[CONCEPT] S.O.C.K.S+ Settler Overhaul, Characters, Kids, Skills +

[Athanasa]

I don't actually have the capability to make this on my own. I spew out ideas, but I have no modding experience in Bethesda games.

S.O.C.K.S

Settler Overhaul: Characters, Kids, Skills

Also Perks, Functionality and Quality of Life

People want more out of their settlers. If you don't want more use out of the feckless masses wandering around your bases, this idea is not for you. If you are interesting in making those farm-fodder imbeciles do something other than mass produce glue, this may interest you.

Obviously, there needs to be improvements in settler management. No-one is going to argue that the vanilla method of settler 'management' is optimal. In fact, sometimes it isn't even functional. And that's obviously an issue I would like to address, that everyone would like to address. For this reason, I'm not going into detail about fixing up the Settler assignment issue until later in this post.

Settlers need to be useful. Sure, they are already, but no settler is any more useful than any another settler. You have no reason to care about them. So what if one dies? Ship in another from elsewhere, it's not like you lost anything. Even if you leave a settler farming for a year, they don't get any better. A guy on guard duty for a year won't give any more defence than a guy freshly assigned to a post. Wouldn't it be better if settlers got better at something the more they did it? If some settlers arrived with skills in one area?

And finally, one of the least important mechanically, but most important in making your settlers people... Giving them names. Without names, settlers don't have identities. Simple as. There's no Ivan the Guard, with his room full of anti-tank mines, ammo boxes and gas masks. There's no Mrs. Mira, with her room decorated with a broken crib, littered with toys for a lost child. Of course, you decorated these rooms. But with names, you can give these settlers lives. You can give them histories and meanings.

Characters, Kids and Skills

Role Identifiers, Settler Job Types, Skills, Perks, Kids, Elders and Names

Role Identifiers
Names are all well and good, but they still won't tell you what a settler actually does. Not unless you remember the names of everyone in your settlements. To help this, role icons are added to help identify your settlers. Functioning like the "Legendary" and "Hard" enemy icons, role icons sit beside a settler's name to help you identify their role.
ALTERNATIVE: Prefixes to names. However, this may not be compatible with randomly generated names, or overwrite them completely.

Tracy http://i.imgur.com/ypjW5lh.png
Alex http://i.imgur.com/bmgQNWm.png
Dennis http://i.imgur.com/YUDiWt2.png

Additional Settler Job Types
Mods will probably introduce new settler job types. For the sake of streamlining everything (and not becoming Dwarf Fortress), many jobs will share related skills.

Hunters: Settlers that roam outside your settlement to hunt wildlife for food, or bandits for resources. These settlers will have their success and contribution measured off the same stat as guards, which is basically their ability to fight and shoot. Depending on where your settlement is (rural, farming settlements versus settlements near or in urban areas) your settlers may be more likely to encounter creatures or raiders. [Maybe some contribution from Scavenging too? Make Hunters a high end investment. Scavenger score = resource gained. Guard score = how safe they are doing it.]

Bounty Hunting: Hunt down Raiders. The reputation of your settlement grows, combat able settlers are more likely to spawn to join your settlement. Hunting expeditions return with weapons, armor, ammo and caps. However, they are also more risky and likely to result in the deaths of your hunters. It is advisable to sent out experienced hunters rather than green recruits. [This could raise the likelihood of your base being attacked by raiders. Idea by Sparky48776]

Wildlife Hunting: Hunters return with food which adds to the settlement's food output (or stores, see FFS mod idea). They may also return with various herbs and fungi from the Wastelands found while hunting. Wildlife hunting is generally safer than raider hunting, except in high level areas.

 

Cooks: Cooks are another method of boosting your settlements food production, except they function more as food multipliers. [Perhaps giving an additional 25% at base level] They do not PRODUCE any food, they simply convert the raw ingredients into meals far more nutritious than their constituent parts. Having a cook in a settlement producing only 8 food won't get you much - only 2 more production, so you'd be better off assigning them as a farmer. However, if your base produces 20 food, a base level cook will produce 5 food. They also make settlements happier, because everyone likes a warm, cooked meal.

 

Scavengers: Scavengers already exist within your base. However, I suggest adding another Scavenger action type - sending them out to scavenge the nearby area for resources. It would be higher risk than the existing Scavenger role, but also produce more resources. The resources would be based on where your settlement is. [Guard skill increases their safety.]

Rural Scavenging: Plants, herbs and lots of wood. Also some bits of metal, from the abandoned cars and whatnot littering the commonwealth.

Urban Scavenging: Steel, aluminium and copper. Also some of the rarer resources (nuclear material, circuitry) at higher scavenging levels. Small amounts of wood, rarely.

