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Kingsport Nautical Trading Post

altasilvapuer

Well-Known Member
Messages
166
EDIT: Original posts removed in favor of final images.

Kingsport Trading Post trades primarily in the weapons and gear popular with militaristic groups, like the Gunners or Minutemen, operating throughout the Boston area. While a relatively small trading post, even at Level 3, it is poised to easily grow into something much more imposing, given the right direction. Given the limited 15-settler size of this settlement, I tried to achieve something that was at least borderline profitable/operational with room to expand on systems that can take the extra settler load.
There are multiple empty locations for plots of various sizes scattered throughout the settlement, including one intended to be a Player Home, though it is not pre-decorated. Some of the Designer's Choice plots were also specifically chosen for the facility to place more plots atop or inside them.

Without further adieu, The Nuka-Cap Tour™:

1. On a dreary morning in October, our crew of tenacious traders lands on the shore beneath the lighthouse. The Children of Atom clearly do not know how to maintain a settlement and must be swept from the site. This simple lighthouse will become a beacon of safe passage for the flow of goods, weapons, and, most importantly: caps.
Level 0 Dock Approach.jpg

2-3. The lower docks
Built largely during level 2, these docks are shielded from the South by a capsized barge and from the North by the remainder of the dockyard. The view you see is from the doorway of the concrete bunker above, now repaired. The crane has been lifted from the seas and put to work atop the bunker aiding in the hauling of cargo up the cliff face. As word of the settlement's wealth spread, ships from up and down the coast have arrived, carrying their varied and sundry wares. At the furthest reaches of the dock lies a massive ship recently pulled into port (Level 3) from some unknown - and distant - land rumored to lie to the East, across the vast sea.
Lower Docks 1 - Level 2 Construction.jpg
Lower Docks 2.jpg

4-6. As the settlement grew, however, space within the walls of the port increasingly came at a premium. Crammed into the safety of the towering scrap, the buildings have soared upwards to dizzying and questionable heights and safety. A narrow alley bridged by walkways even more precarious than the structures marks the only way up the cliff (unless, of course, you fancy a ride in a container full of potentially-hazardous cargo).
Cliff Shacks.jpg
Cliff Alley.jpg
Clifftop Overview.jpg

7. Travelers who climb the winding stairs will find themselves quickly before one of Kingsport's oldest and wealthiest establishments: Dead End Liquors. In a town full of drunken sailors and traveling gun-runners, the Dead End provides a welcome respite and "a cure for all what ails ye." The upper floors provide cheap, if seedy, accommodations for the many travelers who pass through.

For the truly brave and stupid, rumors also about that Dead End is soon to open a shooting gallery across the alley from its main entrance, because what says "Wasteland" better than booze & bullets?
[Designer's note: This is/would be a recreational plot potentially added for Level 3 and/or a "Level 4" expansion on the grounds from which this shot was taken. I'm on the fence with whether to keep it in Level 3, as I had to go with a different location for my primary Recreation plot and technically lack the settler to man a new one within the allowed 15.]
Dead End Liquors Entrance (Day).jpg

8. While Kingsport is primarily a port, as the name suggests, it does also lie on an important trade route connecting the Greater Boston Area with the newly (re)discovered Acadians to the North. The main Southern approach along the Pre-War road is guarded by a stern guard and lit by a now-disused crane. Just inside this gate, one will find more-permanent residential areas to the left, a thriving industrial sector to the right, and the remains of the Pre-War caretaker's home in the center, now converted to a beautiful hotel with a functional subsistence garden out front.
Front Gate.jpg
Entrance - Right Lane [Updated].jpg

10. City Overview with locations of markers and plots.
A few notes:
  • This Settlement is designed with the potential to be able to grow beyond Level 3 with Player guidance. The numbers in Orange indicate areas I designed or planned to accommodate plots of varying sizes for the player to place. I tried to make a clear distinction throughout the levels between plot spaces that would be used (generally filled with construction materials) and plot spaces that were intentionally empty (either nothing there at all or filled with random storage junk, robot bits, etc).
  • There are beds at Red (a) and (b) that are currently marked as Player Beds in Levels 2 & 3. Residential Expansion can be easily accommodated by (re-)replacing them with Settler Beds, as they were in Levels 0 & 1.
  • Plots Yellow-4 and Blue-5 are not currently occupied due to the 15-Settler limit. Ditto to Purple-2, which may/may not make the final cut, anyway. I was still waffling as of taking this picture.
  • None of the non-plot work objects are currently assigned. The vendor was to be a lower-level thing, but I ended up not using it. I left it for now for a 'Level 4' expansion to the city plan at the player's direction. The martial objects are more for eye candy than actual use, but could be similarly-used.
  • Grey-B1/2/3 are similar to the Orange markers in that there's nothing currently there. They're thematically designed like lookout posts and would accommodate a 1x1 Martial Plot, so I marked them in Grey. I could probably plop a 'Guard' Blue Man in each, but essentially ran out of time from starting so late.
City Layout - L3 v3.jpg

Man, this settlement was a whirlwind!!
-asp
 
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Welcome and nice build so far!

