Builders. We builders care. I LOVE games which allow me some building creativity. I've quite possibly spent more time building my fort than questing thus far.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=562174355

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=562786716

The best games have options for many.

Cheers.

yeahhh lol google Fallout settlements and u will find out who care about it.

Apparently you must not have been paying attention at the E3 reveal when Todd said the word "optional" when talking about settlement building. There are some benefits though, such as having a bed to sleep in, being able to set up shops, and a flow of caps that come in.

Settlements are the most humanistic part of the game, so yes I care about them. It is part of why I find Fallout so much more immersive than any previous Fallout and for that matter any other character-based game I've ever played.

VERY limited spoilers . . . basically if you've played the game or read anything about it, it won't spoil anything, but I like to play it safe.

It is so far beyond the standard psycho-social dynamics of most games, which are basically Hollywood sets in which you run around destroying and pilfering (which you get to do plenty of in FO4 as well), that it will take a while for it to sink in perhaps.

I'm currently in the process of rebuilding Sanctuary Hills. It's very theraqeutic for my character: rebuilding what was lost for the chance for new people to come in and make a living there. He's restored power in his own home, and now must collect the necessary supplies to restore power in all the other homes, plant the crops, etc. The place shall be it's own thriving community one day.

I have a love/hate with the settlement feature. I want to develop just one or two and leave the rest of the wasteland to fend for itself. I am trying an experiment (alt character) in leaving Preston & Crew in the Museum and building up Sanctuary as a community without them. That way I am not constantly pestered by the radiant quests and can just focus on the single community I want to build up.

Purposes include everything that's been said above.

1) You can use the builder as an XP farm

2) You can use resources as a gold farm, for instance if you need to buy the more expensive "Shipment of [Resource]" to get 999 of everything (without cheating)

3) For roleplay purposes.

I think the builder and settlements are really the crux of the game this time round, it is all about rebuild Boston and making the best of what's left of humanity.

I like it that it is in the game and I like how it is implemented, especially that you are not really forced to build settlements. Because I don't want to build them, my char is an adventurer who really does not care for settlers. It's a good feature because it adds variety to the game. Although I must say it is a little bit tedious to build and administrate settlements.

Considering artillery and plentyful resources and money and such, I'm playing on Survival and the game is already a little bit too easy without the big bang from afar or an endless stream of purified water.

Simple, it's fun , challenging to get it looking good and a good source for resources and money.

Enjoying them more than I thought I would.

Surprisingly my Red Rocket base has taken over most of my playtime. I'll develop it until I run out of resources, then I'll go and do a mission or two, looting as I go, then come back and carry on. Once my home base is built I'll work on Sanctuary in the same way, then the Castle. Once the Castle is up and running as a trade hub I'll probably then scout out two or three of the larger plots, pilfer all the resources from the smaller plots, and get to work again.

I think it's actually become my favourite part of the game; tangible reward or not. It gives me something to develop. Just like collecting every power armour or magazine it gives me another goal to strive towards. I can see it extending my character's playtime considerably compared to just questing.

I care..

I like being creative like that.

There is the point of creating tons of purified water, earning caps from shops and all that,

but what I really like is to just build different looking settlements and see what I can come up with.

It is like playing with lego to me. No real point other than to be creative and have fun with it.

[Edited for a typo]

I like settlements too - it is an original idea. And to be honest: This would not have been possible in Fallout 1/2 because there is no way the engine would support it. So why not now, when it can be done?

But I think there need to be some finishing touches on settlements, because there are some rough edges.

Building could be a bit more flexible, it should not be necessary to use tricks to place items.

Pathing and NPC activities are also a bit rough: I built a normal wooden home on a leveling platform (the floor element on wooden stakes). The entrance of the house needed a ladder. All build with no tricks, all snapped together fine. But NPCs have serious trouble to negotiate the ladder, the seem always to hang in the middle, because they want to walk sideways on the ladder.

Defending a settlement: It makes only sense when you are there, then placement of turrets, walls and guards matter. If you are not there, the cell is not loaded, and no fight can take place. This was always so with this engine - I watched it in FO3 with the trading caravans.

So the designers had to build a penalty if you ignore the call to help defend a settlement - and this needs a touch too: There are reports of people who had insanely big defense values and still lost when they were not there. Obviously, if the cell is never loaded no fight will take place, the placement of defenses does not matter at all. So it is a 'scripted resolution' if you never show up. This could use some touches too. For example a 'Attackers have been driven off' when your defenses are 2 or 3 times better than the minimum.

But the interesting things where you see how good your defenses are will only happen if you go there. I had normal defenses in the Starlight Drive In (2 points over minimum), and around 8 gunners attacked in 2 or 3 waves. They were all killed by settlers and the turrets, I did nearly nothing.

So - yes I like it. Is it Fallout? It is in a new way, it should not be the main task in the game or it will be Fallsim, but as a nice additional touch and an original idea it is fine.

Isn't building up settlements (and claiming that fort) mandatory in the main quests with them? At the very least you have to use the settlement feature to clear the rubble and place the mortor, as well as assign someone on it. Again, using the "settlement" menu/hud. Building a mortor to advance the plot (let alone settlement beacons after clearing farms) isn't exactly "optional".

