121 replies to this topic

[Stemin]

No, Stemin, I am another one who says that I do not see how stock game can be so imbalanced as to cause weak NPCs to murder most city dwellers.

And yet there are already many people in this thread who have pointed out just that.

Yes, they might be lucky and kill an occasional NPC who can give you a minor quest, but then this is how this game is supposed to be.

What do you think we're complaining about?

I fully agree with the others who said that it is impossible for the game to kill somebody unless you are in the same cell. It might be hard to avoid such attacks, but this is what game difficulty (change it to lower?) settings as well as various mods are for.

Why would the game difficulty help at all? All it's going to do is make the overall combat easier. It's not going to adjust the level difference between vampires and NPC's in any given town.

If an NPC can die when there are 4 NPC's and 1 Vampire Thrall, then clearly there is no level balance between NPC's.

In the past, dragon attacks on various settlements could cause some troubles, but never to an extent where they would decimate entire city populations, and I am certain that dragons are noticeably more powerful than vampires in stock game.

They don't "decimate entire city populations" all at one time, but over time, it's quite possible. The only ones left in Morthal on my first character build are essentials, basically the Jarl's family, half of which don't leave the hall. And I don't even have dawnguard on this one because it's on PS3.

Unless your game is gimped to hell due to a sequence of some bizarre events, I believe you should either take a different approach to handling vampires' appearances in various towns or install some mods which will rebalance your current situation. Nothing prevents you from disabling or completely uninstalling them later on.

Yeah, basically what he said. We should all change our play style to suit this "feature." Ridiculous. And I haven't installed any mods to date, I don't see that as a defense, particularly since console players don't have this availability.

[sinnerman69]

I played the dragon ending and killed alduin and there was no dragon mist when I got to Sovngarde, dawnguard busted the dragon mist I wanted to see if dawnguard missed up the dragon ending!..

Edited by sinnerman69, 09 August 2012 - 01:04 AM.

[Lisnpuppy]

I have to say that reading through this thread gave me a headache. Its become less a "discussion" on the issues with Dawnguard (and I use that term very loosely) and more a bitchfest and gripe-all at everyone else and their opinions. Well to say what my late Mother did, Everyone has a right to be wrong, but that doesn't mean you have to rub their nose in it. So...translation....stop being trolls, stop feeding trolls and learn that this is a GAME and the INTERNET and no one needs to get their underwear all this bunched up. Agree to disagree and move on before I get the joy of shutting yet another thread down. Down make me leave my vampyric feeding again or I may be angry..grrrr.~Lisnpuppy

[Flamdring]

Lisnpuppy, thank you for the post. Hopefully the thread will become more informative now.

Stemin, in this thread there are two or three people, including yourself, who say that they are afraid that their game will become pretty much unplayable after a certain period of time due to random vampire attacks who kill off random NPCs. Now, from what I have read here and on various other forums about Skyrim, these people either do not know how to play this game or seem to be very unhappy to lose NPCs, because they want to be able to complete every single quest in game. What I am saying is that I seriously doubt that the game is imbalanced as the NPCs dying from other NPCs is a consciously implemented feature by the developers to make the game world feel more alive and interactive, and I agree with sajuukkhar9000 that this is what many gamers wanted to see.

Game difficulty changes not only combat difficulty between your character and NPCs, but also between your followers and other NPCs. On Master difficulty, even your horse or any other follower will have higher HP and damage reduction bonus which can be useful when fighting against other NPCs. I am unsure if it influences NPCs living in towns, but their stats can be checked via console commands - try to experiment.

What is your character's current level? I noticed that approximately after level 25, the game stops being difficult at all even on Master difficulty, hence I chose to install mods (I did not use them before). Perhaps you should consider disabling Dawnguard DLC for the time being as you will lose very little of the game content, but will be able to level your character to a point where other NPCs also become stronger. From what I remember, city guards level up as well as other NPCs which means they will have better gear stats and other perks to protect themselves from future vampire or dragon attacks.

Edited by Flamdring, 09 August 2012 - 06:00 AM.

