the Sim Settlements forums!

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

What I Did While Snowed In And Internetless

Dune

Active Member
Messages
176
So I was trapped inside and without internet for the last week because hell froze over and took down a line, leaving me with just Fallout 4 and Total War: Warhammer II to keep me company. To that end, I decided to make good on my promise of building a Spectacle Island settlement with proper grandeur and flair (when I wasn't bashing my head against the infuriatingly difficult Imrik Mortal Empires start in TW:WH2).

The start was humble... kinda. Because of my frustration over my last attempt at this getting bugged out due to an incompatible update, I just noclipped my way to the island and gave myself a bunch of levels before using Raze My Settlement's shipment option to give me some starting materials.

I built my personal house (more like a bunker, it was all cement save the stairs) and then went on with the regular storyline, talking to Jake once I dropped down the recruitment beacon.

(Oddity #1: Despite putting the "Settlement spawn location" mat in the little greenhouse attached to the garage, Jake still spawned at the island center)

Going back to Concord was easy, at least, considering it's not all that far from Vault 111.

(Oddity #2: If Jake spots a weapon with higher DPS on the ground he'll go grab it and never get rid of it in lieu of his laser pistol.)

ScreenShot47.png

I'm not even sure where he found it.

With that done and the world of ASAMs open to me once again, I started my settlement with humble beginnings.

ScreenShot50.png
ScreenShot51.png

Working with the contours of the island is a bit of a pain, if I'm being honest. It's difficult to get a grasp on how irregular the ground is from aerial pictures, but those farms are sitting in low points in the sand. Also, I don't know why but the game liked picking Myrmarachne's models a lot - I eventually had to swap out the Dark Tower because raider-y rusty metal didn't quite fit, but you'll see that later.

Vault-Tec headquarters was deliciously uneventful, I'd had enough troubles in that lobby to last a lifetime.

Continuing on with the story, I make my way to Vault 81.

(Oddity #3: You can dive into the pond outside Vault 81 and unclog the water pipe early so you only have to make one trip in before going out on Mannfred's personal errand - great for people who don't like that elevator ride.)

I almost bean the poor doc with the Vit-O-Matic while taking it off its mounting due to him sitting down as I'm taking it.

ScreenShot52.png

Now with access to the entire plot inventory, I realized I had no place for Commercial plots and the land itself wasn't going to give me any breaks. So instead I made the beginnings of what would be my Boardwalk Project(tm).

ScreenShot53.png

Starting with a 3x3 bar and the start of a General Store, a clinic, and a more "nautical" themed bar, this would become the centerpoint for the civilian half of the island.

However, I realized I needed more settlers, since they had barely come in a trickle since I'd first started.

(Oddity #4: I'm noticing similar inconsistencies when dealing with children settlers to what I saw when dealing with robots, being unassigned and reassigned to plots and jobs seemingly at random - I later realized that the game was assigning them only while I was away, and then unassigned them when the game realized they shouldn't be working.)

To this end I did the starting The Ron settler quests. Didn't take long, but I ran in circles a bit because both quest markers show up when you select one and downtown Boston is already a mess to get around when you're trying to go to Goodneighbor for the first time.

Also, shout out to whoever the writer(s) for Grey Matters were. That is a masterfully done quest.

It was at this point I ran into my old Nemesis: Where There's Smoke. I already archived my struggles in a thread over in Question & Help, but let's just say this particular dialogue box will forever torment me.

ScreenShot59.png

(Not an oddity, but dear lord True Storms can really go apeshit sometimes, huh?)

Because I was stuck at this quest for a while (like, two solid days before I found the mod that was breaking it), I had some fun with a mildly alarmed Jake just following me around everywhere I went.


ScreenShot60.pngScreenShot61.png

Deciding to use this time more constructively at one point, I expanded the docks a bit to make them a tad more inviting.


ScreenShot63.png

I also added a fourth Industrial plot to the "salvage operation" and added some scaffolding to make it look legit.

ScreenShot62.png

Now with the settlers to man the main boardwalk, the shops sprung up and it actually looked pretty good being lit up.

(CONTINUED IN NEXT POST)
 
ScreenShot64.png

Still fairly humble, but not looking too bad. Also, natural-based plots like the Stone Circle and Bunker plots are great on this island - you just have to watch out for the irregularity of the elevation, or you might have an embarrassing seam showing at the bottom of the mound. Nothing some Terraforming and WRK won't fix, though.

It's also around this time I learned that tamed creatures share the same "communal urge" that settlers do during downtime.

ScreenShot67.png

That's Cammie, the Chameleon Deathclaw. You can thank Unique NPCs - Creatures and Monsters for her. Caught her in one of the base game cages and now she just kinda patrols the island.

(Oddity #5: Children will sometimes try to do animations their rigs weren't meant for.)

ScreenShot69.png

Or that may just be Katie since she appears to be programmed with adult responsibilities even though she has a child's model. God, that is a messed up sentence I just typed.

My settlement has grown a bit more since then, but not by any large leaps or bounds - I mostly made it look nicer, added a lot more lights, that sort of thing.

ScreenShot70.png

(That shack to the left of my bunker is where I keep the power armor frames I'm not using)

ScreenShot71.png

I also expanded the boardwalk to the docks, which people have actually walked across, to my amazement (also, their wide enough for Cammie to walk across as well.

