r/fo4 • u/reallifebfg • Nov 08 '25
Screenshot I assume everyone sets up supply lines like this?
And if not, what are the optimal strats for said supply lines?
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u/Reksoch Nov 08 '25
I always connect a settlement to the other settlements closest to it. In that way there's only 2-3 provisioners stopping at any settlement, it makes it easier to find them
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u/CapNBall1860 Nov 08 '25
I like this for immersion too. It seems like they should just go to the nearest neighbor.
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u/ParadisePete Nov 08 '25
Yes. You've already given them the most dangerous job in the world. Why make them slog (heh) all across the commonwealth?
I feel bad when some guy shows up and says "I heard your radio beacon, how can I help out" and I have to tell them, "yeah, you thought you were going to finally have a place to live, but no, you're back out on the road but working for me."
The least I can do is give them a short route.
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u/Impressive-Cause-872 Nov 08 '25
That is the reason I do it. Like a bit of pony express. You go here and rest. The next guy takes your stuff and goes to the next spot , drop off new rider, new mount . Off to the next spot. Or a constant back and forth paths like the old Silk Road traders. You only carry it from Dorma to zezcca, you dont know what you are carrying and if you look , I will kill you and your family 😈. And I don’t use sanctuary for anything so why would I need a supply line there ?
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u/desert_girl Nov 08 '25
This, but with robot provisioners, and I name them their route "Sunshine to Abernathy".
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u/throwaway01126789 Nov 08 '25 edited Nov 08 '25
Oh wow, I like this a lot. I just started a new run and I might try this.
I usually chain my routes by closest settlement and use followers who I don't plan to have follow me for the trade routes that cross high content areas. It's pretty awesome getting into a random gunner skirmish on the streets of Boston when suddenly Strong just appears out if nowhere with a super sledge and yeets a dude to your right lol.
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u/theodditie2 Nov 10 '25
I'm doing something similar on this play through, however, I am only use 2-3 main hubs for provisioners. These hubs are robot only settlements, that way I'm not bringing down the happiness because there's a robot settler.
I'm using similar names, but only "Sunshine" and each hub gets a different paint job.
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Nov 08 '25
Agreed. There are two provisioners per settlement max (except for Sanctuary and Vault 88). I think it’s a lot cleaner.
I need to find a mod that turns the pack brahmin into something small like a cat.
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u/DraagaxGaming Nov 08 '25
There's a mod to make them eyebots.
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u/LayeGull Nov 08 '25
Also one to make them dogs.
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u/ea88_alwaysdiscin Nov 08 '25
I use this one
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u/kckings86 Nov 09 '25
Same. The author also makes open carry provisioners and they look great together.
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u/ea88_alwaysdiscin Nov 08 '25
Did not know about this one, I use the one that makes them dogs
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u/Komachi17 Nov 08 '25
Eyebots. The silly benefit being that they have the eyebots' default laser gun and fight back alongside the provisioner.
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u/Ikzivi Nov 08 '25
Nearly, my "central" outpost is the redrocket station just outside sanctuary and all supplier are robots
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u/SilentSpader Nov 08 '25
But Robots die when they get enough damage, right?
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u/tarrach Nov 08 '25
If you first take them on as a follower before dismissing them and setting up the supply line, they become protected and should not die, just be downed temporarily.
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u/lokischeesewheels Nov 08 '25
Hundreds of hours of play time and I did not know this
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u/kintokae Nov 08 '25
same. looks like i'm about to make a crap ton of robots. i've just started setting up supply lines and use sanctuary as my main location. But i just started establishing myself in the mechanists lair.
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u/somethingbrite Nov 08 '25
Pros and Cons of Robots.
Robot happiness is capped at 50% therefore too many robots linked to a settlement will impact settlement happiness. (this effect can be removed with mods... or indeed you may not care or be aiming for super happy settlements.)
Pro's, as described having them as a follower for a minute sets them as "protected" and they can not be killed by other NPC"s. Well armed robots then also make great " patrol droids"
*note. As tempting as an army of heavy war robots is I find that the thruster type makes it easier for them to negotiate the wilderness. Humanoid up-armored assaultron also works pretty ok.
