the Sim Settlements forums!

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Custom Foundations Ideas. Also would like to ask about feedback for a possible new name

VersusXV

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Patreon Supporter
Verified Builder
Vault Librarian
Knights of Spamalot
Messages
826
I think I'd like to basically have fresh start for my addon, including a new name. However I'm bad at coming up with names. I've created Custom Foundations to go with it, & they're fully working in game. I might release only them early to get feedback on it, then later include with rebooted addon. I also learned about a Merge Plugins utility, so might give a try to merging in my Nuka World settlement & addon into just 1 ESP.

A bit old but I've worked on improving my Fallout 4 game install using BRB Modlist.
7sJa7i3.png



I'd like to also get some feedback on these Custom Foundations, to maybe brush it up a little for a release.

vZUcSTC.png


unknown.png
 
Names:

Urban Housefitters
Concrete Jungle
Town Mouse's Houses
Brick & Mortar
City Slickers

My vote is for "VersusXV's City Slickers Add-On for Sim Settlements"
 
Names:
Urban Housefitters, Concrete Jungle, Town Mouse's Houses, Brick & Mortar, City Slickers. My vote is for "VersusXV's City Slickers Add-On for Sim Settlements"
Interesting, I think I might like Concrete Jungle. Oh & since you're an Xbox player do you think I should consider just releasing my original version on Bethesda.net as a preview kind of thing? There are some problems which I'm not sure if some people might get upset about(which I'm slowly working on fixing).
 
Interesting, I think I might like Concrete Jungle. Oh & since you're an Xbox player do you think I should consider just releasing my original version on Bethesda.net as a preview kind of thing? There are some problems which I'm not sure if some people might get upset about(which I'm slowly working on fixing).
I wouldn't suggest previewing on Xbox. Just hold off until you have something you're reasonably happy with, because anything else is probably not worth the hassle. If possible, plan ahead for an Xbox release by making a "Lite" version as you go, i.e. an Xbox version with intermediary building stages removed. For many add-ons, building stages appear to account for as much as 40-50% of the entire file size, and space is a premium for Xbox users.
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't suggest previewing on Xbox. Just hold off until you have something you're reasonably happy with
Actually yeah I think I worded it poorly. Certainly wouldn't put new stuff there first. Only old stuff that should be fairly bug free.

If possible, plan ahead for an Xbox release by making a "Lite" version as you go, i.e. an Xbox version with intermediary building stages removed. For many add-ons, building stages appear to account for as much as 40-50% of the entire file size, and space is a premium for Xbox users.
Nice that's exactly what I'm thinking. I would fix the known issues on existing plots then do lite release there. TBH I actually don't bother with intermediary building stages since IMO would make it take a lot longer to create a new plot & really only benefit those who use Realistic Build Times(Plus file size increase for really similar models, which I think is a very small percentage of players only as it takes a very long time. I bet less than 1% use it, probably the hardcore Survival Mode/Horizon/FROST guys I bet. I had it turned on by accident once, I think from being careless on the wizard and saying something like "Throw the challenge at me" which happens if you tap through without reading. Plus I see people all the time on the Sim Settlement patch videos, showing up saying "My plot is never building, even after so long". Nearly every time there's someone saying that in the comments. I only do 0, 1, 2, 3 but think I would maybe swap 0 for base sim settlements generic one to further reduce size.

A technical sort of thing could be to do StageSpawnItems only, that would mean very little to nothing for filesize. Catch is you lose the performance benefits from the house being a combined static which the game is more efficient at loading. But I don't know, you probably know about this better, do Xbox players keep it to very few plots? If they generally will do 10-20 plots only maybe it is fine to have them.
 
I only do 0, 1, 2, 3 but think I would maybe swap 0 for base sim settlements generic one to further reduce size.
I think Uituit also removed the 0 from his Junk Town Lite, and yes it was worth it.

A technical sort of thing could be to do StageSpawnItems only, that would mean very little to nothing for filesize. Catch is you lose the performance benefits from the house being a combined static which the game is more efficient at loading. But I don't know, you probably know about this better, do Xbox players keep it to very few plots? If they generally will do 10-20 plots only maybe it is fine to have them.
Xbox players are as greedy and careless as PC players, if not moreso. They'll break the game by adding too many plots and not understand why it's happening. Making building plans performance friendly, especially for base Xbox One users, is pretty important.
 
I think Uituit also removed the 0 from his Junk Town Lite, and yes it was worth it.
Nice. Will do the same if I do this.