ScreenShot73.png

It's still in the working stages. I might add some commercial or entertainment plots along the long boardwalk. And that's just this half of the island! Once I get around to doing the Minutemen questline, I'll be turning the other half of the island into a big ol' fort. Gonna need a lot of steel and concrete for that.
 
Looks incredible! Just wondering though, this building here I triple-circled - what is that?
 

Attachments

  • ScreenShot50.png
    ScreenShot50.png
    4 MB · Views: 9
That's the Dark Tower, I think that's from Junktown 2. It's super raider inspired, which is normally fine, but it clashed with the rest of the settlement later which is why you see the Caretaker's Tower in it's place in the last update.
 
Looks nice !. grats on that :) looking forward to see more of settlements that people have created.
 
Today's update after having done some more settler quests:

You can cram so many goddamn people on this island. I have twenty four settlers and a DEATHCLAW on this island and it's by far one of the most stable settlements I've ever used, likely due to the fact that it's remoteness keeps it from running into conflicts with nearby enemy spawners or patrolling hostiles (since so long as you keep the island's beacon online, there are no nearby spawns or patrols.

Starting off, I've begun work on the docks. Not a whole lot, working with the huge elevation change as well as some of WRK's items having no navmesh (which would defeat the purpose of having a boardwalk or sidewalk there in the first place) makes working on it a bit of a pain. I'll probably think of something later.

ScreenShot82.png

Moving on to the house...

All I can say is... fuck this house. I hate this goddamn house and how it's impossible to properly fix up or delete. I've tried so goddamn hard to try and make this house work, but every time I've scrapped what I'd put into it because unlike Croup Manor, which can at least kinda be worked on, this thing is practically gone. To that end, I just set up a couple of industrial plots in there so the coastline isn't crammed with Industrial plots.

ScreenShot83.png

Aside from the demon house, there's also the garage right next to it, which is considerably easier to use. Martial plots aren't exactly in great demand, since the huge size of the island means I can place my modded turrets far, far away from the living areas. But we'll be getting to the neighborhood later - I also put some "free use" power armor suits in there along with an indoor martial plot to at least partially replicate a sort of "port authority" office.

ScreenShot84.png

(Also yes, I have two separate caravan plots because I'm scared to death of caravan disconnects. Also I have the settler spawn point inside the little side greenhouse - I've noticed that it doesn't always work, specifically with special settlers like Paige, who spawn next to the island's Mirelurk disruptor.)

Moving on, because the game was just letting me, I added more and more settlers to the island - which, in turn, necessitated way more residential plots.

ScreenShot85.png

The house you see at the bottom left is actually a 3x3 residential plot that houses four people at first level. I've ended up leaning on the 3x3 residentials pretty heavily, until some of the other multiperson plots finish upgrading to lvl 3.

ScreenShot86.png

I even had to start expanding the other direction, down the side of the boardwalk.

ScreenShot87.png

Though speaking of the boardwalk, there are now a paired weapons and armor store combo on the way to the main area. I'm thinking of swapping them out, putting them in the main shopping area and putting the bar and possibly clinic here where they are.

ScreenShot88.png

The farming area might look a little jank (I'll clean it up later) but I am glad that I got the advanced farms sooner rather than later. About my only regret is that there isn't an advanced version of that Mirelurk Hunter's Shack - I'd love to see someone go hunting for them and have, like, explosive weaponry and lasers lying around.

Lastly, I had to expand some housing over towards the half of the island I hadn't really messed with yet. I wanted to save it until I got around to doing Minutemen stuff, but I suppose now was a good a time as any to start.

ScreenShot89.png

(Thankfully uituit added some artillery-acting martial plots for when I get around to it. Cheers to that guy, who's stuff you can probably see all over this island for flavor if not practical purposes.)

QUICK EDIT: I almost forgot to add this, when you're starting Memory Lane and you happen to have Unique NPCs - Creatures and Monsters, it's possible that one of the radroaches attacking MALA will be replaced by a radspider. Normally this wouldn't be an issue - however, I found that one of the radspiders had spawned in SO tiny that it was literally clipping into the ground every time MALA walked over it, requiring me to follow the robot around and desperately hope that the itty bitty spider would stay within sight long enough to shoot. Eventually it did, but just be aware that you may need to bring explosives or spam VATS if this happens to you.
 
Last edited:
I'm wondering how the person that did the magnificent spectical island mod fixed up the house so nice and settlers naved all the floors. In fact i can't remember the name but there is another specticle island mod too that does a good job of fixing the house.
 
Nice build. I had given up on rebuilding that house forever ago. To deal with the elevation changes, I use concrete walls to make a "foundation."
some of WRK's items having no navmesh
If you would be so kind as to use this mod
to get the Base ID of the items missing collision and make a post in Questions and Help, we can get those fixed.
BetterConsole.jpg
 
Nice build. I had given up on rebuilding that house forever ago. To deal with the elevation changes, I use concrete walls to make a "foundation."

If you would be so kind as to use this mod
to get the Base ID of the items missing collision and make a post in Questions and Help, we can get those fixed.
View attachment 11788
Can do. Thankfully, I have so many visitors that I can just use Place Anywhere to move one of them on top of something as a quick test.
 
I recall I did one playthrough where I sort of salvaged that house to hold a pub - a doctor shack and a second floor with some beds - but it required a lot of scrapping - place anywhere and snappy builds. And it still looked like half a shack huddling in an old house. Surprisingly my computer didn't explode or choke on it. But shrug it at least made use of the space.
 
Top