No clue if I should put this under a mod suggestion on the nexus or a DLC concept here... so going to DLC concept here.
Settlements expanded would be a huge well expansion to settlers and settlements
first off lets start with settlers
Settler modes
simple concept, give the ability to designate settlers as defenders, engineers, scavengers, or runners.
DEFENDERS
Defenders will defend the the settlement in case of an attack the more defenders you have set the less damage a settlement will take if you are not there to help. each defender adds +2 to defense this stacks if you task them to gaurd posts. Defenders will also use ammo tins and armories (building ideas bellow) to better equip themselves during the attacks.
ENGINEERS
engineers will expand on the base building, buildings and defenses for the settlement, that said they will avoid building in settlements where the player has built large structures (20 or more parts in an area). Engineers shine as they can and will repair robotic defenses and turrets (idea for robotic defenses bellow)
SCAVENGERS
this is the meat of this suggestion, scavengers can be tasked in teams to loot cleared areas taking back anything of value they can also bring back things that you can not like disabled mister handy's, APC's or even crashed vertibirds though when these special items are brought to a settlment they are "dumped" in a clear area to be scrapped or repaired. (see buildings and robotic defense bellow)
runners
this will be most of your settlers and is the default setting, runners will not fight in combat and instead will take as many valuable items as they can and hide in the settlement, runners lower the loss and damage of items during attacks. runners will also have a chance of running to you in a random event to warn of the attack giving you a second warning / chance to defend. (only if you are in the area) if you are at the settlement they will fight but will run if health is low or taking fire from many hostiles.
SCAVENGING
this is the big part of this idea scavenging has you building a scavenger post from which you can set up teams and direct them to loot a cleared area, warning looting an area will mark it as a temp settlement and you may have to defend them from raiders. scavenger teams will loot better gear the more scavengers and defenders you have with each of the 4 settings adding something to the team
scavengers: loot items will bring back special items in some area, the more you have the less time in days it takes to loot
defenders: lowers chances of raiders and other baddies attacking the camp
engineers: increases the chance of returning to the settlement with things like deactivated mister handy's and protectrons. will also place mk1 sentries on the sight.
runners: each runner in the party decreases the time it takes to return everything to the settlement, some things like APC's, sentry bots, and the rare crashed vertibird have set times and can not be decreased.
IT should be notted a scavenger post has a max of 6 settlers put in it, meaning you have to choose between either a weak defense or a heavy loot wiht some areas giving special loot that is only accessible via having a high amount of scavengers.
EXAMPLE OF SCAVENGING
example location :http://www.ign.com/wikis/fallout-4/National_Guard_Training_Yard
unique loot: vertibird wreckage, 4x power armor frames, military barriers (old world)
scavengers required for unique loots
vertibird wreckage: 4x scavengers
power armor frames 1 and 2: 2x scavengers
power armor frames 3 and 4: 4x scavengers
power armor leveled parts: 5x scavangers
military barriers: 1x scavenger
sentry bot wreckage leveled: 4x scavengers 1x engineer
example location: http://www.ign.com/wikis/fallout-4/Radio_Tower_3SM-U81
unique loot: radio relay dish
scavengers required for unique loots
redio relay dish x1: scavenger x1
example location: http://www.ign.com/wikis/fallout-4/Beantown_Brewery
unique loot: brewing vats x3, crate lifter x1(the construction vehicle)
scavengers required for unique loots
brewing vats: 2x for one, 4x for 2 5x for 3
crate lifter: 3x engineers
IT should be notted each location can only be scavenged once, and you must clear the area first. to help with this you can also send a team in to clear an area, but this team must be all defenders and you must arm them based on a level defense example the first area shown would have a defense requirement of 80 despite its easy to clear nature, this is cause of the sentry bot and traps. for this you must give a 4 man team atleast combat armor full and a combat rifle, shotgun, or minigun.
