Hi,

Questions about farming (tried to find answers in other posts, but found it difficult):

I know that if I assign one settler to one crop plant, they should tend all plants nearby (to a maximum of 6 food production). I have a little melon patch behind the yellow house in sanctuary, which I have quickly filled up with as many copies of the plant as I could fit, and assigned a settler to farm that area. I'm pretty sure I have more than 8 plants planted in that area (although I can double-check the count), but I seem to be stuck at 4 food. Also, I didn't see any noticeable increase in food total when I planted more in that area after the settler was already assigned. Here are the questions:

-Does it take time for the food production total to increase after planting new plants (a day to grow, maybe)?

-Will the settler only tend plants that were already there at the time of assignment? Or if I plant more crops in their "zone" after they were already assigned, will they tend those too?

-How can I tell which plants a settler will tend to, and which ones are not assigned (ie. are outside their "zone", or above their maximum limit)?

-If I accidentally assign a second settler to one of the plants the first settler has been tending, will the first settler stop tending all plants in that area, or stop tending just that one, or will both settlers tend the same plants? Will an overlap in zones of tending cause issues (beyond inefficiency/duplicative efforts)?

Sorry for the bombardment of questions, I have just reached the food part of the Sanctuary quest and am trying to make sure I understand the mechanics.

Are you looking at the stats for you pip-boy menu or from the top of the workshop menu?

From the top of the workshop mode screen

If you highlight a settler it will show you what they have been assigned. Whatever you assigned them to will glow green.

Does that include all the surrounding plants they tend too, or just the specific one I clicked to assign them?

Here's what I've found. In workshop mode, if you hover over a plant and it's settler icon is green, it's being attended to, if it's red, it is not. Red icon'd plants will die and lead to a bug where you can't select them, move them or harvest them. They become permanent clutter unless you use console commands to get rid of them.

That said, I've found that the food stat will update immediately when you assign a settler to an individual crop. I don't know if it's a bug or not, but I always plant one crop and then assign a worker right away. When I do this, the food stat changes right after the message pops up that, "this resource has been assigned." I do agree that assigning one worker to one plant does seem to assign all local plants to that same worker. but doesn't update the food stat. It's a pain, but I already had to live and learn with a settlement full of dead, unselectable crops. As far as I can tell, settlers tend to the last six crops they've been assigned to. So, there won't be two workers tending to the same crop. I think for best results, one should plant crops in units of six and assign each crop individually to a single worker. Just make sure all plants have green worker icons or they might just die on you.

stuges or whatever his name is wont do any jobs for me so mybe try someone else.

He tends crops for me.

Melons are only worth .5 food. 8 plants equals 4 food.

In my experience, farming is essentially automatic for settlers, and it doesn't require micro-managing. I tend to plant a load of carrots in tight groups/lines, and when I revisit them later, they are diligently working it.

he won't for me either.

but, he WILL wear a dress if I want him to wear a dress! lol

found a bunch of outfits in the plane wreck. you can change your settlers clothes. it's a riot!

Once you assign your worker to 2 or three plants then they will automatically pick up the others. I do build 6 crops right next to each other although, to make it easier for the AI. Assign one worker for every 6 crops, and build them in tight little patterns away from other crops so it's easy for the settler to access one group instead of wandering around slowing down the process.

So you dress him in drag and expect him to farm for you?

then i found a bug on ps4 cuz he literary wont take any job and just hits the same wall with a hammer over and over and over again.

Thank you! This is what worked best for me. I waited until my farmer was not sleeping and was in the crop area, then I hovered over them in workshop mode and all plants within their tending zone were outlined in green. This helped me realize that some of the plants I thought should have been tended and should have counted toward my food were apparently dead and glitched, as described by pkleiss above, and couldn't be moved, deleted/stored, replanted, etc (one of them was actually hovering a few inches above the dirt). I added some more plants, double-checked to make sure that they were still outlined in green, and that seemed to increase my food supply almost instantly. When I planted a new bed of crops, I planted them all first, brought a settler over and assigned them to one plant, then made sure everything I'd planted in that area was highlighted in green before leaving them to their business. I know they all were supposedly good, so if any of them die I'll know that something is glitched.

Just describing my process in case anyone else with similar confusion stumbles upon this thread. Thanks to everyone for your responses!

and he looks just like Bruce Jenner mybe a cameo?

Yea with plants they can tend up to 6 resources which seems to be 12 plants, if you put plants near others that someone else is already assigned to work on he will also work on the new ones as long as he hasnt met his quota, food production should automatically increase after a couple seconds at most, if you assign two settlers to the same patch of crops its just inefficient, you can go ahead and add another 12 crops in the same area and they should split the load evenly.