https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL2OmN9sXLY

I cheated to get Larry (console command), because my character is TOTALLY RICH and need to spent her "Shipments of water" (mod) (~2,000,000caps worth) yeah... that's my new currency, instead of caps... you should "Cheat too" because we can't get it normally, the option is taken away from us, so we cope by using "miracle".

it's ok

I think the way constructions are being done, I think we just need to get more parts to work with and more deco, plus INSIDE DOORs, we'd be fine

re level 4 merchants.

i got the clothing vendor early in the game and she turned up no problem.

Then i got the dialogue with the doctor and she failed to show up at the destination.

Just recently the armour vendor showed up again for a second encounter.

The first time I didn't qualify to offer him a job but was able to this time.

He didn't show up either as he disappeared from the world after walking towards the settlement i had sent him to.

Better yet, I shouldn't even have to freaking be there at all to defend the settlement. A walled settlement with 200, 300, some even 400+ defense stat shouldn't need me at all to defend it. It's just another part of the whole "I'm the general of an entire faction, but have to do everything myself" thing that this game has going on.

I think, that this was an intentional design decision. You cannot play out a fight, when the player is not near, since the cells are not loaded and only a few things can happen in them. NPCs can travel through unloaded cells, but there are no encounters and no fights. Beth has used this since Oblivion, when NPCs travel through dangerous areas, and have no troubles. But when you cause the cell to be loaded by going there, the NPC can die (this was obviously solved at least in FO4). In earlier games it caused NPCs to vanish or die.

So either they resolve it by calculating defense value against attackers strength, which would not involve the player at all, or they cause the player to arrive at the right time, to help the defense, and to play it out. They decided to play it out, and for this the player character must be present. Or at least near enough to load the cell.

I personally think, that both should be possible, and the player should be able to choose:

Report a coming attack to the player. If the player thinks, that the attacked settlement is strong enough, he will not travel to the settlement and the entire attack is resolved by calculating, the result is reported to the player. If the player wants to play out the attack or thinks the settlement is too weak to defend, he must go to the settlement.

But if this is not feasible I would prefer to play it out every time. But it should be better implemented, the message should be more clearly and a bit of more slack in time should be given (timeout of this radiant quest).

I just had Sanctuary, Tenpines Bluff, and Abernathy fall under attack in rapid succession (all within one 3-hour playthrough). As these are the only settlements I have (plus Red Rocket Truck Stop), I don't suffer many attacks, period. I was in the middle of a story mission when all of this started, though, so I just ignored the warnings. (Figured, "I've done what I can for these people...I've built them homes, given them food and clean water, told them where to sleep, and dressed them in special hats...they're on their own.)


I received 3 "You failed to defend [X Settlement]," messages. When I finally made my way back to Sanctuary -- nothing had happened! No one was missing, that I could tell. I actually had a new settler! And one damaged tato plant. Which needs to be "repaired". (Incidentally...how the @#$%! do you repair a friggin' tomato plant...[WHAT the @#$%!...seriously?] But I digress.)

Furthermore, the other two settlements are also perfectly fine. Not a single person missing or killed in any of them. Yet I "failed to defend" all 3. I am very confused as to how these attacks are supposed to work and what my role actually needs to be. Just when I thought I was getting a handle on how everything works, too.

I believe the game should stop simply informing you that [X Settlement] is under attack, as any of these "attacks" I've witnessed are laughable. I think it would be far better for the game to simply check the numbers (Attacker's Strength vs. Settlement Defense). Highest number wins -- simple. If the Settlement can hold, they send a message saying "[X Settlement] has successfully repelled an attack by [X Enemy]". If the Settlement can't "auto-win" you receive a message that "[X Settlement] is sending a distress signal!"

(And then, for god's sake, give the player a chance to get there! I don't know what type of locomotion the player uses during fast-travel, but it's capable of bending space-time. For those of us that play without it, it's not possible to reach many of these attacks unless you already happen to be within half the map. Additional messages about "Enemy activity noticed near [X Settlement]" would be a more elegant way of giving the player time to return and prepare for defense...rather than warping back to your base to find 6 raiders have magically materialized alongside you, behind your walls, and are juuussst about to start shooting...)

