Literally. Half the NPCs in this game are dead, and I'm only level 21. The random vampire attacks usually take 1 or 2 named NPCs, and dragons usually grab up another 1 or 2 each time.

This game doesn't seem to be able to tolerate it's own mechanics.

What to do?

So the vampire attacks are from Dawnguard, I take it?

Tell me about these dragons killing NPC's.

Are they attacking towns/cities that you've never been to before, or places you've already been?

I am concerned about this stuff, and haven't done much in the game.

In all my time playing this game, and all the complaints I have seen. I have only had about 7 Dragon attacks and I think one or two Vampire attacks... (spanning FOUR separate characters in total) WTF? Clearly I am blessed or something.

Do the dragons actually attack the cities/towns at random, or are they scripted?

Most of my dragon and vampire attacks happen at night, after the people have gone asleep. I've had a few dragons attack Solitude before, they can kill a large number of NPC's if you're not careful. It must svck having most of the nonessential NPCs dead, man.

Some are scripted, but in the wilderness. The city attacks are randomized.

Dragon attacks normally happen when you fast travel into a city and dragons spawn much more often when you FT anywhere. I stopped FT to ny Hearthfire houses because it attracted so many dragons. I had a half dozen dragon attacks in Solitude from FT into the city and one ancient dragon killed about a half dozen NPC's. Avoid FT into cities/towns and to your HF houses. I've had Riverwood attacked this way once or twice (No casualties) and Falkreath a number of times (Again no casualties). Also dragon attacks in Winterhold from FT to the college a number of times. Hell just about every city but Solitude was the only one I lost anybody. Avoid FT to these places and it's safe for the locals. For the most part. A dragon popped up every time I walked to the sawmill at Solitude (I don't know why) for a long time.

There are several fairly easy things that you can do to reduce the damage done by random vamp and dragon attacks this topic has been discussed at length in the DB section. Also if your on pc there's mods available that make the NPCs run indoors when a vamp or dragon attacks.

The dragon attacks are random. Open villages, like Riverwood have a chance of the random encounter triggering an attack. I want to say It's 15%. That number stick out in my mind for some reason. Ax far as walled cities, like Whiterun, the chance is a lot lower. These areas only have about 1% or less of a chance of a Dragon attack happening. I have played for over 3,500 hrs across two platforms and I have never had a Dragon attack within a walled city.

As for the Vampires, a study was posted by someone that gave the times of certainty for these attacks. I'm running from memory so I may be off a little. Vampires will only attack during the evening hrs. I want to say between 8Pm and 6AM. Even then, guards will give a hint as to when this is about to occur, as they will comment " Where are these Vampire attacks coming from? ".

As stated, fast traveling will increase the chances of occurrence.

EDIT : I mean to say that FTing will all but guarantee an attack for the most part, while manual travel will all but prevent them from happening. That is Vampire attacks can still be triggered after sleeping in an area for the night after the comment from the guards.

What about traveling via horse carriage to cities? Same effect as FT?

Not that I have noted. At least not when I've ridden carriages.

I have spawnen a Dragon attack after taking a carriage to both Morthal and Winterhold, on several occasion.

Maybe that was why I got that frost dragon first time I went to Winterhold (Via carriage) . Since then nothing.

I've had only one. I had a dragon attack in Windhelm while I was there. Nice epic battle on the steps of the palace.

I have only started getting vampire attacks, and I think I've only had 2 of them. Both in Whiterun. And only one of them was a real attack. The 2nd time, I just saw dead vampire bodies at the city gates.

I've had 2 memorable dragon attacks in unwalled villages. The first was in Riverwood. During the attack, Alvor's wife was killed, and he locked himself in his home in sorrow and mourning for a few days.

The other was at the small town outside of Windhelm (sorry, can't remember the name of the top of my head right now). The one near where you witness

Well, a random dragon attacked it while I was there. I had Vorstag as a follower. During the fight, Vorstag killed one of the civilians. The family proceeded to put a hit out on me, and of course I got a bounty in Windhelm. So RP wise, I said that Vorstag went rogue, and I dismissed him, sending him back to Markarth while I cleared my name of the murder.

Both of these dragon attacks were pretty good RP moments for my character.

If you still want to use FT, I recommend that you FT to the stables or another location outside the cities where not as many npcs are around.

