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Question New Faction Pack - Various Questions

Strucker

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I am working on a new faction pack, I have assaults, recruitment, ranks, a unlock/introduction quest, and more all working but I've collected a number of questions, any help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if I'm missing anything obvious, this is the first Sim Settlements mod I've attempted.

1. How do I integrate my faction pack's extra quests into the War Planner's Bounty feature? I have a quest and several more quest ideas to continue the faction's story and I'd like them to be triggered at the bounty note but I am unsure how to do this.
2. If I disable the ability for soldiers and citizens to work stores (via removing the appropriate factions) will it break anything in the larger sim settlements add-on? It just doesn't make sense in the context of this faction pack for them to run stores.
3. I am letting players "recruit" certain NPCs found in the world space and send them to outposts, I am currently doing this by turning them essentially into settlers, is there something I can do to get them marked as soldiers for the sake of assaults?
4. Is there a way to change the value of recruitment resources beyond the default values of 5 for minor and 10 for major? Some of the logical recruitment resources are dirt cheap and I'd like to lower their value to that of 1 or 2. This one is pretty minor as I can just add a crafted recipe to merge multiple at a chem station to get around it.
5. Is there a way to change the limit of recruits spawned each day (Default max seems to be 5)? My soldiers by design or weak and easily lost, I want to balance this by letting outposts rapidly fill back up.
6. Is it possible to exclusively use certain residential plots in an outpost based on the active faction? Traditional residential plot plans just don't make sense in the faction's context so I plan to make a few simple more appropriate ones and I'd like to ensure they are used when a player puts down a residential plot.

Thanks!
Strucker
 
I have not tried making a faction pack but I'll chime in with my 2 cents.
2. If I disable the ability for soldiers and citizens to work stores (via removing the appropriate factions) will it break anything in the larger sim settlements add-on? It just doesn't make sense in the context of this faction pack for them to run stores.
What is your plan to have those plots occupied? Captives / slaves cannot man stores either. Outposts don't have settlers as they're all nuked when the Outpost is captured. It would be frustrating as a player to not have store plots in the HQ.
5. Is there a way to change the limit of recruits spawned each day (Default max seems to be 5)? My soldiers by design or weak and easily lost, I want to balance this by letting outposts rapidly fill back up.
A concern is if the recruits are too brittle, early raids and defense missions are more likely to fail. At least 1 recruit / soldier has to survive an assault for it to be successful and if they're all wiped out in defense, bad things happen. I haven't lost a defense of HQ quest yet, so I'm not sure what 'bad things' means and I don't wanna find out either! :)
 
What is your plan to have those plots occupied? Captives / slaves cannot man stores either. Outposts don't have settlers as they're all nuked when the Outpost is captured. It would be frustrating as a player to not have store plots in the HQ.

According to the tutorial documentation, faction specific civilian npcs can be recruited in an outpost along side soldier npcs by setting up a recruitment beacon. They come in much slower then soldiers do via the resource system (max 1/day vs max 5/day).

A concern is if the recruits are too brittle, early raids and defense missions are more likely to fail. At least 1 recruit / soldier has to survive an assault for it to be successful and if they're all wiped out in defense, bad things happen. I haven't lost a defense of HQ quest yet, so I'm not sure what 'bad things' means and I don't wanna find out either! :)

Yep, their individual weakness is countered by having larger numbers of them. The resources I have setup for recruiting them is cheap and plentiful. In my tests the only thing holding it back is the time it takes to recruit a decent number thanks to the 5/day limit. Spending a few days just waiting on recruits has worked well for me but it greatly slows things down so I'd like to raise the 5/day limit.

It's still a little harder then with Jammer's raiders but it has been an enjoyable challenge for me at least.
 
Progress Regarding #1
1. The script file you need access to and the template object you need to extend are part of Conqueror (unlike all previous templates needed). So Conqueror needs to be loaded in the creation kit as a requirement.
2. You need to extend the "kSIM_BountyPost_Template".
3. And add the new "kSIM_BountyPost_Template" record to the "kSIM_BountiesDefault" form list.

What I don't know and what may not be possible yet is:
1. How to mark a bounty post as part of a specific faction.
2. How to specify under what conditions a bounty should be made available.
3. How to specify what quest to start when a bounty post is picked up.

I think these three are set as properties in the script file "BountyPostStatus" but I can't find the source code for that script nor am I able to check the property values used by existing BountyPosts that use the script.

I'm at a bit of dead end, any ideas?
 
I put a link to this thread in the Discord channel. Hopefully someone there will read it and come to your rescue. :)
 
Hi, exciting to see a new faction pack coming along!
In general, you don't need to make Conqueror a master file to your esp (since Conqueror is an esp this is a bit of an obnoxious process). Load Conqueror along with your esp and make duplicates of any records you may need, renaming them with your own prefix.
The Faction Pack Toolkit pdf's have all the info, but it can be a lot to start with so I'll point out which sections are relevant for what below.

