On the plus side, there are plenty of resources for repair and settlers are easily replaceable.

Sure, later in the game. Supplies aren't so plentiful early on. In my current game I am desperate for wood. I actually have none right now, zero, and I have something like 6 or 7 settlements.

I find it hard to imagine that Bethsada doesn't have plans to expand on this popular feature of the game in its DLC or perhaps even make an entire "HearthFire Addon" or "DLC strategy mini-game" for settlements.

Its very unlikely that the future DLC wont include at least some new parts not previously available in the games Assets Files because that would likely be a big seller and considering that new parts are almost always picked up on and used in mods it sort of plays right back into making sales something I'm sure the sales department likes.

Now as far as Settlement Defense, well come on now, I'd bet donuts to dollars that we will be seeing a mod that allows you to go as far as completely shutting down certain settlement quests on a freaking in game terminal if you wanted to just not do them for a while. Let alone what someone might do to expand on them.

You must build even more than I!

You can get shipments relatively cheap in Diamond City.

Sorry you ran out.

I suggest they add a sound effect to the notification and leave the notification on screen longer. Perhaps a siren or a bell?

I was attacked once at the drive-in theater which is coincidently one of my more fortified and built up settlements. I fast-travelled to find one Supermutant and killed him quickly. Then about a minute later I was hit by about 6 more supermutants and two supermutant hounds. I wonder if the first one was a scout?

One thing I noticed is that in VATS one of my settlers was almost clear out of health but survived the fight despite it going on for a long time afterwards. Then had full health immediatley after the battle. I wonder if settlers will use stimpacks, drugs, and other health items in their inventory? I think a raider boss did that once too. Can anyone confirm?

Able to mark a gate as "do not open" or "close after use."

Able to designate some settlers as non-combatants and to not go chasing after the raiders, outside of the defenses

Proper spawn points for raiders/attacks; noen of this "spawn in your base, [censored]"

COMPLETELY AGREED.

I have 4 settlements and as far as I am aware of they have been attacked 4 times. Sanctuary once, Tenpines twice and Abernathy Farm once.

The only reason why I know Sanctuary was attacked was because there were two dead raider bodies when I showed up. I saw a message about Tenpines being attacked so I fast traveled there and defended it. Tenpines is walled in, but only had two Mk I turrets. I placed an additional 4 turrets (Mk II) then decided to sleep because it was dark. I woke up and more raiders spawned outside my wall. Abernathy Farms was attacked when I was there; it was a single super mutant with a wooden board. One of the 4 MK II turrets took him out before I was able to confront it.

I am sure I have missed notices of attacks because I generally tend to be focusing on other things when those attack notices pops up and disappears 2 seconds later. Even though the two settlers at Tenpines are alive and when I look at the stats for Tenpines on the world map it reports zero settlers.

Attack notices should be more prominent and should be displayed until you click to dismiss it. I haven't bother installing any settlement recruitment beacons yet including the one at Outpost Zimonja to complete that particular Minuteman mission. I have simply been focusing on building up my settlements.

In my world, Sanctuary Hills has a food+water of around 50 and a defense of 79. I never got attacked .... until yesterday night.

The settlement got attacked by a Death Claw ... I was

I am not sure if it could be classed as a raid though. It may have just passed by and a settler opened fire on it.

Yeah, I have running low on wood myself.

When I scavenge around for stuff anything that has wood is a high priority on my list. I buy "Shipment of Wood - 50" at Abernathy Farm and at Grayditch. I only just arrived at Diamond City last night before I stopped playing the game to get some sleep. There is supposed to be a vendor there that sells "Shipment of Wood - 100".

Seconded, thirded, twelth'ed, whatever... that request to have the "under attack" notification be more noticeable. I've only had two attacks so far, but the first one I only noticed when the "you failed" message popped up.

I've had some random attacks at Abernathy and Red Rocket while I've been there, however. Not sure if they were just random occurrences, or actual "attacks". (Especially since Red Rocket is my character's house. It has 0 food, water, and settlers. Boatload of defenses, though. Started adding some when a radscorpion crawled in the door behind me, add more whenever the supermutants up their game.)

Be nice to have a FREAKING GAME MANUAL to tell us these things instead of hoping to randomly see something useful in a loading screen pop-up.

Just to toss some numbers into the conversation.. Enjoy

AttackChanceBase = 0.02

AttackChancePopulationMult = 0.005

AttackChanceResourceMult = 0.001

AttackChanceSafetyMult = 0.01

Note: These numbers were taken from the Castle. They're likely the same at all locations but it is possible that they can be different in different settlements.

I actually really like the settlements part of FO4...and I really thought I was going to hate it. I was wrong, it's a fun thing to do in between exploring and questing.

I play on Hard, am a level 42, have 14 settlements, and I get hit a minimum of once, and sometimes twice, a session. My average session runs about 6 actual hours. I always respond immediately after the warning message mainly to reduce the damage to the facilities; but have had a couple of failures because I just plain missed the message because it occurs in the middle of some other chaotic event. I agree that it needs to be a bit more obvious and longer, maybe with an audible cue.

My system thus far has been to set defenses generally at about 3 times the value of food and water combined in each settlement. Some are significantly higher and those do seem to get hit less. That's probably a little low overall, but I have been planning to go in and harden each community a little more. I just keep getting distracted by exploring and questing. LOL.

I'm satisfied with how its currently playing out. I suppose it's what I signed up for being a Minuteman. I know I have to bolster defenses more. I just need to buckle down and take the time to get that done.

But yeah, more and better warnings for settlements actively under attack.

A cow mooing. Whenever there's an attack you hear a MOO! Settlers seem to love their cows and settlements with cow get attacked more frequently. Moo.

I've been attacked twice in 50 plus hours and both attacks were more like scripted events rather than random attacks.

Not always. I saw a message telling me a settlement was under attack. I fast travelled to the Starlight Drive-In, only for a message to pop up telling me I had failed to defend the settlement. But I'm a dirty cheat so I reloaded and walked there instead.

heh I find it funny that I only have 1 settlement with any defense and I rarely if at all get attacked

I find this very annoying. I tend to go over kill with my defenses, building walls, strategic choke points, and 300+ defense, but those 12 Ghouls I ignored are going to walk right in and break everything. The worse part is these quests are on a loop for me. As soon as I finish one, I'm told of another settlement that needs my help. I'm now at the point where I just ignore my settlements.

I was stuck in the loop for a very long time, 6 RL days of gameplay, and only recently has the loop been broken. Now I fear for the moment it begins again...

Defense rating seems to have an effect on how frequently you get attacked. Not on the outcome, mind you.

The last four attacks I've had to repel never showed up on the screen or were listed under quests on the Pipboy - and I'm always checking the Pipboy for them. County Crossing got wiped out, Greybar was sacked, I stumbled into a fight at Starlight and I went back to a save for Oberland Station.

I had been playing for a long time, so I hope these start appearing again after a restart.

With enough heavy machine guns and maybe a missile launcher or two thrown in, automated defenses can even shoot down a vertibird.
Kind of funny to me getting calls for help from Settlements which are loaded for bear.

I arrive, and watch them splatter the attackers.

Well, as long as you don't mind if the kidnapped person is killed. I ignored the Abernathy daughter kidnapping and some time later she was just dead lying infront of her house. At least the raiders are nice enough to return the body for a proper burial. But since she can't be buried, I just put her on a mattres... She's just sleeping Connie, keep on working those carrots!