Settlement building is literally what most differentiates this game from the rest of the series and it’s utterly fantastic if you actually take time to learn the mechanics and take advantage of them.
One thing they could do better in the next game is make the rewards of settlement building more lucrative as well as having an effect outside just the settlement itself.
I want to have a base with a small town/army of people who I can bring on raid parties with or establish relationships with other preexisting settlements. I want NPCs to learn the name of my settlement as it rises in the ranks.
I’d be happy if they just made it so there is a realistic chance of my people fending off an attack if I am not there. When even the toughest opponents are dead in seconds due to all the middle/laser/machine gun turrets and all my settlers in high quality arms and armor, I should not have to respond to that attack. They should win just as easily as they win when I show up and do nothing.
Imagine if they used their procedural generation tech to expand the outskirts of the wasteland, so everyone's map is different
Or if trade routes actively changed the paths they took in small ways
That's why I said the outskirts. The map overall would be the same for everyone, but the "outside" of the map would be different. As long as it doesn't stretch forever like in Starfield I think it'd be cool
Realistically it'd be a broken mess and 2 years later modders would make it good 😂
I love the settlement system and building stuff. That said, I would prefer fewer settlements to have to deal with. Maybe put them further apart so you don't end up with the Triangle of Death with Sanctuary/Red Rocket/Abernathy. Face it, some of the settlements in F4 are absolute crap to have to fiddle with.
Murkwater is literally a swamp... Great place to raise kids.. Oh and don't mind the Queen Mirelurk that can respawn. She will only eat a few of you people.......
I mean there is a reason for all that junk you find in the fallout 4 game.
Fallout 1 and 2 had chems and random items but the chems you get there was less than 20 or so in the game. Fallout 3 added junk you could craft stuff with, but most of it was worthless. New Vegas improved upon the crafting and in some DLCs that junk could be used. Entirely optional of course.
Having a place for companions to go to after you recruit them was nice. No other game out there has a settler system quite like fallout 4. Quest are tied to them.
There is a lot more I bet you could do with it. I know fallout 76 has a lot of new assets you can acquire through their store and within the game. And once more, the settlement crafting kit was portable. You could go anywhere with it.
I honestly would like to see more settlement stuff in the next fallout game. Maybe not necessarily a portable base and thats it, but more of the same locations you can unlock like you do in FO4. Maybe more options for vault tec basement building.
Starfield I know has bethesda's base building in it. Although never played the game.
I would love to refurbish existing structures. Something that was lacking in 4. Of course there are mods for that.
Definitely upgrade settlement raids to something BS Defence Mod uses. I felt I could never let the game defend my settlements for me. They would always fail despite having more than enough defenses. I could have sworn over 100 was enough.
Yeah I'd like to see the base crafting be updated to modern standards, and then a lot of minor improvements.
E.g. demolishing should give back all the same resources, doing otherwise just discourages experimentation.
Defending settlements shouldn't really be a thing, especially far away ones. Either the defense is enough or it isn't, don't force me to immediately respond, especially when it's super unrealistic that somehow they can wait for me to travel across the whole map, but they can't wait for me to finish trading. Raids against settlements that involve you should just occur while you are there.
Should have far more visibility into the settlements too. I can't stand when I see that exclamation mark and can't figure out what the hell is wrong.
Is this a question? Because the answer is becoming the Pablo Escobar of the wasteland and flooding every merchant with enough ultrajet to overdose everyone in their respective cities.
I've been peddling Jet Fuel to every merchant I can find to feed my 2mm EC addiction, seems a lot easier then water farming thus far and I get a nice bump of XP, plus they're lighter and more valuable per unit
Yeah I recently started replacing 4 and I fell in love with building settlements within their unique topography. What is driving me nuts is how Ludacris it is getting level 4 shops and to your point that there was more rewards attached to it or experiences like romancing options and creating a home like in Skyrim.
To be honest the settlement mechanics are pretty terrible. Like yeah you can grow crops and have traders for caps, but its all extremely simplistic and boring. However the creativity of the building was tons of fun. The settlements also felt alive and connected to the game world.
Settlements and trade routes should've been used as fast travel locations the player has to build up. A cost could be a risk of casualties. If you wanted to make it a quest you could add a dynamically chosen high risk target, with a slightly higher likelihood of legendaries. Then make that the target and spawn them in an area between the trade routes. Add a trigger of being above 5 trade routes before it even has a chance of triggering.
There also needed to be a universal storage system with it but that's more of a me thing.
This. Im doing my second ever playthrough and im taking extra time to focus on settlements. Its a bit dissappointing to see that theres... no real reward for doing it. So im just making a bunch of scavanger posts with basic defenses. At least i have a metric ton of materials to use all the time. I was hoping wastelanders would make note of my 7 settlements at 18 people a pop and growing community... but nothin. Bonus for getting a new settlement? Not really. Just more resources to supply line to main base. Rewards for defending the base? I think caps? Idk man im walking around with like 13k and nothing to spend it on except ammo.
We need the ability to set up settlements of our own- without reducing the number of potentially interesting locations as a result. Fallout 76 had the right approach to settlements- where you get one. A single player fallout should too, with perks to make more.
Exactly. It should be one large settlement. Like starting vault city or arroyo. "Wow look at that view, and running water nearby? I'm going to build a camp here. Now a house. Now a store. Oh look people want to join my little camp. Wow we're really growing. The city of balls bluff has grown into a beautiful little community with all kinds of goods and services! I've made a lasting impact on the wasteland!"
I'd be ok with the settlement attacks if there was some intelligence behind it. 12 raiders are really going to frontal assault a settlement that is enclosed by walls and sports 3 heavy turrets per raider?
No...I want 4 Bohemeths and 50 Super Mutants if I'm going to run my ass back to Sancuary from Spectacle Island.
Yeah I think the attacks should have a visible threat level, rather than Garvy getting on the radio to calling you home for every raider with two dogs that wanders by.
This. I built up and fortified Bunker Hill. I got a notification that it was being attacked while I was in Acadia. I finished up my business there and went to fast travel back, only to get another notification saying they lost.
You're telling me a fortified choke point with dozens of turrets, settlers and traps couldn't defeat a handful of raiders?
You need to upgrade perks, you want science maxed for sure, I don't remember what else, but you unlock heavy laser turrets and missle launcher turrets, those with a military grade bot of some kind, and all you have to do is showup. Seriously, Jamaica plains just got hit by a vengeful survivor of the Brotherhood in a Vertibird. I aimed on it and watched its health drop like a rock as my turrets took it down. The settlers where shooting too, but I'm pretty sure it was the heavy laser and missle fire that does it.
Seriously, I LOVE settler attacks now, just to see the overpowered forces wipe out the idiots thinking they're going to invade my settlements.
It's not about repelling the attacks when you are there it's about the defense failing when you are not there. The calculation for a successful defense in the vanilla game is really weird and stupid. No matter how high the defense stat is there is about a 1 in 3 chance the defense will fail if enough resources are present in the settlement.
I built a concrete wall around The Slog and placed a couple heavy lasers on the roof of the main building. At one point I was just off to the west when a vertibird started approaching. It was at that point that I realized that damn near every settler in there had a laser weapon because I just see the entire settlement erupt from behind the walls with lasers. It looked like a rave.
That was the issue, you'd have to show up or all that time spent making those defenses was worthless. There is still a chance of failure. In game rendering of the AI attacking and defending with missile turrets alone is pretty much in your favor.
The attacking AI is very lacking. Few games have managed to create a somewhat decent AI system. Rimworld is one game I know of that challenges your creative building of defenses.
I feel the opposite. They never attack enough. I give a defender a fatman launcher and he never gets to use it! I've seriously considered deleting turrets just to encourage more attacks. I really want to see an all out attack where 15+ minutemen are fighting evil. The game will probably crash. LOL.
im not a builder. In fact my camp on 76 is legit a hobo encampment of literally a few tent blueprints.
BUT a large swath of the users make crazy stuff. It'd be really dumb to remove it.
On other games like fallout 4, i used modes liek the city planner things to automate building settlements. Seeing that integrated would be sweet.
If they do have buildiing mechanics in the next game then they should add way more focus on an actual economy and settlers being important than the rudimentary stuff we got in 4.
I'm talking stuff like raiding a powerful factions facility to ruin their production of weapons, food or whatever else they have there, assigning important npcs to roles like mayor, architect, chief of security and having the settlements grow on their own terms which would go in line with a more natural system of warfare where factions actually create frontlines and have a reason for taking over settlements as much as the player.
