Yeah, I'd much prefer we go back to the Morrowind/New Vegas treatment of NPCs where anyone is fair game for murder, but such a system wouldn't mix with such random encounters, by the sounds of it.
Personally I hate every single [censored] NPC in Skyrim (no I'm not kidding) and wouldn't mind losing a stupid misc radiant quest if it meant never having to mean their repetitive dialog again, but if they would just stop marking everyone and their mother, I could do the job myself. Vampire Lords? I don't need them to kill NPCs for me. Vampire Lords just sound tedious and repetitive....which, is the very reason I want the NPCs to die: because they're repetitive.
And as you said, it's not player choice if characters dying is a dice roll beyond their control, requiring players to obsessively use the Slow Time shout and scout the ENTIRE town upon leaving and before exiting, all in the name of saving their beloved NPCs...



Having said that though, while I agree they should scrap this random encounter, the DLC has already been released. Name one DLC that's ever been patched since FO3/Steam/PS3 Network.
Exactly... :/

Though i havn't encountered this event yet, i think the only solution in countering this event is to........MAN UP. Be the hero that skyrim deserves. And if some NPC's die....take it like a man and keep fighting and don't give up, also don't make a fit that some NPC is dead.....because the sad thing is that sometimes people die in war, even if said people were important.

I think someof you are confusing Skyrim the CRPG with a Life Simulator, personally.

This

Hmm....what would you say to a system where instead of essentials, there are some npcs only the player can kill? It satisfies both issues

Don't be too alarmed, I am sure it is merely a prank pulled by Sanguine. Just wait a while, and perhaps all the dead NPC's will respawn as fresh copies of Deep-In-His-Cups.

Maybe if people are afraid of vampire attacks, they should fast travel less, i heard that affects it.

I suppose it does work. I'm sure there is a camp that actually DOES enjoy the randomness of things like vampire attacks slaughtering NPCs, but something tells me this camp is far smaller than the completionist camp that wants all their NPCs alive so they can complete everything.

I would just prefer that instead of "omg we can't let him kill that guy or our quest falls apart," that instead they either:

A) Alert the player to the occurance. Morrowind alerted you if an NPC essential to the main quest died and asked you if you wanted to reload, New Vegas would show a quest you didn't have in your log suddenly popping up in the log and immediately failing.
B.)Allow for plan B solutions. There were Morrowind quests where they'd say "I was gonna have you rob this person but nvm they died somehow, next assignment," and I remember I randomly had a woman needed for a quest in New Vegas get swarmed and killed by Radscorpions. Did the quest fail? No, I checked her body and found a "report" that served as an item that let me continue on without actually talking to her.

Your idea does seem best and I THOUGHT Skyrim had it, since I've never had NPCs die from dragon attacks. However that's obviously not the case since plenty of people HAVE. One culprit for example is AOE spells and attacks that enemies use.

The issue here is not that it's "too hard" or whatever. It's that it never stops and will through sheer force of attrition, eventually empty your world. Should there be a sense of "invasion"? Sure, why not? But it never ever stops. Even at the end of the quest, at the resolution, you still have this "invasion" going on. Well what was all that questing I did good for if everyone is just goon to die anyway?

I know I will be fast travelling to Whiterun a lot. *cough*Nazeem*cough*

Right.
For all the people saying "man up," no matter how cautious you are, they WILL eventually get to a town.
Or even if you CAN prevent NPC deaths, it would apparently require caution to a degree that....well, simply doesn't seem fun at all. From the complaints people are lodging, it honestly sounds like vampires are spawning in the corners of the towns they aren't even in, so while they're buying iron from the blacksmith, the Grey Quarter is getting painted red. It'd require you to scan the entire town first thing upon entering and before leaving, which for some cities (Solitude, Windhelm) is not exactly easy.

It would be pretty cool if they allowed you build up follower vamphunters. Similar to the Blades. They would patrol around the major holds or something.

This^^^ See, I have read through this entire thread, and there have been several posts that have made mention of the attacks being the only thing lending credibility to the whole DLC. In order to feel a sense of impending doom, we need these attacks to happen. I can get that, though, I can also use my own imagination to pretend the vampires are actually a threat. And, logically speaking, if needing them to show up is required for that feeling of dread, then logic should also dictate that having them disappear when the quest line is over is the only thing that would deliver a sense of satisfaction in a job well done. Otherwise, why even bother.

How about you dont believe everything you hear and wait until you play the dlc to judge. I never see Vamps invade after i finish the QL

I have played the DLC. In fact, I plan on playing it more tonight. Regardless of whether they stop showing up in my game, there are reports of them still showing up in other peoples games, and if that is the case, then those people deserve some relief from it.

What relief? It's an invasion themed expansion... they're supposed to attack the cities at random. If you knew when it would happen, it wouldn't be very suspenseful now would it.

I play games for entertainment and if I have to worry about Vampires over running a city all the time then and murdering everyone then it lessens the entertainment. So what is the point in finishing the Dawnguard quest if these vampire attacks don't stop? this is turning out to be a crappy DLC.

Some say they DO stop and some say they dont, we will have to hear from Beth to get an official statement as to whether one or the other is a bug

Is it now? I don't remember it being advertised as one, let alone the invasion mechanic ever being mentioned in previews.

End the Tyranny of the Sun sound familiar? Why would the vamps block the sun? So they can take over...common sense

I think the problem here is it dramtically alters the experience of the vanilla game when it really shouldn't have that significant of an effect on it.

I agree that having them invade is great for the story line. I am also saying that if they continue to attack after you have completed the quest line, it makes the quest line seem pointless, as you have officially accomplished nothing to quell the invasion. I would also be interested in hearing from Bethesda as to whether or not they are actually supposed to stop.

In addition, it's supposed to be an expansion of the main game; not an overwrite. As it is, the entire game seems to center around vampires now.

Common sense if you block out the sun. As it is they just raid towns whenever they damned well feel like it, it would seem. Before Dawnguard, during, and possibly after.
And besides, the mechanic of vampires attacking towns at random? Don't believe that was ever mentioned. I'm not sayin you have to disagree with it, but don't sit there and pretend this DLC was BASED ON and ADVERTISED as random vampire invasions in vanilla towns, because that's simply not true. It was advertised as vampire hunters vs. vampires.

You really expected them to let you in on every little secret before the release? What would be left to discover if they did that?

Am what's wrong with attack parties who weaken a town's defenses before the big attacks where they blot out the sun? That would explain the little ciuty attacks wouldn't it? lol