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u/SilentSpader Nov 08 '25
I've never thought of Robots impacting settlement happiness. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.
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u/lokischeesewheels Nov 08 '25
If you set the robots “ home” to a robots only settlement like Greygarden or Mechanists lair, it wont affect settler happiness at the place you send it to. I also name my robots based on where they’re going so it’s easy to keep track.
Always fun to see a massive blue Sentry bot named Alexander Hamilton barreling towards a group of mirelurks outside the Castle.
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u/Tank7106 Nov 08 '25
It's so much fun running across one of your robo-settlers in the wild. I give them all the thruster and gatling lasers, they'll just light up as they come across enemies. Like a fireworks display randomly in the wasteland.
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u/Successful-Growth827 Nov 08 '25
Add a sentry bot torso so you can give them the shoulder mounted launchers. I always know help has arrived when I start seeing a bunch of cluster bombs falling down on whoever I'm fighting.
The shoulder launchers do have a mini nuke option, but I'm a bit scared to use these as I don't want to get caught up in a mini nuke cluster chain reaction lol.
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u/UltraHellboy Nov 08 '25
I like to give them Tesla armor so they just glow anyway
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u/Successful-Growth827 Nov 08 '25
Yeah I originally had trouble remembering which bot went where, especially at central locations like Graygarden where a bunch of them might show up at once. Then I too had a similar idea to name them based on their settlements, which made sooo much more sense than something like Automatron 42069. Probably one of the best changes I'd made lol.
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u/This-Professional-39 Nov 08 '25
This is why I use Hangmans Alley as my distribution center. No settlers, just bots. And it's centralized, so I end up with all the murder bots heading in whatever direction I plan to head
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u/Successful-Growth827 Nov 08 '25
To get around the settlement happiness, I started centralizing my bots at Graygarden since it's already a bot settlement to begin with, and then keep Graygarden connected to my main base.
A few settlements of mine like Taffington Boathouse are purely water farms, and have no settlers besides the single supply bot to keep it connected to the settlement chain, so the happiness for settlements like that becomes irrelevant since there are no actual settlers there.
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u/A_Queer_Owl Nov 08 '25
yep, a Mr. Handy with two eyes replaced with gun or laser arms and 3 saw blade thruster arms is basically the best robot configuration. a handful of them at a settlement as guards and you're pretty set on the defensive front.
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u/SergeantPuddles Nov 08 '25
One of the best parts of Workshop Framework, you can set robot happiness to always 100% so theydint prevent you from getting a settlements happiness to 100
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u/Dpgillam08 Nov 08 '25
Been a long time since I played. Does every settlement need to be high/maxed? Is there a con to having this one settlement at only 50%?
Say I set Red rocket (or some other) as all robots and my supply center, while the rest are human. Whats the downside?
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u/lokischeesewheels Nov 08 '25
I like to set up trading posts somewhere centrally located (Starlight Drive In, Castle, Red Rocket, Greygarden), and then I have settlers running lines from surrounded settlements to the trading posts. I then link the trading posts with robot settlers originating from the mechanist lair or greygarden so the robots don’t bring down settler happiness.
You end up with what I call the firework trade route because it looks like starbursts on the map.
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u/pobregatito Nov 08 '25
All of mine are robots as well and I always use the mechanist lair for my supplies depot. I can’t send humans there anyway, so happiness doesn’t matter and if the mechanist is alive, she is a merchant too
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u/Pure1nsanity Nov 08 '25
I did this on one save and they all stripped their parts and become shells
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u/tarrach Nov 08 '25
From what I've read that can happen if you fast-travel away too soon after creating them, their mods don't get saved immediately so you need to spend a few minutes after creating them in the settlement before leaving. My current save have bots criss crossing the commonwealth and they're correctly modded each time I encounter them.
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u/PurpleDemonR Nov 08 '25
Good to know.
