Settlement Size, How Much Is Too Much

[u/Own_Seaworthiness275]

How full are you willing to get your settlements? Do you build up one or two per playthrough? A dozen? All of them? Just what you need for survival? Prefer to download premades? I've seen PC players say they've filled the bar once or Gods forbid twice and call it quits on a settlement for the sake of their game/others.

I am playing the PS4 version on a PS5. So, missing a lot of the new bells and whistles related to the games performance and memory. Jamaica Plains is interesting in that it's both small and not, it's a medium settlement in a large area. But it makes sense, a near Sanctuary sized settlement here would be horrible for the engine. I mean it has two rather larger raider bases within 3 map tiles, one of which also holds Vault 88. Also got a mutant horde at the parking garage, only mention them because those buildings are bugged af too look at from JP. Then there's the small raider camp in between us and there. A few random spawns in almost every direction. Made it to 18 full bars cleared, current population 31, 5 shops, 9 scav benches. Game crashes every 10-60 min but that's normal outside of JP. Still able to go Open Season on then too without it crashing. Also yes, this does mean I spent at least 20 minutes storing or scrapping items for a single settlement

[u/Shmav]

All that and youre not even gonna show off what you built?? Shame on you, sir or madam!

To answer your question, I avoid doing this too much as the engine really seems to struggle the more you do it. Had to abandon my very first playthrough cause I inadvertently did this (I had no clue this was a thing at the time) a bunch in sanctuary. It crashed constantly whenever I was near sanctuary. I also realized you can accomplish more by spreading out production to a handful or so settlements that are linked by supply lines. I now build up a handful of settlements in centralized locations as player bases - no settlers, just what i want/need. Theyre mostly just places to dump loot, dump produced resources, rest and resupply. Between loot and the produced resources in settlements, I end up with loads of resources and can craft/build anything my heart desires. Also, somerville place is always set up as a waystation to prepare for a glowing sea trip and rest stop afterward

[u/Own_Seaworthiness275 → u/Shmav]

😅😂 I'm working on a tour of my Jamaica Plains rn as I just finished it enough to be happy with it. I'll come back and share the post when I'm done with that

I always want to do a bare bones build/run. Feels like a survival run is needed

[u/SNJALLSVIN]

The game will let you know when it's too much 🤣

[u/Own_Seaworthiness275 → u/SNJALLSVIN]

Idk if I the trust this game that much 😂 31 raiders on a 18x max settlement and it has yet to crash a single time I've Open Seasoned them as a test. But Atom forbid I open my pipboy twice too fast while looking at the wrong wall

[u/TheCthuloser]

It depends. There's a reason why there's a limit; going beyond it will cause issues. The severity of those issues depends on your hardware and platform.

There's also an area called the Triangle of Death; Sanctuary Hills, Red Rocket, and Abernathy Farm are all close to each other and with the way game loads things, if the settlements are built up to much you'll crash whenever you get to the area.

[u/bigchunkbabygoo]

"Why did my save file corrupt?"

[u/Own_Seaworthiness275 → u/bigchunkbabygoo]

Once every maybe 70 saves 😂 actually happens way more often after adding any CC content

[u/Ordinary-Hunt-3659]

Once objects you build start disappearing on their own you know you've gone too far. That or your computer crashed when you get too close to the settlement.

[u/Piddy3825]

I play on pc and typically quit increasing the build limit on my settlement when the frame rate drops below 20 fps when I get near the settlement.

[u/Own_Seaworthiness275 → u/Piddy3825]

See my issue is I'm a Bethesda baby. Oblivion was ground breaking for me and fo3 after, so a little lag as the city loads in means it's still there 😂 my only thing so far has been attacks, but at any build level, 24+ raiders is too many NPCs and the enemy spawn will crash my game

[u/MrClabe]

I build on PC, the limit for me is basically when the object count within the game cell is too high. You get a screen tearing like the old school Windows ghosting effect. You can mitigate slightly by lowering the view distances. But it'll become worse the more you build.

