Fallout 4 : Settlement building with an "upstairs" door?

[DanielCoffey]

I am trying to figure out how to have a closable door on the upstairs of a shack and can't get it to snap into place. Any ideas?

 

What I am trying to achieve is a small outdoor balcony to put Mama Murphy's chair so she can get a good view of the main street in Sanctuary Hills but I would prefer to have a Wooden Wall with Door rather than just a gap. Downstairs is a ring of the 2x1 Shack Walls with the small piece of floor and roof around a six-block of the 2x2 Shack Floors. There is a Floor with Stairs up to the next floor which is floored with Wooden Floor - Upper. I have put a square of straight shack walls around this with the last two Floor Uppers reserved for Mama Murhpy's balcony (with railing of course - we don't want an accident). I just can't get the Wooden Wall with Door to snap into place as it is expecting a foundation edge.

 

I have no mods (well, apart form F4SE) so wondered if console TCL would do the trick? I would prefer to keep the playthrough ESP-free for now if at all possible. I have seen a video about using a picket post, wire fence and then the door and then picking up the entire group but it has got me flummoxed.

[DanielCoffey]

I might have found a solution by using one of the Junk Wall with Door pieces but it doesn't fit particularly well. It is less fussy about snapping however.

 

Now all I have to do is get Mama Murphy out of her chair so I can move it!

[DanielCoffey]

Alright - is the navmesh broken with the Shack Wall with Door? Any settler who goes inside can't get out again (although Companions can use it properly).

 

I have built on one of the pre-made foundations in Sanctuary that I have cleared. I laid Wooden Shack Floor down, put the proper doorway on it and then filled in the rest of the walls and roof. I wasn't able to get it to line up with the concrete pre-made steps that were there from the pre-war house but it was close enough. Settlers enter to go to their assigned bed but cannot leave the house to go to work the next day. They all stand inside facing towards where they are trying to reach.

 

I tried ringing the bell and they all congregated near the door but would not cross the threshold. All other Settlers in the old pre-war buildings came out and clustered round the bell but the ones in the new bunkhouse stayed stuck inside. They even stayed inside that building for the siren.

 

Oh, and Mama Murphy won't leave her chair even for a bell or siren. I do know how to get her out of the chair permanently but because of her special status she cannot be assigned back to it afterwards.

 

This is driving me nuts.

 

My next step would be to build a new structure on new foundations with wooden steps down to the ground to see if they will use the doorway then.

 

===

 

EDIT : Yes, there does appear to be a navmesh issue with the Wooden Wall with Door.

 

Test 1 : Place some 2x2 Wooden Floors down on one of the cleared Foundations in Sanctuary. Put a Wall with Door in one side and place a door. Close the sides with standard Wood Walls. Enter the new room, crouch and wait for your follower. They will sneak towards you and probably walk into a wall to one side of the door forever. Any Settlers in the building (if there are any) will stand idle.

 

Test 2 : Now extend a walkway out of the door into the street using the 1x1 wooden floor pieces until you can snap a small Wooden Step (the one with two flat treads) onto the end of it. You may need 3 of the small Wood Floors. Go back inside and crouch and your follower will use the step and come straight in. Any Settlers stuck in the room will immediately path out of the building and resume their normal duties.

 

What does this mean for Sanctuary? We need to either make the little raised walkways to replace the "step" on the edge of the cleared plots or alternatively bury the cleared plots in new Shack Foundations (raised up enough to permit a single step to snap) so that Settlers can get in and out. Good job there is lots of Concrete in Vault 141.

Edited December 18, 2015 by DanielCoffey

[MonoAccipiter]

Small stairs (the ones without platforms) will snap to the doorframe, and settlers should navigate them properly.

[Guest]

There is a metal kit piece or something that extrudes out and has a doorway. You can put a door on that and a balcony. Use a mine and shoot it to get her out the chair as they don't seem to mind that, and she's invincible. 

[DanielCoffey]

Thanks for the suggestions - I'll give the build ideas a try.

 

Question - when you put down a concrete foundation (which has the wooden layer on top of course) do you tend to use the 2x1 wooden wall pieces with integrated roof on the ground floor? They seem to snap to the outside of the foundation since they have their own piece of floor. This leaves a visible overhang with nothing underneath so to get them to line up with the foundation you have to then put a second wooden floor on top of the existing one so that you can start those pieces at the foundation edge.

 

I know they are part of the set that goes together along with the small corner pieces but they seem much more interesting than the three or four plain wall sheets. Some of them even have windows and they allow an interesting larger ground floor plus smaller upstairs appearance.

 

What we really need are some 2x1 (and 1x1) foundations without the wooden tops!

 

As for blowing MM out of her chair, I had not considered that. Cruel but effective! She would probably put it down to some bad Jet. I presume she goes straight back to it afterwards?

[Guest]

I hate Mama Murphy with a vengeance so of course I tried blowing her sky high! I wished I would have killed her off so I could get a regular settler, because they have more options and don't sound baked 24/7. She could have least given you a perk or something useful for your help. Most of the characters are poorly written or are totally annoying which is a bit disappointing. She goes back to the chair after, so grab it quickly while she is down.

 

 I don't know about the other stuff. I always used individual pieces because it seemed to give more freedom. 

[DanielCoffey]

I finally got her out of her chair with the "place something else nearby then group pick up both items" trick. She popped out and I ran off with the chair. Since I was placing it on the patio I did a dry placing of a dummy chair to get the position right since I couldn't pop her out of it the same way next time (the building would have picked up too).

 

I have sorted out my bad navmesh doorway problem - the floor that the door is on MUST be attached via a wooden step to the ground outside. If the door is set back and there is a lower floor exposed below it, you can't place the step and they will NOT step up the 4 inches to the main room. You can test it with a Companion.

 

I have found that by using the default shack walls on a single floor thickness, the building tends to look very derelict and plain. It is possible to get a better ground floor if you use the "balcony" pieces with their own floor. To avoid them floating above the uneven ground, you have to place them (and the associated central floor) on top of a foundation deck which makes alignment along the long sides tricky but doable. You only need the outer ring of the foundation deck though.

[paradoxbound]

Mama Murphy is a huge pain, first playthough I gave her chems and she never made it off her chair, this playthough, she is the farmer and I made her cold turkey. The Longs have a mini gun each, Sturges mans the scaveging station and is equipped with a flamer. I pity any raiders who come calling.

[paradoxbound]

It maybe a little late but I came across this video using the "rug technique to place items where they usually wont go. Worth a try if you are still struggling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF-tUy8I29M

[DanielCoffey]

Thanks. I have also spotted Ibaraki Ben's Youtube channel where he makes shacks with doorways using the ability of the small 1x1 floors to cause walls to snap in odd places.

[paradoxbound]

Ibaraki Ben's Youtube is excellent deserves a lot more views.