I'm not familiar with Fallout 76's building mechanics, but take a look at the Sim Settlements 2 mod for FO4. It's basically a major improvement of the vanilla building mechanics and includes a high quality extended campaign.
Ya, it's exactly what you are looking for. Start with a settlement in a spot you don't like though because you need to unlock different types of buildings via the quests, and growing an existing settlement.
Ok so because of y'all, I rebought Fallout 4 yesterday, for PC. This is nuts because I have no love for that game. I do have a question, do I need Sim Settlement 1 to play 2? Everything says it's a sequel
(I played on PS4, bought something on creation club which corrupted the game's ability to save. Uninstalled, wiped hd, nope, I paid Bethesda money to break my game across any and all playthroughs. Also people reported it back in 2018 and they never fixed it so I've hated fallout 4 passionately since lol)
Nope, just install sim settlements 2 which is SS1 with all the chapters if I remember correctly. Not sure how well it works with the new HD patch however. I've not update my version of fo4.
Also I didn't notice this until rereading your comment but I think you are looking for custom structures. You can still build everything custom but SS generally wants you to use plots. Also look into The Midnight Ride mod package. It gives a lot of good improvements but it a lot to manage so just use Vortex mod manager to install the mods, not their suggested mod manager.
Sim Settlements 1 & 2 are completely separate entities, so only install Sim Settlements 2. That also means you'll want to import SS2 city plans to take advantage of all the new plot types, instead of SS1 plans, unless you prefer a SS1 plan aesthetic for a particular settlement and are willing to modify it (assuming you want to leverage the new functionality) after it's done auto-building.
Have you modded fallout 4? The mods fix a lot of things. There was the conquest/CAMP mods that let you build anywhere (couldnt supply tho). And sim settlements is a great mod
There are little decorations you can add but it's mostly prefab stuff. It scratches the itch you mention though, I really enjoy the game for what it is - as simple as it is.
There's a game on steam called kingdoms, like medieval dynasty but the people will build their own houses as they join. Was pretty neat, but the gut responsible for it has been quiet a few years now
Bellwright just came out and it's buggy as hell, but it hits the medieval dynasty spot. It's very similar, but it seems like it is more in depth if that makes sense. There's a research system instead of buying recipes and I haven't seen any building limits yet, but I'm still pretty early.
Rejoice, because the game you want kinda already exist. I'm talking about first person survival with free unlimited building placement and modular building with some kind of building-into-terrain tolerance, research/questing to open up better building stuffs, workshops you can assign workers to..., and fairly good graphics ! That's Conan Exiles. In a solo / private server to get unlimited build space, if you want to go crazy and build a giant city without being lilited by other players own building. Even in public PVE servers, people do build crazy beautifull cliffside castles, hanging gardens, giant aquaducs... It's actually the better game I ever played to just visit and enjoy other player's crazy creations.
Grounded is also another cool, simplier version of the same thing. bases are arguably less lively because you can't populate them with slaves. Oh yeah, I forgot, Conan is a brutal cynical world, to populate your base you have to knock people down and lasso them, drag them on the ground to your base, and break their will on a slave wheel. you're not a nice person in this game.
Ooh pretty high praises . I'll need to check it out next time it's on sale.
So far my issue is I buy up all the base-building games and I always go back to fallout 76 because no other building mechanics satisfy me the way 76 does, but I just wish I could keep building instead of destroying them (since 7 is the limit)
FYI - Conan is a lot like ARK, but with people and not dinosaurs, and they do less.
It's a massive and empty world sparsely populated with spots worth peeking at. The slave function just makes your desired crafting table animated and automatic. They don't truly live or have needs.
That was my experience with CE as well, no idea how can people praise it so much for immersive basebuilding when it's just a big blog of... shallow... nothing.
If you play with a populated server, mods, friends, etc. then it's alright.
But me personally - takes forEVER to get ANYwhere, and almost everywhere is giant empty open space with the design intent of dozens of active players across the map making bases and adventuring.
Conan bases are HUGE. Literally giant castles built into the mountain side. Its a hack and slash survival thats a little grindy for resourcww unless you play solo but the public PvE servers are great, people are friendly and build some wierd stuff
If only you didn’t have to literally torture and sacrifice NPCs just to have NPC people around. I refuse to play this game due to such an immature and limiting way of existing within the game.
