Conqueror FAQ

General FAQs

Must I Kill the Quincy Five?

The Trailer shows the player killing Marcy Long in what appears to be the Museum of Freedom while the teaser showed the death of Preston, presumably permanently closing off the Minutemen questline. Are raider replacement quests included? For example, if I take the Castle with raiders after killing the Quincy survivors, is a discount Ronnie Shaw ex-minutemen raider going to turn up to unlock the artillery guns for me? Will there be a raider who can decode the relay schematics so I can get into (or blow up) the Institute if I refuse to work with the Brotherhood of Steel or The Railroad?

No, there are not Raider replacement quests - BUT, you don’t actually have to kill Marcy, Preston, etc. It’s an optional objective for people who want to go hard down the raider path.

Do Raider Settlements work like Standard Settlements?

Will raider settlements work like re-skinned standard settlements or will they have their own mechanics? Will they behave just like the NukaWorld raiders with vassal settlements and complain if I ask them to do any work?

Long-term they will have their own mechanics, there is a detailed plan for offering an optional new style of gameplay with settlements. In the name of making the system ultra-moddable, those features will be rolled out throughout patches, as we want to be certain the features will work with other factions if a modder wants to take the time to build support for them. At launch, they are largely just re-skinned standard settlements.

Can I use non-raider Leaders?

Will non-raider leaders work with raider settlements or will they require their own set of leaders? If the latter, have raider leaders been added or is Gage going to be a very busy boy?

For now, they will work. With the long term plans of alternate mechanics, there will end up being restrictions in place based on the character’s faction affiliations and temperament. Like everything in SS, though, you will have control, and add-on authors will be able to create alternatives. So while we may restrict Preston from running a raider settlement, you could turn off that restriction.

Will NukaWorld quests mesh with Conqueror?

If I establish a raider settlement before starting Home Sweet Home, will I simply be able to assign them to one of the gangs, or is Shank going to make me conquer them again?

Shank would likely make you conquer them again. We didn’t alter any of the NukaWorld quests, as we did not want to add a dependency, and doing so through scripts can be a daunting task. That said, we are hardly finished. Just like with previous Sim Settlements expansions, we will continue to improve the experience based upon feedback over the following year.

Can I skip the opening?

Is skipping the opening a feature of the mod?

Skipping the opening is not a feature. In fact, it is encouraged that you go through it, as Conqueror can use all of that time you’re doing the slow opening sequence to run the massive amount of startup code it needs to prepare everything.

Does conquering a settlement reset it?

If I build up a city plan with one faction and then conquer it with another, will bringing in a new mayor (presumably the old one was killed in the assault) cause the settlement to restart from scratch?

No. Taking over a settlement results in that faction capturing all of those plots, turrets, and the settlement at large to re-purpose them. Various settlement assets (crops, turrets, generators, etc.) may be damaged during a conquest and will need to be repaired, just as if they had suffered from a regular settlement attack.

How do traditionally claimed settlements work with Conqueror?

If I claim a settlement without a faction quest/conquest assault (for example I clear Kingsport Lighthouse and activate the workbench) am I going to get a popup asking me what faction I want it assigned to, or is it going to be more complicated than that?

It’s more complicated than that. At launch, we have a raider quest, and a character that gives you the opportunity to claim settlements for the gang (similar to NukaWorld). Once we see add-on packs with more faction support, we’ll likely introduce some sort of menu system so that the add-on pack authors don’t have to assemble mod teams to put together complex quests and characters of their own.

How is NukaWorld Red Rocket affected?

If I complete Power Play for perks and loot and then decide to do Open Season will the NukaWorld Red Rocket plan update to reflect the removal of the raiders?

No. The entire City Plan is pretty heavily raider themed. Presumably, we’ll see some minutemen themed City Plans coming out of the January city plan contest, so you’ll have more options to switch to if you decide to kill the gangs.

How will Preston react?

If I go the raider route before encountering Preston and his gang of misfits will he just be hostile on sight, closing the possibility of being a reformed raider General, or will killing them be a quest from a raider NPC which I can accept or reject?