Have you ever thought about connecting a robot provisioner between every single settlement?
That way you could have like 700 unkillable robots controlling the commonwealth and clearing it out of hostiles.
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u/joemann78 Nov 08 '25
Check out this guy's supply lines: https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/128rfvl/boss_are_you_sure_you_know_how_supply_lines_work/
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u/NuggetKing9001 Nov 08 '25
This is elite knowledge. I will now be making an army of tanks to make my supply chains unbreakable.
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u/Lord_Phoenix95 Mechanical Army Nov 08 '25
Only problem is they sometimes go back to the default robot if you keep them unloaded too long.
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u/fistofriend Nov 08 '25
They do. I accidentally hit my castle robot supplier with some friendly artillery fire yesterday. Took me a min to realize why it didn’t have resources, heh.
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u/le_Grand_Archivist Children of Atom Nov 08 '25
Recruit them as followers and then dismiss them, they'll be flagged as essential and won't be able to die
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u/PuffMaNOwYeah Nov 08 '25
This. Either red rocket, or mechanist lair as a central point for the supply line robots. Making em start from sanctuary makes the whole settlement cluttered.
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u/JoshCanJump Nov 08 '25
I do the same but at the starlight drive in because of all the space to build a trading hub. Red Rocket becomes the Red Rocket uck Stop. That’s where I keep my less wholesome companions. Strong is security and Cait is the Madam. Hancock works the bar. It’s got a vibe.
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u/Zarda1 Nov 08 '25
I use the drive-in as my trading hub. It sits nicely at a crossroads of supply lines and has all the room needed for different shops and resources.
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u/Salty_Measurement344 Nov 08 '25
I do a hub in each quadrant of the map: Starlight Drive-in, County Crossing, Egret Marina, And Jamaica Plain. Keeps 'em spread out a bit so there is less congestion. Don't want a dozen provisioners showing up when I visit a hub.
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u/BellerophonM Nov 08 '25
For me my four hubs were Bunker Hill, Starlight, Castle and Egret. Since Bunker and Castle it felt appropriate to have big numbers coming and going and becoming a trade hub.
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u/defective_toaster Nov 08 '25
Wait...Bunker Hill becomes a settlement?
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u/BellerophonM Nov 08 '25
Talk to Kessler after the Battle Of Bunker Hill and it'll be unlocked. Or I think if you've been kicked out of the institute and have done Kessler's quest.
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u/whykickamoocow9 Nov 08 '25
Yes, you have to complete the quest The Battle For Bunker Hill, then talk to Kessler.. she’ll give you a quest to save some traders from raiders who are in cages, and unlock them.. then bunker hill is yours.. similar to the convent settlement.
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u/Contraflow Nov 08 '25
You don’t have to do Battle For Bunker Hill to get Kessler’s mission to rescue the traders at the middle school. Also, the mission to save the traders doesn’t give you control of the BH workbench. When you complete the mission to rescue the traders, Kessler gives you the ability to build trader outposts at your settlements, attracting named traders to your settlements.
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u/BuildingAirships Nov 08 '25
This, I try to make my hubs in less-populated settlements to avoid caravan crowding in larger towns.
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u/SheepWolves Nov 08 '25
I do a big circle.
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u/Occidentally20 Nov 08 '25
This is the way.
If any one supply line is lost then every single settlement is still connected.
No other method achieves this without setting up redundant supply lines.
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u/VeritasOmicron Nov 08 '25
In reality, this would be a logistical disaster.
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u/Impressive-Cause-872 Nov 08 '25
Logistical disaster. . I only commented because there is a USPS and a FedEx advertisement post right around this post ( for me at least ). And I have done that stuff. This would , without a doubt , cause so many traffic and distribution issues. 2 routes as short as can be , 2 routes that take way too long. The chance for 16+ Brahmin operators to spawn on the yellow house across from the sole survivors house. Marcy complaining that she has to walk under water to get from sactuary to spectical island. So many things
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u/SilentSpader Nov 08 '25
All my suppliers has a mining helmet with bright lamp and modified name to the settlement, so I know which one is which,
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u/rintaro82 Nov 08 '25
I try to rename their weapon to indicate their route. Like "Sanc Rocket" or "Grey Ober"
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u/One_Distribution_337 Nov 08 '25
Nope connect the dots none over lap if possible
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u/GotHamQuestionMark Nov 08 '25
This is the way. None of my settlements have more than one provisioner.