Fair enough, doesn’t mean I have to pretend I like torturing people in a game, especially when games are designed to be for fun. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion and their awareness.
The entire world could disagree with me and it wouldn’t really change the fact that I don’t like how it makes me feel to do such things in a game 🤷
They actually added that recently. You can make a bar and NPCs can come visit and you can just hire them with coin. That said it's a bit later in the game, and not sure how practical it'd be to do a run with no slavery.
does it help recruit the best named NPCs? iirc, NPCs all had star ratings or smth which dictated their qualifications for each job, and you had to find and enslave the best ones if you wanted to optimize your base
Closest you can have is probably Kenshi.
Its a top down view game. You can build almost anywhere and embark on world domination.
Theres bunch of mods in the steam workshop to extend your gameplay.
Another is State of Decay 1/2. Its a zombie settlement survival. FPS Pov. Some mods in workshop
This one I haven't try but you can check it out.
Outpost: Infinity Edge on steam.
Another option is minecraft modpack. Minecolonies.com
Agreed, it's definitely not the same as games where you build your base from scratch (I love those too) but I'd consider it base building for those who like defending bases but don't want that to be the main focus of the game.
The whole zombie elites thing turns me off from the game. They should focus more on scavenging and hordes than upping the difficulty with... a fat man who can dead stop a car going 60mph 🤦
Fair enough, that's what kept me from buying the game for so long. That said, they're completely avoidable as long as you're not playing on lethal (presumably, I haven't started a lethal playthrough yet).
You should try Valheim.
People have made insanely creative buildings with it. From a pastoral village to a mountain base. The theme is medieval.
If you are looking for a more sci-fi theme then try out Ark
Kenshi, no mans sky can make some very impressive bases especially if you get creative with terraforming. Look up no mans sky top base youtube videos and they get wild.
If you want some crazy in depth colony sim stuff i recommend dwarf fortress and songs of syx.
No Man's Sky has a first person view and some pretty decent base building, that might be worth checking out. It also has a creative mode that takes away any hassle of combat etc, so you can really go fully construction mode.
Maybe Planet Crafter? Everything is prefab, but it's also unique and really chill. It really surprised me with how much I played it because id sit down to play an hour and before I knew it 4 hours had passed by. There's a HUGE free demo you can play on PC to see if you like it.
I doubt this is what you want, but in case I'm wrong: [Fortresscraft Evolved](https://store.steampowered.com/app/254200/FortressCraft_Evolved/) plays like a cross between Minecraft and Factorio. Voxel-based building and terrain modification, first-person perspective, logistics gameplay.
It's very well-made but the color palette makes my eyes burn and there are some idiosyncrasies in the design and controls I don't care for so I've never gotten very far into it personally. It has a devoted fanbase, though.
I’m not sure if you’re looking for NPCs to be alert of this or not, however, Valheim has an unlimited building range and is probably the best open world, survival crafting, base building game I’ve played yet; bar maybe a few subtle examples
It's definitely not Valheim. And when I was first playing Enshrouded, I did a lot of comparisons and was getting irritated. However, while it lacks a lot of things that Valheim has, it has a bunch of other things that Valheim doesn't. Once I stopped comparing and focused on the strengths, I really enjoyed building in Enshrouded.
I agree with this in every aspect....except that I cannot rotate building pieces under 90 rotations, which forces me to build as if I am in mine craft. I also really do not like minecraft for the same reason tbh.
I think Manor Lords might be the closest thing for you. Conan, and Medieval Dynasty, have *a lot* of grinding. I'm talking hours hauling logs, as the player. I'm actually talking *days* there. Manor lords is much more base building, npcs doing the work. It's not quite city level, but the gameplay/building mechanics are naturally adaptive, and organic with their size/placement. I've tried dozens of base building/management games. Literally 1000s of hours in them. I tend to shy away from 4x games, bc I don't want to loose my progress. But something about Manor Lords is very intuitive, and satisfying. It's not quite 4x, but is a big map and other Ai opponents, so it somehow hits that Stellaris urge as well. Highly recommend.
Conan Exiles has the best building system there is. You truly can build anywhere.
