I've been frustrated that, despite all my looting and trading, I never seem to have enough resources available to make significant defence upgrades to my settlements. Where I should have enough materials to make a dozen missile turrets, I find I only have enough for a couple.

The problem seems to be settlements being attacked and destroyed without any warning or update, and then those settlements burning up my stored resources by repairing themselves.

My settlements all have a very large margin of defence over food+water, yet it seems they undergo completely un-notified attacks. E.g. I turned up at Graygarden on a routine visit, and found the place completely destroyed. No notice of an impending attack, no "failed to defend" message, nothing. As I looked around, everything started to auto-repair, until the settlement was back to normal. Therefore I'd just lost all the materials used to repair water pumps, turrets, generators and other equipment.

It seems to me that, if I have 20+ settlements, i am never going to be able to build up resources stockpiles if i can't control this auto-consumption.

Is there a way to prevent settlements from auto-repairing?

Thx

I didn't even know they could auto-repair. I have always painstakingly repaired each and every broken object by hand. How do I turn auto repair on?

That's my question too - I want auto repair ON!

If you're on PC, there is a mod that changes the "Your settlement is under attack!" warning from a subtle upper-left corner message that you can easily miss into a pop-up box you MUST acknowledge. NO way to miss an attack that way, so you can largely avoid having things destroyed in the first place (unless you're hip deep in a mine somewhere and don't want to run back out and fast travel to 'save' your settlement).

There's also a mod that totally prevents settlement attacks (except for some necessary ones and the random wandering-nearby foes).

Settlements do not auto repair in any instance I've ever seen.

On a related Note, I am always checking My Misc. Section of My Active Quests when playing a Minuteman character. I use a small Settlement to store Turret Repair and Construction Supplies purchased from Vendors, and Looted from the fallen.

A Faction recently chose My "Warehouse" as a Faction Location, but My Stash is unlikely to be touched by the Faction Resident.

I know that settlements can respawn but I highly doubt they use your resources to do this. And they do not 'respawn' while you are standing there. That doesn't happen. I have no idea what the OP witnessed but it must have been a glitch..(unless OP is on the pc and using a mod that does something like this and doesn't realize the mod does that.) I have plenty of settlements that I simply took the resources back to my main settlements so they have absolutely nothing in the workbench. I have no settlements connected. They'll still respawn after attacks (and time,) using no resources.

Op can simply test this out by sticking all items in the workbench in a different storage container.

I did 'witness' my settlement being attacked once by what sounded like an invisible Deathclaw, just stomping around (screen shaking) destroying the crops....the water, power and defences all also had to be fixed after that. I assumed it was a bug and moved on, haven't seen it happen since.

Settlements do not auto-repair.

They do, however, sometimes do odd things like you describe. I've run across a very similar situation in Red Rocket where turrets appear normal and suddenly become broken and the repair option becomes available. When this happened to me I was selecting a built structure and everything on it to move it to a different location, but then put it back down because it didn't fit where I wanted it to. After that the turrets went wonky. But they just went from fine to broken, not the other way around.

I've had quite a few glitches related to settlements- the settlement tab o my Pip-Boy, for one, is always showing false numbers so it's basically useless to me. The best way to know what's going on in my settlements is to actually go to all of them (which, though a glitch, I'm OK with since it gives me an excuse to tinker).

I highly recommend OP try tagging the turret they like making in the workshop so that any junk containing the materials needed to make it are highlighted with a magnifying glass icon in menus and shops and objects containing them are highlighted in their Pip-Boy color very visibly in the game world. This is how I keep myself in fiber optics, copper and other things I use a lot and it works well- helps me not only find stuff but also prioritize my looting.

I also saw such an odd thing: I defended a settlement, was successful, and when I looked (in build mode) at a turret, it had 'Repair' highlighted. I then further looked around to see if something else was damaged, and then went to the turret to repair it - but it was repaired, and the repair option was grayed out. So something fishy is going on. Either the report is wrong, or the game damages things and at the end - if you successfully defended - resets the damage.

I helped defend a settlement (Three Pines, I think), was successful, and afterwards when I opened the build mode it actually listed 3 plants, that were damaged. I had to repair them. So sometimes things are broken, even if you defend.

