[SOLVED] Q: Settlement defense/resource ratio on Survival mode

[Spacehamster]

Hello,
I finally got Sanctuary in a state it can sustain itself, enough food, water.... but defenses?

It's said in tutorial that town defense score should be same/higher as food+water or it'll attract enemies.

But I suspect that in Survival mode there are other rules, and a turret is less effective. I'd like to be ahead of unpleasant surprises, so my question is:

- Should I stick with the tutorial advice or if not,
- What is the ratio of defense/food-water score to be kind of safe on survival mode.


- Spacehamster

[raubrey]

Hey Spacehamster.

I believe there is a 1% chance a day you can get attacked regardless.
As for defenses, it has been said on the forums that 250 will minimize spawns regardless of level.

I haven't noticed much difference on 150 to 250 as far as frequency for "normal" sized settlements <25.

And such is overkill on less difficult modes. On Survival Mode I think over 200 makes sense, not to start with of course but to work towards. As far as the tutorial, you;re more likely to get attacked if your defenses are less, so that is a good starting point.

Someone else might have more exact data.

[Spacehamster]

ty for the info Raubrey!

[Spacehamster]

It'll take me alot of scavenging before I reach 200 defense each settlement :) But my Sanctuary place is up and running atm, and I'm avoiding main story progress in case it encourages enemy invasion.
I miscalculated that I need 7 INT to make antibiotics, I thought chem skills were all about drugs. Infection effects are really bad so my priority now is being able to make my own medicine. Besides that, so far my new attempt to try survival mode is great!

[Lenny Rat]

Build a Medical booth in your settlement as soon as possible and appoint a settler to run it. They can heal your physical, radiation, infection, and addictions for caps.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Lenny Rat:

Build a Medical booth in your settlement as soon as possible and appoint a settler to run it. They can heal your physical, radiation, infection, and addictions for caps.

You can actually build the rank 3 at 14 and do not have to wait for 20 like other rank 3 stores. You just need local leader rank 2@14 and rank 1 medic.

Originally posted by raubrey:

I haven't noticed much difference on 150 to 250 as far as frequency for "normal" sized settlements <25.

My Vault 88 last game had like a 500+ defense. Course I had liek 200 food production and 200 water production, lol.

One suggestion I cna make for survival, put a few carrots in your crops, use those carrots for radstag cages. With the +1 meat wasteland book this shoudl keep you both easily fed and have food for that emergency 25 lbs of encumberance.

You can also drown yourself in mongrel meat by having a dog cage (but never opening it) then after a few days you should haave like 6-12 dogs attack your settlement.

[lordoftheapes79]

Ok so, look up Oxhorn's video on the subject to see for yourself for a more thorough explanation, but he made it before survival came out so numbers may not be 100% accurate in that mode. He actually looks it up in the code and you can see the formula the game uses to figure it out.

Basically, you need 100 defense rating to win 75% of the time and thats the best you're going to get. However, your defense rating is not the number shown in workshop mode. That is your defense score.

Your defense rating is your population + your defense score. Since this caps at 100 then if you have 15 settlers, you cap your defense rating with only an 85 defense score. Yes, it really is that simple.

This isn't necessarily where you want to stop tho. I've found that such a low score usually doesn't properly cover your settlements if you're present(YOU are the biggest factor in this). If you're there a fight actually occurs(it is a game) so everything plays out as you would expect. Npcs do damage to each other and ♥♥♥♥ gets damaged in the process. If you're not there it calculates whether or not you win, then life goes on. If you win, nothing happens, if you loose it chooses what got damaged in the process and you then have to repair things appropriately(I'm sure you already know that tho).

Since you can't fast travel in survival you're probably never going to be there so you can save the resources on most settlements. Just remember that if you try to go and don't make it in time things could go horribly wrong if you're close enough to generate an actual battle, but it is survival after all.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by lordoftheapes79:

Since you can't fast travel in survival you're probably never going to be there so you can save the resources on most settlements. Just remember that if you try to go and don't make it in time things could go horribly wrong if you're close enough to generate an actual battle, but it is survival after all.

Running manually in survival is actually faster timewise than fast traveling.

Getting there and losing a few items is better than losing everything, espcially if you have a big settlement with like 30 turrets. Keep in mind a faield defense makes it so EVERYTHING has to be repaired, turrets, crops, generators, stores, etc which can be VERY costly with a big settlement.

[Spacehamster]

Thanks for the info everyone! It sounds like I have a lot to learn for survival, at least now I have some info to see what is ahread of me firther ingame. Thanks!

[raubrey]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Originally posted by lordoftheapes79:

Since you can't fast travel in survival you're probably never going to be there so you can save the resources on most settlements. Just remember that if you try to go and don't make it in time things could go horribly wrong if you're close enough to generate an actual battle, but it is survival after all.

Running manually in survival is actually faster timewise than fast traveling.

Getting there and losing a few items is better than losing everything, espcially if you have a big settlement with like 30 turrets. Keep in mind a faield defense makes it so EVERYTHING has to be repaired, turrets, crops, generators, stores, etc which can be VERY costly with a big settlement.

Very much so.
This isn't pretty on lower difficulties.
Even when I am there and they hit stores. Ouch.

I try to keep the enemies as far as possible and of course kill the grenadier types.
Some settlements are impossible to work with that way.
On survival, of course that's much more out of your control.

[Steve]

In survival mode try this, set up Sanctuary as a large farm. Trade often with Carla for parts to build as many turrets as possible till you get to about 150 defense or higher, making sure to place them high out of reach and give them better visibility. This will take a while so stay well rested and only go on short trips until you are confident your settlement an handle everything that comes its way.Begin again at the next settlement.

[oldrotorhead1]

There's a good summary here: https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/cju72y/psa_settlement_defenses_and_attacks/