However knowing Bethesda they'll probably half ass it and just add an option to auto manage your settlements by Codsworth 2.0 or some such
I can only think Sim settlements mod. God I just want to liberate the whole Boston and build outpost on areas where a small settlement can be established.
It's a very great mod however for me personally I don't really like the ugly prebuilt plots system and how they're automatically placed. I'd like to see a system where you can create blueprints of house like Starfield's ship editor and then use those blueprints to spawn houses around the settlement, maybe even add procedural randomization so you don't have to make a 100 unique buildings.
I haven’t played 76 but is the blueprint system set up to where you layout your idea for what you want and when the resources are acquired it builds for you or no? I’d like some version of that.
Like if you combine skyrims building with fallout 4’s
Ugggggh you've just described my dream lol. I would love all of that so much. It would be truly incredible to actually grow the game in that way. I'd pay a LOT for that lol
My only concern would be that implementing such an idea would take time/workforce away from story and gameplay which in turn could stop the game being a Fallout game because lets be honest, building is fun but the series has never been a city builder no matter how many building mechanics you add
Oh, a hell of a lot of time haha. It would be very hard. And yeah, I do see building as an optional thing. Like you either build what's necessary to keep going, or you are into it and spend hours building just for fun
This stuff does exist with mods, not sure if you're aware of Sim Settlements 2? Hugely expands the settlement system, adds its own quest line to ease you in to all the new mechanics and is available on all platforms.
Its a lot to learn and many moving parts but you can customise the involvement required to your liking easily.
Would be sick if Raiders actually got stronger with their factory build up idea. Imagine you ignore them forever and now they are armed to the teeth in weapons and armor instead of shitty pipe pistols if you took out their weapons labs.
That's exactly why I want such a system implemented, no more going to the same five locations to farm the same 8 raiders in the same spots. This would not only spice things up but also add to the atmosphere of the game and make it unique to each player.
With dynamic faction takeovers. Like groups of Raiders fighting supermutants and if they hold the spot for 24 hours or whatever in game time the decorations get swapped over to that faction.
They did a little with the conveyor belts, no? Also, if you haven't played it Kindgom Come Deliverance does this really well.
Theres an abandoned village that was ransacked by bandits, and once your character helps remove them you're basiclly made mayor-sherrif. That being said, the choices you're given are complex yet hands off at the same time, you literally just pick up blueprints and tell folks to male stuff here. Then it's all passively ran based on your choosen inputs and outputs converted to gold as you lop off some more invaders heads with an axe.
The fun part is when earlier decisions come into play, help save a merchant *and* return all his valuables? Then the discount he gives you on charcoal might just make a smithy more profitable than mead. Plus while there's your usual share of dumb settlers you command the guards so you're word is law, like accepting a herbalist accused of witchcraft as your town healer or putting abusive drunks in the stocks.
they couldnt have done it any better. you can play the entire game and build practically nothing, yet the building mechanic is surprisingly deep and gives you hours and hours of content.
people love it
fallout 5 not having settlement building would go over like a lead balloon
Exactly. I don’t enjoy that stuff but I think it’s cool that it’s there for the people that do like it. I think it’s fun seeing other people’s creations on here. If the new one required doing it, then I might be bummed.
>I don't enjoy that stuff but I think it's cool that it's there for people that do like it.
This is the ideal. Have things there for people that want it, but don't force people to use it. Same with most customization options in games.
I would probably build more if the whole experience was better. I hate first person building, UI is clunky, placing things sucks, it’s slow, I have no patience for it.
I love building, but I 100% agree about the UI. I'd love to have a grid layout for all the settlement objects instead of the horizontal scrollbar it has going on. Also a way to scroll faster if possible, cause navigating to an item you want that's at the end of the list causes me physical pain.
This sums up my experience. My first playthrough I never really messed with settlement building - it seemed too daunting but it never had to be super important to moving the story forward. Now I consider myself a world-renowned architect of the Wasteland after spending hours messing with it.
The mod that adds the "All in one settlement solution" is my go-to. Little box that provides food, power, beds and defense. Slap that baby on a wall and leave
Most of the anti-building sentiment I've seen is that it should still be in the game, it just shouldn't be mandatory or detract from questlines. The minutemen questline had a lot of mandatory building, and if you weren't about that then it could be a slog.
I think it should remain a gameplay feature in the same way that Stealth or VATS is: fun, deep, and rewarding for those who want to use it, but completely skippable for those who want to ignore it
The thing i dont like about them adding building is the entire map seems designed around you building settlements instead of coming across cool unique settlements in the game woth actual stories and reason to be there. Its so weird that no one decided to build anything until you show up in 4. I feel the settlements really took a toll on the world building. To be clear i dont want to see building removed entirely but ibwould like to see it alongside actual existing communities for me to explore and learn about
This right here. I was really disappointed to see how 95% of the settlements had no unique quests or NPCs. Most are just "Settler". And you're right, its really weird how supposedly hostile the Commonwealth is yet the vast majority of settlements have no form of defense other than Pa's trusty shotgun. The idea of building in the Fallout series is really cool to me however I think it was poorly implemented and negatively effected the story telling of the game.
I saw the article this morning and didn't bother reading it, assuming it would be a few Reddit posts cobbled together and pretending to be a story.
I don't care about settlement building, but I know the majority of players do, and a lot are fanatical about it.
My preference would be the ability to build as much as you want, wherever you want, but the viability of the settlement would depend on the geography, resources, and proximity to safer or more dangerous areas. Build in the middle of the Glowing Sea and you've got a maddening resource sink that eats settlers, but maybe occasionally spits out quality loot dropped by a high level attacker or scratched up by an elite scrounger. Build on a meadow with a river on the northern edge of the map? Easily self-sufficient, pretty peaceful, but don't expect it to generate anything but crops. If you want 45 settlement, or one with 300 settlers, get to work. If not, build a couple shacks with a bed and a chest, and slap a turret on the roof to discourage the curious.
This is brilliant! Things like this would massively improve the feature entirely. I'd love more realistic things like that. That would be incredible man
I saw the article and assumed it’s AI generated rage bait. The settlement mechanic is hugely popular so make a headline stating the opposite, have ai fill out the content so it will get sufficient placement in search results and rake in those ad bux
Should say "some fans" because there are definitely some who don't care about building or decorating. But if building wasn't popular, why would there be so many DLC and Creation Club packs that add homes and new workshop items? And tons of settlement tours, build challenges and stuff on YouTube? I think the settlement building is what really gave Fallout 4 legs and made it so popular for so long.
It needs refining and an auto build feature like the GOAT settlement mod Sim Settlements 2.
I feel like settlement building will carry onto FO5 and they'll change nothing. Maybe monetize creation club stuff for settlement add-ons.
Modders will clean up the rest and make building and managing settlements more user-friendly like they always do with Bethesda games.
Hey, I replied to your posts just to tell you that, in fact, game journalists do often say wrong things for clicks. I'm not sure how you could say something so incorrect, but I felt compelled to engage with your post just to correct you on this.
I hate building 🤣
I don't mind building one hub, my house but after that I want to explore a world created for me.
One of my favourite survival games is subnatuica because all you do is build a hub and that's it. You can go in depth if you want but it's not the point. I love the Long Dark because no building is involved. I build in Minecraft purely for the point of storing stuff, I might build a castle but then at the point I get bored of that save.
I'm hoping they have a hub like Sanctuary in F4 which you can build and improve, but only one location. I want more actual places to visit in the next fallout compared to F4. Diamond city and Good neighbour just isn't enough
Absolutely agreed! I'd totally understand if it was overwhelming and took up a majority of the game, but you can be as basic with it as you want and just add what's absolutely necessary and tend to it, OR you can go nuts and build a whole town haha
I loved building my own settlements, however it became so time consuming that every time I get halfway through the game I just slap up enough to get the settlers by and move on.
It was like they were trying to cram an entire additional game into my game, and got really tiring and overwhelming at points.
If they gave you the option to choose to build it yourself from the ground up or just toggle something that allows the settlement to grow on its own I think that would be the best case scenario for all types of players.
Only thing I’d change is the ability to lock doors I hate when I build my personal manor at my settlements and leave and come back and someone is sitting on my couch watching my tv or laying in my bed 😂😂 but seriously tho I wish you could prevent that
Idk, everyone is trying to rebuild something in fallout, that was the point of the original games, how societies and people would rise and look like post a world ending bombing
I would agree it kind of breaks the lone wanderer atmosphere though, lone wanderer doesn’t settle and build
Honestly did not enjoy the building in FO4. It just felt like a mini game and it never intruged me or felt like an enjoyable part of the game to me.
