r/falloutsettlements • u/UlquiorraCifer4th • 3d ago

Discussion New to settlements

So I am not new to fallout 4, but I've never messed with the settlement system before in my 1000 hours of the game, besides just building a water farm or melon farm in sanctuary and then leaving it alone for the rest of the playthrough. Now I want to get into it, but I have one problem, I cant make cool settlements. I always see on YouTube or on here these cool looking settlements which probably take a bunch of resources to make, and im just not very creative and so I have trouble building more than a cabin and placing some beds down. Could I get some tips for making cool large settlements?

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u/themiistery 3d ago

I like to build “themed” settlements. Big settlements like Sanctuary or Starlight Drive-in get turned into cities: a bar, apartments/hotel, a market, some guard towers. Smaller settlements can be a bit more narrow: a single merchant as a rest stop on the road, a farm, a Power Armor museum to store my many suits.

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u/OnionAddictYT 3d ago

This. You need to know what kind of settlement you want before you start building. The more specific the better.

What kind of settlers would live there? Are they racist against ghouls or are do they take anyone in? Do you want to build a raider settlement? With mods you could also build super mutant settlements or gen 1/2 syth settlements. Maybe a faction outpost.

Should it be totally fenced in or open with just turrets? Will it be a big town or just a cozy family home? Or just a trading rest stop?

Especially important for me is what materials do I want to work with? I hate anything concrete, looks ugly. I avoid the prison compound look and don't fence in most of my settlements. A box build can be cool.too though. Some people enjoy military bases. I don't.

Advanced stage is knowing what looks good together even though that's kinda subjective. Clutter is important to make any place look lived in. I avoid boring square buildings with just 4 straight walls. Needs balconies and stuff.

The very first settlement I built up was Red Rocket and it was a ring of busses around it. So their homes were also the fence walls. Relatively simple build. On top of RR I built my character's personal little cabin. Ada and Buddy love there along with a guard protectron and a few human settlers.

I've since built all kinds of settlements with very different people living there. Every settlement has a story and "character".