[Fallout 4] Settlement Building Tests

[pStyl3]

Settlement Building Tests

As I am enjoying Fallout 4 quite a bit and I am interested particularly in the new settlement building feature ..
- Collection of Power Armors
- Fallout 4 Logo built in Sanctuary Hills

.. I've come to write this topic. I did a few tests and I want to write them down and document them here, so that in the end perhaps a concise and advanced tutorial can be made out of this. But for that your guys and girls' feedback is very much needed.

For the moment, there isn't really a good layout for the thread, as I am just collecting information and thinking of/doing tests that can reveal how the different mechanics work in the background .. so please excuse me if a 'red line' through this post(s) is missing.


Okay, let's start with some general information. Tests will be written down starting with post #2 of this thread and onwards.

Terminal Overview

The Terminal, which can be found in the category 'Power\Miscellaneous', provides the following entries if connected to the specified gadgets:

Category   Gadget                           Terminal Entry
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Misc.      Lightbox                         [ > Lightbox Control ]
Misc.      Powered Speaker                  [ > Speaker Control ]
C & S      Switched Power Pylon             [ > Switch Control ]
C & S      Switched Power Pylon Large       [ > Switch Control ]
C & S      Switch                           [ > Switch Control ]
C & S      Laser Tripwire                   [ > Optical Sensor Control ]
C & S      Delayed Off Switch               [ > Delay Switch Control ]
C & S      Delayed On Switch                [ > Delay Switch Control ]
C & S      Interval Switch                  [ > Interval Switch Control ]
C & S      Power Counter                    [ > Power Counter Control ]

Misc. = Miscellaneous
C & S = Connectors & Switches

[ > Lightbox Control ]
Lightbox Control has two options to choose from:

• [ Set Colors ]
• [ Randomize Colors ]

--- Note: In the Fallout 4 - E3 Showcase World Premiere at 24m59s you can see a third option to choose from - [ Cycle Colors ]. I believe that this option was actually cut from the game, or at least a bug is preventing it from showing up, as for the life of me I cannot bring it up in my game. Thoughts?

Set Colors then brings up seven different colors to choose from:

• [ Red ]
• [ Orange ]
• [ Yellow ]
• [ Green ]
• [ Blue ]
• [ Purple ]
• [ White ]

Each of these seven colors has three different brightness settings, namely:

• [ Bright ]
• [ Normal ]
• [ Dim ]

So overall Lightboxes have 7*3 = 21 color variations, and together with the 'Off'-State, 22 states they can be in.

Although the (possibly automatic) "Cycle Colors" option is missing from the Terminal Entries to choose from, the player still can manually cycle colors. Go out of Building Mode, go up to the Lightboxes and cycle colors manually.

[ > Speaker Control ]
Speaker Control has the following settings to choose from:

[C3]
[C3#]
[D3]
[D3#]
[E3]
[F3]
[F3#]
[G3]
[G3#]
[A3]
[A3#]
[B3]
[C4]
[C4#]
[D4]
[D4#]
[E4]
[F4]
[F4#]
[G4]
[G4#]
[A4]
[A4#]
[B4]
[C5]

--- Note: This probably refers to the musical scale. Any musician here to share some insight/thoughts?



[ > Switch Control ]
Switch Control has 2 different options to choose from:

• [Turn All Switches OFF]
• [Turn All Switches ON]

All connected switches are turned on or off.


[ > Optical Sensor Control ]
Optical Sensor Control has three options to choose from:

• [Disarm All]
• [Arm All]
• [set Trigger Target]

Set Trigger Target then has two options to choose from:

• [Trigger on anything]
• [Trigger on hostiles]

[ > Delay Switch Control ]
Delay Switch Control has nine different options to choose from. They are equal for both the "Delayed Off Switch" and the "Delayed On Switch".

• [1/8 s]
• [1/4 s]
• [1/2 s]
• [1 s]
• [2 s]
• [3 s]
• [4 s]
• [5 s]
• [10 s]

[ > Interval Switch Control ]
Interval Switch Control has two options.

