Fallout 4 Settlement Guide - Possible spoilers, A guide to finding, creating, and building settlements in Fallout 4 Options

[hazmick]

Thought I'd pop this thread here for those who want to talk about settlement building (i.e me). I'll talk about each individual settlement that can be discovered, cleared, and inhabited.

If you plan on building settlements then you need to be mindful of the necessary perks and SPECIAL stats. A character with 6 Charisma and 6 Science will have access to all the perks they need.

Most settlements need to be cleared of hostiles before you can build there. Once cleared, you can access the crafting workbench and get started.

Each settlement has 8 main things that you need to keep an eye on:

People - the number of people currently living there. Building a recruitment beacon will bring in new settlers. You can also invite some NPC's to move in, and move settlers between settlements. The maximum number of residents is 10 + [Your character's charisma].

Food - Planting crops and assigning a settler to tend them will give you food. Each settler needs 1 food to be happy, and each settler can produce 6 food while farming. Most plants give you 0.5 food each, but Mutfruit plants give you 1 food per plant so it's the most space-efficient.

Water - Water pumps and purifiers will give you water, and don't need settlers to run them. Each settler needs 1 water.

Power - Power isn't necessary for your settlers, but higher level turrets and water purifiers need power, as do lights. Build generators to provide power.

Defense - Building turrets and manned guard posts will increase defense. The defense rating acts as a deterrent for potential attackers. The higher your defense, the less likely you are to be attacked. Your defense rating should be [Food rating] + [Water rating] x2. If it's lower than this then settlers will be kidnapped and you'll need to keep rescuing them. For example; 15 people will need 15 food, 15 water, and 60 defense.

Beds - Each settler needs a bed, and will randomly claim an empty one when they first move in. This means that any beds in your home can be claimed by settlers.

Happiness - The overall mood of your settlement. In order to be happy a settler needs food, water, defense, and a job. Building trading stalls will also increase happiness, as will the presence of your character.

Size - This is the maximum amount of stuff in your settlement. Larger settlements allow you to build more stuff, and it's basically there so you don't go crazy and break the game by building too much.

This post has been edited by hazmick: Dec 6 2015, 06:11 PM

[hazmick]

Hints and Tips

We'll have a little 'help' section here. If anyone discovers anything that can help with settlement building then I'll pop it in here so all the info is in one place.

Perks - The base perks required for complete settlement building are: Local Leader (Charisma 6), Science! (Intelligence 6), Medic (Intelligence 2), Cap Collector (Charisma 1), Gun Nut (Intelligence 3). You'll need to upgrade some of these perks for more advance building. There is also the Scrapper perk (Intelligence 5) which allows you to salvage uncommon and rare components more frequently - not essential, but very helpful.

Walls - As I previously mentioned, the defense rating actually acts as a deterrent, and high defense just means that you'll be less likely to be attacked. This doesn't mean you definitely won't be attacked, so walls are still important. When you do get attacked, the enemy won't break down walls or anything, they'll just head to the nearest opening. If no opening is present, they'll remain outside and shoot at anyone they can. I like to have a gate (heavily defended) so it creates a sort of 'killing ground' that enemies will flock to as they try to get into the settlement. Having turrets dotted around the walls will also help.

Fence Posts - The thing to note with walls is that they don't always fit together, especially the 'Junk' walls and fences. I've found that fence posts (in the 'Wire Fence' building section) are really handy to plug any gaps. Fallout has quite poor AI course plotting, so enemies won't be able to get through any gaps that you, as the player, can't squeeze through.

Concrete Floor - Uneven terrain is almost impossible to build on. Concrete floors can be used to level out bumpy ground and create a good base for walls. If you have a perimeter of Concrete Floor this will also reduce the risk of any gaps that you might miss, and make the settlement easier to defend.

Supply Lines - The 'Local Leader' perk will allow you to create supply lines between settlements (Go up to a settler in build mode and click 'supply line' and choose where to send them). A supply line means that connected settlements use a shared crafting inventory. If Sanctuary is connected to Red Rocket Truck Stop, then they both use the same inventory to craft things, and any junk I put in one workbench will appear in the other. This is incredibly useful, since you don't have to lug around loads of junk to build things in new settlements. It also shares food and water between settlements, so one place could specialize in water production for your entire network.
Once a settler is told to create a supply line they'll become a 'Provisioner' and travel back and forth between their home settlement and chosen trade settlement.

Animals - You can purchase pets for your settlement. A man named Gene can sell you dogs (You'll need to do a speech check to convince him), and a woman named Kelly can sell you Brahmin. Both people can be found randomly wandering the wasteland. I'm not sure about Kelly, but Gene will have a new dog for you to buy every time you see him. When you purchase an animal you get to choose which settlement to send it to. Dogs sleep in Dog Houses and Brahmin gather at Brahmin Feed Troughs.

Bars - If you have a food&drink trade stall in your settlement, all settlers (except those on guard duty) will gather near the stall at the end of the day (8PM). They will sit on available seating nearby and remain there for a few hours. If you build a structure around your food&drink stall the settlers will all gather inside, allowing you to create a bar/pub area.

Turrets - It seems the defensive machine gun turrets in your settlements come in several different forms. When selecting a turret to build it will randomly select which type it will be. Leaving and re-entering the 'turrets' tab can select a different kind of turret. There are different turret ranks (Mk1 - Mk5) and different ammo types (Including HE and Incendiary) ((The Mk and ammo type is written on the turret)). This only works in settlements far away from Sanctuary Hills, no doubt because the enemies get tougher the further away you go.

This post has been edited by hazmick: Dec 11 2015, 02:56 AM