Settlers, can we not?

[Vomgnar]

I'm sick of these guys. Just deleted a paragraph rant about chests, so I don't look too insane. Can you progress without them?

[Zoe Stickmin]

It does seem possible, but I think it will take significantly longer.

[ElDudorino]

They farm, fish, and mine so you don't have to. But you can just do those things yourself.

Having a pawnbroker also means you can sell stuff any time, and having a wizard means you can enchant your gear without having to visit an NPC village. I think they might also charge you less than an NPC wizard? So those are the main perks you'd be giving up if you completely ignored settlers.

It would still be a good idea to have an Elder kicking around even if you completely ignore him and let him die routinely, just so you can get rewards for progressing through bosses. I'm not sure if you can get them all from traveling merchants without progressing through the quests. Thinking of banner stands, waystones, and the various storage items like ammo pouch, void pouch/bag, etc.

[Wolfguarde]

Yes, you can. Slower, but it's doable. I generally don't build even bases until I've at least got dynamite unlocked so I can mine at a speed I find acceptable for mass acquisition of resources.

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

Sounds painful.

[Fair]

They only sort and manage chests according to what you've configured 🤔
What's so frustrating about them?

[darkpoetcc]

I have to be honest, I've got no real idea what you're getting at with the concept of a few sentences spent ranting about them. Outside of my army of combat followers and the open/close door sounds when I inevitably have to go through some, every issue I've had with them has, in the end, been my own fault for poorly setting priorities around my settlement.

So, alongside the developer...I'm kinda curious what the issue is. Perhaps I'm not far enough to notice the issue, but I'm only a few bosses away from the end...so I don't think that's likely.

[phonon5891]

Having settlers do the brunt of the busywork for you is one of the main things distinguishing this sandbox from the rest. You absolutely can get by without settlers, I've tried before, but boy was it painful.

I would recommend setting up chests for specific things, like a few chests near a wheat farm that will only hold wheat and wheat seeds (at top/high priority), then some "fallback" catch-all chests for things not covered by the specific chests (at higher/normal priority). These fallbacks also serve as buffers in case the specialized chests start overflowing.

In fact, I think that's my main complaint about the current system -- not enough chest variety and capacity, and some stack sizes being far too small. Seriously, with vanilla chest capacity and stack size, my kitchen alone looks like a damn warehouse, not to mention my alch lab.

[Vomgnar]

Originally posted by Fair:

They only sort and manage chests according to what you've configured 🤔
What's so frustrating about them?

Please forgive my rant, I do appreciate the reply!

I'll freely admit that I'm not configuring the chests properly, I don't mean to imply that there's something wrong with the game, bug or otherwise. I just can't seem to figure it out.

From what I can tell, and maybe I'm wrong, but I think the chests have to be part of the settlement to use "craft from chest" or deposit items remotely.

I set up 1 chest, that I thought, they could dump anything in. Having manually sorted "my" chests several times. I noticed they were complaining about nowhere to put things. The chest I dropped for them, was only half full, so I dropped a new chest, every time they would immediately proceed to empty "my" chests into the new chest.

I tried re-configuring all the chests for specific things like some above suggested, but same result. I think I just fundamentally don't understand how it works.

Again, I apologize for snapping, I think the game is brilliant and I don't regret my purchase at all. I appreciate your and everyone else's reply's. I'll watch a few more video's and take another stab at it.

[phonon5891]

One thing to keep in mind is that the settlers also need to be able to physically access the chests, so if they can't path their way to some point close enough to do so, they can't "see" the chests. This can cascade to other things, like settlers not being able to get out of bed, feed themselves, etc.

Things I do to minimize this problem:
1. I usually make my forestry, farming and animal husbandry areas dedicated and separate; the chests for each are placed close to a central spot in an unobstructed area. Place food barrels/chests near here, and don't forget to set them to accessible (but keep low priority so settlers only take food but not put stuff in). So far this has worked great, and I've only ran into problems when the chests overflow.

2. Keep the settler rooms in a rectangular/square building grid in the center of the island, and furnish the rooms as much as possible only along the walls/corners. Let the doors (in all 4 cardinal directions if possible) always be near the center of rooms and unobstructed to minimize pathing issues.

3. Early on, chop down apple trees and blueberry bushes then replant them near your base ASAP; this reduces the incidents of settlers wandering off to pick berries/apples and subsequent pathing shenanigans.

I would suggest getting more familiar with how chests, automation, and prioritization works before tackling crafting automation; it's a tad more finicky than harvesting crops and filling chests.

[Farkylk]

Just here to say i love settlers and the way we can configure them! It is one of if not the main difference this game has to som similiar ones.