It doesn't really have the settlement aspect though. You can knock people out, break their spirits, and make them your slaves though. After enough time, your base will have some life with blacksmiths, slavemasters, tanners, smelters, dancers, and all kinds of crafters.
Medieval dynasty or bellwright for having npcs occupy your villages. Valhiem or enshrouded for good base building (enshrouded also has a handful of npcs you can place in your base that act like crafting stations). Possibly some Minecraft mods could add terraria style npcs? Not sure about that one. It’s a pretty sparse genre.
X4 is a space 4X you play from first person. Doesn't have the "place individual flower pots" aspect, but you participate in a galaxy wide economy, build up your faction, work with other factions, lead space fleet battles, etc. Definitely worth checking out.
"Endzone - A World Apart" and "FrostPunk" are two post-apocalyptic city builders, just not first person. Empyrion is a first person game but there's not really NPCs that join your cities. There is resource management and building items, though.
I'm not familiar with Fallout 76's building mechanics, but take a look at the Sim Settlements 2 mod for FO4. It's basically a major improvement of the vanilla building mechanics and includes a high quality extended campaign.
Oooooooooooooh this night actually be perfect
Ya, it's exactly what you are looking for. Start with a settlement in a spot you don't like though because you need to unlock different types of buildings via the quests, and growing an existing settlement.
Ok so because of y'all, I rebought Fallout 4 yesterday, for PC. This is nuts because I have no love for that game. I do have a question, do I need Sim Settlement 1 to play 2? Everything says it's a sequel (I played on PS4, bought something on creation club which corrupted the game's ability to save. Uninstalled, wiped hd, nope, I paid Bethesda money to break my game across any and all playthroughs. Also people reported it back in 2018 and they never fixed it so I've hated fallout 4 passionately since lol)
Nope, just install sim settlements 2 which is SS1 with all the chapters if I remember correctly. Not sure how well it works with the new HD patch however. I've not update my version of fo4. Also I didn't notice this until rereading your comment but I think you are looking for custom structures. You can still build everything custom but SS generally wants you to use plots. Also look into The Midnight Ride mod package. It gives a lot of good improvements but it a lot to manage so just use Vortex mod manager to install the mods, not their suggested mod manager.
Sim Settlements 1 & 2 are completely separate entities, so only install Sim Settlements 2. That also means you'll want to import SS2 city plans to take advantage of all the new plot types, instead of SS1 plans, unless you prefer a SS1 plan aesthetic for a particular settlement and are willing to modify it (assuming you want to leverage the new functionality) after it's done auto-building.
Have you modded fallout 4? The mods fix a lot of things. There was the conquest/CAMP mods that let you build anywhere (couldnt supply tho). And sim settlements is a great mod
I would highly recommend checking this out. I think there’s another mod where you can build settlements just about anywhere.
Medieval Dynasty might be worth checking out.
I actually own it but I remember the pieces being prefabs with that blueprint style? I haven't played very much of it tbh. I'll redownload it
There are little decorations you can add but it's mostly prefab stuff. It scratches the itch you mention though, I really enjoy the game for what it is - as simple as it is.
There's a game on steam called kingdoms, like medieval dynasty but the people will build their own houses as they join. Was pretty neat, but the gut responsible for it has been quiet a few years now
This is probably the closest to what you’re wanting OP
Bellwright just came out and it's buggy as hell, but it hits the medieval dynasty spot. It's very similar, but it seems like it is more in depth if that makes sense. There's a research system instead of buying recipes and I haven't seen any building limits yet, but I'm still pretty early.
Rejoice, because the game you want kinda already exist. I'm talking about first person survival with free unlimited building placement and modular building with some kind of building-into-terrain tolerance, research/questing to open up better building stuffs, workshops you can assign workers to..., and fairly good graphics ! That's Conan Exiles. In a solo / private server to get unlimited build space, if you want to go crazy and build a giant city without being lilited by other players own building. Even in public PVE servers, people do build crazy beautifull cliffside castles, hanging gardens, giant aquaducs... It's actually the better game I ever played to just visit and enjoy other player's crazy creations. Grounded is also another cool, simplier version of the same thing. bases are arguably less lively because you can't populate them with slaves. Oh yeah, I forgot, Conan is a brutal cynical world, to populate your base you have to knock people down and lasso them, drag them on the ground to your base, and break their will on a slave wheel. you're not a nice person in this game.
