Public Beta 1.1.0

[kinggath]

This is the big one. Easily biggest patch we've done for SS2 to date - for those of you who play with all the bells and whistles turned on (operating/maintenance/component complexity) it will heavily transform the way you approach building in SS2 - in a way I believe will feel far better!

As a little treat, and because it helped with another balance issue, Jake has returned for a few extra lines of dialogue during one of the quests! So if you're starting a new save, you'll find that you'll get access to plots to produce defense quite a bit sooner than in the original release of SS2.

I'll be working with one of our artists tonight to try and create some infographics to better summarize some of these changes and explain the logic and flow for how things are meant to play under these new numbers. For now, I've got a mountain of patch notes for you guys, as well as a link to a spreadsheet with a ton of data on the numbers. I will say there is a little bit of self-leakage here as some of the data is for future content, but I didn't want to have to rebuild this sheet twice, so we'll just leave those mechanics listed and you all can try and guess what they do until we get to the 2.0.0 patch which will integrate them into your gameplay.

This also includes a beta of WSFW's next patch.

Download Public Beta 1.1.0 here.

• Fixed a bug that was breaking the Previs for the Forest Marsh cell.
• Improved the code used to manage max storage so it’s less likely to cause resource loss due to temporary reductions in storage, such as when refreshing a plot, or changing who is assigned to an Industrial plot.
• Resource Complexity options have been slightly renamed to: Simple, Category, and Component. (previous names were Scrap, Scrap Categories, and Scrap Components).
• Tracking Industrial, Commercial, and Martial plots should now work correctly.
• Fixed a bug that would cause Beacon runs to get stuck. If any were stuck in an existing save, they should begin processing again shortly after this patch is loaded.
• Fixed a bug in the quest “Heart and Soul” that would cause an objective to display “Failed” after it was successfully completed.
• Fixed Charles Baker’s aggression level so he will correctly join fights during settlement attacks.
• Recruitable characters that are part of factions the player has become enemies with, should now correctly be hostile to the player immediately.
• Modified Patrol/Guard code slightly to try and fix an issue with Hubert’s Leader Trait that would cause Children of Atom guards to attack NPCs friendly to the player.
• Fixed a bug that would cause max scrap storage benefit from Industrial plots to be lost if operating costs were unpaid or power was lost. Lost max storage benefit should only happen if the settler working the plot is unassigned, the plot is destroyed, or is changed to a different building plan that doesn’t provide the same storage benefit.
• Fixed a bug where choosing the Pay Operating Costs option on the ASAM Sensor menu would reactivate the plot but would not actually consume any resources.
• Restored several missing voice files for Stodge. Additional missing lines were identified that were never recorded, the VA is going to make time to record them at a future time.
• Excess production beyond storage will now be logged each day, and cleared at the beginning of the next day’s production cycle. Excess production can be spent for transactions, such as plot operating costs.
  • This was a compromise made to maintain the spirit of storage limits, but prevent the fact that “storage is shared” from becoming a problem. For an example of the problem, imagine if a settlement was producing 10 Nuclear Material per day, but had 0 in storage because the storage was full from steel, anything that required Nuclear Material could never be paid until storage space was cleared - this problem would require never ending construction of new storage space as it would always fill up fastest with materials being spent the slowest over time. With this new change, that 10 nuclear material will be logged as “overproduction” and be available for spending that day, but will not stockpile to greater numbers.
  • A solution to allow for clearing out less valuable resources to make room for greater value ones will be brought in a future update.
• Theresa’s clinic dialogue should now correctly result in doctor services being performed.
• Industrial Conversion and Production building plans now list the type of resource they consume for operating costs in their description.
• Players starting a new game after this patch will find that Jake has a new reward at the end of the quest Well, Well, Well. This is meant to help bridge the long gap between that quest’s end and the unlocking of the remaining plot types.
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause objects with maintenance costs to continue applying those costs even after scrapping the object. (Thank you msabala and cbrgamer2 for doing the research on this!)
• The quest Well, Well, Well no longer attempts to make the player use an animation marker when “kicking”.
• Fixed a bug that was causing maintenance costs to double on items when they were powered up.
• Activating a Municipal Power Switch should now force it to refresh. IMPORTANT: Settlements should only ever have one Municipal Power Switch (either the wall mounted or freestanding - not both). If you have multiple in a settlement, you should scrap down to one and then activate just that one.

