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Quickstart Tutorial, Common Issues, and Recommended Mods

I'm glad you figured it out. I'm still stuck on building myself >..< I think that I built half of my settlement wrong. I don't know what I'm doing. I thought that I was suppose to decorate the interiors too but it won't let me move or scrap stuff. I'm confused all over again. Btw, this my first time using SS2.
The plots come decorated by the plot developer it's their vision they are showcasing. Plots will change decor as they level. You don't scrap any of it unless you want to ditch the Asam or power pole. Those scrap. But decor is placed by the plot dev.
 
When I go to my workbench to export my city plan I don't have an export option.
When I select Manage>Settlement Layout the only option I have is Build/Manage Layouts.
I double-checked and made sure my WSFW was up to date and I has the most recent version of F4SE installed and both of those were fine.
Is there anything else I can try in order to start exporting my city plan?
 
When I go to my workbench to export my city plan I don't have an export option.
When I select Manage>Settlement Layout the only option I have is Build/Manage Layouts.
I double-checked and made sure my WSFW was up to date and I has the most recent version of F4SE installed and both of those were fine.
Is there anything else I can try in order to start exporting my city plan?
If Export isn't showing up, it means WSFW is failing to detect F4SE for some reason. I'd recommend reinstalling both manually by downloading then and extracting their respective zip files. For WSFW, you'll put the files in Fallout 4\Data, and F4SE in your Fallout 4 folder.

Likely one or the other is missing some key file in your install, perhaps a mod manager problem - either way, a manual install should resolve it.
 
Basic Mod List for City Planners

Required

F4SE
Workshop Framework
Sim Settlements 2
City Plan Contest Assistant

Recommended
HUD Framework
Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch
Place Everywhere
Wasteland Reconstruction Kit

Additional
Any Sim Settlements 2 Addon Packs
Longer Power Lines
Workshop Plus

Do Not Use
Mods that expand what you can scrap, such as Scrap Everything.

Load Order
Of the above mods, so long as Workshop Framework comes AFTER the Unofficial Patch, you will be fine.

Other Mods
You can use any mods you like, but a few words of advice on choosing what to use in your City Plan save.

1) If you use other workshop item mods, players will likely end up with a lot of missing items when using your plan, as people using City Plans generally don't want to install a bunch of extra mods - fortunately the Wasteland Reconstruction Kit has over 10,000 items to build with!

2) Large load orders can lead to instability, and you definitely don't want save corruption after putting in tons of work on a settlement design!
kinggath, when I try to export my settlement, I get a CTD every time it hits 60%. Any idea what might be causing that? Thankyou
 
kinggath, when I try to export my settlement, I get a CTD every time it hits 60%. Any idea what might be causing that? Thankyou
I recently had a similar issue with Sanctuary reaching around 68% then CTD.
If you have Clean and Raze My Settlement mods, try disabling the plugins before you export. Then re-enable and return to a pre-export save.

Let us know either way, (so I can tell if it's just me or if it needs further investigation).
 
Edit: I'm sorry if I didn't post this in the correct thread, but I wasn't sure where tbh.
I've got a few questions about city building. But first, Yay! I have been waiting for part 2 and city building, and I am such a fan of kinggath and the incredible team y'all have built. It's been amazing watching all this come to pass and it's because of you that I continue to play Fallout 4 at all. So thank you, thank you, thank you, for the inspiration, the enjoyment and for adding some 2,500 of my almost 4K hours of my life spent in this game! :blum

Quick Background: I've been building obnoxious city plans for myself with SSI for years. All the mods... always testing the limits of the game, SSI and my own patience. Over the years, I've begun to prefer not using plots much, sort of creating my own in game, now using blueprints via Workshop+ to layout portions of my settlements. Now, I've setup what appears to be a stable playground to create a mixture of plans (some for me with a bunch of mods used, some I might decide to post - never have before, and maybe even a contest entry sometime).