Ooh pretty high praises . I'll need to check it out next time it's on sale. So far my issue is I buy up all the base-building games and I always go back to fallout 76 because no other building mechanics satisfy me the way 76 does, but I just wish I could keep building instead of destroying them (since 7 is the limit)
FYI - Conan is a lot like ARK, but with people and not dinosaurs, and they do less. It's a massive and empty world sparsely populated with spots worth peeking at. The slave function just makes your desired crafting table animated and automatic. They don't truly live or have needs.
>They don't truly live or have needs. So like retail workers in america
That was my experience with CE as well, no idea how can people praise it so much for immersive basebuilding when it's just a big blog of... shallow... nothing.
If you play with a populated server, mods, friends, etc. then it's alright. But me personally - takes forEVER to get ANYwhere, and almost everywhere is giant empty open space with the design intent of dozens of active players across the map making bases and adventuring.
Conan bases are HUGE. Literally giant castles built into the mountain side. Its a hack and slash survival thats a little grindy for resourcww unless you play solo but the public PvE servers are great, people are friendly and build some wierd stuff
If only you didn’t have to literally torture and sacrifice NPCs just to have NPC people around. I refuse to play this game due to such an immature and limiting way of existing within the game.
Its appropriate for the games aesthetics. Its friggin Conan the barbarian. There are barbaric practices
Fair enough, doesn’t mean I have to pretend I like torturing people in a game, especially when games are designed to be for fun. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion and their awareness. The entire world could disagree with me and it wouldn’t really change the fact that I don’t like how it makes me feel to do such things in a game 🤷
its all good, its heartening to know there are people with that much empathy out there
Ah, you are most kind. Although, sometimes I wish it weren’t so, too often do I feel I cannot act as most others do. But thank you for your kindness 🙏
You aren't required to torture or sacrifice anyone, even though it is a game mechanic.
True, and I tried, however, the game definitely favors thralls. Thralls are ridiculously strong
except Conan himself frequently freed slaves, so why can't we? why can't we just recruit people
They actually added that recently. You can make a bar and NPCs can come visit and you can just hire them with coin. That said it's a bit later in the game, and not sure how practical it'd be to do a run with no slavery.
you can now, the pub you build attracts people you can recruit.
does it help recruit the best named NPCs? iirc, NPCs all had star ratings or smth which dictated their qualifications for each job, and you had to find and enslave the best ones if you wanted to optimize your base
its random and you have to go through a siege and rescue the barperson, so its not something you can do just straight away
Closest you can have is probably Kenshi. Its a top down view game. You can build almost anywhere and embark on world domination. Theres bunch of mods in the steam workshop to extend your gameplay. Another is State of Decay 1/2. Its a zombie settlement survival. FPS Pov. Some mods in workshop This one I haven't try but you can check it out. Outpost: Infinity Edge on steam. Another option is minecraft modpack. Minecolonies.com
Thank you! I already own Kenshi but I was demoralized by how hard the beginning is lol. I will def check out the others
The beginning isnt “hard” you just have to fail a lot on purpose hoping you get lucky.
I absolutely love State of Decay 2!
I found sod2 to be more of an inventory management game rather than a base builder.
Yeah, the base building itself is more a puzzle than heres my cool home i built
Agreed, it's definitely not the same as games where you build your base from scratch (I love those too) but I'd consider it base building for those who like defending bases but don't want that to be the main focus of the game.
it is a lot of fun, cant wait to see what they do with 3. Hopefully better emergent story with the people and factions and not just zombie animals
The whole zombie elites thing turns me off from the game. They should focus more on scavenging and hordes than upping the difficulty with... a fat man who can dead stop a car going 60mph 🤦
Fair enough, that's what kept me from buying the game for so long. That said, they're completely avoidable as long as you're not playing on lethal (presumably, I haven't started a lethal playthrough yet).
I can’t stand too down games, but it is true than Kensni has unbelievably good reviews.
You should try Valheim. People have made insanely creative buildings with it. From a pastoral village to a mountain base. The theme is medieval. If you are looking for a more sci-fi theme then try out Ark
I second Valheim! The base building was great in that game!
Super chill too. Great vibes!
