Weird settlement bug

[AestheticallyOP]

Well basically a bug where somehow the settlement has more populace than what there actually is.

A bug where if I want to assign someone to something the settler will be like ''year sure'' but then keep the current job or never assigns to the stuff I assigned the settler to.

A bug where the number of beds don't show up on the pipboy and somehow it messes with the happiness stat until I fast travel to the location.

I noticed it was at several settlements not only 1.

[Zekiran]

If you are running ANY modded settlements, or using SimSettlements or whatever else is out there, OR if you have EVER changed the values to increase the size of your build limit - congratulations this is working as intended.

The pipboy cannot always be correct.

If you are having trouble assigning settlers to things, SLOW DOWN.

Stop clicking on them. Try one, wait for them to actually be assigned.

There are a few reasons this might happen:

A very full settlement with a very full build budget (or if expanded to infinite: a lot of stuff built)

Playing higher than 60 fps: can experience a very wide variety of issues, including this

Having modded settlements that are too close to one another: a lot of downloaded settlements may overlap and cause the pipboy to think there are double the members in the location, or confuse who is where.

All of these are cosmetic issues except the assignment issue. A few vanilla locations will slow down to a crawl - Abernathy for instance I've always had, even in Vanilla play, settlers not assign for many minutes.

Mainly just be patient and run the game at 60fps only. Don't build too much too close to another settlement. Don't try loading multiple settlement mods that overlap cells or are very very close to one another on the map. Not all settlements are made right, or well enough to be placed properly like that.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

Some wrong information.

The OP is experiencing a cascade of failures with vanilla Fallout 4.

Originally posted by AestheticallyOP:

Well basically a bug where somehow the settlement has more populace than what there actually is.

When your population is increased while away form the settlement the papyrus script has a chance to go corrupt. Sometimes it zeroes out the data and other times it doubles the data it has. Especially if you left any open jobs.

Originally posted by AestheticallyOP:

A bug where if I want to assign someone to something the settler will be like ''year sure'' but then keep the current job or never assigns to the stuff I assigned the settler to.

This is script lag. All settlers in all settlement use the same global queue system. Seeing a delay from the time you order them until the time you hear them accept the order is script lag. (I will explain the cause in a bit) Repeating the order only adds another order to the queue.

Originally posted by AestheticallyOP:

A bug where the number of beds don't show up on the pipboy and somehow it messes with the happiness stat until I fast travel to the location.

This is because of the way the cell system and "inventory system" of a settlement works.

As you travel through the world your Ugrids (which is 5x5 default) load those cells around you. When you walk close enough to a settlement you can end up only loading half the cells in the settlement. The settlement then "updates" to the new "inventory."

Now what is happening is when you do visit your settlements it "updates" to the proper counts of the "inventory" so this can create a bunch of open jobs. Which now causes a big wave of auto-assigning settlers and a massive burst of script lag.

Another major cause of script lag is "ghost plants." Lets say you place 48 plants to get 24 food. While in build mode you decide to move some of those crops while a settler is assigned to them. Well this leaves behind the animation point and the animation point creates a crop that can only be seen as a visible outline in workshop mode. Say you move 6 of those plants, now the game thinks you have 54 plants, so it plays a constant game of re-assigning settlers upon each time you cross in/out of the settlement border. Which is a MASSIVE script lag burst.

Ways to prevent these issues:
1. Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch and Workshop Framework mod fixes the partial loading of settlements. It rewrites the script so that if ANY cells of a settlement loads they ALL load. However there is a side effect of that fix, if you overbuild in Red Rocket, Sanctuary, Abernathy you get what we call Triangle of Death crashes. To me having stable settlements is worth the Triangle issue, I hate running back to fix corruption.