Xbox players are as greedy and careless as PC players, if not moreso. They'll break the game by adding too many plots and not understand why it's happening. Making building plans performance friendly, especially for base Xbox One users, is pretty important.
Hmm I see. This kind of thing is hard to quantify but in a very dense settlement like a blueprint I was working on with like 30-40
 
Hmm I see. This kind of thing is hard to quantify but in a very dense settlement like a blueprint I was working on with like 30-40
The optimized city plans were designed to run on a base Xbox One, so about 15 settlers and about 30 plots or fewer is your best bet for maximum compatibility. You can probably push most settlements a bit further, but you should be extra careful with those settlements already notorious for performance issues, e.g. Sanctuary, Red Rocket, and Abernathy: the triangle of death.
 
The optimized city plans were designed to run on a base Xbox One, so about 15 settlers and about 30 plots or fewer is your best bet for maximum compatibility. You can probably push most settlements a bit further, but you should be extra careful with those settlements already notorious for performance issues, e.g. Sanctuary, Red Rocket, and Abernathy: the triangle of death.
I can't recall how many exactly I had. Could reduce it down to 30 probably. Some were like Hamat Processing, only there since it's a requirement but now unlocks are shared and honestly since it wasn't really part of my designer choice I had it outside of the walls, I had martial plots outside of the walls but probably that number of them isn't necessary. The biggest problem with it is it's heavily Advanced Industrial. Industrial & robotics theme, so it has all of Industrial City's level 3 robotics plots, WV2 Townhouses as they go really well with that. A lot of the oilwell/nuclear IR plots. I think I will do it as a City Plan but need to wait if City Plans might gain support for Branched plots.

Right now it seems to give me totally random level 1s instead of any that I chosen. It kind of worked when I experimented with editing JSON a lot but basically what I had to make it do is make it totally cheat so that's no good IMO, that seems to be the only way at this time to have it use my Designer Choice. I think it'd be fine if it at least selects the Level 1 but upgrades randomly from there. Right now you have to manually select 25-30 plots & then do manual upgrade on all of them.

Didn't release because I figure people would just get upset with how it is lol.
 
fftfan, oh man so many questions and so excited! "you did ask for feedback?"

I saw your post in the Settlers Legends thread
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/35116/?tab=posts

My first thought was an unadulterated joy that a sim settlement builder would be looking at that.

So, that would be beyond an answer to your question about a reboot, but something more in the direction of a hope.

next - have you ever used or seen this mod?
Spawnable Unique Settlers:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/27969

I use it to make lots of custom settlers and hopefully, it will work with the new "Settlers Legends". The only reason I bring it up is I use excel-files and rename anything to keep track of all the custom settlers I create in my own game.

Seeing your post on the SL page I thought it might have a synergy also.

So, "out of breath" hahahaa. just a humble remark, a plot where one could have a pool of recruitable and trainable settlers / NPCs as an elite force to sometimes use in conjunction with companions could be really fun.

Being ex-military myself, I think of this as "The Blue Force". Translated all that means is "the good guys / gals". Given the sim-settlement logo is blue, that could be that forces unit identification?

Anyway, just dumping the fantasy out there. It really isn't even a suggestion, just a thought. I just think Settlers Legends could maybe be taking us in that direction anyway?
 
Last edited:
I saw your post in the Settlers Legends thread
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/35116/?tab=posts

My first thought was an unadulterated joy that a sim settlement builder would be looking at that.
Sim Settlements integration is the best way to use a mod like that. And it potentially offers further gameplay integration for Sim Settlements which IMO is main thing that is needed. So it's like a Bacon & Eggs kind of complementary team, I hope he will ask to collaborate with Kinggath. We've got every plot having been uniquely designed so I think it'd be cool if every settler was uniquely designed, without having the total performance killing effect since Nvidia already made RTX raytracing for that. This stuff is more appreciable too since it's a kind of doubling down on why Fallout 4 is superior to Fallout 76, Settlers & NPCs & Towns/Cities are cool. Only way I can see 76 ever measuring up is if it allowed for all the Sim Settlements builders & fanbase to all build stuff together as one big faction. Like City Plan creation done by everybody, we'd basically make our own Diamond City or Goodneighbor that is made up of all of the plots we made so far plus.

Seeing your post on the SL page I thought it might have a synergy also.

