SKK Settlement Attack System

[ this is a COMBAT mod, not an RPG storybook lore mod ]

Install this mod at any point in any game and the player is automatically given a [.SKK Settlement Attack System Holotape] in MISC inventory after Vault 111 exit to configure:

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Configuration Settings

Main menu
> Settlement Attack System  [ *Enabled – *Disabled ]
> Attack real time interval [ Constant  15min  30min  *1hour  2hour  4hour  8hour  Random ]
> Attack strength [ 50%  *100%  150%  200% ]
> Attack difficulty [ 50%  75%  *100%  125%  150% ]
> Settlement patrols [ Enabled – *Disabled ]
> [ATTACK NOW]

Settings menu
> Assign Workshop Faction [ Menu: *This Workshop | All Workshops ]
> Attacker map markers  [ Enabled – *Disabled ]
> Patrol map markers  [ Enabled – *Disabled ]
> Interior or Isolated workshop attacks [ Enabled – *Disabled ]
> Stop attack on unload or Timer [ *Enabled – Disabled ]
> Workshop auto repair (charges apply) [ Enabled – *Disabled ]
> Irritating base game attacks [ *Enabled – Disabled ]

Factions menu
> Faction relations [ Ignore – *Respect ]
> For each faction [ Enabled – Disabled – Locked ]

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What its does and how it works (RTFM)

At a configurable real time interval, an owned exterior workshop in the player worldspace that has a defense rating is selected to be attacked. If the player is near a suitable workshop, that will be selected.

The holotape menu will notify “No valid workshops in this worldspace“, as you may have owned workshops with no defense. Use the [ Refresh Workshop States ] holotape option if conditions have changed.Yes that’s right, no more stupid attacks in Far Harbor when you are in Nuka World with Survival fast travel disabled.

When the player is not in dialog or combat, a proper modal message pops [ You hear that SETTLEMENT NAME may soon be attacked ] and a misc quest objective marker is added to remind you.  Yes that’s right, no more WHAT was that notification flashing past in the middle of another fight.

The attack holds for as long as necessary for the player to turn up at the settlement to start. Yes that’s right, no more bogus off screen calculations that totally ignore your finely crafted defenses if you don’t get there in time.

Attack factions are mostly ranged actors. Animals are not included as their lack of opposable thumbs to open your settlement doors may cause them to teleport straight to the workshop target if its walled in, plus they have zero chance against mounted turrets.

The random attacker selection pool can be configured with the Factions menu. By default faction relations are respected so factions are only offered if (a) They are hostile to the player and (b) the DLC or content is installed.

With the [ Ignore Faction Relations ] setting all installed factions can be enabled. By default the 4 base game main faction attackers are removed from their base factions to try and avoid murder stats and quest relations complications. This is not 100% reliable which is why  [ Respect Faction Relations ] is the default setting for your protection.

> Enabled: Faction is added to the random attack actor list.
> Disabled: Faction is available but not on the random attack actor list.
> Locked: Faction is not hostile & relations are respected, or the DLC/content is not installed.

To add specific or custom actors use xEDIT to add the lvlActorName records (NPC_ signature) to FormList  SKK_SASUserAddActorsList. These actors factions are not detectable so relations can not be validated. You must manually enable/disable the list as a single group.

The attack strength is based on the number of settlers and defense rating with a minimum of 2 and maximum of 64 normal attackers. It assumes you are keeping your settlers properly tooled up for player level combat, if not reduce the strength and/or difficulty. For the full detail on calculations read the console configuration article. This doesn’t mess about counting food and water resources, infact settlement damage to them and turrets can be automatically repaired after an attack for a small fee.

The attacker difficulty (level & health) is a percentage of the player level, based on the standard game actor level lists.

There is an option to map mark attackers if you like that sort of thing, or if they get stuck/lost on the navmesh and you need to track ’em down. Some base game workshop spawn points can have this issue. The attacker map markers can be enabled and disabled without affecting an attack in progress.

This solution uses the existing base game WorkshopLinkAttackMarkers to spawn attackers, it does not move them around to avoid conflicts. If you want to ensure spawns are always outside of a build area, you will need to use one of the mods which does move or add markers without breaking the LinkedReferences. Move Workshop Markers was created specifically to solve this issue.

The base game attacks option will disable or enable irritating standard [ Help defend <alias=mylocation> ] settlement attacks on all workshops, but will not disable other settlement defense quests such as Minutemen or DLCs.</alias=mylocation>

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Cancel attack & spawn cleanup

This mod is based on the usual SKK quality spawning craftsmanship for low system overhead and zero spawning CTDs.

If you do not want to be attacked whilst in building or crafting, install SKK Dynamic Timescale which provides that player state to hold attacks.

A selected settlement can be re-rolled by switching DISABLE > ENABLE > SUBMIT holotape option, but if you are near a suitable workshop that will always be picked. Whilst SKK does not approve of interior attacks as they are generally rubbish, there is an option to enable them along with isolated workshops that are not registered with WorkshopParentScript.

An attack in progress can be cancelled and cleaned up at any time using the DISABLE > SUBMIT holotape option, or if the player teleports away from the fight to put on pink panties.

If the player moves far enough away from a settlement attack in progress so actors 3D unloads (around 15,000 game units), or after 30 real time minutes have elapsed, the attack will be automatically cancelled and live spawns cleaned up ready for another attack timer. This can be disabled to freeze the attack if the player runs/teleports away.

Dead bodies are released and hang around for looting until the game engine decides to clean them up (iRemoveExcessDeadCount).

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Settlement Close Air Support

Craft Air Support Signal Grenades at a Chemistry Lab to call ONE friendly Vertibird to your settlement for 15 minutes of air support. This does not count towards defense rating if an attack starts.