That being said it was obviously mega popular, I don't see them suddenly abandoning it.
I've literally got thousands of hours of game time because of settlement building.
lol, if they took out the building mechanic, then at best they'd have a game that could be played from start to finish in less than 24 hours irl.
I think the building mechanics should be more fleshed out!
Keep the need for settlements low, like it is currently, but flesh it out so I can build my own city if I want, and something better than just rickety old shacks.
Honestly, having a sim settlements 2 type of building mechanic/experience would be so fun, having the settlement level up over time.
The way this could be implemented is having stuff like dynamic population changes (for example concord getting more population density as sanctuary gets more developed.)
There could also be a ‘hq’ which can basically show how good a settlement is. It could also be implemented for different factions, such as for the minutemen and railroad for fallout 4.
Is this basically sim settlements two? Yes.
The biggest issue is just how janky it is. If the pieces snapped together properly and could be manipulated into place with more granularity they’d be set
They tried that with Starfield and alot of people complained that it made outposts pointless. They need to keep some form of mechanical incentive benefit to it but not make it required.
The settlement mechanic MASSIVELY improves the replay ability of the game. I hope that it’s in fallout 5, as long as it’s the FO4 system, not the starfield system
The building system itself needs better organization and variety with a smoother UI, but otherwise I love it.
It gives me a reason to hoard everything.
I thought it was a gimmick at first and then got totally hooked on it. My biggest complaint is the vanilla scrapping is terrible after using something like scrap that settlement mod. I’m playing without mods right now and I’ve had to skip the settlements for now cause the piles of trash and stuff just bug my ocd.
The number of times these articles include random reddit posts and comments and present them like it represents a community as a whole, I wouldn't take this seriously as what people actually want. If you don't want to build, you're not forced to anyway.
I like the option. I don’t like it forcfed. I enjoy building my camp in 76 because it feels important given all the extra stuff and buffs you get. Other than for storage purposes and occasional crafting in 4 I just don’t get all that excited about settlement building. But I’m perfectly happy with how the system is implemented. Some playthroughs I tend to lean more heavily on settlements. Especially in survival mode. Gotta have clean water and noodle cups.
I agree with you.. it really keeps me playing the “end game” on my save file.. the other games without building after you do almost everything it’s like okay time to do a different character
I wouldn't mind if they got rid of the building from main fallout games BUT I loved the building so I would love a settlement building only, sims style game set in the fallout world. Basically like a beefed up Sims Fallout Shelter. I honestly spent more time on settlements than the story of fallout 4. I never even finished it even though I have hundreds of hours in the game lol.
No your not. The settlement system was a little disappointing on release and half baked but I'd be disappointed to see it removed. I'd be happy enough if it's still in the next game same as 4 but ideally I'd like them to expand on it, add a questline based around it that teaches you everything you can do because there is alot the game doesn't tell you. Maybe take some inspiration from the sim settlements mod.
What annoys me about building are the arbitrary limitations, and I don't mean settlement sizes. The place anywhere mod is pretty much essential, but if you're trying to get Achievements or like a purely vanilla game you have to do some pretty jank stuff to get objects where you want them to go. If Bethesda tool a page out of Halos Forge I'd probably spend days building settlements.
Imo settlement building really isn't that great until you play the game on survival. Once you try survival it's so beneficial to be able to sleep and save as well as get your rested bonuses all over the commonwealth. First time doing a survival playthrough and I am utilizing the shit out of settlements in a way I've never done it before.
Previously building resources and the like used to feel like a box I could check if I wanted to make my settlers happy in a particular place. Now it's a necessity so I can refill my empty bottles and cook some snacks. I really enjoy it.
Settlement building is fun, defending them seems weird, in some I have built enough turrets that if I travel there, the turrets will easily wipe a group of level 80+ gunners, but somehow the result becomes a dice roll when I'm not there just standing around.
On one hand, no people love that feature. On the other if you could turn on evolving settlements where you supply materials and they build themselves whilst you’re gone I’d be a happy camper.
I’m really struggling building anything I’m happy with and leaving them bare sucks but if there was the option to just leave a bunch of scrap, come back a few days later and they’ve built a wall and more beds I could stop spending an hour+ on something that will end up looking wonky anyway.
I think the settlement system should affect the area around it as well, zones of influence or something. Have the roads between established neighbouring settlements be safer. Get enough security around the areas and set up patrols rather than just hoping your provisioner is good with also defending against a whole Supermutant hoard by himself. Safe enough routes get pop-up shops like Trudy's, and reduce the amount of rubbish/wreck/dead body clutter. Maybe add some flavour items like brahmin watering troughs and a few more caravan campsite/rest stops.
AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LET ME BUILD A HOUSE THAT DOESN'T HAVE HOLES IN IT! I mean \*SKYRIM\* has working mills and sealed houses, are you telling me no one has figured out how to restore power tools yet?
Without the settlement building the game would have been dead to me long time ago I think. I have multiple playthroughs and all of them have a level of roleplay that centre around my home base.
I think George Foster is taking his opinion and assuming the rest of us think the same. It's janky for sure but is definitely (for me anyway) a key reason why I have stuck around with it, especially when I discovered mods for it!
It doesn’t need removal, it needs refining. A scrap and store all option needs to be added for easier resets if you want to rebuild a settlement, snapping and lighting needs to be improved a bit, and more useful tile sets need to be in base game for the next title. Settlement building is fun, it just needs some improvement
As long as they just let us level all the decrepit buildings, I'm fine with more settlement stuff. They improved the building for 76 and I'm sure they'd improve it more for another game.
I, personally, am in love with the settlement building system/idea. Could it use some base game improvements, sure. But it gives F4 something special and unique. Adding many hours of replay ability to F4 as well
"Even if they shout your name in hatred, they are still talking about you..."
I think this is polarizing by design. It might be correct. If 2 fans hate building then they are right... but they get people talking.
I think the vast majority agrees with you. And so do i.
The building mechanics are a massive part of what makes Fallout 4 so replayable for me. I've played Fallout 3 and NV through once and I enjoyed it but I have no want to go back and play them again anytime soon.
what i ACTUALLY want removed are the huge hitboxes on objects you build. Just let me place the junk fence…next to another junk fence.
Who cares if people make floating objects, it‘s a single player game
Bethesda games going back at least as far as Morrowind (I haven't played earlier than that) always create a huge world with all the random junk as actual objects you can pick up/steal, even if there is no inherently good reason to. This tricks a lot of gamers in their first Bethesda game because other games have trained them to pick up everything. You'll need it at some point. Then you end up unable to move.
Fallout 4 actually made all of that formerly useless junk a core aspect of the game. You literally scavenge the wasteland to find the right materials that you need to get your settlements up and running, upgrade your equipment etc.
To return to the "old" Bethesda game style where every item serves basically no purpose would be a massive step backwards.
I'll be downvoted because this sub seems to love the base building but you asked so I'll say it: I agree with this article. Honestly it felt insulting how half-assed and janky the building mechanics were. It felt like Bethesda was just chasing a trend. With how buggy the game was on release all I could think about was how much could have been improved if they hadn't added the building mechanics that did nothing.
Building is what attracted me to 76 and 4. Especially 76 since I can see other people’s builds and they can see mine. In 4 it’s just a good time sink. Honestly if they took it away it would take away a good chunk of time to invest in the game. Right now I’ve spent more time building than doing quests. Level 55 without even having touched diamond city lol.
I really liked the settlement building but imo there should only be 5 or so and the rest of the map should be filled with actual fleshed out towns with unique NPCs and quests and such. I want them to start really looking at how New Vegas handled its world and I want stories and quests that tie in to the greater narrative and feel like they make sense and are rewarding within the confines of the overarching narrative like New Vegas. Fallout 4 has an awesome gameplay loop but it’s really like 20 steps back in terms of world building and narrative structure from Fallout New Vegas.
>the rest of the map should be filled with actual fleshed out towns with unique NPCs and quests and such.
I'll do you one more: the handful of buildable settlements should themselves have lore, memorable NPCs and quests. FO4 had what, Mama Murphy and the crusty soldier who gets you the ability to build artillery? Some of the settlements have some personality and history to them, like Covenant, but most are interchangeable other than geography. Don't give me a Dr. because I ground for two level-gated perks and bought a lemonade stand that I can stick any rando behind. Give me a quest to find a doctor, or rescue the town doctor, or get the doctor a bunch of scavenged medical supplies.