Starting with the Bounty Posts:
  • The template object you need for the note is in Sim Settlements (kgsim_) which you will have as a master, so just copy and rename this with your prefix. The script is in Conqueror so you need to extract this if you don't have Conqueror loaded with your esp. Just follow the instructions in Extra - Bounty Posts.pdf under 4a).
  • This note goes into your formlist (not the kgsim_) and you link this formlist in the properties of your addon script, steps 6-20 in the pdf.
  • I think your next three bounty questions are because you can't see the script. Once you have extracted it (as in 4a, or loaded Conqueror with your esp in the creation kit) you will have access to a lot of properties, and then you can do all kinds of fun stuff:
  • -- "How to mark a bounty post as part of a specific faction" --> 4b)
  • -- "How to specify under what conditions a bounty should be made available." --> section after 5), under Requirements > GlobalRequirements , Requirements > iMinPlayerLevel -, Requirements > QuestRequirments
  • -- "How to specify what quest to start when a bounty post is picked up" --> 4c, QuestToStart
Edit: I'll continue to answer your other questions below, but I'm a slow writer ;) I think most will work out once you get the script extracted, so if 4a doesn't get you there I'm happy to walk you through getting the script out in more detail.
 
@Tinuvia you're awesome. Thanks.
I love your Atom's Children faction pack as opponents so much I'm gonna go with them as my main faction on my next play through. So good.
 
Hi, exciting to see a new faction pack coming along!
In general, you don't need to make Conqueror a master file to your esp (since Conqueror is an esp this is a bit of an obnoxious process). Load Conqueror along with your esp and make duplicates of any records you may need, renaming them with your own prefix.
The Faction Pack Toolkit pdf's have all the info, but it can be a lot to start with so I'll point out which sections are relevant for what below.

Starting with the Bounty Posts:
  • The template object you need for the note is in Sim Settlements (kgsim_) which you will have as a master, so just copy and rename this with your prefix. The script is in Conqueror so you need to extract this if you don't have Conqueror loaded with your esp. Just follow the instructions in Extra - Bounty Posts.pdf under 4a).
  • This note goes into your formlist (not the kgsim_) and you link this formlist in the properties of your addon script, steps 6-20 in the pdf.
  • I think your next three bounty questions are because you can't see the script. Once you have extracted it (as in 4a, or loaded Conqueror with your esp in the creation kit) you will have access to a lot of properties, and then you can do all kinds of fun stuff:
  • -- "How to mark a bounty post as part of a specific faction" --> 4b)
  • -- "How to specify under what conditions a bounty should be made available." --> section after 5), under Requirements > GlobalRequirements , Requirements > iMinPlayerLevel -, Requirements > QuestRequirments
  • -- "How to specify what quest to start when a bounty post is picked up" --> 4c, QuestToStart
Edit: I'll continue to answer your other questions below, but I'm a slow writer ;) I think most will work out once you get the script extracted, so if 4a doesn't get you there I'm happy to walk you through getting the script out in more detail.

Ah that's perfect, thank you very much!

Not sure how I missed the Extra tutorial PDFs but they are gold mine. The Special Units one especially, it solves question #3 perfectly as well.
 
yes, those Extra pdfs have all the weird fun stuff ;)

2) Disable the ability for soldiers and citizens to work stores:

This can definitely be done, I’m guessing that the Mirelurk faction pack doesn’t tend to stores either. You might put it in the description of your mod so players know what to expect - as Rudy says, it might be confusing since this isn't the default for cities. I haven’t tried this, but I think the stores in the city plans will only build up if there are civilians there to occupy them – so if you don’t set the workshopvendor factions on the npc template you use those plots might not get built? Then there won't be enough jobs in the city (which could influence upgrades). Though I have had a settler I made to only be an armor vendor work a clinic when I manually assigned her, so I think this will have to be a bit of trial and error on your part. But it’s your faction, and even if it means that stores won’t build in the cities your faction controls, the player has plenty of other options (Diamond city, if no other ;) ). There might be other issues with how cities upgrade, since the cities need to generate more caps than it consumes to upgrade (but I think the player can bypass this in the settings).
 
3. recruit soldiers
This is, as you have found, dealt with in the Special Unit pdf. However, recruiting npcs that already exist in the world is the most advanced of the options and only recommended for advanced authors. You need to know your way around Papyrus. If you have already done some scripting for Fallout 4, I can help you, but I would still recommend that you first set up one of the other recruitment methods - the easiest apart from the radio is to make a plot that generates recruits. This might help with your last question too.
 
yes, those Extra pdfs have all the weird fun stuff ;)

2) Disable the ability for soldiers and citizens to work stores:

This can definitely be done, I’m guessing that the Mirelurk faction pack doesn’t tend to stores either. You might put it in the description of your mod so players know what to expect - as Rudy says, it might be confusing since this isn't the default for cities. I haven’t tried this, but I think the stores in the city plans will only build up if there are civilians there to occupy them – so if you don’t set the workshopvendor factions on the npc template you use those plots might not get built? Then there won't be enough jobs in the city (which could influence upgrades). Though I have had a settler I made to only be an armor vendor work a clinic when I manually assigned her, so I think this will have to be a bit of trial and error on your part. But it’s your faction, and even if it means that stores won’t build in the cities your faction controls, the player has plenty of other options (Diamond city, if no other ;) ). There might be other issues with how cities upgrade, since the cities need to generate more caps than it consumes to upgrade (but I think the player can bypass this in the settings).

