Settlement Supply Lines

[Crystal Sharrd]

What's the purpose of a settlement supply line, can I use it the empty settlements I've made into personal bases, and is there anything else I should know about them?

[Bobby Digital™]

linked settlements are able to share junk materials for building up settlements. basically you don't have to physically haul the wood/steel/concrete etc.

[Bobby Digital™]

i play on survival, so no fast travelling. i use hangman's alley as my base of operations and i store all my junk there. if i feel like building up a different settlement, i will link said settlement to hangman's alley, then don't have to haul the materials.

[kkitts]

Supply lines 101:

When you acquire a new settlement, it's empty and it doesn't have a supply line. You have to bring in enough materials to create a small generator and a radio signal beacon tower. When you do that, go into workshop mode, and when the first settler comes along into your green zone, highlight him / her and choose Supply Chain. Select Sanctuary Hills for all supply chains, in case you should ever lose a settlement (you shouldn't - reload if you do).

When you assign the settler to the supply chain, in a surprising turn of events, all of the items in every one of your settlement workbenches become available *immediately* at your new settlement. You only need one settler for this, so don't waste any more on it. As you acquire junk, drop it in your workbenches, and this technique will get your bases up and running almost as soon as you acquire them. Some components will run out quickly as you get better turrets through Science! perks, such as circuitry, aluminum, steel, copper, and others. You can scrap highly modded weapons to help with this, but you sacrifice getting caps for them; still, it's a good deal sometimes, as highly modded weapons can get you as much as 25 aluminum with the Scrapper perk maxed out, plus circuitry for the Recon mods, etc.

[MortVent]

Caps are never a problem, materials can be (especially if you use robots a lot)

What I find is advantageous is the mechanist lair makes a good supply hub. Use basic robot provisioners instead of settlers from the rest of the productive settlements.

This helps with happyness and since the lair has limited build options it makes a good supply hub

[kkitts]

Originally posted by MortVent:

Caps are never a problem, materials can be (especially if you use robots a lot)

What I find is advantageous is the mechanist lair makes a good supply hub. Use basic robot provisioners instead of settlers from the rest of the productive settlements.

This helps with happyness and since the lair has limited build options it makes a good supply hub

I made Jezebel my supply chain from there. :)

[MortVent]

Originally posted by kkitts:

Originally posted by MortVent:

Caps are never a problem, materials can be (especially if you use robots a lot)

What I find is advantageous is the mechanist lair makes a good supply hub. Use basic robot provisioners instead of settlers from the rest of the productive settlements.

This helps with happyness and since the lair has limited build options it makes a good supply hub

I made Jezebel my supply chain from there. :)

I tend to put her as a pink sentry bot hybrid at greygarden for defense.

[watchdog79]

Originally posted by kkitts:

Supply lines 101:

When you acquire a new settlement, it's empty and it doesn't have a supply line. You have to bring in enough materials to create a small generator and a radio signal beacon tower.

Actually, that is not entirely correct. If you have enough settlers elsewhere, just move some to the new one, or simply start the supply line from another settlement.

[Venian]

Supply lines 101a:

You can assign companions as provisioners rather than waste a settler on a supply line. For example, rather than have Codsworth do nothing at your settlement while you travel with someone else, put him to work as a provisioner.

Also, one of the greatest "aha" moments for me has been the realization that I could assign Marcy Long to a supply line. Doing so means never having to hear her whining again. I still hope that one day, her husband Jun would talk to me with Sheffield's voice, saying "Thank you! Thank youuuuuuu!" And if you bump into her on the road later, talk to her, and all you'll hear is nothing but crickets and the wind. Assigning her to a supply line is like installing a shutoff valve on her voice box! ;)

[Zeno]

Originally posted by Venian:

Also, one of the greatest "aha" moments for me has been the realization that I could assign Marcy Long to a supply line. Doing so means never having to hear her whining again. I still hope that one day, her husband Jun would talk to me with Sheffield's voice, saying "Thank you! Thank youuuuuuu!" And if you bump into her on the road later, talk to her, and all you'll hear is nothing but crickets and the wind. Assigning her to a supply line is like installing a shutoff valve on her voice box! ;)

I discovered this early on, and it was a great balm to the spirit, I can tell you. I also generally send Jun packing, as his moping is only slightly less irritating than Marcy’s griping.

I figure, if they’re busy working as provisioners, they’ll have less time to dwell on their loss.

[MortVent]

Originally posted by The Eleatic:

Originally posted by Venian:

Also, one of the greatest "aha" moments for me has been the realization that I could assign Marcy Long to a supply line. Doing so means never having to hear her whining again. I still hope that one day, her husband Jun would talk to me with Sheffield's voice, saying "Thank you! Thank youuuuuuu!" And if you bump into her on the road later, talk to her, and all you'll hear is nothing but crickets and the wind. Assigning her to a supply line is like installing a shutoff valve on her voice box! ;)

I discovered this early on, and it was a great balm to the spirit, I can tell you. I also generally send Jun packing, as his moping is only slightly less irritating than Marcy’s griping.

I figure, if they’re busy working as provisioners, they’ll have less time to dwell on their loss.

I usually put strong as a provisioner after I get his perk... always fun to run into him smacking things around

[Jouni]

Originally posted by sonic65101:

What's the purpose of a settlement supply line, can I use it the empty settlements I've made into personal bases, and is there anything else I should know about them?

Supply lines do 2 things:
1. They share all items in all linked settlements for crafting purposes(these items are not moved anywhere from the settlement).
2. They transfer food and water between linked settlements so you don't need to produce them everywhere if you don't want to. Settlers don't understand this and as such they still complain if their settlement doesn't produce enough food and water for them but those complaints don't affect happiness as long as they get enough to eat and drink through supply line. Supply lines also transfer dirty water for some reason. If you put a pile of it to your workbench then you soon find out that it has been delivered to different settlements all over Commonwealth.

I like to use Hangman's Alley as my supply line hub since it's a central location and you can't produce a lot in there anyway due to limited building area. No need to waste settlers in more productive settlements by assigning them to a supply line. It also provides extra entertainment as a form of occational provisioners vs raiders/mutants fights. Since multiple provisioners often use same routes(due to having same home settlement) they may spawn in groups of 3 or more and easily wipe out raider and mutant encampments if you give them proper weapons.