 

Entertainers: People that make your bases happier. Maybe they sing in the diner, or go around bringing everyone lemonade. Something to make it easier to raise happiness past that 80% mark. Who am I kidding. This is just mainly here for the mods people will make involving vertical poles from the ceiling.

Settler Skills
As mentioned earlier, settlers have skills which function as multipliers to their ability to perform their assigned roles. I propose a numbered value to their skills, spanning from 0 - 8. A score of '0' gives 0% increased output at their assigned role - they produce vanilla quantities. Alternately, it could be configurable for them to produce less than baseline amounts of a resource. It depends on how 'hardcore' you want your experience to be, or more appropriately, how laughably easy food production could get if you leave your settlers to specialise. As an idea, each point from 0 - 8 gives you an additional 25% production. So...

0 Skill - Value x 1.00           5 Skill - Value x 2.25
1 Skill - Value x 1.25           6 Skill - Value x 2.50
2 Skill - Value x 1.50           7 Skill - Value x 2.75
3 Skill - Value x 1.75           8 Skill - Value x 3
4 Skill - Value x 2.00           Maybe also a special ability at Rank 8.

Farmer / Cook: I'm not sure if I should combine these two, but on its own Cook is too specialised. Anyway, this skill boosts your farmers ability to produce food from farming or cooking. How? The plants WERE producing this amount of fruit before, but most of them were inedible and disgusting. Through their careful learning of Garden-Fu, pest control, application of fertilizer and singing to their plants, your farmers are able to coax the plants to produce at their full potential.

Max Rank Bonus: Plants produced are non-irradiated.

 

Guard: Your guards produce extra guard-points when assigned to guard posts (which themselves need to be modded with more tiers and included gun placements to make them competitive with turrets). They are also less likely to die on missions outside your settlement and gain extra HP.

Max Rank Bonus: Their presence causes a passive boost to the stats of units around them. Increased temporary HP, accuracy and damage?

 

Scavenger: Finding more resources than normal when scavenging or on missions outside of your settlement.

Max Rank Bonus: Scavengers can now find rare materials, such as Nuclear Material, Crystal, Circuitry and Fibre-Optics when scavenging.

 

Entertainer: How happy they make people when assigned to an Entertainer role.

Max Rank Bonus: Your Entertainer gains the 'Bubbly' perk, providing a happiness buff to people around them, even when they're not working.

 

Trader: Increasing ranks means increasing amounts of caps available for the trader, and they make increased caps too.

Max Rank Bonus: The trader now stocks rare stuff. They also have a chance to acquire rare items / resources while trading. Also, if they are sent on trading runs to major cities, they have a chance to come back with better-than-average settlers.

Settler Perks
Sometimes you get a settler with a rare Perk. This Perk is (usually) not related to any skills, but can combine with many for a distinct advantage to your settlement. You may want to carefully organise your Perked settlers around your various Settlements, or have them rotate through them providing their bonuses.

Elder: Default perk for Elder assigned settlers. [i imagine settlers with old looking faces can still spawn, but unless tagged AS Elders, they are not elders] This settler passively gives the settlers around them increased exp gain.

 

Child: Seeing children growing up in (ideally peaceful) settlements helps your settlers to believe that there is maybe some hope left in the world. Having a child around makes people happier.

Teacher: This Settler boosts the Skill levelling rate of all other settlers assigned to the same role as themselves.

Bubbly: Just being around this Settler makes people assigned to the same role happy. Their continual smile helps to brighten up everyone's day.

 

Lucky: A random chance to return with extra rare items / resources / extra gold when scavenging or trading.

 

Medic: Settlers are less likely to die, and recover faster from their wounds. It also makes people feel better knowing there's a doctor in the house.

Fast Learner: This Settler gains exp faster than other settlers. 20% extra?

Animal Friend: This settler is less likely to be attacked by animals. Decreased chance of being mauled to death by Yau Gai when gathering.

Bad Past: This Settler used to run with the raiders. They know the gang signs, making them less likely to be killed by raiders when out and about.

Children and Elders
Children: Occasionally, child settlers join your settlement. They don't really do much - they are limited to gathering and scavenging within the base (not scavenging patrols). However, having children in your settlements makes everyone feel better about the world. [No guarding or anything involving combat, as children are unkillable by default.] I wouldn't be surprised if they were prioritised for kidnapping events, though. Unsurprisingly, everyone gets very upset if you let the Settlement's kid die.

Elders: Rarely, old folk join your settlement. How they've survived so long, you have no idea. But don't worry! They're going to tell all your settlers how they're still alive and everything they know. Just so long as they can settle down inside your base, and not go out on Raider-raids or hunting. With an Elder sharing all their stories, everyone learns what they're doing faster with the Elder's wisdom.

