Just went up to Dawnstar for the first time at level 26. I just visited Fort Dawngaurd and was on my way to Dimhollow Crypt via Dawnstar. After conducting some business with the locals (mine owners, smith, apothecary, and Silus) it was late so I decided to wait until 8 AM to set off. Big mistake. As soon as the wait was over attacks started spawning all over the place. I had stationed myself for the most likely spawn spot (near the apothecary) and sure enough, a Master vampire shows up. He kills both Irgnir and Karl before I can dispatch him.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, unbeknownst to me, 2 death hounds were also attacking. I only found that out as I was heading out of town. They killed Abelone.

Umm, Bethesda, you really, really did not think this "feature" through, did you? It was just sorta, gee whiz wouldn't that be cool? Never mind how it interacts with the rest of the game.

Well fortunately, I did my three "help my people" tasks before the vamps showed up, so I can still become thane of the Pale at some point. Indeed, I did those tasks right away for just such an eventuality. But I pity any player who is unaware of just how many NPCs they might lose because of this DLC.

this is why I am thankful I play Skyrim on the PC. I use a simple mod that prevents random attacks. Only scripted encounters happen such as vampires appearing for quests they are suppose to appear in. Or in vampire known locations. I won't see my Skyrim go absent of life over this oversight. Its been said completing Dawnguard stops the vampire random attacks. Seems to me that forces you into a direction. When Skyrim came out they said how "open world it is" You can choose your direction. You don't even have to perform any quests. Your not forced into the main quest at all.

However once Dawnguard becomes active for your character, well you better act fast. Forget about any quests you started. Forget about any plans you had. You now have to avoid ALL towns and cities to spare them from attacks. No fast traveling at all. And you better rush through Dawnguard to finish it to stop these random attacks.

Dawnguard should have been a stand alone that added new areas to the map without changing anything within your Skyrim game. I haven't progressed my current character past lv9. I've gotten enough skill increases that I am sure she's lv 30 by now. But as long as I don't go into the skill tree menu she won't be progressed past lv 9.

I have bad news for you friend: attacks can happen at least as early as level 8. I went to Falkreath right after meeting with Gerdur in Riverwood so I could buy the house plot from the Jarl. While I was down at the cemetery apparently an attack spawned up by the west gate. 2 thralls and a master vampire. They took out 4 guards. Fortunately, no civies were lost. But really, four guards?! This may have been because the guards spawned while I was still level 6 (that was when I arrived in Falkreath) but the vampires spawned at level 8, making them more powerful than the guards. (I went up 2 levels while there through simple training, potion making, and bartering.)

you on console or PC?

I don't hear from Garus(or what ever the recruiter Orc's name is) or rumors from guards until after lv10. Only "wild" vampires I find are pre-dawnguard vampires that roamed Skyrim since 11/11/11. Have not had a single attack in any hold/reach/town or city. I am of course using the vampire ward mod as I mentioned before but that still allows Dawnguard to start.

However I did encounter gargoyals and Dawnguard type vampires in Bloodlet Throne when doing a quest for Skjor of the Companions. Seems Dawnguard does re-write the vampire scripts in vampire locations that existed before Dawnguard came out. I'm curious to see what changes it made to the Morthal vampire quest from the Jarl that existed before Dawnguard came out. Now that my character is a werewolf, seems like it may be time to find out.

I am intentionally holding off allowing Dawnguard to trigger for this character until I have completed at least the main quest up to the point of getting the Elder Scroll. I hear the main quest can be bugged if you get the Elder Scroll before learning of it from the dragon at Throat of The World.

The attacks do seem to happen sometimes. Dunno what the real trigger is because some people get them before lvl 10.

And there you have it! This is not how i want to play the game, i want to do everything on my own terms, not rush through Dawnguard just to be rid of the attacks.

exactly. we have been presented TES games as such. You chose your path and how you want to complete. Dawnguard re-wrote all that with this random attack thing.

Waiting can have the same effect as fast travel I found on my 200hour DG playthru. Even if you wait indoors until 8:00 you can still be greeted by a vampire attack when you step outside, you would have been better off walking out of the cell.

What I don't understand though is how you people are losing NPCs in towns? I play on master difficulty and I could only manage to get a few shots off before the guards and my follower Faendal wiped out the vampires. I didn't lose a single townsperson in 200 hours. I lost the guy at the Whiterun stables to Death Hounds and Temba Wide-Arm to a Revered Dragon and that was it.

You all must be hitting the panic button and running around like headless chickens while the vamps are feeding on your precious vendors. What to do is get your DG gear on, your necklace of disease immunity, your fire damage enchanted crossbow and your exploding bolts of fire, then kill them.

Jeez, show a little backbone!

The key to keeping everyone alive is too not stop playing the Dawnguard quests until you beat them, no stopping to go to a town to sell or put items in a house, the Vampires only have a chance of spawning if you fast travel or enter/exit a building/city.

