I have yet to play the game and am bery intrigued by the settlement feature. I believe Bethesda has created a sandbox within a sandbox and the potential for modding this feature is extremely exciting. I am looking for the best in depth look at the settlement feature so that I can learn it's freedoms and limitations, interactions with settlers, frequency and potentcy of enemy attacks. Anyone have resources they can share?

I know its a complete waste of time, has almost zero synergy with all character builds and it's a parasitic "mechanic".

Use the search feature on this forum, and read the Wiki. I've started 2 threads concerning settlements(Discussion - Settler Management, and Discussion - Supply Lines), but board moderation here is practically non-existant, way too many duplicate threads to be able to have any sort of prolonged discussion or organization of similar subjects.

I have linked a couple mods you might like (if on the PC) in another thread, I'll link them here for you if you like.

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/818/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/1145/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/2017/?

I think you'll find them all useful/fun once you get started messing around with settlements.

And I totally disagree with the post by illuknissa, the settlement feature may not be implemented as well as it could be, but it's a feature that has eaten a huge percentage of my time, has great synergy with my build(3/4/3/6/8/2/2) and I've found to be quite fun.

Of course, yer mileage may vary.

Building settlements is fun, but having too many of them tends to absorb much of your attention by giving you those dull and menial kidnapping/ghuol/muties/raiders quests in the same locations respawned over and over again.

Wait! There's kidnapping? Like raiders kidnap settlers and you have to rescue them? That's actually something I was going to suggest. Also, a raider posing as a settler for a sort of trojan horse random event. It would be a way to keep even the most fortified settlements at least somewhat vulnerable and vigilant.

Settlements require resources (mainly wasting perk points on charisma) and they give almost no resources back. They don't give any unique bonuses and you need to defend them from raiders. They could be more useful if you could farm them for xp but you get almost no xp from building (unless you get lucky with idiot savant)

The only good thing about settlements is that you can farm carrots and carrots are only useful if beth doesn't fix commie bear steak.

Yeah it's awesome - you have to run through a random dungeon and rescue the poor sod. Greatly extends the replayability of the game.

I find settlements extremely useful. I have two settlements set up as mutfruit farms and the caps from selling those is nice. I have another settlement in which everyone works at a scavenger station which brings in a lot of "junk" but they often bring in rare pieces useful for modding. I also like have six stores on hand where I can sell my loot for caps quickly.

Once again, respectfully, I must disagree with illuknissa.

Settlements certainly require resources to become productive, you gotta spend some money to make some money as the saying goes, but with just a moderate amount of work they can turn into steady sources of income as well as salvage/construction/crafting materials. Properly assigning settlers, especially with regards to farmers/scavengers/merchants, can guarantee you a steady flow of raw materials. as well as caps. You can evenly mix tasks, or specialize a settlement to provide just about anything you might need. And with proper supply routes set up, whatever that settlement is producing in food/salvage is available in every other settlement you control.

Settlements can absolutely be farmed for XP, via building and crafting, as well as defense missions.

Here's an example of a typical production settlement in my game:

6 settlers farming - divided amongst mutfruit, corn and tatos, the 3 ingredients needed for adhesives

6 settlers scavenging - assigned to scrapper benches

4 settlers guarding - assigned to multiple guard posts set at the cardinal positions, with turret support

3 settlers assigned to merchant booths - typically a bar, medic and trader

1 provisioner - linked to the closest settlement(maybe, depending on if I already have a provisioner coming from a hub settlement, otherwise another guard centrally located)

Hub settlements have 4 provisioners, all 6 merchants, 4 farmers, and only 1 scrounger, the rest are guards, and they are likely to be companions or named settlers. I build one hub for every 5 settlements.

Everything is linked by supply lines ASAP, and a couple of settlements are used just for recruiting settlers to send elsewhere when needed. Plus, I have a few themed settlements, one that's all ghouls, another that's kind of a holding point, and one that's entirely manned? by nearly nekkid chicks with switchblades.