Names
Compared to everything else, Names have the least mechanical impact. But it's really nice to be able to identify and find your settlers. Randomly generate the names of new settlers for sweet, delicious immersion.

Quality of Life, Other Interesting Stuff

Settler Management, Raider Monitoring, Raid the Raiders, Wounds, Self Sufficiency, Immersion

Settler Management
The most important thing that everyone seems to want. A way to manage what the bloody hell our Settlers are doing. To do this, you build a special object within your base (found in resources, like the Settler Bell) that allows you to manage your settlers. What is this special item? It's a desk. With folders on it. You sit at the desk, and a UI is brought up (looking like pages in a folder) that you navigate through to see information on your individual settlers (their role, their skills), current complaints and reports (X settlers joined, caravan returned, X gained skill level). Frankly, I imagine this would be one of the hardest things to make. I've heard that UI based stuff can be an absolute pain in the arse. I'll spawn a mockup of this idea in screenshots / photoshop... at some point. Maybe.
Alternately: By assigning icons to settlers, this UI may not be needed. It should be clear who is idle and who has a job.
Talk to Settlers: An extra option in the chat menu allows you to ask your peasants settlers what they are good at. A central pop-up (the type that pauses the game) appears with the info.


Raider Attacks Overhaul, Raider Monitoring
First off, I'd like to completely do away with the current useless system of base raiding and defence. Instead, replace it with an "aggressiveness" meter for the local raiders. Certain actions and resources will increase this meter, others can deplete it. Having a water purifier and a lot of stored food increases the raiders aggressiveness towards your Settlement - they're jealous. Sending hunters out to kill Raiders makes them angry. Caravans let them know you have money and resources, which they want.
When talking to a Guard, you can ask them how things are. They will respond with a report on what the local area is like, specifically local raider / super mutant / whatever activity. Note that, apart from at the All Quiet level, attacks can happen at any time. Increasing aggressiveness links to the LIKELIHOOD of an attack, checking on a daily basis with an RNG based chance mechanic (or something). Each time you repel a raid, the chance counter resets and sticks at zero for a while. On triggering the raid chance, it does not happen immediately, but at a random point in the next 5 days.
In an ideal world, it would also be possible to spawn single scouting raiders to approach your base. This serves no real purpose other than immersion - to watch your settlers cut them down as you stroll around your base. Maybe, if you have no defences or alert guards, these scouts can steal resources or sabotage equipment.
"All quiet ma'am/sir." - No raider activity, no chance of a raid any time soon
"Lookouts saw a little activity, but nothing much." - Under 20% raid chance.
"They're scouting closer, but I don't think they'll attack yet." - 20-40% raid chance.
"They're taking pot shots at our walls." / "They're getting cocky." - 40-70% raid chance.
"We've seen them preparing for an assault, it can't be long now." - 70% upwards.


Raid / Provoke the Raiders
Counter-Raid: Are the raiders taking pot shots at your walls, but you don't want to wait for THEM to make the first move? No worries, take a selection of Settlers out and attack the nearest Raider base instead! A successful attack drops the raider chance back down again.
Provoke: With loud speakers (now with an actual use!), blare out a challenge to the raiders. Come on, if you think you can! At 40%+ chance of Raider Attack, this will provoke the raiders to launch their attack on your base. Tower defence, anyone?


Wounds
Probably an option rather than a default feature. It's mostly for immersion and realism, and would likely be inconvenient to some. Then again, maybe it balances out some of the other advantages within the mod idea. Ideally, it comes in two flavours.
Anti-Death Wounds: Settlers become wounded rather than dying. While wounded they are bedridden and cannot contribute to your settlement for a week. Having a Medic in the settlement reduces this down time.
Combat Wounds: Settlers can become wounded if they take damage in raids or on missions. Depending on how harmed they are, they are bedridden for a few days (up to 4).


Self Sufficiency
Are you pissed off that your settlement will automatically fall if you aren't there to defend it? Even though you build enough turrets to give it 200 defence? I know I find the idea irritating! Settlements are given a percentage chance to survive and even repel attacks (although there may be a loss of life without you there, at least they don't ALL die) based on their defences. It's RNG, but at least there's a reward now for building enough defences for a base to fend for itself.


Upgraded Guard Posts
Guard posts are terrible. Really, really terrible. So, let's upgrade them to make the multiplier effect from Guard skill actually mean something - otherwise a rank 8 guard on a guard post still only produces 6 defence. So, let's strap a Vertibird minigun onto them!
Minigun Guard Post: Gun Nut rank 2. The Guard Post contributes a defence score of 6 (or 18 in the hands of a Max Rank guard).
Gatling Laser Guard Post: Gun Nut rank 2. Science rank 2. The guard post contributes a defense score of 10 (or 30 with a Rank 8 guard).