• [set ON time]
• [set OFF time]

Both of these options then have ten different sub options to choose from:

• [1 s]
• [2 s]
• [3 s]
• [4 s]
• [5 s]
• [6 s]
• [7 s]
• [8 s]
• [9 s]
• [10 s]

[ > Power Counter Control ]
Set number of power cycles before transmitting power:

• [1]
• [2]
• [3]
• [4]
• [5]
• [6]
• [7]
• [8]
• [9]

Edited December 9, 2015 by pStyl3

[pStyl3]

Tests

Test #1

In this first test I will analyse, how the order in which the different gadgets are connected to the terminal, will affect the displayed order of the different terminal entries.

Connection Order     Terminal Entries
----------------------------------------------
1  2  3              [ > Switch Control ]
                     [ > Lightbox Control ]

1  3  2              [ > Switch Control ]
                     [ > Lightbox Control ]

2  3  1              [ > Lightbox Control ]
                     [ > Switch Control ]

2  1  3              [ > Switch Control ]
                     [ > Lightbox Control ]

3  1  2              [ > Lightbox Control ]
                     [ > Switch Control ]

3  2  1              [ > Lightbox Control ]
                     [ > Switch Control ]

Derived Rule #1

The order in which the terminal entries are displayed is set by the order the equivalent gadgetry is connected to the terminal.

Test #2

Observation:
If only one Lightbox out of a 10x10 grid of Lightboxes is connected to a power source, and was not connected to any other Lightbox, only the one Lightbox connected to the power source will light up.


Test #3

Derived Rule #2

If Lightboxes are connected in a line-structure, the Lightboxes that are closest to the connection to the power source will light up.

Derived Rule #3

A ring-structure of copper connections is not needed in order to light up multiple Lightboxes, a line structure is sufficient.

The large power generator produces 10 energy points, the terminal needs 1 energy point and then the nearest 9 Lightboxes will light up (they are using the remaining 9 energy poits).


Test #4

The following test setups will all have the Lightboxes be connected in a grid to each other.

• Green Lightboxes will be connected to four (4) other Lightboxes
• Orange Lightboxes will be connected to three (3) other Lightboxes
• Red Lightboxes will be connected to two (2) other Lightboxes

-----

Observation:
If a power source is connected to an edge of a quadratic grid of Lightboxes, which themselves are connected in a grid to each other, the lighting up of the Lightboxes that are nearest to the connection to the power source will equally spread out.


Test #5

Test #6

Test #7

Observation:
Items, that have a lightning symbol as an energy requirement without an accompanying digit (Screenshot) .. so like e.g. the "Switched Power Pylon" .. do not seem to decrease the overall amount of generated energy available. They need a power source to function, but do not add up to the overall power comsumption.


Test #8

https://abload.de/img/test_08_audzez.jpg
https://abload.de/img/test_08_bgky3x.jpg
https://abload.de/img/test_08_ceaaab.jpg
https://abload.de/img/test_08_d0sblm.jpg
https://abload.de/img/test_08_eauxot.jpg
https://abload.de/img/test_08_fk9a2q.jpg
https://abload.de/img/test_08_g0nr8s.jpg
https://abload.de/img/test_08_h74q58.jpg
https://abload.de/img/test_08_iuco14.jpg
https://abload.de/img/test_08_jt0oz0.jpg

Observation:
Items, that have a lightning symbol with an accompanying digit as an energy requirement (Screenshot) .. so like e.g. the "Construction Light" .. do seem to decrease the overall amount of generated energy available. In Test #8 more and more Lightboxes will start to light up as more and more Construction Lights are removed from the system.

The order in which they light up is:

Test #9

How many individual connections can a Terminal have and can I use them to power Lightboxes?