So, "out of breath" hahahaa. just a humble remark, a plot where one could have a pool of recruitable and trainable settlers / NPCs as an elite force to sometimes use in conjunction with companions could be really fun.

Being ex-military myself, I think of this as "The Blue Force". Translated all that means is "the good guys / gals". Given the sim-settlement logo is blue, that could be that forces unit identification?

Anyway, just dumping the fantasy out there. It really isn't even a suggestion, just a thought. I just think Settlers Legends could maybe be taking us in that direction anyway?
I totally love this idea! I think this captures exactly what I want. A sort of The Sims Settlers kind of plot, with template Settlers that could be customised. I would need to learn more about the Face Geometry so it doesn't hit performance at all. Ideally what I want would be a plot with say 5 "template Settlers" like in Spawnable Unique Settlers, where FaceRipper could be used to give them any face you want from the Nexus or from your other Savegame characters and it'd be easy to make edits to them in CK/xEdit for full control of what they'll wear/etc. I already have maybe 200 Presets for this exact reason, I download any I remotely like or find interesting looking because some day I want every settler to be uniquely customized. "VIPs" to go with the VIP stories.

How it would work would be a baseline plot for this purpose: Level 1 allowing 1 unique settler to be brought in, Level 2 allowing for 2 of them, Level 3 allowing for 5 and a total of 10 being unlocked for L3 by having a Recruitment Radio Station built. Maybe IDEK's ILS having been built somewhere allows for the elite settlers to be movable? If Xbox would have this plot, most likely I expect they'd have to forego FaceGeometry data which means it'll hit performance. So I feel that an Unlock condition would be good to have, I really like the R&D patch's new Tech Tree so I would tie to those. This could be a Minutemen Recruiting Center or a Training Center perhaps, I am not totally sure what kind of theme it would have. A pool of recruitable/trainable Settlers as Elites is exactly what I want.

Aside from this Elite Settlers plot idea, another thing I find potentially extremely cool would be plots that add in perks, I think I'd finally give Survival a go if our character's leveling/perks could go entirely through Sim Settlements. Like if at various settlements I build plots to give me perks, level them up for ranks and get Adv Industrial versions for rank 4/5 & special perks. Like a Gym that raises strength(It'd be cool if it was temp boost that became permanent after enough times), gun training that gives you Rifleman, build a Piper's House plot Level 3 to get Gift of Gab or a Valentine Detective Agency for Closer to Metal, for some examples. Maybe a SimUniversity that has Modding Tutorial information right on some terminals, where reading them gives you EXP, Intelligence/Perception boosts. Although this quite probably is getting into crazy fantasy territory.

It seems more & more clear that in order to do the Really Cool Stuff, scripting will be required. I got advised by Kinggath on the livestream that the best way to learn Scripting would be to try it in Skyrim, it seems like there is more documentation & tutorials for it there. The stuff I want to create the most would be this Elite Settlers plot & probably the Institute plot ideas by Rylasasin. Never been much of a Skyrim player though since before my current PC I had a severely outdated one that barely ran Old Skyrim(Lowest settings, 20fps, disabled all Shadows & Grass in the entire game). It might remain fantasy until I can learn scripting. So much stuff to learn about, since I am also spending time learning 3D stuff as a mixup/change of pace sometimes.

Currently waiting a week for a replacement PSU since old one died.
 
Sim Settlements integration is the best way to use a mod like that. And it potentially offers further gameplay integration for Sim Settlements which IMO is main thing that is needed. So it's like a Bacon & Eggs kind of complementary team, I hope he will ask to collaborate with Kinggath. We've got every plot having been uniquely designed so I think it'd be cool if every settler was uniquely designed, without having the total performance killing effect since Nvidia already made RTX raytracing for that. This stuff is more appreciable too since it's a kind of doubling down on why Fallout 4 is superior to Fallout 76, Settlers & NPCs & Towns/Cities are cool. Only way I can see 76 ever measuring up is if it allowed for all the Sim Settlements builders & fanbase to all build stuff together as one big faction. Like City Plan creation done by everybody, we'd basically make our own Diamond City or Goodneighbor that is made up of all of the plots we made so far plus.


I totally love this idea! I think this captures exactly what I want. A sort of The Sims Settlers kind of plot, with template Settlers that could be customised. I would need to learn more about the Face Geometry so it doesn't hit performance at all. Ideally what I want would be a plot with say 5 "template Settlers" like in Spawnable Unique Settlers, where FaceRipper could be used to give them any face you want from the Nexus or from your other Savegame characters and it'd be easy to make edits to them in CK/xEdit for full control of what they'll wear/etc. I already have maybe 200 Presets for this exact reason, I download any I remotely like or find interesting looking because some day I want every settler to be uniquely customized. "VIPs" to go with the VIP stories.