(Hit the character limit! Patch Notes continued in next several posts...)

Download Public Beta 1.1.0 here.

This will not be the last balance patch, it's very likely we'll be re-evaluating the numbers again after Chapter 2 releases and we get more feedback on how things feel altogether.

Please let me know ASAP if anything goes horribly awry with this patch, as the goal is for me to hunker down until the 2.0.0 patch and get us prepped for the C2 release! There are some major updates I have to make to the primary SS2.esm which will make it very difficult to do anything other than minor hotfixes afterwards and I plan on starting on them the Monday after this 1.1.0 patch goes live.

-kinggath

 

[kinggath]

Balance Changes: The following changes have been made to create a path through Sim Settlements 2 where different buildings are better suited for different stages of a settlements’ life. The overall goal is to give the 4 resource tiers a distinct purpose and value, and ensure that the costs encourage using buildings in a way that simulates the natural survival needs and technological evolution of a civilization.

For you fellow data nerds, a spreadsheet with all of the numbers laid out for study: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...pacdafPqOtDYNljStAly5ItIEU/edit#gid=664833885

After installing this patch, a refresh of resources will be queued, up, so it will be a good idea to visit all your settlements and hang out for a few minutes while all of these changes are applied. You may even wish to use the holotape tool in each settlement to force a recalculation. It can be found under Tools > Advanced > Recalculate Costs and Production.

• Conversion class formulas have all been adjusted to allow greater production of the target resources.
• All Conversion class plots now consume at a rate approximately 3x the rate a corresponding production plot creates, this will make it easier to plan around, as well as greatly increase the net output of these plots which are driven by the total resources consumed.
• Industrial gathering was increased by approximately 8% and the distribution was adjusted so the rates are approximately: Building Materials are twice as common as Organic Materials, which are twice as common as Machine Parts, which are twice as common as Rare Materials. All resources have had their internal values adjusted accordingly.
• Industrial production adjusted so the ratios of resources more closely match the ratios found in the vanilla game. Since our costs have been adjusted with these changes in mind, the costs should better line up with what players find in the wild, which will make donations more effective.
• SPECIAL stat bonuses to plot production have been adjusted as following:
  • Agility now grants an additional 3 points of defense to Martial Basic, Advanced, and Hi-Tech Defense classes. Up from 1.
  • Charisma now grants an additional 2.5 caps to Commercial virtual cap production. Up from 2.0.
  • Strength now grants a 5% boost to Industrial production. Previously the boosts were different for each resource type.
  • Intelligence now grants an additional 5 power to Municipal Basic, Advanced, and Hi-Tech Power Plant classes. Up from 1.
  • Perception now grants an additional 2 water to Municipal Basic, Advanced, and Hi-Tech Water Plant classes. Up from 1.
  • Endurance continues to grant an additional 1 food to Agricultural Basic, Advanced, and Hi-Tech Farm classes.
• Advanced Farm class now only requires 1/2/3 power, for levels 1/2/3 respectively. Down from 2/4/6.
• Hi-Tech Farm class now only requires 5/8/10 power, for level 1/2/3 respectively. Down from 7/10/13.
• Commercial classes now produce different levels of caps and require different construction costs and operating costs. The overall result is significantly more caps produced by Commercial overall.
  • The later the class becomes unlocked the more caps it produces and the higher its costs. The order is currently: Bar, Clothing Store, Clinic, General Store, Weapon Store, Armor Store, Power Armor Store, Book Store, Furniture Store, Barber, Pet Store.
• Residential cap production changed to 6/11/15, for levels 1/2/3 respectively. Down from 6/12/20. This reduction was more than made up for via the increases in Commercial cap production (Commercial are meant to be the primary income provider for settlements, with Residential only providing an early game source of caps).
• Building Materials Gathering class now requires 2/3/4 additional defense, up from 1/2/3; and requires 1/1/2 power, down from 1/2/3.
• Junk Gathering class now requires 0/1/2 additional defense, down from 1/2/3; and requires 1/1/2 power, down from 1/2/3.
• Machine Parts Gathering class now requires 8/10/12 additional defense, up from 4/5/6; and requires 1/3/4 power, up from 1/2/3.
• Rare Materials Gathering class now requires 12/14/16 additional defense, up from 7/8/9; and requires 3/4/5 power, up from 1/2/3.
• Organic Materials Gathering class has the same defense and power requirements as before the rebalance.
• Industrial Conversion class now requires 6/10/15 additional defense, down from 6/12/22.
• Industrial Production class now requires 9/15/25 additional defense, down from 15/25/35.
• Advanced Defenses class now produces 50/80/105 defense, but due to the increased Agility benefit, this ends up being a net increase of 0/10/10 for a settler with the minimum required 5 Agility, and even higher for those with more.
• Basic Defenses class now produces 13/31/61 defense, but due to the increased Agility benefit, this only results in a net reduction of 1/1/1.