Immersion - Miscellaneous
Area Markers: Place down special 'mats' on the floor that mark areas of your settlements as certain places. For example, mark your dining hall as such, and have the NPCs walk there in the morning and evening for their meals. Place a floor marker in the room you made to be a hospital, and have your wounded settlers carted in there. Designate an area as the 'recreational / relaxing' area, for settlers (and idlers) to relax. Designate a small area as YOUR ROOM, to keep the peasants from sleeping in your bed and using your chairs.
Firing Range: Occasionally, settlers go here to shoot at targets and practice their marksmanship. [Maybe gain a very small amount of Guard exp]

Food Happiness: Give your settlers better food (meat from hunters) to make them happier.

That's about it. Anyone else have any ideas?

Are any of the ideas here impossible, impractical or unstable to mod?

Mechanics Idea Mutterings

 

 

Some Mechanics Ideas, Settler Skill Exp Gain:

All skill gains are calculated and added to your settlers on a daily basis. What time the game calculates this depends on what other mods do. Maybe 4am game-time? This way the game can also apply any bonuses to experience gain. The default exp gain for a day's work is 100 exp, because it's a nice round number to deal with. Higher levels take more exp to level up.

 

John is a farmer.

John gets 100 exp (nice, round number) Farmer exp per day for his work on the farm.

There is a Teacher assigned to farming, so John gets an additional 20 Exp for farming.

There is an Elder in the settlement, so John gets an additional 10 Exp to every skill.

At 4am, John gets 130 Farmer Exp, 10 Guard Exp, 10 Scavenger Exp, 10 Trader Exp, 10 Entertainer Exp.

John requires 1000 Farmer Exp to gain another level in Farming Skill. It takes John 8 days to gain the level. It would have taken him 10 days without the Elder and Teacher in the settlement. (He's at 1040 at the end of Day 8. If his daily exp was 120 - if there was no Elder - he would take 9 days.)

 

 

Jade is also a farmer in the same settlement. She has the 'Quick Learner' Perk.

Jade gets the same base exp as John. However, her Fast Learner adds a 1.2% multiplier to all exp she gains.

At 4am, Jade gets: 156 Farmer Exp, 12 Guard Exp, 12 Scavenger Exp, 12 Trader Exp, 12 Entertainer Exp

Jade also needs 1000 Farmer Exp to level up. It will take her 7 days to level up. (She's at 1092 exp at the end of Day 7)

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2016 by Athanasa

[Sparky48776]

yes you added one of my ideas :laugh:

[Sparky48776]

Instead of raider hunting they should be called Mercenaries or Bounty Hunters

[Athanasa]

Instead of raider hunting they should be called Mercenaries or Bounty Hunters

Good idea. Adding that.

 

And I forgot the thing you had about the better trading stalls, too. You can EXPLOIT this currently, sort of. I used the carpet trick to wedge my bartender's store between two counters and it looks badass. However, it'd be cool to be able to have a weapons stall guy standing behind a counter with the walls covered with weapons. (There's a mod for weapon racks, haven't seen how stable it is though.) There also seemed to be a mod that replaced the stalls with 'pads' on the floor. However, as that's a pre-existing mod, it wouldn't be right of me to steal the idea. So it'd go in the recommended mods area if this mod ever became more than a pipe dream. I can't remember which mod it was right now, though. One of the extra Settlement objects ones?

Edited December 27, 2015 by Athanasa

[Sparky48776]

Additional Stuff:

 

Teachers, Mentors and Training:

 

Teachers would be assigned to posts were they would give lectures to students to further their aspects in farming and other jobs, The Teacher job is best for the elderly

You could build shooting ranges where settlers practice their weapons skills.

Things like this

 

 

Gangs:

 

 

Gangs are more organized (some) unlike raiders in general, they have Tiers, Ranks and leaders and areas they own (So gangs will be more/less common in areas)

I have already thought of a few

You can choose to befriend or Attack them, taking them down would require you to take out the three commanders, then you would take out the boss.

If you befriend them you can recruit up to 3 Gang Members who act like companions but die and are much weaker

 

 

The Marauders:

 

A Lethal Group of Raiders common around parts of neighborhood, they vary in many skill sets.

 

The Psychos:

 

The Psychos have no moral, the cover themselves in blood and charge at you with everything they have got. They only follow one leader they call "The Almighty One" if you kill him you become the Almighty One and the Psychos follow your

 

The Scrappers:

 

They are quite a week gang, however they spread across the Wasteland, they usually have cheap melee weapons.

 

The Forge:

 

You Probably already know of the Forge, but in this version they are at war with the Marauders.

 

The Rogue Legion:

 

Ex-Brotherhood Knights who have disobeyed the code to live under a life of self-preservation and greed. They despise the Brotherhood and plan to destroy them.