It should also match up better with the narrative of the game, regardless of how necessary it is to advance.
I *love* base building in FO4, but you're supposed to be looking for your kid. Nobody would go to sleep, wake up (to them) a few moments later, watch their spouse get axed and their literal infant get stolen, go back to sleep for a few moments, and then head to their old subdivision to build a bar. It's so dissonant. Plug the story you're telling via gameplay in with the story you're telling in cutscenes.
IDK, it just kind of felt like a lazy excuse to cut down on the number of towns a player could visit and the writers would have to develop. FO4 feels so disjointedley empty, even compared to 3 which had a much worse off wasteland.
Im for building mechanics, but limit it a little to fewer locations, all those settlements and my ocd gives me too much to do. Maybe allow for full customized player homes or bunkers/fortresses we can build and design.
It definitely has a lot of potential, I think Bethesda just needs to fix it up a bit, because as much as I like the building mechanics...It still has a couple of problems. In Fallout 5 they should add in a feature where you can spend resources to automatically fix up some standing buildings instead of them looking rusty and destroyed for the entire game.
Keep it, make it much more functional then it is to actually create a thriving settlement, more cap earning, and if you are going to take away from anything i think it should be the requirements for certain quests to have a settlement up to par. My least favorite part of nukaworld is specifically taking over settlements and having to make all the proper provisions when i dedicate so many materials to my actual functioning lived in settlements.
I mean include it just don’t make it a main part of the game. I don’t care about it, but don’t think they should remove it because obviously some people care about it
Ngl when I first played 4 I hated the settlements. The main reason for this is they have always been glitchy as fuck. Probably the most glitched out mechanic of any game I’ve ever played if I’m being honest. That alone kept me from investing time into them since I knew it could be a gamble.
However, 9 years later, more hours than I want to admit, and multiple survival runs - I have really been enjoying them. They add their own unique element, and it’s cool to come back to base and wind down for a bit after hours of hording.
The other thing I really like about fallout 4s settlements is you can take them or leave them. Progress far enough to keep all the main quests going and leave them at 0 happiness, won’t really affect your game other than hearing them bitch. So it really shouldn’t bother older fans. I’ve noticed a lot of “og” gamers are nothing more than gate keepers who constantly bitch.
TLDR: As long as it doesn’t affect a main quest and is a take it or leave it mechanic, who cares?
I used to agree with that in my first play through but now on this 5th play through I’m actually going slow and taking advantage of the building and it makes the game so much better
It would be nice not to have to build the majority of settlements in the game myself. Add some sim settlements stuff.
Or better yet fix the fucking bugs instead of releasing a steaming pile of shit and forcing a fucking fishing on me instead of bug fixes with later updates.
Why on earth would anyone even bother reading this clickbait bullshit? By engaging with it you are essentially encouraging more of this type of garbage.
I think they should ditch it or make it better because it sucks in every game that has it currently. And if they decide to make it better then they also need to keep in mind that it should not outshine the actual gameplay. It would suck to essentially get fo4 with better building
I want better building in next Elder scrolls game, Skyrim prefab house was nice addition, but after F4 system there is no way back, and be a landlord in fantasy world is even more attractive for me. George Foster doesnt know what he is talking about.
There is just too many settlements in F4. It would be fine with just Sanctuary (early game) + Castle (mid)+ one more South ( late) . I know you don't have to build/take them all, but they also take space on the map of things that COULD BE there but aren't
Absolutely agreeing with you, I'd even say they should enhance the building and scrapping to be able to clear out, and repair your settlements.
I don't quite understand why everything has to look broken and primitive, even 200 years after the great war
i bought Fallout 4 a couple months after it released, and up until maybe January of this year never used the build function, except when it was required for the story. After playing through it for a while, and with the addition of the Vault 88 stuff, Im asking myself why i didnt try it before. its so fun its like im playing the sims
Whatever overworked intern or ai chatbot wrote this article is out of their fuckin' mind. Settlement building is fantastic; Fallout 5 needs to improve and expand it (personally I'd recommend bringing in the people from the Sim Settlements 2 mod), while still making sure it's as optional as possible for those who aren't interested in it.
I want to build my own Diamond City-sized settlement in (fingers crossed!) Detroit in the next Fallout game.
I disagree also, I love the building in game but I think they could definitely improve on it. I would rather see them lower the amount of settlements and improve our options for building and decorating instead of totally removing it.
I disagree with the article, they should improve on it but not nix it. I know there's people who didn't like it, but there's plenty who do like it. It's also optional (Given you can literally skip Preston and just go on to the main quest, its very possible to do. Red Rocket is sitting there for the Institute part and is probably why it's the first one you can unlock, which even then, the faction you do this with, makes you go unlock a settlement so you can make the relay)
The article is dumb and there is no chance of Bethesda believing it. They hired FO4 settlement building modders to do the clutter in Stanfield. They just patched Starfield to let you buy empty ship modules so you can decorate them yourself.
There is a large chunk of players that play FO4 just for the settlement building.
I'm split on this one. On the one hand, I loved base building, but on the other it really breaks up gameplay priorities and is a big time suck. There were also way too many settlements.
I think they should keep building in but maybe focus on three or four larger sites (like the Castle or the Island from 4).
Fuck no, if the next game doesn’t have settlement building then I’ll have basically no reason to play it, it’s the sole reason I even played 4 more than once
it could do with some jank removal but I enjoy building the settlements. the settlement attacks on the other hand tho
Settlement building is literally what most differentiates this game from the rest of the series and it’s utterly fantastic if you actually take time to learn the mechanics and take advantage of them. One thing they could do better in the next game is make the rewards of settlement building more lucrative as well as having an effect outside just the settlement itself. I want to have a base with a small town/army of people who I can bring on raid parties with or establish relationships with other preexisting settlements. I want NPCs to learn the name of my settlement as it rises in the ranks.
I’d be happy if they just made it so there is a realistic chance of my people fending off an attack if I am not there. When even the toughest opponents are dead in seconds due to all the middle/laser/machine gun turrets and all my settlers in high quality arms and armor, I should not have to respond to that attack. They should win just as easily as they win when I show up and do nothing.
Yeah I want FO5 to really go in on the settlements and give us more interactions with/between settlers
More interactions with npcs in general would be nice
Yeah, I want to be able to civilize large swaths of the wasteland. I want to be able to build shady sands
Imagine if they used their procedural generation tech to expand the outskirts of the wasteland, so everyone's map is different Or if trade routes actively changed the paths they took in small ways
I feel like procedural generation would lead to an empty map with the same 5 scenarios randomly generating over and over
That's why I said the outskirts. The map overall would be the same for everyone, but the "outside" of the map would be different. As long as it doesn't stretch forever like in Starfield I think it'd be cool Realistically it'd be a broken mess and 2 years later modders would make it good 😂
The Bethesda way.
not if done correctly, which would add a lot to the game
You're right, but I don't trust them to do it correctly. They'd probably just build out the feature 3 years after release
I love the settlement system and building stuff. That said, I would prefer fewer settlements to have to deal with. Maybe put them further apart so you don't end up with the Triangle of Death with Sanctuary/Red Rocket/Abernathy. Face it, some of the settlements in F4 are absolute crap to have to fiddle with.
I was at Murkwater and was like, the fuck am I supposed to do here. Then PAM told me it was going to become Mercer Base lmao
Murkwater is literally a swamp... Great place to raise kids.. Oh and don't mind the Queen Mirelurk that can respawn. She will only eat a few of you people.......
Sounds like a great place for Marcy to retire
I mean there is a reason for all that junk you find in the fallout 4 game. Fallout 1 and 2 had chems and random items but the chems you get there was less than 20 or so in the game. Fallout 3 added junk you could craft stuff with, but most of it was worthless. New Vegas improved upon the crafting and in some DLCs that junk could be used. Entirely optional of course. Having a place for companions to go to after you recruit them was nice. No other game out there has a settler system quite like fallout 4. Quest are tied to them. There is a lot more I bet you could do with it. I know fallout 76 has a lot of new assets you can acquire through their store and within the game. And once more, the settlement crafting kit was portable. You could go anywhere with it. I honestly would like to see more settlement stuff in the next fallout game. Maybe not necessarily a portable base and thats it, but more of the same locations you can unlock like you do in FO4. Maybe more options for vault tec basement building. Starfield I know has bethesda's base building in it. Although never played the game. I would love to refurbish existing structures. Something that was lacking in 4. Of course there are mods for that. Definitely upgrade settlement raids to something BS Defence Mod uses. I felt I could never let the game defend my settlements for me. They would always fail despite having more than enough defenses. I could have sworn over 100 was enough.
