There are way TOO MANY settlements. While more is always better, it always reduce the places where regular NPCs or town could be placed. This is why I feel the places feel so barren. Most of the place you run into are hostile, and people shoot you right away. The game need more regular towns, where they could give you quests to add more variety than the random radiant quests in this game. Random radiant quests have story of their own in Skyrim. in Fallout 4, there are only a few radiant quest givers and they're all the same. I feel like the game really need more quick stops and town. I'm tired of just traveling to Diamond City or Goodneighbor. Vault 81 is too far away, and not many things going on, except for recruiting Curie. The game feels very empty, the settlers don't have any unique story or personality or characters of their own. They don't give any unique fetch quests. I also miss a place of my own. I would prefer more Homeplate than these random settlments where my stuffs keep getting knocked off. There should be an area in the settlment we could allocate as our home, no one can come in and we can do whatever we want, maybe even get a settler to be a personal caretaker. Sometimes, I come back home to Skyrim, I listen to people sing, have a housekeeper, and a spouse to cook food, buy and sell items. I would like more of a "home" feel than a "settlement" feel. The settlers act like I'm a stranger and they allow me to be there instead of being grateful.

I think I don't even need to mention how annoying Preston is when it comes to settlement. It's pretty much becoming the arrow in the knee joke.

I find the game is a big important in a lot of the aspects like story, character interaction, and overall flow, but the settlement could be a whole lot better, IMO, and I could actually enjoy doing them more if they could expand more on it.

Ummm... the Commonwealth is supposed to be a violent, lawless place, not a "civilized" area where people casually go about their day to day lives ("civilized" being largely subjective since many so-called "civilized" societies are extremely violent both physically and mentally).

You're wanting to change the entire nature of the world to fit your own preference. No, thanks, as your preference isn't mine or many others. The game is described properly as far as world environment is concerned and this was known by info given way back in FO3.

The only real problem with the settlements as they currently exist (as far as their physical context, that is, not the mechanics) is that there is nowhere near enough materials provided to properly build a decent settlement when each one is discovered/founded. Heck, there isn't enough materials for even ONE decent settlements, let alone a couple of dozen of them. It's ridiculous since there is technically unlimited materials due to respawning, but the requirement to acquire a handful then wait for respawn makes things tedious and interrupts building plans rather than facilitating them.

Life is all about taking losses and adapting to circumstance.

Uhmm... Fallout Vegas has a lot more of these places.

https://38.media.tumblr.com/c26b20d3523d58572c00a59fabfc6650/tumblr_mtzmeqC16Z1qcga5ro1_500.gif

But that's what makes success today. Sorry.

Yup. I remember talking about radiant quests for Skyrim. A lot of people were defending them and I, and many others, felt that it would be bad if Bethesda relied on them too much. It's an easy cop out for a developer, smart, but easy. I love Skyrim and the radiant quests are not too present, but they definitely are a bigger part of Fallout 4, and it's a bit of a problem for me.

Your remark is similar to the other thread which notes the lack of proper towns and villages. The two issues are closely linked.

There's also the fact that perhaps the biggest city/place,

, can only be accessed pretty late in the game.

we have 300+ locations... as much as I agree about the opinion, that there are too many settlements

without them being settlements, we'd just have more locations filled with enemies ^^

I'd be happy to see more friendly areas, but there are already enough locations that could be used for that... even with all the settlements

Grey garden, Covenant, Abernathy, Slog, and Bunker Hill all have a bit of story to tell.

I wish there was more tbh

I agree with the OP, the game needs another big town/city or 2 even

I like building in the settlements, and would love some DLC to really increase the amount of playability there. Even a "mini-game" where it's basically 'tower defense' - configure your base different ways and queue up the bad guys to attack you.

Do you fast travel? I have found a lot of things to do, and small quest givers, etc. You don't need big towns for there to be variety. I pretty much only use the towns for buying and selling, and with my own vendors I don't even do much of that.

I'm going to give Bethesda the benefit of the doubt until a big patch or two come out, as well as DLC. I've been playing for at least an hour or two every day since releases, and I still have not come close to exhausting even all the scripted events, much less the various random stuff I keep finding. But then, I don't treat the game as something to be burned through, I think of it as an alternate world I get to spend time in. That may not be everyone's style.

As for settlements, I know of 4 that I haven't obtained yet, and that isn't counting the ones that may arise from faction or main quest lines. There may be more--I don't use the wiki unless I am really stuck on something. Finding them and getting them set up is a big part of the fun for me.

So if I am understanding this correctly: there are too many settlements, and the settlements need to be turned into towns which can't be taken over as settlements ... so Abernathy, Tenpines, Covenant, Bunker Hill etc should all just remain as ... well ... locations ... but not locations that the player can control. So ... well ... ultimately removing functionality from the game. Because when I walked into Bunker Hill (by definition it fits what you want more of in the game) I thought "wow, it would be cool to win these guys over to my cause) ... and there are ways of doing that. So what you're saying is "keep bunker hill, even add more of them, but don't let the player take them over."

my only complaint with settlements is not being able to set up one where I want to. Having to choose a predetermined location is fine and all. But sometimes I just come across an area and wish I could set up a little shack there for myself.