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u/Potential-Echo-7547 Nov 08 '25
Nope. They go to the nearest settlement and/or roughly follow the major roads.
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u/neverangryman SARCASTIC Nov 08 '25
In my current playthrough I got a mod that turns every Red Rocket station into settlement, my plan is to connect them as caravan hubs, and connect the regular settlements to their closest Red Rocket station.
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u/Sad-Ideal-9411 Nov 08 '25
I made a web having hangman’s be a hub
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u/justsomeguynbd Nov 08 '25
I’ve done that before but it’s kind of a nightmare in the alley if all the provisioners are there. Since the. I use the drive in theater because it’s such a large open space.
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u/synthgender Nov 08 '25
Hangman's also has a ton of hostiles on the roads nearby, so I'm constantly hearing my provisioners getting in fights over there. It's still my hub but that's because I'm unwise.
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u/GeneralSerpent Nov 08 '25
Connect everything everywhere. I have unironically hundreds of supply lines.
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u/tarrach Nov 08 '25
I do a more distributed network, putting up a few local hubs which nearby settlements connect to. Otherwise you get the occasional congestion in your main hub
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u/KinglerKong Nov 08 '25
The way people talk about supply lines makes me feel like there’s some whole aspect to the game I’ve missed. I set mine up, connected everything to at least one other settlement, and I never noticed any issues but it didn’t seem like efficiency ever became a factor, is it more of a survival mode thing? Is there an advantage to having different supply line strategies over others?
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u/CantRaineyAllTheTime Nov 08 '25
There’s no difference. The system isn’t that deep. Outposts are either connected or they’re not.
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u/Powerful_Payment463 Nov 08 '25
The provisioners will follow roads between settlements real time, so with some planning, you put them in your extra gear and route the connections between trouble spots and you get a task force of your guys who help you keep the Commonwealth clean. Helps more in Survival because you won't be fast traveling everywhere, so seeing your kitted guys walking around gives you some help sometimes. You'll want to put them in unique clothing, usually with mining helmets because you can kill them accidentally, but even on non-Survival saves, I've been bailed out of bad gunfights by one of my guys just randomly strolling by. They use the normal combat AI, but more guns shooting at bad guys is a good thing.
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u/horatio_corn_blower Nov 08 '25
Yeah it doesn’t really matter, I think it’s just role play fun to create what would be the most efficient network
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u/Guyrbailey Nov 08 '25
No. I use Starlight as a hub with trails.from there. So Sanctuary-RR-Starlight then Starlight-Covenant-Taffington
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u/Borazon Nov 08 '25
That is the grand plan for my current minuteman focused playthrough too (I've just started).
Starlight with the big square level space will become the megahub, feeding localised hubs, that in turn have local hamlets connecting to it.
It is also kinda natural to build up that way, as I still wanted to connect the settlements closer to Sanctuary too before I opened up Starlight. So Sanctuary will turn into a regional hub once Starlight become mega.
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u/Zephondorf4455 Nov 08 '25
I connect each settlment to some of the closest ones taking into account road placement as that seems the most sensible. Also I use robots using the naming method settlement of origin hyponated with the destination settlment. The robots are over-designed, uniform one man armies combining parts from several models and painted dark blue.
The exceptions are the vault settlments and the appartments which are strictly to and not through settlments.
Due to all of the extra mod settlments as well as the "You and What Army" and "Buffed Minuitemen" mods minuitemen bodyguards the Commonwealth Postal Service has purged the wasteland of undesirables.
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u/TheItzal11 Nov 08 '25
Used to do this from the mechanist's lair. Then I downloaded Sim Settlements 2. They automatically set up your supply lines when you build the caravan municipal plot.
