If you build a great defensive settlement your settlement shouldn't be destroyed or harmed. If you set up your defenses correct you your settlement shouldn't suffer.

Of course, but it is what it is. The game has no built-in metric for determining "correct defenses", aside from the crude number value for your defenses, and doesn't run a simulated version of the fight in the background, unless you happen to be close enough.

I'd like them to fix this, but it'd probably require a lot of extra work to implement a system where-by the game actually simulates far off events while you're playing.

I was really annoyed by the way the attacks on settlements is done, and I still am. But now I try to imagine that Preston is a godly tactician, the best sidekick you could dream of. Every settlements is attacked multiple times per day. But he's so good are managing it! He doesn't bother you with mundane attacks, when he calls you, it's because attack are too much for your defenses. When you get called, it's because you are needed. Every minutemen in the areas already went to defend and they died horribly. Only your defenses and settlers, the very last line, are still standing, and you need to be in the fight to turn the tides. It might seems strange because when you go there, there's only a handful of villains. Hell yeah, it proves that the minutemen did their job until their last breath.

Yah the whole system is absolutely annoying and meaningless. It's half-done, happen too often and a complete waste of time. I'm not asking for a real simulation of the fight, just something rarer, bigger, something to remember. Not a "fast-travel and fight for 17 seconds - fast travel back where you were" or "everything is destroyed, go grind and rebuild" FFS.

Vampires should not kill all NPC's in towns before you have a chance to get th... Oh wait, Fallout 4 sorry.

Seriously though Bethesda seem to love mechanics that leave places as ghosttowns without giving you enough time to prevent it and considering not a thing was done to fix the vampire attacks in Dawnguard, I don't see a lot of hope for this to ever be fixed.

Mods fixed vampire and dragon attacks, I would imagine we'll see a mod fix this mess somehow also.

It shouldn't be too difficult to add a random chance that nothing gets destroyed if you don't appear on the battle. An improvement would be that the formula involves the amount of defensive structures in the settlement. There must be a number for it anywhere in the files in my opinion. Or not?

My Red Rock fort is all up in the air. No stairs and I fast travel to my mat upstairs. I guess BoS or Gunners could drop some guys there but apart from that they all spawn on the ground and my defenses, upstairs, just cut them down. I have no settlers, just my large collection of Power Armor, which I'll be distributing to my settlements soon. Not doing much on the roof of the Red Rock.

Or just don't determine anything at all and wait til the player gets there, at some point and then run through the attack as normally, whether that includes the player scrambling to save the settlement or just watch the handiwork of his/her defence.

No reason to run it in the background at all.

Lets face it... the choice is not between "realistic" and "not realistic", but between "not realistic, but fun" vs. "not realistic, but annoying".

Yes it is wrong and imho half done but bethesda will most likely never fix it because they barley do concept fixes. I will try a mod that gives better alerts when a settlement is attacked so that I at least don't miss any attack.

That doesn't help us console players who yet again will most likely have to just deal with it.

My 10 tatos and 1 water settlement with 2 settlers was attacked by 11 raiders/gunners (can't remember exactly), some of them had power armor and most of them laser weapons.

I mean c'mon, for 10 tatos you send an army ? My 6 heavy machinegun elevated turrets were destroyed in like 8 seconds, as I hided in the house, my power armor was left inside a facility somewhere as I rushed from bottom level -5 underground to ground level 0, through a maze of corridors to get back to the open world again so I could fast travel to defend the settlement. Seeing the turrets incapable of fending of the attack without me proactively helping, I was forced to load a far previous game where I had my power armor still on so that I can come defend and tank that army. I had no other structures built except turrets. Was level ~38, survival.

For 10 tatos ?

Someone in some other thread mentioned that names settlers, that is, the original tenants of the settlements that have such, can't be killed even on failed attack, is this true? That's been my greatest worry because I don't want to loose them but really, the unnamed settler guys are just resource.