Q. about settlement attacks

[damanding]

For detection of synth spies in a non-buggy way, I prefer either this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/14484/? or the one Jimmy mentioned earlier, the Synth spy glasses from Settlement Aid Program. My only issue with the synth spy glasses is just that they're ugly AF.

[kevkiev]

The settlement attack system was (and probably still partially is) totally broken. There is a post I started over on the Unofficial FO4 Patch forums, that goes into details about how the attack system is scripted.

 

There is a formula that uses settlement happiness/population/food/defense etc. to calculate when a settlement will be attacked, and whether you'll win or lose. It's quite convoluted, and in the vanilla game it was borked, but kinda functional, Far Harbor screwed it up completely, but I believe either the UFO4Patch team have partially restored it to semi working or (shock!) Bugthesda did in one of their updates.

 

If you get the "Help defend xxx" message, you have approx 15 in game hours to get there before the attack occurs, However ... If you fast travel in, the game will calculate how long it "probably" would have taken you to get there normally and how far the attackers would have traveled in that same time and "moves" the attackers into that location, completely ignoring any wall or building that might have been placed. That's why they will spawn inside your settlement if you fast travel in.

 

If you do not attend an attack, or if you fast travel in just as an attack starts, the game will run the calculation regardless, and decide if you would have won or lost. If it was a loss, it will randomly decide to damage certain resource items such as plants.

 

If the "help defend xxx" message didn't generate, it means that the quest never actually started, so that is why the settlers get stuck in the "thanks for your help" loop, as it can't finish a quest that never started. It will reset eventually, normally fast traveling out to a distant location and back in will fix it. (it might be the 15 hours that the attack script uses, or 24 in game hours, as that is the normal reset time for things in settlements, like crops or vendor cap generation)

 

You should be VERY careful with (or never use) AOE turrets like the rocket launcher turret except in areas where there is no possibility of collateral damage such as on top of The Castle Walls.

 

In the current version of the game (with the UFO4Patch) if you have little or no excess food stored in the workshop (either grown or pre-war items) and you have more than 100 defense, you'll very rarely get attacked.

 

Thanks for all the info. There's definitely some weirdness going on. Just visited Jamaica Plain and got the whole "thanks for your help friend" loop. I'd guess ('cuz I can't even remember it was so long ago) the last notification-generating attack at that settlement was 30-40 levels ago. And I can't recall ever stumbling on to a random attack there, although it could have happened when I was close enough to the JP cell(s) and didn't notice.

 

I didn't know about the food storage thing, although that seems kinda unavoidable for me since I've been storing food at every settlement for ease of crop repair should that be necessary, as well as crafting purposes. Well before I connected 'em all with supply lines.

 

But I'm not sure I have to worry anyway, it's been over 2 months game time since I had a notification for a settlement defence quest. Seems they've disappeared from my game. (For awhile I was getting them every couple days.) They were way too frequent to be considered fun as they interfered with quests and general exploration, but I do kinda miss them as a way to see my defences in action.

 

For detection of synth spies in a non-buggy way, I prefer either this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/14484/? or the one Jimmy mentioned earlier, the Synth spy glasses from Settlement Aid Program. My only issue with the synth spy glasses is just that they're ugly AF.

 

Thanks for the link. The contraption I usually use works really well, although recently I've been lazy and have just been saving, killing the new settler to check for a synth component, then reloading. Cruel, and not very role-playing of me, but time-efficient :tongue:

[damanding]

One thing I also do is leave one settlement unpopulated such as Coastal Cottage that I send all the synth spies to. Then after a handful have been gathered there, do a mass shooting. That way I don't have to risk pissing off non-synth settlers.

[Perraine]

I really wish that the Settlement Aid mod had an alternate version with a Wedding Ring instead of the glasses, as I too dislike wearing those shades on my characters.

 

I have the mod that allows you to wear both rings, and I have one that gives the targeting hud, but the other is still just the plain old ring.

 

I always make Synth Spies my provisioners, as it amuses me to have them cleaning out the commonwealth (including killing random Gen 1's and Gen 2's) and generating XP for me :)

[kevkiev]

Might be old news to some, but just thought I'd mention that I found a fix for that never-ending settler gratitude loop (mine was still happening at Kingsport after over a couple months game-time). Click on the offending NPC in console and type "removefromfaction 1125fe" (no quotations, obviously). Just did this with my Jamaica Plain and Kingsport settlers and it worked like a charm. I say "old news" 'cuz I found the fix on Wiki, but I'm thinking it might be a recent post as I'm sure I looked there a while ago and didn't see it.