Solved Huge settler count for seemingly no reason tanking happiness

[JamesDeLaJames]

When outside of any large settlements they display a settler count usually between 1.5 to 3 times the actual number of settlers in that settlement for seemingly no reason which leads to complaints about beds, water food and all the rest leading to tanking happiness when not in settlements. When entering or travelling to a settlement the number fixes itself but then returns to the huge number once gone. Only build in two settlements and they both started doing it from about 20 settlers. Utilising all the expansions but not using city plans for the aforementioned settlements

For example say the settlement has 20 settlers, when outside the number displays around 50 and fluctuates up and down. Is this intended for some functionality that I don't know about or is my game just fubar?

I have Visitors disabled and it did it both before and after disabling. I've also changed settler needs settings and a few others i thought might be a culprit to see what happens but no change.

Many thanks

 

[Bored Peon]

It is a vanilla issue.

You basically have something corrupting your settlement stats. The stats correct themselves when you visit the settlement.

The population counts you see in the pipboy are correct as far as the AI is concerned so it will use those stats to generate happiness and attack results. I sent a brahmin to an empty settlement and it gave a 2 population while in transit and the zero population was attacked.

Ways to cut down that sort of corruption.
1. Do not have unassigned vanilla crops and defense.
2. Radios cause corruption because when the music stops playing at a distance it can crash the settlement script. Sounds like stupid brahminshit but try it and watch how much less data corruption you have.
3. Do not use recruitment beacons, use a recruitment spawn mod item. When newly spawned settlers start assigning themselves to stuff they can cause corruption in that settlement data and it seems to chain to others.
4. Partially loaded settlements throwing the numbers out of whack,
5. A "full settlement" meaning recruitment is done is far more stable (except partial cell loadings.)

I would also suggest using a mod like the UOFP or Kinggath's Workshop mods that loads all cells to a settlement when any are loaded.

 

[JamesDeLaJames]

Hmm I see, okay I will try the steps listed and see what happens thanks. Now that you mentioned the beacon my memory has been jogged back to a point when I remember the problem subsiding for a settlement with the beacon off and then starting again when the beacon was switched on so i'll give that a go first. Many thanks for the tips.

I'll mark as solved as its a vanilla issue with my game I suppose?

 

[Bored Peon]

I'll mark as solved as its a vanilla issue with my game I suppose?

Yeah it aint a mod issue at all. I had 3000 hours with vanilla and saw the issue constantly and spent hundreds of hours trying to figure out the hows and whys. It is basically wonky brahminshit with the game engine.

For example:

2. Radios cause corruption because when the music stops playing at a distance it can crash the settlement script. Sounds like stupid brahminshit but try it and watch how much less data corruption you have..

This especially applies to any turret that has a stuck sound. When you leave the settlement the script crashes. Best to just save and exit and load the game again.

 

[MrCJohn]

1st step before building in a vanilla settlement... scrap all the crops and beds. There is an issue of ghost plants etc that if you stumble upon - DO NOT SCRAP - most people will CTD immediately.

Best thing, just scrap them before building anything... and build replacements (before they are ghosting).

John

 

[Bored Peon]

1st step before building in a vanilla settlement... scrap all the crops and beds. There is an issue of ghost plants etc that if you stumble upon - DO NOT SCRAP - most people will CTD immediately.

1. Ghost plants are only created if you move plants that are assigned to a settler.

You need to assign your farming settler to another job or unassign them using the Vault Population Management Terminal. After the crops have no workers you are free to move or scrap them.

If you have ghost plants then you run into issue I mentioned above about unassigned jobs. This will cause massive changes in food production when you approach a settlement as settlers assign themselves and create lag in the global assignment queue scripting.

If you have any ghost plants then you need to save your game prior to touching them. As MrCJohn pointed out touching the ghost plants can cause an immediate CTD, especially if they are still assigned a worker.

2. 90% of vanilla beds are bugged as not being sheltered.
When you have unsheltered beds your settlers will not get into beds at night. It also causes a bed shortage dialogue.