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[New Player Thoughts] While originally very excited about the automated settlements, I'm becoming more and more inclined to give up on this mod.

C

CptZhu

Member
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38
All I wanted was a lore friendly and not over complicated mod that makes the settlements better, automated, and feel alive. Being a benefactor and helping them see grow.
All these HQ and overcomplicated systems are just driving my brain crazy. I've read the entire guide but you'd almost have to study before you play this mod.
I also dislike how unfriendly this mod is to survival players. I have to go to deep territory far away from the first settlements to talk to Jake and complete a ton of quests before I can even get to the automatization part - City plans. It all feels like just a drag. I also really don't get why the caravan plot things replaced the original supply lines.

I think the mod's idea was good but deviated too much to overcomplicate things, you have to install so many addons and do other things, tweak settings yourself etc. it's just not fun anymore, I'm here to enjoy a better settlement system and enjoy the game, not to break my head. /rant
 
Just to point out one little detail; if you aren't up to the quest yet that "officially" tells you about City Plans, you haven't even seen "HQ" yet. And it's another whole order of magnitude more complex (and even less explained) than the 'standard' settlement functionality.
 
yaugie said:
Just to point out one little detail; if you aren't up to the quest yet that "officially" tells you about City Plans, you haven't even seen "HQ" yet. And it's another whole order of magnitude more complex (and even less explained) than the 'standard' settlement functionality.
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I just don't understand, no one (or very few) people wanted this. We all just want the vanilla FO4 base experience (a few extra quests are OK I guess) but with better settlement mechanics. Automated. Alive. Nothing else nothing more!
 
CptZhu said:
I just don't understand, no one (or very few) people wanted this. We all just want the vanilla FO4 base experience (a few extra quests are OK I guess) but with better settlement mechanics. Automated. Alive. Nothing else nothing more!
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Sirick said:
Sim Settlements 1 may be more to your liking. Or, there are cheat options to unlock everything via the SS2 holotape, and you can simply ignore the story.
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I would agree with @Sirick that SS1 is probably closer to what you are looking for. If SS1 had Sim City as the model, SS2 is more like Civilization. I would also encourage you if you want to stick with SS2 to watch Kinggath's "Easy Mode" Youtube series where you can see this and how you configure it to play in a more automated fashion and how that works.
SS2's difficulty is based on game difficulty by default. You mention in another thread that you are a survival player, so by default it is going to put you on the most hard-core settings unless you choose "Automated" in the City Planner 2078 holotape settings wizard. If you don't want to do a bunch of manual tweaking of settings, you should open that holo tape again and select the "Automated" option as that is the easiest.
 
CptZhu said:
I just don't understand, no one (or very few) people wanted this. We all just want the vanilla FO4 base experience (a few extra quests are OK I guess) but with better settlement mechanics. Automated. Alive. Nothing else nothing more!
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I'm half in agreement.

Personally? I love the extra storyline. It makes it so your character has a more personal impact on the wasteland while building their settlements, for reasons I shall not completely explain, but there's actual consequences and impact while you try do to the right thing, which is COMPLETELY in character for a universe like Fallout. I love the characters, they all feel like real people and everything about the story is great.

But I full heartedly agree that it's way too complex. The main settlement system was a bit confusing, but at least for the most part, you can kinda wobble your way through it by learning and feeling out how things work - though I would appreciate a bit more autonomy for the groups. But I can understand there's some restrictions with how much the Fallout engine can handle.

The HQ however.. it's - really just way too complex. Before, you just had to manage the settlement system, but once you reach the HQ you now have to micromanage two different areas of controls which have impacts on how the other runs if you screw it up. I'm really hoping there'll be an option to put the people in charge and let them develop things. Because - well, with everything that'll be going on in Chapter 3, I don't think I'll be able to handle the stress with having to micro-manage every settlement, plus the HQ and everything else we'll be dealing with during the storyline.

