DavidTC

I have no idea how to get a team to work on stuff, but sure, we can try. I really like your focus on the more civilian aspects of it, whereas I was just frustrated with the 'Yeah, I know I'm the strike force that clears places out, but where the hell is the army behind me that I am supposed to be leading? Could they try getting off their asses and hold some territory for once? I already cleared this place twice.' So my entire thing was figuring out a justification and way to have that happen, yet the game remain balanced because you have to pay for it. I.e., you have to clear enough places to make a nearby settlement happy enough to give you the money to *keep* those places clear. But if you focus things back on civilian, maybe *that's* where the balance can be. I.e., you have some sort of 'total government' level, and each level allows you to support one additional cleared location....or something else, like Vertibird is ten, or whatever. You earn 'support', aka political capital, and this support allows you to do things. And I like your idea of a factory, although what might be more useful is get one of the food packing plants working. Take over Longneck Lukowski's Cannery, or clear Mahkra Fishpacking, they're both within walking distances of settlements. Suddenly settlements all get a food bonus. Likewise, all sorts of random quests. I was thinking of having to pay for things in resources, but it really should be *both*. You want to restore the water supply, you have to track down four items, and you have to get X steel and lead, and you have to either convince some expert to do it for free, or pay them a lot. And, at this point, there's no sense in not adding settlements, and increasing the size of existing ones. I also like your idea of adding enemies. Maybe the Gunners simply *can't* be negotiated with, and in fact really dislike the idea of a government, and you have to not only fend them off, but you have to track down all their sites and clear them and hold them to turn them back to a nuisance. And another post here reminded me that Triggermen exist. (I remember thinking they were going to be some huge part of the game the first time I played through, and then hours later, suddenly thinking 'Wait, what happened to those Triggermen guys?') Those can be made into a bigger enemy, in fact, you want a quest to get Goodneighbor to join? How about getting rid of those guys. And whatever faction you destroyed should regroup somewhere, and commence raiding. Like, more than they already do. Things I don't like about your idea: 1) Faction specific HQ/capital, simply because that adds a three times as much work on it. (Assuming the Railroad can't be in charge) A currently-neutral building, just staffed with the correct faction, and a flag or two on the wall, works better, especially if you want it to grow and change. Like I said, I like Fort Hagen, because not only is it completely useless after the main quest goes there, but it has a nice surrounding town area that is also not important to anything. Hang some BoS/Minutemen/Institute flags from it, there you go. Leave the area directly around it to change by the mod as the government progresses, with more troops and artillery and a vertibird landing pad and stuff, and put a settlement at a slight distance. (Fiddler's Green might actually be too far, might just want to go with that big area between Hagen and the fence.) 2) Making Diamond Hill and Goodneighbor a settlement. Yeah, that sounds awesome, but I suspect in reality neither of those places are really that editable or well-suited for building. I'd rather just have them *join* the government and carry on as they are (With expanded patrol borders), if that makes sense. ### As for the tax collection thing, that sorta works backwards than what I wanted. I was trying to figure out how to get cash from the settlements to the governments, not from the settlements to me. ### And I suspect Nuka-World is going to have *some* of this in it, and that's downloading right now, so we can get back to this after I've explored how that works.

I'm not married to the idea of taxes. I was just using them to a) balance the game a bit, because, let's face it, if we're running around in the endgame we've got tons of money just laying around, and b) provide some sort of representation of how *well* you're doing. I mean, I see the 'radius of influence', and I sorta started with that idea...to some extent. It's very stupid that Super-Mutants are allowed to keep setting up at Breakheart Banks, for example. That was the entire concept behind this, I just said 'You know, people should just get to *keep* clearing and holding territory. Even if we're the super-skilled assault team, where's the somewhat-trained army behind us to *hold* those locations?' But what I don't want is any sort of automatic thing...I think you should to go there, and clear enemies out, and do *something* to keep them out, and that thing, for balance reasons, shouldn't be free. It shouldn't be something that just automatically happens when you clear places. Now, I sorta had an alternative besides taxes to set this up, but it seemed to complicated, and doesn't work well in some areas. Basically, the idea was that you'd set up patrol station at a settlement and assign a person to it then you'd clear out an area and signal the nearest one to start patrolling the area. (Actually not the 'nearest one'...there would need to be some fudging of borders so that some settlements didn't end up with too many areas. For example, Starlight would be busy handling Lexington, and thus everything north and west of Starlight would be handled by other settlements. If you see what I mean.) The problem is...even with moving borders, that's pretty far for some areas. The actual center of the map, for example. But I guess *that's* a good reason to have to convince Diamond City and Goodneighbor to join in. (I guess, when they do, they just start sending out their people, no need to assign anyone.) Still kinda need something between Greygarden and Bunker Hill, but maybe Hangman's Alley can help if it's not need for its side of the river. And using Fort Hagen as the capital lets us get patrols in that area. So that's basically everywhere except the Glowing Sea. (Which doesn't make any sense to try to patrol.) And this still seems a little too cheap to me. Yes, it's an entire person dedicated to this at each settlement, so it's a bit costly, but no more costly than artillery. And, yes, there can be a one-time cost for the patrol station, but I still feel it should cost something to actually operate this thing. Maybe it should suck up some extra food and water, under the premise that supplying patrols requires more stuff than people sitting around at home all day. Maybe it could require two people...a radio operator, and a guy that actually goes on patrols. As for when this happens in the story...if there's a government, in canon, the Institute is not particularly fond of this idea and blew up the last attempt of that. And I'm not sure the BoS would be on board either, because the BoS got driven out of California *exactly* that way. I'm not sure them letting someone (who isn't them) do that really makes sense. Of course, in theory, all this could happen without a 'government', I guess. Just settlements expanding outward. The problem is that, without a government to call on, to provide backup, we're basically operating with the idea that one person can hold an building against an army of raiders. There is a difference between 'Do not attack, or I will try to kill you, and if you win, you get this building', and 'Do not attack, or I will try to kill you, and if you win, you will then get entire might of the Commonwealth Armed Force descending on this building to kill you.'

