I jumped into the Minutemen quests a bit too eager and have control of just about all of the settlements. I'm regretting it now as i just like one or two locations, but the frequency of them being attacked is so low i haven't defended my favorite location once.

I'm wondering if i can reduce the population of some settlements back to 0, and then remove the recruitment beacon. Should that prevent them ever growing back up, and also would that mean them not being attacked?

If thats possible, can i just go and kill them? I'm worried that pre-existing settlements not founded by me have essential NPC's that can't be killed.

Don't know if it would work, but have you tried removing all the beds to see if they'll leave on their own? Could also remove everything else so their happiness drops to 0.

yeah tried that, they just complain.

i have some settlements where i didn't build a single object and they still get 1-5 settlers appear.

i also turned the recruitment beacon off and settlers still arrived.. presuming i have to delete it instead

Removing the beacon tower does not turn off the broadcast.
Switching the tower on or off however seems to toggle between the player recruiting and "dead air" being broadcast.
I too feel like I jumped in too fast on the minuteman stuff.

I have yet to see a constructable shelter which will keep anyone safe in a rad storm.

From my understanding, settlements are based on what rank your charisma is. So if you have 8 stars in charisma and have 3 more from random magazines, that's going to equal the max amount of settlers you can have at your settlement. I think the only real way to axe the amount of people is to not set up a radio beacon. I'm becoming fully immersed in settlement building and setting up trade routes at this point. I feel like it's a plus to have more settler's mainly because you can set up more branching trade routes.

I'm just going round now killing them all. With no beacon they don't seem to repopulate. Some have essential NPCs like children which are an issue, I'm just disabling them via the console.

Some of my settlements that I found 50h ago and never touched have 20 settlers stood around doing nothing.

Since your introduced

Settlement population is maxed at Charisma + 10. It won't go higher than that.

If you don't want them, ignore them. They'll get attacked and the game will destroy them, anyway.

Yup I've massacred those in about a dozen settlements. Just in the hopes it changes where gets attacked short term. Other than that I've Ensured there are no defences or recruitment beacons at any. Unfortunately those with essential NPC's are going to keep struggling on. I may intercede further and disable those guys.

Unless we can get some lead building options, I don't think that is possible.

Lead only for gamma exposure. Alpha is the more likely threat which can easily be protected against

I know you can send settlers to other settlements, have you tried sending them all away?

Well then the dev that added the lead lined armor mod as protection against rads got it pretty wrong as well then.

Ah I was unaware you could move settlers. I may try that and see how it goes for reducing some.

I'm down to 10 populated settlements from 25 ish. 7 are farms with named families so I'm skeptical about murdering them. Yes I do have a heart.

And I'm not saying lead doesn't work, infact it is the best solution, particularly for gamma. However concrete can serve the same purpose, and also thin layers of aluminium will stop beta, and materials as weak as a piece of paper or air itself can stop alpha. It's more about having a complete seal, which many of the settlement pieces don't offer. I suppose the metal in habitations should work against the rad storms. If these storms existed they would contain all 3 types of radiation, however gamma is the least threatening of the 3 despite being the hardest to protect against (and for the same reason, if it can get through your protection without a particle collision, equally it can go through your body without affecting you whatsoever, ingest alpha radiation however and your literally screwed).

Actually, Alpha rays can be blocked by lead.

They can also be blocked by a sheet of copy paper. Or human skin. Really, it's only dangerous if you swallow some, inhale it, or get some in an open wpund.

Damn, that is disappointing.

I was going to have a little party tonight where we all made little cuts in our feet and walked through Alpha-Irradiated substances...I guess I will have to cancel now.

I've tried but can't find a way to move settlers between settlements. Is there actually a way?

It's a bit arcane, but as I understand it, it has to do with sending out a supply convoy to the settlement you want them to go to...wait till they arrive there, tell them to go to another settlement to establisha second link (it'll then link between their original destination and the new one), and then you cancel that one, so that the new 'home' settlement is where htey go to instead of wherever they originally came from.

At least that's how I understand it. Since I don't know how else to do it.

in workshop mode when looking at a settler, it's R) on PC. You can't send the last settler anywhere but you can shoot 'em in the head if they don't have a name.

Well I don't think that works for the named NPC's at sanctuary, or children. But I'll try for named family farmers, thanks

I have a few where I used scrapall in the console. Eventually they dwindled to nothing.

Their is a BOS side quest you can do to persuade some settlement to help them, that removes that settlement from your care used that early on to keep my numbers manageable

oh great thanks, i will pursue that. Do you get to choose which you can hand over?

Also could you find out the name of that quest? i'm unable to find it right now.

It's offered from the quartermaster on the Prydwyn. And it's one of thise radiant quests so... no, not really. Just save before talking to him and reload until you get a settlement you don't mind handing off to the BoS.

Also, I'm not 100% sure you can get them back. But I also haven't done much with that aspect of the settlement system, either