As it turns out, it is possible to have at least 500 Lightboxes individually connected to a single Terminal. This is not the upper bound .. if there is one .. however, if you have build and setup 500 Lightboxes, 51 large Generators, 1 Terminal and wired all that together, you will be very close to the max. building limit of your settlement (and that, if you cleaned up that settlement beforehand).

Not that this is practical in any way, but nonetheless, it is possible. The amount of connections that can be tied to one terminal also seems to be one (strong) reason, why there is a) a building limit and b) why connections between two objects are not allowed to be overly long (without modding of course). If I pick up that Terminal now in building mode as it is with it's 500 connections and start to move away, my framerate drops instantly into the single-digits. Look at this madness. Edited December 8, 2015 by pStyl3

[pStyl3]

Test #10

 

Observation 1:

The width of buildings and constructions is only limited by the actual width of the specific settlement.

 

Observation 2:

The barriers, which are enclosing the area that the player can use to build his settlements, are vertical. That means, that if I am building things at the very edge of my current settlement, I can go up and stack things on top of each other until I have reached the heigth limit to build things. Just like everywhere else in the building area aswell.

 

The image above shows that the width of Sanctuary Hills right there was equal to 312 Lightboxes put side by side.

 

 

 

Test #11

 

For this and the next few following tests a new testing environment had to be built and the building process is documented here.

 

- 25 "Floor and Roof" elements

- 25 Shack Walls

- 110 Industrial Wall Lights

 

The ultimate goal of the following tests is to light up all 110 Industrial Wall Lights in the most efficient way.

 

-----

 

Let's begin with stating the obvious. A single Small Generator, that is placed right next to the Wall Lights - but not connected to anything - will not light up anything. Placing a Power Conduit next to the generator - also not connecting to anything - will not light up anything, aswell. So far so good.

 

Connecting the "Power Conduit" to the "Small Generator" (with copper wires) will now finally light up many of the Industrial Wall Lights!

 

Note:

The Industrial Wall Lights that are light up now are forming a semicircle, that seems to emerge from the wire that connects both the "Power Conduit" and the Small Generator. So with other words, in order for those lights to light up they need to be in range of that wire.

 

Let's see how close the "Power Conduit" must be to the Industrial Wall Lights in order to light up at least one of them. As it turns out, it equals pretty much to 4x the width of the "Small Floor" element. Notice the small amount I moved the "Power Conduit" between images A and B.

 

 

Test #12

 

Now starting from the point of the previous test (as it is a nice and clean position), we could place a new "Power Conduit" and connect it to the first one. Again, quite a few Industrial Wall Lights light up, just as expected. Notice though, that some Wall Lights left and right did not light up.

 

A way to continue now could be to place a few more "Power Conduits" left and right of the 2nd placed one. It's working as it should and nice to look at. However, there is a more efficent way.

 

 

 

Test #13

 

Eighth on the "Power Conduit" in the foreground. It is moved a tiny bit towards the wall, which results in one more Industrial Wall Light to light up (now two are lighting).

This is important for the next step .. for some reason it didn't work when the "Power Conduit" wasn't pushed forward this tiny bit, and thus didn't enable the 2nd Wall Light to light up.

 

Note:

The pair of "Power Conduits" that can be seen in front of the Wall are not connected yet!

 

Now the pair of "Power Conduits" right in front of the wall get's connected. Notice how many Industrial Wall Lights are light up, even though this pair of "Power Conduits" isn't connected directly to the Small Generator.

 

Some more images that show the situation from more angles.

 

Note that the horizontal positions of the pair of "Power Conduits" were worked out precisely for this setup. If moved slightly, if they are moved out of reach, the outer Wall Lights will stop lighting.

 

This is to mention, so that it is clear that the "Power Conduits" do not have endless horizontal range in which they can light up Wall Lamps.

Edited December 11, 2015 by pStyl3

[pStyl3]

Test #14

 

The top Wall Lights still need to be taken care of. One way would be to use the "Power Conduit" that is facing downwards mounted in a higher position. And while it works, it get's unnecessary 'complicated' if the player wants to light up Wall Lights above this position, which brings us finally to the final step.

