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Common Problems

No Museum Holotape

Issue: The City Manager holotape never spawned in the museum.

Kinggath: "Uncheck Sim Settlmeents and any expansions or addons of it from your load order, also uncheck HUDFramework - because it sometimes interferes with startup. Load your game and make a save outside of the museum. Now check in Sim Settlements again and load that save - the tape should spawn where it belongs. Once you have the tape, load it in your pipboy to get the unlock message. Now save again, and re-enable HUDFramework."

Plot Not Completing building

Issue: Plots stop construction before completion. Usually stops or freezes at the scaffolding stage of construction.

Kinggath: "Occasionally the game will fail to start the timer correctly. Once the scaffolding appears, a building should take less than a minute to build (unless you have Realistic Build Times on). So if you run into this, try using the Refresh Plot option on the sensor menu to see if it builds. If it continues to not build, you may want to scrap it and try building it again.

If even that doesn't work, please report it here Bug Reports so we can try and find out what is conflicting."

Floating Clutter After Scrapping/Moving/Storing Plot

Issue: Items of clutter floating in the location a plot used to be after scrapping, moving, or storing the plot.

Kinggath: "It can sometimes just take a long time to clean up if your save file scripts are getting backed up. Otherwise, you can download the mod Sim Settlement Helper, which will make everything the mod creates scrapable."

To use Sim Settlement Helper:

1. Download and Install Sim Settlement Helper mod. Nexus: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/23209/?, Xbox: https://bethesda.net/en/mods/fallout4/mod-detail/4012831

2. Scrap any floating clutter that has not been removed.

3. Exit Game and Uninstall Sim Settlement Helper.

(Xbox) Old Plot Structures Reappear In New Plot at Same Location

Issue: After scrapping a plot and building a new plot in the same location, The old plot appears inside the new plot and cannot be demolished.

Kinggath: "This is an unfortunate common issue on Xbox, the scripts will fall behind and start building two structures at once. First try using the Refresh Plot option on the ASAM Sensor menu - that might resolve it completely.

If not, I put out a mod called Sim Settlement Helper, install that - you'll then be able to scrap all of the stuff on top of the plot. After you've scrapped everything but the plot itself, refresh the plot via the sensor again, :and the correct stuff should appear."

To use Sim Settlement Helper:

1. Download and Install Sim Settlement Helper mod. Nexus: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/23209/?, Xbox: https://bethesda.net/en/mods/fallout4/mod-detail/4012831

2. Scrap any floating clutter that has not been removed.

3. Exit Game and Uninstall Sim Settlement Helper.

Refresh Local Plots Option Stops Before Completion

Issue: After starting the Refresh Local Plots tool, the refreshing messages stop, but you get a warning not to leave until completion.

Kinggath: "While the Refresh Local Plots option warns you not to leave, if it appears to get stuck, you should ignore the warning and leave anyway. Getting the cell to unload (by traveling a good distance away from it), should cause the refresh to continue. Once the refresh messages resume, return to the settlement.

You may have scaling or rotation issues on any plots that refreshed during the brief period you were away. Simply run the Refresh Plot option on the sensor menu for those and it should clear them up."

Workshop Menus Missing/Disappeared

Issue: Workshop menus have disappeared or gone missing.

Solution: Install Settlement Menu Manager: Nexus Bethesda

Run the menu repair option in it's holotape options. This should restore your workshop menus if the mod that changed them has been removed.

Advanced Industrial Plots Do Not Output Benefits With Dynamic Needs Off

Issue: Advanced Industrial Plots do not provide benefits they should, with Dynamic Needs turned off.

Kinggath: "This happens when Dynamic Needs are turned off. I have a potential solution for the future, for now though, if you enable Dynamic Needs and refresh the plot, the power [or any other Advanced Industrial plot resource] should come back."