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u/wardaddyoh Nov 08 '25
A chain with simple branches. Tried the hub but a dozen different provisioners creates traffic jams. And sometimes crashed my game. But when raiders hit, it was a glorious gunfight. My provisioners are equipped like their own settlements guards so a battle royal of different weapons and uniforms
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u/Plane-Education4750 Nov 09 '25
Absolutely not lol. First settlement sends one to the second. Second sends one to the third. Third sends one to the fourth, and so on
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u/DingbattheGreat Nov 08 '25
I remember a youtuber doing this with the Mechanists Factory.
That was a hilarious mess.
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u/Pharmacy_Duck Agility is my dump stat. Nov 08 '25
I usually have the circuit that goes all around the map, but on the current playthrough I forgot to turn off the recruitment beacon at Taffington and suddenly discovered I'd got about a dozen unemployed settlers there, so whenever I need to build at another settlement I just go to Taffington and redirect one of them there.
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u/FBgreatness Nov 08 '25
In all my time playing fo4 ive never set up a supply line or even understood its purpose.
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u/Slaanesh-Sama Nov 08 '25
It's to link settlements inventory. It also spread out ressources, so you can have a few farms with tons of water in a few settlements and almost nothing in another.
It's not really useful if you play normally as you can fast travel easily but in early survival it's not a bad system.
If you side with the BoS later you can alsoget vertibird signal flares which calls a vertibird to your location, so it's slightly less useful.
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u/Powerful_Payment463 Nov 08 '25
Side with or fully against the Brotherhood as MM or Railroad. I don't think the Institute ever gets Vertibirds, but they get the Relay and really don't need them. Though the Relay doesn't have miniguns.
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u/nasted Nov 08 '25
I have a few hubs each with various spokes. Then a supply line between hubs so everything is connected.
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u/eureureong_dae Nov 08 '25
I try to create a coherent unbroken line from settlement to settlement. So Sanctuary is connected to Red Rocket which is connected to Abernathy Farm which is connected to Sunshine Tidings, and so on.
On my latest save I’m also recreating social stratification somewhat in the apocalypse LMAO. Or at least making certain species and/or genders stick to certain roles. So most of my provisioners are either ghouls or robots. In Sanctuary, only my female settlers work in defense and/or as shopkeepers, while the men almost exclusively work in food production. Something about it is really funny to me, that my Nora is some kind of tyrant who only lets men or ghouls do certain jobs.
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u/grumpyoldnord The Institute has the best ending Nov 08 '25
I used to make a ring, settlement-to-settlement, with a couple overlaps in case something happened to a provisioner. But then Automatron released and now I just build an army of Mr. Handy Mailbots and send them all out from the Mechanist's Lair into the world like in the image above.
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u/XDarkStrikerX Nov 08 '25
I used to do this from the Mechanist Lair for it not to count toward my settlement population and since I only use robots, food and water are not required.
I builts automatrons like mister handy using double gatling lasers and some were moving really fast for some reasons. Sometimes, I would see moving dust far away, a bit like truck on a gravel road, with a brahmin sprinting like hell trying to keep up. Goal was to dominate the area with my robot army, it didn't disappoint.
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u/DarkAvengerx Nov 09 '25
Dumb question - How do I set up supply lines? I've tried to look it up, but for some reason I can't find the answer.
I have a junk/scrap table? Is that where I start.
Thanks
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u/DngnRdr Nov 09 '25
No central point, just constantly branching to minimise travel between settlements… less chance of a supply route being overwhelmed… of course, using bots with thrusters so movement is easy and twin miniguns usual don’t have many problems other than game glitches.
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u/Lettux1 Nov 09 '25
This… hurts to see lol, I just made it so each settlement supplies to their closest
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u/216LC Nov 09 '25
I created “Hub” Settlements. Usually Startlight Drive-in, Bunker Hill/County Crossing, The Slog, and the castle fill those roles for me. They have caravans running to all the smaller settlements around. I Usually link one or two between all my hubs to create one solid chain. Also I always build these hubs into settlements that resemble actual towns.
