from time to time in Whiterun, but he didn't last in a fight.

The only casualty I had from the attacks is some random miner in Markarth. Never knew him so it didn't matter to me.

I'm assuming this guy took the Vampire side . I've taken the vamp side and still get vampire attacks on towns. I get DG attacks typically in the wilds, but on a few occasions I've been attacked by the DG inside a city. On one occasion the guards go involved, but likely because a guard was hit by stray crossbow fire.