Caravans, Junk, and Hubert.

[Saiyaness]

Hi all! New to SS2, but loving it so far. Super impressed!! Just recruited Hubert and friends, and did an adorable quest involving Franklin...

A few quick questions. I did look up the caravan thing but am still unsure...

1: Do I have to use the caravan system? Are they sharing a different resource to vanilla provision lines? I'm tempted to change them to IDEK's plots because I get frustrated by not having resources, when Sanctuary is bursting (according to the HUD as well). I have vanilla provisioners now because I needed to build things...

2: Regarding the different junk types, again - is this vanilla junk being scavenged by industrial plots, or something separate caravan plots are sharing? I don't know what "organic" junk is.

3: Hubert. I didn't make him my leader, but I would have if his "church friends" actually came to help in battle. (Do they? That would be awesome, eh. Praise Atom.)

4: Is it still required to donate junk to settlements through the city plan table? Even if it's a "basic" city plan? Hangman's Alley plots seem to be upgrading on their own, so not sure about this one...

Thank you in advance! Feel free to rap me on the knuckles if I asking a FAQ.

 

[Cyberslas]

1. As far as I can tell (I have not tested, just reading scripts), the vanilla system has not been modified. This means that it only handles vanilla systems, such as junk access for crafting in connected settlements via the workbenches/workshop. The SS2 system adds another layer on top of this to transfer SS2 virtual resources™ between settlements. Virtual resources are used for everything SS2 related, from building/upgrading plots to settlement upkeep. This means that if you want these shared (you do), you must use the SS2 system. I've no experience with IDEK stuff, but I presume it hooks into the SS2 system to provide improved/different functionality. It seems to be a popular mod around these parts in any case.
2. Industrial-type plots labeled as "junk gathering" will provide vanilla junk to the workshop. All other industrial plot types provide "virtual" junk that is used in all SS2 functionality as mentioned above. These industrial plots (and some others) add these virtual resources to a settlements "virtual storage." This storage is what SS2 will primarily try to draw from when it looks for resources to do SS2 related things. You cannot withdraw from this virtual storage, but you can add to it via the "City Planner's Desk" that you can construct. To use this storage in a settlement, you must either build storage container(s) added by SS2 for this express purpose or build plots that add resources to it, as they provide storage capacity to said settlement. Organic junk and some other similar terms are "scrap categories." These are used to simplify the gameplay introduced with SS2. Categories and what scrap they represent can be found at the link provided at the bottom of this post in the "Breakdown of Resource Categories" section near the bottom of the page. All SS2 resource costs are expressed as the most complex option under the hood, the individual scrap types, but scrap categories allow you to e.g. use steel where you might have needed wood instead. You can increase (or decrease) virtual scrap complexity with the City Manager 2078 holotape or City Planner's Desk under "Options > Gameplay > Difficulty > Resource Complexity" or "Gameplay > Difficulty > Resource Complexity" in the MCM.
3. If Hubert is your leader for a settlement, he has a leader trait that provides that settlement with Children of Atom guards. All leaders have positive and negative leader traits that do a variety of things such as increase production, decrease happiness, increase ghoul settlers, etc.
4. You do not need to donate junk at all. If you've enough virtual junk in your virtual storage and settlement network, all costs will be drawn from there. Donation is just a way to provide for low resources if necessary, generally when starting out at a given settlement. That said, there are some options in the City Manager 2078 holotape, City Planner's Desk, or MCM that are on by default that will allow resources to be drawn from the workbench or your inventory. For the workbench, this is only if it can't find enough virtual resources when paying for things. For your inventory, this is only when you are manually paying costs, such as manually selecting and building a building plan on a plot. These options are found under "Options > Gameplay > Costs > Pay Costs From Workbench/Inventory" for the desk/holotape and "Gameplay > Costs > Pay Costs From Workbench/Inventory" for the MCM.

