No I did not stay up all night when this came out. Though I am a big enough loser to be up until 4 AM and had to down 8 cups of coffee the next day to go to work.
Fallout 4 settlements are not perfect. The interface mechanism is tedious and poorly designed. It will take modders to improve this. It can get annoying.
I think this may be a big addition, but I figure I would throw the idea out here. I dont know the best way to implement it. So I’ll provide a link and a brief description to how falliout 4 does it
NPCs can go to ‘settlements’. This is not a fully development real time RTS where you have settlers build stuff. Its not fully complete. Its not at Dwarf Fortress level. You can build shelters for them, beds, etc… You need to provide structures to get food/water. Then you assign settlers to them to collect food water. You can attract more. Settlements can be attacked. You can provided defenses. There is a ‘small mechanism’ for settlers to start building. I see that in my first settlement. Its very slow. Not sure if it will amount to much.
Its tedious to do. The interface is poor. It will take mods to make it more fun and user friendly.
Here is a write up of it. Note its not a full realized and complete RTS setup, its a neat idea to add to an RPG.
You have to have static NPCs enabled on worldgen, and find a refugee center. Then follow the merchant’s quests till he sends you to a ranch, then follow the foreman’s quests. You eventually unlock more npcs that have another small list of quests you can do.
The premise is there, just simplistic and early stage.
In general terms there’s a quest line that as you follow it builds a settlement.
Not like in FO4 where you direct the construction of said settlement, you’re just an enabler of it.
We do have some ideas floating around for the player’s personal residence that would be more construction-y rather than just happening offscreen, but they’re a ways off.
[quote=“Kevin Granade, post:5, topic:10844”]In general terms there’s a quest line that as you follow it builds a settlement.
Not like in FO4 where you direct the construction of said settlement, you’re just an enabler of it.
We do have some ideas floating around for the player’s personal residence that would be more construction-y rather than just happening offscreen, but they’re a ways off.[/quote]
With that said, even without you being involved, the settlement should still progress, at a slower rate of course. You can enable it even without quests by providing material, tools, and even pitching in yourself by helping with some partial constructions they have started.
By adding partial constructs, like i suggested, it would allow an AI to start something, and then have something to head back to if interrupted, as well as you. And they would go down a logical progression of the area they assigned as their territory.
(mark boundires)
(fortify)
(Water collection)
(food production)
(storage)
(sleeping area)
and this is the general, not set kind of thing. feel free to assign how they prioritize their thing, but marking should always be first, so no one just accidentally wanders in.
[quote=“Kevin Granade, post:5, topic:10844”]In general terms there’s a quest line that as you follow it builds a settlement.
Not like in FO4 where you direct the construction of said settlement, you’re just an enabler of it.
We do have some ideas floating around for the player’s personal residence that would be more construction-y rather than just happening offscreen, but they’re a ways off.[/quote]
Different quests in the outposts that’s more than just bring x here because the outpost needs it to grow could be nice. Like something similar to the missions you can assign NPCs to; escorting caravans and suchlike. Maybe an NPC in the outpost caught word of bandit activity in the area, and you’re tasked to find them. Or defending against a horde that was spotted and is moving towards the outpost.
Like, I dunno if this is doable in the future, but have the outpost has a certain… not sure if it’s the right word for it, jurisdiction in the area. Like an area in the map centered on where the outpost is, where missions can be made depending on what else is in the map. Triffid grove nearby? Harvest those bastards, or torch the source. Nearby lab? Investigate the place. Similarly to the NPC assigning jobs, you can perhaps ask the guys at the outpost to build a sort of mini-outpost on the map, for a price.