 

(I plan to add more gangs)

Edited December 27, 2015 by Sparky48776

[Athanasa]

Gangs:

Gangs are more organized (some) unlike raiders in general, they have Tiers, Ranks and leaders and areas they own (So gangs will be more/less common in areas)

I have already thought of a few

You can choose to befriend or Attack them, taking them down would require you to take out the three commanders, then you would take out the boss.

If you befriend them you can recruit up to 3 Gang Members who act like companions but die and are much weaker

 

 

The Marauders:

A Lethal Group of Raiders common around parts of neighborhood, they vary in many skill sets.

 

The Psychos:

The Psychos have no moral, the cover themselves in blood and charge at you with everything they have got. They only follow one leader they call "The Almighty One" if you kill him you become the Almighty One and the Psychos follow your

 

The Scrappers:

They are quite a week gang, however they spread across the Wasteland, they usually have cheap melee weapons.

 

The Forge:

You Probably already know of the Forge, but in this version they are at war with the Marauders.

 

The Rogue Legion:

Ex-Brotherhood Knights who have disobeyed the code to live under a life of self-preservation and greed. They despise the Brotherhood and plan to destroy them.

 

(I plan to add more gangs)

 

Oooh. Gangs would make sense as an entirely new mod on its own. I think someone might be working on something similar already, actually. Also, I like the idea of having people that act like companions - that mechanic could be something to use for attacking Raider bases to lower their Attack Level?

 

OH! That was a thing I thought about adding! Hiring mercenaries to defend your settlements. I wasn't sure how it would work in such a way that they would be viable, though. I imagine they'd bring their own sleeping bags (but not actually place them or build them, because of potential conflicts with stuff people might have already built in settlements. Unless they built outside the settlement perimeter? Hmm. Probably easier to go without.), although I'm unsure if they would eat YOUR food or bring their own. Either way, they'd provide bonus defense and not count towards your settlement cap (sort of like having traders in town). They consume X amount of caps from your base's storage (can you store caps?) each day they protect your base, and disappear once you run out of money to pay them. Theoretically, if your settlement is doing well and making lots of money, it can self-sustain its mercenaries?

 

 

 

Teachers, Mentors and Training:

Teachers would be assigned to posts were they would give lectures to students to further their aspects in farming and other jobs, The Teacher job is best for the elderly

You could build shooting ranges where settlers practice their weapons skills.

Things like this

I do like the idea of having training posts for some things. Especially the shooting ranges, which would allow Elders to pass on their knowledge of Guarding without Guarding and risking dying. I imagine that Guard level / exp is one of the things that you might want every settler to have some levels in. As for teaching in other areas, the intention was for it to happen passively to anyone assigned to the same job as the Teacher - it's hard to teach farming by "practicing" on plants without getting anything! Same for scavenging.

 

The potential issue being that people assigned to would probably be taken from their existing posts, causing a reduction in production.

Edited December 27, 2015 by Athanasa

[SirTwist]

One of many things that upsets me about this game, after a while, the radiant, if you want to call them that, missions you have to do over and over and over, and over... really ticks me off. I don't want to have to go to a settlement and rescue some poor settler who got themselves kidnapped, or help a settlement out because some raiders are demanding food, or some settler stubbed their little toe, and needs it kissed. The raiding, etc. is old news. I want the minutemen to respond to calls I can't get to. I would also like the Brotherhood of Steel to also help out. And I want my defenses to mean something. If a settler is armed and armored better than standard, perhaps even better than raiders, the raiders wouldn't come in and demand food, or kidnap someone, or something like that. They will want to stay away. So, one idea I want to add to the OP's list is an Armory, that is manned by a settler. The Armory works this way. In your travels, you run accumulate several weapons, and armor. Well, you don't need 900 automatic rifles. So, you strip down a few to base components, mod a couple, dump one into the Armory, the other you keep. The rest you store. The Armor's job is to replicate the weapon, or armor, you place in there, and they distribute the armor through out the settlement. (Through provisioning, this can be passed to all settlements.) The armor is basically the same thing. You take have 3 full sets. One for you, one for your companion (that can use it,) and one for the Armory. And it gets out there.

2) This is more building than actual settler, but I really dislike the 2 story prefab wooden house. If someone could make a mod that replaces that with something decent, at about the same size, etc. that would really please me. (This really pisses me off.)

