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What mods do you use along side Sim Settlements?

SimonPDX

SimonPDX

Member
Messages
52
The hype around Sim Settlements finally got to me, reinstalling and re-modding Fallout 4 now but I'm actually not sure what mods I need to go WITH Sim Settlements. There's no good guide about it! (I might have to make one myself once I figure this all out.)

  1. I want my game to be as immersive as possible. I'll have the realistic build times, dynamic needs and plot costs ON, for sure. Not sure about everything else.
  2. I've also heard that the mod has issues with Place Everywhere and Scrap Everything, is that true? Don't install those?
  3. I'm also looking at my last load order form about 12 months ago and wondering, do I still need Homemaker, Brighter Settlement Lights, Longer Power Lines, Quieter Settlements? Is any of that included?
  4. What about AddOn packs?! Can I just install them all and then choose which buildings I like and dislike in game? Can using old ones cause issues? Are there any I should prioritize/avoid?
So far this is what I'm thinking:

Basically required,

Sim Settlements: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/21872/
Industrial Revolution: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/25213/
HUD Framework: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/20309/
Settlement Menu Manager: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/24204/

And then:

Salvage Beacons: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/18757/
(To get the resources I'll need.)

Immersive Settlers: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/23391/
(Names! Finally a good light weight replacement for Don't Call Me Settler!)

All Settlements Extended: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/25316/
(To fix the "deadzone" issue. If there was a default size version with no dead zones, I'd probably use that actually though. More room sounds potentially overwhelming.)

Shadows for Sim Settlements: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/25136/
(Put that GTX 1080 to use! Ha.)

And then pretty much all the AddOn packs? I've found 18 or so good ones, with solid Mod Pages.

Probably skip Place Everywhere and Scrap Everything, unless someone pops in to tell me they're fine. I don't want any issues, they seem less needed with Sim Settlements basically making you a Mayor not a God too.

And lastly, skip Homemaker, but include: Brighter Settlement Lights, Longer Power Lines, Quieter Settlements?

Is there anything else I missed being gone from FO4 for 12 months that makes Settlements better, that would work well with Sim Settlements?

Let's hear it builders!
Thanks, - Simon
 
First off i would get True Legendary Enemies to make legendaries more ....legendary, in name at least. Unique NPCs and Settlement Attacks Improved together are basically full fledged replacements for DCMS with more functionality and immersion. Thematic and Practical and Creative Clutter are good for odds and ends. Personally I can't recommend Church of Atom Overhaul and We are the Minute Men enuf because there both factions that need love. Raider Overhaul and SM redux are immersive and really good. Unique Uniques and More Uniques are lore friendly and not OP. If you are not gonna use Armor/Weponsmith extended (I recommend them even if some of the stuff isn't lore friendly) a good weapon addition is Laser Musket Overhaul, just so LMs are useful in NPC hands. The Dance Dilemma, Power Armor Airdrop, and The Brotherhood Power Armor Drop Team are awesome for BoS toons. More Smarter Companions helps make your companions more unique, and yes, smarter. Lastly NPC Travel is a good place holder for War of the Commonwealth until the new version is finished.
 
I have over 200 mods running. One thing I've learned is to add stuff that suits your play style, and also what you enjoy seeing. I also install mods w/NMM and use LOOT without fear. Some folks say that they don't work very well, but I've not really had many problems using those tools. As always, YMMV. I immensely enjoy the settlement aspect of the game, and SS just expands all of it. The one thing I love about SS is that it cuts down the micromanagement to a tolerable level for me. Like any other part of the game there is also a certain learning curve that you have to get through. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day.
 
uituit said:
https://simsettlements.com/web/wiki/index.php?title=Problematic_Mods

place everywhere and scrap everything is fine

all the addons are cool especially junk town wink wink
you have the option to ban a plot from building now using the City Planners Desk

homemaker is fine for added decorations:)
Click to expand...

That's a great link, thanks for that.

Also good info, I'll go ahead and use those mods, but just try to be careful with them just in case~

coolphoton1234 said:
First off i would get True Legendary Enemies to make legendaries more ....legendary, in name at least. Unique NPCs and Settlement Attacks Improved together are basically full fledged replacements for DCMS with more functionality and immersion. Thematic and Practical and Creative Clutter are good for odds and ends. Personally I can't recommend Church of Atom Overhaul and We are the Minute Men enuf because there both factions that need love. Raider Overhaul and SM redux are immersive and really good. Unique Uniques and More Uniques are lore friendly and not OP. If you are not gonna use Armor/Weponsmith extended (I recommend them even if some of the stuff isn't lore friendly) a good weapon addition is Laser Musket Overhaul, just so LMs are useful in NPC hands. The Dance Dilemma, Power Armor Airdrop, and The Brotherhood Power Armor Drop Team are awesome for BoS toons. More Smarter Companions helps make your companions more unique, and yes, smarter. Lastly NPC Travel is a good place holder for War of the Commonwealth until the new version is finished.
Click to expand...