Resources: Scrap and Supplies

wiki.simsettlements2.com

 

[Saiyaness]

1. As far as I can tell (I have not tested, just reading scripts), the vanilla system has not been modified. This means that it only handles vanilla systems, such as junk access for crafting in connected settlements via the workbenches/workshop. The SS2 system adds another layer on top of this to transfer SS2 virtual resources™ between settlements. Virtual resources are used for everything SS2 related, from building/upgrading plots to settlement upkeep. This means that if you want these shared (you do), you must use the SS2 system. I've no experience with IDEK stuff, but I presume it hooks into the SS2 system to provide improved/different functionality. It seems to be a popular mod around these parts in any case.
2. Industrial-type plots labeled as "junk gathering" will provide vanilla junk to the workshop. All other industrial plot types provide "virtual" junk that is used in all SS2 functionality as mentioned above. These industrial plots (and some others) add these virtual resources to a settlements "virtual storage." This storage is what SS2 will primarily try to draw from when it looks for resources to do SS2 related things. You cannot withdraw from this virtual storage, but you can add to it via the "City Planner's Desk" that you can construct. To use this storage in a settlement, you must either build storage container(s) added by SS2 for this express purpose or build plots that add resources to it, as they provide storage capacity to said settlement. Organic junk and some other similar terms are "scrap categories." These are used to simplify the gameplay introduced with SS2. Categories and what scrap they represent can be found at the link provided at the bottom of this post in the "Breakdown of Resource Categories" section near the bottom of the page. All SS2 resource costs are expressed as the most complex option under the hood, the individual scrap types, but scrap categories allow you to e.g. use steel where you might have needed wood instead. You can increase (or decrease) virtual scrap complexity with the City Manager 2078 holotape or City Planner's Desk under "Options > Gameplay > Difficulty > Resource Complexity" or "Gameplay > Difficulty > Resource Complexity" in the MCM.
3. If Hubert is your leader for a settlement, he has a leader trait that provides that settlement with Children of Atom guards. All leaders have positive and negative leader traits that do a variety of things such as increase production, decrease happiness, increase ghoul settlers, etc.
4. You do not need to donate junk at all. If you've enough virtual junk in your virtual storage and settlement network, all costs will be drawn from there. Donation is just a way to provide for low resources if necessary, generally when starting out at a given settlement. That said, there are some options in the City Manager 2078 holotape, City Planner's Desk, or MCM that are on by default that will allow resources to be drawn from the workbench or your inventory. For the workbench, this is only if it can't find enough virtual resources when paying for things. For your inventory, this is only when you are manually paying costs, such as manually selecting and building a building plan on a plot. These options are found under "Options > Gameplay > Costs > Pay Costs From Workbench/Inventory" for the desk/holotape and "Gameplay > Costs > Pay Costs From Workbench/Inventory" for the MCM.

Resources: Scrap and Supplies

wiki.simsettlements2.com

Holy crap!! Thank you for the super detailed response!!! You explained it perfectly. I went and checked out the wiki too. Also helpful!

So basically I should keep the caravan network and just make sure I'm setting them up in every settlement, and making sure I'm actually building plenty of industrial plots to fuel them. Terrific! I noticed in Sanctuary I have LOTS of building materials (the wheelbarrow), a tiny bit of rare, and no organic or machine parts. Could be why some plots were complaining that they couldn't build, lol. So I just built an organic plot. Maybe it was something I unlocked!

I'll go and check out the holotape settings too, make sure I haven't accidentally turned something off. I was playing around with assignment settings last night so you never know...

Kicking myself for not assigning Hubert now. I love the CoA! And now I understand the leader traits a little more.Thank you!

 

[msalaba]

I've no experience with IDEK stuff, but I presume it hooks into the SS2 system to provide improved/different functionality.

From what I have seen looking through that mod, he puts his fancy Logistics system on a default SS2 caravan plot. The mod doesn't seem to touch anything related to Virtual Resources, just the vanilla resources. In simpler terms, it is an SS2 caravan plot with extra features.

Kicking myself for not assigning Hubert now.

You can still assign Hubert as a leader. Go to the city planner's desk and click on the blueprint (manage city) You should get an option to assign a leader.

 

[ceemosp]

This clarified quite a few things for me Tnx Cyberslas