How do I *not* have to get save settlements constantly? (I have not finished the story, just packrat and slowly moving through everything, ~100 hours now)

I mean i have approaching 300 defense on a couple settlements and I still cannot finish more than one or two quests without having to go help save or defend or rescue them. i found a way that all i have to do is show up and my heavy lasers and missile turrets *literally* insta-kill everything short of master warlord super godlike legendary ultimate master super mutants (or whatever the stupidly too long name is), seriously I can show up and sit down then stand up talk to nameless settler X and the fast travel away. *but* if i do not show up and i get "failed to defend castle" then i go there and all the crops are burned one or two settlers are dead no water or food...what is the point of collecting all the stuff to make everything if it is useless. i could stick them all in a box with no doors and all sleeping bags and some mutifrutit plants between them and just show when there is a message (that works btw, but i put a platform above them with insane firepower and the fast travel point at other end of area so i do not have to get involved). But 200+ defense (on settlement with 21 beds, 21 food, 21 water, with 20 power to run the beacon and defense) does not help at all to stop anything, at all, in fact my less defended settlements seem to have less trouble.

Has anyone found a way to make good/decent walls other using the boring house walls, walls svck?

The junk walls (that look cool and like real walls) have such huge gaps that raiders, or really anything can just shoot through the gigantic cracks and throw grenades and shoot missiles through them, seriously, spend 5 hours getting them as perfect as possible and some how psycho raider can kill three settlers through a crack but 5 "minute men" and settles cannot get more than sliver of health damage on him and that may just be a cracked rib from laughing at the dorks who cannot even seriously him despite having better footing and higher ground...but i can single-hip-shot that raider from top of the wall at 3 times the distance???

IS there ***ANYWHERE*** to store stuff safely?

I am now using the island for my house and no settlers and hoping that the provisionor (who lives in a different settlement) is not going to rip me off. NPCs named and unnamed steal from every single container. I have tried everything from crafted safe to existing containers, they steal from bodies and they *DO* steal from workbench i know for a fact and if you do not agree you can try this experiment then go svck it.

Place a few powerful weapons and ammo for the weapons in workbench (NPCs will steal legendary weapons out of any container and even fresh kills, but never caught and was certain they took a legendary from workbench). then go strip the weapons and ammo (or leave 1 ammo) (works faster if they have to find a weapon), then just wait after a few attack/defenses or whatever the trigger is you will find those items missing and find them stolen and the culprits (dont let them loot the corpses or they will use those instead, for example if you kill everything outside of the walls). I have a siren in my settlements in case that makes a difference. My final proof i did that experiment on purpose and found a minigun and 10,000 ammo on the addict i saved in D-City (and gave a job as farmer) and my guass rifle (that i had renamed) on a settler (btw, had to reassign him to a different kiosk to find and get it back as no trade option when they run a medical kiosk)

This really svcks, i took everything out of all my containers and put in workbench to stop the thefts, then saved and killed everyone in the settlement to vent. Then i lose something and find it on a settler again, then i devise that test to prove it. i found nothing on internet about it and in fact most claim NPCs do not steal from workbench, but hey do. I also happen to notice some random stuff on some NPCs that look suspiciously like my loot from quests.

I want to have a house and store and display stuff, so wth? How can i do that and have a real village? I accidentally steal a pencil in Covenant i have to to kill every living/robot thing there. I catch an NPC stealing something and i gut him, then i have to kill every living/robot thing...

Once i finish the story I full intend to kill every single living thing in all the settlements as punishment and unlike the characters in the story who i feel bad about even accidentally wounding, the ungrateful little thieving settlers day's are numbered. If i had not already decided to side with minutemen they would already be dead.

I do not mind NPCs stealing, but there must be a way to prevent it 100%, i thought I could set turrets to kill NPCs, was going to set up a kill zone to my house, but cannot find the option now, swear it was in the crafted computer but cannot find it now, also notice cannot link to mechanical turrets (though through the world mech turrets are linked to terminals)

And yes i store ammo...banking ammo is easy money and way to make me use other weapons and to not accidentally use up the good stuff like AB rounds (

), i only mention as i notice people get crap for banking ammo when i think it is actually [censored] to walk around with every bit of ammo you own

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Addition, i was reminded of...even though i have to show up to get my defenses to work I still get a fail if i do not at least try to shoot (or some sort of action) which i did not find out until synths attacked one of my settlements, grey garden. I have started the Institute quest and did not try to kill any i just kept my weapon holstered and Cait did not attack either...everything was dead, but no success message. Then i fast traveled away when i was sure everything was dead and got the "failed to defend" and i immediately went back, and now i think about it some crops were damaged even though i was standing there when the 6-8 synths were annihilated in what i think was maybe 10 secs, i was only in hard mode at the time, they last a bit longer in very hard and usually have a legendary who can last forever, like nearly 20 seconds himself.

Have you tried storing your stuff on the second floor?

It's an expensive solution, but you are the only one who can create / destroy / block & unblock a staircase.

I considered that, but two things; i really do not want have to go into build mode every time i need something upstairs, granted i assume i can move the fast travel upstairs. The second and probably most important is i have seen NPCs on top of houses and even on roof of my two-story house that only has a door on the first floor and no entry to the roof, which means I bet they could still do it and done with experiments after the "put your stuff in the workbench lie" I will use an unpopulated settlement for now and wait for Bethesda to fix the bug or just let us know they hired a sociopath to design the village mechanics. I swear almost nothing could make me stop playing a Fallout/Elder Scrolls (Bethesda games) game *except* losing probably the single most important aspect, which is collecting and looting. I am proud of some of my collections, like my 65 troll skulls in skyrim. All xbox no mods. If the named companion NPCs were stealing food, drinks, and drugs (and weapons and caps sometimes i think) like NV it would be fine, but not settlers, unnamed, or useless NPCs like Sturgas. I cannot even check to see if Sturgas has something as it would turn in the holotape and i heard you cannot trade with him anyway.