Fallout 4

[fragger]

Of course, mate! I didn't get that from you at all. I know where your heart is at, no offense taken

I only recently discovered the Vault-Tec building menu. I assume it appeared either when I first got involved with Vault 88, or after completing the experiments there - I didn't notice when it appeared. Cool, a new set of Fallout Lego to pay with I've already noticed though that it's an odd set of components and not all of them snap together, or even fit, with one another. They're actually several different sets, and the parts within a set fit together fine but you can't use all of them with other sets, or rather, some you can and some you can't.

I might go out to Starlight and add a high-tech Admin centre to oversee the Manufacturing operations there

[Art Blade]

cheers

hehe, I think finishing vault88 unlocks that. Some DLC do that in this game, unlocking parts after playing some.

Be warned regarding vault building I ended up tearing down a whole massive compound at Starlight and all that's left is a new room you see on top of that tower, and you're right, it's likely to fall over by the looks of it There aren't any nice solutions to make it look more stable so I just left it that way.

The warning regarding vault tech is related to the power grid. The parts are supposed to transport power through the floor but, do yourself a favour and learn from my experience (just click on that last quote of mine, before that is the vault stuff building going on) at least count on a lot of bugs and that you may have to resort to "normal" wiring on the outside of the structure.

[mandru]

Art I'll need to try the code you gave me on getting the "sprinting - True" message.

While the console is open I've encountered times where I've accidentally hit the Caps Lock Key so that when I exit the console I've been locked into Walk mode.  Fixing that annoying condition was something that I probably figured out how to fix within the first 20 minutes of game play.  Open console, hit Caps Lock and close console. 

This is entirely different.  So I'll get back with my results on that code you suggested.

[Art Blade]

OK. I am willing to bet that it reads "sprinting - true" and if it does, then that's likely the end of it.

[Art Blade]

maybe I got the solution for you

add to Fallout4Custom.ini these two lines (under HD:\Users\yourname\Documents\My Games\Fallout4)

[Gameplay]
fPlayerDisableSprintingLoadingCellDistance=0

[fragger]

Thanks for the warning, Art I'm out at Starlight and I did a save before I started mucking around with the Vault building parts. I'm mostly working with the Atrium set, which doesn't fit with the other Vault sets. I'm getting there with it, but it's a funny set, the way some things fit together and some don't. I'll get there

A Radscorpion popped up and came at me while I was in Workshop mode, but he didn't get far before the laser defenses mowed him down. At least I know I can count on the turrets to cover my back while I'm working (plus the ever-faithful Ada, who is standing around nearby to help deal with any intruders).

The Vault set looks good, but at the moment it's a bit of a trial-and-error process finding out which parts snap together with which, and which ones stubbornly refuse to. I could refer to your notes here and/or get help online, but I enjoy the process of discovering for myself

[Art Blade]

Enjoy, it is fun after all but if it starts to bug out on you when you've been building for several days, it's more than frustrating. I think I spent weeks with that stuff before I gave up on it. I only built two rooms after that and they still exist, one in Sanctuary which is a house that is essentially just a large dormitory with 30 beds in it, and in Starlight the overseer office that stubbornly refuses to break free and fall down.

[mandru]

Art I've not yet had a chance to check the code you gave me yet but I've located the file addition you recommended and have it open on my pc.

The file when opened looks like:

[Display]
iLocation X=0
iLocation Y=0


So my question is do I paste those two new lines into the file immediately after this bit above or do I need a line space between the new information starting with the line [Gameplay]?  There was a line space there when I opened the file so I don't know whether to fill it with new code or keep that line space in place. 

[Art Blade]

mandru, create a paragraph by hitting enter, then paste as a new and last entry. It's more for readability.

***
fragger and all:

*Edited Dec 23, 2017

HAPPINESS

I've been thinking about the happiness, how I achieved it the first time and what I did differently the second time, as well as what I repeated. The second time was surprisingly fast and unexpected and I did a lot less than before. By the way, the first one has been on 99 and 100 percent since September. Has always stayed that high.

I'll try to make this a little compendium, no nonsense.

