Screen Share: Fallout 4

It’s been a while since I did my last Screen Share post. So I think I’ll post 3-in-1 today. The subject is Fallout 4, the latest game I’ve been playing. I’ll admit that my want to play has died down considerably, not from a lack of content, but I’ve got out of it pretty much all I wanted so far. The settlements would have been the thing to keep me engaged longer, but I’ve hit too many limits and I’m now waiting for some great mods to come out after the G.E.C.K. is released. May even attempt my own mod for once.

Nightmare Fuel

Going too deep is a risk adventurers take when exploring. Some days they find a hidden treasure, others Nightmare Fuel. Deep underground the Commonwealth lies an abandoned school room where only the dead and forgotten once knew of. I’ve no idea what went on during school hours, but eventually someone had the last laugh...

The Mighty Have Fallen

The Boston city skyline is a beautiful sight, especially during early morning when the mist from the harbor is gently strolling through the streets. As with many large cities of the wasteland, you can see just how the Mighty Have Fallen. Once a sprawling streets of the future, now a rusting pile of the long lost. Perhaps humanity got too big for its breeches, or perhaps we weren't ready for the power we had unlocked. A proverbial Pandora’s Box was holding the secrets of the atom, and we just had to open it.

Ego Trip Down Memory Lane

Ok, ok, I just wanted to show off my Starlight settlement. I really love how it came out, just wish I had more lighting options and had to deal with less generators. Necessity is the mother of invention, and I think my power tower to hold all my generators was a good idea and creates the look of a skyscraper behind the Joe sign.

Either way, I just like taking an Ego Trip Down Memory Lane with this image. My mightiest settlement and yet I still had a lot more I wanted to do. For instance, I wanted to spell my name along the outside of my house up there, and have spotlights aimed at the lions on the corners. Streetlights would have been nice too, along with a better laid out power grid. Oh, a person can dream, can’t they?

Mechanic Review: Fallout 4 Settlements

Fallout 4 settlement building is a really fun mechanic added to a game that scratches that open world housing itch I’ve had. Well, semi-open world since you are still confined to static plots, but some are pretty darn big.

I’ve played around with the system long enough to feel that I can give an experienced review on the system itself. Show where it shines, where it’s lackluster and where it’s down right frustrating.

To begin, the system has a lot of good intentions in mind and is a wonderful addition to the aging engine Bethesda is using for the Fallout and Elder Scroll series. The use of the word “aging” doesn’t mean “old”, but it does mean some parts of the engine are dated and in need of update or repair. Also by aging is that the engine has so many features that a new engine just wouldn’t have, so I’m glad they are using it and updating it still. Much like an aging MMO, the older ones tend to have a lot more to do. If you’ve been to the Institute, it’s a good analogy of this engine. The part everyone is at is shiny and new, but there is a lot of old technology behind those walls.

Unfortunately with the good intentions, the settlement building does feel like it was tacked on late or later in the development of the game and there are bugs and sections of the mechanic that is woefully underutilised. One of those are the picket fences magazines that add new items to the list of buildable stuff. There are only 5 of these magazines and one wasteland survival guide that adds two silly flamingo lawn ornaments. Between getting the magazines and not getting them doesn’t feel like a lot of difference going through the build list. There are a lot of furniture and items out in the wastes that you just can not build in your settlement without mods. It’s a good start, so I look forward to what modders can do to pick up the slack. I’ve already seen a few good ones on the Fallout 4 Nexus.

Another pitfall is that some settlements offer a lot of room, but you are still held back due to a small settlement size limit and how many settlers can be at one settlement. I understand the limitation to help keep people from slowing their game down, but there should be an option that let’s people who can handle more, or doesn’t care about that, to build and allow more on a settlement. There are some cheats to get around this a little bit. For instance you can drop a lot of guns you are holding on for new settlers on the ground, go in build mode and store each one individually. That should lower the size limit bar and allow you to build more.

Where this system soars is the inherent fact you can build whatever you want with the given objects you have, and within the confines of the settlement build area. Many housing systems of other games are usually within a small house or are pretty static with placement. Here you have an entire area to build many houses and can design inside and out. I’ve spent hours on a bunch of settlements and still have lots of places I haven’t even touched yet. I wish I could do more with my settlers, like set up guard routes or pathing in general. Maybe set up trade with places that aren’t settlements, like Diamond City.

Fallout 4 settlements are heading in a great direction and I honestly can’t wait to see what modders can do with it. If you want to see some of the possibilities you can do with a settlement, I posted a video of what I’ve done in Starlight Drive-In.

Fallout 4 Settlements

Settlements are the best thing they could have added to Fallout in my opinion, and I’m hoping they do the same for the next Elder Scrolls game. There’s a lot of information already out there on making settlements or tips and tricks, or explaining how to get things. What I’m going to do is try to list what I know about them so far, especially stuff I had to look up, into small bite size explanations to get you on your way.

