Question Settlers Idle Around (ROTC)

[ThatHistoryGuy94]

I have ROTC enabled, as well as maybe a dozen more mods. Only two add additional quests; the rest are cosmetic.

In both Sanctuary, Abernathy Farms, and Starlight Drive-In (the only 3 I've gotten to so far), the settlers simply stand still. They don't make their way to plots or do any work. I have tried disabling mods to see if that helps but nothing seems to work. I also let the game run for a bit to see if it was a script lag but that didn't work either.

Of the mods I think might cause problems: I have Place Anywhere as well as Unofficial Patch (earlier version with just Far Harbor). Besides these two I have no other mods that affect settlement or pathing.

 

[RayBo]

Place Anywhere

Place Anywhere is normally fine. In fact, it is recommended.

It only takes "one" mod to glitch a game. When it happens to me it seems to be the ones I think are least likely. hahahahaha

You have so few mods I would start the game with just SS then when you are sure it is running well, add in the others.

If it doesn't run well then maybe reinstall the game and validate the install in steam?

Lastly, it isn't called the Triangle of Death for no reason.

https://simsettlements.com/site/ind...sanctuary-abernathy-farm-and-red-rocket.6964/

I know, technically Starlight isn't in the triangle but hey - it is still one buggy settlement.

 

[ThatHistoryGuy94]

I came upon the Triangle of Death article afterwards! It’s definitely making me rethink placing ROTC settlements in any of them.

Starlight was working better, as in people were actually where they should be.

I decided to start from scratch, since during the 10 hours of playtime I probably installed and uninstalled half a dozen mods. I created a list from mods from Kinggath’s safe list as well as another post here on SimSettlement safe loads, and only have about 40.

I think I also made the mistake of coming into this thinking ROTC was a replacement of SimSettlements, when I should instead use it for specific hubs and do the rest manually.

 

[jugato]

If you have a companion with you, does your companion follow you into the settlements or skirt around the perimeters? Can you use the Go command on your companion to move him/her into the settlement?

 

[ThatHistoryGuy94]

I only have Dogmeat with me, and he doesn't seem to skirt around the perimeter.

 

[jugato]

If Dogmeat follows you into settlements, then the issue you're hitting is different than the one I've been seeing.

 

[ThatHistoryGuy94]

What problem is that?

 

[jugato]

It's documented in the [ver.4.2.3] settler pathing problems thread.

 

[ThatHistoryGuy94]

I went back into my old save game and YOU'RE RIGHT!
I just never noticed because I figured the settlement started at the edge of the area, and not where the lvl 0 layer is! Dogmeat won't follow me past that point and I can't order him into the settlement.

I tried to recreate this at Starlight Drive-In, but Dogmeat follows me through that settlement fine. Both settlements are "vanilla" ROTC.

I'm looking into your solution on the other thread, but I don't really understand what you mean by compacted/non-compacted city plans and how you fixed the issue.

 

[jugato]

There are some details about compacted plans in the Compacted City Plans thread.

Compaction was a process applied to the city plans last year to improve city plan performance. It was applied in various stages, first to the City Plan Pack and then to the default RotC plans inside SimSettlements.esm starting with version 4.2.0. Compaction clumps what you and I would think of as individual objects (walls, railings, and the like) together so that SS can manage them as a single unit, thus improving performance.

I haven't done any testing at Starlight to be able to answer why you aren't having any issues there. If you visit the settlement frequently, it's possible the cell hasn't recent, which is required for me to hit the behavior. Or maybe something else is happening.

What I'm currently doing to get around it is definitely not supported, and I don't recommend it to others. I've hacked the mod files using FO4Edit to extract / manipulate the data. I also started a fresh save and accept that my hacking may corrupt my save at any point and I'd have to start over again.

If you can't live with the issue, ways to possibly fix it:

1. Switch your settlements to use the complex city plans which are an optional download from the main SS nexus page and accept the performance impact of those plans.
2. Switch your settlements to plans from v1.0.12 of the City Plan Pack.
3. Start a new save with SS v4.1.7 and miss out on all the changes made since then.

None of these solutions is great. Because of that, I had planned to just live with the behavior. But I also like to tinker and am curious to better understand the internals of how mods work, so I poked and hacked at it and did unsupported things.

 

[ThatHistoryGuy94]

I did notice this compaction when I accidentally moved a support beam and half my settlement dislodged!

Out of all the possible fixes, I think the complex city plans would be best. I'm running an i7 3770, 16 gb RAM and a 1050ti, and on my older computer I've easily handled Sim Settlements pre-ROTC with up to 25 settlers. I don't think I'll have an issue with complex plans as long as not every settlement is ROTC and I obey the Death-Triangle rule.

If all else fails, I can just dismantle Sanctuary and do it by hand.