http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01-2pNCZiNk Vamps should feel the same!!

if people are also having problems with these attacks please list them, and then suggest ways how we can fix this game breaking feature.

I don't have Xbox Skyrim, so I haven't yet played Dawnguard, and can't comment on how many npcs die from vampires attacking, or how common it is. However, I do think people need to look at both sides of the problem. On one hand, it's supposed to be an invasion, vampires are sneaky bastards, and if you were a vampire looking for a meal would you attack a guard or a defenseless townperson? Looking at it like that, it makes perfect sense that vampires would disguise themselves as travelers to enter a town and feed on civilians. However, on the other hand, are people really that stupid that not only do the guards not investigate mysterious robed travelers entering their towns when it is well known that vampires are out and about, the people in the town think it is a good idea to run up to the vampire that is killing their fellow humans and starting attacking it? Looking at it like that, it's not that the vampire attacks aren't well thought out, it's that the human response is abnormally stupid. So, imo, Bethesda should go back and fix the problem by making the civilians scared of the vampires and the guards more wary of random visitors. Also, since Whiterun should be locked down due to dragon attacks, I feel like vampire attacks should happen at the gates, and vampires shouldn't be able to get inside unless they actually kill all of the guards and enter Whiterun unobstructed. I also think guards in the major cities should be issued crossbows, to help protect against vampires. And finally, civilians (especially those in towns without walls) should hide in their homes during the night for fear of vampires. I don't really see anything to fix with the vampires themselves, unless they really do happen as often as some people say they do.

if i was a vampire i wouldnt risk going anywhere near a town/city for food. i would pick off travellers in the wilderness, wouldnt you?
you havent realised the way these attacks work either. there is a special type of vampire called the mysterious traveller which sneaks into peoples homes and kills them without you knowing anything about it, thats on top of master vampires and death hounds attacking towns aswell. they also summon gargoyles to help in the assault. vampire attacks can also happen in towns just because you are in their cell. towns would become ghost towns without your knowledge. also, crossbows arent some super anti vampire hunting weapon, the guards would be better off all being equipped with legendary dragonbone swords and bows....

I completely agree. If an NPC dies, big deal.

I actually did know about all of those occurences, and still think my suggestions would work. and the reason i picked crossbows is because they are able to get exploding bolts, which is just badass. I wasn't really thinking of effectiveness.

And if NPC's keep dying leaving your towns and cities empty its still not that big a deal?

meh. if i play one character long enough for all of my towns and cities to be empty, i probably won't care about starting a new character.

yeah i know you arent aware of their effectiveness, but thanks for the idea though. you also need to think 'do you really want to fight off vampires when you enter a town just to store gear, buy and sell items or relax for the rest of your game?

Don't forget it isn't just local to towns and cities, any farm, orc settlement is fair game also. Radiant quests were added to keep the game alive, kind of counter intuitive to then add a system that then decimates the radiant quest givers.

Trust me, i find babysitting NPCs just as annoying as the next guy. I also don't think having attacks that eventually wipe out the entire non-essential cast are good. That's why I said that civilians need to run away, not fight, and guards need to be more wary of travelers. Also, about the whole crossbow vs. legendary dragonbone thing, do you really think the imperial government has enough money to buy every guard dragonbone equipment? because i dont. crossbows are cheaper, and more effective than what the guards are using now, so why not?

yeah, as long as this feature stays in the game people like me will be paranoid forever about the safety of npc's (apart from nazeem)
can you imagine how many people complain if this isnt changed on the other platforms?

they just need to go dragon hunting in massive numbers, guards respawn so their casualties do not matter. at this point in time vampires are a larger threat to the game than alduin ever was

I agree, I think if NPC's were just smart enough to run away and leave the guards to fight, it wouldn't so much of a problem. Ideal solution for me though would be a way (like in the form of a quest or something), to turn it off completely.

So you're suggesting the guards protect towns from vampires by leaving those same towns in mass numbers to go hunt some dragons? That's kinda counter-intuitive....

whos gonna give the guards the crossbows then? the dawnguard who are too busy planning an attack on the vampire lords? and even if they do get the crossbows they still arent enough to fend off a vampire raid, only giants willing to help towns would be effective. there are tamed trolls in the dlc so im sure they can work out an alliance with the giants, offer more cattle maybe?

Like I already said, not having the DLC, I can't actually give input on how hard it is to defend against these vampires. But do you really think that if the NPCs ran away and the guards were better equipped there would still be the same problem? Because it seems like that would pretty much put an end to it, except for the occasional death, which usually can't be helped when a town is invaded (by anything, not just vampires). And I'm assuming the guards would just go on over to the local weapons dealer to get the crossbows, as they wouldn't have to go hunt some, I don't know, DRAGONS to get them.

Just thought I should mention that yesterday was the first time I've played since finishing the mq. After several hours of gameplay and numerous city fast travels, I encountered no wild vamps. Curious, that.

the local weapons shops do not sell crossbows because hey have no idea how to make them, only a few selected people in the dawnguard have knowledge on how to create crossbows which is why they are the only ones who sell them, and like i said before. no-one wants to fight off invaders in towns when they go for the occasional down time. keep in mind that these vampire attacks happen as long as the dlc is on your hard drive, regardless of if you have started the dlc quest or not. and they continue after finishing the dlc...

I can guarantee there will be a mod out on day one that disables the attacks on PC.

thats the pc though, and they shouldnt have to mod their game because of a terrible feature. mods should add to a game. not fix broken features that bethesda didnt think through. also the console platforms will be screwed, i dont think thats fair lol.

Everything your saying (except for the crossbow thing, which i was really just using to make the point that the guards should be better equipped to deal with vampires) could be fixed by NPCs acting appropriately scared of the vamps and guards acting appropriately wary of mysterious travelers who were trying to enter the town (especially at night). I'm almost 100% sure that those small changes would be easy to implement, and would cut civilian deaths from vampire attacks in half, if not more. Oh, and yes, there should be some way to turn the attacks off. I agree with that completely.

It is quite. Others have said the same while others have said they significantly decrease and then others have said there is not let up at all after finishing.

As it has become one of my new catch phrases...

Give it time...

yep. he probably has had attacks he has not noticed yet