Holotape Gameplay Options
Contents
Reset All to Defaults
This will reset the global zoning laws to the default options. When you click this you will get a pop-up asking you to confirm the choice so if you clicked it by accident you have an option to cancel.
Assignment
Alter the way assignments are handled.
Auto Assignment
Allows citizens to automatically take unassigned plots. By default, after you build a new plot (Residential, Commercial, Industrial, etc.), Sim Settlements will automatically assign an “unassigned” settler to that plot. If you wish to make all assignments of your settlers “manually”, you can turn this setting “Off”.
Options: ON or OFF
Default: ON
Auto Assign Away From Beds
This option is turned OFF by default which means that settlers whom you have already assigned to beds (or named settlers like the Abernathies or the Finches who already have a home/beds) won’t be automatically reassigned to any residential plot you lay down. It also means that if you decide to assign a settler to a vanilla bed (or a custom home you create) Sim Settlements won't steal them away.
If you were to turn this option ON, settlers who have “bed” assignments would then be eligible for auto-assignment by Sim Settlements - the ON setting allows Sim Settlements to essentially take priority with its auto-assignment system which means settlers can/will be “reassigned”.
Options: ON or OFF
Default: OFF
Auto Assign Away From Work
This option is turned OFF by default which means that settlers whom you have already assigned to vanilla settlement “jobs” such as a scavenging station, farming particular plants, guard posts, etc. won’t be automatically reassigned to any agricultural, commercial, industrial, advanced industrial, martial, or recreational plot you lay down. This includes named settlers like the Abernathies or the Finches who already have “jobs”. For the most part it also includes “work objects” added by other mods (this is very hard for us to test, but reports from players indicates it works).
It also means that if you decide to assign a settler to a vanilla “job” (or work object added by another mod) Sim Settlements won't steal them away.
If you were to turn this option ON, settlers who have a “job” or have been assigned to “work objects” would then be eligible for auto-assignment by Sim Settlements - the ON setting allows Sim Settlements to essentially take priority with its auto-assignment system which means settlers can/will be “reassigned”.
Options: ON or OFF
Default: OFF
Auto Assign Unique NPCs
This setting is ON by default meaning that “named” NPCs who do not have assigned “beds” or “jobs” can/will be auto-assigned by Sim Settlements to any residential, agricultural, commercial, industrial, martial, or recreational plot you lay down.
“Unique NPCs” is generally meant to cover people like the first group of people you “lead” to Sanctuary, your companions (if you leave them at a particular settlement), and any named NPCs (Abernathies, Finches, Warricks, etc.). So by default, Sturges (who has no previously assigned bed or job) will be auto-assigned to both a residential and "job" plot (agricultural, commercial, industrial, martial, or recreational) if/when you build Sim Settlements plots at Sanctuary Hills (or if you have existing "unassigned" plots by the time Sturges arrives).
Due to the way that Fallout 4 is configured there are a few random NPCs named “settler” (i.e.at Tenpines Bluff or Oberland Station) whom are also counted as “unique NPCs” so this setting affects them as well. So if you happen to turn this OFF and you find that auto-assign isn't applying to certain NPCs named “settler” that you would expect it to, it's just due to the way the Fallout 4 game tags them.
Note: Other auto assign options will take priority over this option, so if for instance you want the Abernathy or Finch family members (most of whom have beds/jobs already) to get auto-assigned by Sim Settlements to plots you have built, you will also need to turn ON "Auto Assign Away from Work Objects" & "Auto Assign Away from Beds" (both of which are OFF by default).
Options: ON or OFF
Default: ON
City Building
Determine the way settler built cities are handled.
Note: These options only impact settlements that are being built with a City Plan.
Auto-Built Plot Plans
When a settlement is placed under the charge of someone else and a city plan is used, settlers will place their own plots. This option determines how they choose what to build on those plots.
Available Settings:
- Options: Random or Designer's Choice
- Default: Random
Note: If you have Addon packs installed that add building plans, it does not make sense to use Designer's choice as it is limited to the building plans in the core Sim Settlements only.
What These Settings Mean:
- Random: Random tells the settler to use any eligible building plan you have installed for that plot type. They will respect Banned plans you have configured.
- Designer's Choice: means that the plots the settlers build will use the plot building plan the artist who dreamed up the entire settlement thought would fit best.
