There's no story tied to these settlements, the settlers are all generic NPCs and it shouldn't be the responsibility of the player to project and come up with a story for these regions instead of Bethesda actually writing a story tied to them.

Radiant quests are an abomination and the repeatability of them takes any sense of progression or development in the world. If I clear out Hubris comics or that forsaken Hospital, I expect it to stay cleared. And if I eventually kill every supermutant, ghoul, and raider in the map I expect the settlements to reflect this, instead of endlessly respawning the map, undoing any sense of progression the player might have acheived.

If the Minutemen storyline should have been tied to the settlements then there should have been more story. More character development for Preston, Ronnie Shaw, Marcy Long, etc. If Bethesda is insistent on pushing the Minutement as a militia and possibly a proto-NCR than there should have been infinitely more story to reflect that. After The Castle the storyline just stopped, and that's unacceptable.

The settlers should have been actual people, with actual personality that are more detailed and have more depth than a puddle.

If there are simply too many settlements to meaningfully populate with creative, believable characters than there should be less settlements. Instead of 12-20 potential locations there should have been 4-5, with meaningful characters and storylines, that bleed into the faction storylines when it makes sense.

Why should I make Mercer Safehouse and then never have a reason to even check up on it again?

About progression, have settlers gradually be able to build up their own homes as the environment improves. Have "canon" settlements and structures and possibly small towns start to form, in place of it being a Minecraft simulator.

There is so much lacking/wrong with the current state of settlements it's appalling, and I find it irritating how Elder Scrolls [censored] (hint, the censored word starts with a "fan" and ends with a "boys") pretend to enjoy the idea of settlements, but don't want it anywhere near *their* games.

I'd love a cleanup feature.

The settlement system is good. While not the best, there is room for improvement.

There is a mod for that already on the PC. Hopefully a mod like that will be included within the console modding sector of things.

So many good and relevant items in this post,I love the settlement idea and hope that it gets improved/fixed.Clearly there are many issues with the mechanic yet between the devs and the modders one hopes they can be addressed.

The biggest pisser for me is the duff settlements section of the pip-boy...tired of going to a settlement that had a warning triangle on it's happiness to arrive and find all's well...or vice versa.

Looking to the future I'm hoping for more diversity in settler faces/appearance and for them to be inividually named...(immersion junkie)

Anyhoo that's my two-penneth.

How is there supposed to be a fixed story tied to the settlements if they do not exist until the player starts them and are to evolve into what the player wants them to be?

Also to address the "I want to exchange items between settlements" issue, perhaps add a craftable mailbox, where you can store items inside, and those items will be accessible at any other player made mail boxes. Just like the http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Mojave_Express_dropbox in the previous installment.

Excellent idea for characters that don't have the Local Leader perk.

You can reduce the number of settlements if needed and have 2-3 specific (named) NPCs that are tied to each settlement and drive the story of that settlement forward through them. Kinda no different than any other questing hub, bunch of unimportant people, and some important people who are quest-givers/targets/parts of quests etc. Doesn't take anything away from the building aspect and could help people get more invested in each and every settlement.

I really like your idea.

I tend to agree that the way to go with something like this is having 2-3 or even 4-6 hand-crafted settlement populations attached to key settlements, each with it's own distinctive architecture and building style, in amongst the dozens or more of generic settlement possibilities and generic settlers who, incidentally, would have no interest in sharing their story with the "Sole Survivor" because most people would prefer saner friends than the "famous" and more trustworthy friends than the "powerful". What some players may not realise, however, is that there are some very well thought-out back-stories for the Longs (Sanctuary Hills). Given the fact that this is an RPG and not a novel, such details take a little finding and while we all know that their stories started somewhere before Concord, getting to where it started is key to uncovering what happened - which gives a view, through the eyes of the Longs, of what it was that caused a general loss of confidence in the Minutemen. Covenant also has a remarkable amount of depth to it. There are eight other places hosting designated settlers:

So, to my eye, there seems to be the potential for some core hand-crafted stories right there - although I'm yet to get to "know" the denizens of those other settlements. However, I can say that we already have at least two core settlements that are deeply written and appropriately integrated according to the medium (i.e. presented as appropriate to an RPG as opposed to the kind of linear presentation appropriate to a novel).

