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World Repopulation

kinggath

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This post will explain how to unlock World Repopulation currently*, how it works, and changes that will be coming in the future.
(*for those of you following a lot of my posts, I was incorrect about it being broken - it does work! There are just some gates to get to it currently - read on to find out more!)

What is it?

World Repopulation causes NPCs to move into the old blocked off buildings in the game world as your settlements progress. You'll find over time doorways are on buildings that previously were inaccessible, and you may find the owner wandering around nearby, or inside the dwelling.

You'll recognize the dwellings as they have a small lantern to the left of the doorway.

The doors will mostly be locked at night (though addon authors will be able to override that for some of their designs), and the interiors are flagged as owned homes - so don't expect to go in and loot without consequence!

The doorway and people that move into a building can change on your next playthrough, as the system is based on pairing unique interior cells to the shape of the building they match. So you may meet a conspiracy theorist on the north side of Concord this playthrough, and the next time you play that same building might be owned by some orphan kids - and each will have a completely unique interior that still matches the shape of the house/building!

This is one of our most powerful systems, well beyond what plots are capable of, as with full interior cells being used, add-on authors will be able to use the full power of the Creation Kit to design their cells - adding in quests, dungeons, custom NPCs, or anything else they can dream up - without having to do a bunch of scripting like plot designers often have to do for these sorts of advanced things.

What makes World Repopulation trigger?

As settlements gain large amounts of excess Power, Food, and Water - they will gain Economic Influence in the area. (I capitalized Economic Influence, as it's part of a system I hope to expand on for Chapter 3, and much of the support code for this is already in place!)

Once a certain amount of influence is achieved in a region, it can begin supporting people outside the walls of the settlement. Think of it like suburban sprawl. As a city becomes successful, more people will move in and around the city to take advantage of its prosperity. The more influence, the more people will move into the surrounding areas.

The system has some requirements:

1. Finish the main quest "Well, Well, Well" from SS2. (Cheating past the quest works as well) This requirement technically only applies to Concord, but that's the only area we've really rigged up for World Repopulation so far - read the next section for how we plan to expand things.

2. Any settlement you wish to have influence on a region must be part of an SS2 caravan network - which means it must have a Caravan Services building, and be within range of another settlement with a Caravan Services building.

For a settlement's excess power to grant influence, it must be part of an SS2 power network - which means it must have a Power Transfer building, and be within range of another settlement with a Power Transfer building.

These requirements will likely be removed in the future, it is only there due to the calculation of surplus resources being an expensive code action, and so we're doing it as part of the network calculations to save resources. We will likely find an alternative way to calculate this for settlements not part of networks in a future patch.

3. Settlements only influence locations within Caravan Services range - which is 70,000 units. This is the same unit of measure we use for most settlement related distance checks, and is the distance the NukaWorld Vassal system uses - so if you look at your pipboy map in a save with NukaWorld raiding in play, then highlight a settlement, you'll see other settlements in the vicinity change their icons so you can get a rough idea of this range. (In the future, we hope to add a map with visual aid showing you these ranges and influence)

What's going to change?

- Currently, World Repopulation is almost exclusive to Concord. Our plan is to expand this system to a large majority of the unused buildings in the Commonwealth. This will likely occur close to when we update the Addon Maker's Toolkit, as we'll need a lot of help to expand the number of interior spaces to cover so many buildings.

- The small lantern's outside the doorways that appear are going to be converted into controller objects, similar to the ASAM Sensor on the plot. This will allow things like viewing who the designer of the interior is, or disabling the doorway if it conflicts with another mod.

- Once the system is expanded beyond Concord, the "Well, Well, Well" requirement will then only apply to Concord, and only in saves that are working on the SS2 main quest line.

- If we end up expanding the Influence system mentioned above, there will end up being more ways than just Power, Water, and Food excesses to trigger repopulation.
 
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Love the concept but, any way to disable concord settlers wandering around? Make them sit in their houses or something? Maybe that isn't my problem but, it was so hard to talk to actual concord quest npcs (including Jake while he was there) without freezing forever and having to reload... I feel like all the extra people contribute to this. Whenever I went to Caleb, the game just dies 90% of the time. Probably just an xbox thing, it's too weak for this. (also had like 5 to 10 plots in Sanctuary and nothing in RR or Abernathy so no TOD)
Which xbox do you have? Concord works fine for me on a One X and I've got 20 settlers and an equal number of plots in Sanctuary. Although Caleb quit talking to me after killing that first guy for him. Everything else has worked alright.
 
Hmm, im on One S... didn't think that would make such a difference. Maybe I screwed something up again, wouldn't be the first time :scratchhead
I don't know the specifics on the hardware but I think there is a significant difference looking at anecdotes. I don't run any optimizers aside from removing god rays and I can run around downtown no problem and use the RotC city plans. I see a lot of people with the S say they can't do those things. I've never owned one so I can't say for sure but it seems people on that system have a lot more issues than I do. :unknw
 
This might seem like a bizarre thing to ask, and I know it's the kind of thing nobody else even seems to notice, but... did adding this to Concord (or whatever else got done to it as part of version 2.0) change the NPC Pathfinding so that people walking from Sanctuary/Red Rocket to other settlements can actually walk through Concord at long last instead of never going within a mile of it? I swear I saw Trashcan Carla walking through the town proper.