How it would work would be a baseline plot for this purpose: Level 1 allowing 1 unique settler to be brought in, Level 2 allowing for 2 of them, Level 3 allowing for 5 and a total of 10 being unlocked for L3 by having a Recruitment Radio Station built. Maybe IDEK's ILS having been built somewhere allows for the elite settlers to be movable? If Xbox would have this plot, most likely I expect they'd have to forego FaceGeometry data which means it'll hit performance. So I feel that an Unlock condition would be good to have, I really like the R&D patch's new Tech Tree so I would tie to those. This could be a Minutemen Recruiting Center or a Training Center perhaps, I am not totally sure what kind of theme it would have. A pool of recruitable/trainable Settlers as Elites is exactly what I want.

Aside from this Elite Settlers plot idea, another thing I find potentially extremely cool would be plots that add in perks, I think I'd finally give Survival a go if our character's leveling/perks could go entirely through Sim Settlements. Like if at various settlements I build plots to give me perks, level them up for ranks and get Adv Industrial versions for rank 4/5 & special perks. Like a Gym that raises strength(It'd be cool if it was temp boost that became permanent after enough times), gun training that gives you Rifleman, build a Piper's House plot Level 3 to get Gift of Gab or a Valentine Detective Agency for Closer to Metal, for some examples. Maybe a SimUniversity that has Modding Tutorial information right on some terminals, where reading them gives you EXP, Intelligence/Perception boosts. Although this quite probably is getting into crazy fantasy territory.

It seems more & more clear that in order to do the Really Cool Stuff, scripting will be required. I got advised by Kinggath on the livestream that the best way to learn Scripting would be to try it in Skyrim, it seems like there is more documentation & tutorials for it there. The stuff I want to create the most would be this Elite Settlers plot & probably the Institute plot ideas by Rylasasin. Never been much of a Skyrim player though since before my current PC I had a severely outdated one that barely ran Old Skyrim(Lowest settings, 20fps, disabled all Shadows & Grass in the entire game). It might remain fantasy until I can learn scripting. So much stuff to learn about, since I am also spending time learning 3D stuff as a mixup/change of pace sometimes.

Currently waiting a week for a replacement PSU since old one died.

You have captured everything I was trying to say with far more eloquence and detail.

I'm just kind of happy that folks are as excite as I am... I am glad we are talking about it and it is getting documented as other folks get excited and compound their own thoughts.

I will tryout and play fallout 76 awhile after release but as you pointed out that playstyle only goes so far. This settler / NPC development has my imagination "hook-line and sinker / lock-stock and barrel" and it just seems to fit the sim settlement theme.
 
You have captured everything I was trying to say with far more eloquence and detail.

I'm just kind of happy that folks are as excite as I am... I am glad we are talking about it and it is getting documented as other folks get excited and compound their own thoughts.
I love to talk about this kind of stuff, as even if it's beyond what I can do right now I can keep it in mind when I look into scripting so that I may gradually fill in the gaps in terms of required knowledge/skills. It helps me to first form a Road Map of needed knowledge & skills which later can translate into a Road Map of tangible mod content additions.

When I get my PC up & running again I will follow a rotation of:
  1. Making Sim Settlements plots based on things that are realistic right now, using what I can do now. I've got a shortlist of stuff I can make in the various categories. No gameplay effects but I want to have all categories covered.
  2. Learning 3D art, I've kind of gotten the hang of 3DS Max and also have other software I can get into like ZBrush & Quixel/Photoshop. It's a very long road but doing a little at a time avoids burnout. The (crazy) dream is making outfits/weapons from stuff I really like including past games I like & anime/movies I like. The #1 dream plot would be a store that sells a range of stuff I made from scratch. This is the x approaches ∞ where x represents time kind of idea.
  3. Learning Scripting: Another pretty long road since the greatest script creators in the community are often backed up by a degree in Computer Science/Programming/Software Engineering & it's likely their career. For the short term I hope to be able to do minor gameplay changes, and I think the Workshop Framework will help in that regard. One thing that's really encouraging about Papyrus is that Skyrim knowledge of Papyrus carries over into Fallout 4 & might be quite likely to carry over into Starfield & TES VI. Which is further justification for time spent on scripting, even if things will get difficult and maybe not consistently offer tangible results.
  4. Going to play other games as well sometimes, to avoid the risk of burnout. I experienced burnout when I spent long period of time only doing mod stuff & never playing any games. Some of this will be simply playing SSE to see if anything strikes me as something I really want and may wish to make my learning script project.