The chance is 25%, they CAN spawn without you seeing them but only if you are in the town or in your house/shop or go near the town.

If you weren't near a town it was probably a legendary dragon attack, they are the most common dragon you'll face if you're level 76-81 if you were aren't near that level, they are rare but they do happen.

I'm ran through Dawnguard's quest between levels 56-60 or so, and apart from one attack at Riften market where the poor beggar lady died, and another attack on Whiterun where Nazeem (yay) and a couple of guards died, I never lost anyone. Granted, I never did go to Dawnstar (hardly do, really) but I believe it's easier to kill the vampires at higher levels than at lower levels, even if the enemies are scaled. When you can one-hit the thralls and hounds and then draw attention from the (usually single) master vampire, the other townsfolk have a much better chance at survival. I can see this being less easy at lower levels, though, when even the lower-level supplementary enemies can take time to kill. Certain cities are also worse than others for this - Dawnstar must be bad from the OP's experience. When I was testing blotted-sun vampire spawns post-DG, I tried a few cities, and Solitude was another horrible one, where the vampires like to spawn in front of Vittoria Vici's house, and by the time you sprint there from the main gates you're bound to lose a townsfolk or two. Markarth seemed more secure because the vampires spawn near the guards to the left of the entrance on the way to the mines.. but yeah, no matter what it's not going to be easy at lower levels.

I probably lost more townsfolk to my accidental swings than to actual vampire attacks. Wasn't my fault when the master vampire is surrounded by Riften vendors all around? I did reload, though....

You can't buy a house in Falkreath.

He never said he was buying a house, he said he was buying the house plot, so he has Hearthfire, and would now have a house in that hold.

I had three attacks on Dawnstar and lost no NPC's just a guard. One character, probably Braggen went though chasing books, got distracted by the new boat and almost had a disaster, had to race to get the ones down the bottom then realised there were vampires up the top as well, no one was lost. Aussie went though chasing quests and caused a vampire attack, no one was lost. Braggen went past the Dawnstar sanctuary, after Dawnguard had been completed and caused an attack on Dawnguard which got a guard killed. He was working on his vampire perks, did not go in the sanctuary, but triggered the music for the door before I realised that could be a mistake. Went way out to sea to go around Dawnstar, but was attacked by deathhounds on the other side when he returned to land again, he was well past Dawnstar. He changed back into human form and raced off to Dawnstar, there were no vampires there, but one guard near the Jarl's longhouse was dead. For his troubles Braggen got a Legendary dragon attacking Dawnstar, which I thought was harder than killing a bunch of vampires. Still no NPC's were lost, but it was a close thing.

Wow....you realize maste difficulty INCREASES EVERYONE's HP! That means it's EASIER to protect people even though the enemies are harder to kill. If anything, YOU have less backbone to insult everyone whose had this problem without doing your homework.

This is one of the problems with having a dlc within existing map. Hopefully next one will send us off to another area.

I wouldn't got that far. I never did Shivering Isles because I never wanted to leave Cyrodil. I didn't even like going to Oblivion. Cyrodil was great. Knights of the Nine took place in Cyrodil and I like that just fine. I kinda like DG more than KotN, in part because it does take you to places in Skyrim and has you interact with the people of Skyrim instead of a separate realm. Most of DG is just fine. I don't mind the Traveller since he targets me, not the NPCs. It is the vampires who go after non-dawnguard NPCs that I don't like, and then only because NPC AI is so horrible.

In all seriousness, what is the likelihood of this getting fixed for us 360 players? I was fortunate in my first playthrough to not lose anyone. But I played straight through and didn't go to towns often. I'm particularly hesitant to make a new character seeing as he wouldnt be doing dawnguard at all. Should I just be stuck at level 7 or 9?

I've only had 1 really bad experience in Riverwood where the moment I stepped out of Faendal's house, a Master Vampire was about to kill Gerdur. I managed to get around it after a small struggle. Other than that, I haven't had many vampire attacks. None that have done any serious damage anyway. I guess I'm lucky.

well I'm still lv 9 with my current character having not spent any points I know I have that would likely increase her lv into the 20s. Still no random attacks. Even spent about 3 in game days in Morthal with my character sleeping in the Inn every night. No spawning vampires when I stepped outside at all.

Guess it may be very random or bad luck to have the random attacks start as soon as lv 8. Reason I used Morthal for the test on this is that my first ever random vampire attack after installing Dawnguard was in morthal with another character who was lv 53 at the time. One vampire master and two lesser vampires. They had successfully killed a couple guards by the time I rushed up from the Inn.

Has you character been told about the attacks yet? Even after you hear about the attacks you might not actually get one till you join the Dawnguard.

Nope. being that I'm lv 9, no guard or the Orc recruiter has spoken of Dawnguard or joining it. In fact I even stopped by the Stendarr Hall which is burned to the ground during Dawnguard and its still standing with everyone there alive. Gonna drag this luck out as long as I can.