I've been trying to build up Taffington into a trading post, but I set up the Beacon and power it up and NO-ONE responds. Ever.

I've been having the same problem with Tenpines Bluff, and I had to move a fourth Settler there to establish a Supply Line back to Taffington. I thought the recruitment problems at Tenpines were related to low Happiness and having failed that Settlement Quest earlier, but it's now affecting more of my Settlements.

I don't know what to think tbh.

I'm glad it's not just me having this problem.

I set up Greentop Nursery (or whatever the name is) and assigned two settlers to supply lines; then there was an attack where the remaining settlers were killed. Now the settlement has 0 food production because both living settlers are off carrying supplies, and can't be reassigned to farming; while no new settlers are appearing. It's been several game weeks, and NO new settlers have come to the beacon.

It seems there is a max number of settlers that will come to each settlement- but I don't know how to tell what that number is.

It also seems to reveal a really depressing view of the world, since raiders, super mutants, and other enemies spawn endlessly, but settlers have a finite number. As if there are only a few people in the world who are willing to work for a living, and all the rest are just going to steal from them. How very, very cynical of Bethesda, if they did in fact set up the game this way.

Well, I have 4 people at Taffington, 3 at Tenpines, 2 at Greentop, 7(?) at The Slog, 4 at Finch Farm and 2 at County Crossing. These are all in the North-East and most of them don't get Settlers anymore (I haven't tried all of them).

Weird. It makes no sense at all.

May sound like a stupid question, but did you turn the beacon on? Cause I know they have an on and off button.

Settlers spawn like crazy (for me) at Sanctuary, Sunshine Tidings and Starlight Drive-In.

Use these spots as "recruitment centres", sending folks manually to the settlements you want to build up.

I would suggest you turn off all the beacons in the area bar 1. It may be a slight conflict with beacons. I had the same problem with Red Rocket and the Drive-In, turned the RR beacon off and i suddenly had a fair number show up at the drive-in.

I now only have a few beacons operating around the commonwealth which seems to be working well, using these points to feed the other settlements.

Once I have the amount of settlers I want at a settlement I store the beacon and generator, then I move onto the next settlement. I've never had settlement issues regarding not enough settlers using this method.

I only ever have a Beacon out, placed and powered on when I need to recruit. I store them otherwise.

This is not a user error issue.

There used to be a bug before the first patch, that if you disconnected a beacon to move it, then reconnected it, it wouldn't actually work, even though it looked like it was. That supposedly has been fixed. That said, I still have strange issues with beacons. Some settlements populate like horny rabbits, faster than I can create enough beds. Others work for awhile, then just seem to go dormant. And trying to find all the settlers at a given settlement can be erratic, sometimes they are there, other times they are no where to be found, even accounting for the ones that are on supply routes.