You can build your settlements manually by placing plots for your settlers.
City Plans and Workshop Framework Layouts provide two different methods for allowing Sim Settlements to automate building your settlements.
City Plans will build over time, and will engage with the settlement economy system while doing so. City Plans are immersive and provide settlements that will have grown between visits.
Layouts are built all at once and do not cost resources. Layouts are fast.
Settlers can have a home, a job and a hobby (Recreation Plot).
Note: A Relaxation Recreation Plot is considered a job plot and only 1 settler is assigned to it. Other Recreation Plots have an owner, and usually when the plot levels, additional settlers can be assigned.
Settlers can be manually assigned to plots by using Workshop Build mode, selecting the settler and then assigning them to the plot.
They can also be auto-assigned, depending on the settings you have selected in the City Manager Holotape and Workshop Framework. The default is Auto-Assignment.
The code creates a list of all NPCs in a settlement that are lacking one or more of the three assignment types (home, job, hobby) and then tries to find them assignment in the following order:
- First it iterates through an array of workshop assignable objects that are known to be unassigned, or in the case of multi-person plots, have vacancies - it then removes any from this queue that are at capacity.
- Next, it checks Workshop Frameworks resource short system, which basically keeps track of any deficiencies in Food, Water, Defense, or Power and will prioritize any plot whose randomly assigned building plan happens to match one of those deficiencies.
- After that, it focuses on plot type and assigns the following priority: Residential, Industrial, Agricultural, Martial, Municipal, Commercial, then Recreational.
- Finally, it will assign to any vanilla items left over.
- During all of this, if the current settler is found to have all 3 assignments, it stops checking and goes to the next settler.
City Manager Holotape has an option to turn Auto-Assignment ON/OFF
Workshop Framework also has an option for Auto-Assignment
- If Auto-Assignment is set to OFF in both of the above, settlers should not auto-assign to plots when assigned to a settlement.
- If Auto-Assignment is set to ON in the City Manager Holotape, and ON in Workshop Framework, there's a chance they both try to assign people at the same time and you can end up with them sort of competing with one another. While it isn't required to have Auto-Assignment turned off in Workshop Framework, it is recommended to set it to OFF to prevent them from competing with each other.
- There is no Auto-Assignment to re-assign settlers with the appropriate stats from their current job to an Advanced or High-Tech plot. You will have to manually re-assign the settler yourself.
- In the formula above, if a settler gets assigned to a settlement with a building plan they can't use and the player selected that building plan manually, the settler will not be assigned and be put back in the queue.
- If the plan was assigned at random, a different plan will be chosen for that NPC instead.
- If the player manually tried to assign an NPC that didn't have the appropriate stats, a warning notification will occur (unless you have those requirements for stats turned off).
For a settlement to be happy, effectively you need to have 1 food, 1 water, and 1 sheltered bed for each settler and that will eventually get you to 80 happiness. This is a Vanilla game mechanic.
To get higher than that, you need happiness boosters like Relaxation Recreation buildings. The more settlers you have, the more boosters you need, as their effectiveness is reduced the more people you have.
There are also negative impacts on settlement happiness such as failing to defend the settlement from raids, or having settlers die.
Diseases, Pollution and Cleanliness also impact happiness.
For more information, see Pollution Hygiene Sickness Disease Outbreaks
A City Plan is a pre-designed arrangement of Plots and/or other Workshop items that can be imported via the City Planner's Desk.
City Plans can be either one-level, that are complete once all the included Plots are assigned and built, or they can be multi-level, and will add more Plots and Workshop items as time passes and the settlement grows.
Sim Settlements 2 comes prepackaged with one-level City Plans (SS2 Basics) for each of the vanilla settlements. One-level City Plans will lay down plots in the settlement for your settlers to build. The plots will level the same way that they will if you place them yourself. The plots start at level 0 (often a foundation, power pole and building materials). Plots are level 1 when they are built and then level up to level 3. The City Plan will not level up.
A multi-level City Plan will usually add more decorations and more lighting as it levels up. You can find many City Plans including Contest Entries available here: Add-On Packs, or you can search for them on Nexus Mods, Sim Settlements 2.
Many vanilla settlements with quests involved will now warn the player if they attempt to apply a City Plan before City Plans are marked as “unlocked”. Players can expect Unlock pop-ups for settlements when they have completed a quest that gives them workshop bench access.
- A City Planner's Desk built in the settlement (available in the Workshop build menu. Select the SS2 Icon, Furniture.)
- A Box of ASAMs or 20 ASAM Sensors in your inventory (You can craft them at the City Planner's Desk.)
