False! Fast traveled to Whiterun, waited until 9am, as I showed up at midnight. Walked in the gate from the stables to be greeted by a Master vampire and 2 dogs. Reloaded after they wiped out the lady blacksmith, did the same thing, and wouldn't you know it, same Master vampire and dogs. Was able to kill them before they murdered anyone the second time. Shouldn't be like this.

Well said! I just walked from a vampireattack in Riften all the way to Kynesgrove and guess what, there was an attack there aswell! Everyone in Kynesgrove besides those in the inn were slaughtered and reanimanted before i could even get there.

They killed Adrianne Avenecci and two others in White Run 3 times in a row. My girlfriend kept reloading and reloading. She finally gave up and fast traveled to Riverwood instead. Since Alvor had died there during a dragon attack, and his death had gone unnoticed until it was too late.



Also, 10 minutes after reading this thread the first time a few hours ago, my girlfriend got her first visit from the traveler. He had cool vampire gauntlets on him, but she wasn't to fond of how he murdered someone either.

That you know of.

Thank you for summing it up in a way that I have failed to so far. I'm losing a lot of NPCs to vampire attacks, and reloading to try again has become very old, very fast. But I like the DLC otherwise, and I like the armor and weapons. But it's uninstall for me. And I'm really upset about it.

They could just make it so the guards level up with the player and NPC's are treated as semi essential with vampire attacks so they go in crouch position and the vampires ignore them.

That way vamps could still attack towns but NPCs would not usually die.

I wonder how much they take out if you're lvl 50 anyway as long as there isn't a ghost town after i'm happy.

the only attack i had on a city was when i first started the DLC, in riften. i was level 66 and managed to take the vamps out easily only losing 1 guard

Orc strongholds are fair game for attacks. I walked from Riften to Ivarstead and when I got there a courier gives me an inheritance letter for Gularzob to which I said "Who the [censored] is Gularzob??" Looked it up, went to Largashbur and there was his body next to a death hound and a master vampire.

I have gotten some vampire attacks during my playthroughs but none of the attacks have been at a town/city so far. Though i do take precaution, never fast travel to a city/town directly, try to enter cities/towns during the day (so even if vamps did attack, they would be weaker).

I really don't see what you guys are complaning about because i havn't had an NPC's killed by vamps yet. And even if an NPC did die, i would not complain/whine (what's the point to that?) and instead man up and....

1. Revert to a previous save to fix my mistake in letting an NPC die

or

2. Just deal with it and move on

Any area with "living" people is up for attack, it's far beyond just cities, villages, and strongholds. It extends to even isolated farms with absolutely no defenses what so ever.

I'd also add that the attacks makes playing as a vampire character even more difficult as the only "safe" times to enter cities are during the day. It's a rather big inconvenience.



Key word there is yet. Give it time.

I didnt have that many attacks either till the 5 I had in the last hour and half. Ran into vampires dressed as Vigilant of Stendarr, didnt even approach the orc village, Windhelm got hit, then Riften, and then had a vampire assassin on the roadway. The prior 30 hours of gameplay I had 2 attacks total. It almost tripled that in the last 90 minutes.

I've had Dragon Bridge, Karthwasten, Rorikstead and most of the Orcish Strongholds absolutely decimated. And I've only played about 20-25 hours since I've installed Dawnguard. I never even entered any of these, either. I was just close enough to have the cells active. Hell. Could be more, I don't know. I've only discovered these casualties after reading the horror stories in this thread and the tens of other similar ones.. and going to check if I was equally screwed. I'm at 58 (Almost 59) at the moment.

At least I know when there's a dragon nearby. I can go and defend the idiotic civilians and reload if any of them die due to fist-fighting a damned mythical beast that can breath fire and swallow you whole. (Though I have to admit - it's pretty badass. =P)

I honestly don't know what can be done to regulate the issue without removing it entirely, or having it scripted so that they spawn very close to you after fast-travelling (Just out of visible range?). This might break immersion for PC players when the content is released on their end, due to the amazing draw distances they can muster.. but they can mod the entire issue out if they so choose - and they get mods in general. So I don't care what they have to say. =P

The not knowing is driving me insane with paranoia. It's gotten to the point where I dread even loading Skyrim up. As I said before, the same thing happened after Lonesome Road with New Vegas. Those damned Legionary Assassins started spawning once a day - Way, way out of visual distance. They were cleaning the clocks of anything inbetween me and ol' Boone. And they matched me level-wise, and damned near equipment wise. I was the only thing that could possibly take them down short of a Deathclaw pack.. and even then I'm not sure. Hah.

This is much the same with the Vampire Death Squads. I'm only out-leveling guards by 8 levels. Apparently 8 is enough to completely clean the floor with 'em. Because I watched a Master Vampire, Mistwalker, and two Thralls take on six guards in Solitude and come out on top. Shameful.

