I remember reading a thread or two before where people were having issues with vampires killing shopkeepers and whatnot, but I couldn't find those threads again. So... I'll complain and whine in my very own thread =P

I'm seriously getting annoyed at having vampires spawn at whiterun's gate (since whiterun is the main town I spend time in) and killing a shopkeeper or two (and other random NPC's), forcing me to reload a saved game and rushing to the gate (sometimes all the way from dragonreach) just to ensure they get killed before they can do any harm. It would be different if they only focused on the guards, but no, they kill anything in their path.

Sure, the idea is rather interesting to have vampires randomly attack towns and such, but not when it causes more issues and annoyances than fun. It's getting to the point where I'm considering only entering town during the day so I can avoid the issue, but that's just a huge hassle.

Anyone else getting annoyed at this?

i have zero problems across 5 characters ranging from level 7 - 53.

Utterly irrelevant response. As you can see, this is a thread where someone is complaining about something that has happened on their character.
What is the purpose of your response?

1. To suggest that the OP must be lying because you personally have no experience the same thing?
2. To address some sort of imaginary balance you have going in your head where complaints about the problem must be equalled with protests of the opposite, as if Bethesda or anyone else may have their status of caring back to neutral?
3. An attention grab to point out that you're somehow special?

Please answer, I'm interested.

For me personally, I didnt experience the issue much on my first Dawnguard character, but on my second, I'm getting it all the time.

I think those responses are mostly 2 with a smidgen of 1.

OT: I save pretty often. So, if an important npc dies, I don't mind loading.

First off I can easily see how someone might never experience this, or at-least not notice it happening, since on my 43ish conjurer I only experienced it a few times. The main factor there was that I installed DawnGuard after I had already done a lot in the game and I went straight into the quest and didn't spend 15+ lvl's with it installed, traveling in and out of town to give vampires chances to spawn a lot.

But since I started a new character I have noticed them attacking shortly after I hit lvl 10 and the quest was given to me by a guard. Overall I tend to like the idea, but they should be a bit weaker (or a lot weaker) and non-guards should get out of the way. Right now I'm actually very annoyed because I think belathor was killed by an attack when I wasn't looking because he's no where to be found and his shop has been locked up tight (even went in to look around and found nothing) for about a week in game.

@Cy Tolliver

I save often as well, not to mention the auto saves whenever I travel/rest/enter or leave a building.

The biggest annoyance is that it messes up my shop runs when they get killed. Makes it all the more annoying to sell all the junk I pick up.

Simply reloading a save from just before you entered a city can cause the attack to not happen at all. Two things can trigger an attack: Entering a city from outside and when you come out of a building in that city. Vampires also spawn in the same places. It's really not that hard to deal with them.

Dem dang vampires, attackin mah NPCs and shizz...

But seriously, I think overly frequent attacks mean things are bugged. If deleting and redownloading the DLC doesn't bork your save, it might be worth doing that to see if it fixes it...?

I have not installed DG for this reason.... not the spawning at the gates when I enter a city, I can handle that. However them spawning at the gates when I'm somewhere else. In small towns, no big deal. But if I'm in whiterun at dragonsreach or the palace in Solitude and the vamps spawn at the gates and I am going to another building in that city I may never know of the attack till much later... and after my 3 autosaves.

The other reason is that the VL doesn't interest me. Looks cool, moves fast, but seems boring after awhile. Absorb health spell... fly away... repeat for a very long time.

This happened to me about a week ago, (also in whiterun) i came out of the inn and a gargoyle and 2 master vampires were beside the blacksmith. They killed the chick from Warmaidens, 2 guards, and almost killed greymanes wife (saved her...never recieved a thank you)
I have also seen them attack Markarth that was a few guards though...and a miner.

You do realise your post attacking his is just as worthless if not more?

He's just giving his experience of the vampire attacks. I've had three vampire attacks in 35-40 hours of dawnguard gameplay, I never fast travel but I do use the carriages occasionally.

One of the moderators already said the attacks stopped after the DG questline. The bug is that for some people the attacks don't stop.
Nothing you can do about it except train up your combat skills quickly then start DG.

(There are at least 3 other threads like this...)

Theyre only supposed to happen after you join the Dawnguard.

Just like Dawnguard attacks only happen if you join the vampires.

As it stands vampire attacks happen simply because its your level 10th birthday!

Congratulations player...youve just lost adrianne avenicci, Belethor and Ysolda.

Deal with the culprits now?

Irrelevant...there will be more tomorrow night.

Dont trip on the ash piles on your way out!

You do not have to join the Dawnguard to get an attack, soon as you hear about the attacks from a guard or anyone else, or hear about the Dawnguard reforming, you could get an attack on a town you visit. Or you might not, but still it is best to check each time just in case.

