do attacks on settlements get more frequent?

[Icedfate]

I'm just wondering, as time goes on and you get further in the game, do the attacks on your settlements get bigger and more frequent?
are they based on your xp level?

aside from the synth attack I made a thread about, mostly, it was just a few random raiders and ghouls.
but for the last couple of days, I keep seeing "(this settlement) defended against an attack" or "(this settlement) was damaged in an attack".
I loaded up the game today and started sorting my inventory and almost immediately got 2 back to back messages of 2 different settlments that just got attacked, and then I fast traveled to abernathy and immediately got attacked again, this time it was radscorpions popping up right in the middle of my crops.

I've read stories of people being sieged by whole armies of raiders and supermutants armed with mini nukes.
so...are these attacks going to get tougher as I progress further?

would it be a good idea then, to make sure everyone has a better gun than that default pipe pistol?
am I gonna need to create a "wall" of machine guns surrounding the whole place? or even invest in science to get laser cannons?

[CursedPanther]

I haven't been keeping track of the latest update but I don't imagine the formula has changed much since release. The probability of suffering an attack is always based on your defense value to water/food production ratio. From time to time you see some claim that they rarely get attacked after formidable defenses are built.

[Icedfate]

Originally posted by CursedPanther:

I haven't been keeping track of the latest update but I don't imagine the formula has changed much since release. The probability of suffering an attack is always base on your defense value to water/food production ratio. From time to time you see some claim that they rarely get attacked after formidable defenses are built.

well, I always keep my defense rating at least 2-3X my food and water.
what's weird is that right after that radscorpion attack, I fast traveled away from abernathy and then right back in to reset the cell and instantly got attacked again. this time by supermutants. one of them had "orders" to "loot and kill".

[Mringasa]

The attacks will get tougher because the enemies will level with your character. Don't just setup walls of defenses though, having emplacements of missile launchers and heavy lasers on top of pillars inside your settlement perimeter will help immensely. Make certain they can see over the top of any perimeter wall you have built, and they will assist in keeping the enemies from getting inside.

If you can keep your defenses at 4x your food+water, your attack rate will be low. That's just personal experience with no real data to back it up. Also, with a high defense, you obviously have enough turrets and things to repel enemies. You just have to make certain you get to the settlement fast when you see the attack notice come up. The longer you take, the further inside your perimeter the enemies may spawn.

[Trehek]

The chance for a settlement getting attacked doesn't increase with time, although some factors such as defense can modify the chance somewhat. However, each settlement checks for an attack separately, so if you have 20 settlements the chance that AT LEAST one settlement gets attacked is much higher than if you only had 5 settlements making that check. The base chance is always pretty low, but RNG is able to create some annoying streaks.

[Icedfate]

I'm still wondering something else.
I've seen my settlers get killed during an attack and I usually reload the game when that happens.

but

if a settlement gets attacked and I don't make it there in time or just end up ignoring it entirely, can my settlers get killed when I'm not paying attention?

like, could there be a situation where I might spend days away wandering the wasteland and then fast travel to a settlement only to find everyone dead?

at least , it seems that none of my provisioners have gotten killed.
the wikia pages say that provisioners CAN get attacked while on the road, but it also says that if they lose all their health, they just kneel down and slowly regenerate as if they are marked essential,
However, I've been attacked at greentop nursery and there are wrecked cars just outside the perimiter (which seem to keep respawning) and the enemies will shoot the cars to explode them and they killed one of my provisioners that way, so I dunno...

[CursedPanther]

Originally posted by IcedFate:

like, could there be a situation where I might spend days away wandering the wasteland and then fast travel to a settlement only to find everyone dead?

Yes I believe settlements can fail at a defense.

[Icedfate]

Originally posted by CursedPanther:

Originally posted by IcedFate:

like, could there be a situation where I might spend days away wandering the wasteland and then fast travel to a settlement only to find everyone dead?

Yes I believe settlements can fail at a defense.

yeah, but if they "fail" will the settlers there die?
I had one fail earlier and it just said some stuff got damaged and when I went there, I had to repair the crops and a couple of my turret guns but everyone was still alive.

[casualsailor]

Couple of facts. Every game day there is an event that gets triggered that calculates whether one of your settlements is attacked. There is a base chance of 2% that one of your settlements will get attacked. If the sum of your food and water exceed your defense then the chance increases. Once a settlement is selected for an attack no other settlement will trigger on that day.

