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Question Some basic questions from a new player

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67
Hey there! I've got 3 things

My Game info in case it's relevant (I'm sure it's not)
System: Windows 10
Mod Organizer: Vortex
Launcher: F4SE
DLC: *None*
Some possibly relevant Mods:
- Sim Settlements (obviously)
- Workshop Framework and Workshop Plus
- Place everywhere
- Settler Sandbox Expansion and Multiple Floors Sandboxing
- I also have a pile of sim settlement add on packs...y'all are the best <3
- [I can post a full modlist later if there's concern about mod conflicts, but I'm sure I'm just not understanding sim settlements properly]

# 1 Thank you
Thank you so much to everyone who works on this mod and add on packs. I just came back to fallout after a few years away and it's almost entirely because of this mod. I haven't been this excited about a video game in a long time. Genuinely, I'm thrilled. I don't know how or why you're able to do this, but I'm so glad you are. I'm so grateful. Thank you.

# 2 Auto- Assignment

Ok, so first set of two silly first-timer questions. I wanted to try out the city plans, and so I set up Sanctuary with the default ROTC city plan (and made Sturges the city leader thanks to one of the mods that lets you do that).


Upon returning to Sanctuary recently, I found there were not enough plots set up. The settlement was short several beds and several jobs (which meant it did not make enough food!). I called a "town meeting" and turned on the "unemployed-vision" but it didn't seem to work quite right. A few people in the vanilla UI had the vault boy symbol, so I figured I could manually assign them (including Sturges).

Does assigning a job to a city leader mess things up?

In one of KingGath's videos he mentioned that it makes sense to use Workshop Framework to turn off vanilla auto assignment so that it doesnt fight with sim settlements. So I turned that off.

I used the gavel to say "time for reassignment," and waited around for a while, but no one wound up being reassigned to a job or a bed/residential plot. I tried turning vanilla auto-assignment back on and waiting around for a while again, but no assignment happened, so I went back to a previous save where the numbers were just a little off.

Should I turn vanilla auto-assignment off with Workshop Framework?

Am I doing something dumb, did I mess something up, etc?

Maybe it just takes longer than I think for auto assignment to work... but I waited around a lot longer than I remember vanilla taking. Or maybe City Plans are doing something clever that I don't know about or understand.

# 3 Messing up city plans

And on the subject of City Plans...I tried to fudge the numbers to be more correct by manually adding a couple of agricultural and residential plots.

Does adding plots to a city plan stop the leader from placing the proper plots?

Can I just go back and scrap the ones I added to make the leader build the proper things?

I have been using red rocket without a city plan and it's been going great (besides some vertical pathing issues for the AI but I suppose that's to be expected). I've just been placing plots and trying to plan vaguely for having enough resources, power, etc. I've been trying to keep a number of residential and job plots available equal to one plus the number of settlers (so that when someone new shows up they'll have somewhere to immediately start building). I absolutely love it! I would be perfectly happy to play without city plans, except that I am so impressed by the creativity and ingenuity of other people's work! I love seeing what people have done, getting to explore it, and to come back to a settlement to find awesome improvements sounds extremely exciting!

Thanks again for your help to anyone who reads or responds!
 
Hi there. Welcome to the forums.

Not going to be able to help much as I don’t use city plans but I’ll do what I can.

Your first question mention not having enough beds or jobs, I want to make sure I understand your problem. If you mean that Sturges wasn’t putting down more plots as more people showed up, I’m pretty confident this isn’t how it works. If a city plan is intended for 6 settlers at level 1 then that’s what will be built. And when it gets to level 2 if it’s meant for 9 it will build that. It won’t built as a reaction to new settlers, pretty sure about that. If you want to add settlers as much as you want you’ll either have to find plans meant for those populations or build yourself.

I prefer to control the settlers completely so I turn off any and all auto assign. Can’t help you on how things work there, sorry.

As for building while in city plans, I believe it is possible but you obviously run the risk that when the city levels up you end up with new things building over the stuff you built. If you know the city plan it’s possible to build in the empty spaces (Sanctuary ROTC was one of them I think, didn’t build anything towards the front of the town).

Hope this helps and I know someone will be able to help for the rest.
 
Thanks @Irealys, yeah I mean that no new settlement plots are being placed. So you're saying city plans just place as many as they're going to have right at the outset? That would make a lot of sense! If that's the case I guess I need to send the settlers who are already there away and turn off the recruitment beacon until the city is ready to upgrade! Thank you! I dunno why I just assumed new plots would be placed, but that makes way more sense.

And yeah, I definitely am interested in auto-assignment; I don't want to have to worry about it, plus it seems like interior plots would make it particularly painful to figure out who's doing what. I can for sure understand wanting the control, but I'd like to be a little more hands off.
 
Thanks @Irealysplus it seems like interior plots would make it particularly painful to figure out who's doing what.

Im not sure why you think that it would be harder for interior plots than anything else. It’s always the same thing: if they are at their plot it’s easy to see, when they wander around it’s less clear. It was the same for base game stuff too. That’s why back then I took a habit of giving clothes to indicate job. Food merchant wears a chef hat, guards wear army clothes, provisioners wear postman uniforms etc. That way I was able to find people I wanted much easier. And I still do that so I’d rather assign people manually.

As for the other point, now that you mention it, I’m not 100% sure it builds all the plots at once. It’s possible that it build some and then more adds as the population grows up to the target population of that plan level. Hopefully someone else can share some light. But I do know that levels are intended for a population number. The few plans I seen seem to indicate they increase in population as they level up but even that isn’t necessarily always the case. Pretty sure it would be possible for someone to make a plan for 15 people at the first level that would still be for 15 at the 3rd level.
 
I use city plans and how I adjust for influx between city levels is by having a shack with 5-10 sleeping bags and 6 or so vanilla plants and maybe a scrap collector or 2 built at edge of the settlement. If you don't touch auto assign, SS prioritizes plots over vanilla stuff. So when the city upgrades, it will pull settlers away from the sleeping bags and vanilla jobs and have them assign to plots as they pop up.
 
Thanks @Rites

I may try that; I'm just not sure whether new plots are being built by the city plan! But I will probably adopt that dormitory idea, that sounds very promising! I can at least try it to give some time to see what's going on.

I guess I'll scrap the plots I added outside the normal city plan, build a little dormitory for the new folks, and try to manually reassign my city leader to the desk and/or assign another settler to the city leader's current job to pop him off it to see if that changes things.

@Irealys , I guess I just find it easier to forget about interior plots maybe? And I think that the city plan should automatically stop recruiting when it hits its maximum; which makes me think it should also be building new plots as it goes, but I'm not entirely sure about that. Hopefully someone who knows will pop in! Thanks again for your help, advice, perspective, etc. :)
 
I can't answer your initial questions directly, I still haven't tried Workshop Framework and I've never been sure about assigning a job to the city leader, I don't think it makes a difference, I never bothered.

Generally I'd say be patient. There is nothing you have to do, given enough time the settlement will take care of itself and grow. It won't recruit more settlers than the city plan allows. Water and food will often be lacking early on, think of it not as your people starving, for a little while longer they'll just have to scrounge it themselves. If you like, you can donate food and water at the planner's desk. Most settlements will produce a surplus eventually and new settlements can be provided for with caravans.

As for plots, most are "hidden" at first and only get unlocked when more settlers arrive. But this doesn't happen instantaneously, so it's normal to go back to a settlement and find people without beds or jobs. Just go out adventuring again and come back at a later time. Your "confidence" that everything works as intended will grow the longer you play.
 
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