As the staff above said though, best bet would be to maybe try out Sim Settlement 1. It already has a lot of the DLC done, which is a plus, and might not be as painful for a Survival player such as yourself.
 
Hello Friends!
I agree that mod is demanding but it's good. As older player (hello my near 42yo) i have found Bethesda games, especially Fallout 4 became my second life :) .
I only hope that Kinggath will move his mod or maybe create something new for incoming Starfield which im awaiting.

SS2 and it's Chapter 2 are top of the top, my favourite mods, all it's shortcomings like missing settlement hud in Starlight Inn, or others are nothing when compared to the joy of playing the whole mod on most hardcore level.

Im also playing as survivalist, but im using Joe's Needs76 mod, i can recommend it to You as it is much more to Your likings than base survival mode in game.
To start this mod choose any level but not survival in base game (im playing on normal, but its very hard with this mod and Better Locational Damage mod too).
Here is a link : https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/58440
Here a link for BLD: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3815
And using these two mods You will have incredible levels of fun in Fallout 4. You can tailor them to Your likings as You wish.
 
I went back to SS1 myself for a short time, because back in the early days of Chapter 1, it just wasn't working. Too many here suggested playing Fallout 4 without any mods but SS2 and... yeah, that wasn't happening. But SS1 was too simple and empty, and seeing posts in here teasing what I hadn't seen in SS2, I decided to scrap that playthrough and try it again. A few updates definitely helped.

While I don't view this mod with royal colored glasses as some around here do, the story is really good and the people have a lot of character. But sadly, I still have to do a lot of cheating to get the darn thing to work well. The people here are pretty helpful when things don't work as advertised, and sometimes that's down to user error of some kind, because this is a complex mod. And yes, reading the help guides ahead of time is almost essential, especially for HQ. I would also highly recommend reading this thread before starting an SS2 playthrough. It saved me a migraine or two.
 
With this new playthrough I'm actually using Tranfer Settlements as a test(a simple alternative). I 'acquire' a Settlement(don't use Transfer Settlements to do this, use WSFW instaed- though I've been getting ownership the regular way). Here's what I've been trying:

Step #1: Use Raze My Settlement to remove all the junk in the settlement.
Step #2: (optional) Use Transfer Settlements to Nuke the entire settlement- this will remove what's is left over from Step#1. I don't normally use just this since it literally removes almost everything. Even some strutures I want to keep where Raze doesn't.
Step #3: Build the settlement as you like, or use one of the already build settlements('blueprints'). I've been building mine and adding to the 'blueprint' as I play as something new to do- working on refining. If you build it, be sure to export it, again using Transfer Settlements.
Step #4: Use Transfer Settlements to load(import) and apply either the one your building or another of your choice. Note, there will still need to be some minor adjustments(as in items to manually scrap in Workshop mode if not handled by Raze and TS and replaced when the 'blueprint' is imported if importing vanilla items).

So, as with this new playthough test- I started building most settlements by hand(nothing special or complicated) during the last test, which as soon as I gain ownership I'll immediately import the settlement I've been working on previously and 'to date'. You can do it in stages with different 'blueprints' but I'm just setting the settlement full up. Now, using WSFW, as settlers appear they're assigned to beds, food production or guard duty. This way I can come back later and 'fill in the gaps' assigning wise and let the settlement take care of itself(mostly).
 
It works out really well as I can keep tweaking and adding to the settlement with each playthrough. I could Raze and or Nuke it then come back later on for a change of pace and add a few structures here and there. With WSFW locking settlers to beds, the only time it should go 'over the limit' is if I manually send settlers there. I've included IDEK as one of the 'blueprint' dependencies- this way when settlers arrive I can assign one of them to the IDEK desk and all caravan connections and resource sharing is handled automatically between other settlements with an assigned IDEK desk. IDEK has other suppy options I haven't used yet.

For me it kinda feels like walking into an abandoned town where settlers are welcome, then just assigning where WSFW doesn't.

