My thoughts after completing chapter 2

[SarahAda]

The whole GNN Plaza micromanagement BS is a game killer for me. [...]

I've seen this sentiment a lot from people, but i never understand it. i put more effort into managing the HQ then i do most of my other settlements, but less then all my other settlements together, and while i have never made it to the end of the HQ either, that's mostly because my game is dying to script run away about every 30 days like clockwork now. most of my engagement with the HQ is to pop in every few days and fire off new projects, then look around at what projects i want to do next and what resources i need to make that happen, and write myself a note to increase that resource the next time i am at a settlement that might be able to provide it. it's hardly world consuming micromanagement.

as far as i am aware, that's the point of the HQ, to test your mastery of the settlement building network and give you a place to use all SS2 settlement successes. it lets you get benefits from those settlers who have a 75 endurance because you left them on the treadmill at Abernathy for the past 428 in-game days, you get credit for all those settlements that just pour out food and sprout water like weeds, and you get to burn off some of those industrial outputs as the literal cure for all diseases. it's (probably intentionally) a bit slow compared to the story quests, but it's also not forcing you to play it like the gunner attacks.

SS2 has always been a bit weird. it's a ostensibly system oriented mod focused on settlement building, but also has this rich and detailed story based quest chain in it. that means at least half of your audience is going to be more interested in only half your mod, but it walks the line masterfully, and does a better job of balancing that then Automotron or Nuka World ever did.

i believe Chapter 3 (and i have NO basis for this, i'm a rando speculating here) will start about halfway through How to HQ when the majority of departments are online or just after Doctor in the house, because both of those feel like good places for a competing empire to appear and threaten your new and shaky hegemony. i suspect that the ending of Commonwealth Rising (and at this point, i still don't know what that is) is going to be a "side quest" for people who enjoy engage in the HQ like i do (but don't have a game ending bug every month like i do). again, i am speculating, but the HQ feels like an end game system to me, not the middle of a plot focused trilogy. if any of that is true, it means that the HQ will remain a optional mastery system for end game players, something beautiful you can build into if it interests you, just like it is now.

i will NEVER understand how someone could walk away from a mod as literally game-changing as SS2 because it has one corner end system they don't like, or are too intimidated to even engage with it on the systems terms to decide if they like it in the first place.

 

[LarryB]

there's a lot of "SW 2nd floor semi-circular office" vs "SE 2nd floor semi-circular office". i find in this map (that i am unilaterally crediting to the wiki staff and not kinggath who made all the pictures, shut up) is super useful locating rooms and navigating around the HQ.

setting up the comm hub is part of the HQ quest line (possibly Moving Day?) and not really part of the HQ, but there is a step to clean up the comm hub studio, which swaps some of that junk for crafting benches and bunks.

I wish I'd been told about this map before. Lol.

 

[yaugie]

Something kinggath has repeatedly mentioned or implied during the Livestreams, is that they did not fully consider or allow for the fact that for most people, the instinctive reaction to getting a new quest in this kind of game is to finish it ASAP - a lot of SS2's design assumes you'll just put off doing things til you feel like it, or work on it over time. Even the very early quests, like the "build 8 houses and jobs for people", was never completely intended to all be done instantly.

The HQ stuff is no exception to this.

Fact of the matter is though, the questline and the mechanics are so separate that I am unsure why they are in the same esm file. To me it genuinely feels like a separate questline that had a few mentions of settlements poorly edited in.
Considering you can make it up to HQ without even knowing the Virtual Storage EXISTS let alone how it works (and based on the phrasing I see on peoples questions, that happens quite a bit) but are suddenly assumed to have mastered it... (not to mention that more often than not, the very few times Jake mentions anything seemingly mechanics related, he is outright WRONG)

This ties into how I've been saying all along that the "tutorialising" overall is pretty weak. The general "user experience" was obviously very low down the priority list, to the level that I doubt it was even considered how someone else would handle some parts until after it was all built.