(Continued Below)

 

[kinggath]

• Hi-Tech Defenses class now produces 101/136/176 defense, but due to the increased Agility benefit, this ends up being a net increase of 10/20/20 for a settler with the minimum required 8 Agility, and even higher for those with more.
• No building classes negatively affect happiness any longer (a new system is replacing negative happiness modifiers in Chapter 2).
• Advanced Power Plant class now produces 55/75/105 power, due to the increased Intelligence benefit, this ends up being a net break-even for a settler with the minimum required 5 Intelligence, and a boost for those with more.
• Basic Power Plant class now produces 20/40/70 power, but due to the increased Intelligence benefit this will be a net gain for any settler with higher than 1 Intelligence.
• Hi-Tech Power Plant class now produces 100/140/210 power, due to the increased Intelligence benefit, this ends up being a net break-even for a settler with the minimum required 8 Intelligence, and a boost for those with more.
• Advanced Water Plant class now produces 38/50/84 water, but due to the increased Perception benefit this ends up being a net break-even for a settler with the minimum required 5 Perception, and a boost for those with more.
• Basic Water Plant class now produces 8/23/43 water, but due to the increase Perception benefit this ends up being an increase for any settler with a Perception greater than 1; power requirement reduced to 1/1/2 from 1/2/3.
• Hi-Tech Water Plant class now produces 62/84/109 water, but due to the increased Perception benefit this ends up being a net break-even for a settler with the minimum required 8 Perception, and a boost for those with more.
• Recreational training classes had their resource requirements adjusted to push physical training closer to the early game, and the others closer to the late game.
  • Agility Training class no longer requires additional Food, and now requires 1/3/5 additional Water, up from 1/2/3.
  • Strength Training class no longer requires additional Water, and now requires 1/3/5 additional Food, up from 1/2/3.
  • Endurance Training class no longer requires additional Food, and now requires 1/3/5 additional Water, up from 1/2/3.
  • Intelligence and Perception Training classes now require 1/3/5 additional food and water, up from 1/2/3; and 2/3/4 Power, up from 1/2/3.
  • Charisma and Luck Training classes now require 2/4/6 additional food and water, up from 1/2/3; and 2/4/6 Power, up from 1/2/3.
• Caps operating costs have been added to Martial and Municipal classes, and removed from all other classes.
• Building Material operating costs have been removed from most classes and items.
• Production class industrial buildings will now consume substantially more resources and therefore produce far more products each day. This allows them to have a more noticeable impact on the economy, and also makes them useful for clearing out excessive junk from storage in particular components.
• For players using simple complexity, production will now be similar for Building Materials Gathering, Organic Materials Gathering, Machine Parts Gathering, Rare Materials Gathering, and Conversion classes since the resource types are not important. There will still be some inequities between the classes due to different power usage and defense requirements, but the assumption is most people playing at simple complexity are not going to be struggling to reach any of those costs anyways.
• Operating costs have been heavily redistributed so the costs match the tech or societal level the building is in. Those at the lower end will have most costs in Caps or Organic Materials, while the higher end will have most costs in Machine Parts and Rare Materials, making them more difficult to maintain since the latter 2 are produced at much lower rates.
  • The goals of these changes was to prevent operating costs from becoming overwhelming in the early game, and ensuring there is a challenge throughout the progression of the player’s settlement empire to find the perfect balance and make sure that resource production is perpetually an important part of planning. The net result should be slower progression through the tech tree, but each step being clearer as to what resource production is needed to be able to comfortably move to the next stage.
  • For Component level complexity players, the Conversion class has been overhauled and now generates significantly more specific resources, read below notes about the Conversion class changes for more details.
  • As much as possible, we attempted to follow real world uses for items, but on occasion had to stretch a bit to ensure that all resources were represented in the system, so several of the obvious missed opportunities and bizarre combinations were sacrifices to ensure good mechanical gameplay.
• Several buildings have changed their operating costs and output types to ensure there are both consumers and producers of all resource types available to ensure players can finetune their input and output in the late game. (Note some consumers are only available in the Production class, but all resource types can be produced by Conversion buildings included with SS2, addon packs or buildings in future SS2 expansions may expand upon the available Conversion combinations).
• Steel Mill has been renamed Metal Mill and now produces Aluminum as well as Steel.
• Distillery is now a Conversion class building that still produces a small amount of liquor for bars, but its primary purpose is now to generate Antiseptic.
• Body Armor Technology is now a Conversion class building that still produces a small amount of gear for Armor Stores, but its primary purpose is now to generate Ballistic Fiber.
• Conversion plots have been overhauled to better match what they were originally intended to do: convert unneeded resources from one type to another at increasing efficiency with each level.
  • These building now consume approximately the equivalent of 3 gathering buildings, of the same level as the Conversion building, worth of one or more resources and then produce an equivalent value of one or more other type of resources. For example, the Asbestos Reclamation L3 building consumes 288 wood (Building Materials Gathering L3 building produces 96 wood per day * 3 = 288), and produces 351 Asbestos.
  • The efficiency of these buildings is 85% at L1, 100% at L2, 115% at L3. In other words, at level 1, these will produce slightly less value than a gathering plot, an equivalent value at level 2, and then 15% more value than an equivalent gathering plot at level 3. When calculating value, we included the relative cost of the items consumed, as well as the full relative value of all production from the corresponding gathering plot that settler could be working as an alternative. Which means the conversion plots will output a substantial amount of their target resources - making them ideal for late game in large settlement empires where large amounts of specific resources may be required for operating costs.
• For players using Moderate Complexity, Conversion buildings were changed so they would result in similar late-game use-cases as with Component Complexity, but adjusted so the numbers end up the same between buildings that do the same class conversion.
  • Conversion buildings impact a much larger quantity of resources at this level consuming the equivalent of 3 gathering class building of the same level as the Conversion building. Their output is increased correspondingly.
  • Buildings that converted from one Building Material type to another will simply create more Building Materials than consumed at level 3.
  • All other types will convert from the preceding type into the expected type, so Building Materials will be used as the operating cost for any building that created an Organic Material, Organic Materials will be used as the operating cost for any building that created a Machine Part, and Machine Parts will be used as the operating cost for any building that created a Rare Material.
  • Any that produce multiple classes of resource for Component complexity will be classified with the one they produce the most categories of, or if tied, then with the lowest tier producer. For example Surface Mining Operations produces both Concrete and Bone, since Concrete is in Building Materials and Bone is in Organic Materials, the Building Materials category is used as its target while in Moderate complexity.

