The Unassignable Settlers Bug

[JimmyRJump]

I have the same issues. All new settlers are deadbeats. I tried the console but all variables are True. However all settlers can be assigned to Sim settlements items (houses, businesses, military etc) with no delay. I can't assign to vanilla resources or supply lines. I tried spawning new settler via console and that had the same issue.

Like I said before, if and when you can't assign settlers to a supply line (because the settlement you want the supply line sent to isn't in the list) then check your PipBoy's settlement list for Commonwealth entries. If there's a Commonwealth entry you have a mod that adds a settlement which doesn't work like it should.

 

Also, on the vanilla resources, when you have a food/water surplus (meaning, more than needed) then settlers will stop working the fields because they don't need the food/water. This happens in all settlements that have their WorkShops connected from the moment one settlement has enough food/water to cover several settlement needs. Settlements that haven't yet been connected to the storage cloud (through supply lines) will have the settlers keep to their assignments.

 

To test this, take all water/food out of the WorkShop from your main settlement (the one where you add most of your found junk; usually Sanctuary Hills), add crops to a patch of land and assign a free settler to it and see what happens.

 

Settlers still not performing like it should could also be caused by having added buildings or altered terrain in such a way that the nav-points (the in-game set points along a route a settler/NPC takes to go from point A to point B) are no longer there or an object is blocking the path normally taken.

 

This can even be caused by adding stairs/ladders the NPC have a difficulty to tackle. In this case, either the settler will remain standing in a certain spot for longer periods until the A.I. of the game has re-calculated another route or the settler will start roaming around aimlessly.

 

Then there's settlers that accept an assignment but don't go do what they were told to do. This could be caused by the setller being a Synth spy. Sometimes these act like any other settler, but as many times they show either reluctant or even completely erratic behaviour.

[laowai68]

I have run into the bugs regarding settler assignments. On my current save, (35 days, level 157, 110 active mods and 124 plugins. ) I have the assignment delay. (understandable as all have 29-50+ settlers and no settlement budget/limit)

 

I also have settlers having been assigned but not going to their work areas (vendors and guard posts). They will trade, but are nowhere near their posts.

 

I also get the opposite where vendors will go to their stalls, but when you try to trade, all they want to do is tell you about that farm run by ghouls.

 

These only affect some settlements, while others work perfectly. (Well, as perfectly as can be expected) I do use DCMS, but never updated it past V 1.05. It has worked really well on my playthroughs with no ill effects. I believe it was only after the author began to expand the scope of the mod that problems began to arise.

 

 

 

I have the same issues. All new settlers are deadbeats. I tried the console but all variables are True. However all settlers can be assigned to Sim settlements items (houses, businesses, military etc) with no delay. I can't assign to vanilla resources or supply lines. I tried spawning new settler via console and that had the same issue.

Like I said before, if and when you can't assign settlers to a supply line (because the settlement you want the supply line sent to isn't in the list) then check your PipBoy's settlement list for Commonwealth entries. If there's a Commonwealth entry you have a mod that adds a settlement which doesn't work like it should.

 

Also, on the vanilla resources, when you have a food/water surplus (meaning, more than needed) then settlers will stop working the fields because they don't need the food/water. This happens in all settlements that have their WorkShops connected from the moment one settlement has enough food/water to cover several settlement needs. Settlements that haven't yet been connected to the storage cloud (through supply lines) will have the settlers keep to their assignments.

 

To test this, take all water/food out of the WorkShop from your main settlement (the one where you add most of your found junk; usually Sanctuary Hills), add crops to a patch of land and assign a free settler to it and see what happens.

 

Settlers still not performing like it should could also be caused by having added buildings or altered terrain in such a way that the nav-points (the in-game set points along a route a settler/NPC takes to go from point A to point B) are no longer there or an object is blocking the path normally taken.

 

This can even be caused by adding stairs/ladders the NPC have a difficulty to tackle. In this case, either the settler will remain standing in a certain spot for longer periods until the A.I. of the game has re-calculated another route or the settler will start roaming around aimlessly.

 

Then there's settlers that accept an assignment but don't go do what they were told to do. This could be caused by the setller being a Synth spy. Sometimes these act like any other settler, but as many times they show either reluctant or even completely erratic behaviour.