I dont know. Just got that feeling again lately that I shouldve stuck with my gut reaction of give it another year, rather than convincing myself I can help improve things (due to knowing nobody else will in the way I will) - getting an irreparable progress halting bug 48 hours into a character that the patch notes say was fixed (which even if it worked, the only "reward" is "fixing" something I could have just switched off at the start of the playthrough) plus seeing those posts from the Deleted User reminded me of that.

 

[SarahAda]

i'm sympathetic, but i don't think it's anywhere near as bad as we are discussing. as my account will attest, i never browsed these forums (except perhaps if a wayward google lead me here) until i ran into a gamebreaker 2+ years after installing SS2.

the "Laying Foundations" trilogy of quests is a utterly perfect tutorial for putting down plots, on par or better then "if i had a hammer" "Sanctuary" that is supposed to tutorialize the vanilla settlement building. vanilla doesn't tell you about supply lines, or workbench sharing, happiness, charisma vs recruitment, the build limit, radiant power. both of them tell you, in voice over, about how to do a basic thing, then tests your understanding of that basic thing and allow you to engage with the basic mechanics on your own to learn the advanced mechanics.

compare a mod like Crime and Punishment. it's got similar levels of systematization (but a much narrower focus) and next to no information on how to do anything. i installed and played through two games before i realized it was all radiant quests all the way down, because i was expecting something to tell me how to use it, instead of hiding in the back of the diamond city security dugout on a "staff only" terminal. it IS a step up from "in a darkened cellar with no stairs in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.'" but a very small step.

admittedly, it needs to be made clearer that the HQ isn't a "DO IT NOW" thing. maybe jake could say something after the mansfield part of How To HQ about how mansfield is "right about most of the work at HQ being more complicated then just building a few bed frames. this stuff is gonna take a while. we don't really need you to wait around here. you probably want to go check out those comms relays, or that weird radio signal from the nukaworld metro while we set things up to your liking. don't worry, we won't do anything without you. and we can always keep it touch over the radio."

but i think we who patrol these support forums have a much dimmer view of the quality of the information flow of SS2 because we only see the small percentage when it fails, not the 300,000+ players on nexus where it worked, plus whatever number on xbox.
edit: I'm dumb and referenced the wrong quest. If i had a hammer is a SS2 quest that is the last third of the trilogy of quests starting with Laying Foundations and continuing in Plotting the Future that forms the tutorial of the three basic plot types.

 

[Captain LaserBeam]

HQ is certainly complicated and has some learning curves. What actually made it make sense for me was working on an HQ add-on! (Shameless plug - should be releasing before the end of the month) where I saw the backend systems and everything they were capable of doing and supporting. This is a deep complex system that the dev team has built - it can support things that I am just learning about every day. It actually made me excited and hopeful more people design some HQ add-ons because it has capabilities to add quests, perks, item production directly to the player, endless possibilities for room customizations, and more. I'm sure with Chapter 3 even more of this will be revealed, but that's one reason it can seem very overwhelming at first. I think the biggest thing is just getting acquainted with the map and where all the rooms are laid out. That was what took me forever, but thankfully there's an excellent page breaking that down here in the wiki. Fully developed, it does become the hub of your entire caravan network and how you can harness the resources of it toward various ends. An obvious example of this in Chapter 2 is harnessing it to produce cures and vaccines to the various diseases introduced, as well as smaller examples like extending caravan ranges to other worldspaces, expanded beacon reach, etc. There is so much potential there, but the downside of that is this complexity that can leave you baffled at first.

 

[Tortolian]

i will NEVER understand how someone could walk away from a mod as literally game-changing as SS2 because it has one corner end system they don't like, or are too intimidated to even engage with it on the systems terms to decide if they like it in the first place.

I wouldn't have a problem with the GNN HQ if I could bypass or auto-complete it, but it is so freaking tedious and nonsensical. "Oh, I need to collect some more 'Admin energy' or 'Logistics energy' or my expansion in the SS2 story comes to a halt". I'm sorry, but that's just stupid. It's a shame Kinggath let whatever moron designed the GNN HQ mess up his mod.

