I had two settlements whose happiness was between 75-80 and each had about 15 settlers. Well both were producing food of about 10 and the settlers were complaining about being hungry even though both settlements are connected to my trade routes and should have plenty of food. Well since I had a bunch of gourds I just planted a bunch of them in both settlements until the food was about 20 in each.

Well the settlers have stopped complaining about being hungry, but the happiness of both settlements have dropped down to about 63 and leveled off there. The only thing I can think of that's changed is planting gourds. Do certain foods lower happiness? Does anyone know what food settlers like the best (if there is a difference)?

Thanks.

I don't pretend to understand settlement happiness, but maybe it has to do with defense? Supposedly there is some relationship between a settlements defense value and the production of food and water where the raider attacks are concerned. Maybe as the defense/production ratio changed so did their contentment?

I do not at all suggest this authoritatively. Rather, it's wildly speculative.

Well both had way more DEF than their Water and Food combined, about double actually. Both places have more turrets than you can shack a stick at.

I stopped bothering trying to understand what affects settlement happiness.

Tenpines Bluff completely "stupidfies" me... Happiness is always bouncing between 30 and 80.

Have you ever eaten a gourd? They're not even really food at all, but are grown for like containers and such.

As an aside, settlers will always complain about being hungry if local food is less than population, even if their needs are being met by the supply network. Not sure if this is a bug or even if it affects happiness, unfortunately.

I don't know what to tell you about happiness as I usually ignore it, as I've never seen any in-game effect from it being especially high or especially low. One of those things we'll probably have to wait to find out, I guess.

Check the beds, even if you can get between them their pathing maybe screwed. Also goes for stairs, experienced even though a smooth path for me. My settlers would not use the stairs until I put in some floors by the base.

Well I haven't found in any way that happiness matters. Do they fight better if they are happy? Do they produce more food? Who knows. Surely not the people that bought the game.

I just like not seeing a [ ! ] next to the settlement name.

I have made sure that people actually sleep in the 'bunkhouses' I make for them, and I do have more beds than settlers.

I have found that they tend to get raider or mutant problem even without preston.

Done a lot of quests for him trying to get all the companion perks and they tapper off until next step in main quest.

If you travel to settlement and talk to them if they happiness fall low they will often give you an typical Preston quest.

Other times just visiting helps.

idk for sure but seems I read that you will make more caps off your stores with a higher happiness.

My settlements run about 80 to 85 happiness

I have a settlement with 18 settlers, 42 food, 120 water, 300 defense, 22 beds, a Level 3 clinic, bar and general goods store. Everyone had something to do, the purifiers tossed their extras into the workbench like clockwork. Randomly one day Happiness dropped from 83 to 35. I didn't miss an attack and no settlers were missing, nobody has dialogue expressing anything is wrong. My purifiers stopped making extra water. None at all in the workbench despite my being out adventuring for 3+ days.

I built more of everything, reassigned jobs, upgraded folks' equipment, covered the walls with cat paintings, put up basketball hoops and seating areas, rang a bell and waited, rang a bell and waited, started going by there to sleep at night, everything I could think of and Happiness still stayed in the cellar with no water production. It didn't begin again until happiness rose to 60. What do hunks of metal placed in a body of water care if people walking around them have a place to sleep or a fluffy rug to walk on? Happiness is bugged plain and simple in my book.

I have seen two things that relate to happiness if you don't notice them right away, the one were it says you have 0 beds and the one were it doubles you settler count. both will plummet your happiness if you don't go there right away.

What I understand is that defense is related to food plus water. If you added food and water+food exceeded defense then happiness will decline. You need to add turrets or assign settlers to barricades.

At some point hopefully there will be some official info given out on how the hell the settlements are supposed to work......for instance why is my brand new settlement with 12 water, 6 food and a defence of I think 196 with a grand total of two settlers coming under attack by Gunners. Why are my settlers living in the better set up (with more resources and decorations etc) actually having a lower happiness score than the ones crowded into a shack, sleeping on sleeping bags with the minimum of resources.

I've largely given up at this point and I mostly ignore them apart from calls for help.

It's like that miner in Skyrim, who complains because his mine is closed, and when it reopens, because it's so much work.

I guess the point may be 'does it matter'. I think I may get about five settlements up and running good, keep one empty for myself (RR) and companions with no home. After that just ignore Preston (get three quests, finish them, but never turn them in) and move on to other things. It's just really hard to get 'into' settlements when so much about how they work is a complete mystery. It's like trying to put together a 1500 piece puzzle without the box cover to look at the finished picture, you can figure out some stuff, but putting it all together is about impossible.

In one settlement I have 23 settlers, 28 food and 26 water. Defence 200. All have beds, 5 tier 3 stores etc.. yet only 84 happyness and I kept being attacked. I think of being attacked is more like a random thing so I will decease the defence a little bit because each time the attackers spawns (Gunners at high ranks, some in power armor) in the middle of the settlement and I need to go away unless being killed by my own missile turrets and/or by Gunners. Maybe other settlements needs som turrets as well.

Cheers,

-Klevs

I found that the best way to get a high happiness rating and maintain it is to stay on top of them as they arrive and assign them to a task and bed right away.

If you forget to turn off your radio beacon and suddenly realize you have 12 settlers just turn off the beacon, send them to an empty settlement, then send them back one at a time to the place you want to build up.

I have three settlements with a constant 80 happiness. All of them have 7 settlers.

Each settler must have his own sleeping area. I've read that it has to have a roof and floor with a real bed, not a sleeping bag on the ground. I made a hotel at all three settlements and sectioned rooms off with walls and a short half wooden fence piece to block the view of the bed but still leave a path to walk in. I put a rug, picture, dresser, two plants, a light, radio, mounted critter, and a full size bed in each one and assigned a settler to a bed as soon as they arrive. I put their original clothes and weapon in the dresser and usually give them a minigun and an corresponding to the task I assign them to. Farmhand, guard, merchant. I made the hotels and rooms before the settlers arrived so I was ready, then I turned on the recruitment beacon.

I create a crop and assign the new settler to it immediately. I space them pretty far apart as I add more sections and put a woven wire fence piece between them. Each settler can only be assigned to 6 food, so that's 12 plants (.5) or 6 mutfruit (1). When you plant a crop of 12 of the same plant or 6 mutfruit, then assign a settler to one of the plants/mutfruit, they will automatically be assigned to the rest. You can check to see what a settler is assigned to by putting your crosshair on them while they are standing near the crop while in workshop mode. The settler and the crop they are assigned to will highlight in green.

If you have a bunch of settlers there already and try to do all this, it becomes very hard because they will take it upon themselves to start working on the crops as soon as you plant them and take over beds on their own. It seems that when I let them do things on their own the happiness rating goes all over the place.

I always have defense at least 5 times higher than the number of settlers with a combination of turrets (gun, laser, rocket) and guard posts with assigned settler.

There are some bugs. TV's and Jukeboxes lower happiness and should be removed. This may be fixed by a future patch, I don't know.

I seem to remember reading somewhere to only use 'save' files and not to overwrite them but rather create new ones each time. Then go in and delete the old ones because there is a limit as to how many save files you can have.

I've been able to maintain 80 happiness by doing this but I haven't been able to get over that.

hth.