The next thing I want to do is start creating some xEdit patches to add the additional settlement happiness keyword for things like toilets and showers(from CWSS redux which is in the 'blueprint'). This, to me, would make sense. I could even, theoretically(though this will be a modding first for me so I'm not sure if it will work) add the keyword to outhouse structures for the base vanilla game.
 
I absolutely still have my own complaints about it all don't get me wrong, but it's an undeniable fact that there's no point me even putting them into words so I try to stick to just being sarcastically helpful to other people while I slowly fade my presence here out of existence.
 
Do not despair brothers, we shall drink mead forever in the great halls. Or in case of a space game, I guess enjoy death sticks in Omega's Afterlife?
Anyway, yeah, there are tons of things that could be explained better. No one is denying that. You just gotta have some goddamn faith stick with it. I guess it's more of a playground or sandbox (along with a great story) than doing bare minimum to help a beautiful empire grow. Though for that, yes, there are city plans, and you can use them immediately. (Also is Sunshine Tidings or Charles View Theater deep territory?) Might want to complete the first 2 quests but after that, no restrictions. And HQ is, well, HQ.
 
CptZhu said:
I just don't understand, no one (or very few) people wanted this. We all just want the vanilla FO4 base experience (a few extra quests are OK I guess) but with better settlement mechanics. Automated. Alive. Nothing else nothing more!
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I'm amazed that you actually asked all the users of this mod what they wanted. And even more amazed that they all agreed completely with you.

Just use the cheats in the holotape to get everything, and skip the storyline if that is what you want to do.

Me, I'm waiting patiently at the end of Chapter 2 for Chapter 3 to be released. But no one asked me. :D
 
Y
slink_v_0000 said:
I'm amazed that you actually asked all the users of this mod what they wanted. And even more amazed that they all agreed completely with you.

Just use the cheats in the holotape to get everything, and skip the storyline if that is what you want to do.

Me, I'm waiting patiently at the end of Chapter 2 for Chapter 3 to be released. But no one asked me. :D
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Yeah sorry I should not have phrased it that way. I trust it is an amazing mod with an amazing community but I just had a ton of confusion starting with the mod, some things are not well explained. For a long time I even thought the red residential color of the houses was because the plot was bad or something, turned out the color is just red lol. I guess I wish the overall experience was less painful to learn if that makes any sense.
 
ElanaLoaded said:
And how do you do this? A universal command that all owned settlements use a city plan is where?
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Even if one existed, that would probably produce unbelievable script lag. So probably best if there's no such command :)
(Though you could tgm a planner's desk in every settlement and start city plans, or use HQ to start them remotely one at a time, but it wouldn't be a perfect solution either way, as city plans often lack the specific thing you want)
 
There actually was a function in SS1 Conqueror that had it "pre-build" city plans at the settlements of your choice from the start of the game before you even get to them.
It activated when you started a new game (as soon as you gain control after the Bathroom Mirror, iirc) at which point it'd bring up the menus to choose which settlements got 'prebuilt' and with which City Plan, and even which faction that settlement belonged to which was relevant for the Conqueror mechanics, and then it'd just have a progress bar running while you went through the Prewar and Vault 111 sequences. On my old PC (I haven't played Conqueror again since upgrading) it took long enough that even when not rushing it wouldn't be finished before getting to the elevator back out of 111 into the actual game world and I'd still have to sit there and wait for a while to make sure it was ready.
It was actually really cool in a "semi-randomises the game world" kind of way; with a couple city plans installed, you'd never know what each settlement would actually look like in terms of appearance or functionality until you got there. You could even use it in a save where you weren't doing any more with settlement building itself than necessary, just treat them like little villages you travel through. But yeah, incredibly system-intensive and prone to failure in numerous ways.

I can't say with 100% certainty, but I would not be surprised if that functionality returns in "3.0" of SS2.
 
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