I play Fallout 4 regularly. It's a familiar kick-back and unwind game. Like I said, with the GNN HQ it's a game killer. I've made three playthroughs since I ended the not-fun SS2 playthrough - one of which used SS1 since I like the idea of ASAMs and auto-building vendor plots most of all.

Guess what? I enjoyed all three playthroughs (one of which was FROST - Holy cow!) more than I did SS2 with that horrible awful and frankly stupid GNN HQ build system. I wasn't being casual when I called it a game killer.

 

[SarahAda]

I wouldn't have a problem with the GNN HQ if I could bypass or auto-complete it, but it is so freaking tedious and nonsensical. "Oh, I need to collect some more 'Admin energy' or 'Logistics energy' or my expansion in the SS2 story comes to a halt". I'm sorry, but that's just stupid. It's a shame Kinggath let whatever moron designed the GNN HQ mess up his mod. [...]

i get it. you are convinced the HQ is not what you want out of a game. but that still doesn't answer why you would throw away the rest for a set of end-game quests that are immediately skippable in the holotape. on a broader note, you are very very angry for something that is not only optional, but dead-end end-game content. i am not a huge fan of nuka world, especially the raiding, but i don't have to do it to play the rest, and bethesda didn't even include a "i hate this quest. make it go away and let me have the next quest" button like the SS2 Team did.

as for kick back and unwind game, that's how i play too. i get on, run a few quests so i get that "i made progress" dopamine, and by the same token, checking in with the HQ every 3 or 4 in-game days fulfills that exact purpose. i can start a project, go clear out that settlement that needs my help for preston, fight my way into the ration stockpile for joe dirt's seed stash, turn those in on the way to the next fallout 4 storyline quest, then pop back into the HQ and see my new power station or cafeteria or whatever else progress got done. oh i need more administration energy for that project i want to do? ok, i'll make a note to scan for high charisma settlers at Jamacia plains on my way to clear out the FMS Northern Star.

honestly i think that's the major reason people complain about the HQ. they don't read that it's a big slow thing and try to force it through quickly with full focus like a speed run. it's not a "do this now, but i'll wait forever" thing like almost every other elder-scrolls-alike quest.

it's a background system. something to work on a little bit, a few minutes every play hour or two, while you build settlements or clear raiders or do the marginally urgent demands of the other NPCs. more "animal crossing" then "gunner raids".

bottom line: if you're not having fun, don't do it.

 

[Antoine Soverie]

What actually made it make sense for me was working on an HQ add-on!

That's great news! Looking forward to it now.

It's a shame Kinggath let whatever moron designed the GNN HQ mess up his mod.

Hate to say this but there's a high enough chance Kinggath designed most of the HQ as well. So uh...
(Even if he didn't, it's still rude)

admittedly, it needs to be made clearer that the HQ isn't a "DO IT NOW" thing.

Most of SS2 isn't a "do it now" thing but we all still do it now. Well I assume most of us do. Those who are discovering SS2 along with other big mods like TFTC might take a break to do that, occasionally building up settlements is a thing, maybe vanilla stuff (though who hasn't seen it all in 2022?). I don't have any statistics but fairly sure the majority wants to play more quest content when it comes up.

 

[fathamburger]

Sarah,

There are probably MANY in this boat of "just wanting settlements automated and to go away" due to the leftover nature Bethesda left things (but at the same time, brilliant enough to leave enough architecture/endpoints/scaffolding to birth something like SS2). We didnt go looking for a Sim City mod for FO4, we went looking for a solution to either automate or cut out a part of the game that was an unwanted chore.

I never expected as close to a full blown Fallout 4 sequel to come along essentially free to go with that and then even preferencing wanting to play it over the original expansions. I basically initially had to force myself to go thru Far Harbor and Nuka World right now just so I can get them cleanly out of the way and make it easier to continue to SS2 Ch. 2 when I can.

