do settlers, under any circumstances, use stuff from workshops?

like, armor? weapons? ammo? food (other than what they plant themselves, like mirelurk steaks etc)?

they don't seem to use any of these in my game anyway, is that because i need to build them some specific facilities for that, or because they just don't?

(or can i get them to automatically use these kinds of stuff any other way?

if not i think that's gonna be one of my first fo4-mods once the kit is out (after cache sacks for fo4, boy does this game need them )

good question, i put all my excess food stuffs into the workshop incase they want something other than carrots. but i can't say if they actually use any of the food stuffs

They will pick up guns and ammo from dead raiders, super mutants and what not. Nick got himself a flame thrower I let him keep it. And I leave the bodies of Raiders after attacks.

I don't know about settlers, but I swear to god when I was Defending the Castle from the Brotherhood of Steel, one of their knights went into my workshop inventory and pulled out Ashmaker to use it on me. I mean, I had to loot it off of his corpse after I killed him and it was Ashmaker!

NPCs will go rummaging around in containers to collect weaponry for personal use during combat. Hostile NPCs are more likely to pilfer stuff than friendly NPCs. Remember, your weapon's container is truly yours, it's just a container with guns inside to the game.

However, as I understand it, they need at least one bullet in their inventory to fire the darn things. If I recall, the flamer uses cell ammo, so the BoS would naturally zip on over to take that because they can use it.

In fairness, if we could wait around in every firefight until the enemy ran out of bullets, or had to keep supplying all of our settlers with ammunition, everyone would just play melee.

yeah, but that's companions, not settlers. never seen a settler scrap anything. hell, i've never even seen my dedicated scrappers scrap anything, speaking of it

now you mention it, there's ONE thing i've seen settlers use:

power armors, if you leave them standing around with intact fusion cores

(which i'm cool with, hate pa and just drag them to settlements just for that)

yay, but that's just the point: i got settlements EVERYWHERE, and i give at least my guards and scrappers (moving out!) loads of weapons and fitting ammo - hence i'm constantly out of friggin' ammo

Regarding food, I don't think settlers do, because I think they really don't need anything.

I have ignored so many settlements on the way in terms of food/water, nobody died from it or ran away, I think thats just for the happiness bar, if the player cares about it.

They will store food they harvest in your workshop from what I saw, and will religiously gather around the bar at night to eat noodles together if you have a bar set up.

I've got a full set of T-51 or T-60 armor sitting in the driveway of every settler home in Sanctuary, ready to go in case of attack.

...I've also got a four-floor Minutemen HQ citadel in the middle of town, with 12 power armor bays *and* suits ready to go (but with fusion cores taken out in their case).

Not sure the Prydwen itself could take my crummy little town over at this point.

Same goes for the Castle, which has six guys patrolling the upper catwalk in full heavy combat armor and gatling lasers, as well as four heavy laser turrets guarding the courtyard, and two missile turrets covering both entrances. I've also completely rebuilt the ruined sections of wall.

The next Fallout game should just be about my character's reign of terror, and impregnable fortresses.

Settlers only need one round of ammo for the weapon you give them. They will never run out after that.

oooh, now THAT'S good to know )

next thing i go do: make a long trip around the commonwealth, take away settlers' ammo

I give them two rounds. One for the enemy, and one for themselves if they fail to kill the enemy!

You guys sure that counts for the weapons YOU provide?

Could have sworn that I read somewhere that this applies only to the gun they have equipped by default.

Had it confirmed by multiple people. Never seen it in action myself yet, because my settlements never get attacked.

I don't know about the workshop...but I returned to Sanctuary to find that one of my sets of power armour had taken a walk down to the river 'on it's own'....

Settlers will commandeer your PA suits in the event of an attack, if you don't remove the fusion core from it.

They usually get out afterward, but not 100% of the time.

Your suits can also get randomly taken if you don't take the core out.

You mix-up Settlers with Companions. The former needs only one bullet for any given weapon (minus a few exception like Fat-Man) to have unlimited ammo, while the latter only has a never ending supply of bullets for their default weapon. That's it.