Well, they do imply it in this case by setting up a convention that isn't violated anywhere else.


With any attack other than synths, at any location I've been attacked at (many and varied)


"Hey, Defend X" > Travel to X > Kill things > Settlers say thank you > Quest updates > Quest Notification Vanishes


With synth attacks (or rather 'attack', since I've only experienced one), I've got:


"Hey, Defend X" > Travel to X > Kill things > Settlers say thank you > Settlement returns to normal > You eventually fail quest, or fail quest immediately on fast traveling > Settlement is damaged


It seems far, far more likely to me that this is a scripting bug (hardly an infrequent occurrence, especially on the xbox version) than that this is some sort of clever life lesson in how unfair things can be.

By this logic, there is absolutely no reason that the Institute would send in a wave of gen-1 synths to make a direct assault. It would be a waste of Institute resources. That's because whatever damage 10 assaulting synths could inflict is easily exceeded by the damage just 1 infiltrator could perpetrate. A little poison here, some acid there, maybe some IEDs scattered about. AND inevitably, the settlers would be at each others' throats as they try to ID the one or more synths in their midst.

Similar situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqVbOSEsJNo

The end result is that the settlement WILL be destroyed. Either by the destruction wrought by the infiltrator, or by the settlers scattering out of distrust of one another.

I had a number of those infiltrator help the settlement tasks.

With the first one I witnessed a settler execute the infiltrator.

There were no other synth attackers and the quest completed satisfactorily.

Next time same thing happened but there were other synth attackers from outside.

The quest didn't complete successfully.

I took the view that failed to defend the settlement because the Institute still existed and they have the capability to make people go missing and replace them with duplicates.

When it happened again I asked Google and found those on pc could resurrect the infiltrator using the console and kill them yourself for successful completion.

So a cheat was possible to save having to rebuild all the stuff.

I haven't had that problem since completing the story line and creating a local version of the Glowing Sea.

I guess by following a certain story line one does protect the settlers from substitution.

Interestingly I have found settlements on occasion that have shown sad faces for a while randomly trashed without warning.

I sometimes wonder if the settlers do it themselves to gain some attention.

Anyway it's only a game.

Still using that same logic, the instant the infiltrator is unmasked, it would not be illogical to initiate an attack of some sort to capitalize on the efforts of the infiltrator before they can be found and fixed...

Okay, it'\s a convention that is not violated anywhere else... but it occurs to me that an infiltrator attack of this nature can only be accomplished by a synth. A raider might pose as a settler, but he could hardly duplicate an existing settler well enough to fool friends and family, eh? then, I find it hard to imagine a supermutant trying to impersonate Preston or Marcy... Feral ghouls are automatic failures, because the first thing they'd do is try to eat the first settler he sees.

You see the thing is that synths represent a uniques circumstance, and if you are going to create a unique ability in a race, it's highly likely that you're going to use it. If that is the case, If a synth attack is just like all other attacks, it doesn't require a special script and the same script that is used for raiders and supermutants would do... and if that is the case, if the script works for the raiders and supermutants, it would work for the synths as well. The conclusion must be that the synth attack has a special script regardless of whether the destruction is intended to be unavoidable or not.

One of the annoying things about the whole situation is we have no idea of just how many resources are available to the Institute. For all we know, it has an infinite number of gen-3 synths available to do infiltration. And being perfect duplicates of existing people is NOT at all required. Pretty much every non-Institute group is looking for warm bodies to augment their ranks. So, if the Institute has one infiltrator unmasked, it is MUCH more effective than a gen-1 frontal assault to simply send in another infiltrator. And as the infiltrator presence is felt, the understandable mistrust that real humans have for one another is actually better for the Institute as numerous groups, communities and settlements start conducting increasingly vicious witch hunts, with the inevitable result that LOTS of real humans get killed in the crossfire. The end result is practically every community disintegrates as families decide it is healthier to just go it alone. Attacks by gen-1 synths, otoh, are so straightforward us-versus-them situations, it would actually help to unify community individuals. After all, how can you distrust someone of being a synth infiltrator when you saw him with your own eyes, gleefully dispatching synths? [Ignoring the logic that the Institute may very well be smart enough to program an infiltrator to do precisely that, to prove his bona fides as an actual human.]