 

 

Test #15

 

All 110 Industrial Wall Lights are finally shining, while only using:

- 1 Small Generator

- 7 Power Conduits

- 5 "Copper Wires" as connections

 

The light actually shines through the Shack Walls and thus can be seen from the other side of the "wall".

 

Important:

This connection between the 1st and 2nd pair of "Power Conduits" is important! If it wouldn't be there, the copper wire that connects the 3rd pair of "Power Conduits" (the one near the top of the wall) wouldn't get any "power" from the 2nd pair .. and thus not all Industrial Wall Lights would be lighting.

 

This happens if the mentioned wire connection isn't set.

 

 

What this means:

 

If we have lots of pairs of connected "Power Conduits", there must be every second step a wire connection between two pairs of connected "Power Conduits". If this is the case, the "power" will be correctly passed on.

 

 

Test #16

Is there any difference between the upwards, downwards and horizontal facing "Power Conduits", aside from the aspect of how they are mounted on surfaces?

 

Observation:

All three "Power Conduits" equally pass on the power to the Industrial Wall Lights in a full circle, with pretty much the same radius. Therefore I would conduct, that all three "Power Conduits" behave pretty much the same. Actually, this further reinforces the theory, that the wire between the Small Generator and the "Power Conduit" passes on the power to the Wall Lights, and not the "Power Conduits". So with other words, we could say that the single purpose of "Power Conduits" is to lenghten the copper wires they are attached to, so that these copper wires reach "further into the settlement and can light up different items".

Edited December 9, 2015 by pStyl3

[Guest]

I'll go through this soon. At the moment (at first glance) it is making my head spin. Just wanted to say that this is great and I'm certainly interested even if noone else is posting. Danke for your effort.

 

Edit:

 

 

Observation 1:
The width of buildings and constructions is only limited by the actual width of the specific settlement.

Observation 2:
The barriers, which are enclosing the area that the player can use to build his settlements, are vertical. That means, that if I am building things at the very edge of my current settlement, I can go up and stack things on top of each other until I have reached the heigth limit to build things. Just like everywhere else in the building area aswell.

The image above shows that the width of Sanctuary Hills right there was equal to 312 Lightboxes put side by side.

These are bound boxes or cylinders I think. I did a test where I put one at 999,999 and you can build anywhere. The only downside is that you will need to be in build-mode all the time and you can't exit it - otherwise you can't enter it again. This is most likely because the workbench fades out and its script shuts down or something (if you are too far away).

Edited December 7, 2015 by Guest

[paradoxbound]

Huge thanks for your research, my own settlement building is crude primative and ugly but I shall try to learn from this.

[pStyl3]

No problem. I hope that you guys and girls will find it useful. Maybe we together can answer some of the questions, that still need to be answered.

 

Also, updated Post #1 and #4 (Test #16 added).

 

 

These are bound boxes or cylinders I think. I did a test where I put one at 999,999 and you can build anywhere. The only downside is that you will need to be in build-mode all the time and you can't exit it - otherwise you can't enter it again. This is most likely because the workbench fades out and its script shuts down or something (if you are too far away).

Would you mind sharing which exact parameter you have changed (in FO4Edit, i would assume)? Edited December 7, 2015 by pStyl3

[Kesta]

Didn't post to let you as much "first post" as you needed, but this is definitely interesting. I kinda skipped the settlement building/management feature in my first playthrough (just used it as a customisable house-mod), but I'm about to roleplay minutemen-style for a new playthrough, so I'm following all of this closely 

[pStyl3]

Glad that you like it Kesta.

 

 

Test #17

How to set up multiple Power Counters with different settings to count power?

 

First we need a Terminal and an "Interval Switch". Once connected to a generator, the "Interval Switch" will periodically turn power on and off for everything, that is connected to it.

 

Green means, that power has been turned ON.

Red means, that power has been turned OFF.

 

Now let's add a "Power Counter". It's a device, that transmit power, once a specific amount of counts of power is detected, with the maximum being 9 counts.