Ideally, the optimum number of optional, generically-manned settlements would have to be enough to raise the total number of settlements to around 180 at the player's option (i.e. if you don't want the site as a settlement, don't assign settlers to it). If network strategy mechanics are to be implemented effectively, then this is roughly the best compromise between difficulty and what human beings can handle in terms of complexity. As I've pointed out before, with respect to games revolving around network strategy, the concept is thousands of years old (easily very much older than Chess) and the numbers were optimized for playability (i.e. complexity vs. nominal human performance) a very long time ago. Why is this important? Well, Fallout and The Elder Scrolls already get strongly criticised for lacking difficult elements or minigames and something like this is a magnificent opportunity to introduce some truly cerebral challenges to gameplay for those who want to be challenged and which would scale, intuitively, according to the innate complexity of any given player's style of gameplay.

Myself, I only really focus on 2-3 settlements while using most other settlements I can open up as resource-gathering outposts. Presently, my provisioning map is reminiscent of Rome, and every time I visit my answer to Rome, I keep wondering why every supermutant in Boston hasn't descended en masse on the place. At this end of the scale, I think it would be fantastic if it really did matter how settlements were connected (provisioners), especially if connecting a given settlement to one provisioning network or another, really had significant and far-reaching consequences that can be shown to make sense according to a set of discoverable and consistent processes with the kind of deep relationships seen in games like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_%28game%29 (For a deeper treatment, see: http://senseis.xmp.net/). This kind of depth could be achieved by introducing very simple and easy (i.e. cheap to implement) game mechanics such as using the number of provisioner routes, both to and from a settlement, as a multiplier for things like

• the probability of attack on the corresponding settlement and


• the number of hostile NPCs involved in any given attack on the corresponding settlement

For example, it would make so much more sense if a settlement with 7 incoming provisioner routes and 5 outgoing provisioner routes (i.e. total connections = 12) was four times as likely to be attacked and, generally, faced four times as many hostile NPCs per attack as a settlement with only 1 incoming provisioner route and 2 outgoing provisioner routes (i.e. total connections = 3). It would also add the kind of consequences to gameplay that I think many of the "it's too easy" critics really want. And making these mechanics interesting would be as simple as taking other things into account. e.g. provisioner route length (the longer the route, the more attention it draws and the more risk to the provisioner). This resolves nicely to e very simple strategic game where the player is only operating 2-6 manned settlements, but would start to get rather interesting when settlement numbers got above 18-20 (for those players who really are craving for a challenge).

Just a quick addition to this thread - I think there are very good ideas, but I fear many of them will not be feasible for this version of Fallout. There are limits what can be done in a system, where the world can only change in a very limited way if a cell is not loaded, which is true for most cells during the entire game. And loading more cells brings other problems...

One thing should be possible, which I would like to add:

Personalizing settlers!

They are individuals, but while the game uses a nice variety of equipment they are hard to distinguish, especially if the player does not have a real knack to remember faces/hairstyles. And if you have more settlements or more settlers they do repeat. I have no problem with that, there is enough variety optically - with settlements up to 16 settlers I never had two settlers looking exactly the same in one settlement.

But still - remembering a specific settler is not possible for me. We need a method to find out which settler is assigned to which job - this was mentioned often in this thread and elsewhere.

But I would like sort of a personalization above this:

Give the settlers names. To distinguish them from game/quest relevant NPCs the names could have a prefix 'settler', i.e. 'Settler John', 'Settler Mary', and so on. Or a postfix like 'Jay Harding (Settler)', where Jay Harding starts out as 'Jay Harding (Settler)' when he arrives, and if he gets a job in a settlement he can become 'Jay Harding (Guard)' or 'Jay Harding (Farmer)', and so on. It would be needed to have name lists for first names and second names and the combination of these lists (random) should be quite unique if the lists are long enough.

This would help me to remember them and to look at them in a more personal way. It would not really help management of a settlement, but it would help game immersion!

Think about it, even if one has all the settlements, every settlement has its own problems, missing resources, lines of attack, more or less dangerous environment. If one has up to 20 settlers in a settlement - this are not too many people, it should be possible to remember every one of them in a general way.

For settlement building, consoles need a 'place in red' option from Bethesda as there are many occasions even the rug technique doesn't work.


A good example is trying to use the junk fences at County Crosssing. It was probably the worse gaming experience I've ever had and the closest I've come to putting the game down.


The mound of soil sat between the derelict house and small shack. What a nightmare! Why would someone put it there? Did they not realise that small stretch is a prime spot people will want to erect a wall? And with not being able to pull the shack down, concrete foundations wasn't the right look for that spot.


And the game crashes need fixing. I'm sure post-it notes stuck to the tv wasn't the look Besesda were after with a multi million dollar game.

this vote are useless and pointless.

because it can't show how many problems in the settlement system now.

you need to collect all the problems then to do the fix or nothing. so you just ask players what problem they faced in the settlement system.