1) Try this mod to spawn settlers at a push of a button. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/29820
2) I think markers being outside the borders should be fine, though I've only worked on one city plan so far.
3/5) Do you have Place Everywhere? This mod can help with a lot of the issues you're having, like repairing the roof and placing items that don't snap. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9424
4) As far as I know, the raider windmills are only for decoration, though you could try covering the powered windmill blades with the raider windmill blades and see how that looks.
 
1. I'll have to check that out. I knew there were a few out there, but I hadn't gone looking, yet; I was curious to see if I could figure out a console/etc way. In all honestly, though, it's probably best to just stop trying to re-invent the wheel. ;)
3/5. I do have Place Everywhere, thankfully! This settlement would've been a nightmare at best and impossible at worst without it. Even with the extra-objects selection enabled, though, I can't seem to grab the sound markers and a few of the FX markers. If there's a target to grab in there, I haven't found it. The half-walls in question also have their z axis point about a quarter-floor away, so the copy/paste shortcuts sadly don't work with them if you place a snapping wall, first. I've had to eyeball almost every one of them. The vertical-slat wooden half-wall seems to snap (most of the time), but I still sometimes have issue with it.
4. That's kinda the sort of thing I was leaning towards, but the standard powered windmill would only work if I blocked off access inside the lighthouse. Oh well, c'est la vie (again).

I think the restrictions I keep running into have actually been a benefit, so far, because I'm having to be more creative with my building.

-asp
 
1) There are console commands to add a settler, but I liked the button more :)
3/5) Place Everywhere is definitely a lifesaver!
This might not work for everything, but certain objects can be grabbed after you fast-travel away and let the cell re-set or just get out and in of workshop mode. I haven't messed with the sound markers in my build yet but I was able to grab the lighthouse glow once I found it hanging out all the way at the bottom of the lighthouse, near the workshop.

Yeah, I've definitely gotten more creative since I decided to build the city plans, though I'd really love to use the DLCs, Far Harbor especially.
 
Welcome!!
Always great to have new contestants.

You can post pictures at anytime, but you must edited your first post with your 10 final pictures when your ready to submit your entry.

1. To spawn settlers cqf kgpbp settlers followed by the amount you want. It's better to use this than adding a mod to do it.

2. Yes markers are fine outside the boundary. It's intended that you would place the attack markers outside, you don't want enemies spawning inside the settlement. The fast travel mat sometimes just doesn't behave, even in vanilla, but it does work outside.

3. I think I need to see the picture to answer this one?

4. To add power go to Blueprint > Resources > Power and you'll find connectors that actually give off power. It's how we give things power without adding generators.

5. You will get used to things not snapping, in fact you'll forget to turn it back on sometimes when you get skilled at it. Plus it is a lot of work to add snap points to objects and KG has enough to be doing already.
Yes some things can't be moved once placed, the best way to deal with this is using the nudge function in PE, which is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal when building.

Things are not perfect in PBP but learning to work with/around this will make you a much better builder overall.

Good luck on your entry.
 
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1. That is exactly what I was looking for!! Thank you. Out of curiosity, given the format, I'm assuming the "settlers" portion is a parameter that likely takes other arguments. Is there a list somewhere of valid things to spawn with it?
2. That's what I'd assumed/hoped, but it's good to get confirmation.
3. More or less, yes. This one was me rambling about the bottom half of the image which was a very rough map key for the top half of the image. I think I have it properly embedded in the post, but if you can't see it, let me know.
4. I'd seen those, but hadn't thought to combine them like that. I'll go explore those some more; thanks again!
5. The lack of snapping has been good in encouraging me to build "less square" but there are cases when it's important, from what I remember. For example, I've seen some workshop pieces transfer power (similar to how the Vault pieces do it), but only when they're actually snapped together. I normally run mods like Ethreon's Vanilla Extensions, though, so I'm not sure how much of that is vanilla and how much of that is his mod or another like it adding the tag. That was the main reason I brought up snapping. In addition, I feel like I've also seen his name pop up in and around the SIM Settlements community, so I wonder whether he'd be willing to pass along his snapping meshes from that mod to be included in the Blueprint files?