Now for the fun part the unqiue loots you get from here each location has a pool of unique loot some have special ones like breweries having vats and military areas having armory supplies.
lets start with the uncommon loot this is not shown on a location but each base as one of 3 uncommon denotions. raider, wild, robotic, or military. raider areas have a high chance to give shipments worth of supplies generally 3 to 4 times normal when the area is scaved. wild areas will give things like eggs and nest materials (see buildings for why), robotic areas have an increased chance to give things like mister handy bots or protectrons as well as supplies to make their charging bays, and lastly military bases have heavy chances to give ammo stashes and military parts.
KEY
name
scavenger report: what it is.
raider uncommon parts
cap stash: +200 caps always atleast one
ammo stash: either .38, shotgun shells, or .44 has between 50 and 150 ammo
armor stash: full set of raider armor
pipe weapon stash: 10x pipe weapons with random attachments low chance to get legendary bonus ones that can be scarped.
wild
mirlurk eggs(lake side only): 6x incubated mirlurk egg
rad scorpion eggs (rare anywhere wild): 1x incubated rad scorpion egg
death claw egg: 1x incubated deathclaw egg
den/nest parts: fertilizer x20, bone x20, two random loot items may include fusion cores, radioactive material.
blood bug eggs: use to make blood bug grits (food item heals player adds a vampire effect to unarmed combat)
robotic
mister handy wreckage: 1x disabled mister handy
damaged light charging bay
protectron wreckage: 1x disabled protectron
wall turret wreckage: 1x laser or 10mm machinegun turret (can be placed in settlements like other turrets advantage can be placed on walls requires 2 power)
medium charging bay (used for sentry bots generally just scrap this for 10x iron, 10x copper, 5x gold, 5x crystal, 10x circuitry)
military
large ammo stash: 200 of random ammo (not counting cryo cells, railway spikes, and fusion cores)
military barrier: 1x military barrier. defenders will use this as cover in combat.
armory materials: 2x weapon racks, 2x armor racks, 1x footlocker, 1x grenade case(small green box holds 4 frag grenades)
grande case: 4x frag or EMP grenades.
The player will always get atleast one uncommon loot per scavenger sent to a location as well as all common loot (anything you did not pick up in the area) but they will also get unqiue loot depending on requirements some of this unique loot has special buildings to it. above in the locations shows some of the unique loot bellow we will go over the buildings.
BUILDINGS
scavenger base
info: a 2x1 base area with a camo net over it, inside is 2 computers and a large amount of supplies like cutting torches, extinquishers and mining helmets, this is the base of operations for the scavengers this is the main building of this DLC/MOD concept.
craft: 4x mining helmets, 10x wood, 10x metal, 3 power, 10 food and water spare in base. (supplying the groups)
Armory
info: this small room is about the size of a 1x1x1 room but it ocmes with a bank vault door, and weapons. This acts as a respawning ammo supply for your settlement allowing the player to come back for .45, 5.56, .308, and .50 ammo though the armory only stores 50 that hte player can take and they have a 3 day refresh.
craft: armory materials scavenger shipment x3, 40 wood, 40 metal (metal means takes iron or aluminum with out caring)
effect: any settler set to defender will automaticly be equipped with light combat armor and randomly a combat rifle, double barrel shotgun, or upgraded hunting rifle. armories stack so having two will upgrade the weapons and armors for the hole settlement.
side use: can assign a team to this and send them to any none cleared location to clear it. though they will not be able to get past anything over a novice locked door(no one hacks this is to prevent story breaking)
BUILT FORM LOOT PARTS
VERTIBIRD LANDING PAD
info: a 2x2 plate with a H on it, useless by its self but if you get a vertiberd wreck you can use this as a point to repair the aircraft loading it out with armor and weapons as needed. (Example can assign a few defenders to fly around wiht a door gun equiped with a box missile launcher and a bomb bay controlled by teh pilot that will drop mines on enemies heads.)
to build: 50 cement, 10 iron, 12 light blobs.
requires power: 5
the bird
repair cost: 100 iron, 20 circuitry, 6 fusion cores, 2 miniguns (none modded)
health: 2k once hits 450 health will try to flee, can not be destroyed but can be forced to land requiring you to send a scavenger team to reclaim it. and losing you who ever was in it.