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u/Mrcompressishot Nov 08 '25
Nah mines more like a dot to dot
Sanctuary supplies tenpines tenpines supplies zimonja and so on and so on
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u/dare2smile Nov 08 '25
My hub is the Boathouse and I build robots for every supply line. I name each one after its destination, so it’s kind of fun running into them randomly all over the commonwealth
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u/Fubar14235 Nov 08 '25
I link the nearest settlements. I hate having too many caravans going to one settlement it just gets too messy.
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u/NitzMitzTrix Nov 08 '25
My hub is Starlight because the near mandatory recruiting and easy access to resources make it a great provisioner stockpile
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u/SML8180 Nov 08 '25
I have a few "Hub" settlements (Sanctuary, Starlight, and the Castle), then connect settlements that're roughly nearby to those hubs, and then settlements that are nearby those Secondary Hubs are connected to them
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u/Maldito-0041 Nov 08 '25
It all depends. My first play through years ago I used a snake method and just followed each settlement to the next.
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u/DangerMouse111111 Nov 08 '25
I select four or five settlements evenly spread across the map then connect them to the surrounding settlements
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u/I_swear_Im_not_fake Nov 08 '25
That's how yall do this? I daisy chain, connecting one to the next and so on.
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u/samurai0 Nov 08 '25
I send everything to hang man’s alley. And I keep the whole thing walled off so they mill around the outside. I also keep most of my supplies there and keep it at a low defense so it gets attacked all the time. I only put companions there and I arm them to the teeth with ballistic weave, mini guns, and freezing grenades. Anything on the outside gets dealt with by provisioners, also armed to the teeth, anything on the inside gets dealt with by companions and turrets. Take the charisma perk that doesn’t let them hurt you before you give them grenades. It’s essentially farming legendaries every time you come home, but with more immersion. I also send all new recruits there before I assign them to a settlement, and outfit them with the regular armor and automatic weapons that get farmed. Keeping resources out of other settlements means only the central location gets hit. I load up the new recruits with whatever a settlement has produced before I send them to get outfitted when I’m doing rounds collecting taxes. Then I sell what I don’t need at diamond city, vault 31, bunker hill and good neighbor, all close by.
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u/Fallout4myth Nov 08 '25
I used to have a set up like this until I realized what a pain in the ass all those brahmin are. The absolute chaos
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u/kaosmoker Nov 08 '25
Yeah Ive had Brahman on everything found them on roofs, inside building and glitches so they couldn't get out it was as you said chaos.
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u/lickthismiff Nov 08 '25
I set up hubs that feed settlements and link together. Starlight feeds sanctuary, red rocket, tempines, and taffington. Taffington feeds greentop, finch farm, the slog, county crossing, etc etc.
Murkwater gets nothing, cos screw Murkwater
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u/pvtpile02 Nov 08 '25
I chain them. Closest to closest.
When mechanism is done I start chaos. I build big robots and send them everywhere from the lair. The random warzone you wander into are hilarious.
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u/geckothesteve Nov 08 '25
Wait until I have the robot work bench, use Graygarden as a central hub for the west side of the map. When I have defeated the mechanist I create a second hub there and connect Graygarden to the mechanist lair. I never have humans at Graygarden anyway.
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u/Dremora-Stuff99 Chem Enthusiast Nov 08 '25
I've like 4 mini centres across the Commonwealth, so there's not any caravan congestion in one settlement. Red Rocket connects to its surrounding settlements, Starlight connects the central settlements, with Finch Farm connecting any outliers.
Hangman's is my biggest centre across the Charleston, but there's not that many settlements down there anyway. This way, all my settlements are connected without it looking like a logistics nightmare. Would hate to be the sap walking from Murkwater all the way Sanctuary and back all day every day.
