I prefer spectacle island.

It's isolated, it's huge, it has a great view of the coastline, you can really roleplay on it.


Bad thing is people still get kidnapped on it, I think the raiders must have navy.

Taffington Boathouse has been my most built up as personal fortress so far. I've yet to decide which workshop I want to make a full blown settlement yet.

I like different spots for different things. Some, like the lighthouse, the boathouse and Hangman's Alley, I use as personal bases and never put settlers there. The Lighthouse is cool, but not in a great location. Hangman's Alley isn't anything to look at, but is well situated.

As far as actual settlements, my favorites would be Sanctuary, Sunshine Tidings and the Drive-In. Those are the only three locations I actually create 'towns' in. Any place that already had people it it usually gets some defensive upgrades and maybe a water pump or something, but otherwise remains unchanged.

Believe it or not, on my third play-through and at least six hundred hours of play, I've never actually visited Spectacle Island (or Salem).

The castle is the only place I actually keep people. Otherwise, I built a fortress at the lighthouse (sky ship) and a small home on the highway at finch farm

I finally got Egret Tours Marina for the first time. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but I like that place.

I turned the drive-in into a fort. You can deirradiate the crater in the center by removing the barrels, I built a box around it set a purifier and bingo.

Edit sorry double post

I haven't been able to put a lot into any of the settlements even though I've retired 5 characters now and have 400+ hours.

I guess Sanctuary get's the most attention. I really like building up The Castle, but I run out of crafting space on that one real quick and can't really build much (yeah I know there's a cheat to get past that but I don't use it).

So many settlements I haven't really bothered with as there is just so much other stuff to do and managing settlements can become a full time job.

Out of my 24 settlement sites (I was too late to get the Airport, and I have been avoiding Covenant), I like Spectacle Island the most. Annoying to get to in the first place, but once you can fast travel to and from there I find it is an ideal settlement site. Large enough to support a HUGE population -- I built 4 Large Shacks for starters and could easily fit another 10 if need be -- it has LOTS of arable soil to grow crops. Setting up the Defenses cost a LOT of raw materials, but by the time I got there my Supply had more than enough raw materials to allow for LOTS of Building. Then there's the fact that you already have a BIG power generator, so if you have the copper and ceramics for power pylons, you can easily electrify the entire island, despite the fact the island is HUGE compared to other sites.

I'm actually always gravitating towards Starlight Drive In. It usually ends up being my main base. I feel it's fairly central and has two traders close by (at the diner).

I did build a huge fortress on Spectacle Island during my first play-through, but it was bugged the 2nd time around, so I had to use console commands to be able to use the workbench. I just harvested the resources the 2nd time around and left it barren.

During my current play-through, I'm working a bit on all the settlements that I have "liberated" so far, but Starlight is again, my HQ.

I like the Marina - it's got three buildings (mostly covered), then the dock with the diner (gas station fueling pump in back for boats). Only down side is the Radstags that keep tromping through the place.

Taffington Boat House would be a nice cozy home except for that blasted roof, and the 'wasted' space on the main road in front of it. I built out over the water, so that wasn't wasted space, but I could not bring myself to block the road off.

The Drive-In is probably my most-developed settlement since I can sink water purifiers in that puddle, wall around it and then I have a HUGE flat open space to build in, and a neat little diner (that I wish I could clean up properly).

Hangman's Alley is fun just for the challenge of making use of such a confined space.

I was able to patch up Cabot Manor pretty well, and it's not a ~bad~ place. The existing structures do kind of limit what you can do with it, though.

Sunshine Trading Post (or whatever it's called, with the drugged-out Mister Handy) has that one central barn and then a series of mostly intact houses around it that just need a few beds slapped in them and you're done.

Aren't really too many settlements that I plainly don't care for. I never really cared for Spectacle Island.... felt way too isolated and hilly and the existing house is super run-down. Ten Pines Bluff, I think it is called? has that annoying ridge and is on a cliffside and has that one, tiny, immovable shack and the ruins of another building and just felt like I couldn't do much with it. Warrick Farmstead, too, seemed to be pretty much "done" when I arrived...

I was bummed out after I visited here for the first time. Looked like a great spot on the map, kind of like a peninsula that you could wall off and have a single choke point. But it was just...bland.

Hangman's Alley and Outpost Zimonja are some neat spots for a small settlement or personal hangout. During one of my games, I used a beacon at the alley and just moved the settlers that appeared there to my other, outlying settlements.

You mean Croup Manor? I usually just harvest all of the resources and then never visit that place again. If I want a place near the sea, I rather go for the Lighthouse location.

I do like Sunshine Trading Coop, because it feels like such a vacation spot. I always empty the large building across from the workshop and make that the community hall, with a bar and tables and merchants.

Also, now that I know how to easily fix the roof on existing buildings, I don't mind to settle Taffington or Sanctuary (thanks to youtube).

I build one wall on top of a door mat. Then I add the roof. I gauge where I want to place that single wall in the house and then estimate the roof tiles. Add the roof, for the Sanctuary houses, it usually comes out to a 5x3 grid. 3 for the width and 5 for the length. Hold down your use button (E on PC) until the whole structure is selected (make sure you build in an open area, where nothing else is around). Then move the whole thing into the house. Fiddle around with it until it fits and let go. You can remove the mat and the wall if you like. Sometimes, the mat will be inside the floor though. You can retrieve it on PC with the TCL console command.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF-tUy8I29M. However, I simplify it, but not using flooring and I'm using the flat metal roof. There is absolutely no need to use floor boards... One wall, one mat and however many roof tiles you need, that's all.

