There are no city plans showing up for me in the city planners desk, where are they?

You need the “Rise of the Commonwealth” expansion pack for Sim Settlements (a separate mod file) in order for the city building plans/functionality to be available. Just upgrading to Sim Settlements 3.0 does not allow the settlement city building mechanic seen in the “Rise of the Commonwealth” trailers. Please check and make sure that you have downloaded “Rise of the Commonwealth” and that it is in your load order & active.

I have “Rise of the Commonwealth” installed and I can see the “blueprint” sitting on the city planners desk but I can’t access/activate it.

You need to make sure you have upgraded Sim Settlements core mod to the latest version (3.0 or higher) for the blueprint on the desk to be accessible/activatable. “Rise of the Commonwealth” requires the Sim Settlements core mod to be version 3.0 (or higher) to function.

(PC Users) If you are sure that you have downloaded the latest version of Sim Settlements and it is still not working, try doing a manual install. NMM sometimes fails to update the files: Manual Installation

There's only one plan for <settlement name>! Will <settlement name> have more city plans in the future?

Yes, there will be more city plans in the future. In addition addon pack authors will be creating more city plans as well. The soon-to-be released new version of the builders tool kit will let addon pack authors create their own city plans, as well as support whatever additional variations or styles they would like. So, just like the initial release of Sim Settlements only included one building plan for each store type (but now there are dozens), so too will the number and variety of city plans increase over time.

Are Plot Buildings Fixed or Are They Random?

It's random unless you change Auto-Built Plot Plans to Designer's Choice in the City Building section of the gameplay options.

Will we be able to contribute our own leveled cities for the system like add-on makers add buildings for plots?

A: Oh yeah, that's one of the core features! A new toolkit will be released some time in January for people to do so. It will be substantially easier than add-on packs and most of the work can be done in-game!

Existing “Sim Settlements” Builds

I have a settlement with existing Sim Settlement plots in it. I want to use the new City Building functionality but when I attempt to build it and click “tear it down” I get a CTD?

You can try pre-scrapping by using the Town Meeting Gavel and choosing the Scrap this Settlement option first. Everything will be scrapped, and anything loose such as magazines or displayed weapons will be placed in your workbench.

City Upgrades

My city is at max happiness, why won't it upgrade?

The new city upgrade system is about more than just happiness level (though it does play a part), the idea is “sustainability”. There are a variety of factors involved, for instance your city needs to be generating more caps than it's consuming, so that you are not in a deficit. Also, as a city is the sum of its parts, the city won't upgrade until the majority of its plots upgrade as well.

For more details please check out the In-Depth Video Covering City Upgrades.

I'm seeing “blue men” and “red blocks” around in my city, what are they?

If any marker type objects appear after city construction or upgrading, this is a local “current settlement” issue and is not meant to occur, but if it does, you can hide them by changing City Marker Objects to WS Mode. That setting is located under Options -> Gameplay -> Visual. After changing that option, opening and closing workshop mode will force all of those objects to hide.

City Management

What does “Take Back City” do?

Take Back City “converts” what the settlers did so that it's as if you did it yourself. This means the settlement will no longer have a leader. This does not “pause” the city like taking your companion/leader with you.

The settlement will once again require you to help them meet their needs, and no further automatic construction will continue.

If in the future, you assign a new leader and activate the City Plan again, it will reset the city to level 0.

Are water sources built or does the player handle that?

Most of them will build some amount of water, but you may need to help them out a bit (especially in early on), which you can do by building water sources, donating water, or setting up a supply line to a settlement with extra water.

Do you have to add generators and power lines to the cities?

No, they should all be powered by themselves.

This was done because the game does not have a means of running wires with code. So rather than leaving you to handle the complex wiring of the settlements, everything created by the city building system will be self-powered.

Recruitment

Where are the recruitment changes/settings?

In the holotape. Go to Options > Gameplay > Recruitment

What are the new recruitment options?

There are 4 options that impact recruitment:

Beacon Recruitment - Stop new settlers arriving automatically, you now have to find them yourself in the gameworld.

