Regarding "SS2 mechanics" without "SS2 storyline"
Kinggath has said that a mechanics-only release is not in the cards,
yet. It's not feasible right now because he would have to maintain two separate codebases and that's a non-starter. That said, he has considered the possibility of releasing a mechanics-only version of the mod
once other development on SS2 is complete. And that's still potentially a few years away since they have various ideas kicking around and in progress.
To Chef's point, however, you
can play with the SS2 mechanics and ignore the story, but you'll likely need to keep a few things in mind:
- Plotzing about Plots
- You can use the Cheats section of the City Manager 2078 holotape to unlock all plots/plans/etc. I think you can do it through MCM as well. You'll have access to whatever you want to build.
- Silent Treatment
- Once you've done that, you can just ignore the SS2 storyline. The Stranger will still spawn in the first settlement in which you build a beacon, but if you don't engage with him you should be fine.
- Granted, he's your first source of ASAMs, so it may be tricky to get them at first, but there are ways
- I think the "unlock everything" described above will also unlock the recipe to craft ASAMs (and boxes thereof) at the City Planners Desk.
- They usually show up in the inventories of merchants around the Commonwealth (Carla, Trudy, Myrna, Daisy, Deb, etc.)
- The boxes of them in Concord Hardware will probably still be there
- If nothing else: console commands
- You could make it easier to avoid The Stranger by building your first beacon in a settlement you never plan on using. I think he'll just hang out there as a result.
- You could, arguably, completely avoid The Stranger by never building a recruitment beacon; that would be somewhat counterproductive as it would be difficult to get people to populate settlements, but there are still ways:
- Send companions there
- Build automatrons
- Specific recruitable NPCs
- Give Sheffield a Nuka-Cola
- Find the Vault-Tec Rep
- I'd suggest the other recruitable merchants, but there's a bootstrapping issue as you can't recruit them until your settlement network population hits certain thresholds
- You could try focusing on settlements that are pre-populated: Abernathy Farm, Tenpines Bluff, County Crossing, Greentop Nursery, Warwick Homestead, Finch Farm, The Slog, Greygarden
- Sometimes the recruitment quest for a settlement will send you to clear another settlement. When you report back, they'll "tell their friends it's safe to move in" and after an in-game day or two a few settlers will show up in that other settlement
- There's a whole series of mods by LarannKiar that make various NPCs (Virgil, Shelly Tiller, Arlen Glass, Ricky Dalton, Jenny/K1-98, etc.) into recruitable settlers, though you sometimes have to complete certain tasks first. (For example, you have to get to the point that Virgil is human again and you have to provide him with a Hazmat suit or similar so he can safely leave his cave and cross the Glowing Sea.)
- The Recruitable Settlers mod adds around 30 or so people to recruit.
I hope this helps.
EDIT: Forgot this initially: if you try this, be mindful of some of the SS2 settings. One such example: you'll probably want to complete disable the Disease mechanics, as without the storyline you'll never have an HQ capable of researching disease cures. There may be other such things to consider.