apart from the normal 'you gotta help! we're completely incapable of utilizing the equipment and defenses you graciously provided us with to even a fraction of their potential!' problems, they are just too buggy.

when i first discovered settlements, i was psyched. i spent a decade in the u.s. army, airborne infantry. planning and implementing defenses is fun. my first few settlements were pretty awesome. 360 degree coverage with interlocking sectors of fire and obstacles funneling aggressors into the apex killzones. deadspace coverage as well. i show up to defend, and see that the bad guys have bypassed my obstacles/crossed a wide open field while my turrets were apparently taking a union mandated break. sneaky supermutants/ferals/gunners/raiders/synths.

then there's the ever popular 'no-show' invasion. i gotta go running through the weeds to find them, or take a 3 hour nap. and sometimes, that doesn't even work. today, i fought off some synths, and 1 of them apparently ended up inside the foundation of my main structure. i gnashed my teeth and started pulling up the floor. the synth fell through the world. 3 of my settlers went after it. ended up failing the defense, and the settlers are gone forever.

and what's with animals/creatures attacking my crops? i show up to spectacle, and there's a mirelurk just doin dirt to my carrots. that's cold, bro. so malicious. i mean, they're in the ground.

if i make a new character, there will be 1 settlement. it will not be a happy place. since they will complain no matter what i do, i will give them plenty to complain about. after i lure about 20 of them there, i will scrap the crops. leave them with 1 carrot. they will get 1 water pump. not like they are gonna wash their faces/fingernails anyway. i will leave 1 sleeping bag in the middle of the road. i will take everything they own. they will walk around in their underwear and bare-knuckle boxing will be their only defense. and when the message pops up on the screen that they are under attack, i will smile sardonically and walk the other way.

First of all relax.


Secondly, this is an added feature. Do you get that? Bethesda actually added a mechanic to their game.


Given that, it isn't perfect. However they will and have already patched it.


For example FONV at release vs. FONV Ultimate edition on the 360.

i meant everything i said, but it's all tongue in cheek. i have had a great time in the game and will continue to do so. i will continue to do so without the dirty faced whiners though. srsly though, i have a massive surplus of clean water. go wash your face. and your finger nails. added feature or not, i'm done messin with it.

u just have to build some turrets

I enjoyed your post. Humour is lost on some here..

And do what exactly?

OP has a point. They're absolutely useless if you're not physically hoofing it there to defend against any given trash mob. They're still useless, if enemies spawn inside your perimeter, which frequently happens. Putting thought into you defenses might be fun, but don't think, it helps. The only thing having some kind of effect is defense rating and for that it doesn't matter whatever you slap into the landscape.

Curious if the three missing settlers still count towards your settlement count. Course when the cell reloads it should put those settlers back in the settlement somewhere, tending corn, selling goods ... walking on the roof of houses, etc.

This last character I invested some into the settlements and unless there are a good number of patch changes it won't happen again. I'll just find one location that has all the stations I need and no settlers and make it my personal home. Course it means I won't have an adhesive farm or be selling water, but I think I'll manage since I'm better at managing resources now anyway (and I know what JUNK I need to pick up.

i stated in the original post that i use turrets. a lot of them tbh. of course, next play through, it will just be mama murphy and jun long in a couple guard posts. not sure which of them will be more lethal with bare fists.

no, they don't. they were just...gone. i fast traveled away, then back. still gone. population count reflected their absence. i backed up a couple saves, purely for the sake of not having to recruit and equip replacements.

base on your post name, i will said no.

I know settlements have issues but it can be improve and make it something truly amazing for the next ES or event the next Fallout.

U guys just QQ about a new feature that ofcurse will have issues. LOL is funny how everyone prize Witcher 3 or MGS when those game didnt introduces anything new to the RPG formula, but as soon Bethesda try something new u all rage.

I read this last bit out loud to my hubby who watches me play, and watches me get frustrated trying to manage my settlements. We both got a good laugh out of your post!

Anything added to the game comes with a cost. There are 30 settlements now that we can fill with drones (sorry settlers) but a distinct lack of Bethesda made ones with non radiant quests and actual interesting NPC's.

Last night mine Ghoulish settlement got attacked by high ranked Gunners. Mine defense did not do much since there was at least 3 legendary ones. Everything got destroyed, but fun to watch. Too many missile turrets did the job almost too hard. I lost one named settler again and again (did not bother to set her essential), but I got at least the legendary drop.