Cinematic Mode
Cinematic Mode lets you watch your settlers build their city foundations and make upgrades from a unique perspective.
Available Settings:
- Options: ON or OFF
- Default: ON
What These Settings Mean:
- ON: Cinematic mode will be used once again. If you have seen enough during Cinematic Mode, open and close your Pipboy to be returned to your normal state.
- OFF: Cinematic Mode will no longer be used. Note, that during a foundation level build, it's a good idea to stay in the settlement while it finishes certain tasks, such as scrapping, can't be completed if you leave.
Cinematic Mode Camera
During Cinematic Mode, by default, the camera will point itself towards the center of the settlement. This takes a fair amount of processing power to do and is therefore disabled on Xbox, giving you free look automatically to avoid camera stuttering.
Available Settings:
- Options: Manual or Auto
- Default: Auto
What These Settings Mean:
- Manual: If you find your camera is stuttering during Cinematic Mode, or you want to have control of your camera, changing this to Manual will give you control over the direction your camera is pointing.
- Auto: During Cinematic Mode the camera will continually point itself towards the center of the settlement.
Cinematic Mode Time
By default Cinematic Mode will only last until the city level (foundation or upgrade) has completed construction or until about 5 minutes have passed if the build is particularly complex, or the engine is struggling to finish and requires extra time.
Available Settings:
- Options: Unlimited or Limited
- Default: Limited
What These Settings Mean:
- Unlimited: Cinematic mode will keep going until the entire city level (foundation or upgrade) has completed building regardless of how long it takes. You may of course still exit the Cinematic Mode at any time by opening and closing your Pipboy.
- Limited: Cinematic Mode will never last more than about 5 minutes. This does not mean that the city level (foundation or upgrade) has completed building just that Cinematic Mode will end.
Involvement
Documentation Coming SoonDifficulty
Change the way certain systems work to make the gameplay more or less challenging
Citizen Needs Requirement
By default “ON”, your settlers will not upgrade their structures (residential, agricultural, industrial, commercial, etc.) unless the Food, Water, Defense, and Happiness levels (citizen needs) of your settlement are high enough. It doesn’t matter if you have upgrades set to happen automatically or manually - in either case structures won’t upgrade inside your settlement until citizen needs are met.
Upgrade levels are also affected by this setting in that your “citizen needs” need to be met at/for each upgrade level, mainly happiness level. By default (citizens needs requirement set to ON) most structures will have lower happiness requirements for triggering an upgrade to level 2 but higher happiness requirement to allow for level 3 upgrades.
If you choose to change this setting to “OFF”, your citizen’s needs will no longer be considered when checking for upgrade eligibility. So not having adequate food, water, defense, and happiness won’t keep your buildings from upgrading. It is important to note, even if “citizen needs” are removed (turn off) from the upgrade eligibility calculations, there will still be other aspects that affect your structures eligibility for upgrade(s) such as connectivity to power, residential job requirements, dynamic needs, etc..
Options: ON or OFF
Default: ON
City Supply Costs
Note: This option only impact settlements that are being built with a City Plan.
City Supply Costs are the requirement that a city run by one of your assigned "leaders" must collect a certain amount of scrap/junk to use in upgrading the city.
Available Settings:
- Options: ON or OFF
- Default: ON
What These Settings Mean:
- ON: Cities will need to collect a certain amount of scrap/junk to upgrade. The amount depends on the size and complexity of the city.
- OFF: Cities will no longer require or consume scrape/junk to upgrade.
Dynamic Needs
Dynamic needs is an advanced “civilization building” system that Sim Settlements uses to make the settlements you are “founding” all over the Commonwealth more “realistic” in terms of building a functioning communities that have changing needs and desires over time.
The general idea of dynamic needs is that as your settlements grow and your “civilization” progresses your settlers are going to start expecting more from you (as opposed to the vanilla 1 food, 1 water, 1 covered bed, more defense than food + water basic survival mechanic). With dynamic needs, over time as buildings & structures upgrade and the population of a settlement increases, your settlers will start to expect (demand) more benefits, resources, specific plot types, specific structures to at certain upgrade levels, more building materials, and many other things so that you have to build more “infrastructure” as the game goes on - thus to better simulate how an actual town/civilization evolves.
The dynamic needs system runs completely in the background so it is nothing you have to micro-manage or know specifically about how it works. However, if you don't like or simply don't want to have to provide extra resources, utilities, specific plots types, etc., you can turn dynamic needs off.