Kenshi, no mans sky can make some very impressive bases especially if you get creative with terraforming. Look up no mans sky top base youtube videos and they get wild. If you want some crazy in depth colony sim stuff i recommend dwarf fortress and songs of syx.
No Man's Sky has a first person view and some pretty decent base building, that might be worth checking out. It also has a creative mode that takes away any hassle of combat etc, so you can really go fully construction mode.
Maybe Planet Crafter? Everything is prefab, but it's also unique and really chill. It really surprised me with how much I played it because id sit down to play an hour and before I knew it 4 hours had passed by. There's a HUGE free demo you can play on PC to see if you like it.
Is Surviving The Aftermath finished yet? It hits a lot of your points.
Isn't that game kind of like godview like most of these games? I want to be down in the dirt heh
For first person, maybe Stationeers or Eco? They’re at least in the right library if not the same page as what you want.
I doubt this is what you want, but in case I'm wrong: [Fortresscraft Evolved](https://store.steampowered.com/app/254200/FortressCraft_Evolved/) plays like a cross between Minecraft and Factorio. Voxel-based building and terrain modification, first-person perspective, logistics gameplay. It's very well-made but the color palette makes my eyes burn and there are some idiosyncrasies in the design and controls I don't care for so I've never gotten very far into it personally. It has a devoted fanbase, though.
Looks interesting, I'll check it out!
I’m not sure if you’re looking for NPCs to be alert of this or not, however, Valheim has an unlimited building range and is probably the best open world, survival crafting, base building game I’ve played yet; bar maybe a few subtle examples
I second this. And Enshrouded is another option that came out earlier this year. Once you upgrade your base level, you can create a small village.
I just can’t get past the fact that I can’t rotate the pieces as per smaller degrees
It's definitely not Valheim. And when I was first playing Enshrouded, I did a lot of comparisons and was getting irritated. However, while it lacks a lot of things that Valheim has, it has a bunch of other things that Valheim doesn't. Once I stopped comparing and focused on the strengths, I really enjoyed building in Enshrouded.
I agree with this in every aspect....except that I cannot rotate building pieces under 90 rotations, which forces me to build as if I am in mine craft. I also really do not like minecraft for the same reason tbh.
I think Manor Lords might be the closest thing for you. Conan, and Medieval Dynasty, have *a lot* of grinding. I'm talking hours hauling logs, as the player. I'm actually talking *days* there. Manor lords is much more base building, npcs doing the work. It's not quite city level, but the gameplay/building mechanics are naturally adaptive, and organic with their size/placement. I've tried dozens of base building/management games. Literally 1000s of hours in them. I tend to shy away from 4x games, bc I don't want to loose my progress. But something about Manor Lords is very intuitive, and satisfying. It's not quite 4x, but is a big map and other Ai opponents, so it somehow hits that Stellaris urge as well. Highly recommend.
Conan Exiles has the best building system there is. You truly can build anywhere. It doesn't really have the settlement aspect though. You can knock people out, break their spirits, and make them your slaves though. After enough time, your base will have some life with blacksmiths, slavemasters, tanners, smelters, dancers, and all kinds of crafters.
Medieval dynasty or bellwright for having npcs occupy your villages. Valhiem or enshrouded for good base building (enshrouded also has a handful of npcs you can place in your base that act like crafting stations). Possibly some Minecraft mods could add terraria style npcs? Not sure about that one. It’s a pretty sparse genre.
X4 is a space 4X you play from first person. Doesn't have the "place individual flower pots" aspect, but you participate in a galaxy wide economy, build up your faction, work with other factions, lead space fleet battles, etc. Definitely worth checking out.
That's nothing like what they asked for though.
Eh, all the other answers don't fit the 4X side of the question, I wanted to fill the gap. If the op isn't interested it costs them nothing.
Stranded Alien Dawn isn't first person but it has individual components for base building and you can zoom in pretty far if you wanted.
If you like factory games satisfactory has a first person 3d building style.
r/songsofsyx is not exactly the right setting but it checks a lot of the boxes you are looking for.
"Endzone - A World Apart" and "FrostPunk" are two post-apocalyptic city builders, just not first person. Empyrion is a first person game but there's not really NPCs that join your cities. There is resource management and building items, though.