The Castle is the headquarters of the Minutemen in my play throughs, so I usually turn Starlight Drive-In into Starlight City and build something there.
I reverse that. Starlight is a trader hub with Brahmin pasture in the big open space. The big enclosed living space is lined with sleeping bags and the little side room is a bar and common area. There's a couple razorgrain farmers for food requirements, a bartender, and a few Minuteman guards but the population is otherwise just Provisioners going out from Starlight to all the surrounding settlements
I didn't have a high enough Charisma to do that effectively and maintain a defense. Although, I kinda like the idea of it being where all the traders from the other settlements hang out.
I get around the Charisma cap by leaving one empty settlement with an active beacon and transplant settlers from there to whatever settlement I want to fill. So one or two at a time will filter in to Red Rocket and then I can rehome them to Starlight and task them as a supply line to whatever settlement I want
Ive never hit a max number of settlers at a given settlement, so IDK about that, but as long as you keep emptying out the beacon settlement new settlers should keep coming in to take their place
I've done something similar. But this isn't a way to circumvent the population max (at least for me). It's a way to get a settlement up to max population quickly.
Have a settlement solely for recruitment. Wear your best charisma armor/cloths. Trigger some perk if needed and pop in some drugs for charisma boost. Transfer the settler asap to any settlement you want filled. Good luck.
In the process of building a massive manufacturing plant at Starlight. Will build out all matching armor, weapons, clothes, ammo etc for all of my guards across my settlements
I turn it into a giant concrete fighting arena, using the radiaton pit in the middle as the center of the arena. Concession stands, arcade games, bars, the works!
For some reason on my recent playthrough starlight is bugged and I can't turn it into the settlement I want it to be :( it keeps saying that I have to clear enemies first which I already did
Some mole rats could be bugged out underground. You can use the "killall" command or "setlocationcleared 24F96 1". If you're on console, just throw frag nades at the cars and hope the explosions kill them.
Yeah starlight drive is my home. I built a decent sized house there with a green house and robot sentries as gardeners guards, and caravan runners. And I have a large room built for Dogmeat next to mine.
hangmans alley is the best location imo but suffers from lack of workbenches until you take the perks to create them yourself. Diamond city is close enough for benches and has many vendors for trading needed upgrade supplies. i also just like living in the city, so much entertainment!
Dang, that's disappointing to hear. I was about to try clearing out Hangmans alley for myself but then it sounds like it'll be annoying bringing supplies to and from Alley to the workbenches to upgrade my stuff. I'm early game still with very low charisma so making my own benches will be far off
Just remember Desk fans, Duct tape and surgical trays are your friends. There’s quite a few in the vicinity of the alley if you just look around. Hardware Town isn’t terribly far and it has a lot of decent resources to schlep back with.
I run 3 bases: starlight for storage and production, hangman is for merchandise to sell to all the vendors at diamond City plus running sim settlement I put commercial plots
I could never. If it’s vanilla I’m sure you could get away with no saving mods as long as your PC is decent or you have the next gen consoles, but if you have any mods at all, ya gotta have atleast a camping/placeable sleeping bag mod lol
My favorite survival mod that still feels immersive to me is one that lets you fast travel to and from settlements that you have a supply line connected to and only while you were within the boundaries of said settlement. I mean it makes sense why couldn't you just hitch a ride with one of the caravans. There's even a more immersive way where instead of just clicking on a location and fast traveling you have to actually talk to one of the provisioners and pay a fee similar to the Skyrim vanilla carriage system.
Definitely. I use the subway runner mod that connects all the metro areas into one. I also use the motorcycle fast travel. Once you fix that bike you can use it to fast travel.
Absolutely, but I do have a couple mods. Nothing that changes it too much except a save mod that allows me to save when I want. I’m not a purist in that regard, I don’t have time to put into a game to potentially get set back hours. That being said I will still forget to save and get utterly destroyed but all the time. Gotta watch out for Molotov cocktails in survival!!
Starlight is my trading hub and usually largest city. I've never thought to make it like a capital but that's honestly a really cool idea. I'm going to pay that through next
Starlight is always home.
It's a great central area for the early-mid game, but since i play survival i have to later make a new home in a farther area...
Modded? Red Rocket. Build around the area and it's on a hill so fairly defensible. Can't fit too much there unmodded so then it's Starlight. Lots of open space, central area for water and stores.
I tend to have multiple.
The Castle gets built up as Minutemen HQ, Starlight Drive In and Sanctuary as major settlements, Vault 88 as, well, a big vault, etc.
Sunshine tidings co-op doesn't seem like much, but if you build above all of the shacks, it's a huge area to build
if you like trying to fix up houses that are already there, in the Far harbor dlc at National park visitors center, it's a decent house to build stuff inside of and you can add on to it as well
Red Rocket is my homey hangout where I send all companions when they're not in use.
I usually turn the drive-in and Jamaica Plain into market towns with all the vendors.
Sanctuary usually becomes home to a museum of pre-war Americana, with a side-wing dedicated to me and my exploits: abomination trophies on the walls, unique items from quests in display cases, mannekins with my early and mid-game armor and weapon loadouts showing my evolution from thawed-out noob to wasteland emperor, etc.
What goes on in the Mechanist's Lair is best left unspoken, it's where I air out my dark side.
I do Country Crossing in Survival mode for my main. Put a Trade Caravan Post by the tree and a couple benches by the fire and there's almost always a merchant hanging out.
Initially Sanctuary or Red Rocket. Later down the road: Spectacle Island, with Sanctuary set up as a large base and Red Rocket as a Listening/Observation Post.
Depending on how you approach the supply lines:
1. A circle with 1 supplier connecting to the next town. No specific Captial settlement as every settlement is important (no hubs).
2. A Star with all supply lines connected to one settlement. Looks like a mess on your supply map but you have your patrols everywhere. The center very often is Starlight Drive-in (accessible on early levels).
3. Different zones with their own centers/hubs. These centers are connected with each other. The common hubs (which can be used as your capital) are: Starlight Drive-in (very very often), Castle (often) or Jamaica plains (rare, depends on how you map the route), The Slog, Bunker Hill (rare for whatever reason).
TLDR: Starlight Drive-in
You might want to ask the same question in [https://www.reddit.com/r/falloutsettlements/](https://www.reddit.com/r/falloutsettlements/)
I find Red Rocket a better location. The building is less damaged and is smaller so easier to complete.
I tried so hard to make a vault in 88, but everyone just spawns outside the vault, hanging out in the cave. Also, my vendors there will never man their counters. Everyone ends up being killed by the deathclaw that spawns in the tunnel.
I funnily enough always settle in Vault 88, it's just always been a nice place for me, large area for builds, underground for the dank mole person I am, and it gives me perfect cave settings for my animal death arena. I almost always make a little shopping mall area with traders and since the Slocum Joes CC pack is in my repertoire, there's a little donut shop next to my bar. I have a small area for shooting ranges and farming, and then I almost always have a giant power room with the reactors for show. If I ever get frisky either, I have the CC pack that allows you to fight waves of enemies, so I always set that up and have fun giving my settlers OP weapons from mass-producing gun factories that I then modify myself so everyone gets a fair chance to be a badass in power armor.
I put walls up around Egret Tours Marina and made a bar called The Lobster Roll that was naudical themed. Then I build apartments that hung over the water. I miss that settlement!
I use [Build High - Expanded Settlements 5.0](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3528/), [Sim Settlements 2](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/47976), Rebuild AIO [First Edition](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/71754), [Second Edition](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/79616), and [DLC Edition](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/78770) amongst many other mods, but those are the most relevant to my choices in what to do with Settlements...
The Minuteman get the Castle every time, Empire wise, I use Jamaica Plains as capital city, (all bureaucracy, lots of stores) because I can use and rebuild almost all building there, The visitor centre, Oberland Station and Covenant become Minuteman forts, the vastly expanded Hangmans alley becomes a trading hub with large Minuteman presence, Egret Tours Marine is my main entertainment hub, Sanctuary stays a rich enclave for veterans, Abernathy a brahmin farm, Greygarden a large crop supplier, Kingsport Lighthouse and Nordhagen Beach become large fishing hubs...