 

Now we want two Power Counters and each of them should have a different setting. Let's say the first one should count to 3 before transmitting power, and the second one should count to 5 before transmitting power. As the second Power Counter needs to be connected to the existing setup, we have two choices how to do that.

• Solution A results in a system, where the player will have two individual Power Counters with different counting settings.
• Solution B results in a system, where the player will have two Power Counters connected in series. In our example, power would be transmitted at the second Power Counter after 15 power cycles (3 times 5).

In our example, we want solution A.

 

But there is a problem. If we connect both Power Counters to the Terminal at the same time, and want to give them different settings using the Terminal, there is no way to do that. The number of connected Power Counters doesn't really matter to the Terminal, it's options stay global. And that means, that if we would use [ > Power Counter Control ] now, both Power Counters would get the same setting.

 

So what we're gonna do now is the following. Connect the first Power Counter to the Terminal and put the second one to the side for now. Use the Terminal to set the first Power Counter to count to [3]. Now disconnect the first Power Counter from the Terminal and put it where you want it to be in the end.

 

Now connect the second Power Counter to the Terminal, set it to [5] while using the Terminal, disconnect it and place it where you want it to be in the end, aswell.

 

Now connect both Power Counters to the Inteval Switch. We now have two working Power Counters with different settings.

 

In actual fact, it makes sense to place a "Switched Power Pylon" inbetween the Interval Switch and the Power Counters, and turning it OFF, before the Power Counters will be connected to it. This way you can simultaneously start the counting process of all connected Power Counters.

 

The now fully working setup with nine Power Counters. The first one counts to one, the second one counts to two, the third one counts to three, and so on.

 

Notice how all Power Counters position is "0". Once the "Switched Power Pylon" is activated, they all start counting the power cycles initiated from the Interval Switch, as the second image depicts.

[pStyl3]

Test #18

Let's talk about "Pressure Plates" and how they work.

 

We start with a setup of a Small Generator, a Pressure Plate and a Power Counter. The Pressure Plate is a special object, that only transmits power, if the actual Pressure Plate is pressed down. There are two ways to achieve this, the first and normal way is to simply step on it (may it be you, or friendly/hostile NPCs). The second is a bit 'special' and we get to that shortly. In any case, if you see that the Pressure Plate's red light is lighting, it means that the Pressure Plate currently does not transmit power onwards.

 

Once I step onto the Pressure Plate - you will notice how the Pressure Plate sinks in a little - the power will be transmitted and now the green light will shine. The Power Counter detects that power has been turned on (the rising flank of it, so to speak) and displays "1".

 

If I now get down from the Pressure Plate - you will notice how the Pressure Plate will rise up a little - the light switches once again to red. The Power Counter will remain at "1", until I decide to step on the Pressure Plate a second time (in which case the Power Counter will then switch to "2").

 

So as I mentioned earlier, there is a second method to 'activate' the Pressure Plates, and that is to "double click" on it. If you are next to a Pressure Plate, look down on it so that you can 'Activate' it. Now press two times in a row "E" and if you had the right timing, the Pressure Plate will remain in it's activated state, without the need of someone standing on it. Notice though, this mechanic turns out to be a bit fiddly, because of two reasons:

• The correct timing is important. If you "double click" the Pressure Plate really fast, it doesn't seem to always work. My best bet was to time the 'second activation' to be executed, once the green light of the Pressure Plate was lighting. So with other words, be not to slow and not to fast either.
• If this method is used to permanently activate a Pressure Plate, the Pressure Plates sometimes (not always) seem to get "stuck" in this position, where another activation through pressing "E" doesn't seem to work anylonger. This can be reverted by simply stepping on and off the Pressure Plate once.

See how the Pressure Plate is activated, although I am not standing on it?

 

Okay, so what about adding a second Pressure Plate to the setup?

 

In this setup, the first Pressure Plate (the one that is directly connected to the generator) still works just as before, once you are standing on it power get's transmitted to the Power Counter.

