It is very hard to manage settlements when I do not know which settlers are working and which are not. Yes, I can give them armor but that is not the point. This seems like a major oversight. There also should be a list of what settlers are doing which job. Finally crops should automatically be picked and put into the workbench. It is going to be very hard to keep track of all my settlers. This all seems like common sense stuff that for some reason was not put in the game.

I HAVE THE ANSWER MY FRIEND .......ok its not like a really good one but it kinda works lol. Anytime you strip nice clothes off a kill (dresses, suits, hats, etc.) you then go back to your village and make the settlers equip it and boom. Whenever you come home and somebody is dressed like bum you know you got new folks and even who they are .

Thanks for the advice but I mentioned in my OP that that is not the point.

I would also like a list to better manage people. I would even be happy if when you hovered over a settler it told you what job they were doing?

A patch could have the idle settlers follow you around the settlement until you place them. Some people would get annoyed, but really, someone could have fun with it.

The whole settlement building aspect of the game is pretty bad, tbh. The item placing is frustrating. The lack of management options for the settlers is just a blatant oversight. The deleting of all the junk takes forever, and is frustratingly inconsistent. Most of the stuff you can build looks like garbage, for no reason. Foliage clips through everything.

I haven't been more disappointed in a feature since dragon riding in Skyrim.

I have adapted to the disfunction that is the settlement management. I have one settlement that is my recruitment settlement.This settlement has 4 static members, 2 security guards, 1 permanent farmer, and 1 Provider traveling to the nearest settlement in my network. I make sure that I have an abundance of food to farm. "Why?" you ask, settlers tend to farm by default (sometimes defense if farm is full) so I grab these farmers dress them up in a uniform for the job I need them to do at another settlement and send them. Now when they arrive at the new settlement I see them in their "job uniform" I assign them. I also rename a Pipe pistol reminding me they are a new arrival incase of cloning. I do this so I'm not picking through dozens of new arrivals over multiple settlements, controlled immigration into the New Commonwealth Republic.

Yup, it would be easier for Bethesda to have actually play tested this and create a better settler manager. I'm just working with what exists now.

It is not ideal but if you enter workshop mode and place your cursor on each settler it highlights any roles which that person is assigned to. A list would be more practical however.

Yeah, settler management is really half-assed. Highlighting a settler also highlights whatever he is assigned to. With the bell that summons everyone to it, you can deal with it, but not comfortably.

But i'm sure some wonderful modders make a proper management interface before long

Yeah, the settlement system is remarkably functional for a first version in any of their games, but it is lacking in some much need User Interface and information management applications.

The sad part is, the mods for this part of the game will be amazing, so Bethesda is probably not going to be very motivated to enhance it in vanilla.

Really? I did not notice that...

I agree.

They are. When food > settlers, everything that is extra (i.e. not eaten by settlers) is put into the workshop. Not the main one mind you, only in the local workshop. Don't harvest manually else you'll starve them, morale will start to drop and you"ll be losing settlers. Your provisioners only carry the Junk type of items among the networked settlements, they don't care if a settlement is starving or not, so you'll have to regularly make the rounds yourself if youo want to gather all the extra food items in one location.

It makes sense when explained, but it's not explained well in-game. But i'd prefer it if provisioners carried Aid items between settlements as well.

It is indeed useful but only if the crop, machine or defense position is visible from where you and the settler stand, and you know where to look. Still quite useless in my book.

In an ideal world, it would be a craftable terminal giving you access to a settler management application...

I can dream, can't I?

I really do think that Bethesda will add a feature like this to the game, I can see a lot more content coming for the settlement side of the game, perhaps a full DLC dedicated to it.

Really needs an ingame visual to manage them.

At the minute I'm using an old fashioned method. Note pad and pen. Each settlement listed, with each settler, either by name or by appearence and what they are doing.

Example:

Settlement: Sanctuary.

Preston - Bridge Guard post.

Ghoul woman with brimmed hat - Farming

Bald man with spiked armour - scauaging

etc

It's not ideal and considering how many settlements and settlers I have, it's a lot of paper too, but it's the best I can deal with currently.

It would at least work if their names changed to their job, like it does for Provisioners. So, Farmers for anyone assigned to crops, Guards/Minutemen for anyone assigned to guard posts, Doctor/Trader/Arms Dealer etc for merchants.

Try this http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/2017/?.

That looks good, but I think right now I'd sooner just use the SetFullActorName command whenever I'm assigning settlers. If it does get an update when the CK comes out I'll check it out - I'm glad they at least updated it from using Snip, that tool is a disaster.

Yeah I'm greatly tempted to try that. But I'd like to avoid save game corruption. For now, I think I'll stick with vanilla until the GECK/CK comes out

How do you use that to change an individual actor's name Box Maan?

It appears, then, my game is completely hosed, because my settlers do not put any food into the workshop, or water for that matter.

I've 13 settlers in Sanctuary, and 94 food. Plenty should be left over, but instead, I have to manually pick plants. I pull half from each crop bed. I have no clue how to draw water, as neither purified or dirty water is placed. I don't have any supply lines.

The worst part was coming to Sanctuary after a few days of exploring to see my rating was 60. It never dropped that low before, and I have zero clue as to why. It wasn't raided while I was gone, and I even picked up 2 more settlers (to bring it to 13).

There simply is no excuse for this lack of management for the settlements. If our rating is dropping, we should know why so we can correct it. We should be able to rename settlers, or have some type of tracking system.

I find it incredible Todd gave a huge speech about crafting settlements but failed to mention his entire developer staff didn't even have an issue with the way this system was designed.

It's mind boggling. I don't want to walk away from settlement building, but even with all the tips and tricks, it's still too damn difficult to know what settlers are doing.

Irony: I can build a terminal to control a bunch of lights, but can't write one line of code to manage my settlers. >:[

I turned the Castle into a multi story fortress soon to have a "not an enclave hideout" sign pointed at the bay....

That's aside the point....I'd like a spot you can make to collect unassigned settlers, and also the ability to physically pick them up and move them like objects...because the tend to get stuck or not go to the intended area.

a better management system in general for settlements would be nice, Not sure if they do already, but supply lines are basically pointless unless you are going to build in another area. If not then theres not point. Now if food and water are also shared then that makes sense.otherwise pointless.

That could work, the brotherhood did Aqua Pura through the capital wasteland.