(Continued Below)

 

[kinggath]

• Maintenance costs for many items have been significantly reduced and all have been balanced relative to the amount and value of the resource they produce.
  • The resource types required use a similar pattern to our plot cost philosophy, which is assigning them a sort of technological tree and the lower tech items requiring cheaper resources than the higher tech items. The goal in the changes was to allow them to be useable, without making plots pointless.
  • When multiple items shared attributes, for example, the Heavy Machinegun Turret, Shotgun Turret, and Laser Turret, we aimed to offer slight variations in the operating cost combinations so players can learn which for the early game and plan around their limited resources in a way that fits best with their settlement’s resource production.
  • One of the problems Generator, Water Pumps, and Turrets create is that they can be spammed with almost no consequence - the maintenance system had attempted to solve this by taxing them at a similar rate of plots, but this ended up frustrating many players with the excessive costs and frequent downtime in the early and mid game when they couldn’t possibly generate enough to cover the costs..
  • The new maintenance balance is now mathematically value balanced so all of the vanilla items can be used alongside plots at various stages of the game. We want them to have a home filling in gaps in production between when new settlers arrive, plot upgrades occur, or just making up those tiny amounts when plots don’t quite meet all the needs but aren’t missing them by so much to demand another settler be put on that job type yet.
  • Non-vanilla, Non-DLC items that add Defense/Power/Water use Caps as their maintenance costs in an amount based on a formula of 1 cap per point of power, 2.6 caps per point of defense, and 2.5 caps per point of water.
  • A new system is being added with Chapter 2 to ensure plots that share resource types with these items have additional benefits so that spamming vanilla items isn’t always the optimal (min/max) choice.