special craft: the bird call flares ( a green smoke flare calls the bird to location will attack enemies before landing and dropping off any extra defenders tasked to it)
tasking has 6 task slots
task slot 1-2: pilots 1 flies 2 guns
task slot 3-4: door gunners
task slot 5-6: drop troops (dropped after attack act as temporary followers will not leave general area when area is 100% clear of seen enemies will reboard as the copter leaves)
mod slots
pain job: scrap heap (rusted color not much to look at) minutmen (requires castle location, metal color minuteman symbol will deploy minutmen anywhere with flare no more distance lock) military (raiders will flee from it), BoS (higher damage on door gunner, lower armor).
pilot weapon: dual MG(Base), mine bay (will drop mines trying to stop enemies movement), missile tubes (fires strafe runs), bomb bay (drops 3-5 mininukes on area)
gunner bay one and two: minigun (Base), missile launcher (4 round missile launcher), explosive minigun(explosive rounds), gattling laser focused charging gattling laser.
Armor: junker armor (default), repaired armor (Requires second wreck ups health to 4k), heavily reinforced armor (5k health)
cargo bay: light fusion core (default), heavy fusion core (ups combat time from 2 minutes to 5 minutes), cargo bay (acts as a supply line to any settlement with a landing pad), crew bay( adds 2 more to max tasked will drop off up to 4 ground units)
CASTLE WALL REPAIR
repair the castle walls bringing them to the former glory
requires: crate lifter, cement mixer (found on construction sights), quarried stone (found in quarries), cementx100
does: repairs the walls for the castle adding to the defence rating of fthe location and causing it to lock down on attacks meaning that anything short of a mortar can not enter unless the doors are blown down. that said the doors can take 2,000 damage before going down.
SMALL CHARGING BAY
info: not really a build item but this building you may find in any area marked robotic, this building allows the construction of defense or utility robots to make your settlement happier this is based on this mod http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/5787/?as such many of the robot functions will be teh same though you will not be able to craft sentry bots.
crafting requirements for the bots: to craft any bot you need a charging bay built and wreckage from atleast one of that bot type some may require two.
example bots
handy farmer
does: increases food from plants to 0.75 + .05 per extra
cost: disabled mister handy
nurse handy
does: stimpack wounded settlers/the player. also heals radation.
cost: disabled mister handy, 20x stimpack, 10x rad-x
mister gutsy mk1
health: 300
does: fights hostiles with a 10mm pistol, flamer, and buzzsaw
cost: 2x disabled mister handy, 10mm auto pistol, 20 flamer fuel.
mister gutsy mk5
health: 500
does: fights hostiles with plasma pistol, flamer, and ripper
cost: 2x disabled mister handy, plasma pistol, 2o flamer fuel, 1 ripper.
note on bots: once they hit 0 health they will shut down and must be "repaired" with fusion cells (or cores in the case of sentry bots) which will give them enough charge to get back to their charging station to heal.
MEDIUM CHARGING STATION
like the small, but use for one thing and one thing only sentry bots, like the other charging station it is just hte base of the robot unlike the other charging station it does not require power and instead requires fusion cores will will be used at a rate of 4 per bot recharge (sentry bot will head to charging station instead of self destructing takes 3 days to self repair)
sentry bot
info: a heavy defense for a heavy base, can apply paint jobs and weapons while in charging bay, down side requires finding either an inactive or lightly damage bot which is rare as they tend to self destruct on death (only 1 place to find an undamaged one, though you can make salvaged ones) The sentry bot can act as a follower but be warned while acting as a follower if destroyed will self destruct.
craft: 1 disabled sentry bot
notes: has all stats of a standard
modification: while on charger can be moddifed has 3 mod slots, left arm, right arm, and back
mods
arms: minigun, missile launcher, grenade launcher, laser rifle.
back: grenade launcher, mine launcher, tracking missile launcher.
paints: old military, minutemen, the power armor paints, institute and BoS(last two require completing story for them)
salvaged sentry bot
info: rebuilt from the wreckage of a few sentry bots this is a heavy base defense for a serious soldier, it can even act as a follower though be warned if destroyed while acting as a follower will self destruct. Unlike the standard the salvaged has less health but to compinsate it also has more mods allowing the builder to equip it with armor plate which at its best brings it up to the same health as a standard. other then that pretty much the same as the standard minus paint jobs.