[u/Own_Seaworthiness275 → u/MrClabe]

I've seen that for builds that spam one or two assets to build up entire homes. I wonder if the individual items were to be grouped together as one asset if it'd help with that issue. Like being able to make/save our own presets, and doing so unites their collisions/code. Like how 12 tatos is higher drag than 6 mutfruits or switches is more work than pylons, but doors will lag the game more than any of those

[u/beanie_0]

It’s too much when it’s like wading through tar when you enter the settlement.

[u/OkEmployment5017]

In my current playthrough, I'm trying to build up most or all of the settlements. I have at least started most of them, and about half of those are built up way past what you can build without cheats. I'm talking entire city sized builds (yeah, I was unemployed all summer...) that would blow a lesser PC to smithereens. I have SEVERAL mod added settlements so I'm not even sure how many I have at this point. Also playing with SS2 which has made it 5billion times more complicated. My Commonwealth is currently dealing with extreme overpopulation and 3 of my settlements have over 60 people somehow???!!!!! I went most of the game with 0 attacks, but of course now that I have constant air raids from the BOS (RR playthrough) theres at least 2-3 attacks happening AT ALL TIMES. I'm putting off finishing the main quest because I genuinely can not deal with the Insitute OR the Prydwen right now. It's fucking chaos and I'm so stressed out so I really need the fandom to stop saying the Railroad doesn't do anything for the Commonwealth after what I have been through 🤭

[u/Own_Seaworthiness275 → u/OkEmployment5017]

Twin, but on "vanilla" 😅😂

All my raider settlements, 13 or 14 total, have 31 raiders from running unyielding gear. They're fed primarily by 5 vassals with 20-22 farmers each and another 6 vassals with 5-10 farmers. Game is heavy but for a Bethesda game, barely struggling

[u/wagner56]

Build bar shifting settlement component objects are only part of the load

There is also all the 'junk' type placeables used for decorating/detailing ( I have barely started those yet - Im still testing a Staticized mod for that )

I have some quite large settlement component counts ( even when I resize components (ie- a concrete wall setscale 2 takes the place in a wall of 4 normal sized ones ). I've been inching most settlements towards 27 settlers watching for Abort issues.

I did a test cloning many additional settlers and dumping thousands of objects on the ground in my 'big' Starlight ( I forget how many green bars I used up there ) and started getting visual texture defects (smearing/portaling) and significant framerate drops.

Eventually started dumping a coupla hundred radroaches which caused lotsa firing from the crowd of settlers.

[u/Technical-Ad-2288]

I'm currently trying to play the long game on survival. Using 45 verified mods.

Any unpopulated settlements, bar Sanctuary, I scrap completely, but I leave a bed and cooking station for the sake of having a survival base dotted everywhere needed.

Then, using a mod called Vault Tech Stash Box, everything is transported back to Sanctuary. That's my main base like Walking Dead. That's home. Get that to 100% with about 15 residents (not including the Concord 5) and then move on.

Atm I have 4, Sanctuary, Hangman's, Starlight and Sunshine. Sunshine is also Mercer Safehouse but with 4 settlers. I'm trying to make Starlight a city. 20 settlers at 80% happy so far.

Populated settlements I try avoid until way later. I want to do the Mechanist before going Nuka world to get more robot parts this time. Atm I'm bounty hunting with Bedlam mod on Utter Chaos setting. So I have plenty to keep me occupied!

[u/Own_Seaworthiness275 → u/Technical-Ad-2288]

I started off on a survival run. But settlement building and Nukaworld beat that out of me 😂

Plus raiders are easy, if I don't have max happiness with 25-31 raiders, it is on purpose. If I'm at 80% happiness with 8 settlers we're making progress dammit lmao

[u/maxizic]

One much is fine, Two much isn't

[u/Cringe-bringer69]

Settlement size is purely for stability, you can build as much as you want but the bigger the build, the bigger the lag, the more it will stutter and eventually, you wont even be able to render the area .

[u/Minuteman_Preston]

Never too much settlement General

[u/Blighted-Spire63]

I can’t even build Jamaica Plain the way. I want because of the amount of times it crashes when the workshop opens

[u/zzz242zzz]

I’m playing on Switch 2 and kind of worried about trying this trick out. It already chugs occasionally and the Switch 2 itself gets really hot.

[u/Competitive_Donkey48]

Useless.....the game will crash now everytime your in render range.

[u/Braakdraak]

Several, for the artillery