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Discussion City Plan Improvements

Dynamic usage of things like Occlusion Planes/Cubes & Lightboxes that can't be generated during the game, in order to further optimize things in a settlement and maybe even allow more stuff to be built. I do have a simple Proof of Concept plugin, scripts and super short video, if this is interesting at all. I would just embed the video but can't from Discord uploads.

Since PreVis doesn't occlude anything player built or script generated or NPCs there is potential for additional optimization in using occlusion planes/cubes which do hide these. The idea is using a holding cell, FormList to iterate through pre placed lightboxes/Occlusion and MoveTo coordinates centered on the plot as needed. Another implementation could be specific buildables, like large walls as ACTIs that move in occlusion planes inside them or foundation pieces that move in occlusion cubes. Maybe build mode only markers that can be proxies for moved-in occlusion or lightboxes. If such a system could exist, we could lean on it as city planners and perhaps segment cities out with large walls and have a greater control to limit spikes in draw calls/triangles. This could possibly improve stability for heavy builds. For cases like caves in a city plan(I remember one perhaps at Coastal Cottage city plan having one) or Interior Cell city plans, Roombounds & Portals potentially could be used this way.

If plots could do it automatically, that could lead to gains without extra work in city planning. Perhaps it could be possible to have editor helper ACTIs that are spawned items that could be set up to place matching sized occlusion planes?

I have experimented with this trying to make my own script, initially only to try with lightboxes. To make lights from a plot only affect itself and the ground right beneath the plot using a 520x520x300 lightbox, a little larger than the plot likely is in order to affect a very small area outside of the lightbox but avoid affecting many nearby plots. The original idea I had was having a spawnable ACTI that could be used also on other addon packs via external spawned items. But my conclusion at this point is it's very likely not feasible without baseline implementation directly into Sim Settlements itself. It can maybe work on small scale usage but will overwhelm papyrus when talking about City Plans(where 30 or more may be appearing simultaneously) or a prebuild where many city plans will be set up at once.

Trying to make spawned object(from perspective of an addon pack attempting this for a plot feature) triggering this seems like it possibly won't work unless bad moves are made like registering for a remote event that would trigger every time any plot is ever built, upgraded or refreshed. With a direct implementation it might be possible to throttle the papyrus usage to try to possibly avoid overload.
 
What about allowing items from all the DLCs into the contest?

I get why when SS first came out because everyone might not have all the DLCs. However the game has been out for four years now and you can buy the GOTY edition for like $11 now. I think a good majority of players have all the DLCs anyways since most of their other mods they use require them as well.

It just seems wrong to have all these assets like warehouse, barn, concrete that you commonly use not be allowed into a plan. I mean I get why the concrete turns some of you off, because I have seen those concrete monstrosities that people call settlements.

I would say add in the CC VR workshops, but, they break the rules. The rules of them being so huge that you really can not fill them in with 20 settlers. After all the rules state you are supposed to use up a good majority of the area. They may as well find a mod to give the pieces rainbow colors and a big LEGO logo on it.

Show vanilla markers in workshop mode somehow. Example: There is at least one spot in Sanctuary, on the driveway where the workbench is, where settlers always sit. If I put a crafting bench near it, I have to step on the settler to get to it... but I can't see it. If I knew where it was, I wouldn't put anything over it. Same goes for the caravan guards in Tenpines and other settlements. Knowing where these markers are will help the builders from placing a plot over the top of them..

It should also give you the option to move/remove them. Nothing more annoying that setting up a nice garage in Sanctuary and then watch as one of the original idiots walks through items to begin hammering on the wall. I would also love the ability to move the Tenpines caravan campfire to the other side on the flat area.

I can remember one of the early scrapping mods allowed you to see them and scrap them. Not sure if any other do or not because I only use the Place Everywhere.
 
A new category of single level city plans, that include all the dlc.
I know that's not what SS is about but that's where my head is at with building. With CQ I prebuild everything to level 3 so have no interest in city plans upgrading any more. I still keep a settlement or two empty each playthrough and build on them - convert that to a single level city plan and prebuild that on my next playthrough.
I'm slowly working my way through settlements and will eventually have a stock of them built up, I thought about releasing them as TS plans but I would sooner keep them within SS.
 
