The biggest contributor to raiding parties is not having security in proportion to your food production. More food production draws more raiders, while more security supposedly staves them off. That is what the guides are saying, but I am not sure if it's true. Try it out, I guess.

Is it food or food + water?

i have 48 def and 12 food and 15 water - so even added it's more than a 150% ratio in protection ^^

Hell if I know, I just studied the guides, I haven't actually been able to buy the game yet.

I think people are missing the point. If it is true that enemies can spawn right in the middle of the setlement, we can forget all our wishes to create walled safe zones and mazes. All logic placing defenses go out of the window. Instead of thinking in nice defensive perimeters, all we can do is hope that our turrets are luckly placed to hit the next magicaly teleported wave of attackers. This is a huge let down and makes all setlement building a lot less fun.

It's only happened the once so far, I haven't extended my settlements a great deal yet, still getting used to the way of things.

+1 ... so there is only one solution ... building isengard ^^

It is quite astonishing that they would be so stupid to do that.

This is actually a QA matter.

I am guessing here but you probably can't avoid raids entirely by building defenses, just make them less common.

I have spent most of my time building up the Red Rocket station, with pretty much my entire construction occurring on the roof with one access point. I could care less if they spawned 'inside' the settlement because they'll still have a hard time cracking the defenses I have going. I have 5 turrets, a guard post, and a spotlight guarding the 'farm' and stairs to the main part of the settlement. Everything else is upstairs. Don't even have to worry about locking up the PA

What exactly can raiders do anyway? Other than killing Settlers what else can they do? Do they steal resources; food, resources, junk, etc.? How bad does a failed raider defense go? What's the worse that can happen?

My guess would be not much besides dead settlers as it is an optional part of the game. If allowed, maybe damaged structures. Imagine if their mission was to try to steal as much stuff as possible, would be more of a panic when getting ready to fast-travel.

I like how you think my friend.

this completely the problem i am running into. For some reason these miscellaneous quest to "defend x settlement" will sometimes fail to start AND/OR says quest failed even if you kill all of the invaders successfully. HUGE bug going on here

Well, that's very disappointing that raiders spawn inside the perimeter.

I guarantee there's going to be a mod that corrects that. Until then, though...looks like it's Big Brother defense strategy. Build stairs up to the roofs of buildings, load em with turrets and spotlights, then scrap the stairs.

How many people have confirmed that they spawn inside the perimeter? not to doubt the report but I'm hoping it's a bug and not intentional...

indeed ... hope they fix it soon

i reloaded the save on several points before the encounter. one time it was out of the settlement area exept for the settler, who turned against me and one foe. the other six or seven times was directly within sanctuary, directly next to the distructed building if you leave the main-base in direction of the bridge.

but why do they give you the possibility to create a whole town when the only playable choice is to build isengard?

So, basically, my two days of scrapping everything, exploring the countryside without spawning the Museum raider fight JUST so I can build up Sanctuary that is defensible with walls, entry points, turrets, etc, has been a waste of time because Bethesda is stupid.

Thanks. Good to know.

Has anyone actually seen them spawn inside the settlement? My original idea to thwart attacks was to literally build the entire base off the ground, connecting the roofs of sanctuary with prefab floors, and creating a stadium shaped open area.

For defense I was going to put up walls, and have turrets all facing inward, creating killzones for any hostiles who got inside.

Probably would work anyway. I can just imagine the NPC settlers all ignoring the constructed base in order to wander around outside.

Red Rocket is my base. 6 turrets guarding power armor. Built upwards, on top of the main building.

they can steal anything that isnt a structure.. items,resources ect they can destroy structures(but a broken prop is left behind with an option to repair it for what it cost so you dont have to remember the layout ect)

they can kill settlers and yes they can take your power armor/weapons and if your there.. even use those same things against you.

How do you build stairs to the roof of red rocket? Mine never connect.

Just build a provisional one first just to get up, then start making floors and be prepared that you might have to build stairs that go higher than the roof and then stairs down again.

Can we please get some pics of peoples bases? I could use some inspiration.

I have to agree. The Settlement building is my personal biggest gripe with the game (other than the crashing in Boston).

I'm currently walling off the Starlight Drive-In (Great Settlement choice btw), and I did not know that Raiders could take my Power Armour. I'll be taking those Fusion Cores out when I next get on. I have 2 Power Armour sets in Sanctuary Hills and 2 at the Starlight Drive-In.

As for Defences, I've been putting Turrets in elevated positions, but when Abernathy Farm was attacked (by 8 Super Mutants and some Mutant Hounds no less), the Abernathys were ill-equipped to fight them off. Within 15 seconds I had to gun down 4 Mutants with my Combat Shotgun and then sprint to save the family. The Mutants had perfect accuracy with their Molotov spamming on my Turrets (damaged 2 of them to the point of needing repairs), and Lucy ate one to the face. I saved the family and started building walls (even though I saw that the Mutants spawned inside the southern field). I had 4 HMG Turrets up, 2 on the house and 2 at the settlement southern perimeter on top of Premade Small Metal Shacks. The north was virtually undefended.

Those spawn points really need reworking if we are to actually defend against attacks. Also, putting Guard Towers and Turrets on top of buildings really helps. I also never fast travel, though I do have about 17 spare Fusion Cores (not including those inside my Power Armour sets). I pretty much had to run from Parsons State Insane Asylum to the Abernathy Farm to save them. I got harassed a bit, including by a Mirelurk Hunter, but I just ignored most distractions and carried on running.

Also, do I ever get the chance to build better quality settlements? I mean, Junk Fences and Wood/Metal Shacks are fine at the start of the game, but I really wanted to build something more... opulent. Concrete walls, electrified fences, biometric security gates, automated defence protocols, designated safe zones and panic rooms for settlers and some control over their AI to assign who should avoid combat and who should fight and what weapons/armour everyone uses (rather than just placing things in someone's inventory and "hoping" they'll use it).

All in all, it's kind of disappointing. Weren't they working on Fallout 4 for seven years (since '08)? This settlement building needs another 2 years of redesigning and memory fixes to allow for a more robust system to be created. At the moment, it feels little more than lip service, a kind of forced concession Bethesda made to placate fans.

Oh, and one final tip; the first Wooden Railing in the Misc. Wood Structures is great for improvised low cover on high rooftops and the like. I even used file cabinets to elevate some turrets and protect the generators at the same time. You really need to be creative to make a more self-sufficient defence system given the semi-botched tools we've been given.

And yes, I love strategy games, so I LIVE for this kind of thing! I wish I had more CONTROL!