Food Production Drops with Dynamic Needs Turned Off

Issue: Food production from Agriculture plots changes to 2 food at lvl 1, 4 food at level 2, and 6 food at level 3 after Dynamic Needs is turned off.

Kinggath: "It is very important to note that turning off dynamic needs will effect, reduce, or eliminate the many positive benefits your factories, farms, stores, and any other job buildings provide to your settlers. The new plot types and building plans introduced in the “Industrial Revolution” expansion pack will be especially affected by turning off dynamic needs as there are a lot of benefits and new positive modifiers for your settlements built in that require dynamic needs to be ON (in order to be activated or for your settlers to take advantage of/benefit from).

If Dynamic Needs are turned off, all of the bonuses are removed as well. So the default food values become 2/4/6."

HUD Needs Display Randomly Disappears Inside Settlement Borders

Issue: HUD needs display disappears in areas of a settlement, then reappears in other areas of a settlement.

Kinggath: "It's actually an issue with the way Bethesda laid out the settlements. They are flagged as only being part of certain game cells, so when Sim Settlements asks if the player is still in the settlement, the game will often report incorrectly. I might be able to fix it by changing the method I use to check if the player is in the workshop - but the issue is only in a few small areas, so I'll probably let it go for the time being. It would be one of those things that takes a lot of man hours for just a small benefit - not that I won't do it in the long term, I just want to get these expansions built first.

FYI: Using Neeher's All Settlements Extended mods [Nexus Link: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/25316/?, Bethesda Link: https://bethesda.net/en/mods/fallout4/mod-detail/4026210] incidentally fix this vanilla bug, since they expand the number of cells that each workshop counts it eliminates most, if not all, of the dead zones."

HUD Meters Disappear If Crosshair Turned Off

Issue: HUD Settlement Needs meters disappear if the crosshair is turned off in the HUD

Kinggath: "HUDFramework attaches all of the extra elements to the compass when you start your game, and then moves them to the crosshair when you enter workshop mode." To show the Settlement Needs meters again, turn the crosshair back on."

(XBOX) No Space Left to Install Sim Settlements.

Issue: Not enough space in Xbox to install Sim Settlements.

Kinggath: "This [Sim Settlements Lite] is exactly the same as Sim Settlements in functionality, except a smaller file size as some assets are removed. The idea of Sim Settlements Lite is to keep the core experience the same, but remove some of the bells and whistles that bloat the file size to help you guys on Xbox who are hindered by the current 2 GB limitation. The GOAL is to keep the Lite mod under 200 Mb, but that may not be possible forever, as new features will require more files. It will always be smaller than the core mod though."

Xbox: https://bethesda.net/en/mods/fallout4/mod-detail/4015676

Invisible Plots, Buildings Not Showing, and/or Plot Stops at Construction Stage

Issue: Plot buildings are invisible, or stop building at the construction stage.

Solution:

Interact with the Plot ASAM Sensor, and select Refresh Plot.
(PC) Manually install Sim Settlements and Industrial Revolution: Manual Installation Help Video

(Vanilla Game Bug) Vanilla Named Settlers Cannot Be Bought From When Working Commercial Plot

Issue: Vanilla named settlers do not have the vendor conversation option when assigned to a commercial plot.

Kinggath: "For me it's always one or the other, either I can't buy from them or I can no longer recruit them after they start their shop. Either way, this is a vanilla problem, so there's not a lot that can be done. For me, sleeping 24 hours and reassigning usually clears up the issue (but not always)."

(PC) Plots with Foundations Won't Sink

If your plots with foundations aren't sinking into the ground, this means you either have bUseCombinedObjects=0 in your ini settings or you're using a mod that changes that setting such as Spring Cleaning. You can resolve this by changing that setting back to 1 instead of 0. It will be in Documents/My Games/Fallout4/Fallout4Custom.ini under [General]. If you do not have that setting, then a mod you're using is setting it dynamically, and the only solution will be to remove the mod, or use something like Place Everywhere to bypass the problem altogether.