[muezk]

So far I have to say that I've been pretty lucky when it comes to the random vampire attacks, although I am only about four hours into the Dawnguard questline. I've had about five attacks so far, and they all have been right at the entrance of whatever city I am in which were easily stopped. Haven't noticed any NPC's dead because of this (which I probably just jinxed). If by chance the NPC did get hit by the vampire, I noticed they just drop to the ground with low health but do not die.

[Satorinu]

I have to say that reading through this thread gave me a headache. Its become less a "discussion" on the issues with Dawnguard (and I use that term very loosely) and more a bitchfest and gripe-all at everyone else and their opinions. Well to say what my late Mother did, Everyone has a right to be wrong, but that doesn't mean you have to rub their nose in it. So...translation....stop being trolls, stop feeding trolls and learn that this is a GAME and the INTERNET and no one needs to get their underwear all this bunched up. Agree to disagree and move on before I get the joy of shutting yet another thread down. Down make me leave my vampyric feeding again or I may be angry..grrrr.~Lisnpuppy

Phear the fanged puppy, phear the fanged puppy! dun smite me!

Actually well said! Though I vote we derail this thread and speak of the secret love that is, delicious muffins.

or.. not! Ah well, in any case; heres my latest contribution.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21615

Problem solved .. note I didn't make that mod, it's just my .. link of awesome.. to contribute.. to the .. conversation.. not.. trolling. No more vampire attacks, at all.

-- 69th Post! Yay! Just yay.

Edited by Satorinu, 09 August 2012 - 06:15 AM.

[kevkiev]

So far I have to say that I've been pretty lucky when it comes to the random vampire attacks, ....(which I probably just jinxed). ...

Lol, betcha did.

I'm on my second play of DG and when I first saw this thread I thought "what the hell's the big deal, I've only had a few and they were easily repelled." (I swear, in my entire first playthrough I had maybe 6 attacks and, except for one that was easily repelled by the guards, the vamps focused only on my char.)

I then started up the game and, like TWO, minutes later my char entered Riften and I heard an arrow wiz by her head (a guard with bad aim) and by the time she and Serana got to the market to check out the fuss there were 5 bodies piled up including only 2 vampires. Didn't even really see what happened. Ah well.... at least one of the victims was that Aerin guy. One of the others was Haelga, so my char got a chance to soothe her conscience a bit after shakin' Haelga down during the TG questline (and being constantly reminded of it) by not taking a single thing from her corpse. (I dunno, it seemed kinda poetic at the time anyways.)

So yeah, don't mess with those Skyrim jinxies!

After my char recruited Meeko (pre-DG) she just left him outside breezehome to gaurd her home (she especially doesn't trust that woodchopping store clerk). I only did that for RP purposes 'cuz my char felt sorry for him (and, yeah, thinks the store clerk is a creep), but am sure glad I did. He's one tough doggy that should give any vamp a run for his/her money.

[ginnyfizz]

Having been mooching around with a character who decided to go and do the quest in the Whiterun Catacombs to get the Amulet of Arkay, I was dismayed to come across...Belethor's coffin!!!! Then I remembered that when she first arrived in Whiterun there was a vampire attack going down. Clearly clicking on him in the console and typing "resurrect" is a waste of time as the game still thinks he is dead. This was confirmed when after doing that little quest she went over to Belethor's shop, and it was locked at 15.00h.

So yes, NPC's ARE getting killed by these vampires. No, I do not have any mods that make enemies stronger. I did feel that it could be a game breaker in some ways because the shopkeepers feature quite heavily in Thieves Guild quests and shakedowns. Not to mention buying and selling goods, and buying horses/hitching a ride could be a problem. So first of all I found a list of all merchants and made myself a little .txt file with them all in it, prefixed their ID's with setessential and followed their ID's with 1, saved it as MerchEss.txt and popped it in the Skyrim directory, loaded up a save and typed bat MerchEss in the console. I am going to check if the list does include the carriage drivers and stable keepers, and if not, I'll do the same for them.

[Nosferatz]

I fast traveled to Dragonsreach, went in for a minute to sell some junk to Farengar, came out and walked down toward the smithy to improve some gear, and there I see a vampire and three of his thralls charging forward over the dead bodies of Belethor, Adrianne, Whats-his-face War-bearer? (her husband), Carlotta, Jon Battle-born, Some other guy, and a guard. I was able to dispatch the vampire and his thralls pretty quickly, but obviously my NPCs aren't faring so well on their own. I mean I don't care about dead guards, but having a ghost town is stupid. I lack enough vendors to sell to as it is. Immediately after that incident, I walk out of Breezehome, and there's a traveller, who I easily kill. But what if I hadn't seen him? Come back to more dead NPCs. Isn't there a mod that just makes named NPCs 'essential'? I like the attacks, I just don't like my NPCs dying.