Granted, it takes some work, and may not be everyone's cuppa, but the settlement feature is definitely worth playing around with.

IMO.

Hit YouTube, because there's a pretty good learning curve with it. Not all pieces snap together, and trying to build that perfect settlement will take some time.

I'm on console, so mods aren't going to help me, but this time-killer has been pretty enjoyable for me. I just spent 3 hours yesterday, proud of my build, only to accidentally discover I didn't need a specific prefab to build. Scrapped the entire play time and reloaded from a previous save.

Each area has a "size" guage, and you need to pay attention to it. There's only so much you can build within the size (it's pretty generous, but if you're looking to build Hogwarts, you'll be disappointed).

PC players have advantages to remove collisions and remove the ceiling cap. We console players are stuck with trying to fit two pieces together but won't get that nice snug look because of collision. Because of this, I'm quite sure the modding community will add tools and features that will take the out-of-the-box version and allow... well, Hogwarts. Lucky players.

I would highly recommend you keep several saves. Learn, play, test, reload. Once you get the building down, next comes power, and that takes a special kind of learning because you'll need to consider how to run power with your build. Running power between conduits has limitations, and you can't run them around corners without first using pylons.

If you've played Minecraft, much of this will seem familiar.

The game says I've played 99 hours so far. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if over 50% of this time was on my settlement.

So the size meter is about what all you can build in settlement; turrets, crops, furniture? I thought it was how many more people you could fit in.

Yea, I've easily spent half my play time tweaking settlements, settlers and gear, and reaping the proceeds.

All of this amount to [censored] nothing.

The only thing that requires slightly steady supply of materials is power armor repair and that can easily achieved by just looting [censored]. Sometimes I buy materials from traders. You don't need materials for anything else.

Caps also worthless because stores rarely sell worth anything. Sure you can buy ammo and jet but 100 .45 for your spray 'n spray is just one magazine. one. If you have just one decent melee weapon you don't even need ammo.

On the PC they need to improve the UI. And, give us a top-down birds eye view.

Also, make the micro managing an option. I don't mind building farms and other things.. what I do mind is assigning people to manege those resources. Right now, I have to give the settlers who are assign a red banana. A little immersion break don't you think? I'd rather it work more like the Sims; build it and the people will manage it.

Raiders spawning inside the settlement (inside any gates) is not very cool. That needs to be fixed.

Also some documention is needed. Right now, unless you stop the game to go google, it's hit and miss. The whole system needs docs badly.

See, illuknissa, I get the idea we're playing different games. I like the settlement feature, and am using it to further my enjoyment of the game, you seem to not care for it, and apparently find it at best a burden or distraction, at worst an unneeded feature.

I provided clear (uncensored)reasons and examples as to why settlements can be beneficial, in my opinion, to a certain playstyle; you apparently don't care for that level of immersion.

As with all things, YMMV. You have yer opinion, and you are welcome to it, but pther players are sinking a lot of their game time into this feature, must be something to it.

Yes it's items placed in the settlement, but there's a way around it. I love the settlements, now I've just started on my second, I can get supply lines setup and really start to think about making money, really adds to the game imo.

Interesting points here - I like the idea of dressing my guys accordingly so I know what they are doing.

I'm still experimenting with building at the moment, some of my settlements are real dives (Hangman's Alley is right armpit to live in) but I'll get there. My supply lines are all over the shop though I'll live with it for this character and look at doing a 'Local Leader' character in the future.

Indeed. I really can see where illuknissa is coming from. In terms of tangible reward there's nothing that settlements provide that you can't loot/buy. That said I'm loving the mechanic and am looking forward to having a central base (probably Castle) hooked into two or three larger settlements, and having the Red Rocket as my own private base of operations.

The fact of the matter is that I'm finding it fun to build these things. Fun. That's the key word. Doesn't matter if there's little point in doing it in the long run. I'm having fun, which is what games are about. Ultimately I'm wasting my time playing the game at all. I really should be researching cancer cures or something, but hey, everyone likes doing different things.