2. NEVER move crops while settlers are assigned to them. Assign them to a scavenger station or something, move the plants then switch them back.
Fixing plants:
-Save your game (you are going to crash)
-Unassign all settlers from plants
-Store all plants including the invisible ones (this where you may crash)
-Rebuild your plants and assign settlers

3. Optional tips:
- Avoid growing too many settlements at once until they are at max population. Once a settlement is at max population it becomes more stable as the new settlers while away no longer occurs.
- Turn beacons on/off as you enter and leave. Maybe use mod or console to spawn settlers.
- Do the tasks and explore areas around a settlement THEN build it to lower partial loading issues.

[AestheticallyOP]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Originally posted by Zekiran:

Some wrong information.

The OP is experiencing a cascade of failures with vanilla Fallout 4.

Originally posted by AestheticallyOP:

Well basically a bug where somehow the settlement has more populace than what there actually is.

When your population is increased while away form the settlement the papyrus script has a chance to go corrupt. Sometimes it zeroes out the data and other times it doubles the data it has. Especially if you left any open jobs.

Originally posted by AestheticallyOP:

A bug where if I want to assign someone to something the settler will be like ''year sure'' but then keep the current job or never assigns to the stuff I assigned the settler to.

This is script lag. All settlers in all settlement use the same global queue system. Seeing a delay from the time you order them until the time you hear them accept the order is script lag. (I will explain the cause in a bit) Repeating the order only adds another order to the queue.

Originally posted by AestheticallyOP:

A bug where the number of beds don't show up on the pipboy and somehow it messes with the happiness stat until I fast travel to the location.

This is because of the way the cell system and "inventory system" of a settlement works.

As you travel through the world your Ugrids (which is 5x5 default) load those cells around you. When you walk close enough to a settlement you can end up only loading half the cells in the settlement. The settlement then "updates" to the new "inventory."

Now what is happening is when you do visit your settlements it "updates" to the proper counts of the "inventory" so this can create a bunch of open jobs. Which now causes a big wave of auto-assigning settlers and a massive burst of script lag.

Another major cause of script lag is "ghost plants." Lets say you place 48 plants to get 24 food. While in build mode you decide to move some of those crops while a settler is assigned to them. Well this leaves behind the animation point and the animation point creates a crop that can only be seen as a visible outline in workshop mode. Say you move 6 of those plants, now the game thinks you have 54 plants, so it plays a constant game of re-assigning settlers upon each time you cross in/out of the settlement border. Which is a MASSIVE script lag burst.

Ways to prevent these issues:
1. Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch and Workshop Framework mod fixes the partial loading of settlements. It rewrites the script so that if ANY cells of a settlement loads they ALL load. However there is a side effect of that fix, if you overbuild in Red Rocket, Sanctuary, Abernathy you get what we call Triangle of Death crashes. To me having stable settlements is worth the Triangle issue, I hate running back to fix corruption.

2. NEVER move crops while settlers are assigned to them. Assign them to a scavenger station or something, move the plants then switch them back.
Fixing plants:
-Save your game (you are going to crash)
-Unassign all settlers from plants
-Store all plants including the invisible ones (this where you may crash)
-Rebuild your plants and assign settlers

3. Optional tips:
- Avoid growing too many settlements at once until they are at max population. Once a settlement is at max population it becomes more stable as the new settlers while away no longer occurs.
- Turn beacons on/off as you enter and leave. Maybe use mod or console to spawn settlers.
- Do the tasks and explore areas around a settlement THEN build it to lower partial loading issues.

Thanks. I will do as follows. Uninstal game and accept defeat.

[Zekiran]

I hope you mean "reinstall".

Your game isn't hopelessly broken until you give up on it. >_>

And yes I think I misinterpreted what your issue was, for my part.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

And yes I think I misinterpreted what your issue was, for my part.

Yes and no. When you have thousands of hours played like me you learn to recognize the issues easier and knowing that one causes another.(with and without mods.)

For instance, if you have only ever played with the UOF4P then you would have no experience with the partial loading of settlements.

Originally posted by Zekiran:

I hope you mean "reinstall".

I hope so too, the OP just needs to install a few mods for bug fixes.

[Zekiran]

*glances at my 3600 hours of settlement building* >_< :D