u/Pintobeard

General tips to save time and resources when building settlements.

1. Know what type of settlement you are building:

That way you have a rough idea how big it is and what you might need. Usually settlements can be divided into these basic categories: Farming, Water Farm, Trade Hub, Home, Manufacturing, Fort/Outpost, Distribution/Logistics, and General (has a bit of everything).

Farming settlements will grow food so you won't need to build much. These farms can be divided into sub categories, for example, it might grow crops for general consumption, or be an adhesive farm (only cultivates corn, mutfruit, and tatoes), or a narcotics farm. The latter is really only possible with mods that let you plant wild plants. Medium and large settlements are recommended for this (such as Abernathy Farm, Sunshine Tidings, or even Starlight Drive-In among others).

Water Farms are self explanatory. These are near bodies of water. Egret Tours Marina and Taffinton Boathouse are good examples. These require very little personnel but the large quantities of water means it will need to be heavily defended. Keep in mind that resources are produced only if you have at least one settler. So even if water farms need little personnel you will still need a few settlers to produce water.

Trade Hubs also don't require too much personnel. You will only need the shopkeepers and some security. These settlements don't need to be too large either so smaller locations are ideal for this type of settlement.

Homes are settlements that you intend to live in regularly or permanently. Depending on your needs it might need to be larger or something as humble as Red Rocket Truck Stop can work. Of course any type of settlement can be used as a homebase but if you want to maximize your space then you might want to have a dedicated home seperate from all other settlements.

Manufacturing Hubs are settlements that have manufacturing machinery whether it is ammo or any other type of resource. These can also be hybridized with other types of settlements such as farms depending on what you intent to produce. Scavengers can also be placed here as they will provide raw materials for manufacturing or building elsewhere.

Optionally you can have dedicated scavenging settlements although when playing vanilla this is a waste of space and resources. Scavengers can be made useful if you have a mod that removes or increases resource production cap such as Workshop Framework or Uncapped Settlement Surplus. The good thing about a scavenging settlements is that they don't need a lot of space. Murkwater is usually my go to for building a scavenging settlement.

Forts and Outposts are heavily fortified settlements. These are very niche in use but can be built in areas that have nearby enemy spawns that might walts. Somerville Place and Coastal Cottage are known to have this problem and the latter has little building space so a fortified stronghol is their main use.

Distribution and Logistics centers are settlements specifically for caravans to distribute goods. These settlements don't require too much space or much of anything really. You only need beds for the caravans. A barracks should suffice. You only need minimal defenses since these settlements won't produce any resources but you can go a bit higher for immersion purposes. Additionally a warehouse would really give the settlement the proper vibe.

General settlements are settlements with an unspecified purpose. They can have a bit of everything. A jack of all trades if you will.

2. Settlement layout and Personnel:

Once you know what type of settlement you are building and where, you will have a rough idea of how much personnel, buildings (and what type of buildings) and a rough idea of the materials you might need. The most important time saver is to know the layout and how it all fits together. Which buildings you are building and where they are in relation to each other. What tileset are you using (Shack, Metal, Concrete, Barn, Warehouse, etc). Spend some time thinking about this until you can walk through this settlement in your mind. That way you won't waste so much time staring at the screen wondering where to start building and where to place each thing.

As a general rule always try to have at least 1 thousand Wood and Steel and about half as much Concrete (if you only intent to use ut for foundations, if you intend to build concrete buildings then it should match the quantity of Wood and Steel) before you start building. For the largest builds you might need 5 thousand of each to start with. How much Glass you will need is hard to estimate but if you are running low you can always take a trip to Beantown Brewery as it has over 100 bottles and it resets frequently.

As a general rule an individual settler home only needs 4 tiles, 5 if you intend for it to have a bathroom. For farming settlements you can can build a single large multi story farmhouse or even just a barn that can house several settlers at once. Shops are the same deal, roughly 4 tiles per shop (zero if you use an outdoor market approach, unless you need to build foundations). On smaller settlements you might want to build up instead such as apartment buildings. Warehouse and Barn parts are the best for this and you only need about 6 tiles per floor minimum (10 if you want to make it wider and have two apartment rooms per floor).

You can add extra beds by adding an infirmary to your clinics, rooms to your bars/taverns, or constructing barracks and worker houses so you can easily meet the bed quota for your settlement.

A home settlement needs only two main buildings; your home (obviously), and a workshop. How big the workshop needs to be depends on your needs and whether or not you use Automatrons or Power Armor. In my experience you need only 4 tiles for a basic workshop but the Robot Workbench can easily double that in order for it to all fit comfortably.