Again, thanks for the help, everyone. I'm going to have to get a boatload done this weekend because I don't know how much I'll be able to work during the week. I'm loving the contest, though!

-asp
 
Original post updated with (likely) final images. I agree with everyone else, here - it was hard to pick 10!

-asp
 
Odd; I'll have to check the links in a bit; currently in-game doing some final decorating. They're uploaded to dropbox and pasted in the same way I did the last one. I'll try something different; I think I might know what the issue is.

In the mean time, where in the menus do I find the Fast Travel Mat? I came across it by accident, once, but haven't seen it, since.

-asp
 
If you use the 'upload a file' tab you can post the pics directly to the site, instead of using dropbox.

The fast travel is in: vanilla menu > resources
 
Okay, new files uploaded directly. Let me know if you can't see any of the pictures; there should be 10 up there, right now.

Also, that would explain why I accidentally stumbled upon it but couldn't find it - I always forget to look there for things like that. I run into the same problem with the Recruitment Beacon, honestly.

-asp
 
I see all 10.
Great job, looks really well, nice attention to detail.
I like the building work up alongside of the tower. Looks scrappy, but structurally sound, the way I likes it.
 
Thanks! The supports were one of the hardest parts of that portion of the build. I'm used to an entirely different suite of supports to use, from Ethreon's Vanilla Extensions, so I had to re-think a lot of the ways I'd support something. I've enjoyed the challenge! The hard part, now, will be dismantling parts of that building in a sensible way.

-asp
 
Minor updates to the first image of the first post. The image underlying the markers will be updated in a few hours, but the markers are all pretty much accurate for Level 3.
 
Holy cats.

You really raised the bar with that first picture identifying EVERYTHING!

And the ships! Wow.
 
Thanks, everyone!

I swear, the HARDEST part of regressing this for the lower levels was scrapping that frigate. I was really proud of it, for all that it's somewhat empty, because of its location.

Speaking of regression: How exactly do power lines work with city plans? I've never really used the plans, much, so I've never really noticed. I'm running into cases where power transfer in a later level relies on a post attached to a building that doesn't exist in the lower levels.

Does the city plan auto-wire the city based on where I had them at each level, or do the players have to reconnect the wires any time a connector moves?
 
What ever you have wired up in each level will be that way for the end user. SS deals with each individual level separately. You can have a wires running one way on say L1 but have a totally different way on L3 and that will be replicated in your city plan.

Just to add, wires are invisible in city plans but everything is functional, they don't export properly so don't appear.
 
Oh, that last is very good to know!! I was just about to fake a harness for a crane-lifted crate with power lines because they are faster. Now I know to use one of the PBP statics, instead.
 
Well. This is a curve ball. Memo to self: Read the rules more carefully, next time.

uituit's posts on some of the other threads reminding of the deadline made me go take a second look at the rules and make sure I hadn't missed anything else. That, combined with running the contest holotape on my Level 0 build made me realize I've gravely misread the rules on number of settlers & plots.

I had been operating with the plan of 15 settlers at Level 3 and marching down incrementally from there: Level 2 @ 12, Level 1 @ 9, and Level 0 @ 6. The available job plots similarly walked downwards, leaving me without the required numbers at all levels.

Levels 1 and 0 are short on settlers and Level 0 is short on plots. Re-regressing the plans from Level 3 again isn't really an option in the time remaining, but I theoretically should be able to still re-add the plots to their original spots, if it works that way. Most/all of the recently-removed ones were snapped to foundations that I haven't removed, yet, in one of the most recent saves.

The real question is how the code for the city levels tracks plots across upgrades - is it purely by location data as I'm hoping or by FormID? Re-reading Kinggath's guidance on regression to make the lower levels, I'm hopeful that it's actually location-based. Having worked with CK a little in previous Bethesda titles, I'm worried it'll be by FormID. If it is, I'll probably be removing my entry from contention for this month, since the lower levels won't be properly completed in time. Even if the voting at the moment is purely by the 10 photos, it'd still feel like cheating to me. If it is via location, though, I should be able to re-add the right number of plots and just squeak in the remainder of my entry between getting off work and the deadline tomorrow night.

I won't be able to check in here until after work tomorrow, around 7pm EDT, but I'll give some thought to planning this out so I can make best use of my remaining hours. If anyone reads this before then and either is a moderator or can pass word to the moderators, I'd appreciate any clarification on how the export process reads the plots.

Wishing everyone else the best of luck! It's been fun comparing how everyone tackled these two settlements; I've learned a ton, regardless, and I'm looking forward to future contests!

-asp
 
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