[SOLVED] Q: County Crossing settlement hard to please?

[Spacehamster]

Hello,
I'm doing my 2nd survival run (aborted the first) but in both runs County Crossing drops happiness for no good reason (42 happiness atm and dropping). I'm about to lose CC soon just like last time and I don't know why. They have everything to be content, well fed and safe.

Is it about locations? Are they unhappy about the Mutants base nearby or other dangers?

In my first run I made a well defended settlement of each one that joined. Then I found out that without a modfix, even huge defenses become flimsy to attacks when game progresses. Not worth my time so I restarted.
So now I only have a few key locations that are important to me and even then I make sure all my crafting mats are safe at Home Plate

But I'd really like to know how to cheer up the people at County Crossing!

- Spacehamster

[Nite69]

just stealth kill the people that already at that settlement and start over, I lost them too and that was how I got the settlement back

It has to be stealth or new settlers that spawn will be hostile to you

[Out Of Bubblegum]

I got annoyed at maintaing all the different settlements. Especially the ones with a small area to build up. So I started using the console to make the settlers movable. Then I move them to a main settlement, like Sanctuary. I clean up the settlement and store everything into the workstation or scrap. Been working fine so far. I also use the rename everything mod to give the unnamed settlers names so I know where they came from. Like Tony and Tina Pine for the Tenpines duo. Been working fine so far. If I get a radiant mission for Tenpines, I just have to go to Sanctuary to talk to them and get the quest. No biggie.

[Nite69]

Yea the way the settlement missions work is the first person to the settlement is the one that gives the mission, so moving them around to other settlements can cause that to happen

I would put that specific settler in unique clothes so ya better keep track of them

[Spacehamster]

Originally posted by =EGC= _Nite_:

just stealth kill the people that already at that settlement and start over, I lost them too and that was how I got the settlement back

It has to be stealth or new settlers that spawn will be hostile to you

In my first survival run I was able to get a new mission from them so they rejoined after completion. Don't know how often I can do that, but still it's annoying. I need a reliable settlement especially when I only want a few of them.

Having flourishing settlements by installing a modfix is something for the future, first I want 1 full playthrough and get a few achievements

[Tin Can]

That's the only settlement I ever got to 100. I put Strong there and he evidently really liked it and so did the settlers.

[Doombringer]

There is nothing special about county crossing.
Happiness is not hard to figure out.
Bed: +10
(if AI has trouble pathfinding to its bed when it is time to sleep it will give up after a while and unassign itself. I always have 2 doors to bedrooms because settlers like to stop in doorways and block everyone else. Make sure you have as many assigned beds as settlers, if not manually assign them all.)
Shelter: +10
(A roof over the bed. A lot of premade buildings might not count, so when in doubt, build the roof yourself. Max happiness 60 without shelter.)
Food: +20
(Should have at least 1 rating/settler, max 30 happiness without Food.)
Water: +20
(Should have at least 1 rating/settler, max 30 happiness without Water.)
Defense: +20
(Should have at least 1 rating/settler)

So base rating should be 80. Robot are pinned at 50 no matter what.
Happiness is calculated per settler, then the average is displayed in the workshop.

Murdering a settler (or brahmin) gives -20 to everyone for a good while...
If a raider settlement generates its own food every one in the settlement gets -3 happiness per food rating (max penalty of -50) - this can be overcome with a mountain of happiness bonus objects.

Some objects add bonus happiness, all happiness bonuses are added together, then divided by the number of settlers and that is added to each non-robot settler happiness (max 100).
So you can not hit 100 happiness with any robots.
The generous payout slot machines from Vault-Tec are +15 bonus happiness.
Pick-Me-Up Stations from Nukaworld are +20 bonus happiness.
level 3 Bar is +40, level 3 medic adds less (+25 or +30, can't remember).
You can just add enough bonus happiness items to get every non-robot to 100.
(assuming they have food/water/shelter)

[Spacehamster]

Originally posted by Doombringer:

There is nothing special about county crossing.
Happiness is not hard to figure out.
Bed: +10
(if AI has trouble pathfinding to its bed when it is time to sleep it will give up after a while and unassign itself. I always have 2 doors to bedrooms because settlers like to stop in doorways and block everyone else. Make sure you have as many assigned beds as settlers, if not manually assign them all.)
Shelter: +10
(A roof over the bed. A lot of premade buildings might not count, so when in doubt, build the roof yourself. Max happiness 60 without shelter.)
Food: +20
(Should have at least 1 rating/settler, max 30 happiness without Food.)
Water: +20
(Should have at least 1 rating/settler, max 30 happiness without Water.)
Defense: +20
(Should have at least 1 rating/settler)

So base rating should be 80. Robot are pinned at 50 no matter what.
Happiness is calculated per settler, then the average is displayed in the workshop.

Murdering a settler (or brahmin) gives -20 to everyone for a good while...
If a raider settlement generates its own food every one in the settlement gets -3 happiness per food rating (max penalty of -50) - this can be overcome with a mountain of happiness bonus objects.