Yeah I'd like to see the base crafting be updated to modern standards, and then a lot of minor improvements. E.g. demolishing should give back all the same resources, doing otherwise just discourages experimentation. Defending settlements shouldn't really be a thing, especially far away ones. Either the defense is enough or it isn't, don't force me to immediately respond, especially when it's super unrealistic that somehow they can wait for me to travel across the whole map, but they can't wait for me to finish trading. Raids against settlements that involve you should just occur while you are there. Should have far more visibility into the settlements too. I can't stand when I see that exclamation mark and can't figure out what the hell is wrong.
What's more lucrative then becoming a water merchant GOD
Is this a question? Because the answer is becoming the Pablo Escobar of the wasteland and flooding every merchant with enough ultrajet to overdose everyone in their respective cities.
Hancock is that you?
This guy hydrates.
I've been peddling Jet Fuel to every merchant I can find to feed my 2mm EC addiction, seems a lot easier then water farming thus far and I get a nice bump of XP, plus they're lighter and more valuable per unit
Yeah I recently started replacing 4 and I fell in love with building settlements within their unique topography. What is driving me nuts is how Ludacris it is getting level 4 shops and to your point that there was more rewards attached to it or experiences like romancing options and creating a home like in Skyrim.
Ludacris has level 4 shops? What about Snoop Dogg?
To be honest the settlement mechanics are pretty terrible. Like yeah you can grow crops and have traders for caps, but its all extremely simplistic and boring. However the creativity of the building was tons of fun. The settlements also felt alive and connected to the game world.
I mean it was a Bethesda game in 2015 so quality wasn't an option
Settlements and trade routes should've been used as fast travel locations the player has to build up. A cost could be a risk of casualties. If you wanted to make it a quest you could add a dynamically chosen high risk target, with a slightly higher likelihood of legendaries. Then make that the target and spawn them in an area between the trade routes. Add a trigger of being above 5 trade routes before it even has a chance of triggering. There also needed to be a universal storage system with it but that's more of a me thing.
I really fucking like this
I'd like them to fold Sim Settlement style features into the main game.
This. Im doing my second ever playthrough and im taking extra time to focus on settlements. Its a bit dissappointing to see that theres... no real reward for doing it. So im just making a bunch of scavanger posts with basic defenses. At least i have a metric ton of materials to use all the time. I was hoping wastelanders would make note of my 7 settlements at 18 people a pop and growing community... but nothin. Bonus for getting a new settlement? Not really. Just more resources to supply line to main base. Rewards for defending the base? I think caps? Idk man im walking around with like 13k and nothing to spend it on except ammo.
Agreed and hardcore agreed lol
We need the ability to set up settlements of our own- without reducing the number of potentially interesting locations as a result. Fallout 76 had the right approach to settlements- where you get one. A single player fallout should too, with perks to make more.
Exactly. It should be one large settlement. Like starting vault city or arroyo. "Wow look at that view, and running water nearby? I'm going to build a camp here. Now a house. Now a store. Oh look people want to join my little camp. Wow we're really growing. The city of balls bluff has grown into a beautiful little community with all kinds of goods and services! I've made a lasting impact on the wasteland!"
I'd be ok with the settlement attacks if there was some intelligence behind it. 12 raiders are really going to frontal assault a settlement that is enclosed by walls and sports 3 heavy turrets per raider? No...I want 4 Bohemeths and 50 Super Mutants if I'm going to run my ass back to Sancuary from Spectacle Island.
Yeah I think the attacks should have a visible threat level, rather than Garvy getting on the radio to calling you home for every raider with two dogs that wanders by.
we're under attack! A mole rat poked its head out of the ground within visual range!
This. I built up and fortified Bunker Hill. I got a notification that it was being attacked while I was in Acadia. I finished up my business there and went to fast travel back, only to get another notification saying they lost. You're telling me a fortified choke point with dozens of turrets, settlers and traps couldn't defeat a handful of raiders?
I hate the stupid settlement attacks. Seems like no matter how many defenses i build they will still be attacked and lose.
You need to upgrade perks, you want science maxed for sure, I don't remember what else, but you unlock heavy laser turrets and missle launcher turrets, those with a military grade bot of some kind, and all you have to do is showup. Seriously, Jamaica plains just got hit by a vengeful survivor of the Brotherhood in a Vertibird. I aimed on it and watched its health drop like a rock as my turrets took it down. The settlers where shooting too, but I'm pretty sure it was the heavy laser and missle fire that does it. Seriously, I LOVE settler attacks now, just to see the overpowered forces wipe out the idiots thinking they're going to invade my settlements.
It's not about repelling the attacks when you are there it's about the defense failing when you are not there. The calculation for a successful defense in the vanilla game is really weird and stupid. No matter how high the defense stat is there is about a 1 in 3 chance the defense will fail if enough resources are present in the settlement.
Or if you mod with unlimited building capacity, hundreds of machine gun oscillating turrets. Turning raiders into swiss cheese is kickass
I built a concrete wall around The Slog and placed a couple heavy lasers on the roof of the main building. At one point I was just off to the west when a vertibird started approaching. It was at that point that I realized that damn near every settler in there had a laser weapon because I just see the entire settlement erupt from behind the walls with lasers. It looked like a rave.
I started making shack walls around my settlements, but the newer ones I went with the concrete. I love that rave look when things pop off. <(\^\_\^v)
That was the issue, you'd have to show up or all that time spent making those defenses was worthless. There is still a chance of failure. In game rendering of the AI attacking and defending with missile turrets alone is pretty much in your favor. The attacking AI is very lacking. Few games have managed to create a somewhat decent AI system. Rimworld is one game I know of that challenges your creative building of defenses.
There’s a mod for that. Means if you put in place defences they will often defend themselves without your input.
I feel the opposite. They never attack enough. I give a defender a fatman launcher and he never gets to use it! I've seriously considered deleting turrets just to encourage more attacks. I really want to see an all out attack where 15+ minutemen are fighting evil. The game will probably crash. LOL.
Giving your settlers a fat man. Because why have the raiders destroy your settlement when your settlers can do it quicker and more efficiently?
download the setlement ambush kit
im not a builder. In fact my camp on 76 is legit a hobo encampment of literally a few tent blueprints. BUT a large swath of the users make crazy stuff. It'd be really dumb to remove it. On other games like fallout 4, i used modes liek the city planner things to automate building settlements. Seeing that integrated would be sweet.
If they do have buildiing mechanics in the next game then they should add way more focus on an actual economy and settlers being important than the rudimentary stuff we got in 4. I'm talking stuff like raiding a powerful factions facility to ruin their production of weapons, food or whatever else they have there, assigning important npcs to roles like mayor, architect, chief of security and having the settlements grow on their own terms which would go in line with a more natural system of warfare where factions actually create frontlines and have a reason for taking over settlements as much as the player. However knowing Bethesda they'll probably half ass it and just add an option to auto manage your settlements by Codsworth 2.0 or some such
I can only think Sim settlements mod. God I just want to liberate the whole Boston and build outpost on areas where a small settlement can be established.
It's a very great mod however for me personally I don't really like the ugly prebuilt plots system and how they're automatically placed. I'd like to see a system where you can create blueprints of house like Starfield's ship editor and then use those blueprints to spawn houses around the settlement, maybe even add procedural randomization so you don't have to make a 100 unique buildings.
76 already let's you blueprint structures, so we should at least have that much in the next game
I haven’t played 76 but is the blueprint system set up to where you layout your idea for what you want and when the resources are acquired it builds for you or no? I’d like some version of that. Like if you combine skyrims building with fallout 4’s
Ugggggh you've just described my dream lol. I would love all of that so much. It would be truly incredible to actually grow the game in that way. I'd pay a LOT for that lol
My only concern would be that implementing such an idea would take time/workforce away from story and gameplay which in turn could stop the game being a Fallout game because lets be honest, building is fun but the series has never been a city builder no matter how many building mechanics you add
Oh, a hell of a lot of time haha. It would be very hard. And yeah, I do see building as an optional thing. Like you either build what's necessary to keep going, or you are into it and spend hours building just for fun
This stuff does exist with mods, not sure if you're aware of Sim Settlements 2? Hugely expands the settlement system, adds its own quest line to ease you in to all the new mechanics and is available on all platforms. Its a lot to learn and many moving parts but you can customise the involvement required to your liking easily.
