Hi, this is my first post on these forums and I read some other topics regarding dawnguard on these forums and others but I had to ask; does the mysterious traveler really kill ncps or cause them to die from some ingame mechanic, and are the vampire raids really bothersome and cause alot of problems like; ncp kills, missing vampire stragglers who kills ncps when you think they are dead and multiple radiant attacks at once or are these bugs, because I downloaded dawnguard and I was wandering if I should wait for a new patch or if it is ok to play now worry free, as I was going to level my alchemy and enchanting for a few hours but I do not want to do that and have a ghost town and uncompletable/failed questts.

PS. Sorry for overuse/misuse of punctuation, while English may be my first language, I'm pretty rubbish with it.

Are they bothersome well in my present game Adrianne is now dead Belrthor is dead several promernent NPCs in Riften are dead. The whole of Shors stone are dead most of Darkwarter crossing are dead and its all from random vampire attacks.

If you are going to be just wandering around town for the next little while power-leveling some of your skills, I would say don't install yet. Get that stuff done and then install. But do get the dlc. Despite the problem, the new stuff is really nice. New equipment, new npc's, beautiful new locations, new, tougher enemies. Great stuff. But somewhat incompatable with Skyrim, since if you start a new toon with DG installed, you will end up playing DG, not Skyrim, since many of Skyrim's quest givers will be dead by the time you get to them.

The "Traveller" is not a problem, btw. He is easy to spot and really only targets the player. You can attack him before he even has a chance to raise his hands. The problem is the "raiders." These come in groups of three and can be composed of all vampires, a master vampire and two thralls, or a master vampire and two death hounds.

It's a pretty common problem. I fortunately was able to take the vamp's focus away from the citizens, but that's because i'm a sword and board and can soak up massive amounts of damage. It's too bad for the archer's or spellcasters out there. I guess my best advice is to save often, that way if you do get a bad attack happening, you can reload and try again without the loss of life to the cities.

Question: I haven't started a new character yet. but do random vamp attacks happen before you've even touched the first dawnguard quest?

yes. They will start at level 10.

Wow, that's rough. Now I suddenly know why people are a bit angry about it.

Just make sure you arrive during daylight and there will be no attacks.

Not true. I only arrive during daytime and still have plenty of attacks. In fact, the only ones I ever see since I stay out of the city cell during the evening.

I have never had a vampire attack during daylight.
I think that must be a bug, vampires attacking at noon doesnt seem logical.

I fast travel to areas just outside cities, like the stable, and wait until morning. I haven't had NPC's get wiped out, save for a chieftain of an orc settlement.

In some games the vampire attacks are, I think, not working as intended. And, while annoying and I hope they are fixed, I still have the dlc installed. They aren't hard to deal with if you reload and attack smart.

But events can stack. I have had a dragon and vampire attacks at the same time.

The MT is the easiest to deal with, because he only attacks you.

So, yes, it is bothersome, and is probably bugged in some games, but the dlc is worth it and it can be dealt with.