I dont see the issue, they usually kill like 1 guard before me and the "torch-carrying" mob finishes them

This bull [censored] is game breaking. What in the hell... This is Skyrim not I Am Legend...

Well, so much for my hopes of "maybe Skyrim svcks because they rushed it for 11-11-11 and we'll see an increase in design quality and management in Dawnguard." :C

What level are you? The invaders and their gargoyles tend to get nastier at higher levels.

Ouch, how much of a ghost town can Markarth become now? You could already drain a significant portion of the population in the vanilla game via quests.

Heh. Being a PS3 person I'm hoping that this will be right up on the top of the list of things about Dawnguard that need to be fixed before it launches on non-xbox versions.

A lot of you wanted a zombie survival...thing for consoles, instead they give you a vampire...thing...Be happy

Many diff levels but they never bring their gargoyles into town for me

And they were worried the forsworn would do the job. Silly NPCs!

I'm more of the opinion that the overall design philosophy and design management is the most important thing, as yeah, that governs if the company is capable of producing good ideas or not.
Skyrim felt rushed to me (feels unfinished and oftentimes doesn't make sense, when you consider Skyrim makes mistakes Oblivion and FO3 successfully avoid), so I thought MAYBE someone just failed to realize how much they need to rush and the result is poor, and MAYBE Dawnguard will be good quality again.

Instead we've got dragon encounters part 2, more decisions without consequences and what sounds like a very weak storyline. Having said that, I doubt they change the vampire encounters before PS3 release.

Oh, I do too. I also agree that Skyrim feels terribly unfinished (hence introducing things only to have them become completely unexplained by story's end and the terribly short guilds).

So far a lot of this has me questioning the reasoning behind decisions. Why have more annoyances behind city walls? Why have wild werewolf encounters that cannot transfer the disease? Why make it so the bonuses you get for one side are made available to the other side, but not the other (Apparently you can become VL in Dawnguard but can only obtain basic crossbows if you're a vampire)?

I'm no expert in video game design, but all of these things leave me scratching my head.

You and me both, hence why I'm sad to say I may not be buying TES VI if Dawnguard is really as "bad" (my opinion; I'm not saying you can't have fun playing it or anything, but for me, RPG elements and story are important and so far dawnguard seems lacking) as these descriptions on the forum imply.

This could be where I walk (might stay for Fallout at least), cause from the looks of it right now, Bethesda and I disagree fundamentally on game design. I believe in choices with consequences, but the consequences seem minimal. I prefer more story substance rather than constant action, but it sounds like the story is the bare minimum with even more action-y events for us to grunt at and talk about how awesome we are as we behead a vampire lord with a killcam for the 37th time.

I hope I'm wrong, as it's truly sad to see this happen if I'm right. I've been with TES since Morrowind...

Longknife, buy Dawnguard. It's good. Not perfect, but good. Definitely one of Beth's best expansions to date.

No it continues forever. I wish it wasent there at all.

Don't waste your breath.

I'll be waiting and watching Let's Plays on Youtube, but unless I'm convinced by that, I won't be. Like I said, I'm sure Dawnguard can provide plenty of fun for plenty of people, but I'm not sure the type of fun it provides is the type of fun I personally like.
Looks like I'm sticking my flag in the Mojave Wasteland. Which again, is depressing. Not that New Vegas is bad, but since I joined these forums I've sometimes looked at Morrowind fans and thought "kind of a shame that they can't give the new games a fair shot." Now I'm on the other side, I understand them and simply CANNOT bring myself to play the newest game.

But yeah, I'll wait and watch Let's plays, and hopefully I am wrong and Dawnguard offers something that'd interest me.

Skyrim's my first foray into TES (wanted to get into it with Morrowind because the name sounded cool but I don't do xbox), and while I wouldn't say I've had a horrible time playing it, and in fact think it's quite a bit of fun, I'm amazed at some of the baffling decisions that come to light when I stop and think about them.

I've recently started playing Fallout 3, and I'm taken back by the drastic differences. Speech is one of my mainstay skills in Fallout, because there's actually a lot of options for it to be relevant. I don't understand why I can't be a diplomat in Skyrim. I'm also just impressed by the deeper characters and more interesting things I come across in Fallout 3, and I'm confused how a game that came later seems to have less.

I'll still probably get Dawnguard (if Bethesda will actually give me some tech support), and while I'm sure I'll have fun with it, I'll also be scratching my head at times when I see things that just flat out don't make sense.

Let me put it to you this way:

I got more enjoyment out of this expansion than I did with ANY of the New Vegas DLCs. They made quite a few blaring mistakes, but what they did correctly, they excelled at.

Like I said, I'll be watching DLCS, and as I'm doing currently, roaming the spoiler forum.
Some things are better seen or experienced rather than just explained. I think if I see Youtube vids of it, I'll be able to tell if it's for me or not. Again, I'm not meaning to sound like "Dawnguard sounds like complete crap," but it just sounds like it's going in a different direction than the direction I prefer (I prefer story, character diversity and replay value, Dawnguard seems basic on story and low on character diversity). If I'm wrong, I'll know when I watch a let's play.

I mean as a short summary, I feel like most people would be relieved to hear they can support the Dawnguard and be a Vampire Lord at the same time. I however am not. More power to those that do, but that's not my kind of game, personally.

All of these things are explained though. The vampire lord option is left to the dawngaurd side because of the relation you build with Serana. Basicly a step in your relation to her. "you know vampires aren't all bad. I think I would like to be a vampire for you Serana." However you can also persuad her to turn human. But the conditions for that are really nitpicky but fair. Vampires depend on magic. They have no need for weapons. Very few do choose to use weapons. And most vampires tend to be elves for their abilities in the field. The two that do use weapons are those stubborn to their old ways of combat. And crossbows are weapons invented by a member of the dawngaurd you actually have to recruit. They were all sort of test weapons Isran's old "friend" came up with before he pushed her away aswell. She developed the crossbow from ancient dwemer plans. That's why you can't make one on the vampire side. She has to teach you to make it. You also do not get the bonuses you get for being a vampire. You don't get the buffs for the lord which makes it truly phenominal.

Yeah I don't know everything yet. I admit ignorance.

Hence why I gotta wait and see for myself. Those things do sound nice though.

svcks for consoles >.>

It is it is! The story is fantastic. From description it seems like it is backwards... But when you playthrough it for yourself and know the story that goes along with it, it just makes sense. You really build up a relationship with one character whome has a very good AI. Shes probably the best follower in the game. She is powerful but not so much she fights for you. She makes observations and messes around with the area your in. She also tries to avoid most traps if it's possible for her path finding. However a fair share of traps are very bumpy. She really is a piece of art. As most characters in this dlc are. They all seem to have a life to them unlike most npc's. This content feels like how skyrim as a whole should have felt. It's just a spectacular improvement and well worth twenty dollars for the adventure of a lifetime.

Good to hear, as NPC AI (or lack thereof) in Skyrim is pretty bad. Just the other day I fought a dragon with two guards, one of them died and the MOMENT the dragon dies, the remaining guard looks at the dead guard and says "I'm going to find whoever did this!"

If the characters have personality and the story has depth and makes sense, then I might be buying it after all.
Are there any meaningful decisions though? Like it sounds like you can practically have your cake and eat it too with Dawnguard vs. Volikhar.

She would be great...except that she is a SITHIS_DAMNED teenager! All she does is B!tch about where-ever you are at or whine about her mommy and daddy issues...WHY CANT I KILL HER????