What I'd like to have, is a more logical settlement manager interface, that doesn't need me to go round' the whole world to assign each lazy settler, and to be present at each attack on my settlement. I'm the general, not an errand boy. So it would be nice that the would have an interface on the pip-boy with a similar structure to for example the interface of the zombie strategy game Rebuild: It shows all the settlers under our control, by settlement, with generated names, skills, and gear, the latter would be changeable, the middle one developable, and the first one would be given titles. (Farmer, scavenger, minutemen, mercenary, medic, bartender, etc. It would show their current job, and we could reassign them inside the interface. And since running to help a settlement every five minutes I no fun, a similar danger calculating algorithm to the Rebuild one also would be preferable. A settlement has loads of minutemen in it, and they're on the guard too? It's less likely to get attacked.(P.A.M. Prediction: 12% chance in the week. ) It's in the middle of the minutemen territory? No need to have so many guards, it's protected by its neighbors, that come to help it, should some fool slip through the defenses to attack it. I had ordered aome minutemen to clean out a raider base? The threat level drops. They nigh come back, but the there will be another preemptive attack on them. Let the settlement use the radio towers to call each other for aid, not for me. And if I'm not here, just calculate the conclusion of the attacks, don't just destroy everything. Having a better, more noticeable alert notification, or a threat level assigned to a spot on the map would also be nice. This defend the base thing was fun in the original mod, but now it would be more fun attacking the settlements with a raider faction. Oh and some kind of political mechanism would be great too, like in Dead State. Assembling scavenger parties, to send out scavenging, patrols, commandoes, being able to play drill sergeant, or giving the civilians basic training in how to use guns and defend themselves, would all be great to have. The absolute best however would be a chance to have manufactures, assembly lines, and a market that capable of purchasing the goods we produce. This however would be maybe a little too far from the original fallout concepts.

it needs a key to temporarily disable snapping so we can build like fences in non-90% angles

and another one to shift pieces along snap axis, so we can like build a fence down a slope instead of having it stick into the air

and it needs more flexible and better tuned pieces (like, the dif wall heights for second stores are a joke, or that there's quarter floors, but no quarter roofs etc), incl. stuff like planks to bridge a gap etc) and better tuned snapping (try a row of alcoves with divider sidewalls if you don't know what i mean)

...and another thing it'd not exactly need, but that'd be nice: there's paint. i want to paint my building.

Just fix the bugs for starters i put so much time in building out all setelments (24 settlers and more) and they're unmanageable beds, power , resources disapearing or changing some times i have 45 settlers etc. As a result moral is lower then when i started the setelments. I have no more income from my setelments and everything i do to tweak bed problems or designing things so settlers don't get stuck just creates more problems so before adding stuff fix the current system

Sounds just like modern life these days.

The Original Poster spoke of DLC and if history is to be any guide DLC never fixes the problems in the vanilla games but merely adds new ones. What we need are settlements that work and make sense. The settlement size build limit is a draconian measure to ensure that all player creativity is limited to what the cheapest hardware investment can run - rather Stalinist if you ask me. In addition, it is clear that many players regard the settlement build areas as spaces in the Fallout 4 world reserved for their creativity which begs the question, why were ruined buildings, hedges and a host of other unwanted objects placed in these settlements as non-referenced objects that cannot be scrapped? Perhaps we can get an inkling from the fact that the entire settlement idea was more of a marketing ploy than a legitimate feature. We see this when Ronnie Shaw tries to walk through your repaired castle walls during "Big Guns" or when trader caravans come into your settlements and sit inside your foundation stone floor. These areas may appear to be yours to do with as you will but that is just how it looks. The reality is very different.

Other than that, there are some wonderful ideas here. However, before anything new is added, I'd like to see NPCs able to cope with what exists now and I'd like to see a ruling: are we dragging back rusty iron sheets, stained mattresses, filthy couches, and broken drawers from the toxic, ooze and bug-infested garbage heaps scattered around the Commonwealth or are we actually building new beds, new cupboards from the trees I cut down and new concrete walls and floors by mixing water with sand and cement because I'm confused. And how the blazes do I create the miracle of painting my power armor so that it has decades of fading and scratches? What am I, the god of rot and decay?

I'll give Bethesda one thing - if I was tasked with cleaning up the engine/game I'd have nothing but nightmares.

The UI is terrible, I'd like proper defenses and functional walls and doors and locks (even bars).

Using the terminal interface to communicate would be great (kind of like an expansion of Elder Scrolls Online's crafting helpers who send you messages along with stuff they find - just some pre-made messages people can send when they need things or want things or finished things).