Actual questions:
1) Can I (sort of, mostly) continue this practice? I'm thinking a focus on residential and commercial (and even some agricultural) that are my own creations in game. *I know I should learn to make plots, but with a day job and a side-hustle, it's a miracle I get to play at all. Man... what I'd do to be able to place 'one of them thingamajigs' on a plot created in game and assign stats to it! (digressional dreaming.... sigh)
2) Will SS2 mechanics be okay with my faux plots? Will it assign peeps, consider resources? (although that's not a must for me). Basically, will it allow for me to play SS2 parts 1 and 2 without fracking up the experience?
3) And... should I decide to post a city plan built in this manner, will others be able to actually use and enjoy it?
4) Finally, for a few of my preferred settlements and my own enjoyment of the game, let's say I build a base level that's a Transfer Settlements blueprint with no SS2 plots and then add some SS2 plots to flesh out my city -- will that work? Again, will things get assigned and the gameplay function?

Thanks in advance for reading this far. I'm so excited to dig in and play part 2 and be able to build cities!
 
I recently had a similar issue with Sanctuary reaching around 68% then CTD.
If you have Clean and Raze My Settlement mods, try disabling the plugins before you export. Then re-enable and return to a pre-export save.

Let us know either way, (so I can tell if it's just me or if it needs further investigation).
I would also like to know if Raze My Settlement is an issue. Watching this one.
 
Actual questions:
1) Can I (sort of, mostly) continue this practice? I'm thinking a focus on residential and commercial (and even some agricultural) that are my own creations in game. *I know I should learn to make plots, but with a day job and a side-hustle, it's a miracle I get to play at all. Man... what I'd do to be able to place 'one of them thingamajigs' on a plot created in game and assign stats to it! (digressional dreaming.... sigh)
2) Will SS2 mechanics be okay with my faux plots? Will it assign peeps, consider resources? (although that's not a must for me). Basically, will it allow for me to play SS2 parts 1 and 2 without fracking up the experience?
3) And... should I decide to post a city plan built in this manner, will others be able to actually use and enjoy it?
4) Finally, for a few of my preferred settlements and my own enjoyment of the game, let's say I build a base level that's a Transfer Settlements blueprint with no SS2 plots and then add some SS2 plots to flesh out my city -- will that work? Again, will things get assigned and the gameplay function?
You probably know this but just to clarify, SS1 & SS2 are NOT compatible, its one or the other so make sure that is your starting point.
1) If I understand workshop+ blueprints correctly then yes, you should be able to continue using your creations.
2) As long as you are using base game assets then the auto assign should work. It tends to prioritize plot assignments of others but it still gets assigned.
3) Probably. There are a number of city plans that use both SS2 plots and non plots in their builds. I don't see as reason as to why it wouldn't work for you.
4) Again, this should be fine. What you are describing is sometimes call a city plan foundation or sometimes a level 0 (although sometimes these do include plots).

I hope these answers help. If there are others feel free to ask.
As for making your own plots, just consider it a different kind of gameplay. Instead of playing building in FO4, you are playing building in the Creation Kit. There are some great tutorials and the SS2 add on community is always helpful and happy to help new members.
 
You probably know this but just to clarify, SS1 & SS2 are NOT compatible, its one or the other so make sure that is your starting point.
1) If I understand workshop+ blueprints correctly then yes, you should be able to continue using your creations.
2) As long as you are using base game assets then the auto assign should work. It tends to prioritize plot assignments of others but it still gets assigned.
3) Probably. There are a number of city plans that use both SS2 plots and non plots in their builds. I don't see as reason as to why it wouldn't work for you.
4) Again, this should be fine. What you are describing is sometimes call a city plan foundation or sometimes a level 0 (although sometimes these do include plots).