[ Sanctuary Hills air support inbound with 15 minutes fuel. ]

Vertibird support is provided by qualifying factions: MM, BOS, Inst, RR, 4-76Pilot so the player must be a member of one (or more). Finally, a reason to join the Minutemen, or do Arcjet again.

To initiate a support mission the player must be within an owned settlement build area when throwing a signal grenade. Only one mission can be active at a time. After a successful request has completed (out of fuel or destruction) there is a 30 minute cooldown before the next mission request will be answered. Check for service availability in the Holotape [ Air Support is available ]. With vertibirds attacking and air support active, amusing air to air minigun combat will happen.

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Settlement Patrols

Settlement patrol option generates patrols between owned workshops in the same external worldspace that have settlers or defense. Excludes DLC04 raider outposts or vassals.

Patrol teams of 2 to 4 are randomly selected from base game factions the player is a member of, or health leveled settler guards if none. Optionally assign a faction to the current workshop (or all workshops at once) to use that patrol flavor. If a faction turns hostile, the workshop is reset to default and those faction patrols are disbanded.

A map marker option finds patrols, you can ask them what route they are on to travel with and use for cover in difficult areas. Possibly more interesting than dragging around a team of OP followers.

Once a patrol arrives, they sandbox and help defend for a while before disbanding. New patrols are generated hourly between any valid unassigned workshops.

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Compatibility

This solution has no dependencies on extenders or DLCs and does not change any existing base game scripts, assets or objects. It is 100% pure new Creation Kit forms and scripts which means that it works on PC , Xbox and GamePass. As it does not touch any other stuff in your save-game, there should be no load order issues or mod conflicts. If you run stuff that modifies base game scrips/assets or tries to mess around with spawns there may be problems, but they are on you.

If you use spawn multipliers or extenders, the extra spawns may or may not replicate the AI package, faction and aggression states as the full actor configuration is unlikely to be duplicated.

SKK Settlement Attack System is totally independent of the base game settlement attacks. It will work with any workshop settlement that conforms to the base game WorkshopAttack specifications, and any other independent attack system.

Works with or can disable base game [Help defend] attacks
Works with base game [Build Defenses] Minutemen radiant attacks
Works with Sim Settlements
Works with Conqueror
Works with Endless Warfare
Works with Attackers – Get Off My Buildzone
Works with More Attackers – Get Off My Buildzone
Works with UFO4P
Works with Fallout 4-76 Open World

*** we have yet to discover something so appalling it DOESN’T work with ***

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Known Issues

(1) If mods have removed or do not provide WorkshopLinkCenter and WorkshopLinkAttackMarkers that settlement will never be attacked. Base game settlements Bunker, Boston and Spectacle do not have WorkshopLinkAttackMarkers as they were never meant to be base game attacked.  Install the optional SKKSettlementAttackSystemMarkers.esp which adds new markers and adjusts a couple of problematic AI path markers at Sanctuary. Or use Move Workshop Markers for dynamic placements, GMOBZ for static placements.

(2) This can disable the base game [ Help defend alias=mylocation ] attacks by configuring an existing Workshop.AllowAttacks setting which does not modify the base game in any way, or affect any quest lines. Use SKK Workshop Ownership Utilities to disable Minuteman [ Defend | Build Defenses | Help defend]  radiant attacks. There are also attacks that are originated by DLCs and other sources which ignore the base game Workshop.AllowAttacks flag which SKK mods can not stop.

(3) If synths attack and the player is not a member of the institute, any synth settler infiltrators will exit power armor and turn hostile. Killing them will not affect settlement happiness.

(4) Hostile Vertibirds are spawned without door minigunners below player level 15 unless 150% difficulty is enabled or Air Support is active for air-air combat.

(5) Patrols getting stuck in corners or on rocks when you visit them ? With unlimited patrols, stuck path detection is too much script overhead. Just leave them alone to unload and they will usually sort their path out “off screen”. If not, a regular scavenge process will clean ’em up.

(6) By enabling the auto repair service, you accept a charge of 10 caps per repaired item (or part thereof) to cover materials costs which is automatically debited from your stash. If you do not accept these charges, disable the service and fix ’em the hard way scavver. If your a dead beat with no caps, the service will ignore you until you become enriched. This is wasteland commerce.

(7) No holotape ? Then you have run an ALT start mod that has forgotten to set key new game start triggers so we know the player is out of the vault (MQ102.Stage10 specifically, naughty mods). Craft one at a Chemlab under [Utility].

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PC manual installation & removal

This can be installed at any time in any game as long as you have not already corrupted the WorkshopParentScript arrays with bad workshop installs/removes.

Copy  SKKSettlementAttackSystem.esp and SKKSettlementAttackSystem – Main.ba2 to your …\Fallout 4\Data directory, enable in the Bethesda mod menu, mod manger or whatever.

The mod can be disabled if the holotape DISABLE setting is submitted then no scripts run, it sleeps. Only remove mods if you are happy to accept potential conflicts from load order changes in a save game.

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FAQ

(1) Is this mod compatible with SKK Combat Stalkers ? YES please do use both together for great results. CS is focused on the player and SAS is focused on player owned settlements.

(2) Will settlers be killed ? Not in the base game which protects the WorkshopNPC settlers so only the player can kill them. BORING. Use a mod like SKK Combat Settlers or Better Settlers to configure them to level health, take damage and need stimpaks or die for MAH combat MMURSION !

(3) What about an ESL version ? NO, SKK mods will not be published in ESL format because life contains sufficient hassle.

(4) What about MCM ? NO, as 90% of SKK mod users are Xbox. You can write an MCM json thing using the settings thoughtfully published in theConsole Configuration article.