This needs to be a factor in its design at least 3-4 others I've talked to that mentioned finding SS2 has a similar story, we were all looking for something that just makes the settlement system hassle "disappear" much like Kinggath's story of not wanting to manually build things up piece by piece (just listened to an old interview) was the pain point that started everything.

However, my fave RPG series of all time Suikoden basically has this whole collecting people and base building which is ironically the core reason why myself and others love it. Getting that whole mechanic and unique settlers etc even if assigning and moving them around right now is... not the best user experience has been an AMAZING and very welcome surprise . As long as SS2 doesnt end up evolving to become the problem it was originally created to address, I think this is what the OP was getting at

 

[SarahAda]

ok i'm totally confused by your comments. what are you actually arguing for?

• do you want the quests to go away so you can enjoy your settlement automation? there's a quest skip in the holotape and options to fully automate and remove every cost of settlement building. you can turn all the interactions off and none of the quests are required.
• do you want to change the order of the Bethesda DLC? it's optional content, and not even part of either sim settlements quests at all. how does that have to do with anything?
• what, exactly, needs to be a factor in the design? the fact that you don't like the quests or the fact that you don't understand where the options to tune your experience are? i'm not clear at all on that.
• i really don't understand what you are suggesting with the "whole mechanic and unique settlers" bit. do you like the new settler quest? not like them? are they "not the best user experience" or "AMAZING and very welcome surprise"? which mechanics? you contradict yourself twice in one sentence.

i'm not trying to rip you up here, but you come in hot to all of these threads, call ME out directly, and i'm a nobody with exactly as much stake as you, just a user of the mod. then make allegations about design problems that aren't problems, quests that need to be fixed because you don't understand them, and systems you don't like and should be turned off by default because you are unwilling to look at the options to turn them off for yourself.

i really don't know what i can do to make you happy, and i have even less idea what you want from the mod.
edit: adjust phrasing, better references

 

[fathamburger]

You have a common theme of misunderstanding or misreading I see here, I am merely agreeing with Tortalian's viewpoint. Despite this being called SIm Settlements, we dont want to play the sim part of it at all and it seems most are commonly agreeing that the questline about said settlements/ASAM's, new characters etc ended up being the unexpected long term draw instead.

We dont like the busywork and micromanagement of the settlements. I guess if there really was no other games to play, they systems are pretty impressive otherwise. Essentially ideally things should continue the path set by chapter 1, automate them all away for those like myself and others but otherwise have them there for people who want to manage them on that level. I didnt understand what faux powered meant originally and am probably going to flick that on soon in most places as well.

For me personally, moving people around settlements is fine and collecting the people, the side quests and stories are enjoyable but I'm not gonna be doing janitorial micromanagement and stamping out disease fires Sim Hospital style, that was what Tortalian and others I've seen get at. In my playthrough I go full city plan for everything and enjoy the surprise of a completely different base on each visit., go full automation and dont put down ASAM's anywhere unless I don't have a city plan for it. I plan on keeping Vault 88 being the only base I really put any effort into although after seeing the clean Vault-Tec ish Vault 88 plan submitted by someone else, I may just scrap all the work Ive put in and let that be automated as well.

Kinggath has literally done a Counterstrike / DOTA level "mod" here to the point where by Chapter 3 it will have become another game. Just saying, in the fun/drive to prove how far the team can develop and push things to not forget the roots of why SS exists to begin with.

The GNN HQ thing sounds like one form of micromanagement has been traded for another potentially. Again, I probably wont get to Chapter 2 for likely almost a year so hopefully there will be a lot more options to streamline things if it's that troublesome by the time I get it and hopefully something to be mindful of any more new game systems in Chapter 3.

