Mod request: battle stations

[BareJag]

As a reservist I find it the sole survivor's lack of tactical defensive preparations surprising. A prewar soldier should know better. One of the most basic tings any armed being should know is what to do when the alarm is going. Grab a weapon and run for a suitable firing position. What they not should do is running for the siren, gathering in a group so they all can be killed by a single grenade, or pinned down by a single machine gun, unable to fight back.

The solution in Fallout 4 should be to create battle station markers, assignable in a similar way as beds. When the alarm goes, settlers run for their battle station. If that is placed behind some kind of cover the settlers are able to use, they will have a much better chance of surviving, and the the defence will look much more real. The planning of the settlements will be more important from a tactical viewpoint. Placing cover here and there around the settlements. This will make sure not everyone can be caught in a crossfire by just a few hostiles surrounding them. Of course guards and artillerymen should be exempted from this in the way they now are exempted from sleeping. They are in their positions already. The alarms also requires some modifications. A guard post with a single guard and no way of sounding the general alarm is an invitation for a surprise attack with devastating results. So a few guards overlooking each other are preferable. Everyone able to immediately hit the alarm if they see anything suspicious or another guard going down. That way silently neutralising a single guard won't be enough to take the settlement by surprise. But as far as I've tried here, starting one siren does not start the others. Strange. And everyone runs for the siren or the enemy instead of looking for cover to fight from.

Perhaps there should also be an operator for the unmanned turrets for them to be able to recognise who's hostile. As far as I know nobody carries any signalling equipment for machines to recognise, so somebody should be needed to assign targets for the turrets. But perhaps that is an overly ambitious idea.

Unfortunately I haven't the knowledge to create a mod like this, but if anyone would like to try I would be delighted.

[AeonsLegend]

Technically should be possible, but I don't think it'd be very effective the way FO4 is set up. As you don't really have any defensible position that functions 100% of the time when a settlement is assaulted. For instance when you travel to a settlement that is under attack then the enemy spawns may have already infiltrated said defenses. This holds true especially if you're fast travelling there. A settler will automatically run towards the siren and set it off when a settlement is under attack. So that is already in the game. I've actually never seen settlers gather around the siren though, but I may not have been paying attention. This happens with the Bell you place, not sure what happens with the siren.

 

The thing is. If you want settlers to head to a specified battlestation point they would need a marker and be assigned to it. If it is a general marker then multiple settlers may move towards it and stand around idly. This interferes with their standard combat actions which already include taking cover and such. Having a fixed marker per settler may be detrimental as well as they may move away from where the settlement is invaded. Or move to a spot that is already surrounded by enemies.

 

So yea, it should be possible to implement. I just feel that the execution would not be very good as there is no intelligence to make choices based on situation. I mean IRL if your base is under attack and one of the watch towers has been taken by an enemy you don't rush off and sit there pretending to be a sniper because that is your designated defense spot.

[BareJag]

Yea, I realise it can't be done as well as in a real combat game. Still, the current system is terrible, so any improvement would be nice. You try to build a settlement surrounded by walls. The settlers run out chasing for the enemy instead of letting the turrets and guards do their work. You build covers inside the settlements but they prefer to fight in the fields a few meters away instead. The limitations would simply have to be taken into account like any limitation. If several settlers run to the same cover it makes sense. These are militiamen, not soldiers. Some confusion during an attack is to be expected. If they run for battle stations already taken by enemies, that makes sense too. A quick counter attack might be a good idea if they can retake a good position. Hostiles already inside the settlements can be fixed with some mods. If it does not work every time, well, sometimes the enemy will succeed with their surprise and hard fight is quite realistic. The problem with the siren is that they are not connected and it will only be activated when enemies are nearby, not if they attack from the other side of the settlement. I've seen battles with lots of enemies attacking, while the siren stays quiet, or maybe starts when there's just a few enemies left just because they where too far away. Other times when used one siren near every guard post it didn't work either.

[BareJag]

Snipers in towers is not what this is about. That's what guards are for. The point of battle stations is that they should quickly be reached after an attack have already started. One placed one up in a three or on a high platform cant be expected to be reached under fire. Morover, the importance of placing them well is real too. There's no point in having a battle station far from where the settlers usually are, it will take too much time and be too dangerous to get there while under fire. Those positions are for guard posts.