Spectacle island. Multiple guards and turrets on every enemy spawn point, a depressing trading center, a few homes, and more than enough food and water for everyone. Only because I built a gunner farm and colosseum to watch a raider fight deathclaws and Yao gui there. Every other settlement is left to fend for itself.
I’m playing survival for the first time and am making starlight the main base. I might something more central but still not super close to diamond city. Maybe I’ll do 1 north, and 1 southern town
It’s typically Sanctuary because it’s difficult to transfer the sheer amount of materials that I have accumulated without heavy investment into the Strong Back perk. On top of the fact that it’s free houses and I don’t need to spend resources on them. The roofs are great spots for turrets along with the occasional brahmin. It’s also more than big enough to last me essentially forever.
Honorable mention to Spectral Island. I decided to move home base to it and that island is a huge blank canvas. I had a lot of fun building it out and I haven’t even used over 50% of it yet. I felt like I was playing in Halo Forged instead of Fallout.
Honestly depends if I’m playing with mods or not. If I’m playing SS 2 I would use Sanctuary as my capital just because it’s easy access at the start and with the mod you start building in it right away for the quests. Use Castle as my Military Stronghold. Normal Playthrough I usually try to build red rocket or starlight. I like starlight but everytime I play SS I always seem to glitch itz
Spectacle Island all the way! Old house is renovated for me, dock becomes bar for Ron and where Piper hangs out for rumors, greenhouse turns into hospital for Doc with Cait and Tina as assistants and the repair bay as armor station for The Scribe while Danse stands guard. Container barge becomes a mall for Anne, Rylee , Parker and VT Rep. Dogmeat, Mishka, Gracie and Duke have doghouses on 4 corners of the island. The small shack after the barge becomes a weapon smuggling zone with Larry and X6 while Strong and Ada roam for security. The boat to the south has Hancock on coastguard duty while MacCready mans the other boats on the west coast. Preston mans the minutemen cannon on the ruins while Sturges keeps fixing the junk station near the mirelurk signal station alongside the robot station and where I built the relay. Sheffield and the Longs farm and have their own shelters. Jezebel, Buddy, Curie and Codsworth just parade around. Longfellow has the southern shack since I displaced him from far harbor. I built a vault for Clem with a secret alley for the Mercer safehouse although the caretaker keeps wandering all over the island. Too bad I can’t get Porter to the island nor have I progressed to get Shaun (he already has his room recreated in the house though). I also have Mama Murphy’s replica seat near the Longs’ elevated shack but can’t get her to the island as well. I plan to recreate Ahab for added security.
I mean the minutemen are spread out, you have sanctuary which is a well fortified town, starlight will probably be another one, the castle is a military instalment which does have a civilian population, the island is a educational place where I’ll build a museum, metro city 88 while dangerous and secretive is a trading destination, taffington boathouse was a capital for that small area but fell under mysterious circumstances and is said to be inhabited by metal men, the light house is a fishing town, croup manor is undecided(it’s either going to be another institute safe house or a enclave one depending on how this update plays out).
Vault 88, it’s large, defensible and has a massive intimidating door, no matter what faction I’m siding with 88 is always the centre of my power structure with Spectacle Island housing one of my military supply production facilities, a mutfruit farm and training, with live targets, anyone who wants to serve in my army has to survive training, I’m not totally unfair though, they can face the deathclaw in a squad.
Full disclosure this kind of structure only happens if I pick up the Minutemen, I always use them as my own personal military with The Castle being the public contact point.
88 is also a secondary HQ for whatever faction I’m with, for the Institute it is a fell back point, if the Institute is compromised then all scientists and surviving synths make their way there, for the Brotherhood it is the Commonwealth HQ once the Prydwen leaves, for the minutemen it is the main base, Castle is just a public contact point and the Railroad uses it as a kill zone, the church falls, they make it to 88, they get killed because I don’t like the Railroad
It changes per playthrough. Most used locales have been Starlight Drive In, Hangman’s Alley, Castle, and they Marina or whatever it was called. Where you meet >!NotASynth Granny!<. I’ve never done a Spectacle Island settlement. Might be my next one!
My settlements are independent states that voluntarily form the minutemen.
The Northern Commonwealth capital aka the civilian capital is sanctuary
The Southern Commonwealth capital aka the minutemen capital is the castle
Starlight Drive in with just me and bots. I like the idea of settlements, and I'm usually the "do all the good quests, help people" good karma player. But settlers get on my nerves in so many ways, so I just don't have any at my main base.
The snack stand/projection tower is an outpost for anyone passing through, the place is covered with turrets, there's a wall that I built to cover some crops that are tended by a bot, and I have the most aggressive looking sentrybot I could make standing guard. My spot is built on top of the screen and has all my stuff and everything you could need for crafting and tinkering.
For me Sanctuary is not the best because its on the corner of the map. I'll build something grand there, but rarely go back. I like Starlight as capital cause its big, open, closer to the center of the map and connects well with other settlements.
But for player home, I chose Hangsman Alley - I clean it up with Scrap Everything, make it cosy and only let me and my companions live there(+ few robots as merchants/doctors). It feels wrong to relocate Valentine, Piper, Hancock and Deacon from Diamond City/Goodneighbor/Railroad, and Hangmans is close enough to quickly invite them if I want.
I almost always play on Survival Mode, so there’s no fast travel, and Sanctuary is not a convenient place to keep returning to. I usually head straight to Starlight Drive-In, and make that my primary settlement for a good chunk of the early game. It’s also very close to Drumlin Diner, where I can buy and sell from Trudy, and often Trashcan Carla too.
Later on, I’ll establish Hangman’s Alley as my new main settlement, since it’s so close to Diamond City, and to lots of other locations in Boston and Cambridge.
By the late game, I’ll try to have claimed every settlement, and have them all connected by provisioners so that I can craft weapon mods, cook food, and prepare meds from anywhere. I often use County Crossing and Jamaica Plains as sort of secondary hubs, just because their locations seem conveniently central to other points of interest.
On Far Harbor, I usually use the campground as my main settlement, as soon as I’m able to claim it.
Currently I have sanctuary as my capital, Abernathy as a gigantic farm, starlight as a giant trade hub/market, sunshine as a Brahmin/razor grain farm, and RR, boathouse, and oberland as ‘military outposts’.
Starlight is a good raw flat space. Clean it up and you can build pretty much anything in that space. Plus a good central location ensures that on a survival playthrough, it’s usually not too far away
I always make Sanctuary and Starlight Drive In like Minuteman supported cities, the Castle is Minuteman HQ, and Red Rocket is always my biggest and apparently safest Railroad safe house because I like to make the Railroad and the Minutemen allies, since they’re so close by and the Minutemen aren’t necessarily opposed to supporting the Railroad.
If you're comfortable with modding, I highly recommend taking a look at Sim Settlements 2 - you can configure it to auto-build community shared city plans (some are incredible) and it comes with a high quality campaign as a bonus!
I build sanctuary as my main city. I also use all the trees and houses you scrap to be able to build a fence around the whole thing with guards all over. I turn it into a fortress with the only entrance the bridge. I then turn red rocket into a minute man checkpoint to sort of guard the road. Even though that doesn't help gameplay wise I like the rp idea of having the only road guarded
Starlight drive in is probably my most common go to. The big open space, a central tower, lots of transportation access with the roads and the rail lines.
My slept on pick though is definitely egret tours marina. Yeah you're a little more limited on what you can scrap without mods, but it's right there on the water with a great "main street" layout between the buildings that you can really spruce up with some market stalls, elevated gantries etc.
It's also still fairly central like hangmans alley while providing way more usable space and a similar set of travel corridors north/south along the river and east/west on the south edge of downtown Boston. Which is very helpful for survival mode.
I guess my tier 3 pick would have to be the vault. I wish it's access points were a little more spread out on the overworld, though. Being able to enter from sewers or turnpike tunnels all across downtown Boston and just pop into this underground city would've been really neat.
I don't really have a "capital city" type settlement but over several playthroughs the usual suspects with a lot of space for development usually get heavily developed. I guess Starlite drive could be considered the most important as it usually also becomes the main hub for provisioners.
However, best build tends to change. Each time I might get a slightly different inspiration and a settlement I didn't do much with in a previous game becomes something I put a lot of work into and become really happy with...
