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The New Elevators and Settlers


Loxly

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Now, now- I hope you ain't suggesting that settlements are the worst kind of half-baked joke from a gameplay POV, with ZERO useful AI code operating the settler movements and animations.

 

FO4 was never 'the sims' yet the greatest apparent gameplay element in the game after the world is fully explored seems to be settlement building. Beth has even chosen to focus on this element with their PAID DLC.

 

Yet NPC AI is infinitely worse than in Skyrim. Look at the Skyrim pubs and towns. Now try to find ANY AI in FO4 that matches the Skyrim AI seen in those locations.

 

Settlements needed a player mechanism for laying down EXPLICIT navigation paths thru their designed settlement, with auto-AI for using things like lifts. This is an absolute MINIMUM base requirement for a 'sims' settlement building concept.

 

Instead, Beth went for MAGIC SPAWNING (you ain't looking, so the NPC can just pop into existence in your vicinity), and auto-pathing. Beth 'solved' each sim problem by simply not bothering. I imagine 99% of all intended design goals for NPC behaviour in settlements were CANCELLED by Beth - with the idea that players could just focus on the 'building' side instead.

 

Can modders fix this? I don't know? I guess a mod could add 'beacons' that have a probability of drawing a nearby settler to it. Beacons could be chained so a settler so attracted would then have a chance of moving along the chain of beacons. Beacons would also need scripts to auto-use things like the lifts.

 

Of course, the beacon system would become 'buggy' if you made major changes to the settlement layout- but then you'd just need to redo the beacon layout.

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FO4 was never 'the sims' yet the greatest apparent gameplay element in the game after the world is fully explored seems to be settlement building. Beth has even chosen to focus on this element with their PAID DLC.

 

 

At least there is something to do after the finishing of the MQ, unlike in New Vegas. [Redacted]

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Wow. 283 words, Zanity, and you didn't actually answer Loxly's question. :wallbash:

 

Loxly, I think the answer is no they can't (or yes, they are incapable). I tried to assign a settler to a guard tower which was up really high, which had an elevator placed next to it, and the settler just wandered around for a bit and then stood on the opposite side of the wall like a vegetable. I guess I wasn't really surprised.

 

EDITED for clarity.

Edited by RaffTheSweetling
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Frankly, it would be a bad design for a multi-story building to not have at least one staircase even if there is an elevator. Because it is a machine running on electricity, there is always the risk that the thing will break or power off which would be bad for business for anyone needing to get back up or down.

 

When dealing with the gormless AI you always seem to need two entrances to a building and two sets of staircases so that the insipid AI can make their way around. Then again, such requirements would be needed anyways when dealing with groups of 20+ people living in a single location.

Edited by CyrusAmell
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The AI is really horrible. It even has problems finding a bed.

 

I bounded one side of a settlement (the side most attacks came from) with the big solid foundation blocks, built a barracks on top of the blocks and then topped that off with turrets. Knowing the vagaries of the AI, I put in four stairways to get to the beds. Still, I have three settlers who walk around the blocks and attempt to get into the barracks from the outside of the wall (where I can't build).

 

New subject: Why is there no emoticon for 'shaking my head'?

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AI cannot use the elevators from Contraptions nor from any other mod which adds elevators to Fallout 4.

 

It is possible for settlers to use elevators but it would take a great deal of scripting to make it happen.

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Despite not answering the question, I actually, for once, agree with Zanity -- they shouldve spent more time making the AI better suited for the settlement system instead of half-ass'ing it, especially when its clearly such an important part of the game to the devs. Its frustrating to create such amazing places only to watch the AI struggle to figure out how to walk 5 feet in it.

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