Walls and settlements attacks.

[Ken 672]

Howdy

So I tend to make walls arround my settlements with 1 or 2 doors where it give meaning to have doors.
Now I have noticed on some attacks some of the attackers (last time it was supermutants) did attack through the walls with melee attacks and from time to time a group would get through the walls, even when the door was maybe 10 wall units to one side.

Have any of you experienced this?

 

[Zedek]

I believe it's because of how the game handles enemy spawns when attacked. For some reason they can sometimes spawn right in the middle of the settlement, normally there's a couple spawn points in the boundries of the buildable area but those only work if the attack happens while you are already in the settlement.

There's also a mod that gives a quest tracker to these spawn points and moves them further out, the mod page itlsef addresses the spawn issue.
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/12892 "Settlement Attacks Beyond"

EDIT: The quest tracker thing is from the mod Settlement menu manager not the one above.
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/24204 "Settlement Menu Manager"


I'm not 100% sure it doesn't cause any issues with SS but you can take a look to get a better understanding of how it's handled.

 

[Ken 672]

I believe it's because of how the game handles enemy spawns when attacked. For some reason they can sometimes spawn right in the middle of the settlement, normally there's a couple spawn points in the boundries of the buildable area but those only work if the attack happens while you are already in the settlement.

There's also a mod that gives a quest tracker to these spawn points and moves them further out, the mod page itlsef addresses the spawn issue.
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/12892 "Settlement Attacks Beyond"

EDIT: The quest tracker thing is from the mod Settlement menu manager not the one above.
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/24204 "Settlement Menu Manager"


I'm not 100% sure it doesn't cause any issues with SS but you can take a look to get a better understanding of how it's handled.

Thanks Zedek, gonna have a looksee :- )

 

[Wasteland_Survivor]

I will add that what you experienced is standard Vanilla behavior and intentional.
The idea is the "attack already started" and you are being called as a backup.

While cosmetically walls look great sorrounding your settlement -- I believe the main intended purpose was actually to use walls to protect key infastructure like Power generators and food \ water. .

 

[TrekkieJonny]

Using a few mods to try and get concrete walls to be a viable settlement defense. My end goal is funnel them into a kill zone with conveyor belts for easy recycling. Currently running into a problem with the attackers glitching through walls.

Still a work in progress. Ive gotten it to work mostly but not efficiently. I think some designs of the conveyor system may conflict with AI path finding. Going to try a kill zone on each side of Sanctuary, bridge side and Vault 111 side. Maybe reduce the walled in area.

Settlement Attack Spawns Outside the Settlement
SKK Settlement Attack System
Build High - Expanded Settlements 5.0
Sanctuary Hills concrete Walls (Transfer Settlement Blueprint)
Manufacturing Extended Addon -- Combo-Butcher
Soylent Green - Add-on for Manufacturing Extended (Waste not, want not )

 

[Antoine Soverie]

Isn't Build high trouble for SS2? Other than that, the conveyor idea is hilarious (and dark) and I'd love to see that.

 

[msalaba]

I made a "factory" like that. I made an arena with conveyors as a floor. You pressed a button and the cages would open, the enemies would drop into the kill zone. Laser turrets would blast them to pieces and the bodies would ride the conveyor to the recycling machine. Sorters would funnel the output into the appropriate disassemblers and finally into builders to make things.

It was pretty fun to watch. I'm kicking myself for not exporting it as a WSFW layout. Now I'm tempted to build another one from scratch.

 

[TrekkieJonny]

Isn't Build high trouble for SS2? Other than that, the conveyor idea is hilarious (and dark) and I'd love to see that.

Build High has been working for me so far. What bugs should I be on the look out for?

Been working on this project for a few months now and so far the hardest part was getting the settlement attackers to path into my settlement over the conveyors without timing out and teleporting. First few iterations, body parts would get stuck and keep the victims resources from continuing down the conveyors. At the moment my hurdle is getting everything to line up consistently, efficiently, and be easily reproducible. I believe I am just about there. Realized that in order to get it just the way I want, I am going to have to learn to make mods.

Starting a new game today because saves got deleted. (Mistake made from multiple long days with little sleep)
Here is my current SS2 simplified settlement layout. Also a few screenshots of the very close to finished Waste Not Want Not settlement attack defense.
Thinking of making build and in action videos.