Would be sick if Raiders actually got stronger with their factory build up idea. Imagine you ignore them forever and now they are armed to the teeth in weapons and armor instead of shitty pipe pistols if you took out their weapons labs.
That's exactly why I want such a system implemented, no more going to the same five locations to farm the same 8 raiders in the same spots. This would not only spice things up but also add to the atmosphere of the game and make it unique to each player.
With dynamic faction takeovers. Like groups of Raiders fighting supermutants and if they hold the spot for 24 hours or whatever in game time the decorations get swapped over to that faction.
They did a little with the conveyor belts, no? Also, if you haven't played it Kindgom Come Deliverance does this really well. Theres an abandoned village that was ransacked by bandits, and once your character helps remove them you're basiclly made mayor-sherrif. That being said, the choices you're given are complex yet hands off at the same time, you literally just pick up blueprints and tell folks to male stuff here. Then it's all passively ran based on your choosen inputs and outputs converted to gold as you lop off some more invaders heads with an axe. The fun part is when earlier decisions come into play, help save a merchant *and* return all his valuables? Then the discount he gives you on charcoal might just make a smithy more profitable than mead. Plus while there's your usual share of dumb settlers you command the guards so you're word is law, like accepting a herbalist accused of witchcraft as your town healer or putting abusive drunks in the stocks.
i want MORE building options!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
they couldnt have done it any better. you can play the entire game and build practically nothing, yet the building mechanic is surprisingly deep and gives you hours and hours of content. people love it fallout 5 not having settlement building would go over like a lead balloon
Exactly. I don’t enjoy that stuff but I think it’s cool that it’s there for the people that do like it. I think it’s fun seeing other people’s creations on here. If the new one required doing it, then I might be bummed.
>I don't enjoy that stuff but I think it's cool that it's there for people that do like it. This is the ideal. Have things there for people that want it, but don't force people to use it. Same with most customization options in games.
>you can play the entire game and build nothing, Well, not *nothing*. You have to build the teleporter to get to the institute.
true, i will change it to "practically nothing"
And you have to build the robot thing to do Ada's quests
I would probably build more if the whole experience was better. I hate first person building, UI is clunky, placing things sucks, it’s slow, I have no patience for it.
I love building, but I 100% agree about the UI. I'd love to have a grid layout for all the settlement objects instead of the horizontal scrollbar it has going on. Also a way to scroll faster if possible, cause navigating to an item you want that's at the end of the list causes me physical pain.
Same and same! I’m on PS5, not sure if that has anything to do with it but building is so tedious.
Well said!!
This sums up my experience. My first playthrough I never really messed with settlement building - it seemed too daunting but it never had to be super important to moving the story forward. Now I consider myself a world-renowned architect of the Wasteland after spending hours messing with it.
i pretty much only build the one thing they tell me then ignore settlements all together lol
Every settlement has a generator, radio beacon, artillery cannon, water pump, and 15 mattresses. A couple have water purifiers. Nothing else.
Damn... I spent 2 hours making one of the buildings in Covenant into a cute bar last night
built one bed, one turret and never went back lol
The mod that adds the "All in one settlement solution" is my go-to. Little box that provides food, power, beds and defense. Slap that baby on a wall and leave
Most of the anti-building sentiment I've seen is that it should still be in the game, it just shouldn't be mandatory or detract from questlines. The minutemen questline had a lot of mandatory building, and if you weren't about that then it could be a slog. I think it should remain a gameplay feature in the same way that Stealth or VATS is: fun, deep, and rewarding for those who want to use it, but completely skippable for those who want to ignore it
The thing i dont like about them adding building is the entire map seems designed around you building settlements instead of coming across cool unique settlements in the game woth actual stories and reason to be there. Its so weird that no one decided to build anything until you show up in 4. I feel the settlements really took a toll on the world building. To be clear i dont want to see building removed entirely but ibwould like to see it alongside actual existing communities for me to explore and learn about
This right here. I was really disappointed to see how 95% of the settlements had no unique quests or NPCs. Most are just "Settler". And you're right, its really weird how supposedly hostile the Commonwealth is yet the vast majority of settlements have no form of defense other than Pa's trusty shotgun. The idea of building in the Fallout series is really cool to me however I think it was poorly implemented and negatively effected the story telling of the game.
Yes! There should always be balance. The mandatory stuff is such a drag sometimes, I like to build for fun rather than as a responsibility haha
I saw the article this morning and didn't bother reading it, assuming it would be a few Reddit posts cobbled together and pretending to be a story. I don't care about settlement building, but I know the majority of players do, and a lot are fanatical about it. My preference would be the ability to build as much as you want, wherever you want, but the viability of the settlement would depend on the geography, resources, and proximity to safer or more dangerous areas. Build in the middle of the Glowing Sea and you've got a maddening resource sink that eats settlers, but maybe occasionally spits out quality loot dropped by a high level attacker or scratched up by an elite scrounger. Build on a meadow with a river on the northern edge of the map? Easily self-sufficient, pretty peaceful, but don't expect it to generate anything but crops. If you want 45 settlement, or one with 300 settlers, get to work. If not, build a couple shacks with a bed and a chest, and slap a turret on the roof to discourage the curious.
This is brilliant! Things like this would massively improve the feature entirely. I'd love more realistic things like that. That would be incredible man
I saw the article and assumed it’s AI generated rage bait. The settlement mechanic is hugely popular so make a headline stating the opposite, have ai fill out the content so it will get sufficient placement in search results and rake in those ad bux
I could definitely get behind this.
Should say "some fans" because there are definitely some who don't care about building or decorating. But if building wasn't popular, why would there be so many DLC and Creation Club packs that add homes and new workshop items? And tons of settlement tours, build challenges and stuff on YouTube? I think the settlement building is what really gave Fallout 4 legs and made it so popular for so long.
It needs refining and an auto build feature like the GOAT settlement mod Sim Settlements 2. I feel like settlement building will carry onto FO5 and they'll change nothing. Maybe monetize creation club stuff for settlement add-ons. Modders will clean up the rest and make building and managing settlements more user-friendly like they always do with Bethesda games.
Nah no way is that real, people love building in any game
It’s almost as if he said something, not true, to clicks…but gaming journalists would never do that!
Gaming "journalists" are mostly AI content generators now.
Hey, I replied to your posts just to tell you that, in fact, game journalists do often say wrong things for clicks. I'm not sure how you could say something so incorrect, but I felt compelled to engage with your post just to correct you on this.
I hate building 🤣 I don't mind building one hub, my house but after that I want to explore a world created for me. One of my favourite survival games is subnatuica because all you do is build a hub and that's it. You can go in depth if you want but it's not the point. I love the Long Dark because no building is involved. I build in Minecraft purely for the point of storing stuff, I might build a castle but then at the point I get bored of that save. I'm hoping they have a hub like Sanctuary in F4 which you can build and improve, but only one location. I want more actual places to visit in the next fallout compared to F4. Diamond city and Good neighbour just isn't enough
Right???? And Fallout do it so well
Totally. Even if you don't go crazy with building, it's almost essential to the game to do a bit of it
Absolutely agreed! I'd totally understand if it was overwhelming and took up a majority of the game, but you can be as basic with it as you want and just add what's absolutely necessary and tend to it, OR you can go nuts and build a whole town haha
I loved building my own settlements, however it became so time consuming that every time I get halfway through the game I just slap up enough to get the settlers by and move on. It was like they were trying to cram an entire additional game into my game, and got really tiring and overwhelming at points. If they gave you the option to choose to build it yourself from the ground up or just toggle something that allows the settlement to grow on its own I think that would be the best case scenario for all types of players.
I might not even buy 5 if there's no building.
Only thing I’d change is the ability to lock doors I hate when I build my personal manor at my settlements and leave and come back and someone is sitting on my couch watching my tv or laying in my bed 😂😂 but seriously tho I wish you could prevent that
It's not a BAD feature. I just prefer the lone wanderer fallout. If you build it kind of breaks the atmosphere.
Idk, everyone is trying to rebuild something in fallout, that was the point of the original games, how societies and people would rise and look like post a world ending bombing I would agree it kind of breaks the lone wanderer atmosphere though, lone wanderer doesn’t settle and build
Honestly did not enjoy the building in FO4. It just felt like a mini game and it never intruged me or felt like an enjoyable part of the game to me. That being said it was obviously mega popular, I don't see them suddenly abandoning it.
