For the amount of exta resources needed for them, are the powered turrets worth building? Or are the heavy machine gun turrets the most cost-effective?

Rule of thumb, the higher the defense rating, the less likely you're going to be attacked. But the best defense doesn't help if you're not actually there when a settlement is attacked. For some reason, Bethesda found it cool that settlers and turrets couldn't do away with any attacker on their own. You have to be there, even if you just watch how the turrets make short work of the attackers. Also, later on in the game, you should have more than enough resources to build everything.

If you're going for passive defensive (higher defense number), then the machine gun turrets are more cost effective and have a lower object count (ie, no need for generators, wires, and power poles). These turrets aren't very good in a real fight, but they deter attacks while you're away.

If you're going for actual stopping power (active defense, like actually killing things), then the rocket and heavy laser turrets are your best bet, particularly the rocket turret. Of course, do not use the rocket turret for interior defense (ie, point it away from your stuff). These turrets drastically outperform the heavy machine gun turrets in a real fight but you only need active defense when you're actually around the area during a fight. I haven't experimented with the shotgun turret. I assume it wrecks face at close range.

I use a good mix, utilizing the powered turrets to cover the more vulnerable approaches to settlements. Watching the rocket turret rapid fire missiles to tear apart a group of super mutants in a second or two before they can get anywhere near a settlement is glorious.

I love missile turrets, but sometimes it seems like their splash damage kills me more often than it should. So far the best application I've found for missile turrets is protecting the Castle from Vertibirds, in cases where I've made myself an enemy with the Brotherhood of Steel. Missile turrets utterly destroy vertibirds before they can even get close.

They don't stop kidnappings so no they are useless.

idk if its a bug or something on my end, but the missiie turret is more like a gatlin missile turret. svcker shoots out so many really fast!

A molerat decided to pop its head up close to Tenpines. Unfortunately, where it emerged was within the range of 3 of the 4 missile turrets there. Talk about overkill. 2 settlers got hurt in the blasts and had to have a little sit down afterward.

I find a mixture of turrets works best. I also try to have a mix of types, mk.1, mk.3 etc. Shotgun turrets on the ground near choke points.

Raiders take down vertibirds with pipe rifles, so I'm not surprised the rocket turret annihilates them. I'm planning on going the Minutemen victory route on my current playthrough, so I expect I'll get to see that scenario play out and I'm looking forward to it. The castle really is the perfect settlement for rocket defense. You can line the walls with them all pointed outward and not have to worry about collateral damage. I've always been careful about pointing the rocket turrets away from the a settlement, so I haven't had issues so far. I've had other turrets tear apart crops before, so I'd hate to see what a rocket turret pointed the wrong way would do... and I'm very glad gunners and raiders don't use them for defense. It seems to be superior player/Minutemen tech. The Institute must be so jealous.

I'm guessing it's laziness on dev tuning...so a sort of bug. They probably left a default fire rate on the turret. It's vastly overpowered but I hope it stays for the fun factor.

What is the radius of a turrents? I've heard the sensors is 180 degree. While the firing radius is 360.

Pretty much.

Once aggro'd all turrets within range will fire on a target regardless of the direction it's set to scan.

If I'm not mistaken, I don't think you truly fail any of those quests besides the "Help defend {settlement name}" quests. Doing or not doing those quest has no effect on settlement population or attack risk. I want to say it has an impact on happiness but I've experienced in many cases where after turning in one of those quests, the happiness continues to drop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uppER9z7Ejg

even one will wreck.. missile turrets are really strong.

I prefer heavy lasers over anything else.Missile turrets are strongest,but they're dangerous to everything.They have killed settlers of mine who ran outside to engage enemies and were sitting down,due to splash.If you posistion even one of those bad boys so they can fire in the direction of your crops,the splash damage will ruin them.Worst was i had 15 of them open up on one super mutie and doc crocker came strolling in like rambo.Turrets blew him skyhigh.

Tbh,it seems to cause the highest dips in framerate too when i'm at a defense.

For the moment I have only placed heavy machine gun turrets Mk II around my 5 settlements. They do not require much resources and do not require power. However, that was before I decided to change the difficulty level from High to Survivor, but for now I am only testing Survivor just to see how much more difficult it is and to get better chances of having legendary enemies appear.

If I stick with Survivor for the long term, then I will likely upgrade my settlements' defense over time.

I don't really like the heavy stuff. I just arm my settlers to the teeth and use machinegun turrets all over the place. Works for me.

Sweet mother McGee! That was AWESOME!

I haven't bothered arming the settlers yet, but I've been collecting outfits and hats for them to wear ... if for no other reason just so I can know who is assigned to what.

I just use the basic machine gun turret to deter attacks. If an attack actually occurs I have to be there anyway or nothing happens but a loss so I just kill the invaders with turret backup.

Agree. I got tired of dressing everybody different so I just put all my settlers in Road Leathers (except Preston and Mama Murphy, of course) since I assign them beds and tasks as soon as I realize they're there. Makes it easier to tell who's who. I also like to arm them well as soon as they arrive, but I need to stop arming my ladies with mini-guns. They look silly lugging those things around with them all the time. Oh! I did put Sturges in a harness though, 'cause I think he's hot!

You can assign them beds? Can you still assign them work also? I hate it when some settler is in my house sleeping in my bed. To make matters worse they always toss my comfy pillow on the ground.

I asked that question yesterday and, yes, you can assign both. It makes my life so much easier when they have their own beds and their jobs and stay out of my area. I don't give them pillows anymore. Apparently they don't want them. Not even the straw ones.

Turrets have a 120 scan arc. However, when they are aggro'ed they have a 360 firing radius.

Best thing to do is to place turrets for crossfire, that way enemies are fired upon from at least 2 directions. For example, I have walled off Abernathy Farm with a perimeter wall. However, the main gates are not at the perimeter edge of the settlement, enemies must run distance of 6 "floor tiles" to get to the main gates. While doing so they will be fired upon from left and right where there currently a total of 6 turrets placed on top of concrete walls in addition to 2 turrets (so far) above the gates. Once past the main gates they would be shot in the back by 4 "rear facing" turrets behind the gates as the enemies enter the "courtyard". There are currently a total of 4 turrets on the left and right wall that are facing the courtyard in addition to the 3 "forward firing" turrets I placed on the pre-existing wooden house.

To sum up, enemies are fired upon by 8 turrets (front / left / right) before getting to the main gates. Then they are fired upon by 11 turrets (front / back / left / right) once the breach the gates and enter the courtyard.

Abernathy is a work in progress settlement since I have yet to build living quarters for settlers that will be recruited and more turrets will be placed once the living quarters have been built.

That's because nothing in that area of the game world is loaded unless you are there.

Every Bethesda game since Morrowind has worked the EXACT same way in order to reduce the strain of having to keep the entire game world loaded at once.

Depends do you just want to get the job done or would you like a light show?

OH! So that's why I can guild spotlights, strobe lights and disco balls. The light show!

The more you know...

creating an elaborate settlement network is only useful for the sake of creating an elaborate settlement network. it has little to no impact on actual gameplay or progression. getting the extra junk is nice, but its manageable without doing all of that extra stuff.