I wanted to start a thread with some info that a lot of us know, that maybe some don't. Community sharing and such. I know a lot of this most of us have stumbled on, but don't be a hater. keep it positive and helpful for those who haven't.

To start, a while back I contributed to a thread about how it was driving us all crazy you cannot move walls up and down easily, and the corner peices drove the wall into a weird angle we didn't want. We couldn't turn sharp corners at a 90 degree angle.. Like, if wrapping a wall around a settlement, you get the floating problem too, sometimes so bad I used to see raiders straight walk under it. So I stumbled onto a solution for this that again, I can't stress enough that I know most of the community knows but let's share and be helpful for those who don't.

So first, the turning the corner issue. So what I have started doing for walls, is putting a foundation first, followed by walls on top of it. I use first wood floor, and shack foundation 1 (the one with concrete). When you use either, the walls will snap together properly, and by doing this you can turn any corner at a 90 degree angle.

As for the floating wall issue, which I know we all have had the pleasure, if you use shack foundation one it will clip for you thereby placing "a slab of concrete" beneath the wall preventing anything from strolling or shooting underneath it. To do this you want to use the normal shack foundation FIRST, building your perimeter and then replace floating parts with the concrete or use no wood floors and just drop the concrete parts (which I found more annoying when trying to get the shape I wanted)

I do this at Red Rocket to use it kind of as a personal HQ with few settlers and companions I am not using. I put a couple screens to show you what I mean with the sharp corners and blocking the gap.

http://i.imgur.com/YlkbeEb.png

So another thing you should know (that again, I am sure most do), is you can buy a house in DC which is awesome to avoid rads storms and to have a zero threat place to chillax and do what you need to.

There is a second image that doesn't want to show up it seems. I will try to get it upload in comments so you can see another angle.

image 2 *hopefully* this is just another angle. The wall wraps red rocket completely. When attacked, if it's not rad-scorps or raiders, they run around outside annoyed they cannot get it. Settlers and companions remain untouched.

http://i.imgur.com/f985oIW.png

Build rocket launchers and laser turrets on the roof. Human guards are totally worthless (figures, they're worth only 2 points of defense).

That is all.

I am not interested in how the thing looks, etc. From what I heard, even the walls that people are so fond of building do not keep raiders out because of where the raiders spawn (talking about Sanctuary).

In addition, I do not like the fact that walls are indestructible.

Destructable walls would be great but the cost in repairing would become annoying. Walls work well for me, never seen a raider inside personally. You're right about rocket launchers especially, huge range, from outpost zimonja or whatever it's called, I can hit the raiders all the way down the path that spawn in the bus.

Personally, I think the whole running about to figure out what is damaged and needs fixing is a really rubbish idea to implement settlements.

First of all, let us never forget that the player character is a GENERAL of a small army. That's got to mean something. The correct way is to approve a list of damaged items for repairs, and note down what cannot be repaired because there's not enough resources. There're so many clipboards in the game, just use a clipboard as a UI or something. Lore and game friendly and does not require others to have a Pipboy.

Actually doing the repair job? That's too lowly for a General. In fact, Bethesda should relook into the whole concept of random unnamed NPCs asking a General of an army (who funnily enough does not have command over any soldiers, nor does he know exactly how many soldiers there are, command structure, etc) to run here and there to do the most menial tasks.

It's been my personal experience, which is all I can speak for, that raiders and super-mutants spawn just outside of my walls which I have right at the border of where you can build. Plus this isn't for people who hate walling something off =P it's for the other fans that like building walls and such for fun.

I did not see the walling part in the title.

Personally, I prefer an invisible wall that's enforced by my rocket launchers. The pile of corpses is the line that raiders/super mutants/gunners/whatever else must not step past.

Way better than a physical wall, and less time consuming to build too.

I keep hearing about this but have yet to have it happen to me. Where exactly are these raiders spawning inside the settlement? Does anyone know?

You can use objects which partly floats in to the ground (best are two "shack foundations" -either concrete one or wooden one) to clip objects in to other objects (like terrain or trees for example). Build your structure somewhere, put one foundation near it, use it to group select structure and then you can clip or "sink" your structure in to terrain or other objects. Then just remove foundation object.

You can also use it to place walls at uneven angles.

You can for example sink plants in to the ground (they often float over ground when placed solo).

Some other (sinkable) objects can be used for this as well, notably fence pylons but foundations are the easiest to use if you are not constricted by space.

Build uphill where possible for the wire and picket fences.

If you start at the top and work down, these float and as they are small fences the snap trick cannot be used.

By building uphill a portion of the fence will clip into the ground, use a post to bookend the fence and start a new fence off a new post in the slightly lower position until you reach where you want.

Btw: did any of you found out how to clip together pieces of "junk fence" -the tall wall in fence section. Did not find the way jet...

You can use a mat. Place a mat on the ground then place the junk wall on top of it. Move the mat about and the junk fence will follow it and abandon all clipping.

Thanks! Will try

Sweet cheers.

I can speak from personal experience from two play throughs, multiple settlements, and from as recently as last night:

Sanctuary I have comletely walled off using the wall-clip method, so absolutely no gaps anywhere. I have half of santuary unused (the side near the stream, and have walled off the otherside, up around the tree. No gaps. I have a double wall at the river.

Raiders spawned last night WHILE I WAS AT SANCTUARY and they spawned:

1 near the tree, incisde the walls

2 INSIDE A HOUSE in my base, near the river

2 outside the walls near my old house

1 in the middle of the road near the workstation

NONE of them spawned near, on, or on the other side of the bridges.

I hate this spawn system. It renders "walling off your settlement" COMPLETELY USELESS.

Decorating tip:

1. You can use Workshop mode to place objects on tables and shelves. Highlight the object, press 'E' (if on PC) and it will snap upright and can be placed perfectly.

2. IMPORTANT. Next, you need to exit Workshop mode, and hold down your 'use' button on the object to move it. Raise it up very slightly, then release it so it falls back into place. This will prevent the object from 'sinking' into the surface when you return to your settlement. It 'settles' the physics.

My tip is to build only enough defences to complete the raider attack quests and kill them yourself, and not care about the other stuff, you know what they say: "procrastination makes perfect"

I don't get the feeling that this is "the system". This appears to be a bug of some kind, most people don't have it happen as far as I can tell. Have you any mods?

Thank you for the tip to prevent the sinking effect. Can't wait to try this!

Oh no, I won't run mods until the modding community settles down a bit and the GECK is out. I like to savior the game as intended before I get into tweaking anything.

I've had the same at Starlight: every attack spawned WITHIN the confines of the base build area.

You are a lifesaver (I'll test it when I get home from work). I got sick of returning back to my base to find all my decorations lying all over the place, so I've stored everything in a chest.

It is basically doing the same thing the Creation Kit told you to do when placing objects. You needed to run the physics to settle objects as part of making environments. It's what made me think to do it when decorating, because if you placed objects on a table in the Creation Kit and DIDN'T run physics before loading it in-game, the objects would sink into or through the table. So, basically, same solution, just in-game this time.

Anyone know an easy way to snap objects vertical like that for console players?

Thanks for that tip.

I have a problem replacing mormal foundation with concrete ones. They dont snap and thus, dont properly fit.