Problems in towns without walls can easily be avoided (I hope) making the vampires spawn the moment you walk into the town (when you get that little message in your screen that says: Riverwood )

and/or force the vampires to spawn 'near' the player when in those cells

They spawn in the city as long as you're in the same cell, that's the problem. The only solution is to avoid all civilization permanently if you don't want to have these attacks...that's not a fun way to play a game...

How do you force them to spawn near the player if they have different spawn points? and even then how to you stop NPC's from running in with their fists?

removing the attacks away from towns, cities, farms etc would be the fastest and cheapest way of dealing with this frustrating problem, im not playing skyrim again until this problem is fixed....

They have to make the ''you are in Riverwood'' message in the screen, the trigger of the event.

if the game recognises that you just entered the town then they probably can use it as a trigger.

You do know they already have your money right? simply uninstall the mod and and resume playing. What your doing is essentially what a child does when they go in their room sit on their bed and say they are going to hold their breath till their parent gives in. If you don't like what they did simply don't give them any more money.

yes, yes you are.

No, no you are not. You are going to be reloading a lot if so. Not the best message to send out for a game.

Oh...btw it appears they can spawn away from gates in cities. I just entered whiterun via the gate, stopped and waited to make sure coast was clear. After about a minute or so, turned and started walking towards the square by the inn, saw a commotion....yup it was vampires, yup I have dead npcs, and it was about 11am game time

Edit for spelling

Shame the took athleticism out of the game as it would be the only way of reaching on time.

Sigh....I was getting complacent...hadn't had any attacks in a few hours....

i dont plan on giving them anymore money, and i spent good money on this dlc i think i should be satisfied with it, which i am not. uninstalling the dlc just takes up time and its much easier just not playing skyrim

I was ok with the random attacks at first. I lost a few NPCs no one critical though. However, I just walked into Whiterun and saw an attack on the other side of town. By the time I made it to the battle I had lost Belethor, Carlotta Valentia, and Adrianne Avenicci. I reloaded from the last save and still lost Adrianne Avenicci when I entered Whiterun. It woudn’t be so bad if there was someone to take the place of those who were killed. Right now at Warmaidens Ulfberth is working the shop but no one is working the forge.

Glad I felt like starting a new character anyway so I didn't lose much from uninstalling it. When these attacks are fixed/tone downed, I will reinstall it. Until then,
Edit: Edit for grammar.

i have potentially lost 20 hours because of this dlc, the amount of hours is so high because i spent the first two days without fast travelling and took my time doing everything. and this is out of my 287 hour character. if the problem is fixed i will be able to rush through the dlc again with all my npc's alive and well

I downloaded DG on release day but didn't notice this till yesterday as I had been in the middle of one of the Daedric atrtifact quests. Fast travelled to Windhelm to sell some loot and after about 10 seconds hear people fighting behind me, turn around to see a Master Vampire beheading an NPC while 2 others lie dead on the floor. Im level 79 playing on adept which I feel is fairly balanced, but just one attacker manged to wipe out 3 NPCs in seconds. Thankfully I reloaded and killed him before he had a chance to do any damage.

So now i'm taking a break from Skyrim after reading the threads here and I think gamefaqs. Also seen a video on Youtube that confirms attacks can happen without you knowing, I know random dragon attacks occur in a similar fashion but it is pretty difficult to miss these. Ive had elder dragons kill up to 5 people in attacks on Whiterun at lower levels but at least then I knew it was happening and had the option to reload.

Also i'm not sure about the Mysterious Traveller. I think there may have been a knee jerk reaction from some people at first as some have now followed him and said he doesn't enter houses etc but i'd need better confirmation.

I realise I could probably just install DG allthough I have no chance of a refund but even then I would probably not be able to use my newer saves or using them could create some unknown game breaking glitch.

Oh well im going to give Mass Effect a shot for a while (never got into it the the first try) and hope some tweaks are made. I'm not a fan of the random attacks from vampires or dragons but I can tolerate them as long as I can defend against them.

I don't know why people are complaning about having to revert to a previous save when crap hits the fan (like several NPC's dying by a vampire attack). Even before dawnguard, there would be several times in which i revert save after i did something that screwed myself or friendly NPC's up, so the whole reverting to previous save is nothing new to me.

You have to power to change things, you have the power to go back in time and save people that would have died....use it....don't complain about having that power.

Shame this one thing is putting people off what otherwise is a pretty decent addition to Skyrim. Someone really dropped the ball on this.

Unless you don't have a save to go to without losing 20 levels and 30 hours...

And reloading shouldn't be your only defence against this. Doesn't make for a good experience having to all the time it happens.

I like that that dawnguard has made skyrim feel more realistic, NPC's we care about could be threatened and actually killed, and never come back, just like in real life. It's sad and horrible, but it makes fighting to save there lives even more rewarding. If NPC's could not die, including important ones, and if they could die but just respawned back, then there is not incentive in fighting the vampires attacking cities/towns.

That does not mean i don't think changes shouldn't happen. Just because i think NPC's should be able to die for good, does not mean they should rush master vampires with iron daggers. My idea is that NPC's with iron daggers would run away from the attack, while NPC's, including those that arn't guards, who have stronger weapons would fight.

use the revert to last save button and pretend you are the Terminator going back in time to save Sarah Connor. Except this time Sarah Connor is every NPC and the Vampires are the T-1000. This is a role playing game after all. Consider it bonus content for the game.

Dawnguard(save the world from the evil vampires trying to blot out the sun) Bonus Time Traveler Mode(introduces sidequest: Save all NPC's!!!)

or you can join the Vampires and revert all the towns to Ghost Towns and essentially starve yourselves to death because you wasted your food supply.

The Choice is Yours! Enjoy

I agree with most of this, however it reminds me of all those people who hated the idea of a re-allocation system for the perk tree. Now we must all live with our "choices" and "consequences"

Then don't save in a stupid way. Have several saves. Like save before entering a possible dangerous situation. I save all the time, and have several saves (3 or 4 slots for each character of mine), so that issue you stated above i can not fall into.

That save thing is then your problem, don't blame other things (like beth or vampire attacks) for your problem with saves.

Man up and take responsibility for your own actions.

Its not our choice though, that's the thing. Read the accounts. There is no defence against this sometimes. You install the DLC and like it or not, people are going to die.