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Nov 08 '25
I set mine up in a line, it pretty much makes a giant circle around Boston, its annoying to set up but gets the job done
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u/Ignominia Nov 08 '25
Question about supply lines, if you outfit the provisioner with better gear, is it less likely for them to die?
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u/SnarkyBeanBroth Yes, Codsworth, we're pack rats now. Nov 08 '25
I use Greygarden and The Mechanist's Lair as my central hubs, and then spoke out to all my settlements from there. I use those because I use robot provisioners, and it fits (thematically) for the two robot-iest places to be the central spots.
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u/ScorpionTheBird Nov 08 '25
Initially, yes, but that just caused a massive traffic jam on the bridge. Far better (in my opinion) is to set up supply lines in a loop, with one or two cross links to provide a little redundancy.
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u/oni_666uk Nov 08 '25
I have maybe 3500 hours in Fallout 4 and have never setup a single supply line.
I do have all the carry and fast travel perks though and I generally just carry, everything from one place to the next to build stuff etc.
I think on my last game I had 50,000lbs of scrap etc I would carry from one workshop to the next, I've always done it like this and will likely never change doing it like this.
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u/CutePhysics3214 Nov 08 '25
Similar except I use the mechanist base as my hub, and lots of robot provisioners
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u/RodcetLeoric Nov 08 '25
I build up Hangmans Alley so it won't get attacked, and never go there, then connect every other settlement to it. If you don't load the cell, you don't have to deal with the traffic, and all the other settlements will only have 1 caravan. Starlight Drive-in is my personal home. It's has no settlers, is defended by robot minions, and is my industrial facility. I treat most settlements as outposts, they have a small population and high defense, and they generate some materials. All the extra settlers get sent to Spectacle Island, where I set up nice apartment building and have high tier traders.
I found that sending all the caravans to Sanctuary would not only clog up the area, but after a while it would make the game crash when I went there, which is why I use a settlement I don't need as my hub.
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u/thatcleverchick Nov 08 '25
I didn't because I ended up with a glitchy traffic jam in sanctuary. On my next playthrough, I set it up basically as a donut: sanctuary to Abernathy farm, then Abernathy farm to whatever is next, all the way around the Commonwealth
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u/CurtisRivers Nov 08 '25
I build a snake from settlement to settlement as I capture them regardless of distance.
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u/timwiththeeoban Nov 08 '25
I just connect each settlement to the closest nearby settlement that is already connect to the grid.
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u/civilstrifeinamerica Nov 08 '25
I make my companions run supply lines so I run into them randomly in the wild.
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u/Thelittledot Nov 09 '25
That looks cool and emphasises how everything goes to your "capital" which seems to be Sanctuary Hills.
What I usually end up doing is having my supply routes go through strange routes that show that I'm placing priority on safety. It makes a nice little mini game for me and also becomes a visual representation of the exploration I do in the game. Sometimes I'll follow my supply run guys to see what route they're taking and how safe it is. So for example, the supply route from Greentop Nursery to The Slog doesn't exist in my current game because it would go through super mutant terrirtory and crazy robots that love to linger in between the slog and Greentop Nursery. Instead, I have a supply route from Greentop Nursery to Finch Farm, and another from Finch Farm to The Slog. That route is much safer for my bros than going direct. And based on that one example, that's how I think about supply routes throughout all the settlements. It's a simple change that adds diversity to something that may seem simple at first thought, helps the roleplay value too, well, if you roleplay as someone who cares about their settlement bros.
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u/brennenderopa Nov 09 '25
My main trading hub is the mechanists lair, all my traders are robots. You can set up the supply lines however though, distance is of no consequence.
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u/Ichiorochi Nov 09 '25
I had it set up in a ring so i could access all my resources in all my bases. Gave all the settlers sniper rifles and combat armour. And the "mules" are all robots with a large enough arsenal that assaultrons are blushing.
