New thread is up. I'll edit this page in a sec with the link to the last thread. Feel free to continue bickering here.

ORIGINAL THREAD: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1388815-say-no-to-ghost-towns/

Alright, so here are some posts from the previous thread that outline my main idea and proposed solution to the issue of vampires endlessly, monotonously attacking towns and killing npcs before the player knows they're in the city:

"
Dang. Looked like the general consensus has shifted. A lot of you guys, LongKnife for example, have come up with some good ideas to improve upon this mechanic. It is a real issue when vampires kill people on the other side of town without you knowing it. I wish there was a way you could ACTUALLY fight back. If this is an "invasion" then why is there no organized resistance? We should have been able to train guards and upgrade them to make them better equipped to handle them and make it so vampires are less likely to get through the walls. It would have been much more interesting, involved, and fun than mindlessly killing vampires and never seeing the cities DO SOMETHING about it."

PROOF THIS IS AN ISSUE: A fellow Elder Scrolls Scholar did some research while playing Dawnguard and ran a little experiment to see how random vampire attacks affect the game. Here are his results:

First!!!!

I never got why people did this

So that when the historybooks are written in 2134, he'll get his name in them, being famous and going down in history for being first to post in an internet discussion.

Of course. Silly me

And since no one wants to reply to my thread...

Vampire Apocalypse Survival Guide!

Well then, as you may or may not know Dawnguard adds random Master Vampire assualts on cities, villages, and small farms around level 10 (though they may begin earlier). Supposedly, these attacks are like the random dragon attacks, but more lethal especially if there are two Master Vampires attacking the city.

So to make sure you do not end up with an cities, villages, or farms I am attempting to compile a list of ways to prevent this. Feel free to add any other tips!

1. Be very careful of fast travelling. Like dragon attacks, vampire attacks chances increase if you fast travel and arive at NIGHT (7pm - 5am).

2. When entering a city at night, stay around the main gate for a few minutes. Usually the vampires will tend to attack soon after you enter. If you do not wait you increase the chances of the cities populace being killed.

3. Villages and farms are a bit trickier, the vampires appear to spawn outside of the villages/farms, but only when the player is near.

4. When in doubt, lower the difficulty! Although this will also make the NPCs in the village die even faster, usually it is usually worth doing.

5. If you are level 10, or around there, use Flames or any Fire enchanted weapon you may have. Even if you are not a Destruction mage, flames SHOULD prove somewhat useful against these vampires. When combined with novice difficulty this may make the fights shorter and with less causalites.

6. If you have Healing Hands use it on the NPCs that are fighting the Vampires. WARNING: Some NPCs may view Healing Hands as an attack!

Getting back on topic, I would love to see some feedback with regards to this bug (if it is a bug, let us hope it is).

Skyrim is a world in desperate need of consequence enough as it is. Having an entire questline rendered inconsequential to the world as a whole is the last thing we should strive to see.

As I stated in the previous thread, what did we do all these quests for if the end result either way is a steady war of attrition that can only end with the eventual extermination of all non essential NPCs? Who are you going to sell loot too? Who will you buy hard to find ingredients from? What about all those misc quests from non essentials?

Skyrim has been describes as an ocean sized puddle, vast but shallow. Break the mold and do the right thing, Bethesda.

It's not that we dont want to read it. Thank you for posting this info. It's very helpful. It's just that most of us dont want to give in and accept this half-baked mechanic, so we're focusing on arguing about it right now haha.

It isn't. Unless you're referring specifically to the post-main quest attacks, in which case Idunno.
All the beta testers said was that they initially assumed attacks in general are a bug, then Bethesda confirmed they're a feature. In the last thread one guy said "prove to me that these actually happen," claiming they don't happen post-mainquest for him, and thus we have the debate about them post-main quest now.

Guys: this isn't world war I or II. anologies are fine but let's stay on topic. The fact is that this mechanic was handled wrong. Skyrimfan still hasn't tried to counter my solution either.

This feature should of never been put in unless beth fixed NPC reactions to dangerous creatures. Watching old grandma with merchants punching dangerous creatures getting killed is terrible lame. If NPC reacted in a logical and realistic way, the weak NPCs like grandma and merchants would go inside to safety allowing the guards and our characters to handle it. Instead we have a poor thought out feature that reduce this great game world to lifeless. I thank Microsoft for sparing me the temptation of an impulse buy on day 1 for this DLC.

I dont like Draugr disarming me...they are not going to remove that...so they wont remove the Vamp Invasion either...i am content now

I never saw any of this during the vampire side questline, and my character went full Vampire Lord and proceeded to glide across Skyrim killing everything he encountered. No vampires wandering the wildnerness, farms, or cities, sadly. However, I did meet a "Traveler" and then a Master Vampire and his thrall attacking the Solitude Sawmill on my Dawnguard side character.

This is not to disregard anyone's complaints, but I do believe the chances for attacks are reduced if you complete the Vampire story line,

That doesn't even make any sense.. That's an apples and oranges comparison. The general consensus is that the main concern with this is the unintentional mutilation of every non-essential npc in the game. To the best of my knowledge, not one npc has ever been killed in Whiterun, or any town for that matter by a Draugr shouting at him...

Draugr disarming you IS NOT ON THE SAME LEVEL AS VAMPIRE ATTACKS!

Straw man fallacy for the win...

Ok I have been to every town and have had zero attacks

Between 7pm and 5am?

Congratulations, you are the 1%.

You can always just pick the weapon up again. NPCs dying is permanent, thus a totally different issue.

This. I dont see how anyone can counter this. It doesn't make sense for defensless npcs to all attack, but I'm sure someone will find some outlandish way to defend this too.

Not when it is Mehrunes Razor...i can never find that thing again. The POINT is that as long as any amount of people are NOT B!tching about it then it will remain

It's still not the same thing...straw man fallacy...stop using it...

Drake Malice: Have you even looked at some of the possible conpromises for this? There's one in the OP and one in my previous post. They both make sense and still offer a challenge.

Here's some proof of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v80gUzq6Ec8&feature=BFa&list=ULVEWKVNQwou8

But it's boringggggggggggggg