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).
For more information on Dynamic Needs click here
Options: ON or OFF
Default: ON
Initial Plot Costs
Reduces the cost of all plots is to only a single ASAM sensor when set to OFF. It is ON by default and plots require various resources to build correctly. This can be helpful if you would like to pre-plot out settlements before any additional citizens arrive. New citizens will then automatically take a plot and start building a home and/or business, so long as Auto Assignment is also ON.
Maintenance Costs
Maintenance Costs are designed to fix a balance problem in the vanilla Fallout 4 settlement system and in doing so, answer the question "Where are all of the fuel and ammo coming from for generators and turrets?".
This is an advanced feature, meant for people who enjoy complex systems.
When on, turrets and all non-wind powered generators have a daily cost of 1 cap per day for each point of power or defense they provide. These costs are subtracted from the daily taxes, any additional cost is added to the city's deficit.
While a city is in deficit, there is a chance that generators or turrets will fail and require repairs. The deficit can be paid down by depositing caps into the City Planner's Desk.
This system is designed to ensure that traps, wind generators, guard posts, and Martial/Power generating plots are not completely invalidated by simply creating large quantities of automated turrets and power generators. Instead, settlements will need to be designed with more simplistic forms of power and defense in it's early stages, and only moving to fully automated systems in the later part of it's life when collected taxes are high or you can afford to invest caps to keeping them running.
Available Settings:
- Options: ON or OFF
- Default: ON
What These Settings Mean:
- ON: Defense turrets and all non-wind powered generators will have a daily cost of 1 cap per day for each point of power or defense they provide and there is a chance that they will fail and require repairs if a settlement is in deficit.
- OFF: Non-wind power Generators and defense turrets will no longer have a daily cost to run and will not fail or go into disrepair (except through being damaged in combat).
Immersion
Settings designed around immersing you into the game world.
Commercial Requirement
By default in Sim Settlements, your settlers will not “build” and “open” stores on any commercial plots you lay down until a “certain” number of your settlers have also built “homes” on residential plots (in the same settlement) you have laid down.
The basic notion (from an immersion standpoint) is that people will need a place to live before they will even consider any “retail/commercial” venture. Additionally, the “certain” number of homes requirement is a simple way to tie the growth of your settlements commercial aspects to the number of “homeowners” - in the real world you need a large enough foundation of residents (e.g. residential) in a town for commercial enterprises to be feasible and/or supported.
Now, if you want, you can change it so just the total “Population” in each settlement determines if commercial stores will be opened. With this option set to “Population” the only way someone's going to come open a shop in a settlement is if it has a reasonable population. Sim Settlements is designed to work with any charisma level (of your in game character that is) so for example, if you're a player who doesn't like charisma gameplay and you just want a charisma of 1, you'll still be able to get stores to open and upgrade with this set to population (i.e. the population requirements are low). This is especially useful for smaller settlement locations where you may only have room for a much lower number of settlers.
Note: an alternative to changing/messing with this Commercial Requirement option is to use the newer "Beds are Homes" option. There is now a setting called “Beds are Homes” that is OFF by default but if you change it to ON, your settlers will be considered “Homeowners” regardless of whether they have a home on a residential plot - they just need an assigned bed. So you can leave this Commercial Requirement alone and keep the default immersion aspect.
Finally, if you just hate getting involved in your gameplay at all and you want to build those commercial no matter what, you can turn off this requirement completely by changing it to “None”. On the “None” setting, commercial plots will build and upgrade no matter how many settlers or homes you have.
Options: Homes, Population, or None
Default: Homes
Ignore Factions
By default (OFF), things like available flags will consider the factions you’ve met, allied, or enemied with.
Options: ON or OFF
Default: OFF
Leader Traits
Settlement leaders can have a series of 3 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.
All of the companions have leader traits. Many of the additional leaders in the addon packs have them as well.
Note: Leadership traits do not require ROTC/city construction, they will work even with settlements you have built yourself or imported with Transfer Settlements. Leader traits are a good reason to have a settlement leader even if you are not building with a city plan
Available Settings:
- Options: ON or OFF
- Default: ON
What These Settings Mean:
- ON: Each of your settlements will be impacted by the leader traits of their assigned city leader.
- OFF: Any leader traits your city leaders have will no longer affect their settlement.
