So this is a simple question: With settlement building in Fallout 4 comes the opportunity to discuss and optimize our settlements. Something that would hugely facilitate this would be a way to share the layout/blueprints of your settlement with your friends, whether directly or online, or even just on your platform. Note that this idea is about sharing a blueprint, a detailed display of how the settlement is laid out, and the parts needed for it, not creating the settlement for the player out of nothing like a player home mod or anything.

Is this something you would be interested in seeing? Do you think it would be useful to you? Personally I'm wondering how it would be implemented. Maybe give each construction element a name/class (they'll already come with names) and just take a more or less birds eye screenshot/cross section, with different shading to indicate elevation?

What do you all think?

I think that's a brilliant idea, would actually be very useful.

It would be cool if the blueprints were actually available as in-game items that could be copied, a bit like the schematics in FO3.

Not remotely.

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My initial, gut reaction to seeing this? People really want to find some way, no matter how small, to jam "online" or "multiplayer" into games, don't they?

In game blueprints for prebuilt building might not be bad but I don't like the idea of sharable blueprints. One of the great things about Bethesda's games is that they keep their games single player so that everyones game has a sense of individuality and allows the player to keep their own experience their own. If I can build a settlement and then share with a friend who will then just be playing with my blueprints then he misses out on having to plan out a settlement of his own.

In previous games, some people used the equivalent of 'blueprints' for character builds. I see what you're saying about individuality, but there are still those who like to seek inspiration from others. A blueprint for a base or settlement could be seen by many as a starting point.

This is a fair point, though as gkk pointed out, we've had the precedent set long ago with character builds. Settlements might be...a different order of magnitude, though. I would personally be disappointed if such a system resulted in "cookie cutter" settlements, with everyone using the same "best" layout. But at the same time, I'm never going to be able to think of everything that can be done with a settlement; other people will think of things that I haven't, and I may think of things that they haven't. I think a lot of fun can come out of sharing those ideas (and facilitating sharing them).

I don't see a feature like this being necessary, as there will more than likely be an entire sub forum for sharing Settlement strats and tips, and cool pictures of your stuff. I'm personally satisfied with that.

Even if this doesn't end up as an official feature, it would be useful to have a mod that allows us to 'capture' an overhead shot of the layout. Perhaps one level at a time.

Yeah, I'd definitely say that's a mod I would use.

Given that it looks like everything is snap to grid I don't see mutch Need for it just use screenshots/videos.

A mod would allow us to see the full layout of completed structures without having to remove the roof or the top level.

I thought it looked a lot freer than snap to grid. In the presentation it looked like as long as things didn't overlap, you could put them anywhere. Though if it were more modular/snap-to-grid style, that would make a shareable system easier, I'd think.

I would use it if it's around. If not, I don't mind.

Would be useful to have an existing blueprint for other playthroughs, as well as sharing them with friends.

Unfortunately I expect such a feature single client only (without steams workshop/sharing method).

Reasons:

Due the nature of Fallout being modable it's unlikely they will add such a feature.

Way to many variables to make sure this will always work.

But quite possible that you can upload your complete settlement as some sort of mod.

This would require that the files used in this settlement are open-source and free to use of course (models/textures/scripts).

But having a settlement as blueprint, for reuse in a later game could be possible. Due the fact the needed ressources are or should already be there (if not vanilla).

I actually never thought of sharing the blueprints between saves. That's a great idea, so I can use my own settlement layout for any of my characters.

Excellent idea!

I would love to at least save my own designs for other playthroughs. Will be quite interested to see what other people create as well! Also think "face sharing" for characters might be a good idea.

i actually had the impression you'd be able to upload your settlement as a mod.

at least i think i remember a "workshop" button in the presentation video's settlement building parts

Hmm...somehow I don't think this means Steams Workshop. Would be something completely new if you could access steam without the steam interface pausing your actual game.

And ofcourse having the ability to browse and install mods on the fly (streaming technology \m/)

But as far as I know we don't have that, because Steam doesn't has it.

Means you still need to close your game to install the settlement. Because: The settlement may uses different textures or something like that.

A native mod (vanilla ressources) could possibly be loaded on the fly, but I haven't had a look into it, due the lack of need .

No, because the second something in a game is capable of being "crowd farmed", the company usually takes actions to make the item harder to find by a single player - and I'd like to keep Fallout a single player game (local co-op is ok).

No, I think it would be more trouble to implement than it's worth.

Good point. We also need originality.

well uploading them doesn't necessarily mean install.

and uploading "on the fly" like that is pretty much what creation kit does, so it shouldn't be much of a problem to do it from out of the game (you'd likely be stuck in a menu while it uploads though)

for if steam has that, there's that option "enable steam ingame overlay for games which support it" option in steam's settings. so i'd figure it well has.

for installing mods on the fly: in skyrim update 1.whatever, a "hot-plugging" option has been added so you basically can kick a new mod into a running game.

in it's current (skyrim) version though, this needs to be enabled via console first (and also a couple other console commands are required to operate it),

and it works so-so, which is not because the actual hot plugging wouldn't work (it actually does very well), but because it's meant to plugin a mod from a simultaneously running ck so it involves some alt-tabbing, that's where problems start... (wouldn't be required with a hypothetical ingame workshop menu anyway though)

actually, i think there will even NEED to be some kind of hot plugging option like that, since mods will be available on consoles, and consoles, from all i get, pretty much ALWAYS are ingame

good point, about how'd it work if somebody uses modded content for their settlement. maybe it will automatically install that original mod for users who download your settlement then, anything else would lead straight into a copyright abyss...

If they wanted to give people this option I wouldn't be against it. Would I use it? Absolutely not, but I'm sure there are people who would be interested in this.

The poll is a little awkward, a more appropriate option would be "It doesn't matter to me either way" instead of "If it was there, I'd use it, but it doesn't matter".

Anyway, nitpick over.

It's a double edged sword. On one hand, people love validation for their creations, and a community sharing system could drive people to make some truly amazing things. Replicas of real life buildings, replicas of popular landmarks in fiction, the sky is the limit. For reference, the Forza series utilizes this system and some http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/11/13/12-incredible-custom-forza-4-designs-you-must-see designs have been the result of it.

But I also think something like this has the potential to diminish creativity in the average person. I'm one of those people, and I found that in the Forza games I would consistently download themes for every one of my cars and never make something myself. Also, without sharing, every persons game will be unique. I assume that with blueprint sharing the top creations will get downloaded many times. Meh.

At the end of the day, I'm against it. Let the people create! Wasteland Renaissance!

This is another extremely good point that I hadn't considered. Assuming the system would just import the settlement into your world, you'd be able to deconstruct anything you'd like for materials, thus causing balancing issues.