I remember in Oblivion, Fo3 and NV, the grab or drag item was a lot better. You could grab an item from any point and it would register where you were grabbing it and pick it up from that point, you could see gravity working and it would hang from that part, so for example you could grab a weapon by the handle and it wouldn't move it until you moved and when it did it would move it from the point you selected (handle at the top). You could place an item on a table, 'grab' it, and instead of moving the mouse or right stick, just walking back forward or sideways would make the item slide around the table, allowing you to manipulate, move and rotate the object with a fair amount of accuracy, not to mention the fact that things stay where you put them. I spend a ridiculous amount of time in those games arranging objects, probably a little too much time! I know I'm not alone. It was so much easier back then, I can't believe when I think back to Oblivion and Fo3 how easy it was to arrange items. Fo3 I could stand a gun up on its handle and magazine, have it standing on the table in seconds, I wouldn't even bother trying in or Fo4.

In Skyrim the grab item mechanic was inexplicably ruined. When you select and grab an item it doesn't register where you grabbed it and pick it up from there, it centers the item on the cursor, picking it up in the process, so if you want to fine tune the position of an item (which you could do in the previous games) you couldn't, and it didn't matter if you did get it where you wanted because it would never stay there. I'm not sure why that particular mechanic took a nose dive when they spent so much time making the houses better, seems to me they should have spent more time developing it, or just keeping it how it was. seemed a bit silly at the time. If it ain't broke don't fix it. In this case it wasn't broke and they....... broke it!

What is more than just silly and almost un-forgivable is the fact that they haven't done anything about it in the 7 years they spent developing Fo4 since Skyrim, it's still the same, surely they must realize that it is inferior to their previous titles. It's to my mind one of their biggest oversights. You should be able to grab an item, flip/rotate them and get them to exactly where you want to be with ease, there is no excuse for it not to be easy now especially with how much they have given us with regards to settlement building, I want my settlement to look less EMPTY DAMN IT!!!!!!

I play on PS4 so I really really hope someone makes a console mod for this mechanic, it is in dire need of improving, I don't think it would be hard, hell one of the Beth team could have probably fixed it in no time if they actually gave it more than a seconds thought, which it seems like they didn't.

Am I the *ONLY* person whose items fall through tables, sink into the ground and generally misplace themselves REGARDLESS OF METHOD USED?!

I've tried workshop, grab/drop, AND the mixed method. NOTHING works. It was bad in Skyrim; It's 10x worse in FO4.

I'm impressed by everyone's decorating jobs, but they also make me rather angry at my Xbox one and copy of FO4 for not cooperating.

Decoration in vanilla game takes a considarable amount of patience, if you are playing on PC though theres is a couple of mods that make it super easy and allow you to lock down placed items as well so they cant get knocked over,fall off etc...

You are far from alone with this, it has been a problem since Skyrim, and as you said it is arguably worse now, I'm not sure but it's definitely not better. It was a mechanic that was not only useful but a lot of people were very fond of.

Like I said before I really hope mods make it to consoles for this.

I didnt even know you could use the workshop mod to move junk... I always used the drag and drop mod like in other beth games. And so far i had no sinking issues.

And for a better placement/rotation etc... there's the console to help (unless you're on console ^^)

Good Lord! I can only applaud your patience, decorators. I get a tension headache just from spending 20 minutes trying to stand a couple of beer bottles upright on my pato table for me and a bud. I have temporarily given up on 6 full place settings on my dining room table.

Seriously? That pyramid of - what are those red things, anyway? Tatos? And that liquor shelf! Jeeeez.

Well and even if it has been broken in previous games, you'd think that since there is such an increased focus on settlement building in this game that they would realize that along with buildling structures and placing furniture, people are going to feel an even greater desire to place objects around the settlement. Otherwise it is a boring shell with empty shelves and tables, and doesn't really feel like a lived-in settlement.