The game asks one tato fruit to 'repair' the plant - since you also need one fruit to plant it, you actually are planting it anew. Its only badly named.

Interesting is, that fast travel (at least since FO3, it was introduced in Oblivion) actually takes time! Try it out, open your map before you FT, take note of the in game time, then FT and after arriving look at the map again - the time has advanced, mostly several hours!

So - if a quest uses a timeout, I would expect to use the in game time and date. If a NPC tells you to come back in 24 hours, you can sleep, wait, or run around. But it will work when 24 hours in game have passed.

The attacks seem to be radiant quests with a timeout. I think you could even run to the settlement, since running (if you know your way and have no fights) is a bit faster that FT in terms of game time. Try it out!

The problem is, that the cell (with the attackers in position and ready to go) will be loaded as soon as you come near if you run. So the attack will begin while you still are quite far away. If you FT, then you will arrive in the cell itself. One other thing - I suspect, that the spawned attacker receive a vector (go there to attack), and it could be that they even move (which is possible) while the cell is not loaded. So if you are far away or take your time you will arrive before the quest times out, but the attackers have moved too and you will find them in your settlement.

I think that NPCs who move in unloaded cells ignore most of the collision checks and walk through certain objects. Why not - they are invisible. But it seems to be possible, that they in this mode can walk through walls. So if they are fast, they will be inside your walls, having clipped through while the cell was not loaded.

But when they actually spawn, a place where they can stand must be found and so they are inside the settlement and nobody understands how they got there.

Mind you - this is all speculation. But I see things which seem to support these speculations.

Edit: Typos

Im lvl 38, I build settlement just in locations populated yet. Other "settlmentable" locations, I usually just scrap everything and with few trips move all the materials to Sanctuary.

Actually I had few attacks just on Abernathy Farm, 1 of them was very hard and I had repair a lot of stuffs, (fully "walled", 12 dwellers, using it as main farm, protected by 4 watch towers with 3 heavy gun turrets +1 spotlight each and 2 guards).

The other settlements, I usually build a "watch tower" with 4 turrets and 4 spotlights + 1 guard eavy armed (even progressively giving to all the settlers better weapons), and I had few attacks to Greeentop Nursery too and this is all.

Sanctuary, I just build an eavy defended watch tower over the end of the bridge, and some walls starting from there on the left and on the right, but I havent completely surrounded it with walls, and till now... 0 attacks.

So, in my experience, walls are not necessary at all to defende a settlment. Build some "watch towers" well armed, and you will have solved all your problems. Walls are just a waste of materials, in my opinon.

About attacks warning, its very easy miss them. once I was scrapping at Sanctuary, at the end I had still messages "you got x of y" and I was just lucky to see at the end the message "Abernathy farm is under attack".

What I would like, is to have a radio (there are yet around, but they are unuseable, not scrappable too) in each setllment.

In case of attack, you could receive a distress call via the Pip Boy radio system (S.O.S. sound, then checking the radio system on Pip Boy, you will find out what is the source). The distress call should be priority, turning on and switching automatically the radio on the signal that will override every other ones.

Ps: Damn, once I had a "Power Failure" in Sanctuary, I fast travelled there, thinking about an attack, and apparently everything was ok.

All lights on, all Power Generators ok, All turrets apparently working... But I had always that warning. So I started to check everything connected to my power grid. Damn, it seemed all ok... Just by curiosity, I checked my Power Terminal... Just to find out that my turrets&spotlights were "offline", not listed on terminal. Go back, check the turrets&spotlights. Damn they were working, turning around! ... I started to check every connection from generators to turrets... Just to find a small piece of cable missing between 2 connectors. !!!

one thing that drives me NUTS - whenever im building anything - settlers INTENTIONALLY move exactly in the way of where i want to build, stop, look at me and start talking [censored] - EVERY time regarldess of where i move or what i do.

You cant tell me this is purely bad luck! I think howard is trolling us with this behavior!

Hehe - have seen this too.

But - I do not take companions normally, but I wanted to see how this is now, and so took Curie with me - she is cute in her way.

