So.... I am confused about what's going with Tenpines since I am trying to figure why happiness dropped from 70 down to 30. It seemed all was fine when I had 7 settlers there since happiness was 70 at that point in time. However, when the 8th settler showed up happiness tanked to 30 and I am oblivious as to why that happened.

The settlement is producing 18 food and water with beds for up to 14 settlers. I have two wind generators for a total of 6 power. Defense is somewhere between 120 and 140. The housing complex has been fully constructed meaning there is a roof over everyone's head. I have installed lights both on the interior and exterior of the complex. There's a radio, jukebox and TV all receiving power. I set up a dinning area with two tables and a chair for everyone. There are probably a total of 10 paints and flags hanging on the walls for decoration and there is a rug underneath every two beds. There are also two communal dressers and I even setup a small bathroom area.

Tenpines has not been attacked in a long time and I even checked each turret to see if any needed repair in case I was oblivious to both "settlement attack" and "failure to defend settlement" notices. All turrets are in proper working order.

I lowered the population back down to 7 by sending a settler elsewhere and I also turned off the recruitment beacon. Happiness started to go back up but it has stagnated at 40.

In contrast, Outpost Zimonja is fairing a lot better; happiness is at 79. There are 12 settlers and 14 beds. Food production is 22 and water production is 18. Defense is around 160. Other than the beds, there are no lights, decorations or entertainment devices. The only thing that is using power is the recruitment beacon.

Did you have one of those glitches were your pip-boy was showing zero beds? I have seen that if you leave it that way without going to the settlement to correct it your happiness will drop fast.

I think we're all pretty confused about settlement happiness.

I have heard from others that bed placement can be an issue. do you see your people sleeping in their beds?

Yeah, I had the glitch where my Pip-Boy was telling there were 0 settlers at Tenpines. one time it also told me that I had 30 settlers at Sanctuary when I only have 8.

Look for insomniacs, if you see any just standing around in the middle of the night while others are sleeping that's a good indicator that they are confused about what bed to sleep in. Anytime I set up a settlement, I make sure to assign each settler a bed regardless if they are on guard duty or not.

I have only seen the original 2 settlers sleep at Tenpines and no one sleeps at Outpost Zimonja.

I have never seen it tank that low, but as the guy said: I think we are all a bit confused by settlement happiness.

It sounds like you have done everything you could to make them happy, except for one thing you did not mention, and I think it might be the single biggest moderator of happiness: a bar/restaurant.

Two shops that I make a priority of building: bar/restaurant and medic/chem. Even just the level 1s is a big happiness boon.

If a settlment is connected to the network, you can literally assign the first settler there to bartender duty and worry about farmers later.

Settlements often produce hardly explainable or replicable results. Your best bet is waiting for the community to fix it.

What's the most crucial with beds to have roof above them, preferably player-built ones.

Based on what I have read, shops are only necessary if you want to boost happiness above 80. Since I do not have Local Leader yet I cannot setup supply lines or set up shops.

Sanctuary doesn't have any bars or shops and happiness has consistently been between 76 to 80. Outpost Zimonja has nothing beyond the beds as far as creature comforts and happiness is 79.

Something I have read and personally encountered myself. There appears to be a random bug that causes happiness to tank when T.V.s are placed in settlements. I had this happen to me at Red Rocket. Couldn't figure out why happiness was so dam low. Finally got mad at the settlers for not appreciating everything I had given them and began taking back the entertainment pieces one at a time. First the radio. Nothing. Then the TVs. and suddenly the happiness sky rocketed back up to 80s.

I took it as at first every one was really excited about the prospect of TV, till they realized there was nothing but the dam 'please stand by' message on, forever and ever. Which quickly depressed everyone.

Give it a try, see if you too have fallen prey to this bug?

Thanks. I'll give that a try tonight.

Wearing good armor/apparel may help. One thing's for sure: if you show up naked, their happiness will definitely tank. Some settlers may even say, "I'm not sure that's how you want to represent the Minutemen."

Happiness will also drop right after an attack. It may also drop due to noise, so put their beds away from generators and turrets.

Frankly, I've rarely had under-70% happiness, after the initial 50% when I acquired the settlement. And my settlements are much less developed, with much lower defense, and only basic necessities. Most don't have a bar. Some only have sleeping bags. Something must be very wrong here if happiness drops to 40%.

Now were you able to recreate the tank in happiness by putting the TV back out there. If you can recreate the issue by placing the TV then we have a "wiener".

I had my abernathy happines gradually dropping when one of theirs was kidnapped. After I accidentally freed the person (since I had been avoiding the kidnapping quest) and talked to someone there I got the "greath thank for the help" treatment and the happiness started climbing again.

What I'm saying is, apparently their happiness can drop if they are having kidnapping active even if you don't have it in your quest log as quest. Not sure of the other settlement quest types (the non "defend" ones)

I did not do the TV trick, by deleting it / storing it in the workbench.

Happiness started to increase again; it's up to 53 as of last night. Not sure why 'cuz I didn't do anything.

One thing to be aware of is that the AI pathing can make it so that the settlers cannot get to their beds even if the beds are available. This is true even if you assign beds because it is a pathing issue where they think that they don't have a bed because it is unreachable (for them).

Be sure that there are wide entrances to the area where the beds are. The AIs don't navigate the Wall->Doorway structure very well because it is narrow. Likewise, make sure that the beds are organized so that they can get to individual beds. This doesn't necessarily mean tons of space, either. You can have sleeping bags lined up neatly in parallel rows and it will be fine as long as all beds are reachable.