With #1 here is a tentative Short List of things that are doable now.
OgwAJaj.png

  • Poor House: The brick house I made for City Plan contest. Started liking the theme idea so I ended up keeping it to a 2x2 format with the idea of making a plot of it afterwards. Will include Cooking station & Chemistry station, along with the theme it could serve as a "Home Base" for a new Survival mode character.
  • Parkade Farm: Had an idea to use Skybridge pieces to have some stacked gardens. It'll be a dense Agricultural plot for a tight urban location like Hangman's Alley or Jamaica Plain where space is limited. Might produce more food but cost additional water.
  • Urban/Rooftop Farm: Someone on Nexus had an idea I like, having similar large urban buildings but serving different purposes including an Agricultural Plot featuring crops on the rooftop.
  • Mini Mall: I am not sure what form this would take precisely but I'd like a stacked building similar to 4-story that can be used to house Int Commercial Plots. Ground floor would probably be setup for a general trader. Maybe windows would help show off cool Int Commercial plots.
  • City Hall: Just like the Town Hall but larger and more of a city feel for a large settlement.
  • Survivalist's Store: Even though I don't play Survival mode, I've heard of some of the other builders getting feedback about Survival mode specific stuff. So I think it could be a cool & helpful idea for a modest Commercial Plot. It'll sell the antibiotics/bandages/cures and also could sell some custom veggies, I've got a bit of a joke idea for some Nuka Quantum infused Mutfruit/Tatos that quench thirst & caffeinated. They would be sold(for a high price, 100-500 caps in value with 500 being a "do-everything" super-food) in this store, and maybe have a small chance of appearing in the Ag plots. Statwise it's mainly a convenient one stop shop, the income production will be really low though it'll probably always cost only 1 power. Levelling it will expand the inventory, with L3 offering the Nuka veggies. They won't offer disease curing since I hear an R&D patch quest offers that.
  • Urban Production Facility: A standard downtown city factory, I screencapped a building in downtown Boston & visualised it being this. I'm thinking I want it to have randomized production, giving stuff selected from rare/often tending to run out of components for those who play without cheats. Components that come to mind right away are Aluminum, Concrete, Copper, Circuitry, Circuit boards that are used to build Automatron stuff. Might be OP in terms of production but will require a lot of power & reduce happiness due to noise. Level 3 will give a lot but require maybe as much as 15, 20 or 25 power. For the town this is an "I need this stuff now"(But without cheating) option.
  • Edge Factory: A silly idea about a melee weapons production factory. A quick/easy/without cheating way to give your settlers a weapon other than pipe pistols.

I will tryout and play fallout 76 awhile after release but as you pointed out that playstyle only goes so far. This settler / NPC development has my imagination "hook-line and sinker / lock-stock and barrel" and it just seems to fit the sim settlement theme.
Exactly the same here. I think Kinggath & guys like you will be the best judges of how good/bad Fallout 76 is, and if it's a true Fallout. Until/unless I hear fantastic things, I'm immune to any 76 hype since potentially there won't be modding as we know it on Fallout 4 and for me modding is intrinsically at the heart of the Fallout DNA.

If Todd asks me why I'm not buying Fallout 76 day one, I would say I wholeheartedly prefer Bethesda's NPCs including even Preston over characters named things like "xXxDankMemes69xXx". Building stuff doesn't appeal to me at all if I can't use Sim Settlements and if it's not for any Settlers. In this sense "C.A.M.P." is an apt term, whereas I want to build town/cities/outposts.

I am surprised they didn't include some select NPCs at least, like in FO4/FO3/FNV/TES there are always at least a few extremely memorable NPCs. Like Hancock, Nick Valentine, Paladin Danse, Macready, Lucien Lachance, Three Dog, Emperor Uriel Septim(Played by Patrick Stewart!), Brother Martin, Jauffre, Baurus. The only player factions I am interested in playing with are a Team Sim Settlements faction or a Team Nexus faction, most likely on a dedicated server. The only "Emergent gameplay/Emergent story" I am interested in would be creating some West Virginia City Plans as part of a team with Sim Settlements community.
 
Top