NESTS
nests are the result of scavenging wild areas as the player my find incubated eggs these can eigher be cooked and turned into standard eggs for cooking or used in special crafts called nests. nests are a unique building as they are not instant instead the player makes the nest in the area and places in the right incubated eggs after a few weeks in game the eggs will hatch into a young or larval version of their creature. said creature will grow over time if its needs are met in the base and each creature will give a different bonus and has a different result of taking bad care.
*mirlurk
stages: hatching, soft shell, razor claw.
needs: water that is all
nest placment: dirt covered in water.
gives
hatching: NA
soft shell: food
razor claw: protection
raising
stage one haching
craft the nest which requires nothing other then fertilizer and 6x eggs, make sure to put a pin around the nest area so they do not wonder
once hatch do nothing mirlurks have easiest care.
stage two soft shell
at this stage you can task a settler to the nest which will butcher a single soft shell with out if fighting back, doing so will start you gaining meat, also at this stage the soft shells will start producing eggs most of which will be "sold"
stage three razor claw
at this stage you will gain +4 defense to the settlement for each razor claw each nest will give a max of 2 razor claws
*rad scorpion
stage: ninth, soft, full grown
needs: mutfruit in nest area, no settlers near nest area.
gives: acts as a living land mine to hostiles at full grown, will chace until target or its self is dead.
raising: first stages are easy just leave it alone last stage you actually need to feed it mutfruit by dropping some near it, this will prevent it from attacking your settlers in an attack event.
*deathclaw
stages:hatchling, young, grown, matriarch
gives: 50+ protection, eggs at final stage.
needs: meat either by having cows or mirlurks not having this will result in it attacking the settlement at grown.
stage zero
craft the nest, put a single egg in it, do not put more as more will result in 2 hostile hatchling deathclaws which are about as dangerous as an armored dog. give a heavily armored settler the task of portecting the nest.
stage one
once the deathclaw hatches assign it to a mirlurk nest or bramnan feeding troft this is where it will get its food note the settlements food will go down by 5 when this is done.
stage two
once grown you will get the 50 protection of having the deathclaw which will be counted like a guard dog for all other perposes, note IT CAN DIE.
stage three
matriarch stage the most danagerous stage as during this stage you will have to defeat the matriach in combat for it to not wipe out your settlment during this fight it will be essincial and once downed it will "Recognize you as its alph" at this point the assigned settler will start collecting eggs and random meat from teh deathclaws nest.
warning at this stage the deathclaw will start to wonder around the settlement so do not be surprised if you see it attacking a raider camp before you do. once again note IT CAN DIE.
use of the deathclaw, you can armor it, with makeshift or re purposed military armor, this goes into the history of the deathclaws original war purpose all death claws have a natural inclination to war so giving it armor only makes it stronger and causes them to even hit harder.
BREWING VAT
Brewing vats are a unique craft building that requires water and corn to work, once placed though they give the settlement bear which will increase trade to the settlement by this I mean a settlement with a brewery will have 200 more caps in their traders was well as double the inventory.
APC
the pre war APCs and tanks may not be mobile anymore do to centuries of rust, but that doesn't mean their guns aren't any good, this building is a defense bunker which just requires an old APC as its base.
craft: APC wreck, 10 iron, 20 circuitry, 20 nuclear material, 200 5.56 ammo, 10 missiles
use: the APC can be placed anywhere, but it requires a gunner and power (fusion engine is long dead) when used has 2 5.56 chainguns and one heavy cannon, this defense provides the same defense as 2 mk5 turrets and a missile turret. its main advantage is the main gun is 360 and can not be destroyed only temporarily disabled (never have to repair is only down for up to 5 minutes in game)
full repair: alternativly a player cna do a full repair allowing the APC to be mobile again, but as the game currently seems to only allow one vehicle and that is air going to leave this for now.