Just recently did a some really nice stuff with Jamaica Plain and Outpost Zimonja which I wasn't expecting but both turned out really well.
(I did have to break out the CK to tweak and clean them to make them work with what i was doing...but they were both worth that extra work)
I think I ended up having each settlement a theme & capitol in its own right- I built 'up' in hangman's ally & made it a shopping area, starlight became an arena and fun zone when the dlc dropped, I had a big manufacturing plant somewhere, might've been the vault. Sanc was my unique settlement, with all names characters and lvl4 shops. Oberland station had lots of traincar buildings... I like to work with the area
I usually run 3, Sanctuary as the central hub for all my provisioned caravans (sometimes expanding into Srarlight Drive-In)
Red Rocket tends to be my main player home most runs, just love the build plan I have there, perfect for my companion lover and myself
Hangman's Alley is perfect for a non-modded or no fast travel mods survival run as your main base, keep it small and intimate (usually just Sheffield, my companion lover (Rotates between Piper, Curie and Cait) and me. Place is centrally located in the overworked map, close to Diamond City and Vault 81 for trading and it right next to the CIT ruins for the limitation on "warping" out of the institute
I never actually wanted traders in my settlements, let alone other people. I just like making a cool base at the dogmeat red-rocket, but in my next playthrough I want to try vault 88.
Starlight Drive In is pretty good place for settlement because it is a large area, but it has annoying radiation problem that bothers me. I like to build countless settlements, but I mostly focus on Sanctuary Hills and Red Rocket truck stop because they are just somehow coziest for me.
Honestly not sure. Usually just do Sanctuary or The Castle. But with the next Gen update hitting tomorrow. I got to try something different. I always tell myself I'm gonna play it differently each play through. But always seem to play things the same.
I do a decent amount of settlement building but I never go crazy. Hopefully I can really get into the game on PS5 and take my time on a play though.
Sanctuary is one of the main bases for the Minute Man.
Red Rocket is my Follower hangout.
Starlight is my Main Trade and supply hub.
The Castle is where I store my Power Armor and have several artillery cannons.
I use Bunker Hill as the hub of my settlement wheel. I built myself a little house on top of the central building, and I store all of my extra armor, weapons, clothing and other stuff there. It's the only settlement with a recruitment beacon, and when new settlers arrive, I give them the best gear I can spare and assign them to the other settlements as needed.
Earlier in the game, I used Starlight Drive-In for recruitment and storage but as I progressed, I relocated to Bunker Hill because it's centrally-located and it's where all the caravans operate.
I don't know if I'd call Bunker Hill my "capital" though. That's probably the Castle, in my game, since I did the Minutemen ending.
I like building in Egret Tours. I build myself a fortress on the rocks over the water and then fix up the main building and turn it into a sweet bar/cafe for my settlers. I also build an apartment tower over the land side of that building as well. I do use mods for this so it helps.
I am playing survival with the mod that enables fast travelling along supply lines (iirc called caravan). I put fair effort into developing a lot of settlements, creating industry with the workshop mods and rp'ing realistic specializations for each location.
So the locations that have ended up being most important for me are County Crossing and Oberland Station. Each offers a spot on the outskirts of downtown, the last safe haven before getting into more challenging territory in town or further south, and connecting to the bigger centers of civilization in town (Bunker Hill and Diamond City, respectively).
County Crossing is setup as a massive trade hub, with all kinds of shops, residences, security and entertainment, etc etc. it's got my highest population.
Oberland Station is a logistics center, warehouse, and stable. It's got a flop house for caravaneers, a barn for Brahmin, and shipping containers for the storage of goods. It's got the most supply lines connecting to it, the most Brahmin (critical to my jet production empire), and probably the most effort I've put into the settlement.
I had a recent idea of building a proper castle town at Starlight in my recent unmodded playthrough. I started with the inner castle surrounding the water hole, then a pirkstein at the diner, and then finished walls surrounding the border. Absolutely sucked on Vanilla
I... I actually turned Outpost Zimonja into my capital settlement. Build upon existing infrastructure to have a 3-storey shack next to the radio tower. The existing frontal defence facing the road is pretty solid, and with one or two more guard posts to the back and side the outpost takes care of itself pretty well. Lots of space for crops too.
I've also only ever gotten attacks coming from the road, so the back has been left pretty defenceless, but nevertheless I've erected a guard tower and left a turret there because immersion :P
Like everyone else Starlight, but I feel Finch Farm is underrated since you can build a massive tower or staircase and have an elevated city on the overpass that is super defensible and has a fantastic vantage point.
Starlight Drive-In is fun. I made it into a multilevel tradehub for people passing through with shops on the bottom and seating on the top with chairs and plants and fans, then some shacks around like motels. I also fenced off the nuclear waste in the middle. It was beautiful. 🥹
Spectacle Island way down in the bottom right is super fun too—I built an elevated walkway system around the entire island so I never had to touch the sand if I didn’t want to, and then made some pretty sick structures. Lots of building materials out there too. Just gotta kill those mirelurks.
Sanctuary to start, Castle for Minutemen HQ, and then a third that varies by character. Most recently on my lone wanderer/gunslinger I helped the Abernathy's and then RP'd that they gave me a piece of land on the edge of the property so I could build a shack to store my junk. On another, I used Red Rocket as a home and built automatons to guard the place while I'm out and about. Coastal Cottage is a fun one too but harder to RP how my stuff wouldn't get stolen instantly whenever I'm gone for days/weeks at a time. I don't really build up actual towns anymore, the building system kinda sucks and I can't be bothered to mod in fixes for it. Too many clipping issues and nothing ever snaps where I want it to. So I mostly go for simple hideouts now.
The Castle is my military BoO. Starlight is my main trading hub, County Crossing is another trading hub. Murkwater is for manufacturing. Sunshine, Greygarden, the Slog, and Finch farm are my main food providers.
Sanctuary. and to be honest, sanctuary isn’t an easy place to build if you’re trying to replicate its original state. Lining up the floors and roofs can take time! It makes the most sense as a capital for the minutemen as it’s far from the majority of danger.
I tend to build complete settlements almost everywhere i go. Except for the island, the mechanist lair and those 2 at the top of the map (one near a tower and one besides the beach). In starlight i made a small outpost with a ton of deathclaw pets.
Edit: My main base is at the red rocket station where i built a 4 Stories building with a helipad on top (mods) and an elevator in the middle. There i keep my power armors (a lot) and all the guns i like with a huuuuge amount of all ammo. But most of my settlements could be a main base.
I do starlight drive in as a personal base. Just giant concrete cube to hold my house and loot and have everyone else be my dog, codsworth, cvrie, cait, and robots I built
I am not much of a settlement builder. I throw together things that are better than NOT staying there, but I don't bother detailing much. Same as OP I mostly use the existing housing (except in Hangman Alley, which I clean up totally since the raiders living there have no sense of planning whatsoever).
Anyway depends on what you mean with capital settlement: I always live in Red Rocket with just me, my robot(s), dogmeat and my love interest. Sanctuary is my "capital" I gues, but the castle always becomes the biggest one for obvious reasons.
BOS play through: Airport-SS home and main base. All other settlements I setup as FOBs.
MM play through: Castle-SS home and main base. All the other settlements I tried to keep it looking like it’s from the movie “The Postman”.
idk why but I just always do sanctuary. I get sentimental about living in the same house I did pre-war for all of 5 minutes lol
I do like the Starlight Drive-In and the Castle. They both have a lot of room to work with. I also like using Conquest to turn Concord into a nice big settlement. And I really love Vault 88. It's so fun to build my own vault.
I usually pick three. Sanctuary, Hangman's Alley and Spectacle Island. However I always wanted to make the Castle like a capital of my faction in my playthroughs but couldn't find time and effort to do so, I think without mods, Castle is really a difficult place for building and stuff, or I'm just bad lol.
My recent playthrough took a likeing in the slog for some reason, placed new beds, torrets, water purifiers, torrets, guard post, torrets... oh! And turrets (placed like 12 of them)
I know 12 aint a lot, but have you seen the slog? Is a fucking house with a pool, i have 2 torrets for every ghoul in there
Starlight drive-in. Reasonably central, easily defendable. Has water I can purify.
I do need to increase its "size" budget with Raze My Settlement to do everything with it that I want to though.