Since FO3 I loved the idea of being able to use old power towers as structure supports for a home. Imagine my surprise to see Abernathy farm in FO4 being a lot like I had imagined being able to do. You can imagine my disappointment then in learning you could not do this yourself anywhere else in the game.

@ OP - If the issue your having is not wanting to manage all of them, then you do not have too.

For instance, so far I discovered 7 locations to create settlements, though I've developed 3 1/2 of them. I realized early on with SH, the hassle of going back and forth in between quests every time because the happiness % would drop. Was very annoying and time consuming. So I chose not to put a recruiting settlement dish on the other settlements I discover and just keep them undisturbed at 50%. SH is self-sufficient, that I rarely go there. I mostly visit my HQ in OZ. To drop my gear, resupply, collect my H2O and make $ on it, etc. Plus, from time to time I like it when gunners lay siege to my developed settlements.

Something I wish Fallout 3 had in Megaton. Like a massive raiders attack (like beginning siege scene from Waterworld.)

Wow, so many people missing the mark on what the OP is complaining about. There too many settlements in the regard that the majority of them are devoid of backstory, or any real characters, as they are populated with generic, bland NPcs that have no character or name. And thus feel lifeless and hollow.


Either give more proper towns like diamond city/goodneighbor, or give us more characterized settlements with real NPC's and some lore like to tie it in and make it feel like they are a part of the world around you rather than some nameless hobos that pretty much do manual labor and sell goods. Character wise, our settlers might as well be Gen 2's and protectrons. We need more settlements with real people and unique quests like Abernathy, Bunker hill, the slog, Fort Independence, and sanctuary.

You have good point.


That said... why place like General Atomic Galla doesn`t have one proper quest bothers me a lot...

Ideally, I would liked to have seen more places like Abernathy farm. A place where the NPCs seem a little more like real folks you can get attached too. If this was too much, I wish they had at least named the inhabitants of places like Tenpines

As critical as I am about many, many aspects of this game, settlements are actually a plus...and I did not think I would ever say that when they were revealed. It does seem that there were bill payers in other aspects of the game though, like volume and density of actual quests. But, they're pretty good, in a Minecraft-y sort of way.

I can't say the same for the other big new thing; the mod system. Tedious, and very little bang for buck for the gargantuan weight most mods add...not to mention the many things that were dropped that I loved from previous games, just to get it implemented.

Yeah, I'm not altogether crazy about settlements in game. Mostly, the way they seem to be managed: Help me, my wife/husband has been kidnapped. Help me, my wife/husband has been kidnapped again. Help me, my wife/husband has been kidnapped...again. For crying out loud, [censored] move then. Clearly it's not a safe place to call home.

My opinion is mostly that there are far too many with just one or two people living in them. I'd be much happier with two or three settlements total, but with the option to manage a larger group than we are currently allowed.

Yeah, the 'kidnapping' and 'ghoul problem' quests are really getting old...especially when they are constant...and come from only two settlements (for me at least): Ten Pines Bluffs and Abernathy Farm. It's ridiculous actually, no matter what I do to harden either site, I can count on brother Preston sending me to one or the other...and the locations the settlement leaders send me to are always the same. I can take down the Federal Ration Stockpile blindfolded.

When I became aware that settlement building was an important aspect of the game, and also when I realized that many such places could be built, I decided to limit myself to building only three. I decided to just ignore the rest. I decided on this approach because I felt they took too much time and attention, thus the job could become somewhat tedious. As I moved along, I created settlements in Sanctuary Hills, in Starlight Drive In and in Abernathy Farms. That was enough settlements for me.

Then, sometime later, I was called on to assist in the defense of Oberland Station. When I arrived, the two settlers there were engaged in close combat with the attackers. They were mixed in with the Raiders. I couldn't distinguish who was who. It was dark. Thinking the group I saw not far in front of me was the enemy, I fired rapidly and killed them all. Upon closer inspection, I noted that also I had dispatched the two settlers.

I felt bad about that. So, in an act of remorse, and in conscience, I used the Resurrect command (PC user) to revive the two settlers. Then, I equipped them both with armor and better weapons, to help make up for my bad conduct. That was just the beginning. I went on to establish Oberland Station as a settlement, just because I felt guilty. Oh no! I now have 6 settlers there, 10 beds and a good defense set up. Oberland Station is a thriving community now with plentiful crops, a scavenging station, and more.

I violated my own approach to settlement building, because I felt like a bad boy. Ha!

Fritz

I haven't discovered those two places yet is why I haven't had any kidnapping or ghoul problems. All I have are gunner attacks. But as I progress into the story (at the part where I have to meet minuteman outside castle), do gunners change up there strategy on attacking settlements or its the same routine? Also, I read online that synths can infiltrate settlements. Is there a way for me to screen settlers?

You need a town, you create the town, sir.

That's how great the Settlements are. Except the bugs of course.

Grey Garden = DIrty Water, killing Mutants + Mirelurks

Covenant = no Complain, good Story

Abernathy Farm = Medaillon, just killing Raiders

Slog = This Toy for the Ghoul? Killing Mutants

Bunker Hill = Killing Raiders

Except of Covenant is every Quests just a boring go to X and Kill Y. Where is the big Quality of Fallout Quests?

You call those souless Settlements with Clones Towns? They dont even talk to each other. There is absolutley no Conversation between the Settlers. You call that a Town? And where are the Kids?