 

The second Pressure Plate on the other hand, does not work. Notice, how neither the red, nor the green light of the second Pressure Plate is lighting? This means, that no power is reaching it, so stepping on the second Pressure Plate has no meaning in this case. If there isn't anything to transmit, is doesn't matter if the Pressure Plate is set to transmit incoming power onwards.

 

What we could do is our 'special trick' on the first Pressure Plate, so activating it permanently through "double clicking". That way power would reach the second Pressure Plate and it's red light would start lighting. That however would still not be enough to enable the second Pressure Plate to transmit power onwards to the Power Counter. For that we would need to make a new connection between the second Pressure Plate and the Power Counter, if that is the case, and the first Pressure Plate is permanently activated, then stepping on the second Pressure Plate would transmit power onwards to the Power Counter.

 

Sounds pretty rough.

 

Now we have a pure series connection of Pressure Plates right from the start. This setup will not work by itself whatsoever. Pressure Plate A needs Pressure Plate B to be activated, and Pressure Plate B needs Pressure Plate A to be activated. As one can only stand on one Pressure Plate, the Power Counter will never see any power.

 

That is of course, until we decide to permanently activate one or the other Pressure Plate. When that's done (or we permanently activate both right from the start), stepping on the other Pressure Plate will transmit power to the Power Counter.

 

All this can relatively easy be bypassed by this setup. Just connect each Pressure Plate directly with a power source and it's designated 'target' (in our case the Power Counter). Now I can walk in one motion over both Pressure Plates and the Power Counter will add up 2 to the previously displayed count.

 

Let's take a look at this example with four Pressure Plates, connected to be in series, where every Pressure Plate is connected to a Lightbox to further monitor the state the specific Pressure Plates are in. In this first image the first Pressure Plate (the one that is directly connected to the generator) is "permanently activated" through "double clicking" on it. The other three are not yet activated.

 

Now all four Pressure Plates are "permanently activated". If I now would "accidently" step on one of the Pressure Plates (or any friendly/hostile NPC), that specific Pressure Plate and all Pressure Plates "behind" it will be turned OFF, as the power is cut off (the Pressure Plate that was stepped on was thrown out of it's "permanently activated state").

 

I "accidently" stepped on the first Pressure Plate and all Pressure Plates (and the according Lightboxes) were turned off.

 

 

Test #19

 

Observation:

There is no general and global height limit when building settlements. The height limit depends on the specific settlement.

Edited December 9, 2015 by pStyl3

[Guest]

No problem. I hope that you guys and girls will find it useful. Maybe we together can answer some of the questions, that still need to be answered.

 

Also, updated Post #1 and #4 (Test #16 added).

 

 

Would you mind sharing which exact parameter you have changed (in FO4Edit, i would assume)?

I flicked through the Commonwealth worldspace and the bounds are there, but I can't remember where. There is a mod on the Nexus that edits height, so search "height" on there and it should pop-up. I can easily remove the bounds meshes, but it seems I got beaten by it not allowing me to enter build mode after a certain distance. I would love a unlimited Sanctuary mod (or my pal would!) as other settlements still behave the same even with these extended bounds (Red Rocket worked as usual). It would be good for a "Minute Men expanded" playthrough.  Wonder if it's a script that could possibly attach to an inventory item you could drop affair? I'm sure you could figure it out! FO4Edit is not "visual" enough for me.

 

Edit: By the way, I'd like you to look at "clipping" as I clipped my house through the tree in Santuary and it makes a great treehouse. I couldn't get it to work at Covenant possibly due to available space. It usually works by holding down the interact button to move all objects in one go. There's also some sort of unlimited wire length glitch on YouTube, but i didn't watch it. 

 

Edit 2: You can connect a terminal to a tripwire and have it attack only hosiles? Mind blown. One thing I didn't think to try a terminal with!

 

Edit 3: 

 

 

Observation 1:

The width of buildings and constructions is only limited by the actual width of the specific settlement.

