Settlement Habits

[coolphoton1234]

I was looking at cdante's wonderful new Transfer Settlement Blueprints mod and realized that it was perfect for me. At one settlement. I alwase build Sanctuary up the same. Some times I add a better version of a wall or add an experimental bastion(not that my guards use it effectively, or at all for that mater.), but the plan never changes much. It got me thinking of my personal settlement building habits. For example: I alwase build a storage room to explain were all the crap in the workshop is being put.

 

Anyway, I was wandering if anyone else has developed little habits that make all there settlements feel much muchier?

 

[montky]

@coolphotonTwelve-ThirtyFour

Yeah, cdante has made a fairly awesome mod there, which will allow folks to save complex para-mods for their settlement,

and share them with friends much easier than some other approaches.

Same mod order and same settlement? clear and then load your new settlement blueprint, and it'll update.

It'll let folks make another layer of pastiches as they can now go -

"I like 30% this mod, 55% that mod, and the rest I'll make the finishing touches myself" - that kind of thing.

I'm looking forward to a future version which will allow you to selectively use only a part of a blueprint to update -

that would be the ULTIMATE mod, because you could then only clear away a part of the settlement and then pastiche it together.

that will hopefully reduce mod-conflict issues by a heck of a lot, and save a lot of time.

 

as to exegesis, I'm looking forward to seeing how folks make their Fallout settlements and their approaches.

short version - I like making each settlement different and lore-friendly in the prime-continuity playthrough.

 

 

 

In terms of settlement exegesis and builds,

I'm somewhat different, more like Petard or Tyrannicon; each one is a different lore-opportunity.

I try to make the settlements all different - they're their own little City-States, well, most of them.

I like to build lore-friendly stuff in the prime-verse playthrough.

 

I like Red Rocket Settlement Mods, and "para-settlements" - settlements which aren't settlements,

which never get attacked or have Preston Garvey or BoS order you to visit...

The UnderBoston and Enclave Returns, and the Good Institute/Bad Institute...

they let you connect a lot of different parts of Boston together.

Darth Wayne, DDProductions, GreekRage, ChuckSteel etc - they make a lot of awesome stuff that adds to lore.

I especially like all the secret entrances and different kinds of elevators and road-panels.

the mono-rail 'elevator' has to be one of the greatest mods I've seen to date in terms of a buildable item.

same with the 'alien metallic liquid-metal forming door' and 'energy shield doors'.

not to mention, a 'holographic facade door'. "A Holo-ship?"

 

I would never have thought to put a holographic door in an elevator to access a secret room.

most folks would chalk the 'humming noise' as part of the elevator's normal operation in a pre-war world...

It lets you do a slow reveal to the location, rather than other stuff.

 

My favorite settlements are

the Red Rocket Concord North Spa and resort/Under Sanctuary/V111 expanded settlement, 1159am near the Red Rocket 'fountain' is fun!

a huge scrap scraper which eclipses Sanctuary (even with the Sancturary overhaul with planes and a huge gate hehe)

Hangman's Alley - the boardwalk slowly rises to be a 12 story high mega city, and underground it connects to The Institute...

 

probably a tie between K21b Enclave HQ, Poseidon Natick Enclave Redoubt (Vertibird Landing in the large 'smoke-stack" in the lake is awesome), Poseidon Offshore Enclave Facility.

GreyGarden City, Starlight City, and General Atomics Galleria.

The UnderBoston and Offshore Floating City Restored between Spectacle and Nahant, they deserve honorable mentions!

Lexington Overpass and The Switchboard are also awesome. Virtual places in the Memory Den are also awesome.

they're all really different locations with very different populations and design looks.

 

Diamond City Restored and Beantown Interiors are also very honorable mentions - they're awesome! so much more stuff, and it has the look.

 

Of course, the Institute is also pretty awesome. I tend only to build Institute stuff at

The CIT and CIT ruins, Hangman's Alley, the UnderBoston, UniversityPoint restored/V88-to-University Point and out to the Poseidon Offshore Facility.

A motif for them is 'secret entrances', holograms, and 'blue energy shields'. modest, but hi-tech.

they take design cues from The Big MT and from the Presidential Monorail from FO3.

I don't use Institute stuff topside at all. (It'd be kinda stupid if the BoS couldn't find their secret stuff if there's a settlement made out of only Institute parts somewhere)

 

The Enclave are also very secret and so are only found at

The Glowing Sea, V75, the checkpoint near Drumlin Diner, k21b, Fort Hagen, GNR building, Poseidon-Anything, and offshore. and of course, the underboston, and that ominous black skyscraper near to South Boston Checkpoint.

black, metallic, insect-like. those greens, yellow and orange are prominent.

Plasma stuff and the green energy shield are a motif.

They have very intermittent lighting in Enclave places, there's a lot of dark and shadows. This helps contrast Enclave with BoS.

 

I'm not too fussed about most of the DLCs, mainly Far Harbor... it's fun to visit, but, it's not a main area for base-building or where I want to add to a lot.

It's already fairly well fleshed out and defined IMHO.

Nuka World is a little different, there's a few places where I can add some stuff.

 

some design stuff;

All settlements tend to have 'rings', similar to 'circle of friends theory'.

the outer areas tend to be a defense wall, with fewer defenses the closer to the center you go.

most City-State settlements have a town-hall/council chambers, private quarters, a books (a school), a Jail/Stocks, and a market.

Some have a bar, a doctor, scrapers, a brothel (gigolos and strumpets hehe) , a farm, a larger market as a primary purpose, or a faction theme.

outside the wall, people who are refused entry to town are allowed to reside beyond the wall for a time. This is like a modern-day caravan park or showgrounds association. These are usually people who cannot afford to pay entry fees etc, or have trouble with Regulators, or who are suspected of being a Synth etc. it's one fee for a tent or other accommodation outside the wall powered sites, and free for open-air swags etc.

People who cannot stay inside the settlement in the day, may come into the town during daylight hours only...

 

Some settlements have 'communal accommodation' - like a dormitory or barracks.

Other settlements have semi-detached stuff and folks can sleep wherever.

Other settlements have very high urban density, exceeding even Pre-War population densities in that area.

 

Water is a key feature - FO3 - "no water, no life".

some settlements are supply-line and caravan reliant. Others are entirely independent.

Sanctuary and GreyGarden are effectively self-reliant.

Murkwater construction site may ironically built on a swamp (monty python) and have stilt-homes and large structures

and yet, Murkwater's key export counter-intuitively is gas or fuels and not water at all.

they have to import clean water. Though, everyone else needs fuel for their non-electrical non-rad generators, and for their stoves or weapons, so they have to trade on fair terms with Murkwater...

Diamond City is entirely in the palm of an 8 year olds' hand. Chen Sheng Kowalski (perhaps a relation to previous FO Kowalski's?) determines if people get water, and in the snippets, that kid killed a 40 year old man to take over Diamond City's water infrastructure when Chen was ~6... either that, or Kellogg and Chen have more history than we know... I suspect Chen Sheng Kowalski is Enclave, Institute Synth, or Shi... or perhaps, just a vicious kid from Diamond City...

 

Warwick Homestead might also be a net-importer of water.

It would stink, but be rich in fertilizers for food production hehe.