3) Up gradable turrets. All turrets should be able to be upgraded, either by you, or the settlers. (Basically, you upgrade one turret, and assign a settler to upgrade, repair/replace turrets from then on.) This way, the defenses upgrade easily. I would like two things to happen. One is that a perimeter of machine guns could handle say ghouls easily enough. (no reason to call on anyone, just let them little things go.) Maybe handle raiders that are lower level. Tier II machine gun turrets, though, should wipe out most raider groups. (Maybe upgrade the turrets to heavy machine guns for that.) The tier are two-fold tiers. They add more punch to the weapons, as well as more armor to the weapons. And it's your job to introduce changes to these things, and then either everything changes, or a settler makes all the changes. (And they can make changes on their own, based on what is around them.)

4) Guard system. I would like to see a guard system in the game. This could be handled a couple of ways. Either by a board, like a black board, or by a terminal. These guards would get stealthy, quiet, etc. weapons and armor. (They would get knives and swords, as well as sound suppressed weapons.) They can be in settlement guard, patrolling in and around the settlement. Another type is scavenging group guard. (That is another Idea I will post in a minute.) And caravan guards. (I have an idea about caravans as well. Another point in a bit.) Because these guards are operating outside of the settlement, they can have up to the current level of power armor that you have. (If you have the T-60 power armor, they have access to it too.) These guards are operating outside of the settlement. For caravan guards, since they aren't home, all the time, they pack extra ammo, weapons, etc.

5) Cleaning up a settlement. I fricking hate having debris all over the bloody place. I want it gone, removed, disappear into the ethos, whatever. These lazy bums should be able to clean it up without me dealing with it, as well. I think that after a period of time, that the settlement may not be pristine, neat, clean, etc. like it was before the war, it should look alright. So, if they cleaned up the debris, etc. (And try to keep it up, that would be grand.)

6) Caravans. I hate made up words, so I want to call them caravans. These people, there is a group, they go out, they have radios, they have this, and that, and they travel from one settlement to another, passing along stuff, and making sure all settlements are topped up with stuff. This goes up to my idea about caravan guards having better weapons and armor. Actually, the full caravan has the absolute best weapons and armor out there. Including even power armor. (And Brahim. And armor pieces, etc. for them.)

7) Scavenging groups. Now these people are better armed and armored than your normal settler, they go out, find stuff, bring it back, and either use it to expand the settlement, or to break it down for parts, scrap, etc. They are within, at first sight of the settlement, turrets, guards, and later artillery, etc. These people have a few jobs, one is to clean up around the settlement, so that it can grow. The second is to find things that are useful to the settlement, can be almost anything. Third, they also are the ones who, if improperly armed/armored can be attacked by various things, and injured, or kidnapped, or what have you. (Oh, just thought of something here,and it ties into some many other things that bug me about the game.) If they drag them back to a cleared out area, then the guards mount up, and go get them back. If uncleared, then you may have to go, leading a group of guards, and clearing it out. (Or if you want to be a bit lazy, drop artillery on the outside, go inside, roll in a bunch of gas grenades, knock out everyone, go through double tapping everything on the way in, collect the settler, then get out. [Great idea on how to clear out an area. Different gas for different stuff, and also have to include power armored individuals too.]) Back on point, the scavengers also go and make sure, and keep cleaned out, cleared places. (This is so the natives don't move back in. It's trapped, targeted, etc. for in case they do.) Another job of the scavengers is to break down all the stuff you place in the workshop storage into components. (It can be specified to only break down junk, or "obsolete" weapons and armor [strip down the weapons and armor, and put the base into a separate storage location.] or total break down of everything, to components.) What they won't break down is things to store stuff in, like milk, cigarette, etc. machines, trash bins, things like that.

8) Fix up, repair, improve, etc. things in the settlement. As you provide materials, the settlers will improve, over time, parts of the settlement. (Maybe, in some cases, break things down, clear up the rubble, etc.)

9) When expanding, and even having little ones, etc. the settlers will inform you of what is going on, and if they had moved things around, or they haven't had time to.

10) At a certain point, each settlement with stalls would improve. If you built say an upgraded General Store stall in one settlement, the rest would improve. Same with the rest. And after so long, each settlement would improve to the maximum level of stall there.

11) Have schools, clinics, etc. for the settlers. The training would come from others around the area. (Such as Diamond city doctors, [that aren't trying to murder patients], or BoS people who can help, things like this.)

12) The kids would add to the settlement population, and even defenses, after a certain age, etc.

 

I feel once a settlement is a certain level, etc. it should not be bothered with, again. I want to restate that. They should not have any problems with most things out there.

[Sparky48776]

 

Gangs:

Gangs are more organized (some) unlike raiders in general, they have Tiers, Ranks and leaders and areas they own (So gangs will be more/less common in areas)

I have already thought of a few

You can choose to befriend or Attack them, taking them down would require you to take out the three commanders, then you would take out the boss.

If you befriend them you can recruit up to 3 Gang Members who act like companions but die and are much weaker

 

 

The Marauders:

A Lethal Group of Raiders common around parts of neighborhood, they vary in many skill sets.