Resources at 999

If a settlements resources are at 999, it means that the resources are being used into a deficit. The settlement system cannot handle negative numbers, so the resource count jumps to 999. This can be due to dynamic needs being on. With dynamic needs, some structures will require more power and water to run.

HUD Disappears in Workshop Mode

If your crosshair is hidden in the game settings, HUDFramework will not work after you enter workshop mode. If you would like to hide your crosshair, use a mod like Immersive HUD or DEF_UI, which will allow you to do so while still making use of HUDFramework widgets, such as the Sim Settlements meters.

(Xbox) Plot Building Disappears After Being Built

Issue: Plot building suddenly disappears, leaving a plot base with no building where there was one before.

Kinggath: "I still haven't completely solved the ghost plots issue (I'm thinking this is just a game engine failure with memory management), but now that we have the ASAM Sensors on the plots, I was able to setup a fix. With patch 2.0.3, anytime you activate an ASAM Sensor if it detects the plot is missing, it will restore it."

Settlers Are Not Showing Up

Sim Settlements doesn't alter the recruitment chance in any way. The only things that affect recruitment are your character's Charisma, settlement happiness, and whether or not your settlers have jobs (if you have 5+settlers without jobs, no new ones will appear).

The most common issues are:

Your recruitment beacons aren't actually functioning, you might need to make sure something did not happen to interrupt their power or just toggle them off and on to confirm you get the message about the beacon signal.
Bad luck. Every in-game day the chance for new settlers to show up is random. If it is a brand new settlement, it can sometimes take upwards of 2 weeks in game to get a new settler after the first few.
(PC) Workshop Script problems in your save. This will usually manifest in other ways as well, for example, your settlers may ignore your assignment commands or never go to another settlement if you try and send them. This last issue can sometimes be resolved by playing around with your save file in Fallrim Tools.

(PC) Sim Settlements Generally Acting Strangely

If you are on PC, and find that your game is acting strangely - especially in regards to Sim Settlements doing things abnormally or out of order, you should consider checking your save file for extreme script lag.

Download Fallrim Tools: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/22633/
Extract the files to your computer somewhere.
Launch Resaver.exe, which will prompt you to select your save file.
Look to the ActiveScripts section, it will have a number of threads running in your save. Generally this should be under 20. If it's substantially higher, you almost certainly have a mod causing massive conflicts and should consider asking for help: Help Forum

Unable To Read Plot Plaques or Change Plots

Issue: Activating Plot Plaque does not show any commands, and/or no options to read the Plaque at all.

Kinggath: "If you're using Place Anywhere, open it's menu object and turn off the Options Menu feature. It interferes with the secondary activation on plots."

Xbox Incorrectly Says Not Enough Free Memory

Issue: Xbox says there is not enough free memory to download a mod when there actually is.

Kinggath: "It has something to do with the Xbox not actually clearing the memory. Try all the steps described in these posts: https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/164593-fallout-4/74309535 . Basically, you'll want to favorite all of your mods so you can quickly re-download them all, then reset the reserved space on your xbox. It's a common xbox problem, so the fix should be relatively painless."

Known Issues / Unsolved

(Vanilla Game Limitation) Game Stuck In Loading Screen

Issue: When attempting to load a save, or access the Mods or Creation Club screen, the game gets stuck and will not proceed.

Kinggath "We recently discovered the game has a script property memory limit of 64 MB. It's normally very hard to reach this limit, but Sim Settlements makes heavy use of that as a storage method, and so we've done something Bethesda had not prepared for.

For example, Sim Settlements stores all of the records necessary to generate the City Plans in script properties, which can add up to 500KB or more for each City Plan. The game engine is completely capable of handling much, much more than this, but Bethesda likely saw no need and probably chose the 64MB memory allocation arbitrarily at some point and never felt the need to increase it as all of the vanilla game and DLC combined use less than 4 MB.