I hope these answers help. If there are others feel free to ask.
As for making your own plots, just consider it a different kind of gameplay. Instead of playing building in FO4, you are playing building in the Creation Kit. There are some great tutorials and the SS2 add on community is always helpful and happy to help new members.
Fantastic! Yeah, when SS2 first came out, I began thinking of that zero layer as a blueprint (so I could use that TS blueprint in either version). Then I took a break when I realized I couldn't build cities yet. I had been so stuck on using Clean and Simple for so many years... it was super-tough to let it go. But now I have in all but three settlements, so this will be a big test for me to see how few mods I can use in my builds. Thanks for taking the time to reply; and btdubs: I love your work.
Creation Kit scares me! But I have thought of giving it a whirl it many, many times.
 
I would also like to know if Raze My Settlement is an issue. Watching this one.
I know Whisper updated Clean and Raze since my experience, so it may not be an issues still, but it is a good thing to keep in mind if you do have ctd when esporting
 
I know Whisper updated Clean and Raze since my experience, so it may not be an issues still, but it is a good thing to keep in mind if you do have ctd when esporting
Thanks for letting me know! Just building my first settlement now.
 
I decided to have a crack at planning a city, so I've followed all the instructions on the Wiki, downloaded and installed the recommended mods. I'm using the clean vault save (from the Contest Assistant mod). I go to Sanctuary and pick up the magazine to launch SS2 (as it's not showing in the workshop build menu), but the magazine doesn't include the necessary parts to build the beacon (my inventory doesn't update). I tried scavenging them and building, but no joy -- no Jake! I was running the current beta (23), so I wondered if that might be the problem, so I re-enabled the last "final" version of SS2 instead. Same problem. Please could someone help me figure out what I'm missing here?
 
but no joy -- no Jake!
I belive today we will getting live patches so it could have been an issue with the beta / WSFW. Being it will be a big patch and you are starting a new game I would restart a new clean save file after the "today Friday" & all the patches drop.

That said "the no-Jake" issue is normally a WSFW and SS2 version mismatch or WSFW not being placed above SS2 when starting a new game.

load:
WSFW
SS2

All that said, I would wait until all the patches drop today "including WSFW" and then restart. If LO was correct it was likely a mismatch of some kind.
 
Thanks. I will wait and see, but as I've been trying to fix the problem, I've hit a new one. I created a really simple list of mods and finally got the City Plan Contest Assistant to load, but kept getting a CTD everytime I hit "tab". A bit of digging suggested that DEF_UI was the problem, so I got rid of that, and now have the following very basic modlist:
  • City Plan Contest Assistant
  • F4SE
  • HUDFramework
  • Longer Power Lines 3x
  • Mod Configuration Menu
  • Place Everywhere
  • Settlement Menu Manager
  • Sim Settlements 2 - HUD Override
  • SS Beta 23
  • Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch
  • Workshop Framework
  • Workshop Plus
  • Clean My Settlement REDUX

-- I load the Clean Vault Save and get an error message from DEF_UI (which as you can see I don't have installed!) telling me I need to "make config XML". I assumed one of these mods relied on DEF_UI, which was causing the problem, but I've removed each one in turn and tried again -- same problem! Any suggestions?
 

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Thanks. I will wait and see, but as I've been trying to fix the problem, I've hit a new one. I created a really simple list of mods and finally got the City Plan Contest Assistant to load, but kept getting a CTD everytime I hit "tab". A bit of digging suggested that DEF_UI was the problem, so I got rid of that, and now have the following very basic modlist:
  • City Plan Contest Assistant
  • F4SE
  • HUDFramework
  • Longer Power Lines 3x
  • Mod Configuration Menu
  • Place Everywhere
  • Settlement Menu Manager
  • Sim Settlements 2 - HUD Override
  • SS Beta 23
  • Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch
  • Workshop Framework
  • Workshop Plus
  • Clean My Settlement REDUX

-- I load the Clean Vault Save and get an error message from DEF_UI (which as you can see I don't have installed!) telling me I need to "make config XML". I assumed one of these mods relied on DEF_UI, which was causing the problem, but I've removed each one in turn and tried again -- same problem! Any suggestions?
I re-installed DEF_UI and was given some options as I did. Now everything is running smoothly. Weird...
 
