It's my hope that a future patch will include some kind of Pipboy app or maybe a buildable dedicated console to make all this easier.

Well I'm confused as hell now...

if you put junk, food (corn, melons, grain) and water into Workbench A, it is added to the overall total and can be used when building/planting in any workbench on the network.

other than that, each settlement/workbench is independent. 30 food in settlement A doesn't mean settlement B will have 30 food. ONLY if you harvest that food and put it in the workbench, then you can plant it at other settlements (same as if it was in your inventory)

A Settlements Management Window...with visible and changeable trade routes, selectable named NPCs to assign and reassign to tasks, and actual numbers of items being shared would be handy.

And I'd like to see the settlements actually trading resources like you'd expect them to do.

it's like this:

Workbench A
============
3 Steel
5 wood
4 melons


Workbench B
===========
7 steel
10 wood
6 corn

now if you Provision them together, you won't see 10 steel, 15 wood in Workbench B. You will still see 7 steel, 10 wood. BUT, when you go into build menu, you will have 10 steel and 15 wood available to build with. Same with food, you won't see Melons and Corn in workbench B, BUT you will still be able to plant Melons and Corn cos they are in your "total".

Only works with junk, plantable food, meat and water (dirty and clean) though afaik. Guns/Clothes/Armour put in Workbench B stay in workbench B and are only available to craft stations in that settlement, NOT on the whole network.

That last bit... So true.

Is there then, any point, in trade routes, once you have built up/"finished" a settlement?

From what I've tested and consulted with others on I can tentatively say the following.

Supply lines are networked, not point to point. My two major hubs are Sanctuary and the Castle which spiderweb out... then they are connected by a single line running across the map.

What IS shared:

Building materials - oil, ceramic, wood, steel... etc.

Food/Water resources: I know this has been a bane of contention, but I'm fairly confident in this now. Currently I have three tiny settlements (2 to 7 pop) with ZERO onsite food or water production, they are standing at 60% happiness and no negative resource indicators. This has been over several hours of testing.

What is NOT shared:

Weapons

clothing

items stored in workshop - meaning I can't store a turret in Sanctuary and build it in Abernathy.

other physical items - collected bottles of water, caps etc.

Now, it is possible that some of this crap is bugged to pandemonium and back... but that is how it appear to be working WITHOUT any physical or menu indicators. We really need some menus to help manage all this AND show what we've got going on.

OK, so this makes sense based on what I've seen in my settlements, differentiating between junk/stuff and buildables/consumables.

So... to fix the ugly spiderweb thing of routes I have going on and build a hub system, is there an easier way to reset the routes than hunting down each provisioner or hanging out at each place until they show up and re-tasking them?

Food (as a building material) is shared between settlements. It would also seem that it's shared as a resource too. In my first run through, I didn't have supply lines and anytime food or water dipped below population count, I saw a flag. In my second play through - with supply lines - I have never seen food or water flagged because I have surpluses at other settlements. So as an actual item, no it's not shared. However, as a material and resource mechanic, it seems like they are shared.

Um... the only thing I can think of... which still gives me a headache... is go to each settlement and re-assign a new provisioner? Logically, the other one, now without a job, should return to the settlement.... but of course that means making sure you are assigning the new ones to the same places as the old ones. Basically remapping the entire system.

Of course if you are like me, I have 5 or 6 at any one time at larger settlements. Yet another pain the neck detail.

Edit: Also keep in mind that each settlement has a size restriction on how many supply lines it will support. Not sure if it is standardized or based on population or what.. but eventually, you will have to branch off.

I've seen discussion about it being easier to kill them off. Life is cheap after the apocalypse, eh? Any negative gameplay consequences to putting down your own settlers? I'm still only at 7 or 8 settlements, so I want to fix it now since it'll only get worse.

Also, provisioners count against your population size, right? Might want to assign them to routes from the outside-in if you're hub-building then, so they don't eat up a slot in the big towns at the center.

I've wondered about the killing settlers myself.. can't tell you how many times I've wanted to, but feared my entire population would turn against me. Which when you've got 15 or 20 well armed and equipped settlers, those odds are not in my favor. Also wonder what my automated defenses would do lol.

Yet another thing I love about these games. It's fun to just figure out how the dang engine handles things.

As far what I've seen in the game.

There is no limit as such on how many routes a place can be connected to. However the Provider remains as a citisen of their starting point so you have limit on outgoing supply liners but not for incoming ones.

Food and water resource as numbers to keep the settlers happy is shared acros the supply routes. That is actually confirmed in the game ingame help menu (which apparently no one reads, many and more lists I've found in the net with "things you didn't know about fallout 4" are listed plain in the ingame help menu) so yes, you can have a settlement with zero food and water production as long as it's connected to a network with enough surplus production and the setlers stay happy.

About the re assigning provisioners, have others had the same problem I have with Hangman's alley? The provisioner, when arriving to that end of his trip doesn't actaully step into the settlement area, and instead hangs outside. Since I have to be in the settlement mode to re assign him, it's virtually impossible.

I shot Codsworth once by mistake trying to open his interaction menu with a weapon deployed. It didn't end well. Everybody went nuts and started shooting at me. I ran like hell.... eventually just loaded the last save and call it a lesson learned about firearms safety and accidental discharges.

One thing not mentioned - to send a provisioner to a settlement, that settlement must have a free bed. That is why you see some of your target settlements grayed out.

Somewhat certain that doesn't work given how I've been playing my game:

First thing I do with a new settlement is build a recruitment beacon and assign someone to a supply route. If I cannot build a beacon, or if no settlers show up immediately, I travel to a close by settlement and send a supply line to the new settlement. So far, I haven't broken the supply line at all and it's highly likely I have settlements with at least 2 provisionors (sp?), given how I'm playing.

This doesn't matter to me as every settlements only connect to my main settlement as a central settlement/ hub, I put my junk in my central settlement.

I'll try to connect the supply line back to the network in a straight-forward branching pattern.

That also shares the provisioners between the settlements.

e.g.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87106516/branching.png

Holy cow, that explains so much! Thanks

Guys their networked.

Build it as a Web with a central point. Have one settler from each settlement go to that central point. So long as each settlement is linked to the central point all resources are linked. Try it how I said. Then port to the central point and any linked settlement. Check the resources and you will see the same amount of steel / wood etc...

I have yet to test them in a daisy chain but why chain them when you can setup a Web?

I'll be danged.... I never knew that. More depth to this whole system than I thought.

So... does a provisioner count population wise as a settler for the home settlement or to the trade settlement?

It would seem that a single path (daisy chain) between settlements would be much more efficient and easier to manage than a hub type system. I get that a "hub" makes more sense if you think of it as your main base of operation and a bunch of smaller settlements, but the way the system works that star topology is not needed.

first time round I set up a "hub", every settlement linked directly to Santuary. It was a confusing spiderweb mess, and totally un-necessary. As long as there is a road, it all works fine. However, you can do it whatever way you want, as long as each settlement is linked.

(I prefer the branching method like Sofajockey posted, cleaner and easier to work out what is connected or not)

A couple of flame posts have gone away. Please refrain from indicating another member is lying or propagating untruths as it's inflamatory and when subjective...just find a better way to civilly disagree.

Ha, I think I do this just to not put thought into it. Each settlement I connect to the closest settlement by it available, making some settlements "hubs". Starlight Drive-In and the Observatory come to mind.