Settlements require constant attention and micro-management.

[Deputy Dawg]

I feel like I'm playing The Sims rather than a post-nuclear RPG. I currently have about 15 settlements, of which 6 are reasonably large with 20 or more settlers. They seem to require a lot of micro-management, hence my comparison to The Sims. I've reached the point where I spend most of my precious time tweaking and repairing the settlements rather than on quests and exploration.

I didn't sign up for this!

I know Bethesda pointed out that base building was entirely optional, but my point is this: Once you've made the decision to do a bit of base building, the settlement "script" mechanic grows exponentially and takes over your entire game!

Does anyone have any tips on how to get the settlements "fine tuned" so they are more able to exist on their own without my constant attention?

I have applied the basic well known principals...
1. Always have the Defence rating well above the total Food and Water
2. Have more beds than are currently needed to cope with new arrivals.
3. Plant a large amount of crops so hunger is never an issue and assign settlers to be Farmers.
4. Construct an unbroken perimiter around the entire base (apart from the entrance)
5. Have a heavily defended entrance, a "pinch-point" where all attackers would have to pass through.
6. Make sure every guard post has a settler assigned to it.

I came back to one of my larger bases to find all my generators on fire and all "powered" defences were down. Looking around I could only find the body of one solitary Raider. He must have been Rambo for all the damage he caused. Either that, or he took down the settlement from far away with an enormously powerful sniper rifle.

I'd love to hear other players comments on this subject...

[Nite69]

You don't need a perimeter around the base

Guards aren't needed when you have a bunch of turrets, that way the settlers can be used for stores and supply line as well

the rest of the basics ya said is valid though

[Dead Inside]

I find that every game day or so, I have a settlement under attack. This is with 13 fully built and operational settlements, 12 of which have higher defense than their people/water/food/power values.

The worst is when it is a Synth attack. It seems that one of them always spawns under the world/inside of a wall or something, because I will kill everything and the attack never ends. Yes. I checked for infiltrators/replaced people. Just an automatic failure, regardless of what I do.

[Xyper]

i have a laod of settlements roughly build up and don't pay much attention if they are happy or not or if there are a lot of defenses. I have had only 2 settlements attacks so far and i am level 43. I don't understand the system.

[Thane_Ragnar]

If you play heavily with Settlements it helps to lower the timescale, I set mine to 10 so Days and Nights are twice as long. More time between attacks since they are checked once every day.

[Nite69]

Originally posted by Xyper:

i have a laod of settlements roughly build up and don't pay much attention if they are happy or not or if there are a lot of defenses. I have had only 2 settlements attacks so far and i am level 43. I don't understand the system.

its the supply lines that cause the attacks, if ya didn't set those up I can see why they are low for you

[Mr. Self Destruct]

Your defenses have to be higher than your food/water value total for attacks to stop or at leasst become rare. So if you have 30 food and 30 water, your defenses have to be 60 or higher.

[Black_Rat]

The first time i beat the game i had 1 attack on a settlement in about 40-50 hours. I just ignored the settlements all game, they arent required in any way. The only thing i used sanctuary for was to hold supplies for crafting.

[frogprincess_q4]

My current playthrough, I'm avoiding populated settlements and minutement quests. I did enjoy it at first - all that messing around with building and stuff, but the constant attacks were ruining my gameplay too and the amount of defense doesn't give any actual protection unless you are there.

Originally posted by =EGC= _Nite_:

Originally posted by Xyper:

i have a laod of settlements roughly build up and don't pay much attention if they are happy or not or if there are a lot of defenses. I have had only 2 settlements attacks so far and i am level 43. I don't understand the system.

its the supply lines that cause the attacks, if ya didn't set those up I can see why they are low for you

I am curious about this, it's the first time I've heard of it. Certainly, on the game that I abandoned due largely to frustration with the Settlement dynamic, nearly every settlement has supply routes to Red Rocket where I was keeping all my junk.

[Fyndir]

To go on a bit of a tangent, I found manually building walls to be a huge pain for many settlements, lining them up so they didn't cross over the borders and trying to keep them relatively level with the ground, not to mention the building cap that you're burning on it which could be used to make nice houses or shops instead.

A pre-build system for that which took into account ground elevation and allowed you to simply build, upgrade, and (somewhat) modify a perimiter for each settlement would seem far better to me, accessed through the workbench you can select a wall type from the kinds you can build, with upgrades adding things like lights, turrets on the wall, guard towers, etc.

Link it to the local leader perk maybe, require a cost in caps, settlers (reducing as you upgrade? you need more people to man the basic wall but later upgrades let you automate more of it with turrets and limit the defenders to the entrance?), and materials of course.

That way you can potentially end up with something a bit more like Megaton, Covenant, or even Diamond City, a walled town that makes sense for the wasteland, and focus your attention on buildings and settlers instead.

[Tenshin51]

Originally posted by Fyndir:

To go on a bit of a tangent, I found manually building walls to be a huge pain for many settlements, lining them up so they didn't cross over the borders and trying to keep them relatively level with the ground, not to mention the building cap that you're burning on it which could be used to make nice houses or shops instead.

A pre-build system for that which took into account ground elevation and allowed you to simply build, upgrade, and (somewhat) modify a perimiter for each settlement would seem far better to me, accessed through the workbench you can select a wall type from the kinds you can build, with upgrades adding things like lights, turrets on the wall, guard towers, etc.

Link it to the local leader perk maybe, require a cost in caps, settlers (reducing as you upgrade? you need more people to man the basic wall but later upgrades let you automate more of it with turrets and limit the defenders to the entrance?), and materials of course.

That way you can potentially end up with something a bit more like Megaton, Covenant, or even Diamond City, a walled town that makes sense for the wasteland, and focus your attention on buildings and settlers instead.

Lol building a wall is useless in Settlement due the mobs have certain spawn point. Wall is useful in the Castle settlement especially the main quest.

[Tyrant]

you forgot the help us someone kidnapped my friend!
well you got a plasma rifle full set of heavy combat armor actually 5 of you have that how about you fking use the tools i gave you! fine since your such pissants i might save your friend if i run past him

id rather have the settlements rot....

[frogprincess_q4]

It really bothers me how on earth these settlers survived to adulthood before the PC came along.

[Dead Inside]

Amusingly, I just ran into the most difficult settlement attack I have experienced so far. SEVEN level 74 (Same level as I am - Two with Missile Launchers) Super Mutant Warlords, 2 Legendary Super Mutant Warlords (With Missile Launchers), 2 Glowing Mutant Hounds, and 1 Legendary Glowing Mutant hound.

Nothing like zoning in and being instantly gibbed by missile spam o.o

[Casey]

Settlements are completely optional. Hence why I ignore them, they are not required to play the game.

[Deputy Dawg]

I'm interested to read the comment regarding where attacking NPCs spawn. Can it be confirmed that a walled settlement is useless because the spawn point will be inside the perimeter anyway. That would make my idea of a "pinch-point" entrance completely useless!

That would change my entire building strategy... Instead of a perimeter bristling with turrets, should I focus my fire power towards the centre of the settlement?

Anyone know where the attackers spawn points are in Sanctuary, Starlight Drive-In and The Castle, or is it randomised?