And I found that when I go to building mode, she distances herself from me and stands still, except when I go near her, then she again puts some distance between us. If I end the build mode, she immediately comes near me to her normal distance. So the Devs thought of this.

The AI of the settlers obviously is rather bad, maybe because they did not care or had not time enough, or it would too much a strain on the engine.

I did have Dogmeat block me for a while at Red Rocket. I finally had to get out of edit mode, make him a companion, set him outside, then go back into edit mode. Sadly as soon as I got back into edit mode he ran right back inside the RR. Luckily I was able to work around him this time.

I did not try this with Dogmeat. I took him in my very first 20 Minutes of playing. Never again. Built him a small hut in Sanctuary and there he is and remains (except maybe for one quest where he is necessary).

Dogmeat is different from other Companions. And while others may be annoying from time to time, Dogmeat is past that - if I would be forced to play with him as Companion I would stop playing...

Don't get me started..agree with all this,the settlements could be so much fun..hang tough.

to me, these aren't bugs, they aren't even bad design... they are simply unpolished... so yeah... again... I could be wong... but I think Bethesda had something more fancy/complete in mind... I just hope they can add the missing pieces in soon... I REALLY would like to play some good old home defense... I think I had a few before...

I spawned on top of my base in the settlement with the greenhouse farm place, and I quickly scoped around, and found nothing... so I quickly ran down to the borders of the town, and lay some mines, and then ran back up, and rang the siren, the people drew guns, and started look around... then I spot a group of 5-7 Ferals walking up the ramp toward the town, I took 2-3 shots with snipers, killed like 1... then I bust out my (explosive) Torgue Assault Rifle and dismembered like 4-6 of them(while blowing up a car; good thing my towns people haven't got near that mess), and then switch to my melee, jumping off the 2F building(took fall DMG) to finish of the left overs... got 1 legendary item while at it too! it was REALLY GREAT, wish all my encounters are like that, and bigger, harder enemies! because THAT is a legit siege defense! which I think was what "under attack" was intended to be...to me... again... I could be wrong...

Yeah,love those memorable moments.I had a great concentrated attack to deal with at sunshine traders by half a dozen Gunners.Great fight!

And that is exactly how spawns for the prior games have worked, more or less. Similar to how your companions magically materialize beside you after you take an elevator 21 up floors alone.

I'm pretty sure what you're describing is close, and it feels like rather lazy design. It would be better to plop down spawn points with leveled lists of "attackers" for each faction, then assign flags in the script to trigger the attack according to faction relations. If you plop down 3-5 spawn locations around each settlement, say 1-2 cells away, it will create a bit of tension as the attack begins, as you won't know where they're coming from.

A better series of messages, [X Settlement] is sending a distress signal (this starts a 48 hour in-game clock countdown) --> An attack against [X Settlement] is immanent! (enemies spawn 1-2 cells away and begin physically traveling to the settlement) --> [X Settlement] is under attack! (enemies have arrived and are actually shooting at people, places, objects). This last message shouldn't proc until a settler has detected an enemy and gone into combat mode.

The empty "You have failed to defend..." message is horribly unhelpful, and should be replaced by something that lets you know whether you won or lost. I would just remove it completely and simply have NPCs deliver a report the next time you visit a settlement. Or have it be part if building a terminal. You could read the logs of what happened while you were away:

2277.09.14 -- 2 new settlers arrived.

2277.09.09 -- Enemy activity in the area. Activating distress beacon.

2277.09.12 -- Incoming hostiles.

2277.09.12 -- Battle concluded. 4 raiders killed / 3 escaped / 1 settler killed / 2 Mark I turrets damaged / 1 Tato Plant damaged / Recovered 136 caps in salvage.

2277.09.24 -- 1 new dog arrived.

2277.09.25 -- Dog attacked settler / 1 Dog killed.

2277.09.26 -- Celebration of 3-month anniversary of settlement founding! Served dog roast.

Use settlements with water to build industrial purifiers, take out the water from the workshop and put it into a storage unit. Then whenever you want, get some graqe Mentats and charisma increasing items and sell the water to various traders. Buy wood in shipments and junk vendors.