I don't know if I should spend time building a settlement at every location possible or should I only make one or two or six?

How many settlements should we have?

Is it good to have more than one supply line between each settlement?

Should there be multiple supply lines from each settlement to every other that the game will let you reach?

Problem is that building settlements and dealing with the food and water and defense and building buildings etc. etc. takes up almost all my time.

If I go questing and ignore the settlements would that be better?

That's the conundrum ... whether to spend time building settlements or questing?

I'm not building cities right now. Mainly build the basics to keep it out of the red. I build a shack with multiple beds and maybe a few couches.


I try to put a scavenger station at each place and at least one store.


I'm having a problem finding enough wood for each settlement. Concrete is also a problem.

I want to build. I enjoy it. but gets tedious to maintain so many places!

I want to turn this job over to locals. I am the General, after all!

I just want to visit and be hailed as the awesome leader that I am!

Do what you like with settlements. I agree it's tedious, but I go back and forth. Sometimes it's good to take a break from questing and shooting and just tinker around with a settlement or two to make them cool, or build up shops so I can make more caps. It's fun for me, but I do get bored/tired of it, then I go out questing some more...

Settlements are totally optional (although they seem to be shoved in your face over and over).

You don't have to build anything for anyone really, it has pretty much no effect on the rest of the game (other than doing some of the minutemen quests to get the castle and the old guns, etc... for the MM quests). Settlements will be attacked and raided, but if you don't want to bother with it just don't. Settlers will die and get replaced with new ones (if you have a recruitment beacon), defenses, crops and water will be ruined, (but from what I understand they will self-repair over time) and failed quests to help the settlers (with ghouls, kidnappings etc...) don't have any effect on the rest of the game at all.

So just have fun with it if you think it's fun, tinker as much or as little as you wish.

There are lots of problems with settlements, but I think the biggest one (for me) is that they make this supposedly "optional" feature in the game, and then they set it directly in front of you and have it pestering you with quests and defense missions etc... for pretty much the entire game. If it's optional then present it to us like it's an option, not like it's the beginning middle and end of the game!!! Sometimes I just want to "opt out".