Come on Aussie; when you start focusing on trying to figure out if a vamp spawned everytime you fast travel or come out of a door at night you have to admit that it will start to grate & take away from you actually properly PLAYING the game

I just can't understand how it's well executed when defenseless npcs lunge themselves at enemies and guards remain completely ignorant and borderline useless when there's supposedly an "invasion" going on. Yes we can reverse pick pocket or use exploits to give them weapons, but why wasn't this put in? It's half-baked. It makes no sense to be the only one in the city actively defending people from vampires. And there's no excuse for the flawed npc behavior, or the fact that vampires can spawn on the other side of town without you ever knowing they killed all the merchants until it's too late (Riften.....). Maybe you don't mind npcs dying, but a town populated only with guards is boring and unrealistic to me. If you're going to give us an invasion, GIVE US AN INVASION. Have guards that are logical and mount a defense, help lead and train them (as an "expert" vampire hunter), and have the innocent civilians run into their homes for safety.

Aussie, this may not be the case in YOUR game but it is in many others. There's a line between challenging fun and annoying hinderance, and for many this is crossing that line.

Now I do not really role play, I just play the game so am not in a position to comment on that. But if I thought in real life my friends might be attacked by a group of vampires, you bet I would rush out the door every time and go check for suspicious activity. So my characters are behaving perfectly normal to me. Braggen ignored the first attack not being sure which side he was meant to be on. I observed the next just to work out what was happening, the third I missed and the fourth went for my favourite pickpocketing trainer and met a nasty end. I worked out how to improve Silda's chances of surviving. If I got more attacks I might put more effort into it, but I have yet to work out even where each town would be attacked. I have never had an attack in Whiterun or Solitude.

In 30+ hours of dawnguard gameplay, I've only been attacked in a city by vampires twice. I travel to cities often, but I never fast travel, the problem pretty much goes away if you don't fast travel.

You could try fast travelling to a nearby location, the stable might be sufficient.

I don't understand why people keep coming out with this line.

It's not an effect of your actiions any more than a bear spawning at the side of the road is an effect of your actions. Your actions affecting the world is where you make a conscious decision that leads to consequences. Like quests with real consequences, something Bethesda really struggle with. The only action in this case is installing the DLC - after that it seems it's totally out of the players control whether their particular game gives them few attacks or constant attacks or whether they stop when you've done the Dawnguard MQ or carry on. This has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with your actions affecting the world.

A consequence would be permanently blocking out the sun. A consequence would be that vampires cant be in dawnguard, and dawnguard cant become vampire lords. A consequence would be that if someone sees us transform, our vampirism becomes public knowledge unless we kill witnesses. Bethesda gave us none of these things. In its place they made it so vampires kill npcs without our knowledge and on the other side of town. It's not a consequence if its out of our hands. It's repetitive and mind-numbing monotony.

I'm sorry, but don't you tell me to [censored] outsmart it. I spent a solid hour and all my brains yesterday resetting the save over and over and over to try and stop them from killing at least one person, and I tried everything at my disposal as a level 26. Not a single thing worked- every time I was not fast enough to stop one or more people from dying, and ended up quiting entirely, and probably won't start up the game again until this is fixed. Yes, it's nice to have decisions affect something, but people like Adrianne at the forge do not get replaced, so if this keeps up my Whiterun is going be devoid of all life save for invincible children (the only ones who run, but ironically the only ones who don't need to). It's not something you "outsmart"- I MIGHT be able to fix it with a blast of the master calm spell on my level 52 character, but I'm doing Dawnguard with my new argonian who can only cast five Oakflesh spells before running out of mana. There is nothing at my disposal capable of saving everyone.

Only happened to me once, but I won't have any innocent civilians die that can't be replaced. Adrianne accounts for 1/3 of my on-hand iron ingot supply and I won't have that be destroyed, and people like Amren and Nazeem just provide extra populace, so Whiterun doesn't end up like Solitude (on a side note, has anyone ever wondered why Solitude is so desolate despite the fact that it's the capital of the province? I mean, I would expect it to be bustling with people the way the cities are in Assassin's Creed)

Adrienne is hardly an irreplaceable loss, you can just walk in the shop and buy stuff including ingots, and there is a smelter to make as many ingots as you want. But I can understand not wanting to lose NPC's because you like having them around. Losing a merchant only makes it harder, there are plenty of merchants in Skyrim, and Whiterun especially has a few.

I am still mystified though why I have never had an attack on Whiterun.

Yeah a few- including Adriane. One more blacksmith only means I don't have to go through one more loading screen or wait one more time before I can get more ingots. And the town is lacking for people enough without them dying and not getting replaced.