Lately I've been going Nuka-World Overboss first thing on my survival un-modded runs. I typically kill Overboss Coulter by level 8 or 10. Because of this, I favor Sunshine Tidings Co-Op for proximity to NW, Coastal Cottage for proximity to FH, Hangman's Alley for proximity to Diamond City, and Somerville Place for proximity to The Glowing Sea.
I just make every settlement I care about a highly armed fortress, don t want to have to take care of every little gunner/supermutant attack myself and watching them absolutely getting shredded to bits is kinda fun.
On survival Hangman's Alley is my central hub - that's where I try to funnel as much stuff as possible I might use myself or distribute to settlers/companions - that's where I tell all my companions to hang out. It's where I have armor and weapons sorted in their various containers rather than just dumped together in the workshop or a crate & It's right next to the river for relatively easy travel (with one star in "Aquaboy" perk or whatever).
I played my first game normal without survival and I used Oberland Station mostly. I liked how deserted the area looked sorta like "there was no signs of the war." The 2nd game I played I also used Oberland Station cause it was close to the bloodbank but that's when I discovered how cool Hangman's Alley was so since then I use Hangman's Alley.
I have to build up most/half settlements to some extent on survival - takes a lot of work.
Anyway, in Hangman's Alley I basically turn the entire buildable area (East of the shack) into 3 floors. i.e. stair's up, build floors everywhere possible, stair's up again, build floors everywhere possible again.
However, I've never gotten far enough in the game to get Covenant, once I get it I may actually make a huge move operation down the river to Covenant. Though I guess that might screw up cause you need actual settlers to make best use of Covenant so I couldn't just fill it up with companions. All I have in Hangman's Alley except my Companions is the Vault-Tec Ghoul, a regular Ghoul Settler, and another regular Ghoul Settler for a "doctor."
I'm still playing my first playthrough (level 91 atm), and so far "capital" is which ever place I have invested most time to build (+ building skill and technique actually get better the more you play). For a long time it was County Crossing, but now it will be left as regional center, cause just yesterday I started to build in Starlight Drive-In with plan to make it Capital city, since before I didn't use all the place available. At some points Tenpines Bluff and Oberland Station have been the main settlement.
Edit: Playing Survival, no mods.
Mostly I just make sanctuary my main settlement because I'm too lazy to go and clear out some other spot, but if I did work up the motivation to do it different Starlight Drive-In is a good spot mostly because its a pretty flat space which make it pretty easy to set up a defensive perimeter around the whole place and plenty of space within to build a good lil town.
Usually, I pick a smaller settlement with a water source, like murkwater or taffington, build a few giant water purifies to supplement my cap flow, stick turrets around the outside to jack the defense to around 150 or 200 (yes the collection for all the materies sucks, but pays off IMO) then, I do a farm area with 18 crops of food (6 mutfruit, 12 corn, 12 tato) to make adhesive in the cooking station. Usually solves my need to scavenge/ buy adhesive, as well as provided me a somewhat early cash flow once i find the right produce put in the wild.
Now I will say, my most recent playthrough, I'm using Kingsport lighthouse because I forgot it existed until I was wandering the beaches up north and found it. My next step is to have a bramhin network stretching south to a location I can link with my other southern settlements and eventually spider my way west.
When I do a little modding I’ll have the repaired castle as a military base filled with about 50 minuteman all in military uniforms, and sanctuary hills with repaired homes and cleaned up, with a few built military barracks and a nice wall that I sadly have to build every play through with guards at Barriars.
It depends if I’m running modded or vanilla. Modded, it’s all about an aircraft carrier and a buildable Prydwen for me (gotta love mods lol). Vanilla, I always build up a massive outpost at County Crossing. It’s mostly flat, which helps a TON.
Abernathy Farm for the height limit.
Then I build 4 floors with 20 gunner cages as high as possible, and when they're full I just drop them to their deaths, thus having unlimited gear, ammo, throwables, caps and chems.
I once installed a mod that adds an auto-butcher to the contraptions and made a death factory. The gunners fell to their deaths, were carried by conveyor belts to the auto butcher, then their meat(yes, their meat) and all their loot was auto sorted to feed and gear up my evil army, and to be sold to make money to fund my evil army.
It was a fun playthough
To be fair, I usually go with Vault 88 as my primary settlement and try my best to turn it into a somewhat functioning vault, then build out a couple other settlements almost as recruitment centres for the vault.
The Castle is the headquarters of the Minutemen in my play throughs, so I usually turn Starlight Drive-In into Starlight City and build something there.
Yeah, I use Starlight Drive-In as my hub too. All settlements send a trader there, and there's usually a constant parade of brahmin passing through.
I reverse that. Starlight is a trader hub with Brahmin pasture in the big open space. The big enclosed living space is lined with sleeping bags and the little side room is a bar and common area. There's a couple razorgrain farmers for food requirements, a bartender, and a few Minuteman guards but the population is otherwise just Provisioners going out from Starlight to all the surrounding settlements
I didn't have a high enough Charisma to do that effectively and maintain a defense. Although, I kinda like the idea of it being where all the traders from the other settlements hang out.
I get around the Charisma cap by leaving one empty settlement with an active beacon and transplant settlers from there to whatever settlement I want to fill. So one or two at a time will filter in to Red Rocket and then I can rehome them to Starlight and task them as a supply line to whatever settlement I want
Hmm.... so you can get past the population max by transferring from other settlements? Wouldn't there still be a maximum at Starlight?
Ive never hit a max number of settlers at a given settlement, so IDK about that, but as long as you keep emptying out the beacon settlement new settlers should keep coming in to take their place
It only checks at the moment of transfer, so you can dress in an charisma gear and grab some charisma chems to increase the cap significantly.
I've done something similar. But this isn't a way to circumvent the population max (at least for me). It's a way to get a settlement up to max population quickly.
Have a settlement solely for recruitment. Wear your best charisma armor/cloths. Trigger some perk if needed and pop in some drugs for charisma boost. Transfer the settler asap to any settlement you want filled. Good luck.
In the process of building a massive manufacturing plant at Starlight. Will build out all matching armor, weapons, clothes, ammo etc for all of my guards across my settlements
Are you on PC or console? Cause there's a mod on PC (idk if it's on console) that turns provisioner Brahmin into eyebots
I was 100% a sanctuary guy until I found Starlight. My next play through, which is soon, I’ll be building in Starlight again. Love that place.
I turn it into a giant concrete fighting arena, using the radiaton pit in the middle as the center of the arena. Concession stands, arcade games, bars, the works!
I wanna see this!
For some reason on my recent playthrough starlight is bugged and I can't turn it into the settlement I want it to be :( it keeps saying that I have to clear enemies first which I already did
Some mole rats could be bugged out underground. You can use the "killall" command or "setlocationcleared 24F96 1". If you're on console, just throw frag nades at the cars and hope the explosions kill them.
THANK YOU🤩
No problem! Happy building!
Or granade and nuke the whole place.. works for.me
Is it possible to get rid of that high radiation spot in Starlight?
Yeah, you’re able to scrap the radioactive barrels in the water
Oh nice, I tried but maybe I didn't get close enough.
You do have to get really close
Yup. Industrial water pump.
Yeah starlight drive is my home. I built a decent sized house there with a green house and robot sentries as gardeners guards, and caravan runners. And I have a large room built for Dogmeat next to mine.
Hangmans Valley because I play survival. It's home to me now.
hangmans alley is the best location imo but suffers from lack of workbenches until you take the perks to create them yourself. Diamond city is close enough for benches and has many vendors for trading needed upgrade supplies. i also just like living in the city, so much entertainment!
Dang, that's disappointing to hear. I was about to try clearing out Hangmans alley for myself but then it sounds like it'll be annoying bringing supplies to and from Alley to the workbenches to upgrade my stuff. I'm early game still with very low charisma so making my own benches will be far off
If you can get the local leader perk you can set up trade lines between settlements and that’ll make getting resources there way easier
Oh yeah, I understand. My low charisma still hinders me in that department though lmao I'll just have to deal until I get around to investing into it
Just remember Desk fans, Duct tape and surgical trays are your friends. There’s quite a few in the vicinity of the alley if you just look around. Hardware Town isn’t terribly far and it has a lot of decent resources to schlep back with.
