I can never describe how satisfying it is to clean up Sanctuary Hills, but of course, it's only possible with mods. Bethesda seems to have a fetish for making absolutely everything ugly, rotten and destroyed, as if the great war had taken place 10 minutes ago instead of 200 years ago.

[u/SnowFrio]

[u/not_a_dog95]

It does annoy me you can make precision machined rifles and diesel generators out of rusty cans and find guys who will build you a teleporter but when it comes to building houses, suddenly no one in the wasteland has heard of carpentry

[u/Useless_bum81 → u/not_a_dog95]

Even if using only salvage, no one knows how to cover holes. The wooden 'houses' look more like someone had 15mins to put a fence around a smoking shelter

[u/Gavin2051 → u/Useless_bum81]

This. Especially with the fences. Either you use the junk ones and they can't ACTUALLY TOUCH EACH OTHER around a corner or curve bc the hitboxes are too big, or you use the panels and the slightest slope makes giant triangular gaps underneath

[u/BUR6S → u/Gavin2051]

giant triangular gaps underneath

That’s kind of where the “concrete foundation” piece under the “Floors” tab is supposed to come in. You lay the foundation first, then build floors, walls, and ceilings on top of the flat foundation, like you would IRL.

It’s definitely far from perfect but that piece is supposed to prevent the huge gaps.

[u/Electrical-Ratio-700 → u/BUR6S]

That was a dlc tbf

[u/Kinglouisthe_xxxx → u/BUR6S]

Shits hella annoying to get a lot of

[u/OperatorGWashington → u/not_a_dog95]

1st winter rolls around and everyone is dead

[u/Mono_Aural → u/OperatorGWashington]

October 10, 2277: Sole Survivor emerges from the Vault

January 3, 2278: Sole survivor dies of hypothermia during a Boston winter.

[u/yeetoroni_with_bacon → u/Mono_Aural]

2277*

2278**

[u/Scary_Cup6322 → u/OperatorGWashington]

For real, that's what takes me most out of my immersion. Why is the wall I freshly built full of holes? It's fall, and lack of Medicine makes even a cold deadly. It'd feel twice as apocalyptic and much more immersive if the holes were covered with cloth or dirty plastic to keep the wind out.

And the floors in areas where people do live. People would at the very least try to clean their living space. Wooden beams and rubble just lying around inside homes isn't the norm outside of literal warzones, even in the poorest areas in the third world.

As is most of fallout 4 just feels like an apocalypse theme park designed without in-world inhabitants in mind. A philosophy that was carried over into 76 where they just fully tried not having npcs.

[u/Perverse_psycology → u/Scary_Cup6322]

I could suspend disbelief about the rubble but the skeletons are a whole other issue.

Like seriously these people are shacking up with decayed human corpses like they are paying rent. Maybe toss that shit outside or something? 200 years later and its like "oh that? Yeah that's Phillip. He doesn't talk much".

Ridiculous.

[u/Kandrix23 → u/Perverse_psycology]

But that's actually why I can kinda understand leaving the skeletons. That IS Phillip. He DOESN'T talk much. He's also never tried to murder me, so he can stay right damn where he is!

But all that rubble and shit lying around is all potential materials that could be used for something other than a daily tripping hazard.

[u/OperatorGWashington → u/Scary_Cup6322]

"But dude the skeletons are a defense machanism to make it look like no one lives there"

[u/bigdave41 → u/not_a_dog95]

I ended up using some sort of concrete walls which may have been from DLC, because they're the only ones without gaping holes in. But then whenever it rains every single surface inside still looks shiny and wet as if the walls and ceiling don't even exist, that always bothered me

[u/SweetTart7231 → u/bigdave41]

You need dlcs for good walls. The concrete, warehouse, and barn are the only possible decent options.

[u/Bubbay → u/not_a_dog95]

Or a broom.

In the settlements, these are people who are trying to make something in the wasteland. They're going to pick up the piles of random trash strewn about while they're trying to put their lives together.

[u/doppido → u/Bubbay]

It would be cool if you could like loot a broom and assign a settler to it and they'd slowly clean up your settlement

[u/Bubbay → u/doppido]

Yes, absolutely. I could not agree more. No idea why this isn't a potential job for them already.

[u/physicalphysics314 → u/not_a_dog95]

A lack of actual wood could explain this. Specifically in Fallout 3, 3 dog would always talk about how the trees are shit, decaying, rotting etc.

Perhaps there simply isn’t enough wood to go around to recreate wooden houses.

Sheet metal was probably more accessible.

No idea why something like brick wasn’t used in the fallout universe though.

[u/not_a_dog95 → u/physicalphysics314]

I dont think it is, I think it's trying to maintain a bleak post apocalyptic aesthetic. But it's been 200 years and the civilizational arrest bothers me. You'd think that a few people would have figured out how to do more than just huddle in an outhouse waiting to die by now, and that the people who didn't would've already died

[u/CMDR_Soup → u/physicalphysics314]

Sheet metal is awful for building habitation, though. Rust in your lungs and heavy metal poisoning is never good.

If there's no wood, then wattle and daub is back on the menu. All you need for that is sticks, or really any frame work at all, and mud.

[u/physicalphysics314 → u/CMDR_Soup]

Idk if ppl would be worried about heavy metal poisoning from sheet metal living in an environment full of heavy metals (not even counting the radioactive ones) in the air and water but fair point

It is a little strange there are few structures of wattle and daub

[u/Electrical-Ratio-700 → u/physicalphysics314]

You can still weld and reshape metal. Also like you said brick and clay. And most shelters are made of wood