 

 

 

I quote this for a couple of reasons: I want to ask about settlements being listed as Commonwealth entries. I have no mods that add settlements, but I do use Move That Workbench. I wonder if that mod can also cause this behaviour.

 

 

 

Settlers still not performing like it should could also be caused by having added buildings or altered terrain in such a way that the nav-points (the in-game set points along a route a settler/NPC takes to go from point A to point B) are no longer there or an object is blocking the path normally taken.

 

Yes, 1000 times, yes. Take into account the settlers' braindead pathing when building settlements.

 

edit: because I can't into grammar.

Edited December 5, 2017 by laowai68

[cossayos]

 

 

Also, on the vanilla resources, when you have a food/water surplus (meaning, more than needed) then settlers will stop working the fields because they don't need the food/water. This happens in all settlements that have their WorkShops connected from the moment one settlement has enough food/water to cover several settlement needs. Settlements that haven't yet been connected to the storage cloud (through supply lines) will have the settlers keep to their assignments.

 

 

I can't confirm that. I'm running uncapped settlement surplus and Sanctuary currently holds more than 12.000 units of water and more than 2000 of Mutfruit. And yet the settlers are still working.

[rebelscum]

I've taken all off this in and will try to remove any possible pathing issues.

[JimmyRJump]

@Ioawaui68:

 

I also use Move That Workbench and can guarantee it doesn't change any settlement name into Commonwralth in the Pipboy. I have never had any settlement name replaced by commonwealth except through adding extra settlements with mods.

 

I must add that dragging the Workshop too far away from its original spot (for example in a settlement that has been expanded with a mod) can also cause weird things to happen (beds and crops being out of range all of a sudden and thus no longer counting towards the settlement's assets, causing happiness to drop). In one case (Finch Farm) I got the Commonwealth bug. I surmise it was because I put the Workshop in a cell that originally didn't belong to the settlement. Putting the Workshop back inside the original settlement's perimeter fixed the issue.

 

If you have a settlement changed into Commonwealth, then you must either have added settlements with mods before or you have one or more mods that do something with the map markers. The Commonwealth appearing in the PipBoy is mostly because of a settlement having a map marker that isn't added correctly or has been tinkered with in a bad way.

 

Take note that with "settlements added through mods" I also mean mods that turn existing towns/villages into settlements.

[laowai68]

@JimmyRJump

 

Thanks for the reply. I don't have any mods that add settlements or expand existing ones. Which ones do you use that you find work well?

 

I do have some mods like Tales of the Commonwealth installed which add a bunch of map markers. Maybe one of those is interacting badly with another mod or vanilla. I'll admit that I'm terrible about updating mods once they're working and don't have the patience or time to figure out which one is the culprit.

 

It's not a big deal as the settlements still function, generate caps and all that stuff. I can't confirm, but it seems those settlements no longer get attacked anymore. That's fine because with uncapped settlement surplus, the others are attacked plenty enough to keep you running around.

 

The only nuisance is that supply lines don't work, but I just figured out which settlements lost their names (Oberland, Mirkwater and Finch Farm), made a *.bat for building materials, dumped them into the workbench and got on with building and killing super mutants.

[rebelscum]

Hi Guys,

Done a bit of deeper digging. Cleaned my saves with fallrim. Tried disabling all mods.. And tried to assign via SMM that as there are options. On the only settler that is bugged. One that I spawned as I killed the rest has the following in console

Alias WorkshopActorApply on Quest WorkShopParent (0002058E)

Edited December 9, 2017 by rebelscum

[MarkusTay]

New here, and also unfortunately late to the table...

 

This is my 7th play-through and I only just encountered this bug now. My first few playthroughs were unmodded, but my last one was even more heavily modded than my current one. I have never used DCMS, and am not using any mod to increase settlement size (land or pop.) I did use a mod that allowed me to increase my settlers by just 10 on my last play-through, which ran pretty clunky (too many mods LOL), but I still made it all the way through with NO glitches. I think my most populated settlement had 35 people in it. This time out - using just vanilla methods of increasing Chr. - I have a couple with 29 people.

 

This time I cut the number of mods I use by nearly half - mostly small ones, and not any that really get into the guts of the engine mechanics (mostly new clothes and that sort of rubbish)..The biggest, 'baddest' one is Tales from the Commonwealth, which I really enjoy, but I probably won't use it the next time... tit doesn't leave a whole lotta room for other stuff on Xbox. Plus, some of the quests are a bit... glitchy.