Edit Jan 4, 2016: Made a few edits to this as I become more familiar with the settlement system.

How to start a settlement

Settlements will have a workbench you can search in order to activate it as a settlement. Some require quests to activate (most likely through Minutemen), some require clearing out enemies, and some can be activated right away. Here’s a list of all the settlements if you want to look for one specifically.

How to get a flat surface on uneven terrain

Under the structures tab > wooden structions > floor, there will be objects where you can create flat surfaces. Either with the standard floor, or the cement block, or the wooden floor with posts.

How to unlock more stuff in your workshop to build

There are two ways to unlock more stuff to build in game; finishing certain quests (like the one after retaking the castle or completing the Cabot quest line), or finding Picket Fences magazines. There are 5 magazines to find in all and here’s a list of all the Picket Fences if you are struggling to find them. There are mods you can add to the game to unlock more stuff as well.

How to select and move or scrap a group of objects

You should be able to hold the button you use to select the object, default ‘E’. Hold it long enough and it’ll select that object, plus any object that is connected to it, plus any object that is really close to that group of connected objects. Accidentally got a hold of some corn when trying to move a wall, had to temporarily store it to get just the wall.

I had to strikeout group scrapping because I've never been able to do it. I've read you could, so it might exist and my game is bugged out, but for now I can't do that.

How to defend your settlement

You’ll mostly be attacked either from wooded areas or roads when you port in to your attacked settlement. Lay walls mostly at those vulnerable places with some turrets or guard posts. You also will get attacked from enemies sometimes that will already be in the settlement when you arrive, so have a turret or two, or guard posts, pointed inside your settlement as well. To safely port in, set up a small defensive spot that gives you a good vantage over the settlement and set the port-in rug there. The port-in rug is under resources > miscellaneous.

How to find a miscellaneous item

If you are having trouble finding something under the miscellaneous tab, it’s because it might be under another one. The main three miscellaneous tabs are under furniture, decorations and resources. Furniture has the majority of stuff you are looking for, decorations has radios and the jukebox, and resources has the scavenging station, brahmin feeding trough and home port-in rug.

How to connect settlement’s junk inventories

You’ll need to get the 1st Local Leader perk under the 6th level of Charisma. Then you will need to find an unused settler in each of your settlements and go into workbench mode. Then highlight the settler and you can set them up as a supplier, default ‘Q’. Select the settlement to connect to and confirm. Once you do, those two settlements junk inventories are now connected. Bonus that their water and food productions are shared too, so if you had a settlement with a lot of water, they can share that overproduction with any settlement attached to the supply line. Same with food and junk inventories.

Sharing food, water and junk inventories doesn’t have to be a direct supply line. Settlement A sharing with B, and B sharing with C means A is also sharing with C through B.

Important note: You do not have direct access to other settlement inventories to deposit and withdraw from, only when you are modding, crafting or building will those shared resources be accessed for you. Example is I've put wood in Sanctuary, and go to Red Rocket. I can not pull out that wood, but when I start building, it'll show I have that wood to build with.

How to harvest extra food, water, junk and caps from settlements

Any over production of water or food will be placed into the local workbench of the settlement that is producing extra. So you can collect extra purified water or farmed food like mutfruit, corn and tatos at the local workbench. Scavenging stations produces junk to the local workbench and stores produces caps. Stores need the 2nd perk Local Leaders under the 6th Charisma column. To build the largest stores, you’ll need the 2nd perk of Cap Collector under the 1st Charisma column.

How to make caps off shops

According to the shops, you just need to make them and assign a settler to it to start generating caps in the workbench.

However, it looked like I wasn’t generating caps initially. From what I’ve read online, for shops to make money, there may need to be unassigned settlers in that settlement to “purchase” stuff at stores. It may have been coincidence, or a bug, but when I did that, it looked like I started to get caps.

Except the food store. Settler’s will gather around the food shop early morning and late evening to eat even if they are assigned duties.

Upon further playing, it looks like I get caps whether or not I have any non-assigned settlers. I just need to have the store and wait a few days. Caps generate kind of slowly.
 
What can settlers do in settlements

Settlers can be assigned to food, guard posts, scavenging stations, stores, or supply lines. They can also be assigned to another settlement if one is overcrowded for you or in need of more settlers, and can be assigned to specific beds.

When settlers show up, if you do nothing with them, they’ll either auto assign themselves to food or guard posts, and to unassigned beds. You will have to assign them to be a supplier, work the scavenging station or the store.

Unused companions can double as a settler

You can assign companions you aren't using to do stuff in your settlement like farming, guarding or even scavenging. Unfortunately they are really buggy when doing this and unstable so I usually just let them roam around. 

If you have some neat information about settlements that took you a while to learn about and you’d like to share, please let me know and I’ll add them here.