I. What I think is basic for a good settlement
II. What I think is on top of I. essential for happiness
III. Differences between my two 100% settlements
IV. Synths

ad I.
1. per settler 1 food, 1 water, 1 accessible bed (make sure they actually sleep in it)
2. short, unobstructed ways between w0#k (farmer) and hobby (pommel horse) and sleep (bed)
3. sufficient defences (just don't turn it into something that looks like a war zone)
4. at least one place with a lot of light at night where settlers prefer to hang out.
5. not necessary but can't be wrong: a little more food and water than the settlement needs. "Comfort zone."

ad II.
1. lots of cats. 5-10 of 'em place those pink bowls so settlers and cats can't avoid one another
put this under I. > 2. use floor and wall decorations around beds (last and first nice things they see every day)
put this under I. > 3. use chairs a lot, they make good use of them, maybe they like to rest a little
4. use those "happiness enhancers" like pommel horse and weight bench, and those vault88 things

So you only need items from the workbench that show smileys in their description like the poppel horse. They don't have to be manned like the general store, not necessary. If you have got the DLC, use cages>cat trap to catch cats and the vault88 stuff like the soda fountain (this one needs to be assigned but it's like magic)

I did a test run and got 100% with just points 1+4, read here (including pic) So THAT's no nonsense.

ad III.
1. Do you have to be present in real time all the time until 100%? No. First time I did that, last time I didn't.
2. Does your size meter have to be full ("large" settlement)? No. First time it was, last time it wasn't.
3. Do you need any radio or a jukebox? No. First time jukebox, last time DC radio, same result.
4. Do you need any animals other than cats? No. First time dog and cats, last time cats only.
5. Do you need bars and docs/clinics or any stores? No. First time I had them, last time I didn't.
6. Do I need to employ unemployed settlers? Not sure. I always employed (assigned) all of them.

ad IV.
Do Synths influence happiness? I don't know. You can't tell them apart, they think they're humans and act like humans, and only during the story line you hear or read about infiltrating synths that were malign. You never meet any in person whom you can blame out of your own experience that they did wrong because they were synths. Settlers' one-liners usually go "I hope you are not" because they can't tell them apart, either. In other words, if no one knows, how can it be bad. No one knows, not even the synths themselves, and you WILL meet one who killed synths out of hate and guess what, turns out that one is a synth. Shows how silly it is to think anyone could tell synths from humans. So I think it's all nonsense. IGNORE IT, has worked for me. If in doubt, kill your settlers and search for synth components.

That's about it. No weird myths.

[Art Blade]

I just sent Shaun jr. to Starlight Drive-In. Now Curie can take care of him. Synth mum and synth son, kind of nice And the other two hard-boiled synth guys can play protector and rent-a-dad. And still at 100%.

[Art Blade]

hard to find, that little brat, but he was only walking outside the compound. I couldn't see him through the walls

Speaking of walking outside the compound, I nearly killed X6-88 by accident. I was attracted by a nearby firefight on my way from Croup Manor to Starlight. I saw red lasers from the Brotherhood of Steel guys and was going to help them, a vertibird was in the air, too. Some supermutants were apparently the reason for the fight. With VATS, I skimmed through the potential enemies and one of them was.. what the hell was X6 doing out there?! I didn't send him, BoS certainly didn't call him, neither can the SM, so what the hell? And then he shot down the vertibird and wiped out the remaining BoS with the Gatling laser I gave him. Nice. When he said "escaped.. damnit," I was under the impression he might have followed a vertibird but then again, he would have shot it down way earlier. Weird.

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[fragger]

Bethesda strikes again

Art, I've seen some of those points you made about happiness debated online a fair bit. Some agree with the points you made, some don't. It's really hard to pin down. I do think you are correct in your theories, though. I'm not hugely fussed about it, just as long as the settlers don't get so unhappy that they go into some sort of rebellion

It could also be that the game is a tad buggy in that regard. I noticed the other day that one of my settlements was only showing 1 food in the Pip Boy list and it had a little warning symbol next to it, but as soon as I fast-travelled to it, there was 7 food (for just two people) and the warning symbol had disappeared from the list.

In any event, I decided to act upon some of your ideas. I tore down the dorm and moved all the beds into the original houses nearest the centre of town. I put up paintings in the bedrooms, wherever I could fit them. Whether the pictures make a difference or not, they at least make the places look a bit homier Where the dorm was (on the slab next door to the yellow house with the Workbench) I built a sort of community centre, an open area with a roof and building above it, with plenty of light, chairs, a radio, the gym equipment and a bar. I also put in electric street lighting in addition to all the gas lamps I have around the place. The lights and all other powered things are now running off a single fusion generator, which is quiet and is located right at the far end of the settlement (some people believe that even generator noise can affect happiness, but who knows).