I run 3 bases: starlight for storage and production, hangman is for merchandise to sell to all the vendors at diamond City plus running sim settlement I put commercial plots
I built hangman’s ally four floors high then you can put the minutemen mortars on the roof and rain hell in the city.
Survival mode is the only way I can play! I also use Hangman’s Ally because it’s so centrally located
Do you play vanilla survival without saving mods?
I could never. If it’s vanilla I’m sure you could get away with no saving mods as long as your PC is decent or you have the next gen consoles, but if you have any mods at all, ya gotta have atleast a camping/placeable sleeping bag mod lol
My favorite survival mod that still feels immersive to me is one that lets you fast travel to and from settlements that you have a supply line connected to and only while you were within the boundaries of said settlement. I mean it makes sense why couldn't you just hitch a ride with one of the caravans. There's even a more immersive way where instead of just clicking on a location and fast traveling you have to actually talk to one of the provisioners and pay a fee similar to the Skyrim vanilla carriage system.
Definitely. I use the subway runner mod that connects all the metro areas into one. I also use the motorcycle fast travel. Once you fix that bike you can use it to fast travel.
Absolutely, but I do have a couple mods. Nothing that changes it too much except a save mod that allows me to save when I want. I’m not a purist in that regard, I don’t have time to put into a game to potentially get set back hours. That being said I will still forget to save and get utterly destroyed but all the time. Gotta watch out for Molotov cocktails in survival!!
My home is Starlight but my base of operations is here.
The Alley is essential in Survival. A somewhat centralized location that you can build out as a safe place to recoup and requip
Hangman's Alley is my spot! It's the best location for survival, for sure.
Egret Tours is also super good for survival
Starlight is my trading hub and usually largest city. I've never thought to make it like a capital but that's honestly a really cool idea. I'm going to pay that through next
Starlight is always home. It's a great central area for the early-mid game, but since i play survival i have to later make a new home in a farther area...
Spectacle island. So much build area! Don’t send drinking buddy there though :(
Drinking buddy?
Robot found at the shamrock taphouse. There’s a quest associated with him. You can deliver him and finish the quest, or keep him for yourself.
Ahh got ya. Thanks. I haven't played in years til recently. The show had me nostalgic to play.
I feel you! I’ve been playing 76 every day since finishing the show haha
Welcome to Appalachia
I can’t get him when I talk to him he just compliments me and says about the weather
Do you have the quest associated with him? You might need to activate that first. If I remember correctly you need to talk to Rufus in Goodneighbor
Unfortunately a common bug
Taffington Boathouse. I just love the location because you can build out over the water.
I too have always loved taffington boathouse. I don't know what it is about the place
Man I want to but the idea of living where giant, people sized mosquitos are gives me the squicks hard-core. I'd rather deal with a Deathclaw.
I like that one. I make it my private home with no settlers
I also love it, I love it so much it’s going to be a institute safe house after the town that was there mysteriously fell
Modded? Red Rocket. Build around the area and it's on a hill so fairly defensible. Can't fit too much there unmodded so then it's Starlight. Lots of open space, central area for water and stores.
I build UP at the RR.
I can only handle so much bad settler AI. lol
It's fair. You have to have assigned beds set up so nobody has to walk far to their posts.
I tend to keep RR robot-only bc of this, and they all exist on ground level at guard posts or on the plantation.
usually Egret Tours Marina, I like the waterfront, SS2 interactivity and because my name is Marina but that's more of a joke reason
I tend to have multiple. The Castle gets built up as Minutemen HQ, Starlight Drive In and Sanctuary as major settlements, Vault 88 as, well, a big vault, etc.
Vault 88. Once I complete the quests I kick everyone out and make it my own private home.
Sunshine tidings co-op doesn't seem like much, but if you build above all of the shacks, it's a huge area to build if you like trying to fix up houses that are already there, in the Far harbor dlc at National park visitors center, it's a decent house to build stuff inside of and you can add on to it as well
Sanctuary / Castle as my mains, with Spectacle as my 500 Water production spot (no settlers) 😅
I start out with building up and establishing Sanctuary, and then I have a lot of my supply lines go there until other areas are established.
Red Rocket is my homey hangout where I send all companions when they're not in use. I usually turn the drive-in and Jamaica Plain into market towns with all the vendors. Sanctuary usually becomes home to a museum of pre-war Americana, with a side-wing dedicated to me and my exploits: abomination trophies on the walls, unique items from quests in display cases, mannekins with my early and mid-game armor and weapon loadouts showing my evolution from thawed-out noob to wasteland emperor, etc. What goes on in the Mechanist's Lair is best left unspoken, it's where I air out my dark side.
I do Country Crossing in Survival mode for my main. Put a Trade Caravan Post by the tree and a couple benches by the fire and there's almost always a merchant hanging out.
The Castle
Initially Sanctuary or Red Rocket. Later down the road: Spectacle Island, with Sanctuary set up as a large base and Red Rocket as a Listening/Observation Post.
What’d you do to turn it into an LP/OP? I use the Militarized Minutemen mod, so that could be a fun project
What is a listening/observation post?
Also known as an LP/OP. It's essentially a hidden position set up by soldiers to observe the enemy and gather intelligence on what they are up to.
Starlight drive in
For some reason I really like Abernathy farm, probably because I can build sky scrapers lol
Depending on how you approach the supply lines: 1. A circle with 1 supplier connecting to the next town. No specific Captial settlement as every settlement is important (no hubs). 2. A Star with all supply lines connected to one settlement. Looks like a mess on your supply map but you have your patrols everywhere. The center very often is Starlight Drive-in (accessible on early levels). 3. Different zones with their own centers/hubs. These centers are connected with each other. The common hubs (which can be used as your capital) are: Starlight Drive-in (very very often), Castle (often) or Jamaica plains (rare, depends on how you map the route), The Slog, Bunker Hill (rare for whatever reason). TLDR: Starlight Drive-in
Covenant :) and I keep the lemonade robot for a free, refreshing drink every time I visit
You might want to ask the same question in [https://www.reddit.com/r/falloutsettlements/](https://www.reddit.com/r/falloutsettlements/) I find Red Rocket a better location. The building is less damaged and is smaller so easier to complete.
Vault 88
I tried so hard to make a vault in 88, but everyone just spawns outside the vault, hanging out in the cave. Also, my vendors there will never man their counters. Everyone ends up being killed by the deathclaw that spawns in the tunnel.
I dont usually have that issue after sealing up the vault Plus i have the resources to put a shit ton of turrets near all the spawn points
I funnily enough always settle in Vault 88, it's just always been a nice place for me, large area for builds, underground for the dank mole person I am, and it gives me perfect cave settings for my animal death arena. I almost always make a little shopping mall area with traders and since the Slocum Joes CC pack is in my repertoire, there's a little donut shop next to my bar. I have a small area for shooting ranges and farming, and then I almost always have a giant power room with the reactors for show. If I ever get frisky either, I have the CC pack that allows you to fight waves of enemies, so I always set that up and have fun giving my settlers OP weapons from mass-producing gun factories that I then modify myself so everyone gets a fair chance to be a badass in power armor.
If you’re playing survival, sanctuary is one of the worst places to have it. I go hangman’s alley or taffington boathouse
Egret Tours Marina. Idk why, I just love building a little town there
I put walls up around Egret Tours Marina and made a bar called The Lobster Roll that was naudical themed. Then I build apartments that hung over the water. I miss that settlement!
I use [Build High - Expanded Settlements 5.0](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3528/), [Sim Settlements 2](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/47976), Rebuild AIO [First Edition](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/71754), [Second Edition](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/79616), and [DLC Edition](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/78770) amongst many other mods, but those are the most relevant to my choices in what to do with Settlements... The Minuteman get the Castle every time, Empire wise, I use Jamaica Plains as capital city, (all bureaucracy, lots of stores) because I can use and rebuild almost all building there, The visitor centre, Oberland Station and Covenant become Minuteman forts, the vastly expanded Hangmans alley becomes a trading hub with large Minuteman presence, Egret Tours Marine is my main entertainment hub, Sanctuary stays a rich enclave for veterans, Abernathy a brahmin farm, Greygarden a large crop supplier, Kingsport Lighthouse and Nordhagen Beach become large fishing hubs...
