Settlement ''happiness''

[fytogili]

Yeah i dont have a clue what settlement ''happiness'' does, if its possible to reach 100 and/or if it impacts anything. Like bruh on the first day (Covenant) ive dramatically increased the beds, food and water supply, more security, even shops, doctors and barbers and yet the settlement's happiness dropped from 37 to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 20. I might as well scrap the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ beacon, pack the big ass metal gear Rex in my back pocket and kill all these ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ besides Deezer, Patricia and Penny (they have their materialistic worth)

[fytogili]

Screenshot https://ibb.co/j4cMLnN

[Bored Peon]

What happiness affects:
- Food consumption, higher happiness consumes less.
- Settlement production, higher happiness is more production.
- Recruitment chance, something like 25% + Happiness/2
- Unallying, if happiness is low enough (like below 30% it can trigger the settlement becoming unallied.)

Biggest happiness penalties:
- Bed not sheltered -20
- Not enough beds - 20
- Not enough water - 20
- Not enough Food -20
- Not enough defense -20
- Recent death in population -20 (per death)

The problem with unsheltered beds is you get penalized for having one, whether it gets used or not. Covenant has some beds that came with the settlement that have a bug with them.

You have a few choices to fix the beds:
- Scrap them with a scrapping mod.
- Use the console to remove them.
- Assign someone to each bed manually and pray that works.

[Volfogg]

One thing I've noticed early is that probably pre-existing structures hardly count as sheltered environment for beds, might have to make custom homes. Hard to tell. I have 30+ happiness and growing in Sanctuary early-game with beds in ruined homes, but the moment I unlock Abernathy, Abernathy is already dropping.

[Relic62]

Just my little take on it, my settlement size is usually 20 on avg, thats with all beds undercover, all stores, 1 of each lvl1, 4 guard stations on avg sometimes 3, and 5/6 scavenger stations. Enough water/food for their needs and plenty of defence. The happy hovers at around 80% except Greygarden as its robots and will default to 50%. As mentioned Covenant is bug ridden so its best to not use it period.

Sanctuary hovers around the 90 mark with 10 cats lol. You need to scrap all existing beds using the console if you cannot delete them, click on the bed and use either disable or markfordelete. Abathnathy get rid of the existing beds and put new ones in a built undercover location. The Slog same there get rid of all the beds as they are considered to be under working showers. I delete/disable all beds at all working settlements and put all beds undercover and I do not not have any problems then.

To get the 100% achievement as above one settler in one location assigned to a bar and food and water stored in the workbench, just periodically check on it and you will get to the 100% mark.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Volfogg:

One thing I've noticed early is that probably pre-existing structures hardly count as sheltered environment for beds, might have to make custom homes.

Actually it is an assignment issue, I think. When the settlement ownership is swapped to the player the NPCs currently living there are assigned to the "old object" which has the old faction ownership and the NPCs are not in your faction. Assigning the settlers to their beds is supposed to fix the problem because it fixes the ownership issue.

Personally I find it easier to just remove them and replace them.

[fytogili]

Heres something that also annoys the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ outta me... I added weapon mods and gave EVERYONE stupidly lethal weapons.. Im talking KILL DEATHCLAW IN LESS THAN A SECOND lethal. Everyone is equipped with AKS74U submachineguns, AK47 assault rifles and HKG3 battle rifles capable of killing you in mere seconds. Now why does this annoy me? Because even though the settlements are now a force to be recon with and are a danger to even you yourself, if i dont visit them when they are ''attacked'', theyll lose!!! HOW?!?!?!??! And when i visit, all the gunners, bandits or robots are brutally murdered in mere seconds with deadly accuracy!! Its all an inconvenience

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by fytogili:

.... if i dont visit them when they are ''attacked'', theyll lose!!! HOW?!?!?!??! And when i visit, all the gunners, bandits or robots are brutally murdered in mere seconds with deadly accuracy!! Its all an inconvenience

If you do not attend the defense then the settlement NPCs, settlement walls, settlement turrets and such are not loaded to determine the outcome.

That gives you the basic formula to win or lose, which the best chance at winning is like 50/50 chance.

If you have the CC Ambush Kit using a remote camera in a settlement counts as you "being there." However you still have to go there to talk to the NPCs anyways...