And the 3rd case - Three Pines - I had overlooked the warning and when the fail message came up I could do nothing - loading an older save was not an option, too many things had happened: I had cleared the castle and was not so hot to repeat this later. The settlement was reported in the PipBoy with 0 settlers, 0 water and 0 food. I went to the settlement several days later to look at the damage - and when I arrived the 2 settlers were alive, and kicking well, the turret was active, the plants and the well were fully functional - and after opening build mode the numbers went to normal...

There are several bugs in the system.

Also - I think the attacks should not happen while the player is in a quest. This seems to work sometimes, but only when the player is in another cell. If you are on the surface somewhere, the attack will happen. I just was in a heated fight with several Supermutants at a satellite array during 'The Lost Patrol', when I had to abort the fight and fast travel to a settlement. Not ideal...

Attacks also happen, while you are at or near (near in this case means if the cell with the settlement is near enough to be fully loaded) the settlement. There is no warning at all and also no 'grace period'. The attack happens, and if you are lucky you will hear the gunshots and be able to run toward the fight and help. If not - you are in bad luck.

Also I question the balance in these things: I was relatively near Oberhausen (?) when I heard gunshots from this direction. I sprinted to the settlement - there were only 3 settlers, but nearly double the minimum defense with 2 defender stations and 2 turrets. I was level 14 at this time, and I play on 'Normal'. The attackers were 2 radscorpions and one 'Legendary Glowing Radscorpion'. Three radscorps with one being a boss, which stood for one minute near a heavy MG turret and svcked up the fire seems to be a bit much for level 14 and 2 settlers. Something glitched there, because after I won (using chems, just barely), they all were grateful because I helped them against the 'Raiders'??

All in all the system with all its numerous bugs and failures (cannot really distinguish settlers and see if they are assigned) should be fixed ASAP. It's a pity that a good idea - many people seem to like it - was implemented so sloppy and cheap...

I have never witnessed this "auto-repair" at a settlement myself, but it's not impossible that something like this may be an undocumented perk feature. Local Leader (does it have a LVL 3) maybe?

I wonder if this type of settlement behavior is in some way linked to needing to "refresh" a settlement workbench to update the available resources listed in the workbench inventory display? Maybe other things at a settlement do not display / update properly until you enter and exit build mode while at the settlement? I'm guessing some of the "strange" things players are reporting happen when they "refresh" the settlement by entering / exiting build mode.

On a side note, there is a Chameleon Deathclaw that has built in cloaking capabilities....

I have had very similar occurences in my game (on PS4).

There is a "canned" quality to the way raids happen- the canned responses of settlers, the way damage to assets does not occur in real time. It could use finesse.

If I had to pick one or two major fixes to settlement building, though, they would be settler management (through either a central interface like one of those terminals you can build, for example, or the ability to label settlers on job assignment at least), and the Pip-Boy showing the correct info.

They do indeed auto repair, its sometimes fast or slow depending on what it is. No idea what makes it work or causes it.

Went to tenpines and while there got attacked.....wiped out 7 turrets and all of my crops. No local leader perk 馃槙 and i play without fast traveling so.....after going to sanctuary to retrieve needed supplies, when i got back to tenpines......yep....all was fixed, even the crops. Auto-repair??? Dont know but, no supplies were kept at the workbench there. Xbox by the way.

So, ignoring the damage = auto repair?

On this occasion, I arrived to find the plants missing (just stumps) and the water pumps lying on the ground in their "destroyed" state. The generators and turrets were all still and silent. As I stood there - not in workshop mode - the water pumps started standing up one-by-one until they were all erect. Similarly, the plants started respawning, etc.

The settlement fixed itself in about 30 seconds, with all the operations perfectly visible.

My game is entirely vanilla - PC and no mods.

I believe resources are being consumed. On another occasion, I had quite specifically gone out to loot/trade to make up one of my mysterious shortfalls (circuitry or fibre optics). I deposited about 18 units into Sanctuary workbench, where I habitually end missions. However, in just a game-day or so later at the coastal settlement where I wished to build a turret battery, I found my units had already diminished down to 2 or 3 (ie as shown in the resource summary when you build something).

Set up a supply line between your settlements. You will then have access to all your materials/resources at both settlements.

Also, if the system "repairs" your items after a failed defend mission, I highly doubt that it is using any resources??

In addition, if you have 20 settlements, make sure to run supply lines between them all. You will then have access to all resources. Lately, I feel I am never running out of stuff, between my combined settlements. I like the fact that I can head to a smaller one and have access to all my materials and can build a rocket turret, if I want to. (love those turrets LOL)

Interesting! I need to pay some attention to that and do some testing.