He will not be hostile on sight. You can actually still do the Minutemen play-through while secretly being a Raider as well. While it’s less immersive, the goal was to give you as much room to roleplay as you’d like. So if you find it un-immersive, then don’t do it.

Is it compatible with NukaWorld Mods?

Will Conqueror be compatible with other NukaWorld/Raider Mods such as Minutemen Take Nuka-World or Skip Raiding Your Settlements?

Yes. Conqueror is completely independent of NukaWorld’s story content. We simply tap into a few of the assets if you have it installed, but it is not required, nor does it interfere.

Are there radiant quests?

Will Conqueror add radiant quests? If so, how many different kinds?

It essentially adds one radiant quest to capture settlements. Long term, it will add multiple ways for you to play out your character’s life as a raider - and some of those will probably be radiant style.

How big is the file?

Is there a rough estimate on the size of the file?

At launch, it will be about 60 MB, long term, it will probably end up around 100 or so.

What about other factions?

I've always wanted to have settlements not joined to the Minutemen, and instead tied to different factions that make sense, like the Brotherhood and Boston Airport, coming across these cities and towns naturally in the game and being able to ally with them and build on their spots or attack the settlements and kill everyone there. Will any of this be possible through Conqueror?

All of that will be possible in the future. The initial launch will see a Raider focus. Once we release the Builder’s Toolkit update for adding support for other factions, we should see lots of new content to allow players to engage in settlement wars from their favorite factions.

Should I start a new game?

Will Conqueror be save-compatible, or will I have to start a new game for this expansion to play as raiders?

Theoretically, you could pick up from an existing save for the Raider questline. Since you will have already cleared many of the locations in the initial part of the quest, those quests will be completed to start.
A new game will not required to do the Raider quest, but will be required for the pre-built cities. If you just want to take advantage of the new Building Plan skins and Heavy Agricultural plot, you can just load up with an existing character and continue to play like you would after any normal SS patch.

How does pre-building settlements work?

Will the settlements start pre-built or will I have an option for them to auto-build?

You will be presented with a series of options at the start of a new playthrough that will let you determine whether or not you want the Cities to start pre-built or not. You have a lot of control over which settlements, which City Plans, and how developed the Cities will be.

Will there be Raider City Plans?

Will you have raider city plans for other settlements?

No. Rather than City Plans, we’ve created raider skins for all of the core Sim Settlements building plans, as well as a faction theme system that triggers when you Conquer a settlement.

Can I start with the Console?

"Is there a console command to get the Conqueror startup going if it dosnt self start?"

There is - but doing it that way basically guarantees that save is screwed. If things don't start up on their own - they have a load order problem to fix.
The most common problem is lacking WorkshopFramework or SS at the correct versions.
Next most common would be that need to switch WSFW and SS positions in their Load Order. After that, it's probably a script being overwritten - either a loose workshop script, or if they have Unofficial Patch loading after WSFW instead of before.

Can I use my own City Plans?

"Is there a way to add my own settlement designs to the list of Conqueror pre-builds without creating a full City Plan?"

Yes. You can export your settlements from a playthrough, make them into single level city plans, and use them with Conqueror to make a super fast way to start new games with all of your settlement work intact. This would solve the problem of crashing due to overexertion of the system, because you know what your system can handle and so can just use the settlement designs that weren't too much for it from previous saves. Take any TS blueprint - and stick it through this: https://www.simsettlements.com/tools/cpmaker.php If you don't understand the options, you should just leave them as default and you're good to go.

Ranks and Plots

Do the plot benefits apply to all my soldiers?

No. They apply to the soldiers who live in the Outpost the plots are in. So if your soldiers are split between multiple Outposts when you make your attack, each will gain the benefits of their home outpost.
When making attacks, Conqueror always tries to pull from the current outpost you triggered the assault from, so you can help dictate who goes on an attack by sending your soldiers to the outpost you intent on attacking from.
Ultimately, your best bet is to plan on building one of each of the new plot types in all of your Outposts.

Do the new plot benefits stack?

No. Conqueror will provide the benefit for the highest level plot of that type to every soldier from that Outpost. So if you have a level 1 field hospital, and a level 3 field hospital, any soldiers who live in that settlement will gain the L3 30% chance to avoid death benefit.

