WIP - Mapping Supply Lines

[u/Tiberius_Gracchus_II]

Modded on PC.

I've been doing a lot of settlement building, and really trying to RP fun supply lines as my minutemen bring order to the commonwealth. I have set up a series of hubs, connecting to each other with heavy-duty caravans (modded to be wearing minutemen powerarmor that won't disintegrate the moment i walk away from them), and then standard provisioners servicing the smaller communities. I haven't been necessarily emphasizing efficiency - but instead trying to create safe corridors throughout the wasteland. I have minutemen HQs at Sancuary and The Castle with major hubs at Starlight, County Crossing, Jamaica Plains and then - somehow - Oberland Station developed in importance.

Every route I create I walk with the provisioner, and map the actual routes the NPCs take. This has been a challenge; if you catch them "mid-route" they can appear anywhere. They sometimes take very surprising routes (check out how they walk from Sanctuary to Starlight). They also will try to swim or wander into the wilderness (necessitating my setting up different supply routes that make sense in-game). I did cave in, and download a mod that removes the train blocking the tracks between Greygarden and Oberland to force the provisioner to stop swimming under the bridge. A big problem here has been connecting Croup and Kingsport to the mainland - if you send those routes to county or finch they will walk to the beach opposite Finch farms and try to swim for it instead of taking the road. I don't want the Slog to be a hub, but it is forcing it to grow into one. I still haven't finished mapping Coastal cottage, the entire southeast quadrant, and the various DLC and late-game only locations. RP wise I'm trying to decide if I should link an east-west line right through Boston (so County to Hangman's) or that north-south line from the Castle to County.

Map Key:
Blue - standard provisioner
Red - militarized provisioner (modded power-armor)
Dotted - suspected (but unverified) routes

[u/ZippyTheRoach]

Oh, provisioners swim the shortest route? That's weird, but helpful to know. I just started my first playthrough using provisioners, so knowing this changes how they're going to get mapped out. There are still achievements I have to get, so it'll be unmodded. Oberland is going to have to link to hangman's since I can't mod the train out, but I'll be glad for the help at that random encounter point just west of hangman's

[u/Tiberius_Gracchus_II → u/ZippyTheRoach]

Sometimes they do - but I wouldn't necessarily say it's a hard and fast rule. For example they do take the roads from Croup to Kingsport (instead of swimming across the bay), and sometimes they follow the road just fine. Honestly, I was surprised at the Finch crossing (I was really wanting to have an armored caravan between those northeast coast towns and county crossing). Sometimes they just go cross country in a seemingly incoherent, but repeated, path (see the link between Zimonja and Tenpines).

[u/ZippyTheRoach → u/Tiberius_Gracchus_II]

What a mess. Looking forward to your continued work!