A new category of single level city plans, that include all the dlc.
I know that's not what SS is about but that's where my head is at with building. With CQ I prebuild everything to level 3 so have no interest in city plans upgrading any more. I still keep a settlement or two empty each playthrough and build on them - convert that to a single level city plan and prebuild that on my next playthrough.
I'm slowly working my way through settlements and will eventually have a stock of them built up, I thought about releasing them as TS plans but I would sooner keep them within SS.

^^^^^^^^^^^
This. My pre-builds are single level - performance loading in-game is my deciding factor.
:)

John
 
I do this too (remake my vassal cities) and then save it in project blue print. I wanna have my vassal reflect my faction more than just 2 guards. So I make basically a singel level city plan and store it for my next play through.

I think single level city plans are a great idea
 
Ideas I would like to see.
=> Single level cities. Not assuming L3s, but just a 'city' to be conquered. Would make for some easier pre-builds with only one level, which you take over and scrap to build a Working city, that You pick and then level up...
=> "Conq-Prebuild focused CP's designed for peeps to take over" this is single level cities again.
This is what all my plans have come out as so far because then, sometimes, my electricals work. Multi-level plans only wire properly if VERY basic in structure.

=> Electrical support. WSFW layouts currently don't seem to support switches in the power grid.

=> Safety check for city refreshing. Was the wiring run? Abort refresh, post notice.

=> Multi-level cities 0-7. I thought this was an option already, because "branching city plans" were mentioned in a KG video, but it was actually supposed to be "branching Building plans". Levels 4-7 are unlocked with a Finished L3 city quest reward that unlocks that Specific city plan's Extra plans. Allows multiple sets of (newly unlocked) plans to be chosen at L3, allowing for more advanced cities and choosing different options in later game play.

=> Full DLC Plans. I know that conduits and conveyors are not (yet) supported, but the cages, elevators, all that nice Vault stuff... Yes, it's not available to All players, but most. How about every 4/5th contest gets opened?

=> City wide theme skinning. Yes, apply this theme's skins to all available buildings p&ty.

=> Game wide faction building ban (don't build any BOS/RR/MM/Atom buildings or settlements, I'm going to play them this time...). I think this can be done by installing some packs After the pre-build is done, but then we loose the rest of any 'mixed' packs for pre-building.

=> Visitors. I always turn this off to start with. AIs are a heavy performance hit, and I'm surprised they are not disabled by default during Conqueror Attacks. (If AiCountInCells>40 disable).

=> Plot & Settlement Summaries. There are many reports, but not summaries of totals or Only a total. You get the total, not the tallies that got them. Industrial Power production is a good example of only a total without the sums that got you there, so how much of that was lost to other buildings? How much +power and how much -power are in those plots? In All the plots?
How much is still needed? How much other power is produced elsewhere? How much of that is left? There isn't a Summary of totals for All plots anywhere, never mind non-plot sources. And that's just power... Food and water are usually all over the place, with lots of extra from no explained source. I suspect this falls on Conqueror details as well, where only a total is given and not the full production and spend rates. Eg: Build has 120 power, report says 6 industrial plots produce net 20 power. How much of the 120 do they produce? How much are they using? I know that there is a coal plant for 60 and the rest are generators, but you can't find that on the report.
Eg2: Ind-Plot 30 water, a +15tank, -11ResPlots & -2AgPlots=48 water? (Happiness=67).

=> "Show vanilla markers in workshop mode" Yes, there have been mods that did this before, but again it would be very nice to have built-in, at least for City Builders, and I suspect lots of players would want the option too.

=> A pair of 'Weapons' made to combat Z-Fighting, for the City Builders kit.
> SmackThat + : Utility Weapon. Hit any "player built only" object and move it by +.01 X&Y&Z.
> WhackThat - : Utility Weapon. Hit any "player built only" object and move it by -.01 X&Y&Z.
Could be made as hotkeys I suppose, but I'm already short on those. Requires the player built check though (which I'm sure is doable) to preserve the precombines.

