Need help designing a vault

[Damplel]

So im a potato who lacks any kind of creative thinking and whenever i try to desing my own vault it just looks horrible, anyone know any good guides to help with my problem?

[casualsailor]

Well I think your problem is that you are trying to "desing" your vault when you should be trying to design it.

But seriously. You're best bet is just to look at some designs and follow the programmers creed.

Good programmers borrow from other programmers. Great programmers steal from them outright.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fallout+4+vault+design

[B...]

Get a piece of paper out, draw the outline of the cave section(s) that you wish to build in. Make a list of things that you think you will need to build (resident quarters, hydroponics, water supply, mess hall, overseer office, security, bar, etc....). Then sketch out a few examples of your possible vault layout (don't forget that you can build up) decide wjhat layount you like best before you start. Build a small section (with many saves) first until you get the hang of it. Avoid decorating rooms too much until you know you are happy with what you have created. Trail and error.

[ChemicalBacon]

Just ♥♥♥♥ around.
designing settlements, like painting, drawing or any otehr creative activity takes a large amount of creative destruction.
I've built some settlements out of an entire kit, looked at it and said "wow this is garbage" and torn the whole thign down to start again. It's part of the creative process.

[Rmanwide]

What I did. My best idea came at the end, after the Overseer's office.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=753779454

[Nite69]

whatever you do stick to single floor when building I had issues with settlers working on stairs when doing multi floor, the settler pathing will break when they climb the stairs for some reason

as for what to build start with the basics first a place to do crops for food, place to sleep, and activate the water pump in the east sector (it will need 4 x 5 power generators or 2 x 10 power ones hooked together)

[Krajacek]

no idea what to do, let alone connect the seperate vault areas. If any ofyou are nasty about it, I will cry :P . But seriously, be nice about it and any tips VERY appreatiated!

[Krajacek]

this DLC would rock for a real construction foreman . . . which I am not

[Krajacek]

great video, I take it that obviously raiders and other enemies can get it. CLOSE the vault door sillybutt !!

[mfree]

Graph paper and colored pencils, swear by 'em when it gets rough.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=747926345

[Nite69]

Originally posted by mfree:

Graph paper and colored pencils, swear by 'em when it gets rough.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=747926345

lol wow

[mfree]

That's nothing, I freehanded the rest of the sectors once I had the hang of it, only needed to graph out one floor in N sector that I couldn't figure out where to place an apartment block hallway to get the best division.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=744168001
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=744167922
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=744167188
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=742815836
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=741513792
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=774636056
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=772694983
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=780417438
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=780417480

[Nite69]

no mods at all on any of that mfree? surprised ya had enough build space, impressive

[mfree]

No mods, just pipe gun scrapping when I hit the build limit.

Got zones A,N,T,D,R,U,M (Atrium, North, Theater, inDustrial, Research, Utilities, Museum), I've shown you a part of A (that's what's on the papers), part of T, and the beginnings of construction in U.

D has a manufacturing center, a robotics lab, and 15 individual apartments (complete with bathrooms), N has a library, barber shop (technically those are in A but they're past the 'signage' for Hall North on A side), publishing house, 4 apartments, 1 large family apartment, and a dorm. M is a huge open space but has a curator's office/quarters and a restoration workshop, T is the theater itself, backstage area, and the director's office/quarters, U is the pumphouse and utilities office and soon the main reactor room and maintenance/shop/storage area, and R is kind of crammed into the back of A to accomodate some emergency exit pathing and not waste space, but has a research reactor (a super) and a laboratory.

Everything else is in A, all the shops, bunch more housing, etc. etc. Except for a 'bodega' in D zone. With all the apartments/dorms and not counting attached quarters (all the shops have keeper's 'perk' quarters) the vault should sleep 52-60 people very comfortably.

And at the moment there are 4 people in it and about half the shops in the atrium are 'decorated', fleshed out. Still building!

[mfree]

What the helll, here's a link to my first awful stream and the second awful stream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtVNiN62OOM skip to 12:50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbww3H9ilqQ skip to 1:52 (got that one working a lot quicker)

Hopefully it spurs some ideas for you, I've made some mistakes in mine that are too deeply embedded to 'fix' and so have been worked around, like having no buildable corridor space left to connect A to R zone, and having a convoluted stairpath to get to an 'emergency exit' in the clothing shop storage room on the 3'rd floor and a door next to the classroom on 4'th floor, otherwise you're walking a full loop around the vault space to get there).

[Kalsu]

Unless you're goin to use exploit to increase the size , you should think small first and add stuff after.
Build a simple room with everything you would need in it (minus crafting and shop) like furniture and lights. Think like a big open loft instead of connecting rooms.
Once this is done , you can start to add/connect stuff to it like a corridors or rooms. Just experiment and find the stuff you like but keep it small at first. Don't expect to build something nice right off the bat.

After doing that you should start to get a feeling of how big you're allowed to build in the area and what items you like to build so you should have no problem planning for bigger stuff.
Also finding a theme can help with creativity.

That's how i do it anyway ;P