Martial Tech Requirement
Martial Tech requirement being ON makes it so that Martial plots only upgrade if you have a certain number of assigned Industrial plots in your settlement (both regular and advanced industrial count).
Options: ON or OFF
Default: ON
Realistic Build Times
Enables realistic in-game build times for plots. It is OFF by default and plots will build in approximately 60 seconds in real time. When using Realistic Build Times, times take much longer by using a randomly generated time per plot (upwards of 36 in-game hours). This can lead to more immersive game play.
Options: ON or OFF
Default: OFF
Residential Job Requirement
By default (ON) your settler’s homes (e.g. Sim Settlements residential plots) will not be eligible for “upgrades” unless those settlers also have “jobs” (e.g. they are also assigned to Sim Settlements job plots - agricultural, commercial, industrial, advanced industrial, martial, or recreational - you have a lot of options).
The basic idea behind the "residential job requirement" is to increase immersion, to make it so that it feels like your settlers have to have an advanced economy around them before they're actually investing money into their homes (upgrades).
The calculation/difference this option makes is that at least 50% of your settlers have to be using Sim Settlements “job” plots in order for their homes to be marked as eligible to be upgraded from level 1 to level 2. The number is higher (75%) for eligibility to upgrade from level 2 to level 3. Please note, this is only one factor in deciding eligibility for upgrades for the residential plot type, the other requirements still need to be met.
If you find yourself not using a lot of the Sim Settlement plots for "jobs" for your settlers but you are using the residential plots (and want them to upgrade) you have a couple of options:
- You can leave this ON and instead use the “All Work Counts As A Job” option to make it so vanilla work objects will be counted by Sim Settlements as “jobs”.
- You can turn this option OFF and Sim Settlements will no longer use how many of your settlers have “jobs” as a factor when determining if a residential plot is eligible for upgrade (other factors will still apply).
Options: ON or OFF
Default: ON
Visitors
As your cities/settlement builds progress and plots upgrade, visitors will be drawn to them to make your cities/settlements feel more lively and generate extra income at your stores and commercial plots.
Available Settings:
- Options: ON or OFF
- Default: ON
What These Settings Mean:
- ON: Visitors will come to your cities/settlements over time to breath more life into them. They will also boost your settlements income levels while they are there.
- OFF: Visitor will no longer come to your cities/settlements. If your are in a city/settlement when you turn this off, any current visitors won't vanish but they will be gone the next time you return.
Local
Documentation Coming SoonRecruitment
Alter the way new settlers are acquired.
Beacon Recruitment
Documentation Coming SoonCity Plan Limit
Documentation Coming SoonIgnore Charisma
Documentation Coming SoonMax Unemployed
Documentation Coming SoonUpgrade
Change the way upgrades are handled.
City Upgrades
Much like plots, the cities will upgrade over time as they mature and are given enough time and resources. Cities have a foundation level 0, and then can upgrade to level 1, level 2, and level 3. When a settlement city upgrades, it results in settlement wide updates and upgrades. Some of these upgrades can be simple like more power generators and automated turrets. Other are more spectacular such as walls, signs, structures, and functionality even. All improvements increase the build limit usage.
Available Settings:
- Options: Auto or Manual
- Default: Auto
What These Settings Mean:
- Auto: As soon as the city is has met the eligibility requirements to upgrade, it will do so.
- Manual: Cities that have met the eligibility requirements to upgrade will wait to do so until you "manual" select "Upgrade City" from the City Planner desk in that settlement.
Note: It is recommended that players on Xbox and lower performance PCs choose the "Manual" option so that your settlements don't upgrade past what your system can handle (without your express choice) - Level 3 cities can be pretty massive in terms of build limit and required rendering power. Some Level 2 city plan builds also fall into that range with over 20+ settlers (40+ plots) which is a lot more than the basic Xbox console or lower performance PC can handle.
Hold Upgraded Until I see Them
If you want to have a chance to see every upgraded level (and what's changed) of every structure your settlers build (don’t want to miss a thing), then leave this setting on. This setting essentially tells Sim Settlements not to execute upgrades (level changes) to buildings until you have had a chance to see the latest upgraded version level first.
Options: ON or OFF
Default: ON
Plot Upgrades
By default, basic buildings will automatically upgrade as soon as they are eligible.