Remember to choose your settlements carefully so you don't run out of space or build budget. Large settlements should only be built in Starlight Drive-In or certain Far Harbor locations such as the Lumber Mill. For very large settlements try to stick to only Spectacle Island. If you think you will need to build over 20 individual buildings whether it be homes, shops, or others then it is a very large settlement and you should build it in Spectacle Island else you will run into some problems. Note that in Spectacle Island foundations are mandatory so make sure you have enough concrete.

Also keep in mind that if the build area of a settlement is too small for what you want to build, you can always build up. Warehouse and Barn tiles are excellent for stacking buildings on top of each other.

3. Settler Armaments:

At the start you only give them what you can but over time you might want to give them better gear and even proper uniforms. This is mostly indulgent and for the sake of immersion but if a settlement you visit frequently is prone to attacks then you might want to give them so extra firepower else you will be doing all of the fighting alone. I try to give them wrapons accoridng to where they guard such as snipers for those on elevated positions (watch towers, building rooftops, or the screen in Starlight Drive-In), Shotguns, and SMGs for those patrolling along enclosed places, etc.

4. You don't need to build and develop every single settlement (at first):

Only choose one location for each main tyoe of settlement to start with. Start with a farm and a water farm, then add a tradehub, and then you can start expanding as needed. Farms should be your biggest priority, followed by water farms (if you want to get rich) and then you can start adding others. Outposts and Scavenging settlements are completely optional. Logistics centers are somewhat optional.

If you play on survival settlements are more important and each settlement might need an additional building; a house for the player to store loot, supplies, or simply to rest.

5. How much is too much?:

This depends a lot on where you are building. The notorious triangle of death in Abernathy Farm, Sanctuary and Red Rocket is something you should be awere of. Some have said this is only a problem if you build a lot on more than one settlement but in my experience overbuilding in any of them is enough to cause problems. Another triangle of death some have suggested is The Castle Warwick and Spectacle Island which is probably true but you are far less likely to experince issues there.

As a general rule if you exceed double the vanilla build budget you have gone too far. In the case of Starlight Drive-In you can go as high as x2.5 (you will still have to deal with low fps), and x3 in Spectacle Island (i have gone as far as x4 but the fps is atrocious. Strongly advice against it).

6. Can I build a settlement that is everything at once?:

Only in Spectacle Island in my experience and even then I wouldn't recommend it. If you have a decent PC you might be able to but you should still be cautious.

EDIT: Apparently you don't need any settlers to produce water. I am not 100% but I am putting this here just in case.

A walk through my current Starlight settlement.

I am experiencing frequent CTDs and I have noticed they tend to happen when moving from one area to another (most of the time when approaching or shortly after entering Sanctuary). Anything here that obviously stands out that would cause this issue? A broken mod or load order issue?

Full LO:

(Creation Club Total: 72 out of 102 total)

Master Files:

• The Survivalist Toolbox
• Fo4 Detetction Tweaks
• Leveled Item Fixes (LIF)
• Munitions - Combined
• BodyTalk3 - Average
• KARMA
• Player Responds to Pain
• Workshop Framework
• Nuka Cola Vending Machine Normalize
• USO Unlocked Settlement Objects [ACX]
• Capital Wasteland Workshop Pack
• Misery Island - Isles of New England
• Murant Menagerie - Life Finds A Way
• Subway Runner Revival - Updated
• Ashland Station
• Fallout 3 Style Vaults
• T6M's Burst- Fire Framework V3.04
• Plasma Caster Pack
• Vegas Style Dialogue Checks
• Bullet Impact Overhaul

Foundations Frameworks:

• ECO + NEO All DLCs Merged
• Legendary Effect Overhaul All DLC Merged
• Cheat Terminal
• ECO - Munitions Patch
• Misc Consistency Fixes
• Makeshift Pack Level Distribution
• CC Grenade Launchers - Improved

Faction AI and NPC Leveled Lists:

a. Faction Overhauls:

• More Realistic Cats by Greslin

b. NPC Leveled Lists:

• Aquatic Bestiary
• Youth of the Commonwealth 2.0

Vanilla Quest Alterations and Patches:

a. Vanilla Quests:

• Tina De Luca Voiced As A Settler With AI

b. DLC Quests:

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c. Creation Club Patches:

• [CC] Fantasy Hero Set - Gear Fixes & Quest Workaround
• Fixpack: Creation Club Hellfire
• GO4 Better Hellfire Power Armor
• Fixpack: Creation Club Nuka-Cola Pack
• Creation Club Manwell Rifle Set - Unofficial Update (munitions)
• Creation Club Classic 10mm Pistol - Unofficial Update
• CC Tesla Cannon Upgrade
• Fixpack: Creation Club Prototype Gauss Rifle
• Modular Military Backpack Redux
• Charlestown Condo Extras

New Quests:

a. Marked Quests:

• Tales From The Commonwealth
• Tales From The Commonwealth DLC Patch
• Toggle Revolver Fanning
• Caves of the Commonwealth - Dark
• Fallout Instrument Pack
• Sunshine and Cannibals
• In The Flesh
• Vault 117
• Vault 494
• Heather Casdin

b. Unmarked Quests:

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Workshop/Settlements:

a. Powered Objects:

• Nothing Fancy Hot Showers
• Working Fridges
• Workshop Turret Pack
• Wall Pass-Through Power Conduits
• Vault-Tec Workshop Power Conduit Radius Increase
• Manufacturing Extended Expanded
• Munitions Manufacturing

b. Assignable Items (Shops and the like):

• Better Cooking Stations
• Chem Cookers
• You Can Crash on the Couch

c. Decoration:

• Custom Signs
• Civil Defense Posters

d. Furniture:

• Clean Pre-War Workshop Workbenches
• Craftable Federalist Workbench
• Sarajiel's Smoking Idle Marker (esl)
• Workshop Interactive Objects
• Kitty Galore Cractable Cat Idle Objects

e. Structures and Retextures:

• Capital Wasteland Workshop Pack II
• Vault 88 Essentials
• Cratable Vault Elevators
• Grounded Updated by Sarinia
• Fixed Greenhouse Glass
• Concrete Warehouse

f. Script Based Stuff (DIY):

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g. Menu Altering Mods (USO, SMM, CC Homes):

• USO Season Pass
• USO NextGen Compatibility Patch
• USO Performance Boost Patch
• Settlement Menu Manager
• Noir Penthouse Workshop
• Modular Kitchens Updated

h. Workshop Parent Script (Better Interior Workshops, ASE):

• Settler Sandbox and AI Expansion

i. Misc:

• Always Build Nuka-Raider Resources
• Uncapped Settlement Surplus
• Workshop Vendor Shipments

Gameplay Mechanics:

• No Power Armor Strength Cap Leveled
• Weapon Jiggle Remover
• Spitfire (Enhanced Muzzle FX) Lite
• Realistic Gore and Dismemberment
• Consumables Overhaul - XB1
• Nuclear Physicist Redone - No Fusion Core Ejection

NPC and Companion Changes:

• Clean Faces of Settlers
• Enemy Scaling Revamped
• Deadlier Deathclaws
• Feral Ghouls Slower Vanilla Attack Animations
• Crickets Make Me Cry

Audio:

• Classic Fallout Ambient Nusic (Non-Replacer)
• Commonwealth Warfare - Realistic Gun Sounds & Bullet Cracks
• Commonwealth Warfare Explosions - No Ear Ringing
• Melee Impact Overhaul (esl)
• Combat Comments

Landscape:

• Vivid Fallout AIO 1k

Weather:

• Vivid Weathers
• Vivid Weathers - Far Harbor Patch
• Vivid Weathers - Nuka World Patch
• Vivid Weathers - No Snow Under Roof Patch

Meshes and Textures:

a. Meshes:

• Thompson SMG Replacer - Dirty Textures (1k)
• Classic 10mm Pistol Resize and NV Sound
• Pipe Weapons Refined REDUX
• Scrap Metal and Makeshift Welds

b. Textures:

• Transparent Glasses and Helmets
• I've Got Wood - A Sanctuary Texture Overhaul
• Red Rocket in Wood
• Wooden Shacks Re-Done
• Fallout IV -Gore Overhaul- 3.0
• CROSS Crit Gore-verhaul
• Better Ammo Boxes
• Fixed Enhanced Blood Textures

c. Misc

• Visible Galaxy 4k

Lighting and Water:

a. Lighting

• PhyDark (256)
• PhyLight
• Neon Lights

b. Water:

• WET - Water Enhancement Textures (Updated)
• Wetness Shader Fix

HUD and Display:

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NPC and Companion Appearance Changes:

a. NPCs:

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b. Creatures:

• D.E.C.A.Y. - Better Ghouls (Vanilla Audio Edition)

c. Companions:

• Classic Ghoul Redux
• [XB1] Gage
• MacDreamy
• Curie Overhaul

Character Meshes, Skin Textures and Skeleton:

a. Mesh:

• Face Texture Glitch Fix A
• CBBE Curvy AIO

b. Skin Textures:

• Valkyr Female Face Textures

Player Character Customization:

a. Eye Mods:

• The Eyes of Beauty Standalone + Replacer

b. Hair Mods:

• Kim Hairstyle
• Ponytail Hairstyles by Azar
• Manly Man Buns
• Beards N' Staches
• THBrows

c. Face:

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d. Texture replacers:

• WX Hair Colors

Animations:

a. Player and NPC animations:

• McgFemaleWalk
• Push Away Companions
• Weapon Drop Standalone

b. Other:

• See You Sleep - Commonwealth Edition
• Smokeable Cigars and Cigarettes

Weapon and Armor Leveled Lists:

a. Graftable:

• Crossbows of the Commonwealth

b. Guaranteed Spawns:

• Fallout 3 Flamethrower
• Chinese Pistol Set
• R-Series Rifles
• New Vegas Light Machine Gun
• Hunting Shotgun (painter2099)

c. Weapons:

• PBW - The Burst Shotgun (Winchester City Killer)
• DKS-501 Sniper Rifle w/Unofficial Update (Munitions)(1k)
• PBW - Chinese Assault Rifle
• CW 10mm SMG - A Fallout 3 Classic

d. Armor:

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e. Throwables

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f. Clothing

• Capital Wasteland Outfit Pack
• Capital Wasteland Outfit Pack II
• Rad-Ban Eyewear

g. Power Armor:

• Power Armor Level Lists Rebalanced Hardcore

h. Other:

• Creation Club Faction Weapons and Armor Overhaul

Craftable:

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Single Exterior Area Edits:

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Multiple Exterior Area Edits:

• Vehicle Overhaul Continued
• Rsiyo's Location Pack
• Boat to Spectacle Island

Interior Cell Changes or Additions:

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New World Spaces:

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New Settlements:

a. Existing Workshop Settlements (CC Homes, Homeplate, etc):

• Shroud Manor as Settlement

b. Commonwealth:

• Natick Substation Settlement by Glitchfinder

c. DLC Maps:

• Northpoint Dam - Nuka World Settlement

d. Settlements in New World Spaces:

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Automatron Modifications:

• Capital Wasteland Robot Pack
• Automatron Robot Weapon Overhaul
• Protectron Armor with Lights
• Sentry Bot Light Colors

Weapons and Armor Modifications:

a. Multiple Applications:

• Conversions - Munitions For All Vanilla Weapons

b. Weapons:

• PreWar Optics
• West-Tek Optics Pack
• West-Tek Optics Pack - Tweaks
• Better Plasma Barrels Non-Replacer
• Stainless Steel .44 Revolver Skin
• T6M's Revolvers Extended
• Lever Action Rifle Extended Ammo
• Wood Finishes for the Lever Action Rifle
• Automatic Machineguns (Assault Rifle Rework)
• Combat Rifle Overhaul

c. Armor and Clothing:

<empty>

d. Power Armor:

• Power Armor Materials and Paints

c. Misc:

<empty>

Item Alterations:

a. Functionality:

• Giblib's Power Armor Rebalance
• Improver Molotov
• Proper Nuka Quantum Grenade Explosion
• Nuka-Cola Victory Fix
• Better PA Lights With Hellfire - WIP

b. Stats changes:

• Laser Rifle Improvements
• A Less Terrible Tesla Rifle
• Nuka-World Ammo Crafting Rebalanced
• Useful Gas Mask

c. Animation Replacers:

• Radium Rifle Reload Reanimated
• hitman47101's Animation Replacer Combo

Trees and Grass:

• BNS 3.0 - Trees 2k Textures
• Vehicle Overhaul Continued - BNS 3.0 Patch
• True Grass 'Lite' + Grass Reworked
• Better Landscape Grass

Items Added To World Locations:

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Framework Bottom:

• Beautiful Female Settlers
• Better Settlers
• Diverse Children

Miscellaneous:

• Head Wound Decals
• Rain of Brass - Light Version
• Enhanced Decal Draw Distance - Medium

Patches:

• TFTC Visual Fixes 2
• Tales From The Commonwealth Visual Fixes
• Can't Assign Level 4 Merchant Glitch Fix
• Workshop Spotlight Fix with DLC

Bottom of LO:

• Survival Options
• Survival Food Stat Bug Workaround
• Vertibird Faction Paint Schemes
• What's Your Name? by Pra (Updated)
• [XB1] Hands Off
• Fixed Cubemaps for NG/AE
• Light Overhaul (XBONE)
• Vegas Style Dialogue Checks - DLC Expansion
• Full Dialogue Interface Revamped
• Full Dialogue Interface Revamped - Vegas Style Dialogue Checks Patch
• Full Dialogue Interface Revamped - VSDC DLC Patch
• Sunlight Alignment Tweaks
• TFTC Amelia's Espresso
• PRP Lite - Boston Common Tupe 1
• PRP Lite - Financial District Type 1
• Far Harbor - Vanilla Precombines Headers

I barely remember this movie since I was little but people in a farm start slowly turning into aliens or something and more people, also infected by the aliens or something, start gathering around the farm and building stuff. Thing I remember the most was the maid in the house. It was an old Hispanic woman with short hair and a pink maid dress. She would transform into a giant hairy ball and chase people. There's a scene where she goes upstairs then rolls downstairs after transforming. I genuinely cannot tell if it was supposed to be a horror movie or a comedy. I think it was an 80s movie.

FOUND: it was Seedpeople (1992).