City Plan Limit - New settlers will stop arriving once all planned city plots are filled.

Ignore Charisma - Number of settlers no longer depends on charisma level.

Max Unemployed - If you have this many or more unemployed settlers in a settlement, recruitment will stop in that settlement until you have less than this number of unemployed settlers.

Are recruitment options able to be set on a per settlement basis?

No, all recruitment options are global and will impact how recruitment happens for all of your settlements. The exception is “City Plan Limits” which only impacts settlements that you have turned over to the auto-city building functionality (City Plans) added by ROTC.

Settlement Leaders

Can I put random settlers in charge, or is it only companions?

Right now, it's just vanilla and official DLC companions - in the future there will be other special NPCs that can lead settlements as well.

Can Non-Sim Settlement mod-added companions run cities?

Not currently. However, when the new builder's toolkit comes out in January 2018, mod authors will have the ability to modify their created companions to be compatible with the Sim Settlements/Rise of the Commonwealth “leader” role.

Can I still have a companion travel with me after assigning them as a settlement leader?

Yes, but that companion will be automatically unassigned as leader and that settlement will no longer have a “leader”. It is recommended to wait until a city has reached level 3 before taking that companion traveling with you again.

Once a companion is assigned at a given settlement’s city planner desk as that settlement locations “Leader”, they must stay in that settlement in order to allow that settlement to keep building and upgrading.

If you take them with you, the settlement they were assigned to will no longer have a “leader” and therefore will no longer add new buildings or improvements, nor will it be eligible for upgrade to a higher level.

Once the settlement reaches level 3 (highest level), the companion can once again be used as a traveling companion, without a penalty. Additionally, you can move that companion to a new settlement and make them a leader again (of that new settlement location).

Can I take away a leader when the City is fully upgraded?

Once the city is fully developed (reaches level 3) it is safe to remove the leader and/or reassign them to another settlement location (as leader again if you so choose).

Why isn't <My favorite NPC> able to be a city leader?

We will be adding support for more city leaders in the next few patches, as well as providing the tools so that add-on authors can create their own city leaders, there is just so much we can get to before launch.

How do I get my companion back if I don't want them to be the leader anymore?

Talk to that companion and ask them to come with you, this will un-assign them as the city leader of any settlement they are in charge of. It will also pause the city until you're ready to assign a new leader.

Can a settlement have a leader even if I don’t want to use a City Plan?

Yes. As of Version 3.1.2 there is now a leadership traits system in place.

• Each settlement leader has a series of traits, one major, one minor, and one weakness.
• These will provide bonuses, penalties, and flavor to the settlements the leader is in charge of.
• Leadership traits are in effect as long as the leader is assigned as the leader of that settlement.
• Leadership traits do not require city construction, they will work even with settlements you have built yourself or imported with Transfer Settlements.

Donation System

What does donating do? What does donating different types of items do?

Scrap/Junk: Increases scrap collected percentage (used for City Plan upgrades)

Food/Water: Acts as a buffer supply if a city is not producing enough on its own.

Weapons, Armor, Ammo: Increases settlement defense rating (up to 3 per settler)

Chems/Alcohol/Nuka Cola: Increases settlement happiness level

Donating any other type of item will/should result in those items being returned to you as the settlers cannot use them.

I donated some supplies to the city through the city manager’s desk and I changed my mind, how do I get them back?

In general, items you donate to the city are not returnable, so make sure you are willing to part with the items before you donate them.

Definitely get in the habit of saving before donating items, much like it makes sense to save before scrapping a lot of weapons.

There are some exceptions to this as items that can’t be used will be returned as well as excess food/water that is over the 3 day buffer, or scrap/junk if the collected scrap % is already at 100%. Items may be return either directly to you or deposited in the workbench (excess scrap for instance).

I donated a bunch of guns, armor, and ammo why aren’t the settlers using them?

The armory is a “virtual” system. There are limitations to the Fallout 4 engine that make actually arming/equipping the settlers with the donated weapons/armor unfeasible currently. So instead, this “virtual” system increases your per settler defense score (up to 3) based on how much you have donated.

