Xbox One

I was wondering if the settlement sizes vary. I am not asking about population, I am asking about building items.

I have about 17 developed settlements, but only one to max and that is Nordhagen Beach. And to be honest, it seemed rather small for what I built. Now is that how they all are, or is that just a small one?

I don't know this for a fact, but from what I have read in other postings on this the max population size in any settlement is 20. So far in my 267 hours of playtime I have yet to see anything larger than 20, even with beacons active and beds over 20. Some of the smaller settlements I build vertically so I can increase my population. But you can reach 20 in any settlement if you send people from other settlements to the one you want to increase.

I did not mean Population, I meant things that you can build on that settlement. At my beach settlement I am getting a message that says I can no longer build things.

I have read that it is limited to your graphics settings. essentially triangles it can draw. so it varies depending on your platform and the area on map it is located.

don't have any solid info on how to check except on PC where you can use the console to get those values for each settlement.

Yes. They vary both in geographic size and height - as in the number of squares available. They also vary in Size - as in the Size ranking at the top right of the workshop interface - which is I believe a performance limitation based on the number of polygons the game must draw for all the stuff you have. It is supposed to be rather conservative and many PC users have reported being able to increase it without a problem.

Things that you scrap take away from the limit,

By which I mean if you drop object on the ground of a settlement that is at the max limit then scrap/store them the limit stays but the number of objects the settlement thinks are inside goes down, allowing you to build more stuff then before. It is based on the number of scrappable material in the items, not the item itself, If you drop a stack of 50 miniguns as one item it will decrease the size dramatically when stored, while 50 normal pipe pistols as individual items will do very little.

edit

On Xbox One I have been using this to increase my build limit, and it does seam rather conservative, I have nearly doubled my build limit at some settlements and it has had very little effect outside invasions when all the entities start fighting immediately after fast travel.

I am on Xbox One by the way.

So you are saying you can manipulate the number/limit by dropping items and then picking them up? And do you have to store them or can you just pick them up?

Store them using the work bench, picking them up manually does not change the settlement size, if you arrive at a new settlement with a lot of loot able object the settlement will think those objects are in the settlement still if you pick them up, which lowers the limit, and can make some settlements appear to have very little space.

The settlement size limit varies by the settlement itself. It seems the larger area of the settlement the higher the size limit is. This is based on direct observation of the settlement size bar when I was building up Abernathy Farm and Tenpines Bluff. Even though I placed more objects at Abernathy than at Tenpines (the smaller settlement of the two), the size bar does not change very much.

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@ Tanis Al'Rainwalker , the max population is at least 30 because there is a level 4 trader (Smiling Larry — Weapons Specialist) that you cannot recruit unless the settlement you want him to set up shop has at least a population of 30. You need to use a combination of clothing / armor and chems to boost your charisma to 20+ to achieve this.

You can manipulate that settlement size so you can build more. On the PC, this is how it works. I read somewhere it works for consoles too:

This trick Only works with weapons.

1) Store your weapons in the work bench

2) Then move them back to your inventory

3) Open up pip boy and drop all the weapons

4) Open up workbench mode

5) Pick up each weapon and Store them in the workbench. You will see that yellow settlement bar slowly decreasing.

6) Once you pick up and store all the weapons, repeat steps 2-5.

Enjoy.

No, the fill up at different rates. You can build an incredible amount at Sanctuary, but hit the limit pretty soon at the castle. Especially if you repair the walls. Starlight Drive In allows for quite a bit of building too. I've walled in the whole spot and still the bar is maybe a two thirds of the allowed limit. All without using the weapons trick.

You can lower your bar by just dropping all the random crap you pick up on your journeys on a non-clipping floor, entering the "Construction" mode (the "V" key on the PC) and manually disassembling it all on the ground. As far as I can tell, EVERY item counts, not just weapons, and you don't actually have to store anything. Just dropping it and disassembling it is enough.

As this was how I had been handling all my assorted crap since minute one, I had no idea that I had exceeded the build limit in Sanctuary many times over, or why that weird bar in the upper right kept creeping up and then vanishing.

About the only reason why I still collect pipe pistols and leather gear.

You can use mods on Nexus to increase the build cap like this one

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/818/?

check link here:

http://gamingbolt.com/fallout-4-new-mod-removes-base-building-limit

Also this posted on Steam earlier

https://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/496881121380167910/

Another place you can build extensively (without mods) is at the largest settlement. It's that large, mirelurk infested island just off the coast from the Castle

The population based traders count settlements with direct connections, so with the minimum charisma for trade routes you can get him by connecting 3 10+ population settlements together, the one that is connected to the two others then becomes valid for him to spawn.

each settlement is a different size and I think Sanctuary Hills is probably the largest one save a certain island.

I know in Sanctuary Hills I am at the max size allowed and all I did was scrap one house and create a small 3 story stronghold for myself. I know if I went around and scrapped everything else in SH I could build more. but its kind of my own little personal retreat at the ass end of nowhere that doesn't get through traffic.

keep in mind when your approaching settlement max size that a faction quest might need you to build there.

Example I max'd out the size allowed at the airport. But then I used the Brotherhood of Steel to help me build a molecular teleporter. Since the max size was already met, I had to delete the roof and part of the walls off my structure in order to place more items. Same again when building parts for a large robot.

maybe someone knows this but on the PC is there a way to remove the max amount without mods? or extend build areas?