I don't believe players rage about the settlement stuffs, but I do understand why frustration when this happens:

1) Adding TV and jukeboxes (on) make pip-boy shows incorrect settlement status.

2) Adding walls doesn't work against attackers spawns inside.

3) It doesn't matter how much defense you have, the attacks seems random.

4) Some attacks never got announced.

5) Adding stash to settlement will not increase happyness unless hire dogs and maybe some Brahmins.

6) Hire named traders may not work, they sometimes not shows up, they dissapear or they cannot be hired at all (even wiki says something else).

7) Doing missions will not help much to happyness.

8) Increase happyness, spamming shops all over the place.

9) Sometimes a settlement get a breakdown, almost everything get destroyed, crops dies etc.

10) Settlers complains about things we cannot solve.

11) Benevolent leader needs a settlement that is "yellow" in size (it seems).

12) You can get the 11) above just having 2 settlers.

13) Settlements with robots and peoples not happy.

14) Some robots you can hack and take them to your settlement make also pip-boy shows incorrect settlement status.

15) You can find settlers and caravan brahmins on the roof or even stuck inside the premade houses.

16) Sometimes you need to assign beds for each of the settlers, several times in a short period.

etc

Cheers,

-Klevs

I found Red Rocket works best. You will get attacked but they spawn across the road to the north or on the hill to the west but never inside my defense. I set up my water supply settlements that have no people. The drive-in and boat house. No attacks on those locations.

I like the settlement feature and look forward to new content for it. However there are some things that need to be fixed. The one that bugs me the most is the attackers spawning in the middle of the settlement. It makes setting up defenses pointless.

I've always loved settlements, but I'm beginning to agree with OP.

Thinking of starting my new runthrough and only doing a minimum of settlement building (no more towers!).

I am so tired of the management. I want to get on with the game! Maybe I can help after I've done everything else.

I hear you, Codename_Quincy. I too, was excited by the prospect of using clever tactical placement of defenses, etc. Alas.

On my current character, I only went as far as getting the P.A. from Preston. Then I left him waiting for me in the Museum, where he still waits to this very day!

I live at RR, and have developed Abernathy Farms into my Adhesive production facility. Their happiness is of no concern to me, as long as they keep making quota on my glue orders. Otherwise, I have no other settlements that I am concerned about.

I am quite enjoying myself.

Yeah I'm using RR as home base with my current character (just Dogmeat there) and I do get attacks from across the road. Often in fact, about ever time I visit (it's never announced). But I set some turrets pointing that direction and they cut them down before they even get to the road. I just hear the guns go off, then wander over there and loot some bodies, then back to work again. Generally it's raiders or SM's.

I don't care for the settlements. I just use the minutemen quests to advance in level. That's all they're good for.

The settlements are a little buggy, hopefully these issues will be resolved when the DLC comes out.

Yeah the added building feature at first seems great, then you start seeing all it's annoying quirks. It can take up a heck of a lot of time just gathering the resources necessary to facilitate it, let alone learning and mastering the building. Only to find it's a very broken system.

So far I've only added turrets here and there to keep settlements that have 0 defense out of the red, but I'm going to assume from what's been said that adding auto search spot lights doesn't help them find and kill enemies?

So it seems the building is only good for structurally adding barriers to keep enemies from pouring in, like repairing the broken castle walls, and recruiting endless amounts of random settlers.

kudos OP!

I also get rather sadistic thoughts about doing a "serves them right!" run!

good stuff!

Well I did a bit of checking, and it seems if you take the time to observe from which direction each settlement is attacked, build the Defense stat slightly higher than Food + Water combined, and wisely place your defenses, it's not as much a problem as OP indicated.

Take a look at the 3rd post in this thread: http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/243731/what-is-the-best-way-to-defend-settlements

Apparently with the above tactics, you can go from losing settlers and crops, to either not getting attacked at all, or winding up with more corpses to loot.

There's a HUGE difference between just placing a lot of items, and wisely placing a few items and assigned settlers, the latter of which can actually be better.

I don't know why all these things get posted in the no spoiler section. It makes it hard to get specific. But there's one particular, very closed off settlement, where attackers spawn smack in the middle. So your defenses are useless right from the get go. If you're unlucky enough, which can happen anyway, you've built right over their spawn point. So it's a lose lose situation, since you can't fight them off if they're stuck in a some building.

Welcome to the club, OP!