 

So, I don't have any of the mods that have been pointed to as 'culprits', and the only one that did something similar I used the last time... when everything worked perfectly.. I am NOT using now that the bug has arose. I do have to add that it occurred right after creating a new automaton, and see that mentioned, so I am going to have to go with that as a MAJOR contributor. I built the robot at Graygardens, and immediately sent it to the airport (I planned to use it as a backup provisioner between the Airport and the Castle, because occasionally my main route falls apart temporarily and I hate having the right side of the map disconnected from the left side, where I store most of my goodies). So this was just going to be an extra line to make sure everything stayed working.

 

The robot arrived at the airport, and a short time later I went there to assign the route, and it wouldn't take the orders. I didn't think much of it. I figured something glitched and it would correct over time (I hadn't heard of this bug then), so I ignored it, being that this assignment was merely me being anal and redundant. One of the first things that I ran into after this was that I went to Nordhagen Beach, and it was being attacked (I wasn't summoned there). I joined the fray and accidentally hit a settler. No big... its happened before. If it is someone I like, I simply go to my last save and redo the battle. However, this time EVERYONE attacked me! That's never happened before when I accidentally killed one of my own during a fight. At the time, I didn't make the connection with the weirdness with the uncooperative robot.

 

Now I am seeing I cannot assign settlers in any of my settlements (sometimes they try to go to the thing, but then quickly run away again). I also notice my Grinders (mod) stopped working. I can use it one time per settlement, and then it gets 'stuck' (I don't even think its giving me whatever was getting crushed up in resources). All of this relates back to what some clever types have said about it being connected to the workshops (I've read through as many of the relevant threads as I can find). Its definitely this 'infinite loop' problem, and it has to do with the game engine, but I suspect many things can cause it, including some of the mods mentioned (thus, I can't actually call them 'the culprit', but rather, the things they modify will increase the chance of the bug occurring). I have some experience programming (prehistoric by today's standards), and understand Bolean Logic well, and my best guess is that the player (or a mod) is accidentally modifying a variable while the game is doing that reloading thing mentioned earlier (when the workshop or anything workshop-related is activated). Thus, the change made conflicts with the newly reloaded workshop file, and it goes into the never-ending loop. I am fairly certain this can be achieved on the player end, but becomes more likely with related mods (because the mods will be a constant, thus increasing the likelihood of the bug). I may have even done this myself, because I had an inkling of this problem earlier in my game - I had the related glitch where all my settlers in Sanctuary became unassigned... but I was able to reassign them all with no problem. And that was some time ago.

 

I think that time I couldn't get someone assigned fast enough to a store, and tried someone else... while the game was doing that workshop upgrade thing. Thus, the two sets of data didn't match and the settlement 'crashed'. So the only advice I can give for avoiding this bug is too NOT make any changes the first few minutes you are in a settlement, or give orders to a newly created robot right away. This relates directly to settlement size (both people and objects) - the slower the workshop reloads, the more likely it becomes that you will make the mistake and cause the glitch. So just be aware that as you play and the size of everything grows, you will need to be much more patient with how the things work in-settlement. Oh... and make sure you max-out all your companions early, because THEY can (very likely) create the problem as well. I tend to crash far more often when I have a companion with me, because they are attempting to interact with everything (especially that overly friendly Preston Garvey... 'Babe' my arse...).

 

Anyhow, I think a part of whats going on is that at some level your alliance parameters have been reset (which could also be related to the workshop loading loop) - instead of being allied, you are just 'neutral' to your own settlements, which would explain why they started shooting at me so quickly, and also why you can't assign folks ("you're not the boss of me!") Although this might sound like a bit of stretch to those of you who know programming, think about it... how often do enemies appear green until they 'recognize' you? It happens to me a lot when I appear inside a pack of them when I fast travel to a settlement. It takes a few moments for the game engine to figure out who's who inside a settlement, and who the enemies are, and if part of that is happening inside that infinite workshop loop bug, then its never really recognizing you as 'friendly', just neutral. To the settlers, you are the same as any trader (and I have seen fights between traders and my settlers... NEVER give grenades to settlers... they tend to blow-up pack Brahmin and traders get a bit upset over that).