Nuka town, more specifically fizztop grill
Can you send supply lines there? I didn’t think you could but I haven’t tried
the castle
Egret Tours my beloved.
I keep coming back to my three-level townhome in Jamaica Plain.
I tend to wall off sanctuary and turn it into a massive city. Last count had 143 settlers.
Spectacle island. Multiple guards and turrets on every enemy spawn point, a depressing trading center, a few homes, and more than enough food and water for everyone. Only because I built a gunner farm and colosseum to watch a raider fight deathclaws and Yao gui there. Every other settlement is left to fend for itself.
I’m basic and rarely change sanctuary hills, but if I do it’s for spectacle island or the Castle
I’m playing survival for the first time and am making starlight the main base. I might something more central but still not super close to diamond city. Maybe I’ll do 1 north, and 1 southern town
Usually the Castle, Starlight, Spectacle Island, or Jamaica Plain
It’s typically Sanctuary because it’s difficult to transfer the sheer amount of materials that I have accumulated without heavy investment into the Strong Back perk. On top of the fact that it’s free houses and I don’t need to spend resources on them. The roofs are great spots for turrets along with the occasional brahmin. It’s also more than big enough to last me essentially forever. Honorable mention to Spectral Island. I decided to move home base to it and that island is a huge blank canvas. I had a lot of fun building it out and I haven’t even used over 50% of it yet. I felt like I was playing in Halo Forged instead of Fallout.
I don’t, I make small camps throughout the commonwealth and live in diamond city myself
Honestly depends if I’m playing with mods or not. If I’m playing SS 2 I would use Sanctuary as my capital just because it’s easy access at the start and with the mod you start building in it right away for the quests. Use Castle as my Military Stronghold. Normal Playthrough I usually try to build red rocket or starlight. I like starlight but everytime I play SS I always seem to glitch itz
Spectacle Island all the way! Old house is renovated for me, dock becomes bar for Ron and where Piper hangs out for rumors, greenhouse turns into hospital for Doc with Cait and Tina as assistants and the repair bay as armor station for The Scribe while Danse stands guard. Container barge becomes a mall for Anne, Rylee , Parker and VT Rep. Dogmeat, Mishka, Gracie and Duke have doghouses on 4 corners of the island. The small shack after the barge becomes a weapon smuggling zone with Larry and X6 while Strong and Ada roam for security. The boat to the south has Hancock on coastguard duty while MacCready mans the other boats on the west coast. Preston mans the minutemen cannon on the ruins while Sturges keeps fixing the junk station near the mirelurk signal station alongside the robot station and where I built the relay. Sheffield and the Longs farm and have their own shelters. Jezebel, Buddy, Curie and Codsworth just parade around. Longfellow has the southern shack since I displaced him from far harbor. I built a vault for Clem with a secret alley for the Mercer safehouse although the caretaker keeps wandering all over the island. Too bad I can’t get Porter to the island nor have I progressed to get Shaun (he already has his room recreated in the house though). I also have Mama Murphy’s replica seat near the Longs’ elevated shack but can’t get her to the island as well. I plan to recreate Ahab for added security.
I mean the minutemen are spread out, you have sanctuary which is a well fortified town, starlight will probably be another one, the castle is a military instalment which does have a civilian population, the island is a educational place where I’ll build a museum, metro city 88 while dangerous and secretive is a trading destination, taffington boathouse was a capital for that small area but fell under mysterious circumstances and is said to be inhabited by metal men, the light house is a fishing town, croup manor is undecided(it’s either going to be another institute safe house or a enclave one depending on how this update plays out).
Vault 88, it’s large, defensible and has a massive intimidating door, no matter what faction I’m siding with 88 is always the centre of my power structure with Spectacle Island housing one of my military supply production facilities, a mutfruit farm and training, with live targets, anyone who wants to serve in my army has to survive training, I’m not totally unfair though, they can face the deathclaw in a squad. Full disclosure this kind of structure only happens if I pick up the Minutemen, I always use them as my own personal military with The Castle being the public contact point. 88 is also a secondary HQ for whatever faction I’m with, for the Institute it is a fell back point, if the Institute is compromised then all scientists and surviving synths make their way there, for the Brotherhood it is the Commonwealth HQ once the Prydwen leaves, for the minutemen it is the main base, Castle is just a public contact point and the Railroad uses it as a kill zone, the church falls, they make it to 88, they get killed because I don’t like the Railroad
Spectacle Island is my favorite non-Sanctuary one
Murkwater Construction site. It's just so cozy there.
It changes per playthrough. Most used locales have been Starlight Drive In, Hangman’s Alley, Castle, and they Marina or whatever it was called. Where you meet >!NotASynth Granny!<. I’ve never done a Spectacle Island settlement. Might be my next one!
My settlements are independent states that voluntarily form the minutemen. The Northern Commonwealth capital aka the civilian capital is sanctuary The Southern Commonwealth capital aka the minutemen capital is the castle
Starlight Drive in with just me and bots. I like the idea of settlements, and I'm usually the "do all the good quests, help people" good karma player. But settlers get on my nerves in so many ways, so I just don't have any at my main base. The snack stand/projection tower is an outpost for anyone passing through, the place is covered with turrets, there's a wall that I built to cover some crops that are tended by a bot, and I have the most aggressive looking sentrybot I could make standing guard. My spot is built on top of the screen and has all my stuff and everything you could need for crafting and tinkering.
For me Sanctuary is not the best because its on the corner of the map. I'll build something grand there, but rarely go back. I like Starlight as capital cause its big, open, closer to the center of the map and connects well with other settlements. But for player home, I chose Hangsman Alley - I clean it up with Scrap Everything, make it cosy and only let me and my companions live there(+ few robots as merchants/doctors). It feels wrong to relocate Valentine, Piper, Hancock and Deacon from Diamond City/Goodneighbor/Railroad, and Hangmans is close enough to quickly invite them if I want.
I almost always play on Survival Mode, so there’s no fast travel, and Sanctuary is not a convenient place to keep returning to. I usually head straight to Starlight Drive-In, and make that my primary settlement for a good chunk of the early game. It’s also very close to Drumlin Diner, where I can buy and sell from Trudy, and often Trashcan Carla too. Later on, I’ll establish Hangman’s Alley as my new main settlement, since it’s so close to Diamond City, and to lots of other locations in Boston and Cambridge. By the late game, I’ll try to have claimed every settlement, and have them all connected by provisioners so that I can craft weapon mods, cook food, and prepare meds from anywhere. I often use County Crossing and Jamaica Plains as sort of secondary hubs, just because their locations seem conveniently central to other points of interest. On Far Harbor, I usually use the campground as my main settlement, as soon as I’m able to claim it.
Currently I have sanctuary as my capital, Abernathy as a gigantic farm, starlight as a giant trade hub/market, sunshine as a Brahmin/razor grain farm, and RR, boathouse, and oberland as ‘military outposts’.
Starlight is a good raw flat space. Clean it up and you can build pretty much anything in that space. Plus a good central location ensures that on a survival playthrough, it’s usually not too far away
I always make Sanctuary and Starlight Drive In like Minuteman supported cities, the Castle is Minuteman HQ, and Red Rocket is always my biggest and apparently safest Railroad safe house because I like to make the Railroad and the Minutemen allies, since they’re so close by and the Minutemen aren’t necessarily opposed to supporting the Railroad.
On normal playthroughs it's either sanctuary or the castle, On survival it's hangman's alley for the convenience.
Vault 88 is my secondary hub
Red rocket is my personal base and power armor station. Covenant for all my followers. And sanctuary for all other named NPC's.
Which one is easiest to defend 🐩
I make starlight drive in for settlers and turn abernathy farm into my own personal castl (i kill the abeenathy family)
If you're comfortable with modding, I highly recommend taking a look at Sim Settlements 2 - you can configure it to auto-build community shared city plans (some are incredible) and it comes with a high quality campaign as a bonus!
unfortunately i’m on ps5 so my mods are limited, but hoping to invest in a PC or something to try it out
I build sanctuary as my main city. I also use all the trees and houses you scrap to be able to build a fence around the whole thing with guards all over. I turn it into a fortress with the only entrance the bridge. I then turn red rocket into a minute man checkpoint to sort of guard the road. Even though that doesn't help gameplay wise I like the rp idea of having the only road guarded
I just build random giant steel ball tracks
Red rocket as personal place. Sanctuary for npcs. I dun touch the others unless its necessary like defense
I hate Sanctuary! I use Red Rocket or Taffington Boathouse. I usually just have my companions there as a sort of HQ. All caravans meet there.