Good Ideas that we already have:
=> "allow custom settlement creators, to upload scrap profiles to the CP maker website somehow?"
=> Summon homeless/jobless settlers - via ASAM Sensor Maintenance Software.
=> "...record the position of the controller..." - The WSFW layout system gives the effect you want.
=> TheWarPlannersDeskInCityPlans - I believe this is already possible, but requires setting up a form list in CK.

I found confusing:
=> "Force release all the plots once a City Plan level reaches 100%" There are some times that plots shouldn't upgrade, because Requirements, but not unlocking a New plot to start building? Why is it not unlocked when more settlers show? This seems like a bug, why wait for 100%?
Perhaps it's just that I've been up for 34 hrs now... Ok, time for bed.
 
Leader Plot SubType(s) similar to the Conqueror ones like Armory/Field Hospital/Prison/etc but for Mayor/Outpost Leaders and with City Plan support for them? There's the recreation plot [ABIT] Town Hall by Sebbo, it has a City Planner Desk in it and that's basically exactly what I'm imagining for this. There could be Mayor & Outpost Boss subtypes for normal & outpost respectively(Outpost simply having both desks) or there could be just a Leader one for both if that works better. It may have to be with a baseline plot since otherwise the job/bed count balance would be thrown off or there might be no desk by default if the player doesn't have the relevant addon pack. This would give a route for City Planners to instead of placing a desk have it be supplied via a plot. [ABIT] Town Hall by Sebbo looks ideal for a default Mayor plot. For Outpost Leaders IDK but maybe another one along the lines of the Conqueror plots created so far.

An MCM/holotape option Leader Job could be set to Desk or Plot, maybe a second one to allow a tracking marker to point to it. If Plot is chosen it will try to use a Leader Plot build plan if possible, replacing the City Planner's Desk(+ War Planner's Desk if applicable) and falling back to desk anyway if not. It will try to use Plot anyway if Designer's Choice is enabled and the City Planner exported without a desk. It would try to use a Designer's Choice Leader type, then if none would try to make an existing eligible plot become a Leader type, then falling back to desk if there's none since I assume changing a plot type could be problematic. Maybe it could be an option for either Recreation and for Residential, that way making it so it always should has an eligible option? It could (perhaps optionally) remove the standalone desk if present, when the player intentionally has manually chosen a Leader plot. When an eligible Leader plot exists at Level 1 at least, it will try to assign the Mayor/Outpost Leader to the plot.

A fancier option(instead of or even in addition to the above) could be a City Center/Command plot, maybe even as 3x3 and maybe even (optionally) linked to City Level. It would be a "do a little bit of everything" plot, include War Planner & City Planner Desks plus defenses. Some RTS games have the main plot provide a little bit of everything and have research tech as well as some defensive capabilities.

=> Single level cities. Not assuming L3s, but just a 'city' to be conquered. Would make for some easier pre-builds with only one level, which you take over and scrap to build a Working city, that You pick and then level up...
=> "Conq-Prebuild focused CP's designed for peeps to take over" this is single level cities again.
This is what all my plans have come out as so far because then, sometimes, my electricals work. Multi-level plans only wire properly if VERY basic in structure.
Workshop Framework Layouts could be pretty much this. Although for City Plan creation there is an option to make a single level city plan.

It could be pretty interesting to see WSFW Layouts as a prebuild option. There are not that many Layouts yet, although @WetRats is creating more pretty quickly, but perhaps the City Plan Contest could have Layouts contest to help add more. It could make sense as a route for the Contest after all vanilla & DLC locations have been covered.

=> "Force release all the plots once a City Plan level reaches 100%"
This just forces all plots to initially appear rather than only so many as there are available population. It doesn't also auto-level the plots to what the city planner had. If the player wanted plots to appear as L3 right away, WSFW Layouts would be the route for that.
 
It could be pretty interesting to see WSFW Layouts as a prebuild option. There are not that many Layouts yet, although @WetRats is creating more pretty quickly, but perhaps the City Plan Contest could have Layouts contest to help add more. It could make sense as a route for the Contest after all vanilla & DLC locations have been covered.

I'd really like to see that.

As much as I love SS Plots, City Plans with just a few (Or in the case of Nothin' Fancy, *none*) are so much quicker to prebuild, and create much less of a performance hit than the magnificent megaplexes the monthly contests are providing. having a variety of one-level mini-CPs to randomize into the mix would make exploring (and potentially conquering) the Commonwealth even more fun and do-able.
 