Some objects add bonus happiness, all happiness bonuses are added together, then divided by the number of settlers and that is added to each non-robot settler happiness (max 100).
So you can not hit 100 happiness with any robots.
The generous payout slot machines from Vault-Tec are +15 bonus happiness.
Pick-Me-Up Stations from Nukaworld are +20 bonus happiness.
level 3 Bar is +40, level 3 medic adds less (+25 or +30, can't remember).
You can just add enough bonus happiness items to get every non-robot to 100.
(assuming they have food/water/shelter)

TY for your reply
I'm keeping a low profile atm because I'm busy questing/exploring. I don't want to attract invaders.

Earlier this evening my CC settlement had 2 people, 3 water, 5 beds, the food CC provides (plenty for 2) and 50 defense. Nice beds in a premade house.

I thought unhappiness was caused by lack of new setttlers so I attracted 2 more. Increased water provision to 6. 10 more defense. Got them new gear, being ready for attacks.

They're stilll negative. I'll let them abandon me 1 more time, then have then rejoined after a quest. If the same happens after that then CC is dead to me. Minimal investing, let the settlers solve their own problems.

[HummV_70]

CC should be fairly easy to maintain happiness. Make sure you have beds assigned, jobs assigned and that your defense is double what your food, water, and beds add up to and there should be no problems keeping at least 80.
(Unless you have a ton of robots, ie I have all my robots in Starlight branching out to all the other settlements for trade/supplies and its hard to keep happiness there, but it's above 60 so I don't care.)

[Doombringer]

Something is messed up with your workshop variables or something if you have food and everything else and it keeps falling.

Open console, type the following:
0009b1db.getav 00127238
0009b1db.getav 00127237
0009b1db.getav 00127242

0009b1db is the ID of the County Crossing workshop, so those are the values being shown.
The 1st value is happiness target - the value the workshop happiness is headed to (workshop happiness only changes by 1-2points/day, target is where it will eventually end up.)
The 2nd value is happiness modifier - this may be what is giving you problems if you have everything else taken care of - if it is a large negative number that is the problem. (usually this is 0)
The 3rd value is total bonus happiness - the bonus from all +happiness objects in the settlement.

Please post the numbers you get from those getav's.

You can drop out of survival mode to check stuff with the console (then load a previous save afterwards), but you won't be able to fix anything without a console enabled in survival mod.

[Spacehamster]

Originally posted by Doombringer:

Something is messed up with your workshop variables or something if you have food and everything else and it keeps falling.

Open console, type the following:
0009b1db.getav 00127238
0009b1db.getav 00127237
0009b1db.getav 00127242

0009b1db is the ID of the County Crossing workshop, so those are the values being shown.
The 1st value is happiness target - the value the workshop happiness is headed to (workshop happiness only changes by 1-2points/day, target is where it will eventually end up.)
The 2nd value is happiness modifier - this may be what is giving you problems if you have everything else taken care of - if it is a large negative number that is the problem. (usually this is 0)
The 3rd value is total bonus happiness - the bonus from all +happiness objects in the settlement.

Please post the numbers you get from those getav's.

You can drop out of survival mode to check stuff with the console (then load a previous save afterwards), but you won't be able to fix anything without a console enabled in survival mod.

Ty for you reply but does using console commands disable achievements?

btw happiness kept dropping below 40. I cleared Satellite Array location (nearby Mutant place, I already cleared the nearby ghoul area) Yesterday and went questing somewhere else and forget about CC. Today, after spending more playtime elsewhere it seems it's very slowly rising above 40% again.

Maybe clearing the area of hostilities helped, or they simply don't like me being around

[Doombringer]

mods disable achievements, console does not.
(Unless you get the mod that prevents mods from disabling achievements, because that is a thing.)

[Ez Duzit]

Wondering if your happiness problem is the settlement glitch where the game does not properly close the cells when you leave the area. It kills settlement happiness because the game doesn't recognize that everything the settlers need is provided. It might not "see" enough food, or enough beds, etc... The easiest way to fix it is actually pretty simple (if it's the known glitch I'm referring to).

When you are in County Crossing and want to leave, instead of just walking out of the settlement, or fast traveling to another location, just activate workshop mode and then walk outside of the workshop perimeter area. The green workshop boundry will turn red, and after a few seconds workshop mode will automatically close.

For some reason forcing the cell area to close like this solves the problem and everything is then properly accounted for by the game, avoiding settlement happiness dropping.

You have to leave the settlement area [that has the happiness problem] this way each time. Why does it happen? I don't know, but the work around is easy enough and seems to fix the issue.

[Spacehamster]

Originally posted by Ez Duzit:

Wondering if your happiness problem is the settlement glitch where the game does not properly close the cells when you leave the area. It kills settlement happiness because the game doesn't recognize that everything the settlers need is provided. It might not "see" enough food, or enough beds, etc... The easiest way to fix it is actually pretty simple (if it's the known glitch I'm referring to).

When you are in County Crossing and want to leave, instead of just walking out of the settlement, or fast traveling to another location, just activate workshop mode and then walk outside of the workshop perimeter area. The green workshop boundry will turn red, and after a few seconds workshop mode will automatically close.

For some reason forcing the cell area to close like this solves the problem and everything is then properly accounted for by the game, avoiding settlement happiness dropping.

You have to leave the settlement area [that has the happiness problem] this way each time. Why does it happen? I don't know, but the work around is easy enough and seems to fix the issue.

That sounds good, I'll try it right away! Thanks for the info!