Made a google sheet for layouts

 

[msalaba]

The NPC AI is pretty weak. In combat, they will try to find cover. This usually causes door openings to get clogged up. My suggestion is to make the openings in your walls bigger. You could also try using a conveyor to "help" the enemies get inside.

 

[TrekkieJonny]

The NPC AI is pretty weak. In combat, they will try to find cover. This usually causes door openings to get clogged up. My suggestion is to make the openings in your walls bigger. You could also try using a conveyor to "help" the enemies get inside.

Great idea. Here is what I came up with today. Standing still it moves me forward and then around the corner. Will integrate it and post results, most likely Friday or this weekend.

I really think to get the perfect system I am going to have to learn mod creation. Would be nice to just snap a floor sized conveyor. Going to dive in this weekend.

 

[msalaba]

Would be nice to just snap a floor sized conveyor.

This would require 3ds Max 2013 to do. To my knowledge there are no 3rd party tools available that can do collision. I was thinking the same, but sadly, I do not have the ability to do so.

 

[TrekkieJonny]

Current issue I am trying to work out is my settlers running out to defend the settlement. Working on an alarm system to keep them all put. Anyone know a mod that will make my settlers duck and cover?

 

[benedictify]

Sometimes, when I'm standing behind a settlement wall and shooting, bits of my character's body poke out through the walls, and I get shot. Or npc's outside the wall can shoot if their gun pokes through the wall. I'm not sure if this is what you're referring to.

What I started doing is making thicker walls; use a 1-tile-wide floor between two sets of walls. Then the clipping won't reach through.

Maybe the concrete walls are thick enough that the clipping won't reach all the way through?

Another idea: use a mod like Stackable Foundations or something similar, make a wall out of foundation pieces, 1-tile or 2-tiles thick.

Would that solve your problem?

 

[benedictify]

Current issue I am trying to work out is my settlers running out to defend the settlement. Working on an alarm system to keep them all put. Anyone know a mod that will make my settlers duck and cover?

There's something called Cowardly Settlers, though I don't know if that would overwrite another mod you have. It changes the default aggression of non-guard settlers to cowardly, down from average or aggressive. If it would overwrite one of your other mods, you could use Fo4edit to make a copy of whatever mod you want to take priority, then change the aggression flag to cowardly for the workshop npc's.

Or you could use something like Auto Doors: use either keycard locks or a proximity-triggered emergency lock, to lock your settlers inside the walls when hostiles are within the defined radius of the proximity detector. You could lock certain doors behind a yellow keycard-lock, for example, and only give the yellow keycards to your guards.

What I have always wanted is for the settlers to be smart enough to climb to the ramparts of the walls and shoot from cover up there. I can't reliably make them do that, though. Maybe make it so the guards can't get down from the walls, and the other settlers can't get up there?

 

[benedictify]

Current issue I am trying to work out is my settlers running out to defend the settlement. Working on an alarm system to keep them all put. Anyone know a mod that will make my settlers duck and cover?

For an alarm system, you could put the Sirens on the other side of a power line connected to a proximity detector, and leave the siren-tower's switch on.

Otherwise, I think the settlers may turn on the siren sometimes; you could put sirens next to the guard posts. I'm not sure if that works reliably.

 

[Antoine Soverie]

"Combat settlers" can change their agression level to cowardly too but not sure that's what you want. They will flee whenever they can (as per definition of cowardly) and not fight within the walls. And sirens are very loud, you probably don't want that in the background 24/7. Something like PANPC would probably work but it's very script heavy and using it with SS2 is asking for trouble, sadly.

 

[Rojobow]

"Combat settlers" can change their agression level to cowardly too but not sure that's what you want. They will flee whenever they can (as per definition of cowardly) and not fight within the walls. And sirens are very loud, you probably don't want that in the background 24/7. Something like PANPC would probably work but it's very script heavy and using it with SS2 is asking for trouble, sadly.

Ahh Figured PANPC & SS2 was still a no-go overall. Wasn’t sure with recent updates to both but I’m not even gonna chance it. Downtown Boston is crippling CTD’s usually with these two in a L/O