(this would've been my mandatory "question nobody else would've thought to ask" if i'd been around for the livestream q&a yesterday)
 
This might seem like a bizarre thing to ask, and I know it's the kind of thing nobody else even seems to notice, but... did adding this to Concord (or whatever else got done to it as part of version 2.0) change the NPC Pathfinding so that people walking from Sanctuary/Red Rocket to other settlements can actually walk through Concord at long last instead of never going within a mile of it? I swear I saw Trashcan Carla walking through the town proper.

(this would've been my mandatory "question nobody else would've thought to ask" if i'd been around for the livestream q&a yesterday)
Carla is walking through my Concord right this minute. Town feels very alive now.
 
If i turn off repopulation feature, will npc like Father Edmund, Caleb, etc. disappear or they won't appear at all?
Repop is a different system entirely. Those guys just appear based on your progression through Jake's storyline.
 
I feel like I'm going insane, last livestream (Day 11) at 2:22:45 kinggath mentioned that everything you need to know to help with world repop is on the wiki but I've searched multiple times now and I just cannot find it. I know reading is an important part of learning modding and what not but I seriously can't even find the page for it?

Anyone got a link or even just point me what menu its under if you don't want to spoon feed me?
 
I feel like I'm going insane, last livestream (Day 11) at 2:22:45 kinggath mentioned that everything you need to know to help with world repop is on the wiki but I've searched multiple times now and I just cannot find it. I know reading is an important part of learning modding and what not but I seriously can't even find the page for it?

Anyone got a link or even just point me what menu its under if you don't want to spoon feed me?
Here you go
I feel like I'm going insane, last livestream (Day 11) at 2:22:45 kinggath mentioned that everything you need to know to help with world repop is on the wiki but I've searched multiple times now and I just cannot find it. I know reading is an important part of learning modding and what not but I seriously can't even find the page for it?

Anyone got a link or even just point me what menu its under if you don't want to spoon feed me?
Here you go dude:

World Repopulation System | Sim Settlements 2 Wiki

Wiki / Addons and Toolkits / Create Add Ons / Near bottom of that page
 
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If i turn off repopulation feature, will npc like Father Edmund, Caleb, etc. disappear or they won't appear at all?

I'm considering turning it off also, since it puts a massive load on my rig, lagging like hell till they all pop into existence. Nice concept, but with Red Rocket nearby, it's borderline unplayable. Next playthrough I go with the named ones only.
 
Question: Does the repopulation system give defenses for Concord and tbd repopulated urban centers?

Because I usually run the mod War of the Commonwealth as it populates the world with npcs and far more enemies (enough spawn points added that my settlement defenses are actually in use regularly) but it often respawns enemies in concord even on its lowest settings (1 week in-game). Are there or will there be defenses established by the people?
 
Is Concord the only location with External Changes (ie; changes that arent simply the appearance of Doors that allow access to an interior cell]? Asking mostly since im curious to see if some areas might change as result of nearby settlements, apart from new people atleast.
 
Is Concord the only location with External Changes (ie; changes that arent simply the appearance of Doors that allow access to an interior cell]? Asking mostly since im curious to see if some areas might change as result of nearby settlements, apart from new people atleast.

If you're talking about the "World Repopulation" mechanic then yes, it's pretty much only Concord for now. That said, the team is ostensibly going to release documentation so that other modders who wish to can create "World Repop Add-On Packs" much like other people can release plot add-ons and city plans.

That said, there are a few other places that see some exterior changes (like when the CPD starts establishing itself), but those are really minor compared to the buildup that eventually happens in Concord.
 
If you're talking about the "World Repopulation" mechanic then yes, it's pretty much only Concord for now. That said, the team is ostensibly going to release documentation so that other modders who wish to can create "World Repop Add-On Packs" much like other people can release plot add-ons and city plans.

That said, there are a few other places that see some exterior changes (like when the CPD starts establishing itself), but those are really minor compared to the buildup that eventually happens in Concord.
Ah, very good to know, thanks for the answer!
 
I could not find a line item in the MCM other than full-on stop, so is there a way to reduce the # of Concord settlers by some? I like seeing them, and it isn't because my PC is having trouble, but honestly them just wandering around looks weird. They don't have any 'jobs'/animations/idles, they don't have any bars or stores in the otherwise vanilla stores, so the whole thing looks . . . lifeless. A few wandering around would look a lot more interesting. I have like 20 or more. And they are everywhere, up in the hills north, south in the fields, a dozen just doing nothing in the middle of town. Looks weird.

Hoping for a slight reduction, but would rather not turn them off because it's a cool mechanic. Or a way to get them to go home more. Hopeful.
 
There is not a way to limit the number of Concord Settlers currently. Agreed that they should have some different idle animations, and other things to do in town for a more immersive feel to the town.
There has been discussion around adding stores and other activities to World Population, but we will need to wait now until after Chapter 3 for enhancemens.
 
If I understood this correctly, would this mean that the excess resources counted towards Concord's Repopulation would come from Sanctuary, Red Rocket, Abernathy, Tenpines Bluff and Starlight Drive In?
I would like to see ranges for everything with effect beyond the settlement on the map. Hospitals, Comm. Rooms, etc. A visual representation would be helpful for advanced planning and preventing me from using plots that are already covering an area.
 
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