okay, so everyone has already seen the video where they explain that it is possible to make your own settlement and invite people over and build and defend and so on and so forth.

Everything looks amazing, and I will make sure to spend copious amounts of time and energy into creating a perfect settlement, but I was wondering if there would be a possibility of cleaning the streets ?!

I saw in the video that it is possible to pick up tiers and pieces of wood and even a complete infrastructure of a building, but everywhere around the houses there was debree and plants growing, and I was wondering to what extend could we keep our settlements clean ?

I would like to see it possible to have freshly mown lawns, painted fences, rebuild roads, walls of buildings that don't look shoddily put together etc... to make a long story short, a clean town...

what are your opinions on this ? am I being an idiot for thinking it's possible to keep a town rubbish-free in an apocalyptic world, or are there more people like me who want to have towns kept in perfect shape !

I suspect there are different levels of clean.

I think we will be working with fairly crude materials, some less crude than others.

Reconstructing Tranquility Lane may be unrealistic, but it could be 'nice' for the wasteland.

Hi & welcome to the forums!

I am looking forward to settlement building, and would be interested in some of the things you mentioned, as well. I am not sure how much we will be able to craft but I am pretty sure we have paint in the game, though I'm not sure what we will be able to use it on. Although there were lawnmowers in FO3, they did not function. It would be nice if we would be able to keep our settlements neat and tidy.

Beyond the natural cleaning that comes from removing junk with the scrapping mechanic I doubt there is going to be a option to clean up specific details, the game is still post-apoc themed afterall, some after the bomb rustic charm will remain Im sure.

I don't think it will look pre-war if thats what you are looking for. My bet is a mod will come along to fix that.

pre-war is maybe a little over the top, and I am actually someone that doesn't enjoy using mods since it takes away a lot of the original game, but I would be happy if it would be possible to remove large weeds in the middle of roads and big rocks on the roads, stuff like that.

If I would build a settlement of my own and my goal was to attract people to come live there, I would enjoy making it look... hospitable ! apart from the big mini gun sentries I would plant everywhere to deter raider of course...

Settlements and other dwellers coming to live there is the main reason I getting the game \o/

I'd be willing to bet there will be at least one settlement location out in the wilderness that you won't have to put up with trash strewn streets. Start from scratch instead of building on top of a previous settlement.

I tend to think a certain level of clutter and trash strewn about kind of defines the Fallout genre. Also, can we PLEASE not add lawn mowing to this game (I get enough of that in RL....).

I don't understand this obsession with playing The Sims in Fallout 4. We are living in a wasteland... A post-apocalyptic United States... If you want a "clean" environment, that's why vaults exist... Not to mention, your settlement is going to be actively attacked by raiders, which would likely vandalize and destroy your property if they could.

We aren't living in some sort of utopian city on a hill. I wouldn't want to see anything in better condition than Tenpenny Tower or the Strip in New Vegas. Honestly, settlements shouldn't even look that elaborate or fancy. I would not expect to have any kind of pre-war settlements unless someone creates a mod for it. People in the wasteland have more important things to worry about instead of clipping weeds and keeping their front lawns tidy...

I'd like to see a certain return to "normalcy" however not so much as that when you enter this town you totally forget you're in a wasteland. Thats what we have Tranquility lane sim-pods for amirite?

While pre-war condition is likely out of the realm of possibility, I think it should still be possible to make a 'clean' town (although I'd be happy with mods that do so). I mean, if I were in the wasteland and had the gumption to strike out on my own and defeat raiders and establish a settlement, I know I'm OCD enough to want someone to pick up the trash and cut the grass. You want to live in my protected settlement, eh? Grab a rake or a paintbrush, buddy!

If anything, someone with the sheer UMPH to establish an entirely new settlement and build it up to the point you have trade caravans and have to protect it from raiders, etc..... I think someone like that would have no problem demanding a degree of, if not perfection, at least, cleanliness.