The enemies that spawn are lvl with you. At higher levels you'll get Putrid ??? Ghouls and Supermutant Brutes. Likewise the guns they use will scale so they'll start with pipe rifles then hunting rifles and later laser rifiles and mini guns.

If you don't respond to an attack then the game simply calculates damage. This damage is not based upon your actual defenses as generators that are completly walled off and protected can be damaged. Likewise settlers can die but this is usually at higher levels. At lower levels your gennys and turrets will usually be all that gets damaged.

[Icedfate]

so, do settlers not level up with you?
I read that some enemies continue to scale to you infinitely, no matter how high you get, they scale to you.
so like, at level 100, are my settlements gonna be getting stomped flat by deathclaws and behemoths?

[Mringasa]

It depends on what type of attack it is. If it's Super Mutants, I don't think they send Behemoths, but they might send Overlords or whatever is the top tier. They also don't scale indefinitely. There's a point they stop scaling to your level. Would have to check the Wiki entries to get some idea of the maximum power, but they can get pretty nasty.

I can't remember all the different types of attacks, but I think there's 4 or 5 different ones. All random, and sometimes you'll get level 5 Raiders hitting you when you're level 80. It's all RNG based.

[DouglasGrave]

Originally posted by casualsailor:

Couple of facts. Every game day there is an event that gets triggered that calculates whether one of your settlements is attacked. There is a base chance of 2% that one of your settlements will get attacked. If the sum of your food and water exceed your defense then the chance increases. Once a settlement is selected for an attack no other settlement will trigger on that day.

I've had as many as three settlements being attacked at once (completely vanilla with DLC). It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. In the case I remember, one was a synth attack (with an infiltrator present in the settlement), while the other two were regular attacks that were both alerted while I was watching my settlers fighting the synth attackers. Luckily, I was with the Institute, allowing me to teleport about and handle all three attacks in time.

I can't say for certain, but it seems as if the number of attackers is related to the population of the settlement. My small settlements, with just a few people, only get small bands of attackers, while the biggest get many more. This may not be a direct relationship to the population, though, since those biggers settlements also generally produce more food and water, so it could be affected by those, instead.

[Jouni]

Originally posted by casualsailor:

Couple of facts. Every game day there is an event that gets triggered that calculates whether one of your settlements is attacked. There is a base chance of 2% that one of your settlements will get attacked. If the sum of your food and water exceed your defense then the chance increases. Once a settlement is selected for an attack no other settlement will trigger on that day.

Just yesterday after fast travel I was called to defend both Starlight Drive-in and Abernathy farm at the same time so that is not true.

[Icedfate]

Originally posted by DouglasGrave:

Originally posted by casualsailor:

Couple of facts. Every game day there is an event that gets triggered that calculates whether one of your settlements is attacked. There is a base chance of 2% that one of your settlements will get attacked. If the sum of your food and water exceed your defense then the chance increases. Once a settlement is selected for an attack no other settlement will trigger on that day.

I've had as many as three settlements being attacked at once (completely vanilla with DLC). It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. In the case I remember, one was a synth attack (with an infiltrator present in the settlement), while the other two were regular attacks that were both alerted while I was watching my settlers fighting the synth attackers. Luckily, I was with the Institute, allowing me to teleport about and handle all three attacks in time.

I can't say for certain, but it seems as if the number of attackers is related to the population of the settlement. My small settlements, with just a few people, only get small bands of attackers, while the biggest get many more. This may not be a direct relationship to the population, though, since those biggers settlements also generally produce more food and water, so it could be affected by those, instead.

so wait...your settlement still got attacked by synths even though you were allied with the institute?

[Borrolan]

As others have mentioned, enemies who attack settlements get stronger as ones level goes up. I've seen 2-3 Raiders in Power Armor and 2-3 Mutant Overlords with Shredding Miniguns. The worst are the high level ghouls. The latter sometimes wipe out checkpoints, those manned by the faction the player supported, after the completion of the main quest. If a checkpoint is wiped out, the guards don't seem to respawn.

The way the settlement defence calls are made is not well implemented. They seem to be an in game calculation and not something triggered by entering the cell. The checkpoint defence calls seem to be triggered on enetering the cell, or so it would seem. That's fine and makes sense - you are an ally, are in the vicinity and are called to man the barricades. Pity settlement defence calls didn't work the same way.

This is anecdotal. Attacks on settlements and checkpoints seem to often feature Legendaries. After it's over, I always hunt for bodies in case they are carrying a goodie.