So help me understand. I can't be everywhere at once and I've designed my towns in a way where they are over protected. One town is at over 300 for defense. As I found sometimes hordes spawn inside my perimeter.

I understand some enemies known tunnel from underground it reminds me of Dragon Age 2 but okay so I built layer lines of defenses so no matter where anything spawns they are dead quick.

So how is it if I don't show up my settlement is lost? When I am there my defenses destroy everything in a heart beat but you expect me to believe me just being there changes everything? This needs to be fixed because it doesn't make sense

I feel the answer to this (as I have a similar experience) is that Bethesda took the building mode from fallout 3 (koodos to our community) and then just kinda didn't think to do much with it. They didn't want (I am assuming) to take away resources from the Adventure side. I believe this was a BIG mistake as the engine was already built, and to have an extra team just kinda work out the kinks for something as simple as a building apperatice should not have been this hard. Hell they could have hired one of the MOD teams in our community or a bunch of them at a discount to help refine and polish it. That and the lack being able to do simple things like remove dead bodies, what were talking about, size limitations, having no attacks for weeks then everything attacked at once, the non removal of some buildings, no way to polish a building from say a shack to something nicer (a fix it tool), etc. I could go on all day but the bottom line seems to be Adv first and building settlements meh. But I would say if allot of us keep posting stuff like this maybe they will get the hint.......but thats a big maybe.

Modern gamers apparently love busywork, so there you go. Settlements are nothing but that.

Settlements are a pain in the ass. Why do I have to drop what I am doing and save a place that has more firepower than the DeathStar? My settlers are better equipped than any enemy that attacks yet they break in and destroy stuff when I dont show up. It breaks the immersion for me.

It is a daft setup, undeniably.

′cos you are the hero, if you do not do it, chaos prevails, endless days come, death and fear overcomes the land, beer gets hot and that kind of things that happens in games, you know... =D

It does seem a little boring, when something you do - doesn't last! But perhaps there are stories attached to the settlement attacks, quests, that need to be solved before the attacks stop!?

It's insane - got back to Red Rocket yesterday to find everything broken - no alert, no misc quest - just got back and the place had been smashed - cost me a small fortune in mats to repair.

The lesson I'm taking from this is "[censored] settlements".

Can't set them up to be self-defending.

Can't wall out attackers.

PATHETIC alert system means huge, expensive settlements can wipe out tons of mats in one shot with virtually no chance to stop it.

Marcy "The Eternal Ballbreaker" Long - really, Beth? The most annoying game character since Claptrap and you park her right next to my workshop? Yeah, thanks. Now I have to move.

The total lack of any ability to manage potentially hundreds of Settlers without individually assigning each one then remembering what they do.

And the list goes on. So much potential, so many missed opportunities.

I've put hours and hours into 4 Settlements I've got, but this is it. Every place after this gets stripped and abandoned. Hell, I'll need the mats for repairs.

If any of u are familier with the creation kit then you will recognise a lot of the building stuff from that, and yeah it does seem that all they have done is slot a slim down creation kit into the game without much thought. I actually had a rogue synth in a settlement who damaged everything before he was killed by my settlers so not sure if thats common, and I was not alerted so maybe theres stelath attacks.

I also think that Bethesda have left somethings undone on purpose, now that Mods will be available on consoles as well as Pc it seems to me that a lot of stuff has been left to the modders to do, as is the case already with certain things.

Basics of morality, I guess.

I think there will be a lot of mods to address this. I hate the fact I can put 500 defense, literally a turret every few feet and somehow everything in my settlement gets broken. And I don't even get a notification about it the raid that must have happened! It's non-immersive and unrealistic.

Their will be mods for all of this especially if skyrim mods are anything to go by, I can't even play skyrim now without certain mods added they improve it so much.

Nexus is pushing 40+ pages of mods for FO4 already and there isn't even a creation kit yet!

most of the mod are just quick changes for personal taste, that dont need a creation kit. Like UI change for dialogues or Power armor core spend timers. Different hair or eyes.

Hey, I'm the only guy that can defend a settlement...same as I'm the only guy that can plant a carrot, nail some tin sheeting to a post to make a wall, plug in a light bulb, and organise a barbecue. I'm the man out of time and apparently I'm the only dude that has any motivation...