 

The Psychos:

The Psychos have no moral, the cover themselves in blood and charge at you with everything they have got. They only follow one leader they call "The Almighty One" if you kill him you become the Almighty One and the Psychos follow your

 

The Scrappers:

They are quite a week gang, however they spread across the Wasteland, they usually have cheap melee weapons.

 

The Forge:

You Probably already know of the Forge, but in this version they are at war with the Marauders.

 

The Rogue Legion:

Ex-Brotherhood Knights who have disobeyed the code to live under a life of self-preservation and greed. They despise the Brotherhood and plan to destroy them.

 

(I plan to add more gangs)

 

Oooh. Gangs would make sense as an entirely new mod on its own. I think someone might be working on something similar already, actually. Also, I like the idea of having people that act like companions - that mechanic could be something to use for attacking Raider bases to lower their Attack Level?

 

OH! That was a thing I thought about adding! Hiring mercenaries to defend your settlements. I wasn't sure how it would work in such a way that they would be viable, though. I imagine they'd bring their own sleeping bags (but not actually place them or build them, because of potential conflicts with stuff people might have already built in settlements. Unless they built outside the settlement perimeter? Hmm. Probably easier to go without.), although I'm unsure if they would eat YOUR food or bring their own. Either way, they'd provide bonus defense and not count towards your settlement cap (sort of like having traders in town). They consume X amount of caps from your base's storage (can you store caps?) each day they protect your base, and disappear once you run out of money to pay them. Theoretically, if your settlement is doing well and making lots of money, it can self-sustain its mercenaries?

 

 

 

Teachers, Mentors and Training:

Teachers would be assigned to posts were they would give lectures to students to further their aspects in farming and other jobs, The Teacher job is best for the elderly

You could build shooting ranges where settlers practice their weapons skills.

Things like this

I do like the idea of having training posts for some things. Especially the shooting ranges, which would allow Elders to pass on their knowledge of Guarding without Guarding and risking dying. I imagine that Guard level / exp is one of the things that you might want every settler to have some levels in. As for teaching in other areas, the intention was for it to happen passively to anyone assigned to the same job as the Teacher - it's hard to teach farming by "practicing" on plants without getting anything! Same for scavenging.

 

The potential issue being that people assigned to would probably be taken from their existing posts, causing a reduction in production.

 

 

One of many things that upsets me about this game, after a while, the radiant, if you want to call them that, missions you have to do over and over and over, and over... really ticks me off. I don't want to have to go to a settlement and rescue some poor settler who got themselves kidnapped, or help a settlement out because some raiders are demanding food, or some settler stubbed their little toe, and needs it kissed. The raiding, etc. is old news. I want the minutemen to respond to calls I can't get to. I would also like the Brotherhood of Steel to also help out. And I want my defenses to mean something. If a settler is armed and armored better than standard, perhaps even better than raiders, the raiders wouldn't come in and demand food, or kidnap someone, or something like that. They will want to stay away. So, one idea I want to add to the OP's list is an Armory, that is manned by a settler. The Armory works this way. In your travels, you run accumulate several weapons, and armor. Well, you don't need 900 automatic rifles. So, you strip down a few to base components, mod a couple, dump one into the Armory, the other you keep. The rest you store. The Armor's job is to replicate the weapon, or armor, you place in there, and they distribute the armor through out the settlement. (Through provisioning, this can be passed to all settlements.) The armor is basically the same thing. You take have 3 full sets. One for you, one for your companion (that can use it,) and one for the Armory. And it gets out there.

2) This is more building than actual settler, but I really dislike the 2 story prefab wooden house. If someone could make a mod that replaces that with something decent, at about the same size, etc. that would really please me. (This really pisses me off.)

3) Up gradable turrets. All turrets should be able to be upgraded, either by you, or the settlers. (Basically, you upgrade one turret, and assign a settler to upgrade, repair/replace turrets from then on.) This way, the defenses upgrade easily. I would like two things to happen. One is that a perimeter of machine guns could handle say ghouls easily enough. (no reason to call on anyone, just let them little things go.) Maybe handle raiders that are lower level. Tier II machine gun turrets, though, should wipe out most raider groups. (Maybe upgrade the turrets to heavy machine guns for that.) The tier are two-fold tiers. They add more punch to the weapons, as well as more armor to the weapons. And it's your job to introduce changes to these things, and then either everything changes, or a settler makes all the changes. (And they can make changes on their own, based on what is around them.)