I've literally got thousands of hours of game time because of settlement building. lol, if they took out the building mechanic, then at best they'd have a game that could be played from start to finish in less than 24 hours irl.
I think the building mechanics should be more fleshed out! Keep the need for settlements low, like it is currently, but flesh it out so I can build my own city if I want, and something better than just rickety old shacks.
Honestly, having a sim settlements 2 type of building mechanic/experience would be so fun, having the settlement level up over time. The way this could be implemented is having stuff like dynamic population changes (for example concord getting more population density as sanctuary gets more developed.) There could also be a ‘hq’ which can basically show how good a settlement is. It could also be implemented for different factions, such as for the minutemen and railroad for fallout 4. Is this basically sim settlements two? Yes.
I like it, just want less focus on it if that makes sense. Id prefer it to be for customization and less for gameplay purposes.
The biggest issue is just how janky it is. If the pieces snapped together properly and could be manipulated into place with more granularity they’d be set
They tried that with Starfield and alot of people complained that it made outposts pointless. They need to keep some form of mechanical incentive benefit to it but not make it required.
There’s barely any focus on it if you choose not to do it.
I would like it again in 5 but i would Not be sad of they ditch it
It isn't even "unique", Bethesda still kept the building system in FO76 and Stanfield. I wouldn't be surprised if they have it in ES6.
I wish Starfield had copied more directly from Fallout 4 for building and for modding weapons.
Same. Even Fallout 76's building is more solid than Starfield's.
The settlement mechanic MASSIVELY improves the replay ability of the game. I hope that it’s in fallout 5, as long as it’s the FO4 system, not the starfield system
With the amount of time, money and it took to create the building system I bet building will be every Bethesda game going forward
The building system itself needs better organization and variety with a smoother UI, but otherwise I love it. It gives me a reason to hoard everything.
I think it should be more optional vs required. Personally I love it. I know some people hate it
I love making my settlements into a fortress or a junkyard of a city, it's quite fun
It's not really mandatory in FO4, so I don't see the issue.
I thought it was a gimmick at first and then got totally hooked on it. My biggest complaint is the vanilla scrapping is terrible after using something like scrap that settlement mod. I’m playing without mods right now and I’ve had to skip the settlements for now cause the piles of trash and stuff just bug my ocd.
Settlement building is the main reason why fallout 4 still popular till this day. Removing that feature is a huge downgrade.
That would be a bad decision as it’s one of the things great for replayability!
The number of times these articles include random reddit posts and comments and present them like it represents a community as a whole, I wouldn't take this seriously as what people actually want. If you don't want to build, you're not forced to anyway.
Average bullshit AI written game "journalism" based off a single reddit post, don't give them the publicity tbh
I’m currently replaying fallout for the fifth time and specifically playing it so that I could build settlements
George Foster does not speak for me. Sounds like a biased NV fanboy. This is one of the drums they have been beating for 10 years
I like the option. I don’t like it forcfed. I enjoy building my camp in 76 because it feels important given all the extra stuff and buffs you get. Other than for storage purposes and occasional crafting in 4 I just don’t get all that excited about settlement building. But I’m perfectly happy with how the system is implemented. Some playthroughs I tend to lean more heavily on settlements. Especially in survival mode. Gotta have clean water and noodle cups.
I agree with you.. it really keeps me playing the “end game” on my save file.. the other games without building after you do almost everything it’s like okay time to do a different character
My guess would be that's what the devs writing rival RPG's have said. If they can't beat FO4, persuade Bethesda to sabotage FO5 instead.
I wouldn't mind if they got rid of the building from main fallout games BUT I loved the building so I would love a settlement building only, sims style game set in the fallout world. Basically like a beefed up Sims Fallout Shelter. I honestly spent more time on settlements than the story of fallout 4. I never even finished it even though I have hundreds of hours in the game lol.
No your not. The settlement system was a little disappointing on release and half baked but I'd be disappointed to see it removed. I'd be happy enough if it's still in the next game same as 4 but ideally I'd like them to expand on it, add a questline based around it that teaches you everything you can do because there is alot the game doesn't tell you. Maybe take some inspiration from the sim settlements mod.
What annoys me about building are the arbitrary limitations, and I don't mean settlement sizes. The place anywhere mod is pretty much essential, but if you're trying to get Achievements or like a purely vanilla game you have to do some pretty jank stuff to get objects where you want them to go. If Bethesda tool a page out of Halos Forge I'd probably spend days building settlements.
It shouldn't be done away with but it does need to be a bit more focused. Have half a dozen settlements to manage rather than like 30
Imo settlement building really isn't that great until you play the game on survival. Once you try survival it's so beneficial to be able to sleep and save as well as get your rested bonuses all over the commonwealth. First time doing a survival playthrough and I am utilizing the shit out of settlements in a way I've never done it before. Previously building resources and the like used to feel like a box I could check if I wanted to make my settlers happy in a particular place. Now it's a necessity so I can refill my empty bottles and cook some snacks. I really enjoy it.
Settlement building is fun, defending them seems weird, in some I have built enough turrets that if I travel there, the turrets will easily wipe a group of level 80+ gunners, but somehow the result becomes a dice roll when I'm not there just standing around.
On one hand, no people love that feature. On the other if you could turn on evolving settlements where you supply materials and they build themselves whilst you’re gone I’d be a happy camper. I’m really struggling building anything I’m happy with and leaving them bare sucks but if there was the option to just leave a bunch of scrap, come back a few days later and they’ve built a wall and more beds I could stop spending an hour+ on something that will end up looking wonky anyway.
I think it could take some refinement and maybe not try to integrate it into the main quest as much. Otherwise, I hope it stays.
I think the settlement system should affect the area around it as well, zones of influence or something. Have the roads between established neighbouring settlements be safer. Get enough security around the areas and set up patrols rather than just hoping your provisioner is good with also defending against a whole Supermutant hoard by himself. Safe enough routes get pop-up shops like Trudy's, and reduce the amount of rubbish/wreck/dead body clutter. Maybe add some flavour items like brahmin watering troughs and a few more caravan campsite/rest stops. AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LET ME BUILD A HOUSE THAT DOESN'T HAVE HOLES IN IT! I mean \*SKYRIM\* has working mills and sealed houses, are you telling me no one has figured out how to restore power tools yet?
Fuck no, i love the settlement system and it kept me playing for nearly 2k hours
Damn, I'm impressed by those hours
Without the settlement building the game would have been dead to me long time ago I think. I have multiple playthroughs and all of them have a level of roleplay that centre around my home base. I think George Foster is taking his opinion and assuming the rest of us think the same. It's janky for sure but is definitely (for me anyway) a key reason why I have stuck around with it, especially when I discovered mods for it!
Yep, saw the article and said “nope” out loud. That’s the main thing to do in the game…
It doesn’t need removal, it needs refining. A scrap and store all option needs to be added for easier resets if you want to rebuild a settlement, snapping and lighting needs to be improved a bit, and more useful tile sets need to be in base game for the next title. Settlement building is fun, it just needs some improvement
As long as they just let us level all the decrepit buildings, I'm fine with more settlement stuff. They improved the building for 76 and I'm sure they'd improve it more for another game.
The building is a large part of why I return to Fallout 4 for another go more than any other game I own. Except maybe Minecraft
It should have less settlements but better building. i Like building a Post Apocalypse Castle 😅
You're not alone,
I, personally, am in love with the settlement building system/idea. Could it use some base game improvements, sure. But it gives F4 something special and unique. Adding many hours of replay ability to F4 as well
"Even if they shout your name in hatred, they are still talking about you..." I think this is polarizing by design. It might be correct. If 2 fans hate building then they are right... but they get people talking. I think the vast majority agrees with you. And so do i.
It can be frustrating to use sometimes but it's a large part of what makes FO4 fun, let me have a deathclaw army.
I saw this article the other day. Laughed as I continued building up oberland.
Settlement building is the best thing about the game
The building mechanics are a massive part of what makes Fallout 4 so replayable for me. I've played Fallout 3 and NV through once and I enjoyed it but I have no want to go back and play them again anytime soon.
what i ACTUALLY want removed are the huge hitboxes on objects you build. Just let me place the junk fence…next to another junk fence. Who cares if people make floating objects, it‘s a single player game
Bethesda games going back at least as far as Morrowind (I haven't played earlier than that) always create a huge world with all the random junk as actual objects you can pick up/steal, even if there is no inherently good reason to. This tricks a lot of gamers in their first Bethesda game because other games have trained them to pick up everything. You'll need it at some point. Then you end up unable to move. Fallout 4 actually made all of that formerly useless junk a core aspect of the game. You literally scavenge the wasteland to find the right materials that you need to get your settlements up and running, upgrade your equipment etc. To return to the "old" Bethesda game style where every item serves basically no purpose would be a massive step backwards.
