So I'm getting Dawnguard soon, and I want to make sure that the town doesn't get destroyed by them. Well, I only care for Whiterun, Solitude and Riften, but still.

I'd like to know that the NPC's can look after themselves, but they all have crappy weapons.

I wonder, if I reverse pickpocket a weapon onto them, will they keep it indefinitely, and use it in case of attack?

If that doesn't work, what else can I do to ensure the towns safety when I won't always be able to?

Reverse pickpocket weapons onto NPCs.

I done this in whiterun with Daedric warhammers dealing 1,000+ damage.

Mods if you're on pc.

If you're not on pc, enjoy an empty Skyrim.

Vampire attacks only happen at night (19.00-5.00 ?), so as long you aren't close enough for the game process events on settlements during nightime the attacks won't happen.

If you're on PC, Arthmoor to the rescue: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/28235//?

Erm... Look up. Thanks, Michael. I was hoping it'd work, glad to see that it does.

I once reverse pickpocketed everyone in a town-which-must-not-be-named Daedric weapons, then cast Mayhem, it was fun watching them all kill each other. Anyway, if the town gets attacked and everyone dies, just keep reloading until the vampire doesn't spawn anymore, which for me takes just one reload.

Edit: My explanation seemed a little too vague to me, so let me rephrase it; if the vampire has already killed everyone in the town, just reload to the save prior to him spawning, and usually, he doesn't spawn again, which means the event of everyone's death would be void, but really, no one really dies on vampire attacks in my playthrough, except that stable-guy in Whiterun, he keeps dying, little milk drinker that one.

I wasn't entirely serious. Of course there are some measures that work, however, I find reverse-pickpocketing weapons on all townsfolk a lot of work.

Go to the city during the day. If you Fast Travel, do so to the stables. If its night, wait until daytime. Even then, save before you enter the city. The guards inside the city by the gate will give you a hint an attack is happening. They'll say something among the lines of "Why are these vampires attacking?". Be sure to have Detect Dead on.

This^ I don't FT to cities at all. You can still get a rare daytime attack, it has happened to me and others, so I do make sure to go close enough to guards to listen. If I go to a city at night, I hang around for a bit watching to be sure no vamps spawn. I always make a save before going into the cities also, just in case.

I don't have the DG mq activated on my current character, but just having DG loaded spawns a certain amount of random attacks, whether the quest is started or not, so I'm still careful.

I have been unable to keep the Whiterun stable inhabitants alive either, no matter how many times I reload.

Silly talk!
It's only for a brief period - so just defend! Kill vampires (if you must) and take precautions.
Don't fast-travel at night, as has been mentioned.
Be aware.
Get past it (quickly) and you'll lose NO ONE...

No pickpocketing cheater Daedric Warhammers required, LoL, heheh...
(The Resto Potion exploit has been 'corrected' on PC since February, anyway.)
But seriously, keeping everyone alive is not that big a challenge.
I've done it twice now (on Master difficulty).

When you complete the Dawnguard main quest, the vampire city attacks stop. If you complete it quickly, without putting the questline on hold while you do other things, it's possible for you to never see a vampire attack in a city, though you'll still get attacked on the roads from time to time. It also helps to be at a high enough level where you can kill the vampires quickly, or fast enough that they can be killed before they kill anyone.

I highly recommend getting all three words for Slow Time if you must go to cities or towns. The best way to avoid all cities and towns until the MQ is complete. Also a warning, do NOT block out the sun after the MQ is complete otherwise the attacks will start up again and cannot be stopped.

Well i guess if you're on PC then there should be a mod that can solve this crap once and for all.

Vampires can not spawn during daylight hours, except for the scripted first encounter at level 8.

To avoid all vampire attacks simply ensure never to arrive somewhere after 9pm and before 5am.

This includes arriving outside city gates and waiting at stables, as these are included within the outer bounds of the city cell. Wait before you fast travel, not after.

Ever since I learned these simple rules I havent lost a single villager in all the time since Dawnguard was released.

Details taken from the game files on vampire attacks can be found http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1426043-a-few-notes-on-vampire-attacks-for-those-interested/.

I have had quite alot of daytime vampire attacks.

Probably the easiest way is to be inside before 8pm and don't come out again until its daylight.

Death of NPC's is part of the beleivability of a vampire scourge. If you reverse pickpocket deadric warhammers into unwitting shopkeepers and reloading if some random NPC dies.. you're cutting yourself short on the immersiveness of the DLC.

Then you didnt follow the rules as I explained and as the post I linked detailed.

It is also possible you are experiencing a bug as this is a Bethesda game, but I doubt it. The game files are quite unambiguous and clear-cut. Vampires attacks require several conditions to be met before they are even possible.