Hopefully we get a resolution to this soon. A healthy case of paranoia - as with dragon attacks - is good, and all.. But I'm damned glad I already did the miscellanious quests associated with those that were wiped out. Sure as hell won't be making a new character until this gets dealt with.

Edit - - - Just thought I'd add that all of this I experienced was during the daytime hours, and after completing the main quest on the side of the Dawnguard.. Have to give the Vampire goonies points for bravery, eh?

I like the random element of the vampire attacks... only had a few so far but it makes me feel super heroic when I see the villagers being assaulted and I step in to save the day. It is only slightly annoying at lower levels (say between 10-15) because you simply aren't really strong enough to deal with Master Vampires on your own at that point. In those situations I use the guards as tanks while I slither around them to strike while they're distracted. Using this tactic I'm yet to lose an NPC, or even have to reload.

The random attacks add an element of surprise to the game and I hope they stay... If they're going to do anything about it maybe they should just tweak the level at which the attacks actually start.

I've not had any problems with vampire attacks thus far and I've dealt with several before any of the named NPCs could fall victim. On the other hand, the vampire NPCs called 'Traveler'.. they only go aggro when they see you and they are a lot tougher (or more capable of wiping out the townsfolk) than the other lot that are just aggro period.

That's the thing, i have seen posters on here mention they don't get attacks on cities/towns that often, and they havn't lost either any NPC's or very few. And these are posters who have played a lot longer then i have.

I haven't seen a dragon attack a walled city. Ever.

I've got about 250-275 hours across a few characters, two of which are above 50.

These Vampire attacks however.. Much more frequent. I get one or two a day.

Makes me wonder if I'm bugged somehow. Seems far too high to be legit.

Ive had dragon attacks on every city, town, village in the game. Sometimes in pairs. Been that way through all 3 characters, all of which are 60+. It took 30 hours of Dawnguard play before I had more than a single vampire attack in one sitting, and I got 5 real quick, but the dragon attacks have stopped completely now. Havent even seen or heard a dragon today.

Which is what we've been telling you about. I actually liked the Vigilant of Stendarr ploy the vampires did, that seemed more vampire-y than the random city attacks. It's just more believable for them to try to trick travelers instead of just randomly assualting settlements.

They're nice, until you get 10 attacks in a row, all of them being extremly fatal to the other NPCS, this of course not mentioning the attacks that can occur simply because you're in the same cell as say Falkreath that you will never know about until it's far to late to do anything about it.

I have about 70 hours across three characters so far in Dawnguard right now. All of them have been suffering random vampire attacks in different spurts. One character will have a ton in a row, and I'll have to reload a previous save. Other characters can not see any vampires at all, and then get a random attack on Rorikstead when I never even entered the vicinity of the village. It's not fun to go to through a city and see bodies and ash piles everywhere, especially when you couldn't do a thing to stop it.

My vampire character has the worst of it as I can only go anywhere with her during the day time, and she's getting destroyed by the weakness to sunlight. It's not very fun.

I sometimes get a dragon attack only in Solitude/Riften, but they're very very rare. The one in Riften only flies around and you can't bring him down without Dragonrend, as he doesn't attack. The one in Solitude is aggressive and always lands on the first square in Solitude... but they are so easy to kill and don't do any damage to others.

From what I have gathered is if you are unlucky enough to have a high number of attacks (seems random but seems chances are for most people it is a high probability considering all the threads on it), there isn't much you can do to save the population of cities and towns as they can pop off a NPC or 2 before you have a chance to do anything about it. As time go's on NPC's get fewer and fewer. Not good IMO and it is stopping me from purchasing the DLC even though everything else I have heard about it I have loved.

With out being forced to change your play style (like limiting fast travelling, changing builds, etc.) what ideas can we put forth to developers that will keep the people who do not mind it and the people who hate it happy?

its easy actually, add one dawnguard in each town and talk to him for a misc vampire attack on the town you are in. this way the people who dont mind the attacks are happy and the people like me who hates them will be happy and wont be paranoid anymore. i shudder to think how many npc's have died which i havent realised yet...

This sounds like a good idea. We should be using this thread and working together to come up with ideas on keeping both camps happy instead of going round and round in circles arguing.

On a side note, what happens if you play as a vampire? I hear the Dawnguard spawn the same way and attack you but surely the NPC's remain safe then as long as you don't attack them? If so I will purchase now, start a new char and just play the vamp line for now until things get a bit less heavy for the Dawnguard.

if you choose the vampire path the vampires and dawnguard will attack you

What?! I'd like to ask how the hell that works but I don't want to spoil it lol. Bah! Oh well I'll give it a few weeks and see if Beth take on our ideas for limiting the casualties.