Yeah, if raiders could steal my stuff (as in, the items I collect for me, my stash of weapons & ammo, the pretty bits of loot that I decorate my house with; as opposed to "the settlement's supplies"), then I'll never use the settlement system. Or at least, I'll never have my actual house in a settlement.

...which reminds me, I certainly hope there's normal houses obtainable, outside the settlement system. If not, that could be the first mod made/used.

Good question.

That's actually the point I was trying to make. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough. If they alter the game to ensure that two settlements can't be attacked at the same time, they are altering the game mechanics in a way that goes against reality since there is no logical reason for this to happen. In other words, all the raiders in the world don't call each other up to make sure only one of them are attacking your settlements at a time or in convenient intervals. These restrictions would be implemented so that the player doesn't have to make the choice of which settlement to let burn or to play babysitter on a regular basis. As such, if Bethesda chooses to implement restrictions like that one, then what is stopping them from implementing similar restrictions to ensure you're only attacked when actually at the settlement? It isn't realism. If two settlements can't be attacked at the same time, Bethesda already sacrificed realism for player enjoyment when it comes to raiding settlements.

In short, what I'm trying to say is that if Bethesda goes full realism, a lot of people are going to loathe settlements getting raided if our items can be taken. If Bethesda puts limitations on realism (which they would have a huge incentive to do so), it's entirely possible that they won't allow weapons to get stolen at all or settlements to get attacked unless you're there. My bet would be that your settlement can be raided without you there, however your weapons and items can't be touched, but your settlement resources can be stolen and people killed.

Yeah I think that's a fair tradeoff depending on which route they end up going with things. Different diffculties could also have different levels of this as well. We might also see raids happen less frequently than some are expecting which wouldn't make most of this a big deal. Idk what the frequency of the hit squads were in FO3 but that seemed to be few and far between. Possibly along that scale?

Perimeter defenses are going to be interesting. Good standoff distances, kill zones, interlocking fields of fire, and choke points. Defying computer AI won't be that hard.

Heh, that's right up there with "What could possibly go wrong?"

It was already mentioned the raiders would only attack you after it reached settlement status and had people living there.. you could build your own house to store things and they wont bother you as long as nobody is living there besides you (they would probably think it was just like every other abandoned place in the game and that there wasnt anything valuable inside or something) whereas if you have people living there and guards ect then they would be like (hmm i wonder what these people are guarding over here... lets go take it)