It very much is a case of try it and see if you enjoy it. If you don't, like illuknissa, then it can be forgotten about. If you do enjoy it you can take it as far as you want. I only want two or three major settlements, one base, and a hub. Some people will build on every plot available.

OP, try it, see how you go.

Building a cool settlement that I can feel a sense of accomplishment over is its own reward for me, getting some caps and resources out of it is just a nice added bonus.

Yup !

Took me over 2 hours just to build the floor right for one of my bases, loved every minute of it.

Just an aside I used to be heavily into The Sims so perhaps this is just my inner sim-manager coming out again.

It was funish for a while, not really my thing though. Too fiddly. It also bothers me that they don't build anything themselves, it probably shouldn't but it does. It never winds up feeling like places people actually live because while all the necessities are there the people don't add anything, no knicknacks or decorations. No signs of human habitation. I know I could add all those things manually but that ties back into me finding it too fiddly, I'm not gonna manually stock my twenty roomed settlement with personal touches. Just not happening.

I think there is room for improvement but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) the settlement building / maintaining in this game. Enough so that I restarted my character just to begin with 6 charisma for the local leader perks.

I was hanging out in Sanctuary building a bar/lounge for my grumpy settlers when I saw my population meter increase by 1. The new settler walked right up to me as if to shake my hand and instead pulled out an institute pistol and started firing...infiltrator!!!! We killed him and the pop meter went back down. I was completely hooked at that point. Traveling to a settlement to help defend it adds a feeling of attachment and urgency as well. I haven't gotten a kidnapping mission or anything yet but I think that is a great addition as well.

I have a thriving adhesive generating operation and have a constant flow of purified water to ensure I am never in need of consumables or caps. I opened up a shopping mall at the starlight drive-in and never need to go elsewhere to unload material for caps. Speaking of caps, if I'm ever pinched I can just go to the workshop and withdraw whatever my stores have been generating.

Things like watching my settlers at the starlight drive in hit up the drink stand for a cup of joe before hitting the fields for the day adds so much color to the game IMO

This game is what you make it - playing this way has been completely fulfilling and fun. If I treated this like a shooter and blitzed through the main story focusing purely on combat and main quests I would have missed soooooo much and would probably have been grossly disappointed in the game.

There is room for improvement here obviously and I honestly hope there is a settlement focused DLC on the horizon.

Things like a settler management screen, improved "clipping" and "snapping" for walls and additional features/events. Even "mutiny" for oppressed or neglected settlements would be great. Making me have to assault a settlement to retake it etc. There is so much upside/potential for this type of content.

I watched a live feed on my PS4 this morning of a guy who built an entire complex including a massive hospital, office building, apartment building, swimming pool, and a whole slew of other structures including his own place to live. I don't want to say where because of spoilers, but it's a massive area.

His build was so huge at this settlement that he discovered there is a 999 light limit and he had to stop.

He's got some of his feeds on Youtube from when he was building some of the structures. Watching this guy build is pretty amazing and he's very fast. He said his controller died at one point during the feed and paused for a few seconds so I'm assuming he's on one of the consoles and not a PC. I think he's on a PS4 because someone asked him how he shared his feeds and he said he hit the 'Share' button in the upper left corner and that's where it is on the PS4.

I haven't even scratched the surface of the game yet, I've been spending most of my time building. It's a blast. I hope some mods come for the PS4. Particularly some kind of console mode so I can have a saved game just for cheating and building with unlimited materials.

At first it is very difficult but I'm getting pretty good at it now that I'm getting used to the mechanics of it. The real trick is, everything has to snap together, especially stairs, before people will enter. I have quite the farm and complex going at the Red Rocket Truck Stop outside of Sanctuary including vendors and trade lines. You can talk to the vendors to see how people in the settlement are doing and they will tell you what to do to get their happiness up.

I'm having a blast building, can't wait to play the game!