I'd really like to see that.

As much as I love SS Plots, City Plans with just a few (Or in the case of Nothin' Fancy, *none*) are so much quicker to prebuild, and create much less of a performance hit than the magnificent megaplexes the monthly contests are providing. having a variety of one-level mini-CPs to randomize into the mix would make exploring (and potentially conquering) the Commonwealth even more fun and do-able.
Yeah I think it would make it a lot easier to do contest entries as well as easier to run for Xbox players
 
Xbox-friendly really would be a great theme for Season 3 of the Contest.
 
This just forces all plots to initially appear rather than only so many as there are available population.
Which is what I thought he was after. So why wait for the city to get to 100% before doing that? It should Always be unlocking enough for the current population, and then stalling for more to arrive. It sounded like a bug report more than a feature request (which is also fine, stomp them bugs!)

As much as I love SS Plots, City Plans with just a few (Or in the case of Nothin' Fancy, *none*) are so much quicker to prebuild, and create much less of a performance hit than the magnificent megaplexes the monthly contests are providing. having a variety of one-level mini-CPs to randomize into the mix would make exploring (and potentially conquering) the Commonwealth even more fun and do-able.

I think everyone wants this, but for Xbox & Potato players this would be a Huge expansion.
It also would be a way to have people make Simple (1-level) plans for the contest (or another contest?) which I expect a LOT more submissions for because it's so much easier.
For that matter, there are a Large amount of TS-Blueprints already out there that could be converted (with creator permission) to Single Level City Plans.
 
I want to port mine over to Xbox soon, but I will need to find a good tutorial, and will need an Xbox user to test them.
 
I know this is a late reply, and I have only entered one contest, but the ability to place water like some of other mods have would be great (something like in build your own pool where they are a marker in build mode and water in playing mode), if something like that was implemented, maybe a lava or malten metal version the could do burning damage would be great too, I was looking for something like that when I entered and couldn't see anything. as far as I can tell i couldnt find anything like fire that would actually hurt, just radiation markers.
 
On the note of 1-level plans & the Contest, with the Master Contest around the corner:
Why make a complex 3-level story-interconnected plan for one settlement?

Pick 3 settlements, and create interconnected 1-level plans for them!

-asp
 
On the note of 1-level plans & the Contest, with the Master Contest around the corner:
Why make a complex 3-level story-interconnected plan for one settlement?

Pick 3 settlements, and create interconnected 1-level plans for them!

-asp

I am not sure that would work, or that anyone would wanna do all that work, but I do think it is a cool idea
 
On the note of 1-level plans & the Contest, with the Master Contest around the corner:
Why make a complex 3-level story-interconnected plan for one settlement?

Pick 3 settlements, and create interconnected 1-level plans for them!

-asp
I am not sure that would work, or that anyone would wanna do all that work, but I do think it is a cool idea
It would be a Perfect thing for the Triangle of Death...
Would allow a fair to large build in Sanctuary & Abernathy, with a small, supported, outpost @ RR.
Or a different configuration.
Point is together they would be under the Total Area budget, not just the build budget for each settlement. Further enhancing stability by being single level plans.

Knowing that they have plans that are compatible with each other.
Faction wise, production wise, Adv.Ind. Tree wise...
And cooperate in not pushing the Area budget over total.
 
Dynamic usage of things like Occlusion Planes/Cubes & Lightboxes that can't be generated during the game, in order to further optimize things in a settlement and maybe even allow more stuff to be built. I do have a simple Proof of Concept plugin, scripts and super short video, if this is interesting at all. I would just embed the video but can't from Discord uploads.

Wow, I love this. I would like to add another idea to this. Since you suggest adding cull planes and boxes through foundations/plots. Would it be possible then to create special "walls" or other large objects with scripting like your "plot" idea that would be placed almost identically to a regular existing wall sized object but would then spawn a culling plane object inside iself? Players could benefit from this by placing them in a few strategic places? Since they seem to be hard on scripting, only a few could be placed / limited per settlement before other regular non-scripted walls could be used.
 
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