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Suggestion Option for City Plans and Maintance Cost

Apollo_ger

New Member
Messages
9
I think it would be great if you could either disable the maintance cost that are associatedwith objects placed by City plans or a option to not place those objects.

Here is why:
When you upgrade a cityplan various generators, turrets and water purifiers are placed and the maintance cost of this will often rise to -150 or above. This can not be sustained by a normal city which will generate between 30 to 80.

Removing the placed objects by hand is also not a viable stratagie since some of the objects are realy hard to find. And some items like turrets cant be removed at all. Also Water Purifiers are often integrated in the design and removing them would degrade the appearence of the city.
 
It might not be quite what you are after but you can turn off maintenance costs for a particular settlement in the local options in the city planner.
 
Yes i know that i have done that for the settlments that get so many objects added that ther is no hope ever getting this in taxes but it of cause doesnt realy solve the problem it just disables the feature i want to use and realy like which is a shame
 
Maybe the answer here is just to tune the costs? I have been thinking they could use a balance pass. Some items, like the Fusion Generator, seem to have an enormous "fuel" cost - but Fusion generators being nigh-immortal is a Fallout trope (it's why we find so many things that still have power), and the FG workshop item has a high investment in both materials and perk points (Science 4, nontrivial mats). I built one specifically expecting it to be the most efficient form of power with the lowest, if not negated, ongoing costs. Instead, my expenses shot up.

On that note, I dunno if this is easily doable, but it would be awesome if I could see the maintenance costs of items in-game. Especially before I place them ;) , so I can plan around them. I'm not sure which costs what, so if I have a city income of X I don't know what's smart to place and what should wait, until I do, and then go check the report.

All that said: I am not sure if the design intent is to require the player to make periodic contributions? Or are high-end cities meant to be sustainable? I am definitely getting more than 30-80 caps income at my settlements, but they're still not keeping up with the expenses required to meet needs.

Even in a game where I have nerfed the player's ability to make caps, I am not having too much trouble keeping settlements fed. I don't mind the concept, but since there's no way I know of to check on them remotely, I have to keep track of how many days' worth of caps I've given each place and make sure to "make the rounds" before they run out - with lots of settlements all over, it starts to get a little busy.

Still, even if the player is meant to contribute, tuning the costs down a little would reduce the frequency of needing to visit just to donate.
 
turrets costs are their defence rating, and generators costs are the power they generate. So, fusion generator maintenance cost would be 100 caps a day
 
See that's what I mean - the gas generators take gas to produce 3, 5 or 10 power. The fusion generator does not take fusion poured into it :).

Also, the laser turrets are powered - they could have a reduced cost as well, or they are "double dipping" their cost from their ammo requirement as well as their power requirement. The Heavy MG and the basic Laser both provide 8 defense, but the Laser also requires 2 power.

I say all this as someone who plays on Survival with many mods that make things harder.

Like ferinstance: 10 large gas generators is the same power output as 1 Fusion reactor, but the Reactor requires Science 4 and a ton of high-value mats. Yet they cost the same maintenance. My Starlight has a pretty good income, over 20 settlers, several level 3 businesses - but it can't cover its own costs.
 
yeah maintenance cost could be redone but kinggath said many times It was the best that came to his mind in that time, asked for help and no better ideas appeared.
in the end, maintenance cost are not just the fuel or whatever, It is The cost for having better equipment.
you can have 30 small generators if you want, but you also have to put them somewhere. Or replace them with plots (they have no mainance cost) or windmills.
 
Another option is to download the city planners toolkit
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/30168. You can use the project blueprint mods contained in it to build your own preferred generator and attach a power connector (in resources menu) of whatever power level you wish (and they don't cost any maintenance). That way you can set up whatever balance you think appropriate. The huge amount of extra build-able objects is great to play with.
 
I didn't understand any of that, but maybe it will make sense after I look at the toolkit...

Still, it comes down to the question: are the settlements meant to be self-sufficient, or not?
 
some city plans relay on caravans. It depends on the design. for example, rotc red rocket doesn't have any food.
and some can have 0 maintenance costs if they have only material plots and windmills
 
None of my plans will cost you money once they are level 3. (Occasional fluctuating needs from SS not withstanding). Generally though with my plans, you may need to babysit and donate to the lower levels to prevent them from going into the red, but fully upgraded L3 is cash positive in most cases, or cash neutral in others.