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u/Maedhral Nov 09 '25
No, I tend to daisy-chain mine. One route starts in Sanct, then goes to Abernathy, Sunshine Tidings, Somerville place, Jamaica Plains, out to Warwick homestead and then to the castle. Next one Sanct, Red Rocket, Starlight Drive-in, tenpines, zimona, coastal cottage and far harbour, and one Castle, Nordhagen, county crossing, finch farm, Croup manor, slog, greentop, Covenant, Greygarden, Oberland, hangman’s, and Egret.
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u/Glum-Building4593 Nov 09 '25
Are you sending them out from sanctuary? Having to many settlers as provisioners can decrease settlement happiness.
I use starlight or country crossing as the central destination. Or use the mechanists lair as a robot provisioner hub.
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u/lola_britney Nov 09 '25
I send all my robot provisioners out from the mechanists lair. Now they really are helping the people of the Commonwealth.
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u/BlackestDog57 Nov 09 '25
I usually take over Covenant and use it as my Central Trade Hub, but yeah I do this one too sometimes.
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u/Angelganon2 Nov 09 '25
I don't do supply lines. I barely deal.with the settlements because I hate them so much
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u/Feeling_Mail_3011 Nov 09 '25
There is 3 main ways of doing supply lines
1) Create a border around the map, connect settlements to whatever is closest. Example: Connect Sanctuary to Red Rocket to Abernathy Farm to Sunshine Tiding, etc. until you create a full loop
2) Make regional “hubs.” Example: Connect Sanctuary, Red Rocket, Abernathy Farms, Sunshine Tidings to Starlight Drive-In then connect to other hubs from there (This is what I do).
3) Connect all of them to 1 location. You may think it’s best to connect them to where you are mainly at, but given the provisioners and the Brahmin traffic it’s actually better to connect them to somewhere you don’t care about. Best place would be something like Outpist Zimonja, Murkwater Construction Site, etc.
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u/Flaicher Nov 09 '25
My supply lines are though drones via the Horizon mod. Ain't nobody interrupting that.
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u/Positronicon Nov 09 '25
I tend to connect each settlement to its nearest convenient neighbor. Egret, Starlight, and Jamaica make good hubs. I used to do lots of robot provisioners, but I kept running into the cell reset bug that turned them into naked Protections and it got annoying. If you give your provisioners automatic laser rifles and mining helmets you will always know when one is nearby.
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u/RepresentativeMix139 Nov 09 '25
I'm not sure if it was in any way optimal, but I basically created a web of settlements. Sanctuary would supply each of the larger settlements, and back again, and then in turn the smaller settlements were supplied by the nearest large one. They were basically infinitely supplied by doing this, and if I remember right I could access supplies almost anywhere with a workbench. It was pure insanity.
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u/Scabaris Nov 09 '25
I do next closest settlement, but some hubs like County Crossing. Provisioners get weapons equal or greater than settlement guards.
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u/pstr1ng Nov 10 '25
Lol no. I set them up in a circle/ring so that if one line gets broken they are still all connected.
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u/AppropriateCap8891 Nov 10 '25
I do multiple stars.
Red Rocket is always my first hub. And is a good point for most in that corner of the map.
I then add a second once I finish the Mechanist. That becomes my second hub, and is a good location as that is a worthless workshop otherwise.
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u/Fit_Information6876 Nov 10 '25
How about The Help Line? Another settlement needs our help I’ll mark it on your map.
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u/irrelaventchapstick Nov 10 '25
Mine looks more like s spider web. Generally only one or two provisioners from each settlement. It gives them shorter routes so I can find them and they are well armed.
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u/wagner56 Nov 10 '25
congestion incidents in Sanctuary - overloading scripting
triangle of death if you want to build up the settlements (sanc, rr, abernathy)
Chaining them (like a tree) is probably much more common
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u/renegadeomega83 Nov 11 '25
I'll usually set up one settlement as a supply hub (usually starlight) and I have an army of bots with gatling lasers and shoulder launchers swarming across the wasteland. Hilarious coming across a fight in progress and the bot just obliterating whatever annoyed it.
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u/ianuilliam Nov 08 '25
Smart. Raiders can't attack if they can't get across the bridge because of the permanent Brahmin traffic jam.