- Assign a Settler (or Companion, or a Unique Settler to the City Planner's Desk, or you can look for available Companions or Unique Settlers by selecting Manage > Assign City Leader (See Assigning City Leaders below.)
- Selecting this option will select a City Plan automatically from the City Plans you have installed. If you have Rise of the Commonwealth (ROTC) installed, usually an ROTC City Plan is selected for you, rather than the SS2 Basics City Plans.
- Select "Yes, Tear it all Down" - This will take you to an aerial view of the settlement as the City Plan places plots.
- First, select Manage City
- Select City Plan - Any City Plans that you have installed will display for you to make a selection.
- Then, assign a Mayor.
You can assign any settler as Mayor (City Leader) of your settlement, however to take advantage of Leader Traits, the Mayor must have a Leader Card. A Mayor's Leader Traits provide some bonuses for the settlement. In Sim Settlements 2, all Vanilla Companions, DLC Companions and several Unique Settlers have Leader Cards.
To assign a Companion or Unique Settler as Mayor, go to the City Planner's Desk, select Manage. A trade window will open with available NPCs to select as Mayor. Their Leader Traits will display when you select each NPC in the list.
To assign a settler, use Workshop Build Mode to select the settler and assign them to the the City Planner's Desk. Other NPCs may also be assigned this way.
If you cannot, you will need to use the City Manager Holotape to set Leader Requirement OFF.
Select: Options>Gameplay>City Building>Leader Requirement
In order for NPCs to show up as an option in the Leader Select screen, the following must be true:
- To be a Mayor of the settlement, the NPC must currently live in that settlement.
- You must actually control the settlement. Some mods will let you go into workshop mode immediately, but you don't actually get flagged as the owner until you activate (search) the workbench.
- Vanilla Companion NPCs must be recruited, having been your active companion at least once, and dismissed to live in the settlement.
Codsworth is not actually assigned to Sanctuary, so will not be available until you have used him as a companion and dismissed him to a settlement.
Preston Garvey isn't a companion until you have completed the quest Taking Independence.
- If the above statements are true, and they are not showing up in the leader select, first exit the City Planner's Desk and try again, or travel to another settlement to trigger an event in SS2's code to update the available leaders list.
For PC Players:
- If those things do not work, you can try this console command to rebuild the available leader cards:
cqf ss2_optionsmanager rebuildleadercardscache
- if you cannot figure out why a leader card isn't working, you can enable papyrus logging and use the console command:
cqf ss2_optionsmanager DebugAvailableLeaderCards This will post a bunch of information to the SimSettlementsV2.0.log file about why each character is ineligible to lead currently.
A City Plan will level up when requirements have been met.
- Population: 80% of the supported population or more
- Food: Status Meter bar is full
- Water: Status Meter bar is full
- Defense: Status Meter bar is full
- Virtual Resources available to build up
Each upgrade also requires that a number of days have passed and Happiness as listed below:
- From L0 to L1: 10 Days, 70 Happiness
- From L1 to L2: 20 Days after L1, 80 Happiness
- From L2 to L3: 30 Days after L2, 90 Happiness
Tips for when you Select a City Plan for your Settlement
- Your settlers will only be able to build up the plots if the settlement has materials available.
- The City Planner's Desk you placed will likely be moved to a new location in the settlement.
- If you can't find the City Planner's Desk, you can use the City Manager Holotape to put a marker on it.
Select: Tools>Tracking>Objects> Management Desks: ON
- You should check to make sure that the Recruitment Beacon is powered. All SS2 Basic City Plans should be powered, however ROTC City Plans may not be.
- Check wiring. Sometimes the wiring does not connect everything up to the grid.
- When first starting a City Plan, you may need to place some turrets for defense, or add some water pumps or generators until the settlement builds up the municipal and martial plots placed to ensure happiness in the settlement will increase.
- If you find that happiness is poor, place a "Relaxation" Recreation Plot.
Note that if the City Plan you used is a multi-level one, your manually placed plot may be in a place where the City Plan will place a plot when it upgrades. Well planned multi-level City Plans should not require manual placement.
Load order for your installed mods is important.
Some mods cause issues with City Plans building automatically:
- Clean and Simple
- Clean and Simple - Settlement Start Up
- Settlements Extended
- Mods that alter Vanilla Settlements by significantly changing the landscape or existing buildings
For other mods that cause issues with SS2 see Known Issues
A Layout is a pre-designed arrangement of Plots and/or other Workshop items that can be imported via the Workshop.
Building Plans imported via Layouts can be already built at various levels.
Layouts are also referred to as Workshop Framework Layouts and/or WSFW Layouts.
Layouts are also available. See Add-On Packs or Nexus Mods, Sim Settlements 2
Themes can be used to give your settlements a consistent look. Read more about themes here.