Please keep in mind that my plans are designed to be interdependent. Some plans are exporters (food, water, caps ...), and others are importers (food, water).
 
Please keep in mind that my plans are designed to be interdependent.
Yar, I remember that from RotC notes in general - Red Rocket being kind of a barracks, for example, and needing to be supplied with food. It's a neat idea, I like it. I suppose simply saying "self-sufficient" isn't entirely accurate; I mean just in terms of caps maintenance, and how much the player should be involved / how much a thriving Level 3 or equivalent manually-planned city should be able to pay for itself.

You can make a case about the energy turrets, for example, currently having a double cost... but you can make a case for anything, that's why lawyers are rich. I think mostly the costs feel fine. I think the only thing I'd really change is the Fusion generator's cost. The rest I'm sure are fine.

My expectation was that my ongoing costs for that city would reduce since I was no longer gassing up old Yamaha engines ;), once I placed it, and instead they shot up. Maybe I can give it an enchantment or something that lowers settlement maintenance, or something, so's not have to rewire the whole costs system...

I'm thinking of Survival players like myself who have to make the rounds to keep everyone capped up, so to speak. It feels like an advanced, thriving settlement with lots of goodies shouldn't still need me to be feeding it cash. And it's mostly the Fusion Generator (every hip town has one y'know) that knocks it askew.
 
I'm thinking of Survival players like myself who have to make the rounds to keep everyone capped up, so to speak. It feels like an advanced, thriving settlement with lots of goodies shouldn't still need me to be feeding it cash.
When I do play, I play on survival mode, so my plans are tailored for that. Obviously not all designers do.

However, as you are talking about fusion generators costing caps, I suspect that you aren't using plans, and are building it yourself. In that case, try some of the power generating plots, and see if that helps.
 
try some of the power generating plots, and see if that helps.

Power generation isn't the issue - it's more the aesthetics of having a large enough town that built their own fusion gen instead of a bunch of old, variously-sized gas engines - and the expectation I had that working up to it, with the perks and mats, would cut my costs as the most efficient form of power.

However, as this doesn't seem to be a perception widely shared, I suppose I'll just have to change it for my games :). I have a mod that adds solar panels, and these seem to cost no maintenance at all; so the cost isn't hardwired to power generation, so I'm assuming I'll be able to edit the costs or something.
 
I think the only thing I'd really change is the Fusion generator's cost. The rest I'm sure are fine.

Power generation isn't the issue - it's more the aesthetics of having a large enough town that built their own fusion gen instead of a bunch of old, variously-sized gas engines - and the expectation I had that working up to it, with the perks and mats, would cut my costs as the most efficient form of power.

I agree that the fusion generator is in a frustrating spot. You can only build one after the 4th Perk in Science (mid to late game) and a frugal manager would only build one in a settlement that's at least close to being able to cover the costs of running one. But to get a settlement to the point where you could afford to run one you'd already need to have provided enough power anyway which makes the fusion generator mostly an aesthetic afterthought. I mean a smart city manager might replace existing generators with a fusion generator, but trying to get a settlement off the ground with one would be a caps sink and probably just bankrupt you. Add to this that a power plot placed early game will have probably fully leveled by the time you could even build a fusion generator and it wouldn't just save you caps, but it would make them as well.

I've haven't built a gas generator or fusion generator since the maintenance cost system was introduced: I'm a cheapskate. Every settlement starts with one windmill to get a logistics station and a couple of other plots going. One of these others usually is a power plot. The Vault-Tec Tools Add-On's Cool Fusion plot is my go to at the moment, unless aesthetic choices demand another. It's as close looks-wise to the fusion generator as you can get in a Industrial Plot.

If the maintenance cost was cut for fusion generators, would I use one? I don't know. I'd probably still have built power plots in most settlements and wouldn't need one. But I could see a case where I might place fusion generator and switch a power plot over to something else. Down here in steerage class, I mean here on the Xbox, plot count is rather limited. Not needing to build certain plots opens up spots for fun and just messing around.
 
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