Whiterun and Markarth are virtual ghost towns now with all the vamp spawns. Even had em spawn inside the alchemy shop and kill the shopkeeper when I was in there. Markarth is just as empty. Smiths are gone, vendors, basically anyone that hangs around outside. The only guy left in Whiterun is the one that chops wood for belethor. Companions are still there but I never go in their building.

They do not spawn inside buildings kenrichaed, if a vampire turned up in a shop it followed you in from outside. So ignoring them you only have yourself to blame for having ghost towns.

Could have followed me inside I guess. Half the time I don't even know they are spawning in a city I've gone too which is annoying. Next time I travel there I notice the dead bodies.

If you fast travel to the town, wait by the gate a few seconds and wait and see if anything is going to put in an appearance. Markarth, Whiterun, Windhelm and I think Solitude they will appear near the gates, Riften they turn up near the market, so if you sprint over there and wait and watch you should notice. They can also spawn, in the same places if you come out of any door in the town. So you take a risk if you go too far away to see what is happening when you come out. The game will not let you wait if there are vampires around, you could test it out that way. Or you could come out and immediately fast travel to the gate and hope for the best. You let them get past you they will have lots of fun all over the place.

Since Dawnguard installs to your game file and not a save file... does that mean ALL of my characters that have not started dawnguard are going to be subjected to vampires? or is the programming smart enough to keep that from happening until I visit fort dawnguard with my characters.

I'd just hate to have to break away from the quests have my characters in just to be forced into completing dawnguard to stop random attacks.

Not all characters get attacks, some get attacks without joining a faction. You would have to try each character out for a while to see what their prospects of vampire free towns were. But as soon as you hear about the Dawnguard reforming, or vampire attacks I would check when ever entering a town or exiting any building in the town. You could maybe spend a bit of time on preventative measure just in case your character gets an attack. Dawnguard does not take that long to complete, It might be easier just to have each character do it.

I feel you. I only avoided it bacause i have some mods to add to the population of cities and add some wandering travellers and adventures. So even master vampires are slaughtered. But one time some dark elf dude walked up to me yelling "Die DAWNGUARD!" and poor adrianne got a lightbolt to the face. It's even more annoying than a challenger spawning with fireball spell in the middle of a city.

Ive had quite a few attacks now, both Dawnguard and Vampires, only once have i had to reload so far due to an NPC dying, in Whiterun because it was an unholy melee lol, only Solitude hasn't had one now

You may be on to something, I noticed Solitude was never attacked by vampires. Can anyone else confirm that? Is there something in Solitude that prevents attacks? Curious why this city never got any attacks!!!!

Anytime I entered a city at night, I always hung around the gate for a bit to kill any spawning vampires. Rule of thumb - summon two Dremora lords (twin souls perk) upon entering a city. "I smell weakness" is your clue
Did the same as I exited a building at night. Thats why I have so many ash piles in all my cities, and they take 30 days to clean up.

Well I've gotten into a few habits that have saved towns people... In Whiterun at night most people are in the tavern and what not so I enter the front gate. Twice now I've spotted the black robed traveler (vampire in sheeps clothing so to speak) I've hung around Whiterun enough to notice someone who hasn't been there before and who doesn't belong.

You can kill the traveler before he attacks. I killed one right in front of a guard. he didn't even walk over to look at the body. I also draw my weapon before fast travelling to another town. That way I spawn with my weapon at the ready and can rush into battle if needed. For PC users. use the UFO follower mod. allows you to bring more then one follower at a time. You can leave followers idle in areas and they won't return home. Leave a few of them in areas your having vampire problems.

There are whole towns I am avoiding until the MQ for Dawnguard is completed in the hopes there is no attacks there without me stopping by.

at least PC users can use the console to stop the random attacks

The solution is simple. Open the console and type

set DLC1EclipseAttackNextAllowed to 1000

set DLC1EclipseAttackNextGauranteed to 1001

(1000 and 1001 are bogus values... if these numbers are big enough, no vampire attacks will ever happen in the span of even a long game). Easy. No Mods, no tweaks.
Warning. I DO NOT own Dawnguard. The following solution was found anolyzing some MODs at Nexus. Credit goes to Beaker for having created the first (that I know of) MOD to solve the problem via a custom item. My solution should do basically the game without altering ingame scripts or adding MODs that might conflict with God knows what else.

A similar solution (changing the global variables via console) works also to stop random dragon attacks (while preserving the scripted attacks or those happening at certain fixed locations, ie Dragon altars).

I found an amulet mod on NEXUS that claims to do what you described. I'm using it right now but get the traveler appearing. no vampires in numbers though like I did before. I hope its working. my other characters will use the amulet.