settler AI and sandboxing

[Wanderer3292]

I've been experimenting with mods that affect settler ai, and was wondering if anyone has suggestions for some that work very well. I'm asking because I've had settler sandbox expansion installed previously, when I browse the player settlement category it doesn't show up , but if I Google it I can find the mod page. it's hard for me to tell if there is a definite improvement with mods like these , and I hate to have something installed if it's not making a difference, I'm not sure how all mods work, but I try to keep my load times and overall stress on the engine to a minimum.

I just installed invisible furniture and am going to test that out, but I'm hoping you guys can direct me to which mods actually make a noticeable difference with your settlers AI

[Mringasa]

Invisible furniture is fantastic. I used that + Sim Settlements, Build Your Own Pool, and Northland Diggers (resource stations), and the settlement itself felt more alive. I had 0 issues with lag/stuttering even though I did place a ton of markers and built a couple settlements up well beyond their normal budget (drop/scrap glitch).

It was always fun to travel back and see a couple settlers dancing, smoking, sitting on a rock, or shooting up psycho in a back alley in my settlements.

[Wanderer3292]

Originally posted by Mringasa:

Invisible furniture is fantastic. I used that + Sim Settlements, Build Your Own Pool, and Northland Diggers (resource stations), and the settlement itself felt more alive. I had 0 issues with lag/stuttering even though I did place a ton of markers and built a couple settlements up well beyond their normal budget (drop/scrap glitch).

It was always fun to travel back and see a couple settlers dancing, smoking, sitting on a rock, or shooting up psycho in a back alley in my settlements.

Glad to hear that, i dropped a few animation markers, but probably have to let the game catch up before it has my settlers use them. I love sim settlements, and have been eyeing northland diggers, if I recall that one adds new workbench items for settlers to use.

not sure how often you check the nexus, but between trailer park dreams, and pcdugg add ons, sim settlements has a nice variety of homes already. what you described with your settlers is exactly what I'm hoping to achieve with my game,I spend a lot of time making lived in settlements.

[Yhwach]

There's hardly any navmesh differences between fallout 3 and 4 besides being able to detect where a door is and automatically generating it with settlement objects so don't expect AI to get any smarter with just a mod.

[Mringasa]

Originally posted by Rick Sanchez ༼DDOG༽:

There's hardly any navmesh differences between fallout 3 and 4 besides being able to detect where a door is and automatically generating it with settlement objects so don't expect AI to get any smarter with just a mod.

Yeah. At times I'll fast travel and get the statue effect, where all my settlers are just standing there. It takes a moment or three, then the AI "catches up", I guess is the best way to put it, and they'll start doing their thing. Other times, there's no delay and they'll be wandering around or doing stuff as soon as I load in.

I have noticed that the more markers I have spread out, the more they'll wander and do stuff. I put a bunch in a "town square" type area as a test, and they weren't doing much with them. Soon as I spread them out over the whole settlement though, they seemed to interact and "live" more. Might just be random chance though.

[Astasia]

I have found the vault structures are navmeshed really well. I've made a few of them so far and settlers walk around without running into walls, and tend to be doing things when I fast travel to them rather than standing around at "spawn." Without any mods to help that along.

I've noticed the main issue I've had with AI pathfinding in other settlements is caused by "foundation" blocks. I think only the top of them, the floor part, is navmeshed, and settlers think they can walk under them and get stuck constantly. Most stairs have a similar issue. Then when you fast travel to the settlement whatever the game does to try and put all the settlers to work fails on the pathfinding stage and they are all just standing in a clump on the bottom floor, often glitched halfway into said floor if not under it completely.

[ronr42]

I've never used any AI mods but, in general it is not a good idea to install multiple mods that add the same thing or change the same files, as with settlers AI. You could possibly get a conflict and break the settlers AI to where they just stand there and do nothing or worse, spin around in circles. :)

[Mringasa]

Originally posted by Astasia:

I've noticed the main issue I've had with AI pathfinding in other settlements is caused by "foundation" blocks. I think only the top of them, the floor part, is navmeshed, and settlers think they can walk under them and get stuck constantly. Most stairs have a similar issue. Then when you fast travel to the settlement whatever the game does to try and put all the settlers to work fails on the pathfinding stage and they are all just standing in a clump on the bottom floor, often glitched halfway into said floor if not under it completely.