Let them fall they heal themselves with time you dont need to use your resources and the people don't go anywhere. Also 300 defense is not needed just one or two missile turrets centrally located up high with protected power supplies. I put mine on a set of stars and a small floor piece placed on a roof. Heavy gun turrets around the perimeter or up on concrete foundations facing all directions... They just need to detect the enemies and the missile turrets do the rest. Don't go overboard with settlements... Just the basics to satisfy the game engine.

I'm 20 hours in and wide eyed and thrilled about settlement, but I can't tell you disappointed I am to read this thread. No notification when settlements are attacked? Spawning within the settlement? Coming back to find everything destroyed? WHat?????? The wind has been knocked out of my sails. I will never understand working so hard to put out a great game and at the same time destroying the very thing you've created by just not thinking it through. I had shivers in the supermarket last night as ghouls tried to hunt me down, but if the settlements thing is going to take me right out of the game with a bunch of unrealistic nonsense, I'm not sure I can play the game. I've spent hours on my settlement.

It does seem to remind me a little of "Niko! Let's go bowling!". Never mind, it's a small negative in an otherwise overwhelmingly positive experience, in my opinion.

Sorry but it gets disappointing

I said this before release and it's double true after release: I'm not doing any settlement stuff at all, ever. It's so not what this game should be about.

Been watching the mods for few simple changes. Nothing yet.

Still hoping for:

- Settler assignment. What are you tasked with atm? Provisioner headed where?

- Better raid notification. How about an audible alarm and HUD timer with location?

- Turret range circles. What area does that turret cover?

This is simple stuff that SHOULD have been put in the game to begin with. Anyone seen any of these mods yet?

Then allow me to huff and puff and restore them.

What the OP failed to mention is settlement destruction only happens at higher levels, and if you think about it, that makes sense. The majority of defense turrets are low-leveled. Taking out Raiders is easy. Taking out Raider Pyschos isn't. Settlements near the north generally won't get destroyed. Only settlements to the south, as that's where the stronger enemies are.

Even with the knowledge some settlements can have damage, it's more realistic this way. Sure, you're not there to defend, so it's a crap shoot. I had a settlement warning pop up today, and when I got there, the wave was already dead and I see two dead Raiders next to a machine gun turret that's still working, telling me they were trying to take it out.

I'll say this now: if you want to protect your settlements, protect the settlers first. Give them stronger weapons and armor, and yes, they will defend when you're not there. People always forget this part. That's why those Raiders were dead. Both those settlers (there are only two so far) are packed with combat armor and powerful 10mm weapons.

As for the "spawn in the compound", there are tactics at play here. Since you know this is to be true, then you need to be more critical in how you set up those defenses. Putting a large wall around a compound with a few turrets inside is piss-poor planning. Here are a few tips on this (and protect your turrets in the meantime, even if they can't one-shot kill stronger enemies):

-Use the cement block and raise it just high enough NPCs can't climb it. Place a generator and a laser/missile/shotgun turret. Yes, they will point down, but be sure they have line of fire where the block edge won't interfere. For BEST results, place them within a prefab surrounded by 3 walls.

-Make sure you protect the generator! They go down fast and easy, and once the generator is out, so is the weapon.

-Position walls within walls. If a team swarms inside the compound, make them "maze" to get out, and strategically place turrets pointing down the "hallways". Not only will this keep them busy, but your settlers can also wipe them out. The idea here is to bottleneck them.

-Give your settlers access to high platforms by placing the low-height defense station on top. When attacked, the settlers you assign will take those posts. Higher ground > on the ground.

Those are just a few tips, and they'll make a difference. Time to think like a general, general!

Thanks to the negative reviews on the settlements I won't be investing much time or resources into them.

I had supermutants spawn on the south end of Red Rocket so higher level stuff doesn't necessarily stay to the south. It was interesting to watch my rocket turrets from both Sanctuary and Red Rocket both shooting at the supermutants at the same time. They have quite a long range when aggroed with clear LOS.

A mod to be able to place settlement items anywhere would be interesting. Forget the settlements, I just want to set up rocket turrets all over the wasteland.

The radiant quests associated with the minute men/settlements drive me nuts.

Other things that would be cool-settlers acknowledge when you give them gear. Even if it's eff this raider junk.

The brahmin should go towards food resources. Or am I missing something with those?