I re-installed DEF_UI and was given some options as I did. Now everything is running smoothly. Weird...
"-- I load the Clean Vault Save and get an error message from DEF_UI (which as you can see I don't have installed!) telling me I need to "make config XML". I assumed one of these mods relied on DEF_UI, which was causing the problem, but I've removed each one in turn and tried again -- same problem! Any suggestions?"

Yeah, I have seen that before.
If DEFUI has been removed then something in your LO has a patch for it. Like a patch you select when you install a mod with a built-in installer.
What can be hard to figure out is that patch may not show up in your LO and in-fact can be from a mod that has no esm/esp/esl.
When I had it, it was a mod in my mods tab. I had to disable everything in the mods tap not just the plug-ins tab to figure out which one it was.

At this point I suggest you disable all your mods in your mods tab.
Install SS2 according to this guide.
https://wiki.simsettlements2.com/en/getting-started/installation
After SS2 is working -
Then reinstall each one of your other mods to find the one with the installer that has the offending patch offered as a selection.
Lastly, when everything is working and if you feel you still want HUD/Inventory mgt mods then consider the FallUI mods. They are active and supported.

Sorry, after I replied I saw you had already responded and fixed it. :good good deal!
 
Thanks. I will wait and see, but as I've been trying to fix the problem, I've hit a new one. I created a really simple list of mods and finally got the City Plan Contest Assistant to load, but kept getting a CTD everytime I hit "tab". A bit of digging suggested that DEF_UI was the problem, so I got rid of that, and now have the following very basic modlist:
  • City Plan Contest Assistant
  • F4SE
  • HUDFramework
  • Longer Power Lines 3x
  • Mod Configuration Menu
  • Place Everywhere
  • Settlement Menu Manager
  • Sim Settlements 2 - HUD Override
  • SS Beta 23
  • Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch
  • Workshop Framework
  • Workshop Plus
  • Clean My Settlement REDUX

-- I load the Clean Vault Save and get an error message from DEF_UI (which as you can see I don't have installed!) telling me I need to "make config XML". I assumed one of these mods relied on DEF_UI, which was causing the problem, but I've removed each one in turn and tried again -- same problem! Any suggestions?
Are you intending to enter the city plan contest? if so that mod list will result in an invalid entry.
 
Are you intending to enter the city plan contest? if so that mod list will result in an invalid entry.
Thanks, but I'm not (yet): just learning more techniques first. But I assume Clean My Settlement is the only invalid mod?
 
"-- I load the Clean Vault Save and get an error message from DEF_UI (which as you can see I don't have installed!) telling me I need to "make config XML". I assumed one of these mods relied on DEF_UI, which was causing the problem, but I've removed each one in turn and tried again -- same problem! Any suggestions?"

Yeah, I have seen that before.
If DEFUI has been removed then something in your LO has a patch for it. Like a patch you select when you install a mod with a built-in installer.
What can be hard to figure out is that patch may not show up in your LO and in-fact can be from a mod that has no esm/esp/esl.
When I had it, it was a mod in my mods tab. I had to disable everything in the mods tap not just the plug-ins tab to figure out which one it was.

At this point I suggest you disable all your mods in your mods tab.
Install SS2 according to this guide.
https://wiki.simsettlements2.com/en/getting-started/installation
After SS2 is working -
Then reinstall each one of your other mods to find the one with the installer that has the offending patch offered as a selection.
Lastly, when everything is working and if you feel you still want HUD/Inventory mgt mods then consider the FallUI mods. They are active and supported.

Sorry, after I replied I saw you had already responded and fixed it. :good good deal!
Thanks anyway. It's really useful to know what I'm looking for if the problem recurs
 
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