I would like a lot more ASAM plans currently but it's not a priority, I'll probably go looking for more on the Nexus soon

 

[Captain LaserBeam]

You have a common theme of misunderstanding or misreading I see here, I am merely agreeing with Tortalian's viewpoint. Despite this being called SIm Settlements, we dont want to play the sim part of it at all and it seems most are commonly agreeing that the questline about said settlements/ASAM's, new characters etc ended up being the unexpected long term draw instead.

Not so sure about that - plenty of people want a version without the characters and quest line in and just want the settlement mechanics (the sim part that you say "we don't want to play"). People are drawn to this for different reasons given how complex it is. Like all games not everyone is going to love every gameplay mechanic - some things that people like about a mechanic may be a thing others hate.

 

[fathamburger]

Not so sure about that - plenty of people want a version without the characters and quest line in and just want the settlement mechanics (the sim part that you say "we don't want to play"). People are drawn to this for different reasons given how complex it is. Like all games not everyone is going to love every gameplay mechanic - some things that people like about a mechanic may be a thing others hate.

yeah that's true also. Its just a case of supporting all ways to play which is totally doable as Ch.1 shows, just careful not to leave anyone behind. I would hate to end up not wanting to install Ch. 2 until literally the last thing on my mod list to play if it means that my current relatively hassle free settlements I dont have to think about will no longer be the case. As I've said a few times, not in a rush. It's pretty near the end of my list to get to right now anyway but ironically that + the commonwealth responders mod are the ones I'm most looking forward to.

The plan is to exhaust all other more "standalone" content mods and "endings I dont want" i.e. railroad, brotherhood + operation manhattan, evil institute + enclave mod, possibly minutemen first then do subversion and take over institute, make everyone play nice and maybe have that going forward as "canon", if not then reload to minutemen THEN do everything like SS2 and others that will be permanent to my character in the long term.

 

[SarahAda]

yeah that's true also. Its just a case of supporting all ways to play which is totally doable as Ch.1 shows, just careful not to leave anyone behind. [...]

but you ARE arguing to leave people behind, specific the people who are happy with the mod as it is.

i enjoy the slightly cheesy quests in the beginning, i think the GNN assault is better then the institute assault, i never use city plans, but i enjoy mostly automating settlements, and i manually place plots and let the automatic selection pick a plan randomly, but even with that automation, i build in specific ways with specific stuff that i want to see, because i want to walk the wilderness as the goddess of death and civil engineering. i LIKE the HQ, rough edges on the room controllers and all. i ask my department heads about their sugguestions because i love the little writing touches and voice acting s put into it. i think the Disease system needs some fine tuning, but i enjoy it in it's current state. the nightingales and CPD are both ambitious and complex quests that fall down more then any others, but they are some of the best quests in any mod, and better then a lot of the vanilla ones. diseases, sanitation, pollution, the CPD, the nightingales, and the GNN are all GREAT AND VALUABLE additions to the game.

you are advocating to leave my playstyle behind to improve your play style. you are arguing FOR a change to the mod because YOU ARE AFRAID YOU MIGHT NOT LIKE CHAPTER 2, WHICH YOU HAVEN'T EVEN PLAYED!

i'm done engaging here. i've tried to help you, and you've been nothing but hostile and dismissive. i've tried to converse, and even argue, but you are unwilling to listen to any voice but your own while at the same time blaming me for failing to decipher your inner feelings.

 

[fathamburger]

but you ARE arguing to leave people behind, specific the people who are happy with the mod as it is.

? no

I've just seen complaints about the GNN micromanagement / forced further engagement into the settlements system in order to progress the quests here and elsewhere. Yes I haven't played but SS2 Ch. 1 had equal options for every playstyle and skips for everything people don't want to engage in from quests to settlement building. It doesn't sound like Chapter two has the option to skip things. It could be overblown, I'll tolerate it if they're one off quests but otherwise the upkeep / maintenance sounds like there isn't an automate option this time around hearing from others' frustrations

You're the one that's hostile. Even before I started posting, it seemed like you were ignoring Totarlian and trying to "woman-splain" him as if he just didnt get why he should just like these things instead. He's pretty clear that Chapter 2 had gone into territory which he didnt care for and starting to force play which he got into SS2 to avoid in the first place.

