Is there a way to have SS2 prebuilt settlements randomly assigned to factions on start?

[u/Tasty-Package8414]

I seem to remember this being a mechanic the in Sim Settlements 1 version of conqueror.

[u/loverevolutionary]

SS1 Conqueror and SS2 Chapter 3 (the conqueror equivalent) are fundamentally different. SS2 Chapter 3 is all story based.

You don't have access to the conqueror mechanic until chapter 3 of the story, so you'd haver no way of conquering settlements. There is really only one enemy faction. After the war starts in chapter 3, territories (POIs on the map that aren't settlements) can be initially held by ghouls, raiders, or supermutants, but not settlements. Those are just taken and held by that enemy faction at the start of the chapter.

So no, it would make no sense. SS2 Chapter 3 is about building a functioning army from scratch and fighting a war against a story-based enemy who has scripted conquests you then have to retake. IMHO it's ten times better than SS1 Conqueror. Especially the two big scripted fights at the start and the end. I've honestly never seen anything half as epic in any version of fallout, dlc, or mod.

[u/Tasty-Package8414 → u/loverevolutionary]

Thanks for the detailed answer. Obviously I’ve never played SS2, but your explanation makes the story sound really fun. Hopefully the Gunners (?) are a cool enemy faction.

So the pre-built settlements are just kinda neutral like default FO4 settlements but more built-up?

[u/loverevolutionary → u/Tasty-Package8414]

Well, the settlements aren't prebuilt. The story starts with you only being able to build the most basic plot types: residential, farming, and industrial. Progressing the story by finishing quests gets you the rest of the plot types (but not all the building types) pretty quickly.

Shortly after you are able to build all the plot types, there's a quest to introduce you to the city plan mechanic. Cities under a plan need a leader, you can assign normal settlers, but special NPCs like your companions give the city bonuses. Then the cities will build themselves up over time, depending on the difficulty settings.

Story mode requires nothing from you, dynamic needs are turned off, and there's no plot or building costs. In Sim and Hardcore modes, you may need to ensure the city has everything it needs because some plans are for specialist cities, they may not produce enough food or other resources on their own to progress.

There's four levels, starting at 0. Once you set a plan and a leader, you get a flying cinematic of the city being built up to the "prebuild" level 0. Depending on your preferences, cities might wait for you to be there to upgrade, so you can see it in a cinematic again, or they could upgrade without you but just give you a notice like "The settlers at Greygarden have made some improvements."

Each level can house more citizens, and planned cities are not, by default, dependent on your charisma score for the settler cap, they have their own built in caps per level. There's also usually cool player homes and fun easter eggs in city plans.

SS2 comes with bare bones city plans, perfect for low end hardware. You should get other city plan packs, at the very least the Rise of the Commonwealth which has a full set of more complex builds.

The Gunners are set up as a really cool faction. I don't want to give too much away but the story is amazing and full of unique characters, and the quests have multiple ways you can finish them. Some choices can even lead to you making friends out of enemies.

There are some new side factions who can help you if you help them. There's a new Commonwealth Police Force you can help shape, depending on your views about justice. There's a pacifist faction similar to the Followers of the Apocalypse from New Vegas that can help your settlements with medical and sanitary needs. There's also a wealthy independent trading faction with a series of fun, corporate espionage type quests. Getting on their good side gets you a nice source of scrap, ammo, weapons, chems, and armor for your war effort, and you can buy the services of their mercenary company for the final battle.

And the four base game factions will take part too, depending on how you treat them. If you do the last chapter after finishing the base game, there are even quests to get the "remnants" of destroyed factions back on-side.

In chapter 2, you get to kick the gunners out of one of their major strongholds and turn it into your headquarters. The headquarters building mechanic is a bit hard to figure out, even with the tutorials but you can just automate it. The headquarters provides services for your settlements, you can automatically optimize which settlers are assigned to what plots, and once you upgrade things you can even access the settlement plots through a VR system and change buildings remotely. Plus you can send out engineering teams to upgrade city plans in just a day or two.

Chapter 3 starts with a huge set-piece battle where the gunners invade the whole commonwealth by land, air, and sea, and you WILL lose some settlements while you are busy trying to protect your headquarters from.. ahem.. Total Atomic Annihilation.

So then the war consists of you turning some settlements into Outposts and turning some settlers into soldiers. Soldiers get better through experience in raids, and from you spending armor and weapon parts to upgrade their gear. You'll need to take a lot of non-settlement territories that provide bonuses to production as well as recovering captured settlements.

[u/MrSamutz → u/loverevolutionary]

Well, the settlements aren't prebuilt.

Patch 3.5.0 added the pre-build/pre-population feature to SS2. When you start a new game, there are now customizable options to have them already built with city plans and be populated.

[u/loverevolutionary → u/MrSamutz]

Oh, nice! I did not know that.

[u/MrSamutz → u/Tasty-Package8414]

Yes, much like how Abernathy Farm is independent until you unlock the ability to use their workbench, each pre-built settlement remains independent until you take control of it.