Does the quality of the guns, armor, and ammo I donate make a difference?

Currently only “Quantity” is taken into account. So you can just donate low level pipe-guns and raider armor and it will work.

Does the quality of the materials/scrap/junk I donate make a difference?

Yes. There are 3 tiers of materials: the simplest stuff like wood and steel are the lowest tier and then things like fiber optics and nuclear material are the highest tier. Donating higher tier materials will raise the scrap collected percentage more than donating lower tier scrap. So you'll need to donate a lot more wood than you would say ballistic fiber to raise the scrap collected percentage the same amount.

As “junk” often breaks down into multiple materials, the system will evaluate the “value” by both total contribution of materials of each item along with the “tier” level of the broken down materials. In other words, the increase of the scrap collected percentage of a piece of junk depends on the material “tiers” a given piece of junk breaks down into. So junk that contains more higher tier materials will increase the scrap collected percentage more than a piece of junk that only contains lower tier materials (i.e telephones are more valuable than mops).

How much food/water can I donate?

The donation system will accept up to a 3 days worth per settler (so they can have a 3-day backup supply of food and water for each settler). For instance,if you had ten settlers you could store up to 30 food and 30 water.

What can I donate to increase “Happiness”?

Donating chems, alcohol, or Nuka Cola variants will increase “happiness”.

Are “donations” shared between settlements, like through the provisioners system?

Currently the answer is no. Donations are made (or need to be made) on a per settlement basis. And, donations only have an effect on the settlement they were made in.

Can I still use the donation system even if in settlements that don’t have a City Plan? or if I don’t want to use Auto-City Building in a particular settlement?

The simple answer is yes, the donation system doesn't require a leader or use of auto-city building to bring benefits to the settlers (it is part of Sim Settlements core and works even if you are not using ROTC). However not all of the benefits from donation will apply such as donating scrap/junk - those only apply to speeding up city upgrades (which are part of the auto-city building).

Interior Plots

Do you have to add power lines to the interior plots?

No, but they do require radial power - they need a power source/conduit, etc that contains them in its power radius just like a light bulb.

Non-Sim Settlement Mods

Is Settlements Extended by Neeher supported?

Settlements Extended will work fine, but there won't be any autobuilding on structures you add in the expanded area. (When the new Builder's toolkit is released, there may be addons that create new layouts for those areas).

Is Clean and Simple by Jenncave supported?

You should avoid loading Clean and Simple for any settlement you want to have Rise of the Commonwealth build automatically. The other features will work fine.

How will this work if we are using mods like Clean and Smooth Settlement Start up?

It won't work nicely with mods that alter the settlements from vanilla, such as changing the land shape or changing the existing structures.

General Questions

When Will It Be Available?

Available Now!

Mod Page / Download Links:

PC (Nexus): https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/28599/

PC (Bethesda): https://bethesda.net/en/mods/fallout4/mod-detail/4047656

Xbox: https://bethesda.net/en/mods/fallout4/mod-detail/4047659

Will this work with existing saves?

Absolutely! You'll probably have more fun on a fresh save to experience it all from the ground up, but everything will absolutely work with an existing save.

Will you release an all-in-one version?

For PC, yes. There will be an optional download that combines Sim Settlements and all it's Expansion packs (not add-on packs) into a single download. That will most likely be available a few weeks after release when I'm sure most of the quirks are worked out.

How large is it going to be, my Xbox can't handle it!?

The expansion will be somewhere between 250 and 300 MB, very close in size to Industrial Revolution. The good news is that Industrial Revolution is not required, and the Martial and Recreational designs from IR are being moved to the main mod. So if you want to start a new save without IR, your space needs should only increase a small amount (maybe 50 MB ).

Will all of the features work on Xbox?

Yep - it's exactly the same functionality as the PC version. We did include some safe-guards to help reduce the likelihood of crashes on Xbox - so some things such as shadowed lighting and clutter detail are reduced automatically.