Hey, I came up with the almost same mod idea by myself, with a somewhat different spin. And found yours while typing it up, and you have some good ideas that I stole. https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/4784215-yet-another-government-mod-idea/ Check it out.

So, I've seen some mod suggestions that are somewhat like this, but not exactly this. My idea was...a basic government, so I cam here to look for if anyone had that idea. The closest was a post called 'CWR - Commonwealth Republic (Project)', which comes close: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/4708000-cwr-commonwealth-republic-project But let me give my ideas, along with the ones I like from CWR: Please note I have not actually played the BoS or Institute ending, and am not sure how well it will work for those two. This idea was originally just a Minuteman one, but I think it could work with all of the end factions *except* using Railroad. A *secret* organization can't really run a government....but anyone who played the Railroad probably has the Minutemen still there. (I think?) So, my mod idea: After the endgame, there is a faction-neutral quest giver. They're a historian and they remember the Commonwealth Provisional Government. So they present a quest to place the Commonwealth under the rule of law. It's also here that, if you have multiple endgame factions, like both Minutemen and BoS, you pick one. The first step is to clear out an HQ. I would suggest, as it already sorta looks right, Fort Hagen, although BADTFL could work. After that, the quest giver moves into the HQ, and, after a few days, the interior is spruced up. (I.e, replaced with a different one.) The interior should allow fast travel out. There are a few faction-approriate people milling around, using terminals, a map on the wall, whatever. Now you've got a government. If you can pay for it. Yes, it's the most fun part of a government: Taxes. You get to build tax collection thingies each settlement, a sort of anti-shop that removes money from their inventory (So you're going to want a few shops to support them.)...but here's the rub: The taxes make the settlers happy, but *only if* there are no bad guys around, otherwise the taxes make them really unhappy, and they won't pay them. I.e., don't even think about taxing The Slog or Finches Farm if the Forged are there, Oberland station wants those Super-Mutants across the river gone, and Vault 88 would like something done about those Raiders literally right outside. Additionally, to steal an idea from CWR, you have to make sure they have a certain level of defenses. But, and here's the part that makes it a government instead of just you...with the taxes, you 'hire people', aka, you get an amount of people based off taxes, and then, after you clear an area out, you grab your radio (BTW, you got a radio earlier) and then have them keep watch on that building. After which, bad guys stop spawning there. Some places require one guard, some two, and a few three. (I know hiring people doesn't quite make sense for the Institute taking control of an area, but I don't really see any other way to balance them. Perhaps the argument is that using synths would look too much like a hostile force. Same, to some extent, for the BoS.) In addition to basically clearing out everywhere near settlements, there are couple of things you have to deal with. The big things are Diamond City, Goodneighbor, and the Gunners. The Gunners should logically be bribable. Pay them to leave the Commonwealth, or even pay them to start working for the government. Or just threaten to kill them all if the don't basically disband. However, their hostility, and the fact the player could have killed all the named characters before the end game, makes that a hard thing to work out. Perhaps some messenger shows up to cut a deal. Or you can just kill them all, as in, get a quest to literally clear all Gunner sites. Meanwhile, to get Goodneighbor or Diamond City to join you requires clearing and holding all areas near them. (When put together, basically everything north from the Mass Pike to water.) *And* maybe some additional quests if you're with the wrong faction...Goodneighbor is going to dislike the anti-ghoul BoS, and Diamond City is going to dislike the Institute. So, assuming you haven't already done it, you have to play nice, paint a wall or get Hancock to like you, whatever... (It would be nice to have a faction be resistent to the Minutemen, but I'm not seeing it...unless it's the Gunners? Or maybe Vault 81 for some reason?) Additionally, tax collection from the traders should be possible, you just talk to them, but that should be a charisma check based on how pacified you've already made everything. I.e., if they are still getting shot at walking around, they will not like the idea, whereas if you've actually made the place safe, well, they can fire their bodguards and pay taxes instead. Or alternately, you can bribe them by just paying their taxes for them, but having them pretend to support the idea...or extort them into it if the Institute is gone, because people wouldn't be real happy to learn they were spies. (And, hey, it should be possible to extort a few secret synths, too.) And, I'll happily get behind the idea of a 'Capital', like the CWR post suggested, although what *I* would suggest is maybe using the outside of the Fort Hagen area, which is already sorta a city. And maybe instead of making *it* a settlement, have the area directly around that building slowly change to reflect the state of the government, and have a settlement immediately next to it, like at Fiddler's Green or just to one side of it. I also like the idea of Vertibird quests. You collect some parts, and get one, and then clear out a base of operations for it, and then you can keep three or four people there in reserve, and have a rapid response to attacks. So, anyway, that's my mod idea. Anyone like it? Dislike it? Anyone want to do it? :wink:

Instead of adding a new workbench, it would be cool if the existing Scavenging Station could be turned into a container, and the guy you assigned to that could be assumed to be breaking the things down. (You can open containers even when someone else is using them, AFAIK. At least you can with Workbenches.) The mod could even add a bit of immersion and he only scraps one thing a minute or something, instead of everything at once. And then he puts it in the settlement Workbench inventory. And it obviously doesn't work if you haven't assigned someone. This wouldn't interfere with what the bench does currently, which puts new items in the settlement Workbench inventory. If you wanted those broken down, you'd still have to grab them and move them. This obviously needs scripting, so can't be done yet?