Holotape Gameplay Options
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.
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