Cleaning up the trash and leaves and holes. I can build new walls but I can't patch holes in the roof or walls. I mean, people can build new things.

People not getting stuck on the roof or floating would be nice.

Sanctuary is a horrible mess between A) a vault that has power and a boarded up real town with real buildings. Derp.

I expect a lot of this will be "fixed" over the summer by modders, asssuming the GECK comes out this spring. I don't expect much to be done otherwise.

I'm still waiting for proper general UI fixes so I can get past the bard port issues and start using VATS again. Keeping an eye on the Nexus.

The player shouldn't control a the settlement in the first place. It should help it build and become it's own regional power, but it shouldn't be tethered to the player's choice(beyond being a jobber/the person who does the quests), and everything that happens in that area should be scripted.

Have a mixture of generic NPCs and several interesting and well developed NPCs that are tied to the settlements, or arrive there as the player does fetch quests. Each new named NPC that arrives opens up a scripted quest tied to the settlement+surrounding area, either examining the area's history or working to improve the settlement.

And exactly what ecogen said, just reduce the number of settlements down to 2-3 and just flood it with all the story and resources you can.

Say, Sanctuary Hills and Red Rocket Truck Stop being one singular settlement, the Drive in Movie Theatre being a second settlement, and the Castle being the third and last. Once's the players complete the main storyline, (if they poured time and effort into helping them grow beforehand) they settlements would evolve into fortified, proper quest hubs like The Fort or Camp Mccarran from New Vegas, with postgame stories and content that has less to do with mindless radiant quests and more to do with watching these settlements continue to develop from the sidelines.

The Castle could be the obvious hub for expanding and continuing the Minutemen story lines, Sanctuary Hills and the Red Rocket truck stop could be thematically and literally centered around could be about something new rising from the ashes of the past, and the movie theatre parking lot (due to it's sheer space) could be about a bustling community and trade routes growing in that area, and the Castle would be far more tied into the rebirth of the Minutemen as a faction, as well as Preston coming to terms with the corruption and failings of the previous incarnation. At the end, of the Castle's storyline, Preston can become the leader of the Minutemen, if the player agrees to transfer the title of General to him/and it's clear Preston is ready for that responsibility.

As the story lines progress in each of these areas, there's an increase in traffic of caravans between them and to the surrounding areas (like Blake Abernathy's farm and various areas that wouldn't be actual settlements in this version).

After the player 100% completes the story lines of each three settlements, border guards and outposts along the road start to spawn to protect travelers, and players unlock a final and completely optional settlement (the giant island settlement in a corner of the map) that functions similarly, but more polished, to the way settlements currently operate in game.

I just think that's a better way of addressing the concept of settlements rather than shoving 20+ generic settlements in the players face.

This. The Settlement issues/bugs effect morale and it's constantly yo-yoing. My biggest bugbear is the pathing issues, as it effects things like bed allocations, etc.

Yes I would love all of this!!!!! I really hope Bethesda take note because this I what the settlement tool should be. Right now it's a little shallow. I only say these things to improve fallout 4 so no hate please!

I would like to see a Function like in this Mod here: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/1267/?

called Place in Red. This Feature would be a big help just to Patch existent Houses like in Sanctuary. Closing Holes or repairing the Roof.

There are some Mods out to Scrap much more Things like Dirt, Leafs, Bushes. But those Mods occurs the Cell Reset Bug. This Function and of course a Fix for that Bug would be very nice.

Time-lapse associated with building is missing. If the player is actually building a module in place, how can it be instant? Magic? In Fallout? It would just make more sense if there was an appropriate time-lapse for building various objects (e.g. 8-12 hours for a crafting bench, 2-6 hours for a modular building structure, etc.) depending on the required precision or extend of the build and, importantly, varying with player level (e.g. up to lvl 10 a module would be a 6 hour job, 5 hours between lvl 10-19, 4 hours from lvls 20-29, 3 hours from lvls 30-39 and 2 hours from lvl 40 and up).

The time lapse could be near instant (instead of slow like wait and sleep) and I think it would really enhance things by making the time-investment more visible from the player character's perspective.

Also, assigning settlers as builders to complete building tasks queued by the player's order of placement of structures "in concept", might allow the player character to leave them to it and go do some deathclaw hunting or clear a key settlement site (some of the really important settlements, resourcewise, take a good long time, in-game, to get done). This delegated building would probably be bettter if only available when settlement's stats are "green across the board".

I agree with that, but I would make the time lapse even bigger. Build a house in just a few hours? I think several days would be appropriate, how much depends on the size of the building and on the number of settlers who are building