Old Post [SOLVED] Reasonable SimSettlements config for 500+ mod setup on PC

[LJacquard]

I'm playing with a heavy mod set up (understand 500+ mods) on PC (Win10x64, 16Go RAM, 1080 8Go VRAM, Steam+Mods on SSD). None of these are of the scope of SimSettlements of course, mainly some large quests mods and location overhauls.

Now I've read about script limitations here. I was wondering what a reasonable SimSettlements set up would be for me. Does the following me remain within the range of the acceptable :

• SimSettlements (obviously)
• Mega Pack Year 1
• Mega Pack Year 2
• ROTC complex city plans (all of them)
• + smaller helper mods (like maintenance software, logistic stations, etc.)

if I plan for the long term (100+ hours playthrough) ?

Or maybe replace "Mega Pack Year 2" by "Sim Settlements - Wasteland Venturers AIO" ?

I've removed Conqueror from my load order at the moment, but I'll certainly want to add it again (with its requirements) once more faction mods are established. Will this cause an overload ?

Your valuable advice would be welcome, thank you.

 

[MrCJohn]

Overload? Nah, just change it to about 250 mods of varying pant suits or something, you will be fine. or call a firetruck.

Large quest mods might be the problem. Running Sim Settlements alone is pretty script heavy by itself. you can always try it see what happens. Run it till she breaks. I once had 1,000 something mods installed... lots of insignificants, still below 254 ... till I learned about making patches and using FO4xEdit...

Playing survival, I don't fast travel, so walking into a cell jerks the screen sometimes... fast travel would be a CTD. Especially in the Sanctuary/Red Rocket/Abernathy triangle of doom, despair and death.

Incidentally, I run 1080TI with 32gb ram and I will even turn down from Ultra to high with Sim Settlements as I get into higher level RoTC cities. Starlight is a killer for me at higher levels, even with my 4 month old system. When I set my FPS to 60 and vsync, and it goes down from solid 60 for about most everywhere else, and then go down to 32 to 35... ? eh, it's whatever you want. I also do not use one settlement all the time as a place to stay. Playing survival stop over places is more valuable to me than a highly decorated city. Mine generally are pretty scrappy and functional...

If you do this, one recommendation, definitely stay below the 15 settlers per city... Once I wasn't paying attention and my game came to a screeching halt... basically, around Starlight. Couldn't find out why the game slowed so much... turns out I had messed with the ignore charisma or something like that, and I had 72 settlers in Starlight... I sent them to other settlements which cured the problem in that particular cell.

Other opinions may vary.
John

 

[RayBo]

Overload? Nah, just change it to about 250 mods of varying pant suits or something, you will be fine. or call a firetruck.

Large quest mods might be the problem. Running Sim Settlements alone is pretty script heavy by itself. you can always try it see what happens. Run it till she breaks. I once had 1,000 something mods installed... lots of insignificants, still below 254 ... till I learned about making patches and using FO4xEdit...

Playing survival, I don't fast travel, so walking into a cell jerks the screen sometimes... fast travel would be a CTD. Especially in the Sanctuary/Red Rocket/Abernathy triangle of doom, despair and death.

Incidentally, I run 1080TI with 32gb ram and I will even turn down from Ultra to high with Sim Settlements as I get into higher level RoTC cities. Starlight is a killer for me at higher levels, even with my 4 month old system. When I set my FPS to 60 and vsync, and it goes down from solid 60 for about most everywhere else, and then go down to 32 to 35... ? eh, it's whatever you want. I also do not use one settlement all the time as a place to stay. Playing survival stop over places is more valuable to me than a highly decorated city. Mine generally are pretty scrappy and functional...

If you do this, one recommendation, definitely stay below the 15 settlers per city... Once I wasn't paying attention and my game came to a screeching halt... basically, around Starlight. Couldn't find out why the game slowed so much... turns out I had messed with the ignore charisma or something like that, and I had 72 settlers in Starlight... I sent them to other settlements which cured the problem in that particular cell.

Other opinions may vary.
John

Similar computer specs, even the card, but I have two in sli. ha, and this joke is on me.
Being I play Fo4, the sli is next to meaningless and not a good use of the money. After a certain point with Fo4 I truly believe that pc specs mean less and less. The game engine itself will be the limiting factor.

Everything @MrCJohn is what what I have also observed in my own games, same with his advice, settler counts and management, FPS quotes and recommendations.

But for the record, I have never used 1000 mods, not even 500. Even with just around 400 using an m.2 drive it feels like driving a cement truck uphill just to load the game.