That's something I haven't encountered yet. I've been using Stackable Brick Walls and Foundations to lay out roads and build multiple stories and haven't really had an issue with them getting stuck unless there's a marker underneath the foundation itself. Sanctuary is a pain for this since there's multiple Stand and Hammer type markers around the central house. Scrap Everything works good to clear these up, but you have to catch them first. I think the only vanilla foundation I use is the warehouse floor + concrete.

I haven't built much with the Vault stuff. Just did enough to get the inital stages of it done, and spent a lovely time clearing it out with its Legendary Alpha Deathclaws and the Radscorpion nest from hell. NIce to see that it's navmeshed well though. I plan on building extensively there on this playthrough.

[MaxDoomSWE]

Just be careful when using that drop scrap glitch in order to extend the settlement build limit. It may result in that the game CTD whenever you try to scrap anything in that particular settlement.

[Wanderer3292]

Originally posted by MaxDoomSWE:

Just be careful when using that drop scrap glitch in order to extend the settlement build limit. It may result in that the game CTD whenever you try to scrap anything in that particular settlement.

Thanks for the warning, are you sure that it was what caused the ctd's? I've been doing it many times on every single playthrough and have never had that problem before

[Cows]

I'm guessing you use the Nexus, because, let's be honest, every other modding site sucks compared to it. You should try Sim Settlements - it's got a lot of expansions and I personally love it, although sometimes the buildings end up not really fitting in...

[Wanderer3292]

Originally posted by Fax Machine v.1.0:

I'm guessing you use the Nexus, because, let's be honest, every other modding site sucks compared to it. You should try Sim Settlements - it's got a lot of expansions and I personally love it, although sometimes the buildings end up not really fitting in...

oh, I know all about sim settlements lol. jk, I love that mod though, it offers so much more than it seems to on the surface. I installed it as soon as it released, and just recently finally updated it after watching a couple of Kinggath's in depth videos. So I just now started getting my home upgrades after my settlements being all filled up.

I especially like the marketplaces I'm able to build with his plots. they really end up being unique compared to anything that I'm able to build with my current mod list. adding some thematic and practical trader posts in the marketplace makes for a nice little lively feeling town. The author is also extremely dedicated to the mod, which helps put it towards the top of my most needed mods.

[Mringasa]

If you don't have it, you might grab the Ground mod from the Nexus. It adds a ton of different terrain foundation blocks for you to build. I've been playing around with that + Invisible Furniture to make parks and recreation areas in a couple settlements. Looks really nice with some of the decorations and flora from Northland Builders and Homemaker.

[Wanderer3292]

Originally posted by Mringasa:

If you don't have it, you might grab the Ground mod from the Nexus. It adds a ton of different terrain foundation blocks for you to build. I've been playing around with that + Invisible Furniture to make parks and recreation areas in a couple settlements. Looks really nice with some of the decorations and flora from Northland Builders and Homemaker.

That sounds cool, I'll have to check that out. I don't know if you're into walling in your settlements, but there's a new mod up called pcdug's build a wall on the nexus that I have really been enjoying. it adds the bunker hill type of walls, along with corner pieces, angled pieces, and more variety with new designs. they have multiple snap pieces, and guard walls. they even allow for floor pieces to snap to the top. The guard walls are pretty unique and are nav meshed well, and add 2 defense for each one. I've been ending up "wasting" a lot of time building great looking, functional walls in most of my settlements.

[Mringasa]

Now that sounds good. Going to have to check it out at some point. I've been building more along the lines of emplacements in various spots, since the spawn points of attackers can be right in the middle of your settlement. Only places I usually wall up are wherever Mercer Safehouse is, and the Castle if I'm playing with the Minutemen.

One thing I've found with Ground, it has multiple heights on snap points so you can build up "steps" and tiers extremely easy by shifting your points of view up/down. Makes it extremely easy to level off that bumpy and cratered Commonwealth terrain.