How to grow the settlement

[ohiorice]

Truth is, I never really played NMS to grow a settlement. I recently decided after 7xx hours, it is time to go about it.

I tried the simple things, starting with a Class B settlement - the first time I'd ever encountered one 'in the wild'.

Problem is now, it dropped to a Class C and I cannot determine just how to grow it back to a Class B and beyond.

Helps?

[Felis_Exploria]

Class is based on population, happiness, productivity, and maintenance. I found I could increase class fastest by prioritizing population and happiness over productivity, maintenance, and debt. Choose the higher popularity construction and let citizens try their experiments.

[1P27]

Are you 100% sure you want to though I'm not stopping but I'm just warning that it takes a lot of time and all you get is a unit farm

[Roald]

I started with an A settlement. I'm now at 1M productivity and 100% happiness (both maxed), still at ~70 residents and not getting to S. So if it's those 3 variables, then you likely need all 3 maxed, cause just 2 won't do. And the game controls the rate of new residents, and it's super slow.

[ohiorice]

Hmm... maybe it's time to be a former governor...thanks folks.

[pseudo]

Originally posted by 1P27:

Are you 100% sure you want to though I'm not stopping but I'm just warning that it takes a lot of time and all you get is a unit farm

Why should someone with 700 hours be dissuaded from spending time on this? Even if the reward isn't great today, things are always changing with this game. If you're gonna spend 700 hours on this game, and maybe likely to spend 700 hours more, you might as well.

I understand settlements are not everyone's cup of tea, but for me I feel like it's the cherry on top of my favourite planet. I like watching things grow as I put more time into it, so even if the rewards aren't stellar I find it enjoyable. If they improve the system someday, I'll feel even happier knowing I invested into something that paid off down the road.

[dreamrider]

Originally posted by pL:

I started with an A settlement. I'm now at 1M productivity and 100% happiness (both maxed), still at ~70 residents and not getting to S. So if it's those 3 variables, then you likely need all 3 maxed, cause just 2 won't do. And the game controls the rate of new residents, and it's super slow.

@pL:
Max pop on a Settlement is 200. From my own experience (up to 110, before I lost my long save, to "outside forces" - some [ahem] "nameless person" deleted the wrong game line.), and from reading various posts and articles, it is almost (or actually) impossible to get up to an S-class Settlement before the pop grows to ~150. And, Yes, from my experience, you need to keep the debt usually 0, and the Happiness and Productivity usually maxxed in order to grow "steadily". (Even then it is none to steady.)

I also suspect that progress will be steadier if you organize your play so that you get back to "Oversee", decide things, and re-balance on a regular basis. Like within about a game day of receiving the announcement that there is a decision to be made.

[Roald]

Yeah but at some point, all the events are either bad or will increase a stat that is maxed out. Once in a blue moon there's a visitor that wants to settle, and that's really the only progress I'm making

[ohiorice]

Well, I''m giving myself an hour a day for NMS so I suspect a trip to the settlement wouldn't be too big a thing, if just visiting and making choices is all that's needed. Maybe I can give it a week, see if anything improves. :-)

[ArnMan]

Originally posted by ohiorice:

Well, I''m giving myself an hour a day for NMS so I suspect a trip to the settlement wouldn't be too big a thing, if just visiting and making choices is all that's needed. Maybe I can give it a week, see if anything improves. :-)

You can just ignore it until you have time to bother with it. I let most requests sit until I am ready to deal with it. Never seen a downside to it. For one thing, the settlement might request you to make a decision that causes a short-term debt that will stop production and apply a negative balance. I wait until I harvest the units for the profits and then resolve the issue, then inccur the debt and move on.