The one thing that drove me nuts is to see rain coming in through the roofs, especially at Taffington and not be able to properly fix it. I haven't discovered that location in my current play-through, but I can't wait to try that roof fixing trick out on that house.

Also, when you are dealing with ridges and existing structures, use the floor boards with the stilts (forgot the name of it). You can create an even foundation, without wasting concrete. If you have enough concrete, then use those as the foundation.

Starlight Drive-In. I like turning It into My Capitol, and will often make it rival Diamond City.

Sunshine Trading Co-Op. I like the Settlement for getting a Medium Settlement to 100 Happiness without spamming Bars, and have the Market indoors.

Greentop Nursery and County Crossing. I like making the Settlements into smaller Towns, even if I do avoid County Crossing (and Finch Farm) until My character is Level 28.

I have been able to (mostly) force the Railroad into using Zimonja as Mercer Safehouse, by picking when a character joins the Railroad.

How do you force them to use that, if it's a totally random spot? I got the Lighthouse as my first one and the 2nd was Jamaica Plains. I wouldn't mind using Zimonja as the Mercer Safehouse. At what level do you join? I just got the "walk the freedom trail" quest and my current character is lvl 21.

Spectacle Island for me. I turned a island that was infested with mirelurks into a growing resort, where settlers wear clean clothes and can lounge around on the beach or just relax on the many piers I've built.

Even though I've already stated my favorite in my own thread, I my as well confess my love for Starlight, again. Best settlement ever.

For making an actual settlement, I still like good old Sanctuary Hills. I like that complete isolation it has being located on the far corners of the map and being separated by a river with only one way of getting in being the bridge, which is heavily fortified (though not like any of that matters since enemies spawn inside the settlement anyway apparently). Still, aesthetically, it's practically my own personal Fortification Hill.


However, settlement that's good for my own personal home? I like Starlight Drive-In. There is a lot a potential to build out of the structures already there. Though I personally like making a home within the movie screen itself. Makes for a good obscure hideout that you wouldn't expect. I like that.

its not totally random, there is a list it follows, basically it checks down the list untill it hits the first un owned settlement

you can get it to choose the one you want by owning all the settlements up to the one you want

doesnt matter what level you are, just what settlements you already own

it checks lvl1 then lvl3 then lvl5 then lvl7 settlements(going by the highest level turrets you can build) un till it finds an un owned one

im not sure what order it follows inside the level brackets

i always get it at taffington

usually by then i own

lvl1: sanc, red rocket, abernathy, tenpinnes, drive in, sunshine, grey garden (cant remember if greygarden 1 or 3?)

lvl3: zimonja, hangmans, oberlnand

so next one on the list is taffingtons

I noticed the pattern, and began to exploit the Game. My current character will get (has) Taffington as a "Clear the Way" Settlement.

Sanctuary.

I'm rather uncreative, though. I just slap some beds, food etc. down and move on.

Spectacle Island is my favorite so far, but its not so easy to build on it because of the lack of flat area, so I repair the hotel and create hardware bays and docks that serve as my military/exploration hub.

Next is Starlight which is the flattest settlement and is great for building large horizontal base structures. I've created large buildings there that reach 7 floors. I primarily use the Institute structure parts (pc mod) to build with so I've made some really cool clean complexes.

Every other is just MEH for me, I give them basics and thats it.

I wish they did a better job with the building mode. Either everything doesnt fit/snap right together, the building objects are to large and clunky or they dont have enough of te right type of things to build. My favorite settlement tends to be Sanctuary and then Castle because I've built them up the most. Drive in is ok for my revruitment center but in general I am not too fond of it. It's too exposed and would require too much resources to turn into a fortress. I would have loved Covenant if you could remove the pre-placed beds and the store counters.... I dont understand why they have to F sh up like that.... do they do this on purpose and think we'll be happy about it? I dont get it. I wanted to like Croup Manor but it just seems way too out of the way and the settlers always glitch into the ocean over the cliff and just stand their like r-tards...

There's so much potential to be had if they would actually fix the build mode up a bit. Intersecting objects would be nice instead of them turning red every damn time you get within2 feet of another object... Seriously... just let the objects ghost through eachother... why cant we? I wish there was an Dev doveted here to answering questions because some things in this game make zero sense.

Dislike:

• Murkwater: Very little you can do with it, and if you build over the marsh,
  
  Mirelurk Queens spawn inside your enclosed settlement... https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87106516/mirelurk.png

Most settlements are good/fine.

I really like:

• As others have done, I'm building a flying base at the Lighthouse: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87106516/cloudbase.png


• I'm enjoying fitting out the Castle since I learned how to fix the walls: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87106516/castlewalls.png


• I'm enjoying building a boat at the Marina: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87106516/boat.png


• Inevitably, Sanctuary is a good, but large base.


• Starlight Drive-In has much to recommend it, large and flexible.


• Yes, Covenant has its issues but it's still a great settlement, with some irritations.


• Finch Farm's flyover is a work in progress... https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87106516/finchtower.png *

* Actually, Finch Farm's build hight is excellent, 11 stories... https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87106516/towerfinch.png

Not much can be done about the roof unless you want to remove the aesthetics and make a flat roof on top of the house, which looks horrible. I know what you mean about the road. I built one row of buildings on the other side of the road and connected it to this side of the road on the first floor, leaving the road level clear for traders to walk through. I've never seen anyone walk through before, though. The traders walk in from the north and stop at the caravan post - I suppose if I waited long enough I may be able to see them continue on south, but never checked.