Another trick is to always save manually before FT, and if a dragon triggers, reload and FT somewhere else. I guess this won't work for vampires though, since they only attack cities from what I've understood (I have DG installed but haven't played through the questline yet, and I use a mod that postpone the triggering of the random attacks).

Yes, a much more intelligent way to fast travel to walled cities. Unwalled towns though can get hit hard which is one reason I stopped FT till recently. It's much easier to defend the citizens from outside.... if you decide to use FT. I recommend you don't use it much if at all unless you want to collect a lot of dragon souls.

BTW I have 60 dragon souls in 'the bank' for perks later. A side effect of so much fast travel.Not that I'm complaining. They do get annoying after a while though, especially when you're OP and it's like swatting gnats.

Or, you could just do as I've done and let Mirmulnir continue to circle the Western Watchtower for what... almost 30 levels now?.

Yeah, when ARE you going to take him down? Still advocating Enhanced Deadly Dragons?

Isn't this kind of what the game is about? "The dragons are back, It's up to you to stop them". And isn't this what Dawnguard is about? The orc tells you there is a vampire menace, I answer "I haven't seen any vampire attacks" or something like that. Is stuff like this that bring excitement to a boring setting where nothing happens unless the player triggers it. Every time some NPC mentions the war I go: "what war? and where?" Because it really doesn't feel like there's a war going on. If anything, I wish there was more chaos and things like these in the game. I really don't get what people complain about.

Guess I am a little different since my characters enjoy the complexity and added responsibilities the dragons and vampires add to the world. My first character completed the mq which seemed to shut the attacks down. My 2nd character has done just enough of the mq to spawn the attacks and has purposely only done about half of the Dawnguard to ensure vampire attacks. At level 56 with seriously enchanted bosses like Lydia, Igiard, Eola or mjoll at his side, and twin dremora at his fingertips he enjoys the extra responsibility of ensuring the survival of friends and loved ones. I totally agree it is no fun to lose valued npc's, and I am sure this might get tedious for lower level characters, but my characters tend to open as many quests as possible to keep the environment intense, and then concentrate on side quests. I actually enjoy the additional complexity and requirement to remain on your game that is imposed. Thus far, I have only lost the inn keeper at river wood, although there have been some very close calls.

I hate dragons, they should've been gone after you finished the MQ. and a new source to getting dragon souls should've been presented. i killed alduin, saved the world, came back and dragons are still roaming around and killing people? WTF Bethesda?

That's why I'm embarrassed. Tyst Farval is waaaaay on the other side of the map. She is adventuring throughout the Reach and having a blast. She has been perk distracted with other shiney ones and not focused on elemental resistances and has not quite been able to secure an Ebony bow with a strong frost enchantment.

She has discovered about 5 or 6 words, so she will be interested in acquiring a few souls before long. Provided she can actually take one down. She will definitely be bringing help. I need to install UFO and get some team support.

My sentiments exactly. I was going to only quote the highlight statement of that post, but realized it was all a highlight.

Another noteworthy gesture. Ice Cream for you as well.

I have never had this problem. Both vampire and Dragon attacks are very rare happenings. I wish them to happen more often and some NPCs to die during them but that's not like what's going to happen.

If you wish to get rid of the problem just stop fast travelling or using carriages.

It's easy to avoid vamp attacks, just don't FT directly to the Town or City, instead, FT somewhere furthur away so that if you arrive during the dead of night you can just wait until the dead of morning before FT to the Town or City. So lets say you want to FT to Riverwood, instead, FT to the three Standing Stones and if it's night time just wait there until morning before walking down to Riverwood.

Dragon attacks are harder to predict, those guys can attack any time of the day.

If you are going to fast travel do it to the stables,wait till day time save then enter the city. With places like dawnstar,morthal etc,your best bet is to find a location pretty close then wait till day and walk/run there. It's better if it's somewhere not too close. Example: The giant camp near dawnstar woulkd be ok,but anything closer may still see them spawn there,then it's to late. I don't think they are meant to attack during the day,but this can happen. Sometimes after a while the attacks can stack. There will be more vampires,thralls,and hounds than there should be

Save when fast traveling,and before entering a city. You can keep on top of it,but i still think it's not very good. It should of been done better.

You can also put the difficulty to novice while in the city,if needs be.