[Longhaul]

Originally posted by fytogili:

Heres something that also annoys the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ outta me... I added weapon mods and gave EVERYONE stupidly lethal weapons.. Im talking KILL DEATHCLAW IN LESS THAN A SECOND lethal. Everyone is equipped with AKS74U submachineguns, AK47 assault rifles and HKG3 battle rifles capable of killing you in mere seconds. Now why does this annoy me? Because even though the settlements are now a force to be recon with and are a danger to even you yourself, if i dont visit them when they are ''attacked'', theyll lose!!! HOW?!?!?!??! And when i visit, all the gunners, bandits or robots are brutally murdered in mere seconds with deadly accuracy!! Its all an inconvenience

Get the settlements defence right up there helps to.
I ended up just using the Happy Maker mod from Nexus.
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/11134
Mod will take care of all settlements needs and lets me just concentrate on building huge outposts.
I would suggest the Sim Settlements mods as well as it can literally build huge settlements with a click of a button lol.

[fytogili]

Originally posted by Longhaul:

Originally posted by fytogili:

Heres something that also annoys the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ outta me... I added weapon mods and gave EVERYONE stupidly lethal weapons.. Im talking KILL DEATHCLAW IN LESS THAN A SECOND lethal. Everyone is equipped with AKS74U submachineguns, AK47 assault rifles and HKG3 battle rifles capable of killing you in mere seconds. Now why does this annoy me? Because even though the settlements are now a force to be recon with and are a danger to even you yourself, if i dont visit them when they are ''attacked'', theyll lose!!! HOW?!?!?!??! And when i visit, all the gunners, bandits or robots are brutally murdered in mere seconds with deadly accuracy!! Its all an inconvenience

Get the settlements defence right up there helps to.
I ended up just using the Happy Maker mod from Nexus.
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/11134
Mod will take care of all settlements needs and lets me just concentrate on building huge outposts.
I would suggest the Sim Settlements mods as well as it can literally build huge settlements with a click of a button lol.

Bro is 55 defense not high enough??

[carl]

Originally posted by fytogili:

Originally posted by Longhaul:

Get the settlements defence right up there helps to.
I ended up just using the Happy Maker mod from Nexus.
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/11134
Mod will take care of all settlements needs and lets me just concentrate on building huge outposts.
I would suggest the Sim Settlements mods as well as it can literally build huge settlements with a click of a button lol.

Bro is 55 defense not high enough??

Actually yeah, it isn't. Defense has to be equal of Settlers + Food + Water. So if you have 20 settlers, with 20 food, and 20 water, you need a defense of 60+ if you want it to never be attacked, but if you have stores, then it's going to be another 10+ for every store. Those defenses ain't cheap man.

[carl]

Also Settlement happiness is sort of more like a representative of the amount of control you have over the settlement, if it drops to zero, you will be no longer allied to said settlement.

[carl]

Plus, covenant really isn't designed in mind if you do end up siding with the mad doctor, it has really a lot of issues when you do end up owning it with the remaining covenant NPCs that are still alive, except dezer. Like Jacob giving you radiant quests to clear [x] without any voice acting, just an eerie silence commanding you to do the job. If possible, load a save and kill em all, then take over the settlement by force. It is the morally correct thing to do.

[fytogili]

Originally posted by carl:

Originally posted by fytogili:

Bro is 55 defense not high enough??

Actually yeah, it isn't. Defense has to be equal of Settlers + Food + Water. So if you have 20 settlers, with 20 food, and 20 water, you need a defense of 60+ if you want it to never be attacked, but if you have stores, then it's going to be another 10+ for every store. Those defenses ain't cheap man.

♥♥♥♥♥♥? What if i rack up the defense all the way above 100? Will that be enough?

[carl]

Originally posted by fytogili:

Originally posted by carl:

Actually yeah, it isn't. Defense has to be equal of Settlers + Food + Water. So if you have 20 settlers, with 20 food, and 20 water, you need a defense of 60+ if you want it to never be attacked, but if you have stores, then it's going to be another 10+ for every store. Those defenses ain't cheap man.

♥♥♥♥♥♥? What if i rack up the defense all the way above 100? Will that be enough?

If the amount of settlers + water + food exceeds 100, then no. I've had the castle attacked by a pretty amazing force of super mutants, just because I had 3x the amount of water than defenses I had, and I had more than a 100 defenses.

[Sea Prince Gillywix]

Originally posted by carl:

Originally posted by fytogili:

♥♥♥♥♥♥? What if i rack up the defense all the way above 100? Will that be enough?

If the amount of settlers + water + food exceeds 100, then no. I've had the castle attacked by a pretty amazing force of super mutants, just because I had 3x the amount of water than defenses I had, and I had more than a 100 defenses.

Spare no expense when it comes to defenses.