If you find yourself hitting this issue, the easiest way to alleviate it is to disable some City Plan or Add-on packs as Sim Settlements content is currently the heaviest user of script data.

I presume long-term we'll see an F4SE update or plugin to alleviate this limit for PC users. Though Xbox players will likely have to become aware of this forever and be careful, as if they update a mod that pushes them over the limit, they essentially get locked out of the game unless they erase their mod data. I've informed Bethesda of the issue, but due to their new focus on Fallout 76, I don't anticipate them reacting to it unless a sizable number of folks get locked out of playing on Xbox and complain."

(Vanilla Game Bug) Named Vanilla Settlers Cannot Be Assigned and Will Not Build Homes

Issue: Named vanilla settlers cannot be assigned and/or will not build a plot

Kinggath: ". . . anyone who isn't assignable to vanilla objects, can't work Plots either. They used to be able to - until I found out that screws up the AI."

(Vanilla Game Bug) Stored Sim Settlement Plots in Special Menu not Sim Settlements Menu

Issue: When a plot is stored, the stored plot shows up in the Workshop's Special menu instead of the Sim Settlements menu.

Kinggath: ". . . the engine isn't very smart about having multiple construction records for the same object. So it's not likely something I can fix. From my testing, those extra entries in the workshop menu go away after you place all of the stored plots and then open the workshop again."

Wasteland Lounger Plot Keeps Showing Up for VIP's

Issue: VIP settlers keep selecting the Wasteland Lounger for the Residential plot

Kinggath: "This was mostly an accident - I developed the VIPs before I finished the rest of the mod and needed a house to work from. It wasn't until I designed the other houses that I realized I had build most of the VIPs so specific to the Wasteland Lounger model, that transferring them over to work in the other models as well was going to be a huge project - and in the end decided it wasn't worth the extra time I could spend making other things. I might go back and rebuild some of them to work in other models."

(Vanilla Game Bug) Clumping Settlers When Arriving in Settlement

Issue: Upon arriving in the Settlement through teleporting or fast travel, all the settlers are clumped up together in a group.

Kinggath: "Bethesda did something pretty smart with the engine and disconnected the scripting engine from the frame rate. This ensures the gunplay is nice and smooth, but at the cost of leaving the AI often looking very stupid. When you first fast travel to a settlement, all of the settlers are dumped to a central point in the settlement and then told by a script to re-check their AI packages. When your scripts get backed up, that re-check doesn't happen quickly (or sometimes at all), and you end up with that [All of the settlers clumped up together]. . . "

(Vanilla Game Bug) Child Settlers Cannot Be Assigned Or Don't Do Anything In The Plot

Issue: Child settlers are not able to be assigned to a plot, or don't do any animations when assigned.

Kinggath: "Child settlers can now own Residential and Agricultural plots. Due to lack of animations available to the child settlers, they may never actually animate to the plot or use the objects on them. Additional plot types may be made available to them in the future if I find someone to provide more animation support for them (send me your animator friends!)."

(Vanilla Game Bug) Settlers Will Not Use Upper Floors of Buildings

Issue: Settlers are not going to upper floors of buildings or Plots built on multi story scaffolding.

Vanilla Game Bug: Unfortunately, this is a problem with the game's AI. There is currently no fix to this behavior.

Kinggath: "spent many hours during early dev and couldn't reliably get them to use the upper floors"

(Vanilla Game Bug) Pipboy Settlement Data Screen Shows Incorrect Information

Issue: When looking at the Settlement Data screen on the Pipboy, the information displayed is incorrect.

Kinggath: "The pipboy data is a vanilla issue. I've investigated a solution, but it's pretty much going to require redesigning the pipboy flash files and the workshop scripts - which I'm trying to avoid with Sim Settlements (I want to keep compatibility up by not editing vanilla records/scripts in the mod)."

Also See

Issues

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