[Everardo Montano]

Hello folks,

Just some advice I wanted to share with you.

My game of Skyrim is empty.....

When I say empty I'm talking about the cities and towns. It's almost void of NPCs! Beside the obligatory 'essential' NPCs walking around (who prettry much stay in doors anyway), it's only populated by auto-spawning guards.

How has this happened, I hear you ask? Well, the dragon attacks have whittled the populace down anyway since release date, but since downloading Dawnguard.... the Master Vampire attacks have pretty much finished off the remaining townsfolk!

OMG, the towns and cities in my Skyrim contain only self-procreating guards (whom, Im assuming, mate and breed like rabbits overnight in their barracks to replace their dead from the day before) But when it comes to normal everyday townspeople, there is none! They're all piles of ash or lying dead in the city gutter somewhere.

My last NPC to kick the bucket was the cowardly Belathor of Whiterun who must have acted un-characteristically bold and took on a Master Vampire with his iron dagger. And no matter how many times I tried to re-load and re-enter Whiterun, the battle was already in full swing with the same inevitable consequence.... a dead Belathor. In truth he was already dead, as when I entered the Whitrun 'cell' Belathor was a dead thrall of the vampire, so there was truly NO way of saving him.

Anyway, I digress. My point is, guys, gals and lizardmen of the forum, just be aware that the more you play this game the less people you'll see and meet in world. It's an inevitable result of Bethesda's programming and design, something you'll have to come to terms with, especially with the Dawnguard DLC. And despite what Todd may have told you about the death of shopkeepers in Skyrim..... FRIENDS/FAMILY RELATIVES DO NOT TAKE OVER THE SHOP FOR THEM!.

Thanks for listening folks, hope your world isn't as barren and desolate as mine. Anyway, back to my game of Skyrim, I'm off to visit my favourite NPC Svana in the Bunkhouse in Riften, she's beautiful and always very welcoming to my character... oh, hold on, where is she? Oh no, not you too Svana *sob sob*

[maddison]

I don't want to get into an argument on these forums about dawnguard, but you have a very very exceptional case there then. I have played dawnguard for over 300 hrs. and haven't lost anyone. I did reload once because I walked out of breeze home with no weapons at all straight into a vampire who killed adriane before I could get him.

Dawnguard hasn't changed what I've done at all, I don't go though towns checking, I don't have to take a minuite every time I enter a city to be ready, as you can see, I sometimes don't even carry my weapons.

I do think that npc's should run away instead of attack with their daggers, but it has in no way detracted from my game at all

[Stefanny Cardona]

A game with diminishing returns...this is something a beta tester would find out after playing for a long time is what I'm thinking. I feel like this should be a report in the bugs forum too. If you didn't help to kill everything, the vampire lords et al might be taken down a notch or two or three so this won't happen? Thanks for the info. I'm on PC and don't have the addon yet.

[josh evans]

shouldn't this be somewhere else? Also that is your experience it is not a common one. I do not have your problem and no one I know that plays has it either. So either your game is bugged or you just let it happen.

[Laurenn Doylee]

In all my time of Dawnguard, I don't think I've lost any NPCs due to vampire attacks. They usually die before they can take a life.

[Catherine N]

*Sigh* if you care that much about npcs as a member of the dawnguard you also have the duty of giving the means to help people protect themselves raise up your pickpocket abit and reverse pickpocket some weapons to the towns folk and guards. Giving people the means to protect themselves helps alot more than you trying to protect a whole town.

Anyway I see no problem with the attacks maybe cause I don't really care for npcs and I can't wait for the destruction and carnage these vampire attacks will cause it may spice up city life.

Plus this thread should be in the dawnguard section.