If changed to manual, basic building will now require your direct approval before they will upgrade. This can be done via the Plot Options menu, which is accessible by clicking on the ASAM Sensor on the plot post (or the post itself if you have ASAM Sensors Hidden)
Note: Plots built before patch 2.0.0 will need to be refreshed for the ASAM Sensor to be displayed.
Options: Auto or Manual
Default: Auto
Plot Upgrades Advanced
By default, advanced buildings (e.g. Advanced Industrial) will automatically upgrade as soon as they are eligible. They will randomly select one of the available upgrade options.
If changed to manual, advanced buildings will now require your direct approval before they will upgrade, which will allow you to select the type of upgrade to occur. This can be done via the Plot Options menu, which is accessible by clicking on the ASAM Sensor on the plot post (or the post itself if you have ASAM Sensors Hidden)
Note: Plots built before patch 2.0.0 will need to be refreshed for the ASAM Sensor to be displayed.
Options: Auto or Manual
Default: Auto
Usability
Alter the way some things work so they are more user-friendly to you.
Auto Close Doors (ACD)
By default, doors in Sim Settlement plot based houses and buildings (e.g. any plot type structure with doors) will close automatically after a certain amount of time. If you wish to have doors stay open until you or one of your settlers close the door you can switch this setting to OFF.
Options: ON or OFF
Default: ON
ACD Opened By
If you want your doors to stay open when you open them but close automatically if your settlers and/or settlement visitors open them, you can change this setting from “Everyone” to “Citizens”
Options: Everyone or Citizens
Default: Everyone
Bans Applied to Plan Selection
By default, building plans that have been removed as available options to settlers (random building plan selection) from the City Planner’s Desk drawer, will still be available for you to manually select in the Choose Building Plan menu on an individual plot.
However, you can turn this option ON and then building plans you have banned at the City Planner’s desk will also not show up in the Choose Building Plan menu on individual plots.
Options: ON or OFF
Default: OFF
Delay Building Materials
When you build a Sim Settlements plot, there is a short time frame where all you see is the foundation (concrete, wooden stilts, or none) and the power pole/agricultural post. After a short delay, visible “building materials” will appear - these are part of the “level 0” versions of each building plan and are generally representative of what will be built on that plot (it’s not generic, so they will not all look the same). They are part of the immersion Sim Settlements brings to your Fallout 4 experience.
One of the issues with the appearance of these visible “building materials” is that they can cause an oddity (difficulty) with re-positioning the plot once they have materialized. So if you find yourself liking to fine tune/control where exactly a plot is sitting (pick it up and set it back down in a new location) you can increase this delay to 30 seconds.
If you really don’t care about adjusting the initial locations of your plots, can essentially change the delay to 0 seconds by changing the option to “None”. You can still move your plots even if this is set to “none”.
Note: the longer this “delay of building materials” appearing is, the longer it takes for auto-assignment to kick in. This is because any auto-assignments of a new/rebuilt plot won't be triggered until about 45 seconds after the “building materials” appear.
Options: 15 sec, 30 sec, or none
Default: 15 sec
Visual
These options have little gameplay affect, but you can disable certain visual things you may not like.
ASAM Sensors
The ASAM Sensor shows you if the plot is powered and provides an activation menu for managing the plot and is visible on the plot’s power post by default. The ASAM Sensor can be hidden if you wish, in which case you can still reach the activation menu for managing the plot by pressing Activate on the plot post itself.
Choosing to make a plot Hidden (or Visible again) is not an instant update. You will not see the change until the next time each plot is updated or manually refreshed.
Options: Visible or Hidden
Default: Visible
Cinematic Wide Shots
To give you a great view of the city, Cinematic Mode begins to pull back for a wider view as the level nears completion. This may cause significant FPS drops for some users.
Available Settings:
- Options: ON or OFF
- Default: ON
What These Settings Mean:
- ON: Cinematic Mode will now show you an expanded view of your city.
- OFF: Cinematic Mode will maintain a tight circuit throughout the city.
City Marker Objects
Documentation Coming SoonDemolition FX
If you haven't seen it already, whenever you destroy/scrap a Sim Settlements plot or demolish a building/structure that has been (or is being built) on a plot, a little explosion scene/sequence plays out to immersively show the resulting demolition. If you don't like this demolition effect you can turn it off here
Options: ON or OFF
Default: ON
Mailboxes, Etc
Documentation Coming Soon