Wont work. You need to be away from the city-cell and arrive by day to avoid vampire attacks spawning.

. Always worked for me as long as I'm inside before dark and don't come out until morning then I'm vamp attack free.

I didnt follow the rules in the post because the vampire attacks happened before you posted it. Since Dawnguard came out most vampire attacks I have had, have been during the day.

But they spawned at night. What seems to happen often is that people arrive outside the city gates at the stables, wait there until daytime, proceed to the city and get attacked.

This is because technically the stables are within the outer bounds of the city-cell.

Waiting before fast travelling ensures no attacks happen. It helps to save and reload to do a test trip if you're unsure of time of arrival, but you get the hang of it after a while.

Travelling across Skyrim, from west to east or north to south, almost always mean you arrive at the opposite time of day as you started from, for instance.

It is safe to wait in a city cell until night and then fast travel away from there, as long as you're away quickly. Vampires despawn when the player leaves the cell and since they are scripted to spawn at a point away from the player they are unlikely to interrupt fast travel.

Master Vamp attacks DO happen during the DAY. This has decimated my skyrim population, mainly whiterun.

Just progress the Dawnguard storyline a little bit and the attacks should go away and be replaced by traveling stranger encounter instead which is much more manageable.

I also reverse PP better weapons onto townsfolk to help them out just in case.

*im on xbox

they didint spawn at night though. I went to whiterun during the day, walked into breezehome to put some stuff away, walked outside still daytime then vampires attacked. It was on a no fast travel DiD character.

Reverse pickpocketting NPCs is one way, sure. It might help. They won't put armpur on. But they will equip weapons.

The problem, though, is that Dawnguard's Vampire attack system does get a bit silly. Especially if you fast travel a lot. You'll wind up arriving in town at night trying to deal with both a Dragon Attack and Vampire Attack at the same time.

Not fun.

Many dead NPCs.

The best way around it, that I've found, is to make sure you only enter towns through the main gates and calculate your arrival times. If you fast travel to Dragonsreach in Whiterun, or the Thieves Guild back door in Riften, you run the risk of arriving at night as a Vampire and his Thralls arrive at the main gate. By the time you make your way back to the Front Gate NPCs, even Guards, will probably be dead.

After installing Dawnguard I've taken to avoiding Fast Travelling entirely. I can take the Cart between Cities and hike my way across to where I need to go. I discover more locations that way, anyway.

It takes a little bit of foresight, but it's not that big of a deal.

First off, Fast Travel is your enemy, unless you know the travel times very well. If you want to stop vampires from attacking settlements, you need to be aware of the time.

Vampires can attack anytime between 8PM and 5AM, they will only spawn if you're in the same cell, and will always spawn at or near town entrances. Once an attack happens and is repelled, there's a considerable delay before another will happen. I've actually gone two months or more without having a vampire incident in some cases, but the average is around two game weeks.

First and foremost: Save often and in multiple slots.

Next, try to enter towns either very late at night (When everyone is asleep, this is usually after 12AM-1AM) or during the day. If you want to attempt to Trigger a vampire attack to reset the cooldown, it's best to go for those late-night walks around town.

As you get higher in level, Vampires become less of an issue, as the guards are scaling up as well. The most dangerous attacks will happen between level 8 and level 12, where a single Master Vampire can annihilate an entire town of guards and civilians, thanks to their drain life spell. Triggering this attack should be done in precisely controlled conditions. I usually wait in the Drunken Huntsman once I reach level 8, until 1AM, then zone out sneaking until the Master Vampire spawns and attacks the guard(s) at the gate. Dispatch any Thralls first, and if you have some kind of stamina regenerating food, use it and "Bash-lock" the vampire while the town kills him.

Any settlement that doesn't have it's own zone is more vulnerable to vampire attacks. Even with a standing force of guards, the event may load at a pretty generous distance away, giving a vampire time to kill some of the weaker civilians, the best way to be sure that you're not having a depopulation issue is to go through any nearby towns to check. If a Vampire is present, do a headcount and back up your most recent good autosave before it's overwritten.

The most vulnerable settlements are:

Riverwood, especially if you don't want to loose Stump.

Rorikstead

Kynesgrove

Whiterun, especially because Adrianne Avanicci is usually the first to die.

Riften outside the North gate. One guard and several civilians. This place also tends to spawn vampires higher than Master, including Nightlords.

It seems like it's a huge pain, but honestly, I don't find it that intrusive to my playstyle.

I don't buy into this. People will play Skyrim how they want to play Skyrim.

Skyrim is a 'relatively' barren and desolate of human(oid) life, nothing out of turn in wanting to protect the populace by arming them. Many of us don't see this as cutting ourselves short of immersion.