How to defend a settlement attack in survival mode?

[Seb081]

Like i could be doing something way out south, near the castle and then i get a sidequest to help defend a settlement like starlight drive-in, and it will fail even if i have higher defense than resource production.
how do you guys deal with this in survival mode?

[globefish23]

You could use the Securtiy Cameras and the Security Camera Monitors from the Settlement Ambush Kit from the Creation Club.
If you're willing to pay money...
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Settlement_Ambush_Kit

[Bored Peon]

With settlements defending themselves you only have a maximum of like a 50% success rate because of the way the formula works.

So you have a few options:
- Run back and defend in person
- Take the chances which risks having to repair everything, losing stuff from workbench, and lose happiness for not showing.
- Use camera system from the Creation Club Settlement Ambush Kit which essentially tricks the game into thinking you are there in person and allows your walls and turrets to work properly rather than playing the 50/50 odds.
- Then of course the cheap cheesy way of playing console commando and teleport yourself there and back.

One tip:
If you are doing Far Harbor or Nukaworld then I recommend making a set of power armor built for speed. Which would be Atom Cat paint job with the sprinting mods in the legs. Then store this set of power armor at Sunshine Tidings or Coastal Cottage depending which DLC you are doing.

[EolSunder]

just cross your fingers. Not a huge problem if defense fails. Just have all your settlements linked to craft where you are roaming, put in just enough defenses and stuff to maximize the attack vs defense benefits and wander and play the game. The benefits outweight the drawbacks in having tons of full settlements in survival, and the downside of losing an attack isn't really much. When your much further in the game and have dozens of settlements built up, you'll fail a few defends all the time, and won't even think about it.

Either way your going to go full settlements or no settlements usually, so just decide which way your going and play. Believe me, settlement attacks in survival isn't nearly the most irritating about survival play.

[Ommamar]

I don't even mess with most of the settlements if I play survival, just a bed perhaps a water purifier. This gives me a "base" to run back to rest while I am exploring the map. The reality though is if I want a challenge I just use very hard while role playing the rest of what survival adds in. I think it is a mistake for games like Fallout 4 to add in things like survival after the fact, a mistake I think Bethesda will continue on into Starfield. They might just leave it to be modded, I doubt it though as it will likely be an "improvement" down the line after that game is finally released.

[The Inept European]

See this thread

https://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/5501743907519843772/

[The Inept European]

Also you have the formula wrong.

What the ingame help tells you is not really correct. You can also never prevent attacks.

The Settlement Ambush Kit is fun but has some bad bugs.

[Xenon The Noble]

Pretend you're the Doctor, coming to the rescue.
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/18735

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Ommamar:

I think it is a mistake for games like Fallout 4 to add in things like survival after the fact, a mistake I think Bethesda will continue on into Starfield. They might just leave it to be modded, I doubt it though as it will likely be an "improvement" down the line after that game is finally released.

Bethesda has been finding out that survival aspect of the game is not a very big demographic. Fallout 76 had the food and water requirements removed because people whined.

Originally posted by The Inept European:

Also you have the formula wrong.

Almost everyone has it wrong as pointed out in the topic you linked. I have been saying it for years. Workshops have a safety rating that is 1 point defense for every 4.5 points of food production. Yet people have insisted on a 1 to 1 ratio for years.

[Teratus]

50/50 chance it will succeed or fail if you're not there?
And you can't fast travel..

Sounds like a legit reason for save scumming if you ask me xD

[Toaster Maximus]

Run like Forest Gump to the settlement

[The Inept European]

Originally posted by Teratus:

50/50 chance it will succeed or fail if you're not there?
And you can't fast travel..

Sounds like a legit reason for save scumming if you ask me xD

You can usually keep the chance of an attack to 2% and the chance of loss below about 30% even for a very large settlement. The larger a settlement, the higher is the minimum chance of losing an unattended fight.

Be mindful of this and equip all settlements with sufficient turrets, then prioritise the largest settlements for your personal assistance.

If you fast travel when you get the pop up, you *will* get there on time. It's only when there are multiple attacks in progress that you might not be able to reach all of them in time.

[The Inept European]

Originally posted by Toaster Maximus:

Run like Forest Gump to the settlement

Or fly there like Colonel Kilgore, playing Wagner music at maximum volume.

Or warp in like the Terminator.

[The Inept European]

By the way Survival was not designed and planned "after the fact" in FO4. It was core to development and you see its impact on many core systems and settings under the hood. What happened was it was *released late* because it wasn't finished yet and Beth wanted to make their release date. At launch date the current Very Hard was called Survival.

As BP just pointed out, turns out the interest for actual needs-based survival is quite niche-y. To each his own.

[Stardustfire]

Vertibirds and the Settement defense CC Cameras. when you view an attack with this cameras that count as if you are present (seen my sidekicks even run around there than) what means the settlement dont loose with a dicerole but wins with what you created as defenses and gave to the settlers as arnament.

[The Inept European]

And people who follow the "100 minus Pop" rule too strictly, sometimes forget that in an attended defence, every turret counts. You can have 1000 Defence or 2000 Defence and every point of that defence will count in your favour, IF you attend in person.