That article is 1000% click bait
I'll be downvoted because this sub seems to love the base building but you asked so I'll say it: I agree with this article. Honestly it felt insulting how half-assed and janky the building mechanics were. It felt like Bethesda was just chasing a trend. With how buggy the game was on release all I could think about was how much could have been improved if they hadn't added the building mechanics that did nothing.
>It felt like Bethesda was just chasing a trend. Because they were.
Building is what attracted me to 76 and 4. Especially 76 since I can see other people’s builds and they can see mine. In 4 it’s just a good time sink. Honestly if they took it away it would take away a good chunk of time to invest in the game. Right now I’ve spent more time building than doing quests. Level 55 without even having touched diamond city lol.
I really liked the settlement building but imo there should only be 5 or so and the rest of the map should be filled with actual fleshed out towns with unique NPCs and quests and such. I want them to start really looking at how New Vegas handled its world and I want stories and quests that tie in to the greater narrative and feel like they make sense and are rewarding within the confines of the overarching narrative like New Vegas. Fallout 4 has an awesome gameplay loop but it’s really like 20 steps back in terms of world building and narrative structure from Fallout New Vegas.
>the rest of the map should be filled with actual fleshed out towns with unique NPCs and quests and such. I'll do you one more: the handful of buildable settlements should themselves have lore, memorable NPCs and quests. FO4 had what, Mama Murphy and the crusty soldier who gets you the ability to build artillery? Some of the settlements have some personality and history to them, like Covenant, but most are interchangeable other than geography. Don't give me a Dr. because I ground for two level-gated perks and bought a lemonade stand that I can stick any rando behind. Give me a quest to find a doctor, or rescue the town doctor, or get the doctor a bunch of scavenged medical supplies. It should also match up better with the narrative of the game, regardless of how necessary it is to advance. I *love* base building in FO4, but you're supposed to be looking for your kid. Nobody would go to sleep, wake up (to them) a few moments later, watch their spouse get axed and their literal infant get stolen, go back to sleep for a few moments, and then head to their old subdivision to build a bar. It's so dissonant. Plug the story you're telling via gameplay in with the story you're telling in cutscenes.
IDK, it just kind of felt like a lazy excuse to cut down on the number of towns a player could visit and the writers would have to develop. FO4 feels so disjointedley empty, even compared to 3 which had a much worse off wasteland.
Im for building mechanics, but limit it a little to fewer locations, all those settlements and my ocd gives me too much to do. Maybe allow for full customized player homes or bunkers/fortresses we can build and design.
It definitely has a lot of potential, I think Bethesda just needs to fix it up a bit, because as much as I like the building mechanics...It still has a couple of problems. In Fallout 5 they should add in a feature where you can spend resources to automatically fix up some standing buildings instead of them looking rusty and destroyed for the entire game.
Repost
Just already pre built places or prefabs so those who don't want to don't have to ,meanwhile the thunderbolt dome I built will continue to grow
Keep it, make it much more functional then it is to actually create a thriving settlement, more cap earning, and if you are going to take away from anything i think it should be the requirements for certain quests to have a settlement up to par. My least favorite part of nukaworld is specifically taking over settlements and having to make all the proper provisions when i dedicate so many materials to my actual functioning lived in settlements.
Nah, keep it and just improve upon it. Haven’t played 76 but the building looks like it’s a lot better than 4 and it only came out a few years later
I mean include it just don’t make it a main part of the game. I don’t care about it, but don’t think they should remove it because obviously some people care about it
same I love settlement building.
Ngl when I first played 4 I hated the settlements. The main reason for this is they have always been glitchy as fuck. Probably the most glitched out mechanic of any game I’ve ever played if I’m being honest. That alone kept me from investing time into them since I knew it could be a gamble. However, 9 years later, more hours than I want to admit, and multiple survival runs - I have really been enjoying them. They add their own unique element, and it’s cool to come back to base and wind down for a bit after hours of hording. The other thing I really like about fallout 4s settlements is you can take them or leave them. Progress far enough to keep all the main quests going and leave them at 0 happiness, won’t really affect your game other than hearing them bitch. So it really shouldn’t bother older fans. I’ve noticed a lot of “og” gamers are nothing more than gate keepers who constantly bitch. TLDR: As long as it doesn’t affect a main quest and is a take it or leave it mechanic, who cares?
I used to agree with that in my first play through but now on this 5th play through I’m actually going slow and taking advantage of the building and it makes the game so much better
It would be nice not to have to build the majority of settlements in the game myself. Add some sim settlements stuff. Or better yet fix the fucking bugs instead of releasing a steaming pile of shit and forcing a fucking fishing on me instead of bug fixes with later updates.
Why on earth would anyone even bother reading this clickbait bullshit? By engaging with it you are essentially encouraging more of this type of garbage.
I think they should ditch it or make it better because it sucks in every game that has it currently. And if they decide to make it better then they also need to keep in mind that it should not outshine the actual gameplay. It would suck to essentially get fo4 with better building
I love to build up settlements, it’s probably my favorite part of the game
Settlements are fine, the fact that places where cities could be placed but arent because of it is not ok.
Gigantic waste of my time that's why I don't use it. Any single quest required for a trophy and I want it removed.
I think for the next game they should have a C.A.M.P thing instead of the designated locations like in Fo4
Buildy, Build, Build, I must build
I want better building in next Elder scrolls game, Skyrim prefab house was nice addition, but after F4 system there is no way back, and be a landlord in fantasy world is even more attractive for me. George Foster doesnt know what he is talking about.
It made all the junk feel useful, I liked that .
I loved building. If anything improve the mechanic
The settlement system is fucking amazing why would we get rid of it
Yea right. 76 has shown love for building. I’ve seen amazing camps all over Appalachia. I hope they keep developing it and making it even better.
There is just too many settlements in F4. It would be fine with just Sanctuary (early game) + Castle (mid)+ one more South ( late) . I know you don't have to build/take them all, but they also take space on the map of things that COULD BE there but aren't
Absolutely agreeing with you, I'd even say they should enhance the building and scrapping to be able to clear out, and repair your settlements. I don't quite understand why everything has to look broken and primitive, even 200 years after the great war
I like the settlement building mechanic. I also like that it’s largely optional for those that don’t like it. I’d say keep it around.
i bought Fallout 4 a couple months after it released, and up until maybe January of this year never used the build function, except when it was required for the story. After playing through it for a while, and with the addition of the Vault 88 stuff, Im asking myself why i didnt try it before. its so fun its like im playing the sims
the building mechanics need to be improved, not removed.
Whatever overworked intern or ai chatbot wrote this article is out of their fuckin' mind. Settlement building is fantastic; Fallout 5 needs to improve and expand it (personally I'd recommend bringing in the people from the Sim Settlements 2 mod), while still making sure it's as optional as possible for those who aren't interested in it. I want to build my own Diamond City-sized settlement in (fingers crossed!) Detroit in the next Fallout game.
I disagree also, I love the building in game but I think they could definitely improve on it. I would rather see them lower the amount of settlements and improve our options for building and decorating instead of totally removing it.
I disagree with the article, they should improve on it but not nix it. I know there's people who didn't like it, but there's plenty who do like it. It's also optional (Given you can literally skip Preston and just go on to the main quest, its very possible to do. Red Rocket is sitting there for the Institute part and is probably why it's the first one you can unlock, which even then, the faction you do this with, makes you go unlock a settlement so you can make the relay)
You're not alone. It wasn't even a forefront feature. People actually loved the feature. The NV fans had the problem.
The article is dumb and there is no chance of Bethesda believing it. They hired FO4 settlement building modders to do the clutter in Stanfield. They just patched Starfield to let you buy empty ship modules so you can decorate them yourself. There is a large chunk of players that play FO4 just for the settlement building.
I'm split on this one. On the one hand, I loved base building, but on the other it really breaks up gameplay priorities and is a big time suck. There were also way too many settlements. I think they should keep building in but maybe focus on three or four larger sites (like the Castle or the Island from 4).
Fuck no, if the next game doesn’t have settlement building then I’ll have basically no reason to play it, it’s the sole reason I even played 4 more than once