I know maybe 5 other players that have experienced SS2 but no one I know myself even knows Ch. 2 exists or has progressed anywhere near the pt where they would need to install it. Chapter 1 right now is "if it aint broke dont fix it". If Ch. 2 really is starting to create problems then it's at least something the devs should know to be mindful of for future chapters as well as Ch. 2 updates

 

[yaugie]

Since I know not everyone engages with them in the way I do, the question of some form of automation for HQ gets asked at least once during every livestream kinggath does most weeks over on Youtube - there's actually only a handful of other things that get asked as often. My understanding is that such a thing will be addressed in some way once Chapter 3 comes out, due to the quests for HQ as it currently stands (which he's been quite open about just being a form of 'placeholder') won't flow well with where Chapter 3's questline will go.

It's also very obvious at this point that HQ isn't "finished" either; even discounting whatever Chapter 3 adds to it, there's systems that have no purpose - for example, being able to change who the Department Heads are, there's no mechanical or even visual reason to doing so.

The sheer number of people thatve posted just to say they dont even want to engage with such a "flagship" new system is really not a good sign for it either mechanically or storywise, to be totally honest. Sure its a minority, but it also isnt only 1 or 2 people...
Could say the same for Disease, which personally I am turning off on all new playthroughs from this point onwards. The fact that HQ doesnt HAVE a way to not engage with it short of never finishing the story, though...

It's almost funny though, up until the whole HQ thing you can get through the questline with having barely engaged with any of the mechanics. There's been a non-trivial number of people ask for a "questline only" version of the mod, and to be perfectly honest, other than HQ you'd barely even notice any changes to the quests if the settlement stuff was removed entirely - a couple changes to a couple quests, and there would be no trace of it remaining, given what you built in them has NO impact on the story until HQ where suddenly you NEED advanced tier or higher in the plot tech tree. (I have seen multiple people not even know there WAS Advanced farms etc)
And I can totally see how HQ being so complex but MANDATORY to finish the questline and fully engage with the Disease mechanics, with absolutely no way to automate it and frankly woeful "tutorial" stages (which are the exact kind of tutorials kinggath has said during livestreams he hates when games do, without a hint of irony), would be turning people off.

(I'm in the "wants a mechanics only version" camp myself)

 

[Antoine Soverie]

I'm mostly in the "this should be automated and I'd love to see what others came up with, while that could do with A LOT more micromanagement" camp. "I care about" sliders for everything as SarahAda puts it. While I'd say chapter 1 is mostly perfect as it is (and still Kinggath is going to revisit it at some point), there are 3 points of contest with chapter 2.

1. Disease. It can be turned completely off from the get go. If you do turn it off (and it stays turned off because there have been a few reports of diseases and incapacitatiions still sneaking in but less and less) you can safely ignore it. Sure, the doctor quest wouldn't make a whole lot of sense, I guess the Nightingale story doesn't either, but you can still enjoy it. It's a great story. The main issue with this is diseases show up way too early (as soon as you start the mod) and you can't really do much about it until later. So, more micromanagement (building graveyards and stuff) and potentially running into stuff you can't handle (I believe that should be a non-issue as both Chicken Pox and Molerat Disease have been moved to the next tier and will not show up until you at least have a chance to research them)

2. Disasters in HQ. Those are just broken at the moment. Very sadly. It makes for a fun activity, again for the micromanagement fans. Can also be turned off completely. And probably should because you just can't fix them if stuff goes wrong. Not with cheats or console, nothing.

