I really am. Would it be possible to have NPC's re-spawn after about a month of in game time? Sure it doesn't help immersion but at this point I really don't care. I'm tired of my towns being ghosts towns. I want the crossbows and new shots and the like so un-installing isn't really an option. But there should be an option to turn on NPC re-spawning in the menu somewhere. I know this is thread #2335236 on this issue but here is hoping they patch it.

I'm very aggravated.

towns never repopulating and immortal children that never age don't help immersion either xD

Exactly. I do find posters that complain about 'Deal with it, it's realistic!' to be willfully ignoring the many, MANY things that totally aren't.

Like NPCs attacking vampires and dragons with their fists, immortal children, being able to put a pitchfork into an apothecary satchel, being able to pause mid-battle and scoff a ton of food that instantly heals you, not actually having to sleep, eat or use the toilet EVER if you don't want to...etc.

You get the point. That 'argument' is incredibly weak. I, for one, would like to not lose mechanically valuable NPC shopkeepers because they are all braindead and the vampires/whoever all cheat... That's not fun, end of.

(Oh, and the posts saying you should give them weapons and armour. I'm sorry, what?)

Reverse pickpocket.

No, I know that. The point is that 1) that's a very specific, high level skill that not everyone has, 2) I shouldn't have to be giving NPCs armour and weapons to defend themselves because they are either a] too stupid to run away or, b] the Vampires are too bloody annoying.
People keep spouting garbage like that or 'well get their quicker and kill the vampires, gawd!' like it's somehow an easy thing to do, or that you can teleport halfway across town to stop the lemming-rush in Whiterun, or Solitude, or anywhere for that matter.

Recently I've been lucky enough to be doing quests that mean, actually, I don't need to go near town. Being attacked by Vampire trios in the wilderness is fine and dandy. But I shouldn't have to be having long moments of trepidation before even thinking about carrying on with business as usual after fast travelling to a town. That's a hassle, not a feature. Not a fun one, anyway. And games are meant to be fun. Ergo.

I'm one of the lucky ones, but I've only had one attack, which was in Riften.
No one died, other than the Vampires. The Guards were doing their job and protecting the people of Riften. Mjoll also had a piece of the action, kille done of the Vampires herself. I didn't even have to do anything.

I feel for all the people that are losing all the store owners and stuff though. A possible help to avoid a few killings would be to turn the difficulty down to the minimum when you get an attack. The guards should be stronger than the Vampires then, so they'll take them most of them out. Plus, a few stabs with a sword, shots of a bow, whatever, would be enough to quickly dispatch of each of the Vampires when they attack.
Not sure if that would work considering I think all the good NPC's weaker too... But oh well, worth a try I suppose.

Oh wow, I actually forgot about this!
Yes my Riften got pretty torn up by the vampires and their dogs...
I kept restoring and trying to save everybody - but no way.
The NPCs are too stupid, and jump right in there (even Edda, the scrawny little beggar, heheh).
I ended up losing the Pawned Prawn guy, plus I think Aerin.
Bloody shame - but what can ya do?
Gone is gone.

its funny, I had a post listing most of those examples for something when people argued realism xD