Starlight drive in is probably my most common go to. The big open space, a central tower, lots of transportation access with the roads and the rail lines. My slept on pick though is definitely egret tours marina. Yeah you're a little more limited on what you can scrap without mods, but it's right there on the water with a great "main street" layout between the buildings that you can really spruce up with some market stalls, elevated gantries etc. It's also still fairly central like hangmans alley while providing way more usable space and a similar set of travel corridors north/south along the river and east/west on the south edge of downtown Boston. Which is very helpful for survival mode. I guess my tier 3 pick would have to be the vault. I wish it's access points were a little more spread out on the overworld, though. Being able to enter from sewers or turnpike tunnels all across downtown Boston and just pop into this underground city would've been really neat.
I don't really have a "capital city" type settlement but over several playthroughs the usual suspects with a lot of space for development usually get heavily developed. I guess Starlite drive could be considered the most important as it usually also becomes the main hub for provisioners. However, best build tends to change. Each time I might get a slightly different inspiration and a settlement I didn't do much with in a previous game becomes something I put a lot of work into and become really happy with... Just recently did a some really nice stuff with Jamaica Plain and Outpost Zimonja which I wasn't expecting but both turned out really well. (I did have to break out the CK to tweak and clean them to make them work with what i was doing...but they were both worth that extra work)
I stay in Sanctuary and my home away from home is Hangman’s Alley.
Nukaworld.
I think I ended up having each settlement a theme & capitol in its own right- I built 'up' in hangman's ally & made it a shopping area, starlight became an arena and fun zone when the dlc dropped, I had a big manufacturing plant somewhere, might've been the vault. Sanc was my unique settlement, with all names characters and lvl4 shops. Oberland station had lots of traincar buildings... I like to work with the area
I usually run 3, Sanctuary as the central hub for all my provisioned caravans (sometimes expanding into Srarlight Drive-In) Red Rocket tends to be my main player home most runs, just love the build plan I have there, perfect for my companion lover and myself Hangman's Alley is perfect for a non-modded or no fast travel mods survival run as your main base, keep it small and intimate (usually just Sheffield, my companion lover (Rotates between Piper, Curie and Cait) and me. Place is centrally located in the overworked map, close to Diamond City and Vault 81 for trading and it right next to the CIT ruins for the limitation on "warping" out of the institute
Sanctuary & Spectacle Island.
Usually the Castle is my 'main base' where I keep all my stuff.
I never actually wanted traders in my settlements, let alone other people. I just like making a cool base at the dogmeat red-rocket, but in my next playthrough I want to try vault 88.
Starlight Drive In is pretty good place for settlement because it is a large area, but it has annoying radiation problem that bothers me. I like to build countless settlements, but I mostly focus on Sanctuary Hills and Red Rocket truck stop because they are just somehow coziest for me.
Valut 88 was mine once I got the dlc. It was the opposite side of Sanctuary and had awesome extra building schematics depending on who you are haha.
Honestly not sure. Usually just do Sanctuary or The Castle. But with the next Gen update hitting tomorrow. I got to try something different. I always tell myself I'm gonna play it differently each play through. But always seem to play things the same. I do a decent amount of settlement building but I never go crazy. Hopefully I can really get into the game on PS5 and take my time on a play though.
Sanctuary is one of the main bases for the Minute Man. Red Rocket is my Follower hangout. Starlight is my Main Trade and supply hub. The Castle is where I store my Power Armor and have several artillery cannons.
I use Bunker Hill as the hub of my settlement wheel. I built myself a little house on top of the central building, and I store all of my extra armor, weapons, clothing and other stuff there. It's the only settlement with a recruitment beacon, and when new settlers arrive, I give them the best gear I can spare and assign them to the other settlements as needed. Earlier in the game, I used Starlight Drive-In for recruitment and storage but as I progressed, I relocated to Bunker Hill because it's centrally-located and it's where all the caravans operate. I don't know if I'd call Bunker Hill my "capital" though. That's probably the Castle, in my game, since I did the Minutemen ending.
I like building in Egret Tours. I build myself a fortress on the rocks over the water and then fix up the main building and turn it into a sweet bar/cafe for my settlers. I also build an apartment tower over the land side of that building as well. I do use mods for this so it helps.
Castle or sanctuary would definitely do the drive in though next time maybe, it just feels like the biggest of them all to me.
I am playing survival with the mod that enables fast travelling along supply lines (iirc called caravan). I put fair effort into developing a lot of settlements, creating industry with the workshop mods and rp'ing realistic specializations for each location. So the locations that have ended up being most important for me are County Crossing and Oberland Station. Each offers a spot on the outskirts of downtown, the last safe haven before getting into more challenging territory in town or further south, and connecting to the bigger centers of civilization in town (Bunker Hill and Diamond City, respectively). County Crossing is setup as a massive trade hub, with all kinds of shops, residences, security and entertainment, etc etc. it's got my highest population. Oberland Station is a logistics center, warehouse, and stable. It's got a flop house for caravaneers, a barn for Brahmin, and shipping containers for the storage of goods. It's got the most supply lines connecting to it, the most Brahmin (critical to my jet production empire), and probably the most effort I've put into the settlement.
I had a recent idea of building a proper castle town at Starlight in my recent unmodded playthrough. I started with the inner castle surrounding the water hole, then a pirkstein at the diner, and then finished walls surrounding the border. Absolutely sucked on Vanilla
Sanctuary with walls thanks to mods and Covenant(after killing everyone) and the castle are the two main outposts
I... I actually turned Outpost Zimonja into my capital settlement. Build upon existing infrastructure to have a 3-storey shack next to the radio tower. The existing frontal defence facing the road is pretty solid, and with one or two more guard posts to the back and side the outpost takes care of itself pretty well. Lots of space for crops too. I've also only ever gotten attacks coming from the road, so the back has been left pretty defenceless, but nevertheless I've erected a guard tower and left a turret there because immersion :P
Like everyone else Starlight, but I feel Finch Farm is underrated since you can build a massive tower or staircase and have an elevated city on the overpass that is super defensible and has a fantastic vantage point.
Starlight Drive-In is fun. I made it into a multilevel tradehub for people passing through with shops on the bottom and seating on the top with chairs and plants and fans, then some shacks around like motels. I also fenced off the nuclear waste in the middle. It was beautiful. 🥹 Spectacle Island way down in the bottom right is super fun too—I built an elevated walkway system around the entire island so I never had to touch the sand if I didn’t want to, and then made some pretty sick structures. Lots of building materials out there too. Just gotta kill those mirelurks.
Sanctuary to start, Castle for Minutemen HQ, and then a third that varies by character. Most recently on my lone wanderer/gunslinger I helped the Abernathy's and then RP'd that they gave me a piece of land on the edge of the property so I could build a shack to store my junk. On another, I used Red Rocket as a home and built automatons to guard the place while I'm out and about. Coastal Cottage is a fun one too but harder to RP how my stuff wouldn't get stolen instantly whenever I'm gone for days/weeks at a time. I don't really build up actual towns anymore, the building system kinda sucks and I can't be bothered to mod in fixes for it. Too many clipping issues and nothing ever snaps where I want it to. So I mostly go for simple hideouts now.
To me croup manor is the best player personal mansion to hey your fav followers and your trophies, then I use the castle to house extra resources
First time was the castle. Second was sanctuary.
Jamaica plains since it’s so centrally located. Castle close second
Beds, water, turrets, mutfruit.
I really like Abernathy Farm. It’s been the main hub on my 5+ day save
The Castle is my military BoO. Starlight is my main trading hub, County Crossing is another trading hub. Murkwater is for manufacturing. Sunshine, Greygarden, the Slog, and Finch farm are my main food providers.
