I built this simply because there was space for it and I wanted to make something huge. I had no plans for it so now that it's "complete", I don't know what to do next. Suggestions?

imgur. com /a/kWR1X (remove spaces for link to work)

Bunkhouse?

Indoor Mall?

Bar?

Art Gallery?

All Of The Above?

You could make one section into sleeping quarters, barracks style. Just put up a row of beds. Another section could be a community room with a bar or a trade hub, where you can place all your merchant stalls. Nice building!

Strip mall and sleeping area with trader stations and beds.

So basically, section it off and make it a diverse multipurpose building, rather than just making it a large hotel or personal mansion (yes that selfish idea had crossed my mind )

Variety is probably better use of the space though.. maybe I'll add a 3rd floor and make that one all mine.

I have one issue though.. I'm still learning, this building was quite a lesson in itself, but I have a really hard time with interior doors. There is only one door wall, and it won't fit because it's taller than the rest of the walls. I feel like this is a glaring flaw with building, I couldn't even put an exterior door on the first floor because of this, but that seems to obvious a mistake to miss so I must be doing something wrong.

Also, does non-bed furniture like tables, chairs, couches etc., and artwork have any functional impact or are they just for the players enjoyment?

I feel like you could just put one long shack with rows of beds, rows of side by side water pumps, rows of generators etc. and the settlers wouldn't know the difference, as opposed to organizing everything in a more realistic and aesthetically pleasing way. I guess it doesn't really matter, because I get enjoyment out of "making it pretty" either way.

Am I a bad person if I want to hit that with a couple of Fat Man shells?

The Furniture and Art have a small but measurable impact to Happiness.

You get the most bang for your buck when you combine things.

For instance, if you add a Bar with Tables, Chairs, Music, etc. your Settlers will congregate there on their off hours and Happiness will go up a LOT.

Or, you could just wallpaper every available surface with cheap pictures and signs. It won't work as well, but it will keep things in the 75%-80% range more or less all the time.

That's actually great to hear, it's good to know the effort has a pay off other than just the satisfaction of looking at it. Maybe if I build a bar/lounge at every settlement, I won't feel violently ejected from immersion due to a dozen of them standing around like a cluster of dumb cows.

So I think I will make this into a relatively fancy hotel, with an art gallery, sleeping quarters, bar, shop, and maybe throw a third story on for my private penthouse. I still have the issues of doors though.. I'd prefer my hotel rooms to have doors.

About once or twice a day I get really annoyed by the settlers being in my way when I'm placing things, then I'll tell them to move away only to have 4 more walking into a wall mere feet away... Settlement sterilization goes pretty quick with the alien blaster vs barefisted settlers...mwahahahahaaaa. As for what to do with the building, maybe split it into smaller internal districts. One for farmers/merchants/barracks?

Not a bad idea.. might have to do a quicksave and try that. I actually have no idea if that does anything to the buildings.. sounds like I have some testing to do.. for science.

Omg I think you might have just inadvertently given me the solution to my starlight drive-in skeleton problem. Those goofy bones make quite a racket bouncing around inside my concrete foundation. Fat man it is.

Perfect place for roller skates

I've got some good ideas now, I'll work on it and post some pics upon completion. Thanks for the suggestions and other replies

Edit: Actually.. I still need that door issue resolved. How can I make interior doors to bedrooms, since the only door wall is taller than the rest of the walls?

I don't know what you're talking about as I have none of that going on and my happiness started at 90 and has stayed at 83 for a long time now.

This is where my settlers sleep- http://i.imgur.com/jxfE0tE.png and I don't have a single chair, shop or anything pretty in the place.

Try removing the roof part, then placing the door segment, then putting a roof/second story floor back over it. Most snap-to issues seem to be fixable with enough patience, and lots of trial and error.

In that situation my Settlements will almost never top 65%. I've only seen one top 80%, ever, and that way Sanctuary and that has a full set of all Rnk. 3/4 shops, ridiculous resources, high defence, a Dog, recreation areas with plenty of seating, and a Bar. Not to mention a indoor Mall to house all those shops. It topped out at 86%. Then fell to 82%. Sometimes it will bounce back as high as 84%, but never for long. I've long gotten used to any non "pet" settlements maxing out somewhere around 70-75% (I always like to tinker, build and decorate at least a little bit, or at the very least clean up the place a bit). I've never had Happiness start anywhere above 50%. It will often start out at 20% or lower and I will need to build considerably to get it all the way up to the low 70's.

Either one our Games is Bugged pretty good, or my settlers are all just B(%&!#)s

I forget what my food/water/defense stats are but I know my food and water are somewhere in the 20's and my defense is 100 or so. I have a junkyard dog, a brahmin, a gate guard and another guard with the other 8 settlers all farming food.

This is all at Red Rocket btw.

My happiness went down once I got my size limit to yellow, then after scrapping some stuff to bring it to green the happiness arrow is up and the rating is usually 82%.

I say Discotheque. I mean, you can produce both strobe lights and mirror balls, so, why not?