'Course, if there's a way to advance the main plot with that faction then disregard what I said. But when I played through the plot it never felt optional. It felt like I had to place beacons and place that motor just to advance the plot. Different then making houses, yes, but still using the settlement feature and making/placing items by using that same feature, making it not optional.

On another note, have you noticed that there will always be a little dirt or none pickupable screws or something left over on the floor that you just can't clear? A "clean up" option for tiles would have been nice. I noticed this when, for example, I was clearing the benches away at the airport to make room for the teleporter (wait, that's another mandatory build a thing). A "Clean up the floor tile" would have been nice. At best we can build over. Hopefully mods will fix it. I'd like a clean ground in a place I make and keep a close eye on. I like dirty, but I like clean too. And cleaning up the surrounding/internal area is a part of building in a way. Or at least the last step of it.

That's... unsettling. What's the point of turrets if you have to be there for them to be activated? Isn't the whole point of turrets to protect areas you're not around at when you do other stuff? If this was like Tribes 2 where you had to restore a sabotaged gen or something then maybe, but even then they'd first have to even reach it. Because turrets can guard the path. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way of making the engine calculate based on placement effectively. That's understandable. But not at all? Shouldn't "This large group of 10 turrets parked in the corner" be different then "10 turrets spread out all over the base?" I can already think of part of a solution to this. Have a turret in an area of the base affect that part of the base only so that one corner would be untouchable but the rest of the base exposed, yet spread out have the defense value applied base wide. That would, however, mean having a defense value for each area of the base/settlement. Or otherwise have the turrets affect a smaller surrounding area stat wise where they can overlap with other defense value stats (other turrets mainly). Guess we're waiting on mods/expansions. Or a new engine. But I have seen things like this been done in games before.

It's optional in the sense that you don't have to focus on it once you get through the tutorial parts that are integrated with some of the quests. Building a couple of beacons and slapping them down and then never bothering with them again is hardly forcing everyone to play Fallout settlement sim.

Not me. I did the Minutemen main quest once, now i don't ever need to do it again

Then i found out i have to craft items for the Diamond City house myself

I don't want a make-your-own-game game, that's what i pay developers for

On my first play-through at least, I don't care one bit.

I can imagine I would care if Preston had asked me to help create a settlement (as in, one single settlement) in the name of the Minutemen, to help the people in need. Maybe it could have been about twice the size of Sanctuary, and taken quite a while to get up and running. And once it was off the ground, maybe it could have attracted generic settlers, but also a few who brought their own side questline with them. And I would help solve their problems and get to know them, and I would feel connected to the place and the people.

I can imagine caring about that. But the system as it is? No I don't think I will.

Without even trying, I have about a dozen settlements. And they all need the same beds built, and food planted, and defences set up, and pesky raiders dealt with. And it just feels like endlessly repetitive busy work.

But I will probably give it a go, once I've finished my first play through, and enjoyed the many, many hours of content available for people who aren't into the settlement thing.

I'm building the tower of power with a fortified back yard for farming. Taking up small footprint on the whole for Sanctuary. Generators on cement blocks on the roof. A cement gauntlet with turrets on top pointing inward lead to each door. The whole first floor covered in turrets as a kill room. Four stories for living above. Everyone snugly. But if turrets don't work when I'm not there then I quit. I'm yet to be attacked so we shall see.

you don't have too, however since caps are harder to find, it's the best way to get rich in the game. =P

I have no settlements. I have a safe house at the red rocket. Eff the minutemen, eff settlers. Bunch of devolved potatoes.

Brings in fertilizer to feed my jet addiction, grow crops for adhesives for weapon crafting, artillery and on call soldiers.

I find it a nice break between quests, like my character returns to their haven to rest and recoperate, mend a few things and drop off supplies before taking on the dangers of the wasteland again.

Auntie Entity would like a word with you OP.

I care. It's a feature I've wanted since fallout tactics. I only wish it was more in depth. I want to create me own jackbooted faction and rule the wastes with an iron fist.

I like the concept and the actual building, despite it being very unpractical and extremely barebone. The ability to clip terrain should be there without putting stuff on a mat. You should be able to toggle snapping, building a perimeter wall with the wooden/steel walls is almost impossible. The actual perimeter walls are a joke. They can't interlock with eachother leaving gaps. The slightest amount of elevation makes them float mid air. I'd also like better options for placing decorative items (like vases, plates, etc) without having to fiddle with the drag item feature.

What I really do not like is actual management and settler mechanics. No information on wether settlers are assigned or not. Defense requirements are too high and you end up plopping down a bunch of turrets. It's not as bad for major towns, but the very small ones tend to require as many turrets as settlers. A typical farm with a manual water pump, two settlers and a lot of plants requires 15 defense(!). Absolutely [censored]. Defense requirements should be extremely low or non existent for a settlement like that. 1 defense per settler and 1 defense per shop is a lot more reasonable. With the current values settlements should be able to fend for themselves in an attack.

The actual attacks are my least favorite feature of settlements. On my current playthrough I was level 12 or 13 and was informed of an attack on some small farm. I fast travell and zone in to 8 Super Mutants attacking from all directions, die within 5 seconds, reload and just ignore the attack instead. Attacks will be the first thing I'll remove from my game (if possible) when the modding tools come out.