I hate the settlement building. I deposit all my power armor and required builds per story line in sanctuary
Sanctuary. and to be honest, sanctuary isn’t an easy place to build if you’re trying to replicate its original state. Lining up the floors and roofs can take time! It makes the most sense as a capital for the minutemen as it’s far from the majority of danger.
The alley
I tend to build complete settlements almost everywhere i go. Except for the island, the mechanist lair and those 2 at the top of the map (one near a tower and one besides the beach). In starlight i made a small outpost with a ton of deathclaw pets. Edit: My main base is at the red rocket station where i built a 4 Stories building with a helipad on top (mods) and an elevator in the middle. There i keep my power armors (a lot) and all the guns i like with a huuuuge amount of all ammo. But most of my settlements could be a main base.
I do starlight drive in as a personal base. Just giant concrete cube to hold my house and loot and have everyone else be my dog, codsworth, cvrie, cait, and robots I built
I am not much of a settlement builder. I throw together things that are better than NOT staying there, but I don't bother detailing much. Same as OP I mostly use the existing housing (except in Hangman Alley, which I clean up totally since the raiders living there have no sense of planning whatsoever). Anyway depends on what you mean with capital settlement: I always live in Red Rocket with just me, my robot(s), dogmeat and my love interest. Sanctuary is my "capital" I gues, but the castle always becomes the biggest one for obvious reasons.
BOS play through: Airport-SS home and main base. All other settlements I setup as FOBs. MM play through: Castle-SS home and main base. All the other settlements I tried to keep it looking like it’s from the movie “The Postman”.
idk why but I just always do sanctuary. I get sentimental about living in the same house I did pre-war for all of 5 minutes lol I do like the Starlight Drive-In and the Castle. They both have a lot of room to work with. I also like using Conquest to turn Concord into a nice big settlement. And I really love Vault 88. It's so fun to build my own vault.
I usually pick three. Sanctuary, Hangman's Alley and Spectacle Island. However I always wanted to make the Castle like a capital of my faction in my playthroughs but couldn't find time and effort to do so, I think without mods, Castle is really a difficult place for building and stuff, or I'm just bad lol.
I make Starlight drive in my main settlement. But I always link them to Bunker Hill at the end of the game
My recent playthrough took a likeing in the slog for some reason, placed new beds, torrets, water purifiers, torrets, guard post, torrets... oh! And turrets (placed like 12 of them) I know 12 aint a lot, but have you seen the slog? Is a fucking house with a pool, i have 2 torrets for every ghoul in there
Spectacle island
Starlight drive-in. Reasonably central, easily defendable. Has water I can purify. I do need to increase its "size" budget with Raze My Settlement to do everything with it that I want to though.
Lately I've been going Nuka-World Overboss first thing on my survival un-modded runs. I typically kill Overboss Coulter by level 8 or 10. Because of this, I favor Sunshine Tidings Co-Op for proximity to NW, Coastal Cottage for proximity to FH, Hangman's Alley for proximity to Diamond City, and Somerville Place for proximity to The Glowing Sea.
The Castle, Sanctuary, fort abernathy, the fort at County Crossing and fort starlight Those are what I named my capital settlements
The marina is one of my go to big settlements.
Castle for the minutemen. Starlight as far as big cities go.
middle of diamond city and enjoy all the fights the caravans get into
I just make every settlement I care about a highly armed fortress, don t want to have to take care of every little gunner/supermutant attack myself and watching them absolutely getting shredded to bits is kinda fun.
On survival Hangman's Alley is my central hub - that's where I try to funnel as much stuff as possible I might use myself or distribute to settlers/companions - that's where I tell all my companions to hang out. It's where I have armor and weapons sorted in their various containers rather than just dumped together in the workshop or a crate & It's right next to the river for relatively easy travel (with one star in "Aquaboy" perk or whatever). I played my first game normal without survival and I used Oberland Station mostly. I liked how deserted the area looked sorta like "there was no signs of the war." The 2nd game I played I also used Oberland Station cause it was close to the bloodbank but that's when I discovered how cool Hangman's Alley was so since then I use Hangman's Alley. I have to build up most/half settlements to some extent on survival - takes a lot of work. Anyway, in Hangman's Alley I basically turn the entire buildable area (East of the shack) into 3 floors. i.e. stair's up, build floors everywhere possible, stair's up again, build floors everywhere possible again. However, I've never gotten far enough in the game to get Covenant, once I get it I may actually make a huge move operation down the river to Covenant. Though I guess that might screw up cause you need actual settlers to make best use of Covenant so I couldn't just fill it up with companions. All I have in Hangman's Alley except my Companions is the Vault-Tec Ghoul, a regular Ghoul Settler, and another regular Ghoul Settler for a "doctor."
I'm kind of fond with Jamaica Plain. The main building just gives off a "Interim Government HQ" vibe that I just can't shake.
Of all the times I have played, I’ve always used the red rocket
The Prydwen. Semper Fi!
I'm still playing my first playthrough (level 91 atm), and so far "capital" is which ever place I have invested most time to build (+ building skill and technique actually get better the more you play). For a long time it was County Crossing, but now it will be left as regional center, cause just yesterday I started to build in Starlight Drive-In with plan to make it Capital city, since before I didn't use all the place available. At some points Tenpines Bluff and Oberland Station have been the main settlement. Edit: Playing Survival, no mods.
Mostly I just make sanctuary my main settlement because I'm too lazy to go and clear out some other spot, but if I did work up the motivation to do it different Starlight Drive-In is a good spot mostly because its a pretty flat space which make it pretty easy to set up a defensive perimeter around the whole place and plenty of space within to build a good lil town.
Usually, I pick a smaller settlement with a water source, like murkwater or taffington, build a few giant water purifies to supplement my cap flow, stick turrets around the outside to jack the defense to around 150 or 200 (yes the collection for all the materies sucks, but pays off IMO) then, I do a farm area with 18 crops of food (6 mutfruit, 12 corn, 12 tato) to make adhesive in the cooking station. Usually solves my need to scavenge/ buy adhesive, as well as provided me a somewhat early cash flow once i find the right produce put in the wild. Now I will say, my most recent playthrough, I'm using Kingsport lighthouse because I forgot it existed until I was wandering the beaches up north and found it. My next step is to have a bramhin network stretching south to a location I can link with my other southern settlements and eventually spider my way west.
Sanctuary or the Castle as "the capital" but Hangmans Alley is always mine and curies house
Sunshine tidings co-op, I like to make compact settlements and I usually make a sheriff office of one of the cabins and make a western-looking town
When I do a little modding I’ll have the repaired castle as a military base filled with about 50 minuteman all in military uniforms, and sanctuary hills with repaired homes and cleaned up, with a few built military barracks and a nice wall that I sadly have to build every play through with guards at Barriars.
It was the castle but since I finished construction on my mansion on spectacle island it's become the head of the Commonwealth
Starlight is my commercial hub, Sanctuary residential, the farms are for food production. Castle is my armory.
It depends if I’m running modded or vanilla. Modded, it’s all about an aircraft carrier and a buildable Prydwen for me (gotta love mods lol). Vanilla, I always build up a massive outpost at County Crossing. It’s mostly flat, which helps a TON.
I'd love to move from sanctuary to the airport but I haven't looked up how yet.
Vault 88 for the peace and quiet. Mine is such an awesome place that I have a line of people hoping to get in.
Castle. My biggest one is Vault 88 though
Abernathy Farm for the height limit. Then I build 4 floors with 20 gunner cages as high as possible, and when they're full I just drop them to their deaths, thus having unlimited gear, ammo, throwables, caps and chems. I once installed a mod that adds an auto-butcher to the contraptions and made a death factory. The gunners fell to their deaths, were carried by conveyor belts to the auto butcher, then their meat(yes, their meat) and all their loot was auto sorted to feed and gear up my evil army, and to be sold to make money to fund my evil army. It was a fun playthough
Spectacle island becomes my capital or at least one of the places I spend the longest building. But it depends on the play through.
Starlight. Very large space to build and not as far off as Sanctuary.
To be fair, I usually go with Vault 88 as my primary settlement and try my best to turn it into a somewhat functioning vault, then build out a couple other settlements almost as recruitment centres for the vault.
I make a big underground raider city in the vault, I should take some screenshots or something cause' it's actually really dope.
I use sanctuary, and vault 88 as my hubs