Scavenger workstation, Purpose explained, clarification needed

[TheBlueFox]

The scavenger station is a curious device. But I'm not entirely sure on it's actual in game effects. Here's what I know based off the game's own explanations.

The scavenger workstation:
Increases the amount of scrap materials that your assigned workers return to the workbench as they gather materials.

Workers:
Idle settlers not given a task will periodically return materials to the workbench (This is explained in a random loading screen tooltip)


So, in theory, assigning a worker to the station (Enter resource mode, hit USE on worker, then hit USE on the workstation to assign him to the task) will cause that worker to generate more random materials. I figure it's a good thing to put ANY worker not assigned to a task on one of these.

BUT!

Do you need to "talk" to the worker and tell him to search for materials? Do you need to do anything? Is it passive? Has anyone noticed it working?

I have a 2 man settlement, I'm going to put one person on food production and the other person on scavenger duty. Then I'm going to remove ALL junk from that settlement and check back on it periodically to find out, but does anyone have any input?

[TheBlueFox]

Bump?

[Anonyma]

bumping with you
I have 2 workers assigned to it, for a good few days of in game time and nothing has happened that I know of. maybe they store it in the workshop? no idea

[TheBlueFox]

Yes, they're supposed to add it directly to the stash in your workshop, there's no need to actually interact with the person or the station, to my knowledge. The problem is I don't write down everything I have in my stations, so I can't tell how functional they are

[Teirdalin]

I believe it's just to assign a worker's job to specifically be scavaging for materials.

[TheBlueFox]

True, but by how much is kind of what i'm after. I'm trying to see the impact they have, or if they do something I'm not aware of.

[HeplMeh]

This is just a random guess but, maybe the scavanger workstation has a radius of collection when a settler is assigned to it. Maybe we need to move it around or place multiples down where there are various items to be scavanged. As a way to save us from manually clearing all the trashed settlements maybe? Just my thought.

[TheBlueFox]

Im sorry, but that would make no sense. Clearing up trash manually is much faster than building a station and assigning a worker to it

[JW]

I built up my settlement in Sanctuary and just recently built a scavenger station and assigned Codsworth to it. Only a day or so past, but I went to the Red Rocket Truck Station near by and found a smattering of parts that I can't remember off the top of my head -- 9 Glass, 12 Steel, 20 Wood? Something along those lines. I'm not sure if the workstations automatically regenerate but I thought I'd share it nonetheless :P

[HeplMeh]

Originally posted by TheBlueFox:

Im sorry, but that would make no sense. Clearing up trash manually is much faster than building a station and assigning a worker to it

It's tedius and boring to do it at every settlement, to just set up a workstation and then go off and do other side quests then come back and its done sounds less grindy to me.

[SuperSxyNerd]

It makes it so that your worker assigned to each station generates a good amount of materials over a 24 hour period. This includes uncommon and rare components. If you are someone who is tired of picking up EVERYTHING and only wants to pick up the extra rare ♥♥♥♥ so you can focus more on the game and less on picking crap up and banking it all the time then you want these. Any settler you don't have assigned to a farm or shops etc should be doing these. The more you have with a settler assigned the more materials. Its very worth it especially if you DO NOT have the local leader perk from 6 charisma to make trade shops and supply routes etc as you will be self sufficent to a degree (its somewhat random on what you get) at each settlement through these generations.

[ImHelping]

Scavenger stations suffer the same issue as more obvious things like food crops.

Some people it works great, other people (like myself) it basically never ticks over.

I've had four people farming about 20 or so assorted food plants all assigned with the green man icon and seeing all of them use gardening tools (even from the wrong side of a picket fence).

15 levels and countless trips back to drop off my hoarder piles of junks and weaponry later, I've gotten less food than I have crops (And yes I know most foods count as 0.5 on the meter, but mutafruits are 1).

The only times my food gets notable spikes is when I pick the damn stuff myself. Even after all this time.

Scavenger stations, you can't even do that.

But plenty of people apparently have their settlements "working perfectly" so, you know. some of us are just unlucky with Bethseda Game Issues TM

[Artfu1D0dger]

a lot of settlement stuff seems to take after fallout shelter, i'm wondering if outfitting your settlers with +luck gear helps?

[Hellrazer001]

Is there a Manual for this game ?

It is supposed to be made by an AAA Company and had a heap of Money spent on Hype and Advertising, yet Most people do not even know how half the things in the game are supposed to work.

[Spocks Toupee]

Originally posted by Hellrazer001:

Is there a Manual for this game ?

It is supposed to be made by an AAA Company and had a heap of Money spent on Hype and Advertising, yet Most people do not even know how half the things in the game are supposed to work.

Yea, "Digital Distribution" was supposed to save the Developers AND the Game Buyers money, because there would be no printing costs.
Yet, once Digital Distribution became the norm, the prices of games jumped from $39.99 to $59.99.
Go figure.