Ideas for more immersive/improved settlements

[imadillo]

There's a few features I'd love to see added to the settlement building aspect of the game:

 

 

1. More NPC's with backstories who can be recruited for specific functions, like engineers who will use resources from the workshop to repair your damaged machinery. It seems silly that all these settlements would be so dependent on you to keep them functioning. They could have their own terms for joining, some could be refugees grateful to pitch in, some for hire, some perhaps doctors of dubious credentials no longer welcome in other settlements. (I know that you can assign doctors, but it would be nice to recruit someone with "prior medical experience" rather than a random settler.) The Fallout Shelter game allowed you to recruit special settlers with high ratings. Perhaps there could be runaway synths, defected coursers or independent assaultrons to add to the defense rating. A world of possibilities...

 

2. Planters to grow your own various wild herbs and mushrooms scavenged from the wild- what chem lab or research center could be complete without a steady supply of specimens?

 

3. Dead bodies can be removed-broken down to use for bone meal and fertilizer. Failure to do so may attract wildlife, mainly packs of wild dogs whose function in the ecosystem is to scavenge for corpses. Check this one off the list: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6497/?

 

4. Flat walls with door arches that can have a door snapped or flooring placed in front to allow interior room division or second-story entryways.

 

5. Recreational items that increase settlement happiness (adding a similar rating as the shops to items that already exist in the game like pool tables, chessboards, sporting equipment etc)

 

6. Placeable drinking fountains that count towards water resources.

7. One last really dumb idea I came up with - Scavenged sports equipment can be assembled to equip a recreational sportsball team for your settlement. I'm not sure what would necessarily be involved in this, possibly nothing more than a requirement quota and occasional notifications with periodic updates and boosts to happiness. "The Sunshine Tidings Groovybots win the big match against the Taffington Fishcakes! Villagers celebrate." Or perhaps a menu allowing you to arrange a match event to commence in the next few days with a temporary penalty to production.

Totally ridiculous I know, just an amusing thought.

Edited January 13, 2016 by imadillo

[ABCHAOS94]

Aha those ideas seem great I was thinking of a lot of those my self,

 

The dead bodies one I thought was a really good idea I hate that they just lay around, like does it not bother the settlers?

 

What i really want is some one to come up with a mod that allows you to access everything in the settlement like a menu, so you can mange everything that going on like masters terminal

 

This could be used to mange settles name, equipment, location, supply route, etc

 

it could also give a list of things that are unassigned so you can set settlers to do it

[Runestones]

If we get kids, we also need to be able to create a school, school chairs and assign a teacher. Maybe also have settlers with babies or "couples" get babies after a while that after quite some time turn into children (I wouldn't go as far as making the children into adults, tho... unless you intend to make everyone age, which could easily break the game).

On your idea of the sports team, I actually made a basketball field in my Sanctuary just for the fun of it, so you can consider me a +1 on that XD could be fun to listen to games and results on Diamond City Radio from time to time XD or maybe have a sports radio just for that.

[imadillo]

I found that using the console commands "markfordelete" and then "disable" will delete the bodies permanently. Though I do enjoy the idea of creating a corpse pit outside the walls that attracts bloat flies and wild dogs.

 

I created a schoolhouse with the Homemaker expanded mod, perhaps a teacher could be assigned to a podium. I think an animation for interaction with a podium exists from Mayor McDonough's speech.

 

The menu is a really good idea, especially since once you assign settlers to run supply routes they could be anywhere in between. It would be nice to have something that charts the route and the time expected until return. Since they are traveling alone across the wasteland there could even be additional missions if your trader goes missing or reports hazards on their route.

 

I also really like the idea of setting up your own radio station, maybe it would be possible to copy and drop the trailer station in Diamond city, or maybe just the desk booth so you could set it up in a house. Getting an actual voice-acted report would be cool, though certainly more complicated than a notification via text. Maybe a small newspaper could also serve that function, like a newspaper stand you could install where it would appear in the inventory. There is definitely need for recreational activities after a hard day of pulling weeds or staring at the horizon.

 

 

But the idea of setting up a radio station could present another interesting feature- There's hardly any songs on the radio but there's all these broken down stereos everywhere, right? What if you could search these like a container and occasionally find a surviving holotape with a custom music file and slowly assemble a collection? That would be an awesome scavenger quest! So far it seems like all custom radio mods have to replace files for existing stations rather than add standalone channels, but I don't think anyone has tried replacing the localized settlement recruitment station yet. That's something to look into.

 

One last idea I had was that installing lights would increase your odds of attack from enemies and insects at night, and would therefore require increased defenses. Settlers can obviously survive without power and spend their time farming and bunkering down at nightfall, but lights are essentially a beacon broadcasting their presence and prosperity.

Edited January 13, 2016 by imadillo

[imadillo]

Additional idea-

 

Pet dishes that will spawn a cat in your settlement, which will just wander around being adorable.

 

Shelves to keep overdue books that can be donated to your settlement for educational purposes. This would be great addition for setting up a school.

 

Radroach farming?

Edited January 14, 2016 by imadillo