I think you are pushing limits that you will never really know until you try.

Still, would like to hear how it goes and with what mods.

A link that I use when installing a new game:

https://simsettlements.com/site/index.php?threads/baking-a-saved-game-bags.9447/#post-65660

 

[LJacquard]

(snip)

Perfect, and exactly the kind of advice I was looking for.

I didn't mean to tout my horn with 500 (or whatever) mods, but simply to make it obvious that I was interested in the feedback of players with an equally heavy load order built to have-it-all : quests, location overhauls, NPC overhaul, clothing overhaul, weapon mods, combat overhaul, you name it, and of course SimSettlements. Sorry if it came out otherwise.

I'm fairly sure there are people going way beyond 500, but I expect there to be some serious engine issues sooner or later, so I don't want to tempt the devil. I honestly prefer to play and enjoy my games, rather than breaking world records (no pun intended).

I also enjoy the concept of smaller settlements with one central hub feeding them, as was shown in one of the SimSettlements videos I think, or maybe on the Nexus. It makes more sense to me that the post-war Commonwealth still struggles to simply survive with what is left, so I will definitely set max difficulty to avoid recruiting and levelling the settlements too fast.

I'll also downsize my load order once Conqueror releases in full capacity, as I expect that to be even more performance intensive with contested settlements. I can't wait to play it! Hopefully I should have finished most large quest mods by then.

Thank you again, your post was appreciated.

 

[LJacquard]

(snip)

Oh, I think I know perfectly what you mean. Even just loading my whole load order in xEDIT to filter it for navmesh conflicts for example sure gets the fan spinning. Nothing like that happens with other, more recent games, and my machine is less than a year old. Must be a Bethesda thing, to make themselves noticed on the market.

More seriously, I'm amazed that they managed to upgrade their engine to the point that we can now theoretically load up to 3000 (ESL-flagged) mods before it goes belly up. I'm going to stress theoretically, because someone on Reddit ran into issues with the game refusing to acknowledge more than 500 BA2 archives.

Anyway, I'm not even going to try. I wanted advice on where I should set my limit, and I'm going to stick to what you both seem to recommend, for the sake of my own sanity. Modding is fun, yes, but actually playing isn't half bad either

After a certain point with Fo4 I truly believe that pc specs mean less and less. The game engine itself will be the limiting factor.

I believe these to be wise words one should aim never to forget.

Best regards.

 

[MrCJohn]

[QUOTE="RayBo,

https://simsettlements.com/site/index.php?threads/baking-a-saved-game-bags.9447/#post-65660[/QUOTE]

RayBo is absolutely correct. The engine is the limiter. Would be nice if we could build a Fallout 4 world where everything is true, and that for immersion, we do need all these/those mods. That is a trap when it comes to the engine.

Currently I am under the 254 without many ESL files. I do convert patches and small items into ESP/ESL files in xEdit… mostly things like Radrose, some clothing sets, enhanced blood, Valdicil's etc...

I also got rid of all the texture mods by following BiRaitBec's load order list … I cannot endorse this guy's work and files ENOUGH he helps you use, the tools setup like Fallout Configuration and Bethini … I strongly recommend people follow and use his work. Some won't like his choices, but 99% will be "satisfied" with the results in-game - even if they don't like some of his textures choices... we can't have what we really want due to the engine... so we have to love what works.

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/23556

I found it isn't necessarily just the mods affecting the game, but also once I get to around 200 mods installed, Nexus Mod Manager starts grinding to a halt (latest version of GitHub).

But to be honest, even before modding, the vanilla game would come to a grinding halt once you had all the settlements and built everywhere. Even before our new super computers compared to those we had 5 years ago at launch of Fallout 4.

Even with my 1080TI, take the station under Boston Library. Handles it well. However, add one little lighting mod, such as vending machine lighting, and I am down to 10fps. No sh*t …. just adding neon lights or lighting to the nuka cola machines can crash a system.

And who would have thought just a mod affecting xml spreadsheet files, would end up destroying a race car into that dump truck.

And as much as I love Sim Settlements, the pre-builds for conqueror - where it should / could be, even tonight playing, script lagging with all my other mods is showing. And I just got to Dogmeat at Red Rocket. Maybe I already have to drop down from Ultra... maybe telling Sim Settlements I am on Ultra is not the right thing to do. But as I am mostly testing at the moment, configuring before I go to Jammer, I don't feel so bad about it …

It is the soup we are in. No matter how much we want to change the soup, the carrots are here to stay!

John