************

On a related note: So I was camped out at Sanctuary Hills, awaiting an attack that still hadn't materialized after more than a week. So I took the time get around to building a surrounding wall with only the one gate at the bridge. I also -- and I believe this is VERY significant -- removed all of the dead gen-1 bodies, along with the body of the infiltrator, and dumped them on the other side of the bridge. I then made a circuit of settlements by walking so I could build up a crops stockpile at Red Rocket. When I had enough to replace ALL of the plants in SH in the event a synth attack destroyed everything while I was absent, I fast traveled to SD-I and scooped up the crop surplus there as well. Then fast-traveled back to Red Rocket where I discovered that the "Help defend Sanctuary Hills" message had finally dropped off of the Pip Boy. Snatched up the crop stockpile and shuffled (seriously overloaded) to SH, dreading to see the extent of the damage. At the body dump at the bridge, only the dead infiltrator remained. At the front gate, I needed to repair ONE of the two turrets there. Other turrets in sight (6) were all still functional. Hmm. Shuffled over to the farming area and discovered NOTHING there had been destroyed. Dropped my burden in the Cooking station and surveyed the entire settlement. To my (pleasant) surprise, that was it: ONE turret damaged.

Hmm again. Could it be.... The devastating attacks people have been experiencing while they were absent might very well be because the "dead" synths were playing possum? Or spending time doing repair functions on themselves?

It was actually kind of humorous when a settler made the stock comment, "The Institute really got us good this time." Right; ONE turret decommissioned. May all attacks on my settlements be so "devastating".

From Nexus? If so, will be adding it.

Given that the entire settlement system was cribbed from the FO3 Real Time Settlers mod, I'd be very surprised if several modders couldn't do a MUCH better job of settlement operations.

I have no way to be certain of course (without direct confirmation from Bethesda one way or the other) if my theories are correct. I am personally convinced though that this is not a simple bug or script misfire. If it is just a bug, it has certainly added a degree of depth and intrigue to an otherwise bland game scenario...

lol okay. I think you're stretching it in order to add some life to the monotony, but feel free.


All I can say is that I've had enough settlers show up in raider spike armor to make the "raiders couldn't infiltrate" idea seem pretty shortsighted. Families don't respond to the settlement beacon, and no one who shows up is carrying a radio...Ditto for gunners, all they'd have to do is ditch their bandanas and they could look like civilians (since they are).


A truly perceptive Sole Survivor might even catch on to the fact that no matter how many faces settlers show up wearing (which was bugged in my game for a while and I got a set of identical male sixtuplets), there's only a handful of voices to go around to go around...Synth conspiracy? Confirmed.

Take a second look at my statement there... What I'm saying is that a raider can't kill somebody's wife or husband, and then stroll into town claiming to be that person. He'd have to look, sound, and act just like the original. Given the "Art" scenario we see occasionally, we know synths can do that quite well, but I have serious doubts about raiders pulling it off. I mean, I think I'd know if my wife was replaced by a raider or a supermutant, because raiders and supermutants just aren't mean and nasty enough...

Sort of makes you wonder why they bother infiltrating a double at all though, no? It's not like we're checking references.


"I'm new here. Thanks for the oppor..."


"Yeah, great, here's a minigun. Stand over there during the day, sleep over there at night, put the produce in the workshop, and don't touch my stuff. I'll be back in a week and we'll never speak again."

heh, yeah...but I kinda tend to agree with Captain Patch regarding that. The psychological aspect is devastating when you discover that there is literally NOBODY that you can trust. For instance, think about the scenario in

That kind of effect in a conflict is priceless... and imagine how many times such a scene might be played out, eh?