Well seeing as how I have a stack of laundry, dishes in the sink and I need to patch a hole in my drywall; I don't think I would spend 1 minute cleaning my fictitious home. If it does make it in I am glad you will be happy but for me it would be a useless tool that only serves to remind me of the real house work I am neglecting by playing Fallout 4.

At this time, i think its very hard to say. We dont know anything about how its actually going to work;
where and how big we can build, what we can actually build and if theres reprecussions like "well, you can make a peaceful settlement that can barely withstand an attack unless you're around or you can build some badass fortress that could obliterate several deathclaws before they even get to the gate but you're gonna be paying for its upkeep"

I mean.. Im praying that you can even start your own faction of sorts; train up certian members of the settlements skills, train them how to use and supply power armour for a soldier-like force, have settlements made for specific things and have them run caravans between eachother.. Even go as far as having the option to deny siding with all other factions (enclave, brotherhood, institute) and having your own either assimilate or destroy the others

It would be nice if you could have your houses look like they are constructed of a quality in-line with the houses in the NCR capital (Shady Sands, I think), from Fallout 2

It's hard to tell from just the info we have about the game but I believe with mods, you could have any settlement you want.

I'm really not holding on being able to make a completely clean settlement, like fixed concrete, fixed roads and whatnot. Nor would I want to, really. There's a certain...aesthetic...that I enjoy about ramshackle settlements. Places like Megaton, the Republic of Dave, Rivet City (albeit that's a repurposed locale, but still)...There weren't any places with that kind of charm in New Vegas, it was all repurposed locations, minus some cars and walls built up. Not the same.

You the PC have prewar tech and experience with it fresh in your mind. If you can repair Mr. Handy bots to where they can help you salvage, loot, capture, repair and fabricate or craft tools to fabricate parts for other bots, fabricate or craft up grades for other bots. Handys are after all handyman bots designed to repair and maintain building and probably appliances and according to wikis each other.

With Handys in particular you can probably make failed vaults livable and redoubts for nearby settlements so everybody does not have to killed or enslaved by invaders before help can arrive, and nearby settlements have a stake in their survival.

You can help settlements willing to accept the help repair equipment that makes civilized life easier. You can help them make or restore spinning wheels, looms and sewing machines to make new clothes out of natural fibers like hemp or animal hair like wool. You can help them restore pumps, generators, machine tools and power tools, a manufacture small arms ammo. Help with irrigation wells, growing crops and fibers and maybe producing and containerizing methane gas.

It shouldn't be hard to build brick, mortar, cement or sawmill capabilities, for that matter to build new buildings out of wood, and/or cemented stones from a creek or stream bed. Bots or people can chip 200+ year old deteriorating mortar from salvageable bricks so they can be reused with fresh mortar.

Settlements could be strong stone and mortar, or brick and mortar bunker like buildings that will survive all but the heaviest weapons fire, and arranged so they provide good fields of fire to kill raiders attacking different buildings without worry of harming those inside the buildings they are shooting raiders out side of. No place to take cover from one building without being exposed to shooters in other buildings, and maybe improvised claymore mines as well as turrets.

Such settlements could require residents to keep things clean enough not to attract disease carrying vermin or give enemies places to hide or take cover behind trash and rubble for safety and security reasons. There can still be rubble and ruins in the background to remind people of the war.

I like trash, it makes me feel at home and care free. (I live in a room filled with piles of trash... I am one with the trash) It's quite humbling.

I was thinking they'll look something like Goodsprings or Primm from FO:NV. Primm on the southern side of town where that cluster of houses are. Maybe a set up like Big Town from FO3 with the barricade surrounding it.

I just hope the settlements are not prebuilt structures that the players just collect materials that open that piece of the building (like Hearthfire in Skyrim)

I hope it's the same construction openness as Minecraft.

It's not quite as free form as Minecraft but it's not as restrictive as Hearthfire. It's in the first trailer with Todd Howard explaining how it works.