Edit: I should add, I resurrected all of those dead NPCs (since I caught them in time before their bodies disappeared), but the game still thinks they are dead anyway. Adrianne isn't working the forge anymore, and her husband says "Ever since Adrianne's death I've had to buy from Khajiit caravans." So, I don't know where these NPCs I resurrected got to, but they aren't anywhere to be found. Although I have a feeling I might find their resting place in the hall of the dead. :| f*** everything about this.

Oh, found Belethor in his shop, but he will no longer buy/sell to me.

Edited by Nosferatz, 18 August 2012 - 12:24 PM.

[sinnerman69]

I posted a list of all merchants and guards made essential into a text document bat file you use in game console command

name the text document something easy to remember , example type" Bat guards" if you named the text guards, without the exclamation points

guard list

Spoiler

setessential 2D794 1
setessential 2D795 1
setessential 874FB 1
setessential 874FC 1
setessential 874FD 1
setessential 874FE 1
setessential 8757D 1
setessential 10908D 1
setessential EC6E7 1
setessential F684E 1
setessential 10107B 1
setessential 103962 1
setessential 105CA3 1
setessential 105CA9 1
setessential 210CE 1
setessential 36F05 1
setessential 537F2 1
setessential 558FD 1
setessential 5CF3F 1
setessential 87137 1
setessential 8713A 1
setessential 8B319 1
setessential 9E47F 1
setessential AC9CA 1
setessential FDA37 1
setessential FDA39 1
setessential FDA3B 1
setessential FDA3D 1
setessential 604F4 1
setessential 604FE 1
setessential 604FF 1
setessential 60500 1
setessential 109AAC 1
setessential 300A4 1
setessential 458F4 1
setessential 45882 1
setessential 45899 1
setessential 4589C 1
setessential 4589D 1
setessential 4589E 1
setessential 4589F 1
setessential 458A0 1
setessential 458A1 1
setessential 458A2 1
setessential 458A3 1
setessential 458A4 1
setessential 458A5 1
setessential 458A6 1
setessential 458A7 1
setessential 458A8 1
setessential 458A9 1
setessential 458AB 1
setessential 458AD 1
setessential 458AE 1
setessential 458AF 1
setessential 458B0 1
setessential 458B1 1
setessential 458B2 1
setessential 458B3 1
setessential 458B5 1
setessential 458B7 1
setessential 458B8 1
setessential 7494C 1
setessential A8CA4 1
setessential A8CA6 1
setessential E66F6 1
setessential E66F7 1
setessential E66F8 1
setessential F1AA6 1
setessential F62F0 1
setessential 10D156 1
setessential 10D157 1
setessential 10DE20 1
setessential 2E1F0 1
setessential 6B340 1
setessential 853C4 1
setessential A9621 1
setessential B0E8A 1
setessential B3E4F 1
setessential B4C4F 1
setessential B4C55 1
setessential BED96 1
setessential F684E 1
setessential FF7E3 1
setessential 1007F5 1
setessential 1007FA 1
setessential 1020A4 1
setessential 10C068 1
setessential 267EE 1
setessential 274AB 1
setessential 274AC 1
setessential 274AD 1
setessential 39FD7 1
setessential 46EFC 1
setessential 590DE 1
setessential 63F35 1
setessential D2ACC 1
setessential D314C 1
setessential D314F 1
setessential D3154 1
setessential D3159 1
setessential D315D 1
setessential D3BCB 1
setessential 99CE5 1
setessential 9CB5B 1
setessential A27CC 1
setessential A4A3B 1
setessential ABE18 1
setessential B799D 1
setessential BC071 1
setessential BD05C 1
setessential D0FFA 1
setessential D1985 1
setessential D2AC9 1
setessential D3152 1
setessential D315C 1
setessential D3BCA 1
setessential D7779 1
setessential D8C50 1
setessential D8C53 1
setessential D8F09 1
setessential 3EF2C 1
setessential 45C31 1
setessential 55A2B 1
setessential D3C2A 1
setessential FCE80 1
setessential FCE89 1
setessential FCE8A 1
setessential FCE8B 1
setessential FCE8C 1
setessential 24B63 1
setessential FCEEB 1
setessential FCEEC 1
setessential FCEED 1