 

Now to get back to my game... which I lost about 12 hrs of. I don't know how I managed that - I save often - but it took me so long to recognize this problem as a MAJOR bug; I just thought I was having lots of little problems at first (and thank you Bethesda, for getting us so used to bugginess, that I didn't even see this big one coming from a mile away).

Edited September 27, 2018 by MarkusTay

[dikr]

I think a lot of people have similar issues but it's not all the same. The (probably) DCMS related bug that I encountered around level 70 with just a few active settlements, led to me not being able to assign any settler to anything, at all. At every workshop I tried. So there might be a difference with some of the issues other people describe.

 

I lost a ton of characters as I uninstalled DCMS which had always been in my loading order to prevent it from happening in the future. Some of them I might be able to resurrect but all my old saves are corrupted. Removing the mod (DCMS) will cause random CTD's often (a bit like Morrowind / New Vegas / Oblivion but I'm not that nostalgic :smile: ) Cleaning saves with Falrim tools couldn't solve that (as far as I've tried, that is. Not saying that it can't be done).

 

I already moved on though. Ended up completely reinstalling and updating the game after that, which I don't regret as it runs a lot smoother now :smile:

 

I wonder if Bethesda has updated the settler scripts and behavior in the meantime, because they seem to behave a lot better than before on vanilla parameters. Less chatter, etc. If they have, that could explain problems with a lot of mods that address them too ...

Edited September 27, 2018 by dikr

[MarkusTay]

Thank you for the response.

 

I've also noted NONE of my crops appear to me anymore, so I can no longer pick them. However, they still seem to be counting toward the settlements, so that's fine. Stuff growing 'wild' but not marked as wild (Razorgrain in UP, Melons and Corn in BB, some gourds behind a house next to RR, etc.) do respawn, so its definitely a settlement-related problem. Maybe I just have too damn many LOL. There is also a noticeable delay for nearly everything; anywhere from 10 seconds to a full minute later I will hear and/or see the sound/graphic for an action I take... including kills. Its getting kind of weird... all those raiders leaning against stuff with no heads..

 

It makes properly interacting with companions a hassle, but since all I have left is Gage, thats fine. I also can't get Handcock because Bobby Nonose won't unlock the door after speaking with her, but thats an unrelated bug (I think its unrelated - I've found myself locked out of a few other spots too, but managed to find work-arounds). I've never had this many bugs in one game before, and normally I go back and un-do them... but not this time. This is the very first time I am attempting the 'perfect' minutemen ending, and I don't want to go back just to fix some stuff that doesn't matter (since I've seen just about everything already in my other play-throughs). And there is an upside - after completing the Institute quest to plant that giant gourd at Warwick, at the same time I got a message that it was being attacked. I stayed there THREE DAYS and no attack ever came. In fact, none of my settlements gets attacked anymore, so this bug might just be a blessing in disguise (it also keeps me from being a pack-rat, since I can't use my grinders I won't pick up every single thing I find). On the other hand, this may be completely unrelated to the main bug, and just be a coincidence due to Warwick being attacked while on a Warwick-related quest. Either way, no more "there's another settlement that needs your help" is definitely a GOOD thing.

 

The only thing I foresee being annoyed over is the one settlement in Nuka-World, because I haven't gotten it yet, and since nothing I build counts toward my settlements (Spectacle Island's happiness is plummeting because they think they don't have enough beds), I won't be able to do anything with it (unless its handled in a different manner, which it may according to some things I read, which would be great). Then again, a couple of my settlements are still receiving new settlers via beacon, so who knows.

 

Lastly, in case anyone 'in the know' is still trying to figure out the exact bit of code that is bugging here, I had a bunch of settlers all moving to other settlements at the same time, and that probably plays hell with the AI, since those people are walking all over the Commonwealth outside their settlements (and I found a few of them in very weird places, nowhere near the paths they should have been taking). Thus, some of my problems may be related to that as well. Settlements having more/less settlers than what the game thinks they should have. If the game is assigning jobs to folks who aren't present, that could cause issues as well.

 

Either way, I've decided to rebuy the game for PC for my next playthough, because without console commands, I am very limited in what I can fix. Or I can just wait for Vault 76. :)