Great! I hadn't found any issues with this setup but Sim Settlements is a beast of a mod and I was worried I had planted a time bomb.

The player will be able to recruit NPCs that can work stores but not until they unlock (What I now know are) Special Units via a bounty quest. It just makes more sense for the faction and I hope it will give the player a sense of progression.

3. recruit soldiers
This is, as you have found, dealt with in the Special Unit pdf. However, recruiting npcs that already exist in the world is the most advanced of the options and only recommended for advanced authors. You need to know your way around Papyrus. If you have already done some scripting for Fallout 4, I can help you, but I would still recommend that you first set up one of the other recruitment methods - the easiest apart from the radio is to make a plot that generates recruits. This might help with your last question too.

The papyrus scripting doesn't worry me overly much. God knows it can't be worse then some of the scripting I had to do for my Clipboard mod a couple years ago. (Apparently I can't create links, but its over on the Nexus)

Using plots to supplement recruitment is an interesting idea. I'll have to add that to my list of things to explore.

Thanks again!
 
4-5) recruitment resources, limit of recruits spawned each day
I have to test this myself, but I think that you can have special units outside of the 5/day that the radio recruits. You can also set it so that the player can recruit even if they don't have enough Wages/Rations/Equipment, but if you recruit many this way I think you might get into trouble keeping morale and control. You could consider using Virtual Units, like Maul's doggies in the Raider questline of Conqueror. This way, the player's system won't get bugged down by too many npcs in an outpost.

A fair warning though - the Conqueror system is much tighter balanced than the regular Sim Settlements. So anytime you deviate from the norm, your faction may disturb the balance when the player has several faction packs set up owning cities in the world. I guess in the long run, changes like this make the factions more unique. My experience working with Sim Settlements since 2017 is that it is easier to try to stick as close to the core game play mechanics as possible. Especially since it's ever evolving with kinggath and the team adding new functionality all the time.
 
I saw you asked for an invite to the Builder's Discord, excellent! I can't give invites but hopefully someone who can will soon.

6) exclusively use certain residential plots in an outpost
You can lock building plans you have made for use of a certain faction or even a certain npc (or type of npc). The thing that will most impact the player's games though is to make building plan skins for existing Sim Settlements plots used in the RoTC (or City Plan Contest) city plans. This way, the residential plots will automatically change to your look when your faction takes over. You can make simple changes such as adding items or completely redo the entire structure, furniture, decorations, everything. It's a big undertaking but makes a huge impact.
 
Thanks! With the new information I was able to flush out the rest of the factions design, now to get back to implementing it, I have a lot of work to do...

I have the design detailed along with an outline of all the bounty quests in a google doc. I can't link it here but if anyone is interested hit me up in Discord (Strucker#9599) and I'll send the link, feedback is always welcome.
 
I can't link it here but if anyone is interested hit me up in Discord.
Great! Usually one needs a few (4?) likes before being able to post links, just to stop spam accounts. But you should have passed that already - I wonder if this section of the forums for some reason is set up differently? If you only tried to link in your first post it could be worth it to try again.

The Sim Settlements forums are great for getting feedback from the expert SimS players, some have been around for years. The Discord is great for more technical feedback on your addon.
 
Great! Usually one needs a few (4?) likes before being able to post links, just to stop spam accounts. But you should have passed that already - I wonder if this section of the forums for some reason is set up differently? If you only tried to link in your first post it could be worth it to try again.

The Sim Settlements forums are great for getting feedback from the expert SimS players, some have been around for years. The Discord is great for more technical feedback on your addon.

Yeah, it also requires the account had been made more then 2 days ago, so tomorrow I can start posting links. (A reasonable requirement)

When I can I'll post a link to the design doc in the Conqueror forum and see what people there think.

The mod is going to take a while to finish, especially once work starts back up but at least I know everything I need to do now!
 
Ah I see. Looking forward to see what you have planned!
 
Nice! Very thorough without crushing it all with too many details. A LOT are completed. Sweet!
 
wow, lots going on. Tinuvia is a whole other level above me and was able to roll out a thorough faction pack from release. for me, just not possible. i've tried to 'modularize' my faction pack. there are upsides and downsides to any approach but find that since i'm a mediocre modder it's a way to keep the effort more manageable and to keep momentum.

look forward to seeing your faction pack
 
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