 

Not sure if this is right after tonight. I clipped a building slightly out of the settlement of Covenant (which I built beforehand) and moved it whole as I wrote above. It wouldn't let me build in certain areas in both the width and height, because parts of my building were technically already out-of-bounds.

Edited December 10, 2015 by Guest

[pStyl3]

Test #20

After much work I finally got my little animation project working. This time I recorded a video, so have a look at that one first.

 

 

To create this animation, 16 Interval Switches, 25 Delayed ON Switches (24+1) and 8 Delayed OFF Switches were used. A basic diagram of the setup can be looked up here, and additional screenshots can be looked up here.

 

While building this I made several interesting observations.

 

First of all, using this many time-related switches brings the engine of Fallout 4 nearly to it's knees. If you start using even more Interval Switches and Delay ON/OFF Switches (and I did that at first, before optimising the setup I created) you will start experiencing huge lag issues.

 

Also, once I finished the backend of that light chaser animation, getting it to 'work' was sometimes not that easy aswell. Saving at the 'wrong time' and reloading that save later resulted sometimes in the animation not working correctly, although nothing had changed and I used my 'killswitch' (Switched Power Pylon) to reset the whole system. Reloading an earlier save, that was created in the 'right time' was the only option.

 

Note:

The finished system to create that animation only needed one power line, not multiple power lines (so not multiple generators that were not connected to each other / powered different Lightboxes).

 

In any case, with a bit of fiddling around it works 'pretty good'. Huge relief that that time wasn't spend for nothing.

 

 

Test #21

So I have looked into the story with the 'unlimited wire length' and found that it seems to be entirely correct. However, I will split up this analysis into two Tests, because I myself have noted some wonkiness with the copper wires, and I finally was able to get a hold of that. After that, I will explain the unlimited wires. Anyway, first that what I have found out myself.

---

 

This is an exemplary setup, a Power Pylon connected through a copper wire to a Large Generator (the size of the generator doesn't matter).

 

Let's say, we want to reattach that copper wire to something else, we could focus on the copper wire and press "E" to select the wire.

 

After pressing "E" to select the wire, we have now two options. Either to press 'SPACE' and attach the wire to the new connection point (once that one is focused), or we could press 'TAB' to cancel the process. If 'TAB' is now pressed to cancel the process, the wire will snap back to it's last position, so back to the Power Pylon.

 

However, here's the interest part! If we cancel this process by pressing 'TAB' while being to far away from the Power Pylon, so while the wire is colored red, that will not work. What will happen is that the wire is deselected as we wanted, but it is not being snaped back to the Power Pylon .. it is just floating there in midair (the other end "more or less" still being connected to the Generator).

 

 

If I want, I can now change the position of the Generator. The copper wire will stay in it's place.

 

However, I can still go up to the floating wire and store it via 'TAB' in the workshop.

Edited December 11, 2015 by pStyl3

[pStyl3]

Test #22

Thanks to "OutsideTheBox" on YouTube we now have the knowledge of how to circumvent the length limit of copper wire connections. Kudos to you OutsideTheBox. So let's dive into the trick.

 

This is our small setup for the test, a Generator, a Construction Light and a Power Conduit.

 

This is the normal, maximum distance a Construction Light can be connected through a copper wire to the Generator.

 

Now I have stored the wire back into the workshop and moved the Construction Light further away from the Generator.

 

If we now go to the Generator, press 'Space' to attach a wire and go then to the Construction Light, the wire will be displayed red, as we are to far away. The wire will still snap to the Construction Light, but once we press once again 'Space' to attach the wire to the Construction Light, the process will be canceled. There was made no connection between Generator and Construction Light.

 

Now it get's interesting. Let's place a Power Conduit next to Generator and connect them both with a copper wire.

 

As now the crucial step is to be made, let's do it first wrong (to make the difference clear).