I waited until the settlers got off w0#k at 8:00pm and the community centre was indeed where the bulk of them gravitated to. When they went to bed at midnight, they all found a bed - except two. I have one settler and MacCready on guard duty, and they never went to bed. So I took them off that job and gave them other things to do (MacCready is now the bar tender in the community centre ) Happiness had gone down another point before I did all this (to 94%) so we'll see what happens with the new arrangements.

I'd put in a Vault Tec Soda machine but I can't remember what parameters I set for it, so now I'm not game to try it... I did put a soda mixing station in the community area and they seem to like using that.

[spoiler text=been building again... ]

Here it is – the Starlight Industrial Centre Administration Building

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It's turning into quite the little industrial park out here.

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The interior. Nothing in here yet, if there ever will be.
Once again, this was just built for experimentation purposes – and for fun.

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The central stairs lead up to -

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- this neat little snipey hole, should it ever be necessary.

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[/spoiler]
It appears that the "Atrium" set is the only one in the Vault Tec range that will let you build multi-storey structures. All others appear to be intended for single-floor structures only. Still have to experiment some more.

What is neat is that the Vault Tec railings will automatically snap to the standard concrete foundation blocks. The Vault Tec floors will snap to those too, but won't sit on top of the blocks – they only snap to the sides so that they're flush with the top of the block. When I finished building the "Admin" building, one end of it ended up floating above the ground. I hate that. The concrete foundation blocks helped to finish it off so that the building now looks like it's planted in the ground, and being able to snap the Vault Tec railings to the concrete foundation blocks allowed me to put a nice finishing touch around the building exterior.


EDIT: After implementing some of the changes mentioned above, the little red arrow next to Sanctuary's happiness indicator has disappeared. Taking MacCready and that other settler off guard duty seemed to have triggered it - the red arrow disappeared almost immediately (unless it was just a coincidence). It's the first morning since I made the changes, so I'll see how it goes in a (game) day or two.

So having settlers on guard duty (maybe for too long) could possibly be a contributing factor towards unhappiness.

[Art Blade]

nice post and cool buildings, mate

Regarding your building, the atrium made me laugh instantly when I saw the pic because I did exactly the same: start with that atrium stuff Only you managed to limit yourself while I grew into a megalomaniac multi-storey building spree Speaking of multi-storey, you're not limited to single-floor, you need to use a prefab staircase which snap into ground tiles and need some type of passage to connect to which then allows to connect room structures. It's fun to "watch" you experimenting, fragger, I hope to see a lot more

Regarding happiness, interesting that you found out about guards and their beds. I too noticed empty yet assigned beds and turned out that they belonged to settlers assigned to guard posts. I knew that already but I didn't mention it in the happiness post. In fact, the two 100% settlements never had a guard post assigned when they hit 100%. I don't know whether or not there is a relation.

Also interesting that you basically confirm what I observed: the poop-boy doesn't show reliable stats of the settlements. When I visit them, the values shown in the build mode UI are usually better than what poop-boy showed.

I haven't tried to go without any floor and wall decorations. I know that when I visited settlements that were low on happiness, "doing something there" made it rise. What I did was usually slap carpets and pictures around the place and then arrow pointed upwards. Maybe I did something else, too, like just being present for a bit or indeed, just changing the place a little. I could try and get a new settlement up to 100 without carpets and pics.

[LowPolyOWG]

Poop-boy gave me a laugh 

[Dweller_Benthos]

Fragger built almost the exact same structure with atrium parts that I did, lol. I can't figure out how to get to the old forum's gallery, so I can't post the picture, but it's pretty much the same. Found it:

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The one thing I did find with the power for it though, putting a single power connector (the wall mounted vault kind) on the outside hooked up to a power line gave power to the entire building. I just put the connectors on the inside walls in the places they snapped to and everything worked. The other vault parts, though, don't always carry power, and I think it has to do with what is considered a floor or not, as the game seems to think some things aren't floors when they obviously look like floors to the average person. So getting around that can be a pain. But it seemed that all the atrium parts had no trouble transmitting power.

Now, putting the railings around the stair well, that was a nightmare. The railings, I found, only snap to a floor section when there's a blank space next to it. The problem I had was my stairs apparently didn't follow the exact layout that Bethesda had in mind, so the railings didn't want to go where I wanted them. I had to move floor sections around and create blank spaces to be able to add the railings, then move the floors around to where I wanted them. This made the railings be "backwards" in some cases (the part that's supposed to hang over the empty sapce was now attached to a floor) but hey, I got it working.