Holotape Gameplay Options

Advanced

These options should generally be left alone. They are here to help with compatibility and save file issues. Safest bet is to leave these options default unless someone suggest you do otherwise.

Deficit Cap

If maintenance costs are higher than tax income an you haven't donated any caps to the city, it will generate a deficit. If the deficit gets too high, all of your city's generators and defenses will begin to fail.

Available Settings:

Options: ON or OFF

Default: ON

What These Settings Mean:

ON: With this on, city deficits are capped at 500 caps, this will ensure you have a chance to recover if you fall behind at some point.

Turn this option OFF to make things more difficult by removing your safety net.

OFF: City deficits will no longer be capped, you can go infinitely into debt in a settlement making harder to recover if you fall too far behind.

Stockpile System

By default, extra resources will be stockpiled on the plot as part of the upgrade process. This provides you extra options and benefits:

• Easy access to extra resources via the Access Stockpile option on the plot menu.
• Ability to donate resources to a plot to speed up the upgrade process.
• If you turn Upgrades Advanced to Manual, plots that you choose NOT to upgrade once eligible will go into extra production mode (creating double resources)

The system is designed to provide you more options and benefits and will happen in the background if you choose to ignore it, so leaving it ON is strongly recommended.

If you decide to turn it off, extra resources will no longer be stockpiled on the plot as part of the upgrade process. The option to turn the stockpile system OFF was added for people who have load order conflicts or save corruptions that prevent the resources from ever generating correctly. Without the stockpile system, you get far less resources, but at least you'll be able to upgrade the buildings.

Options: ON or OFF
Default: ON

Use Original Plot Size

This option is there as legacy support for players who have settlements that were built with the very first version (1.0.0) of Sim Settlements (and who have stubbornly refused to rebuild their original plots) which used a very awkward, custom plot size rather than the standard 2x2.

So unless you know exactly what the "original plot size" means (and you really need it), just leave it OFF.

The change to 2x2 as standard came way back in patch 1.1.0 and no new building plans since then have even supported this original custom plot size.

Options: ON or OFF
Default: OFF

Assignment

Alter the way assignments are handled.

City Building

Determine the way settler built cities are handled.

Difficulty

Change the way certain systems work to make the gameplay more or less challenging

Immersion

Settings designed around immersing you into the game world.

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:

1. 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”.
2. 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

Recruitment

Alter the way new settlers are acquired.

Upgrade

Change the way upgrades are handled.

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.

Visual

These options have little gameplay affect, but you can disable certain visual things you may not like.