Can I still manually equip my soldiers if I have an Armory?

Yes. The Armory will likely override your equipment choices each time your troops rank up, but you can turn off the armory equipment settings in the Conqueror section of the holotape if you'd prefer to manually equip your soldiers or feel like the benefit is too cheaty.
In the future, we'll give you the ability to manually tag soldiers to not be auto-equipped, as well as introduce an optional cost system so that this isn't overpowered for scarcity runs.

What do the ranks do?

Ranks increase the power of your soldiers, granting +50 health and +25% damage bonus with each new rank, for a total of +200 health and double damage at rank 5. In addition, once they reach rank 5, they can no longer be killed, and will instead be treated like companions and just go down in combat and await a stimpak. This is no easy task, so you'll be glad for the immortality.
Making it to rank 5 takes a ton of experience and due to their mortality, many will die on their way to this veteran soldier level. The new plot types, combined with the Wall Busters introduced in the raider questline, are designed to help give you some control over their fate so you don't feel that you're completely at the mercy of terrible AI and the settlement design - though you always will be to some extent, and that's part of the chaos of war.
Though your ultimate control will always be your own ability to quickly take out enemies in combat. With all of the new buffs, you should have a much greater chance to engage in some tactical killing of enemies to help protect your soldiers.

How do I know what rank my soldiers are?

All soldiers will have a green ball burst out of them on level up, as well as play a level sound (these effects can be disabled if you find them unimmersive). Raiders from Jammers gang are configured to get new names as well as they rank up.
In the future, we'll give you a means of viewing the individual progress towards the next rank of any of your soldiers so you can figure out which ones to try and protect.

Can Faction Pack soldiers rank up as well?

Yes. Until the faction pack creators update them to support the new content, the only benefit your soldiers will receive, are the HP and damage buffs. Those creators need to add in support for the actual rank names and armory.
Conqueror will not retroactively grant those things to existing soldiers, so you will likely want to wait until those packs update before proceeding with more assaults.

How does XP work for my soldiers?

Any of your troops that go on an attack, that are within a reasonable range of a kill (radius of 3000 units, which is about 6 plots stacked side-by-side in all directions - so pretty far), will share experience for that kill.
Experience is calculated as follows:
(Enemy Level * 10) * (Enemy Level/(Soldier Level + (Soldier Rank * 10)) * (1 + (City Level/0.25) + (Turret Count * 0.01))
So what does that mean in english?
The first part Enemy Level * 10 should be pretty self-explanatory, each enemy gives 10 XP per level. So a level 9 enemy will give 90 xp.
The next part calculates the scale, as if the enemy is higher level than your soldiers, they will earn more xp. So EnemyLevel divided by Soldier Level plus (Soldier Rank *10). Effectively what we've done, is count each rank within the Conqueror system as the equivalent of being 10 levels higher. We then just divide the enemy level by the calculated soldier level to determine a difficulty ratio. The difficulty ratio is capped at a lower limit of 0.25 and an upper limit of 2.5. Which means you can expect somewhere between 1/4 and 2.5x the XP depending on how different the levels are.
The last part is a multiplier based on the difficulty the settlement itself is providing. So a pre-built City Plan gives +25% xp per level, plus an additional 1% xp for each turret.
Experience requirements for each rank are based around each soldier killing 10 enemy soldiers of equivalent level. So if your soldier is level 9, it would take 900 experience to get to rank 1. Once they reach rank 1, they would be calculated as being level 19, so to get to rank 2 will require another 1900 experience, etc.
The overall idea is to introduce a new goal of trying to build up a bad-ass army full of high-ranking soldiers, with a risk-reward system, where taking less guys with you can result in them leveling up faster, though at the risk of losing the raid since once they all die you have to start over with fresh troops.

What if I conquer everything and my guys still aren't ranked up as much as I'd like?

You also gain XP during defensive raids, so when you get the quest that your main base is under attack, those defenders will gain experience.
We'll be introducing other ways to gain experience in the future, such as training plots, more frequent attacks on your outposts (which also give XP), and eventually the control gameplay I discussed in my launch live stream, where you can lose your smaller Outposts to enemy activity and need to reclaim them - thus having a never-ending loop available to keep building up your army.