4) Guard system. I would like to see a guard system in the game. This could be handled a couple of ways. Either by a board, like a black board, or by a terminal. These guards would get stealthy, quiet, etc. weapons and armor. (They would get knives and swords, as well as sound suppressed weapons.) They can be in settlement guard, patrolling in and around the settlement. Another type is scavenging group guard. (That is another Idea I will post in a minute.) And caravan guards. (I have an idea about caravans as well. Another point in a bit.) Because these guards are operating outside of the settlement, they can have up to the current level of power armor that you have. (If you have the T-60 power armor, they have access to it too.) These guards are operating outside of the settlement. For caravan guards, since they aren't home, all the time, they pack extra ammo, weapons, etc.

5) Cleaning up a settlement. I fricking hate having debris all over the bloody place. I want it gone, removed, disappear into the ethos, whatever. These lazy bums should be able to clean it up without me dealing with it, as well. I think that after a period of time, that the settlement may not be pristine, neat, clean, etc. like it was before the war, it should look alright. So, if they cleaned up the debris, etc. (And try to keep it up, that would be grand.)

6) Caravans. I hate made up words, so I want to call them caravans. These people, there is a group, they go out, they have radios, they have this, and that, and they travel from one settlement to another, passing along stuff, and making sure all settlements are topped up with stuff. This goes up to my idea about caravan guards having better weapons and armor. Actually, the full caravan has the absolute best weapons and armor out there. Including even power armor. (And Brahim. And armor pieces, etc. for them.)

7) Scavenging groups. Now these people are better armed and armored than your normal settler, they go out, find stuff, bring it back, and either use it to expand the settlement, or to break it down for parts, scrap, etc. They are within, at first sight of the settlement, turrets, guards, and later artillery, etc. These people have a few jobs, one is to clean up around the settlement, so that it can grow. The second is to find things that are useful to the settlement, can be almost anything. Third, they also are the ones who, if improperly armed/armored can be attacked by various things, and injured, or kidnapped, or what have you. (Oh, just thought of something here,and it ties into some many other things that bug me about the game.) If they drag them back to a cleared out area, then the guards mount up, and go get them back. If uncleared, then you may have to go, leading a group of guards, and clearing it out. (Or if you want to be a bit lazy, drop artillery on the outside, go inside, roll in a bunch of gas grenades, knock out everyone, go through double tapping everything on the way in, collect the settler, then get out. [Great idea on how to clear out an area. Different gas for different stuff, and also have to include power armored individuals too.]) Back on point, the scavengers also go and make sure, and keep cleaned out, cleared places. (This is so the natives don't move back in. It's trapped, targeted, etc. for in case they do.) Another job of the scavengers is to break down all the stuff you place in the workshop storage into components. (It can be specified to only break down junk, or "obsolete" weapons and armor [strip down the weapons and armor, and put the base into a separate storage location.] or total break down of everything, to components.) What they won't break down is things to store stuff in, like milk, cigarette, etc. machines, trash bins, things like that.

:cool: Fix up, repair, improve, etc. things in the settlement. As you provide materials, the settlers will improve, over time, parts of the settlement. (Maybe, in some cases, break things down, clear up the rubble, etc.)

9) When expanding, and even having little ones, etc. the settlers will inform you of what is going on, and if they had moved things around, or they haven't had time to.

10) At a certain point, each settlement with stalls would improve. If you built say an upgraded General Store stall in one settlement, the rest would improve. Same with the rest. And after so long, each settlement would improve to the maximum level of stall there.

11) Have schools, clinics, etc. for the settlers. The training would come from others around the area. (Such as Diamond city doctors, [that aren't trying to murder patients], or BoS people who can help, things like this.)

12) The kids would add to the settlement population, and even defenses, after a certain age, etc.

 

I feel once a settlement is a certain level, etc. it should not be bothered with, again. I want to restate that. They should not have any problems with most things out there.

 

Bethesda could have put so much more stuff into the settlement system. I feel like the rushed it.

[TeamBacon]

I think these ideas should be combined with some sort of alternate start mod, and then have a sort of 'tutorial' sequence of quests that teaches you to use these features in the village you were born in before you get tossed out into the Commonwealth by some unfortunate series of events.

 

I'm already building a mod however, and my skills are primarily in 3d modeling and dialogue writing, so I wouldn't be of much use on a project like this. But I would work with someone if they had the skills.

[Athanasa]

I'm already building a mod however, and my skills are primarily in 3d modeling and dialogue writing, so I wouldn't be of much use on a project like this. But I would work with someone if they had the skills.

 

My skills are making posts and vomiting out obscure ideas. Oh, and I guess making UI icons.

 

Also, AARGH SO MUCH INFORMATION TO ADD TO THE MAIN POST. Just a tad duanting. I'll get on to it, I swear!

 

... or maybe, I should throw up a website and start listing info on there instead. But that'd just waste more time, because I'd spend an entire week on the layout before getting any actual work done. EET MUZT BE PERFEKT.

Edited December 29, 2015 by Athanasa