I am also a member of the Unhappy Settlers club.

The highest I've been able to get mine is to 84 (so far). They have all of their needs met, I visit often and do the radiant kidnapping quests, etc. The only dog I have is Dogmeat ~ can you get other dogs in the game?

Get rid of all the tv's in Sanctuary. It makes a huge difference.

I got the Drive-In to 90 once (and only ever once) had 19 settlers and one of each of the emporiums. couldn't get it any higher though.

Abernathy Farm always seems bugged for me too. It will randomly say theres like 50 settlers there and happiness will plummet to 20 until i visit it and the settler number goes back to normal.

I put her in a dress with no weapon and make her pick Tato's....any more lip out of her and I will take away the dress.

What is the best way to position beds to avoid this?

I don't really care about maxing out happiness, though I would like to keep it in the 70 to 85 range.

The problem that I have is Tenpine's wildly fluctuating happiness between 30 to 85. I have 14 settlers there, only one does not have an assigned task. There's plenty of food and water production; 27 and 24 respectively. I got 16 beds under a roof. All 4 stores (at level 3) the increases happiness; everyone is assigned a bed. There's a junk yard dog which supposedly has an effect on happiness. Defense is more than 3x food and water production.

There are generators powering lights, radios, a couple of light turrets and the recruitment beacon (switched off). Also have at least 8 rugs and 10 paintings for decoration as well as other miscellaneous furniture.

Not sure what is going on. Settlements in general definitely needs some patching.

Sleeping bags can be placed anywhere since they can be walked over and don't seem to obstruct the settlers' movement so much. The other beds need to have an obstructed side for a settler to get on. But sometimes even that doesn't work (may be a bug). Then you may have to move the bed somewhere else.

Thanks cwy. Guess everyone is getting sleeping bags then. No comfy beds!

But you lose the "happiness bonus" points that comfy beds give you though (how many bonus points, nobody knows). In my early levels I also used sleeping bags only. But later I ended up having to build more spacious houses just to accommodate the higher level beds. Beds are probably one of a few things you build the most of, so you risk losing a lot of happiness points if you don't build the best beds.

Regarding OP's question about scarcity of resources, it's true even when I'm up to level 60. Trees are everywhere, so getting wood is not a concern. But I'm often low in steel, which is the other most often used resource. There are only so many cars and barrels you can scrap. Naturally, I build mostly wood houses as opposed to steel ones. There are some settlements where I only scrap things and never build anything, just to get some free resources. Other than that, I have to get steel the hard way: looting buildings and dungeons that I've already looted before. Copper is another resource that can run low, but it can be easily had by scrapping pipe rifles (which are abundant) with the Scrapper perk. Oil can run low too, and you need to craft cutting fluid at the chemistry station to get it, which means you need to get purified water, bones, and acid. You get purified water automatically put into your workbench if you have more water than settlers. Acid is found in abraxo cleaner so it is ubiquitous. Bones are a bit less frequently found. I know there are oil cans and stuff where you can get free oil, but from my experience that's not enough. In short, wood, steel, copper, and oil are the things I have to actively put an effort to find. I know weapon & armor mods need rare resources too, but curiously, mods are one thing I make the least. If you make a really good weapon or armor, it usually lasts a long time.

Guys

I got the Benevolent Leader achievement the other night which is what you get for a settlement happiness of 100. There are lots of guides around for it, although it’s not an exact science, it's not necessarily bugged.

Easiest way to get it:

1. You need food and water. You don’t need ot generate food at water at a settlement providing it is supply lined to settlements producing food and water.


2. You need beds that are under cover.


3. You need some basic defence.


4. You need basic lighting.


5. You need roughly 4 or 5 x times the shops than settlers. Yes this is the bit that isn’t an exact science and seems to differ but only slightly.


6. The shops you require can be Clothing, Clinic or Trader. These are the only shops that affect the happiness of your settlers. Armour and weapons do nothing for them other than earn you cash.

So, take a settlement. Send one settler to live in it and add it to a supply line that is providing food and water from another settlement. Add some beds under cover and build 5 Clinics and a couple of lights. Build a couple of cheap turrets.

Leave for about 12 game days and you’ll find that the one settler will reach 100 happiness. Add more settlers to the settlement and your happiness will drop (not enough shops / beds etc). Easy to do with just one settler. Almost impossible to do with 20.

Hope this helps.

It's got to be bugged. I answer an attack call at the Lighthouse. The happiness was at 84. Defended the settlement and got Benevolent Leader. Checked happiness, it was at 82 and dropping.

Do you mean more stores than settlers? If so, then some of the stores will be unmanned. If they are unmanned, they are not functional, so how will that raise happiness?

Or they all hate each other so killing one will result in one enemy less.

As I understand the bar, general trader and medicine sale increase happiness. Not sure if it works.

You can get purified water with only water pumps by having more water production than settlers. That way, purified water is deposited in the workbench automatically and regularly. But a water purifier does yield more happiness than a water pump by virtue of its being a higher level item, just like any high level item that yields more happiness than its lower-level counterparts.

For every 1 settler you need 4 or 5 stores? That can't be what Bethesda intended. As posted earlier, these extra stores wouldn't be manned!

Stores don't need to be manned to affect their happiness. Manning is only so you can use them.


It's really not a difficult scenario to test. Start a settlement with one settler and build a store. Doesn't need to be manned. The happiness will start rising. For it to rise as high as 100 I've had to build 5. Try it.