How do you set up supply lines, and how do they work?

[Iso Koala]

I have 10 charisma and 2 perks in local leader and 2 in the bartering perk too.

I want to set supply lines between all my settlements, so first I go to Covenant, where I have 15 people, and full of food, water etc., to set a line between that and Sanctuary. But, no matter who I try, I do not get the option to choose Assign Supply lines, what gives?

So now I go to Sanctuary, and there I can assign some random Settler for supply line to Covenant. So I do that. After a day, week, I see nothing happening. I cannot access my worskshop stuff from any other settlements, as I thought I could do.

I thought I could be able to set supply lines from all the sub towns to my main Sanctuary, and this way access to my workshop inventory everywhere, share water etc. Neither of these things works, as I cannot put sub town people to supply lines, either I can use worksshop goods anywhere.

And yes, those other settlements are under minutmen and I can construct at them normally.

[Dex]

This guy made an awesome post that didn't get nerely enough attention. You should check it out.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/492378265880656155/

[siztem]

supply lines don't transfer food or stuff like that, just building materials. If you've got 50 wood at A. 20 wood at B, and you make a supply line between the two, you now have 70 wood at both.

[PeppersGhost]

Linking your settlements with supply lines provides the following benefits:

When building at a workshop or using a crafting station inside a settlement, you can use the inventory of all linked workshops/crafting stations (though the shared items will not all show up in the workspace, they will automatically be used when crafting/building).

Even non-junk items will be shared, so long as they are in your workspace (such as mods or items like Purified Water); they will automatically be used when a recipe calls for it.

Even Bottlecaps will be shared, so long as they are in a workspace (common if you have many different settlements with stores). This is most noticeable if you try to build a new store (which requires some number of caps); your caps in settlement mode may be much higher than the caps in your inventory; it is possible to build stores exclusively from caps stored in workspaces throughout all your settlements.

Excess food/water will be used to supply the settlements in the supply network with shortages; this is only indicated by the normal "red" display for food/water shortages being green. Moreover, it may not turn green immediately; doing something to force the UI to update, such as assigning another settler to a defense job may correct this.

In your PIP Boy "Workshop" menu, the game may still show a food/water shortage in settlements that have less food or water than their population, but so long as you have supply lines established, all that matters is the total population compared to the total food and water production you have within your connected supply network.

Fallout Wiki

[Iso Koala]

Originally posted by DexterousGecko:

This guy made an awesome post that didn't get nerely enough attention. You should check it out.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/492378265880656155/

Thanks, it explains what the lines do when they work well.

What I still dont get though, is the very basic thing ;
Why I cant assing people to supply lines from Covenant and other sub cities? Can I do this only from Sanctuary?

[siztem]

You can only assign non-named NPC's to supply lines (e.g., you can only assign Settlers, and not Jim), and all the folks in Covenant are named NPC's

[Iso Koala]

Yes I know, but, I have 16 people in Covenant, including just Settlers, and they dont have the assign on them either.

[siztem]

Huh, that is weird... I don't know why that is.

But as for just-Sanctuary, no, you can assign settlers from other settlements besides Sanctuary.

[Jesse]

Do you have random settlers in Covenant or only the people that used to live there anyways ( depending on how you finished the Covenant quest ) ? Some named NPC's might not be available to be sent as provisioners.
Edit: Whoops sorry, when I sent my reply this question was just answered lol

[Iso Koala]

Hmm, ill give it a try from other towns later. Maybe send a group of settlers to some other places and see if I can get them to work from them. Covenant is no go nevertheless. Maybe they dont want to work for me because their happiness is like 30..

[siztem]

Originally posted by Iso Koala:

Hmm, ill give it a try from other towns later. Maybe send a group of settlers to some other places and see if I can get them to work from them. Covenant is no go nevertheless. Maybe they dont want to work for me because their happiness is like 30..

Haha, low happiness might be an issue, I dunno. But nevertheless, if you really need supplies at Covenant, assign someone from another settlement to go to Covenant and the materials will be made available there - a supply line isn't a one way deal.

[Sparse Dunes]

Transports building materials. Due note the farther the point is the greater the risk the caravan can die.

What I do is have a main supply line and have it branch out to two three locations and do that again with a few other settlements.

[Iso Koala]

They can die? So maybe that happened to the guy I sent to make a supply line from Sanctuary to Covenant.

[siztem]

I don't think they really die (at least not from my experience). But they can get held up in combat, in which case the supply line will be temporarily suspended until the combat ends

[Antimateria82]

Originally posted by siztem:

supply lines don't transfer food or stuff like that, just building materials.

Well damn! I tought it would. One point wasted but luckily that isn't a big deal but still sucks. I wanted my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ watermelons. =)