3. HQ management itself. This is a big one and not much to be done about it, other than "don't play it". I mean, there are "easy mode" options - ignore resources, override timers, workshop plus or flat out tgm it. Those looking for a "tangible reward" will probably be disappointed, I'm just happy to look at the thing all built up and looking nice. Obviously as many pointed out, mechanically it's very different and not everyone's cup of tea. I'll just say it's way better than it was on release, if you put minimal effort in it you unlock stuff like policies, training workers, research cures etc, it's the ONLY thing in the game close to being in charge of a faction and making a difference. None of the vanilla factions come close, and that's what makes me appreciate HQ despite its very different nature to "normal" SS2 mechanics.

Also as it stands right now, SS2 doesn't make any impact on the relationship with other factions and the main quest so there's no reason not to do it all in advance. You might want to get all the unlocks from playing the game normally along with building up settlements but it's a matter of preference.

I wouldn't call the HQ tutorial THAT woeful but it could do with some tweaks. Yeah, assigning department heads is unnecessary. Even though you can view it as tutorial for assigning and reassigning people to departments, since there is no other tutorial for that. Recruiting 15 people to finish a quest is unnecessary. Some tutorial messages are a bit incorrect.

 

[yaugie]

I am not saying its the worst tutorials I have ever seen, not by a long shot. But by my count I have had to explain in a dozen different instances that construction in HQ is consuming the resources the Industrial Plots back in settlements produced - because they didnt make that mental connection themselves, even after the "tutorials", despite that being a core ss2 mechanic because it never teaches you anything about it or even tells you Virtual Storage EXISTS other than a single popup near the start of a playthrough. Not to mention the amount of people getting so stuck even on the "tutorials" that they need to ask for help... plus, they "teach" the mechanics in the same way making kids sing along with a national anthem before they even know what the words ARE let alone what they mean teaches patriotism.

 

[Antoine Soverie]

I admit, I'm probably biased since this whole mechanics stuff is burned into my brain at this point. If someone does want things fully automated (as in, "I don't wanna be involved after dropping a desk"), they might not know about virtual resources etc. There could be maybe 1 popup telling people about that at the start of the game but that's it. But that kind of automation doesn't even work in the base mod cause settlers will just build 5 rec plots and sit there. Err, maybe it does when you turn all costs off. For HQ, it's just not gonna cut it even if there's a setting to make everything near instant (there is one) and cost 1 wood (kinda, if you play on simple scrap difficulty with refunds? or tgm). Your first supply agreement is with a city plan settlement (most likely) so there will be resources. You still have to go in command mode and bark orders at people so there's that.
Not to start an arguement with anyone, just thinking. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the original message for Sim Settlements "make it so settlers aren't sitting in a ruined settlement waiting for you to build them houses all by yourself"? As in, we give them a tool and they start using it. But they only start using it when we give it to them. As Old Paul and Jake point out pretty early on in the story. And you need to watch out for their needs and drop the plots accordingly to that. (Ok, the need for "gifted" settlers at HQ does imply you need to recruit TRAINED settlers or someone who has good stats from the beginning (companions, uniques) so we do need to micromanage that, unless it all happened by itself). And sometimes they "need proper supervision" because the vanilla settlement system has its limitations. The team did its best to make it all completely automated for folks who want that but from my understanding, that was never the original intent.

 

[yaugie]

My point is that it's entirely possible to make it up to HQ without self-teaching yourself ANY of the mechanics of the mod, and then suddenly you have no choice but to go back through and learn TWO slightly different systems at the same time, with the mod itself only barely explaining anything, and your preferred complexity and challenge levels making minimal difference at best to that. This is (as best I can tell) a fair portion of why people dislike HQ so much - you can choose how much or how little you engage with the mod's mechanical side up until that point, at which stage too fn bad now you HAVE to master it all now including several features with literally no documentation ingame, and apart from a couple of "copy these exact steps without me explaining what you're doing or why and that's all I'm going teach you" "tutorials" you HAVE to teach it to yourself. The Nexus page for Chapter 1 does explicitly say there are "sandbox" level difficulty options... but it also says the mod provides a "reason" to build your settlements, and I'm yet to see that either apart from needing more resources to do HQ and thus finish the questline than it'd cost to max out every settlement