• Focus on the wire that connects the Generator and the Power Conduit, and make sure, that in the background everything but the Generator is to be seen.
• Press 'Space' while focusing the wire, AS IF you would do when looking at the Generator to attach a wire. Do that, even if there is no option to do that being displayed.
• Notice: You will hear NO sound that indicates that something happened (and as we are doing it wrong, it is actually correct that nothing can be heard).
• Now go to the Construction Light, focus on it, and press 'Space'.
• You will notice that that was has happened, is that you now hold a wire in your hands, which is connected to the Construction Light. What we have done is the normal action to initiate the attachment of a copper wire from the Construction Light to 'something else'.

Now that we have made this clear, let's switch over to the right way .. let's create a copper connection that is longer than they are normally allowed to be!

 

First step. Focus on the wire that connects the Generator and the Power Conduit, and make sure, that:

- the wire lights up green

- in the background the Generator is to be seen

- but the Generator does not lights up green

 

Now press 'Space' as if you would attach a wire, although no option for doing that is being displayed.

 

You will notice that sparks will start to sprinkle midair. You will also notice a 'connection sound', as if you would have attached a wire to the Generator the normal way.

You will NOT see a new wire being connected to neither the Generator nor the Power Conduit, but that is fine.

 

Now that you have pressed 'Space' while focusing on the wire (with the Generator in the background) and see the sparks midair, go to the far away placed Construction Light.

 

Now focus on the Construction Light so that it lights up green. Now press 'Space' to attach a new wire. Voilá, a wire connection between the Generator and the Construction Light has been made, although they are standing too far apart!

 

Notice how the wire goes through the ground, what normally would not be possible.

 

This is also the 'downside' of this method, it is not that beautifully looking. If you can cope with that or the wire connection is somewhere hidden so it cannot be seen, this method should be a great alternative for you!

 

Note, that the Construction Light cannot be repositioned from now on, as the wire connection is still too long for that to be allowed. So if you want to use this method to connect an item which is normally too far away, make sure that it's placement is priorly finalised.

Edited December 11, 2015 by pStyl3

[pStyl3]

I flicked through the Commonwealth worldspace and the bounds are there, but I can't remember where. There is a mod on the Nexus that edits height, so search "height" on there and it should pop-up. I can easily remove the bounds meshes, but it seems I got beaten by it not allowing me to enter build mode after a certain distance. I would love a unlimited Sanctuary mod (or my pal would!) as other settlements still behave the same even with these extended bounds (Red Rocket worked as usual). It would be good for a "Minute Men expanded" playthrough. Wonder if it's a script that could possibly attach to an inventory item you could drop affair? I'm sure you could figure it out! FO4Edit is not "visual" enough for me.

I found the mod Build High - Expanded Settlements and it looks promising! That said, I'm not yet using it, as for the moment I am far more interested to investigate and push the vanilla boundaries of the settlement building feature.

 

Once a certain point is reached, I will definitely start looking out for mods / on how to push height / width / size limits.

 

You can connect a terminal to a tripwire and have it attack only hosiles? Mind blown. One thing I didn't think to try a terminal with!

Yes, it's a great feature.

 

By the way, I'd like you to look at "clipping" as I clipped my house through the tree in Santuary and it makes a great treehouse. I couldn't get it to work at Covenant possibly due to available space. It usually works by holding down the interact button to move all objects in one go.

I will have a look at 'clipping' next!

 

Not sure if this is right after tonight. I clipped a building slightly out of the settlement of Covenant (which I built beforehand) and moved it whole as I wrote above. It wouldn't let me build in certain areas in both the width and height, because parts of my building were technically already out-of-bounds.

I would still argue that that wording is pretty accurate. What could be reasonable is to extend/adjust it by saying e.g.:

"The width of buildings and constructions is normally limited by the actual width of the specific settlement. The width can be further extended (in certain areas) through careful placement of objects/clipping mechanics."

 

Or something like that. In any case, more on that with the next batch of tests.

[SirGarnon]

Wow; tremendous effort. Nicely done and documented!