Oh! Nice list!

I actually meant like recommendations for mods for the settlement system. Not just mods in general, but useful none the less.

Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

parrotheada1a said:
I have over 200 mods running. One thing I've learned is to add stuff that suits your play style, and also what you enjoy seeing. I also install mods w/NMM and use LOOT without fear. Some folks say that they don't work very well, but I've not really had many problems using those tools. As always, YMMV. I immensely enjoy the settlement aspect of the game, and SS just expands all of it. The one thing I love about SS is that it cuts down the micromanagement to a tolerable level for me. Like any other part of the game there is also a certain learning curve that you have to get through. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day.
Click to expand...

Yeah I've been modding Bethesda games since Oblivion so I've got the routine down for sure, I just like to ask the community about recommendations now and then, the sorting methods are better than they used to be, but still could use some help. Human curation can't be beat. Skyrim isn't my favorite Bethesda game by any means, but it is nice that people are ALWAYS writing guides, sharing lists, making tutorials, STEP is great, the reddit is pretty good too. (Not just HELP spam.)

So yeah, like I said above, was just looking to hear about other settlement mods to use with Sim Settlements.~
 
Dustbowl is cool to lol you can see forever :)
 
Since you said ALL of the realism...
CWSS Redux
I know it looks weird and creepy. I thought so at first too, and made fun of the people who used it in my head. But then someone mentioned that, when used for NPCs, it added happiness to settlements. So I promptly downloaded it because my settlers are salty little turds and never seem to stay happy. It's actually really freaking cool. You can make a central bath house, row of outhouses, whatever, and your settlers will go take care of stuff throughout the day. You don't have to actually go watch like a creepy stalker person, you can put that stuff behind closed doors, but know that John the Farmer is going to finally take a bath and wash all the Brahmin dung off of his smelly self. Will add to happiness and just generally make stuff more real. Plus, if you're like me and like a dead realistic game, you can start using it for you and it adds realism for your char as well (while adding value to gameplay - for instance, showering gets rid of rads). I thought it was dumb at first, but now I won't play without it.

As a second,
Orphans of the Commonwealth
Because it bugs me that all settlers are the same age and there's no child types anywhere. Like, where is everyone coming from if they're not reproducing? You can even go as far as getting a mod like notShaun, and putting a couple of babies in cribs or carriages in houses to make the life cycle complete. If you end up using OotC, I also recommend the school desks mod. You can pretend you're teaching the little buggers science or some crap, and they earn your settlement happiness.
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/4106/?
Third,
Better Warning for Settlements Being Attacked
It's a pop-up instead of just the little note in the corner of the screen that you may/may not see. I find this WAY more useful.

Last, and probably 100% best
Better Settlers
It comes in lots of different flavors, but you can make settlers mortal, defend themselves better, have a lot more variety in looks, and variety in equipment. Depending on settings, you can make it so that no two settlers will look exactly alike. Coupled with Immersive Settlers, it really makes each settlement feel unique.


And of course, there are a bazillion deco mods to add a little bit more flavor everywhere. Like Parrotheada1a, I play with just under 200 mods. I'd say 3/4 of mine are settlement based lol. I have a saved list in text file format if you want it, because I am a loser and make things like that for my friends.
 
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I'll add something to all this as it revolves around my play style. The protagonist (Mac) was a lawyer, young mom and wife before the bombs. (BTB ) I'd assume her to be in her late 20's early 30's. Keeping that in mind, since she was a lawyer, she will not be dressing herself like a trashy raider. Mac likes to look as polished as she can. Looking like a raider will get her shot, while looking smutty and trashy could get her raped or worse. To that end, I have a small bucketload of clothing mods, and mods that change appearance. And since she pretty much remembers things the way they were BTB, Mac does not like living in a scavenged trash heap. To that end, I have a decent number of mods that add clean settlement components and clutter. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
 
Attackers get of my build zone.
All settlements extended.

I have played a few times, so I cheat a bit, to that end.
Cheat terminal to add lots and lots of wood and cement, and then build a "roof" over the castle.
Easy homebuilder and working double beds, for sanctuary and the inside of the castle.
MOAR turrets with no power option, for defense spam.

Place everywhere and scrap everything.

I also use don't call me settler and never had a problem.

Also might want to check the addons before you get them, I think some have been abandoned, for example Brea's defences and home improvements have not been updated since July, although I still use both.

It's a good time to come back with sim settlements, although it can be annoying at times, I think Kinggath moves too fast, like the tech tree info that was added, but is kind of not allot of use shall we say as almost no mods have been updated to support it yet.
 