If you don't enter town until 3:00AM the streets should be empty, and you could fast travel inside from either the palace or the front gates which should let you reach any point in the town fairly quickly especially with slow time.

Completely missing the point, OUR actions should have an effect. But random attacks on the opposite side of town that slaughter half a dozen residents before you can get there is beyond our control.

This.

There are a few options you can use. One join VLs which really isn't an option because not everyone wants to be vampires. Two is fast travel to the stables when you travel I find it really helps prevent attacks. Three, enter whiterun at night as many npcs are in bed and usually only essential npcs are out and about like belethor( which makes no sense to me). This will help tons too. To finish it off find a incredibly powerful follower and have them wait by gates vamps will typically attack them first. I don't understand the deathhounds at all since they are killing in a area your not at.

Vampires only attacked a city in my game once. The rest of the time I would see them in the wild... still in search for the wild werewolves.

WildWerewolves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4ZywlOOwZk

Belethor is not classed as an essential NPC. And they all head for bed when you arrive, so most will still be out, no matter what time you turn up.

I would get a follower.... Isn't J'zargo not killlable? or well which ever one it is, I totally forgot. or another powerful follower, Summon Flame Atronach and use heal other or better to heal instead of fight or both. Heal in one hand, distruction spell in another. If you had the Sanguine Rose I'd say use that.

I'm sorry I've had only the begining attack inside Windhelm and some attack's at Fort Dawnguard (after the cave but not in the building) the rest are all out on the road. Derik does go into towns but he doesn't fast travel just use the carrige now and then.

I don't fast travel at all, I still get repeated attacks...as a vampire lord!!!

If you ever stood around during the night time you would notice that they DO NOT HEAD FOR BED WHEN YOU ARRIVE!

Amren constantly wanders the streets of Whiterun at night, and is the most likely to rush into a battle at the gates at night time. Most NPCs end up going to the tavern, and leave at differing times. Belethor tends to make a round of the city at around 9pm, and his first stop is the gate. Ysolda usually leaves the tavern around 2am, but does not get close to the gate (at least as far as I can tell) and will not die unless the vampires spawn near the tavern or kill everyone at the gate and rush the tavern. Adrienne exits Warmaiden's around 5am, and is subject to being the first death from any attack that comes from the gate at that time. She also makes a round of the city before finally entering Warmaiden's to sleep around 8pm (if I remember correctly).

Can anyone confirm that porting to the keeps in the capital doesn't launch vampire raids?

It does. Anyplace inside the city has a chance to make the attacks spawn. Even just leaving your house or the tavern.

I just had a Reverent Dragon attack Riften, along with the usual ex Riften Guards and who knows what else. At 5am all those usually in the central part during the day were all there heading to wherever they were going, there was a large crowd heading towards the gate since they sleep on that side of the city. I fast travelled to the stables and entered the gate since I had a quest and was trying not to cause trouble, and have a lot of trouble getting into Riften without all sorts of trouble occurring, made no difference. Seems to me you are one of those who never fast travel Temyr, because surely you would have noticed the crowded streets late at night and early in the morning when you arrive.

This is only happend to me once as I haven't been playing long but I sure hated it. Who wants a bunch of NPCs getting killed off? What were they thinking?

I managed to kill the two death hounds before they killed anyone else by fast travelling from inside Whiterun to the Whiterun stables. That way I spawned right where the hounds spawned and they attacked me, and my horse, instead of the fragile NPCs.

they kill npc's even when you are not there to see
it is an issue

ps try slow time shout

or be willing to remove dawnguard after you complete it
i have

and in riften
if you own the house there is a side door that leads to the lake outside the city
enter thru that gate and do not fast travel to riften

also in the cities fast travel to the palaces

bethesda needs to fix this
as it is a serious problem
i will no longer play this game

I'm fine with random vampire attacks and I'm fine with them killing the towns folk but I really really want is for the towns people that get kill to be replaced with new people. The Skyrim my present character lives in is becoming very empty. Shors Stone has been wiped out by vampires Darkwater crossing has been wiped out in Whiterun Adrianne and Proventus,s wife have been killed all by vamp attacks. A dragon Killed Alvor and Sigrid in Riverwood I cleared Kolskegger mine then the forsworn came back and killed the guy I had helped. With none of these people being replaced Skyrim is becoming an empty place inhabited only by guards.

(Sarcasm) Oh, but dont you get it? It's MUCH better and more realistic for npcs to never be replaced! Think of it as an apocalypse....only there's still an endless supply of guards and enemies......oh don't overthink it!