merchant list

Spoiler

setessential 0001413E 1
setessential 00014140 1
setessential 0001412A 1
setessential 0001411F 1
setessential 00014123 1
setessential 00014148 1
setessential 00014142 1
setessential 0001413A 1
setessential 00014146 1
setessential 0001B076 1
setessential 0001B079 1
setessential 00013662 1
setessential 0001D4B7 1
setessential 00013652 1
setessential 00013650 1
setessential 00013655 1
setessential 0003A19A 1
setessential 00013255 1
setessential 00013260 1
setessential 00013261 1
setessential 00013266 1
setessential 0001326F 1
setessential 00013273 1
setessential 00013275 1
setessential 00013284 1
setessential 0001328C 1
setessential 0001329A 1
setessential 000132AA 1
setessential 00019A28 1
setessential 000135E9 1
setessential 000135ED 1
setessential 000135EF 1
setessential 00013614 1
setessential 00013621 1
setessential 0001361D 1
setessential 0001361E 1
setessential 00013627 1
setessential 0001338B 1
setessential 0001338E 1
setessential 000133A3 1
setessential 00013395 1
setessential 0001339A 1
setessential 000284AC 1
setessential 000133A2 1
setessential 000133A5 1
setessential 00055A5E 1
setessential 00013B7C 1
setessential 00013B77 1
setessential 00013B7A 1
setessential 00019953 1
setessential 00019957 1
setessential 00029DAD 1
setessential 0001334C 1
setessential 0001334D 1
setessential 0001334F 1
setessential 00013380 1
setessential 00013357 1
setessential 00013360 1
setessential 00019DF2 1
setessential 00013354 1
setessential 0001336D 1
setessential 000136C5 1
setessential 00029DAE 1
setessential 0001337E 1
setessential 00013365 1
setessential 00013373 1
setessential 0001B072 1
setessential 00013369 1
setessential 00029DAA 1
setessential 000B8827 1
setessential 00029DAF 1
setessential 00019DEF 1
setessential 00019E18 1
setessential 000136C3 1
setessential 000136BB 1
setessential 00013475 1
setessential 00013479 1
setessential 0001347A 1
setessential 0001347B 1
setessential 00013BB9 1
setessential 00013B97 1
setessential 00013BA4 1
setessential 00013BA1 1
setessential 00013B99 1
setessential 00013B9E 1
setessential 00013B9D 1
setessential 00013BBB 1
setessential 00013B9C 1
setessential 00013BA2 1
setessential 00013BA3 1
setessential 0002BA8E 1
setessential 0002BA8C 1
setessential 000136B6 1
setessential 0001C187 1
setessential 0001C183 1
setessential 0001C184 1
setessential 0001E7D5 1
setessential 0001C198 1
setessential 0001C19C 1
setessential 0001C197 1
setessential 0001C199 1
setessential 0001C19E 1
setessential 0001C193 1
setessential 0001B1D6 1
setessential 0001B1DA 1
setessential 0001B1D1 1
setessential 0001B1D5 1
setessential 0001B1DB 1
setessential 0001B1D0 1
setessential 00016973 1
setessential 00016ACE 1
setessential 00073FBE 1
setessential 000B5D5A 1
setessential 0001414B 1
setessential 0001414C 1
setessential 0001412D 1
setessential 00013283 1
setessential 000132AE 1
setessential 000132AB 1
setessential 0001328E 1
setessential 0001361A 1
setessential 0001361F 1
setessential 0001406B 1
setessential 00013398 1
setessential 0001402D 1
setessential 000133A1 1
setessential 00013B76 1
setessential 0003F21E 1
setessential 0009B7A6 1
setessential 00013669 1
setessential 0009B7AB 1
setessential 0009B7AA 1
setessential 00013B9F 1

Edited by sinnerman69, 18 August 2012 - 12:16 PM.