WSFW Beta Notes

• NPCs that are completely removed as settlers should no longer be flagged as part of that settlement’s faction. This should prevent an issue where NPCs that turn on the player, such as some main quest companions, will no longer aggro the entire settlement - so long as the NPC is correctly removed from the settlement first.
• myMapMarker property on WorkshopScript is now exposed so it can be set in the CK. This will allow for filling it for settlement’s where the game fails to find the marker on its own, which can happen with certain settlement configurations.
• WorkshopParent will no longer overwrite the myMapMarker property on workshop’s if the game failed to find the map marker.
• Updated FetchLocationData quests, which were used for some API functions, to use the StoryEventQuest management system that was added several patches ago.
• Added new API function: GetLocationCenter which accepts a location, and an optional boolean to accept the map marker if the location center could not be found. This will return the reference for a location with the LocationCenterMarker RefType.

Phew - that's a lot of patch notes...

 

[Blackbelt]

I sure picked a patch to come back..O_O

 

[Deleted member 10215]

Yeah, some changes here that'll take a bit of time to chew on and see what difference they made in a 'real' game, although at a rough estimate it looks like it "should" be easier to get a stable caravan-network going without relying on tons of Donations and/or all your workbench'd resources being devoured.

 

[Karvoc]

Thank you for all your hard work.

 

[msalaba]

Wall of text encountered
You feel sorry for Kinggath's fingers!
Respect + 10
Wall of text read
You are now under the effect of bewilderment

That is a LOT of changes. Its going to feel completely different. I can't wait to have some time to fire this up!
I have even thought of a good use for GetLocationCenter! My Function should work better now.

 

[MikeCripps]

These changes look amazing - well worth the wait for the patch, and thanks for all the hard work!

I'm particularly excited about the reduction of Building Materials for upkeep, I think that'll make a big difference to the early game. Going to start a new playthrough and see how they feel!

 

[Deleted member 10215]

Already seeing something a bit odd, but I'll make a new thread over in Questions&Help so we can exchange notes instead of clog this thread up.
Here: https://simsettlements.com/site/index.php?threads/beta-1-1-0-various-beta-testing.19228/

 

[GumShoe]

When will this be published for Xbox?

 

[Torberg]

If they're going back to the usual schedule, this update will be released Friday.

 

[Beowulf]

And when is the Chapter 2 expected? At least about a month to immediately take a vacation for translation)

 

[Torberg]

All they've really said so far is "later this year."

Per kinggath's post earlier in this thread:

the goal is for me to hunker down until the 2.0.0 patch and get us prepped for the C2 release! There are some major updates I have to make to the primary SS2.esm which will make it very difficult to do anything other than minor hotfixes afterwards and I plan on starting on them the Monday after this 1.1.0 patch goes live.

So it sounds like they're really getting in to the push for it. But, seeing as how this is all on-the-side work for the people involved, it will still take some time. So, yeah, "later this year."

 

[comziz]

Wow!
A lot of changes have been going on. We deeply thank everybody who are involved in developing and updating this wonderful mod!

Fingers crossed for resources and stats updating properly when I load the game.

• Updated FetchLocationData quests, which were used for some API functions, to use the StoryEventQuest management system that was added several patches ago.

A lot to digest in the patch notes but I am particularly excited about this one, since I've been having issues with Ron recently, about giving me settler locations. Currently he's pointing to the "Radio Rumours" note rather than the actual location. So I'm hoping this fixes that...

By the way, I was going to create thread, asking details about this. Glad it's mentioned here;
Can somebody fill me up on "Municipal Power Switch" ? The warning message always scared me so I never built one also I'm not sure what is it for exactly.

