You'll get your wish for expanded building areas for sure. Modders are going to have a field day opening up new locations to build at. Using existing building assets is going to depend on the building of course. It will depend on how fleshed out buildings that aren't really being used for much end up being. The "sellers stand" had a rank requirement of 3 for local leader so we are going to have to put deliberate effort into these settlements if we want to have trade. I think they mentioned the caravans could be attacked somewhere? I'd hope so. We've seen that happen before, albeit in NV/not with Beth.

I think that may have been because that bridge was the only way into the settlement.

I'm wondering how they'll define a "house" for your residents though. Does it just need a door and bed surrounded by walls? Would putting more stuff in a house make residents happier? Can they bring their own stuff into their houses?

Possibly. I kinda hope they aren't all that easy to defend. That could have been one of the "beginner" settlement locations

There may be ones with multiple entrances or no specific entrances, but I imagine that you will probably be able to build up walls so that any settlement could have a death corridor.

Maybe it becomes a "house" as soon as you add in a bed. And adding in more beds means more people can move in.

...just thought of something silly...imagine the fun for someone with a nvde mod, setting up wall-less "houses" for the residents I bet someone will do that now (not my bag btw).

After watching that http://bethesda.net/#en/events/game/the-team-bringing-fallout-4-to-life/2015/10/01/32 (someone linked it in other thread) it sounds like a lot of the bigger crumbled buildings will be up for grabs by the modders, they're all open and explorable - might be able to use some of them (modders could add in a few floors so we can utilise them better) for our towns.

You may want to check out the suggested function of Local Leader that I have just put up on http://vault111.com

Every house will have a turret and flood light in my settlement, along with the corridor of death, Fence maze with turrets around it.

Have to admit, this is one of the main attractions this time around for me. Going for 7 Charisma right away if the perk info is accurate on http://vault111.com

Charisma 6 = Local Leader (the perk you want)

To be honest, I'd play Fallout 4 if it was only settlement building.

The rest of the game is a bonus.

it puts me in mind of the newer Sims game.. Sims 4..

Building blocks they said.. Gridsnap I assume.

I'm pretty excited about this part.. I hope it works well.

Great. This just means an old geezer's going to shoot first and ask questions later again.

Thanks Tawnee, i was looking at vault111.com and they had listed this, i think it was in the recent video

Party Boy / Party Girl (Charisma 7)

Improve the effectiveness of alcohol, and remove your chance of becoming addicted.

Ranks

1. Nobody has a good time like you! There's no chance you'll get addicted to alcohol
2. Human or humanoid companions can now consume alcohol, and will receive a morale boost which will make them more resilient in battle
3. Residents of your workshop settlements can now consume alcohol, and will receive a morale boost which will make them more productive

so i am thinking i want my residents drunk with productiveness

Those last two ranks are pure speculation.

Ah, awesome, didn't know higher ranks affected township residents. Interesting perk (if as guy above says the guesswork is on point).

Hope they act all drunk too, would be hilarious

That whole line would make sense extending to townships now they're in the game, hope we get more solid info soon on the perk ranks.

But the thing is that we don't know that higher ranks of Party Boy/Girl affect township residents since it is pure speculation. If it works like that, then it is likely that Bars are available to any settlement so it increases morale, but decreases productivity. Party Boy/Girl 3 removes or decreases the productivity debuff. Having a settlement in a post-apocalyptic america that doesn't have a bar means that it is in post-apocalyptic Utah not post-apocalyptic Boston. Therefore, a Bar will likely be one of the first vendors available not something that only shows up at level 50.

If I had to guess, the size of our settlements will probably be a little bigger than big town in fallout 3.

Also remember it's going to be an optional part of the game.

If you don't like it, you don't have to do any base building

They are indeed speculation, although they would fit with the premise of the game, as well as the 'party' element of the icon seen on the official chart. We have, however, ensured that the speculative nature of many of our perk descriptions is clearly noted on each page

Which doesn't help with certain people. You can have SPECULATION flashing in 48 point font and they will still miss it.

Very true lol

Wait, those last 2 ranks are going to be in the game!? Holy [censored]!

That's what I'm thinking as well.. kind of like the spawns have worked in all past games. I'm just hoping the spawn rate isn't as high as it was in Skyrim.. I really don't want to have to deal with a settlement attack every single time I enter the area. What would be best if the threats occurred because of a nearby raider settlement and all you have to do is find that settlement and wipe them out, befriend them or something to not have to deal with attacks anymore.

It would be awesome if we were able to also set up trade agreements with NPC settlements (towns not established by us). Maybe a modder could step in (add an NPC contact to an existing NPC-run town) so that caravans and goods could pass from us to them and back as well as between our own towns.