I've been using Tidy Settlers, which lets the settlers "scrap" things like grass, leaves, vines, etc for you. You plop down a trashcan and then assign a settler to it, and let them clean up the place over a few days. It also increases happiness.
I like it, because it just doesn't make sense that you're the only one who has to clean up everything. It's like... I'm sure there are other settlers who would love to live in a clean place too, you know?

I also use CCP (Commonwealth Cleanup Project): https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/13254/?
It allows you to act like a real scavenger while cleaning up at the same time. you can scrap those random abandoned cars and trucks lying on the side of the roads, and make them disappear. It never made sense to me that people wouldn't salvage the cars for parts, you know?
you can also clean up the random trash lying around, and as a side bonus you sometimes find random toy models alongside all the plastic and metals that you get from scrapping/cleaning up the trash.
The best part? it works outside of settlements too, so you can be a crazy neat freak who's determined to make the common wealth look like its old prewar self again.
although you also have to be very careful with it too. there are parts in the commonwealth where the trash covers up a small gaping hole that leads to the void. I guess the creators didn't think that somebody would create a mod out there who would let them remove the trash and rubble in certain areas.
so I make sure to save before I remove anything outside of the settlements.

There's cozy beds, which comes with a feature to mark your bed as your own. So then those settlers won't be coming into your home and sleeping in your bed. it also comes with new beds, which has homemade bedding on them. Quilted, knitted cloth, etc. Which is great for me because it bridges the gap between a bare dirty mattress and those squeaky clean hospital sheets.
It just didn't make sense to me that a settler wouldn't know how to make their own stuff, especially cloth. those beds gives me the feeling like they knitted their own bedsheets, giving the space this homemade cozy feeling. :)
It's great for the settlements like taffington boathouse, where there aren't much space to let the settlers build their own homes.

somebody else already mentioned CWSS redux and Orphans of the wasteland, so I won't link to those. I do use them though... Out of them all I use CWSS the most because it's just more immersive for me to know that there's a place where my character and the npcs can go and do their business. no more pissing in enamel buckets next to the bed for my npcs anymore... we're not a bunch of barbarians! We're also not in skyrim, so why even use buckets? *side-eyes the hell out of Bethesda*

Those mods I don't use much in game anymore thanks to sim settlements but is still very immersive for me:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/10039/? (immersive vendors). I use them in vault settlements mainly.
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/1235/? (a must have in my book.)
 
Wasn't Full Dialogue quite buggy? At least I remember that I had to uninstall it at some point.
But now there is XDI: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/27216/?

@Topic:
Workshop Rearranged. Changes some categories, splits some even further, adds some new craftable things. However, comes with the downside of the workshop mode taking longer to open.

Some of the settlements from the Settlemods Collection. I think it's better to just install the whole collection than the individual mods, but it's too late for that now for me. Eden Meadows Cinema and Huntress Island in Far Harbor work very goot with SimSettlements, a lot of space there, especially at the cinema. On the mainland, I have Natick Power Plant and Fairline Hills. They work okay. The latter has some quirks regarding it's map marker, and the latter has quite a bit of unscrappable machinery standing around, but still enough space for plots. I also have Glowtopia, but that is buggy as hell, has no space for plots, and is heavily irradiated.

Also the mods from my signature, obviously :D
With the "Visifier" script I don't have to wait until VIS patches get updated (Radrose seems to be gone for good, as it seems...), I can (re)generate my own after each update.
Also teleportation and settler renaming :D
 
damanding said:
I maintain a guide to settlement building mods here, sorted by theme and type: https://rd.nexusmods.com/fallout4/articles/384
Click to expand...

That's pretty awesome. I'm not planning on building much other than plots though.

You could add a section on things to improve the settlers themselves. Better Settlers/Immersive Settlers/Icebreaker Settlements and stuff. There's not enough word about Icebreaker out there, great mod.

Also curious, what's the consensus on best mod to make it so you can have more max settlers? Google just pops up the first one, last updated in 2015. Not sure if that's the best/or even still good. But I'm reaching cap natural in some settlements recently.
 
So the AddOns I use:
Altairp's Animal Farm -The Food addon
Wasteland Ventures- The House Addon (And I will say, if you stopped right at those two you would be good)
Another Brick in the Wall
JTbryant's Utilities

Mods am also using that are directly related to my SimSettlements experence
Scrap Everything
All Settlements Extended
HUDFramework

Mods I just use
Horizon v1.2 (because survivor mode was a good start in the right direction)
No Place is Safe
NewDialog
and of course, the CBBE
 
SimonPDX said:
That's pretty awesome. I'm not planning on building much other than plots though.

You could add a section on things to improve the settlers themselves. Better Settlers/Immersive Settlers/Icebreaker Settlements and stuff. There's not enough word about Icebreaker out there, great mod.
Click to expand...
That's actually a pretty good idea! I'll have to work on that. :D
 
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