 

[Torberg]

The Municipal Power Switch[1] is the wiring connection point for the power generated by the Power Generating sub-type of Municipal plots. You build a Municipal Power plot and it says it generates X amount of power. But, you can't directly wire to it, so your Neon Sign or Power Armor Display Case stays dark. That's where the MPS comes in. Build that and connect it to the power grid. It's the "wall outlet" you connect to while the Municipal Power plot is, well, the power plant. The warning is because you only need the one. Any and all Municipal Power plots in that settlement will output their power through that one MPS. Using the above example, we already built one plot that generates X power, so the MPS provides X power. Build another plot that also produces X power and you'll see that the MPS now provides 2X power.

[1] This applies to both the wall-mounted "switch" version or the "freestanding power conduit mini-tower" version. They do the same job, so you only need one or the other. Which you use is up to you and the aesthetics of your settlement.

 

[comziz]

The Municipal Power Switch[1] is the wiring connection point for the power generated by the Power Generating sub-type of Municipal plots. You build a Municipal Power plot and it says it generates X amount of power. But, you can't directly wire to it, so your Neon Sign or Power Armor Display Case stays dark. That's where the MPS comes in. Build that and connect it to the power grid. It's the "wall outlet" you connect to while the Municipal Power plot is, well, the power plant. The warning is because you only need the one. Any and all Municipal Power plots in that settlement will output their power through that one MPS. Using the above example, we already built one plot that generates X power, so the MPS provides X power. Build another plot that also produces X power and you'll see that the MPS now provides 2X power.

[1] This applies to both the wall-mounted "switch" version or the "freestanding power conduit mini-tower" version. They do the same job, so you only need one or the other. Which you use is up to you and the aesthetics of your settlement.

Thank you so much!
So if I understand correctly, it's like a rerouter?
Instead of connecting all plots together, combining power production and so on, you can just put this down and spread from there?
In example, you have the power production plot(s) at one far side of a settlement and all the other plots at the other far side... and instead of laying multiple poles and meters of power lines... you just put this down where your other plots are can drain the produced power from it?

I still use vanilla generators and never built a PG plot from SS2 so I when you say "you can't directly wire to it" it's all new to me, I would've assume you'd just connect to the power pole of the plot.... I was wondering how to connect it for interior PG plots =D so I guess this is how ..LOL

PS: Does the switch include the power produced from vanilla generators as well, or only plots?

 

[Torberg]

You can connect to the power pole of the plot, but that's just a regular power connector; it doesn't provide the power from the plot. But yes, you can have all of the Municipal Power Plots on one end of the settlement, the MPS on the other end, and the MPS "automagically" provides the power the plots create without directly wiring all the way back to the plots. It's a bit of an acceptable suspension of disbelief. (Well, I think it is, at least.)

Generators would still need to be wired into the power grid; the MPS doesn't account for their generation.

 

[RayBo]

Thank you so much!
So if I understand correctly, it's like a rerouter?
Instead of connecting all plots together, combining power production and so on, you can just put this down and spread from there?
In example, you have the power production plot(s) at one far side of a settlement and all the other plots at the other far side... and instead of laying multiple poles and meters of power lines... you just put this down where your other plots are can drain the produced power from it?

I still use vanilla generators and never built a PG plot from SS2 so I when you say "you can't directly wire to it" it's all new to me, I would've assume you'd just connect to the power pole of the plot.... I was wondering how to connect it for interior PG plots =D so I guess this is how ..LOL

PS: Does the switch include the power produced from vanilla generators as well, or only plots?

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[comziz]

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Hey RayBo!
Thank you so much for sharing this, I have stumbled upon your videos multiple times but I had never seen this one before. It was so helpful to fully understand it! So thank you again...

BTW I always admired the variety of mods you have but oh my, 500 mods! Wow just wow! I hope I get there someday myself (currently 241 mods, 311 plugins)...
Have you got your whole modlist written down somewhere, which I can browse? ... Seeing how you are all set up and able to play the game, they should all be compatible with each other and especially with SS2... I'd love to follow your footsteps and expand my variety.

PS: I also always redecorate Mary's grave as well... So kudos for that too...