Using the PRSTN Model to Rank Settlements 

Actually there is a small dirt patch in mechanist lair. You can build the small ground water purification plants place an object next to them and move them to another location allowing you to build a good amount of water at the mechanist lair. Most people don't know this trick. The small dirt patch is in one of the rooms near one of the upper exits.

Perfect comment. The E catogory is a fantastic idea.

Putting an @GGReactor in the replies here to call attention to my new revelation in the edit

I love this idea so much. I wanted to wait a while before remaking this, but with knowing it’s possible now (actually going to export and upload to RU-vid, have enough disk space, external hard drive and worries so much more) and reading this, I really want to move it forward some 😅 when it does get made all of the comments that contributed to it will be highlighted at the beginning and end of the video I haven’t set up it up really, but this makes me want to share the discord I’ve created: discord.gg/zx6RmrzRcq

I miss gurps

Thank you so much, I appreciate it the kind words a lot! I will admit I didn’t have the presentation quite where I wanted but it was getting to the point I’d wait five-ten seconds inbetween key frames and at some point knew I had to export it lol. Reading that though, it definitely put a smile on my face, and I appreciate it a lot Also another settlement needs your help!

This is what I wish I would have done, but I brought EVERYTHING to sanctuary for a museum 😂

I've never thought of doing that with sanctuary. That's a great idea!

Not gonna lie, when I do more of a role-playing run, I use this exact proximity as justification for using the Cheat Terminal mod to stash tons of every scrap resource at Sanctuary so I don't have to screw around looking for junk to break down. I mean, it is a full-sized vault in the lore (even if the game didn't really show that), and would have been stocked with tons of non-perishable resources. While you won't get any food items from there since the Vault personnel ate it all and starved, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that there's just an absurd amount of resources meant for post-war rebuilding in Vault 111's long term storage areas. This is also my excuse for doing the same with Vault 88, on the assumption that they would actually have had enough stuff on-hand down there to build at least a good portion of the Vault. Same thing with the Mechanist's Lair. If there's enough resources in there for the Mechanist to build a seemingly endless army of robots with no end in sight when my character confronts them, then there's definitely enough to build whatever the hell I want on-site.

I’m unfortunately not on PC yet, but if you do ps5 mods, I would love to see how you adapt it into a mod! I mean regardless I’d love to see it, even if I can’t use it! I really like the way you’re describing it

​@@GGReactorI forgot to prevent my game and the Creation Kit from updating, so the new update caused problems with my CK. And sadly, scripting is still beyond my skill anyway. So I can't turn it into a real mechanic of the game. I would turn it into a concept that some Minutemen came up with to make their campaigns more efficient by helping them to direct their efforts towards the most important settlements. The guys who invented it knew a guy who was obsessed with settlements. Nobody took him serious. To make fun of him, they named it the PRESTON scale. On top of what you established in the video and the changes I made in my first comment, E stands for Environment (radiation, not-depr**sing view etc) and O stands for Obstacles (how easy it is to build, which is a destinct metric than building material abundance). These metrics are hierarchical. - Proximity is the most important aspect, because it doesn't make sense to care about a potential settlement on the Moon (despite what Preston might say) - If a settlement is within reach, resources are the most important aspect. It doesn't make sense to establish or even maintain a settlement that can't maintain itself. We have to focus on locations with farmable land, freshwater etc. - a healthy environment is the next thing we have to consider. It doesn't make sense to farm crops if storms or radiation k**l you or the view and isolation make you dep**ssed and k**l each other after a month. - Security is the aspect of Environment that takes living entities into consideration. If you can biologically live somewhere (resources and environment), then the next step is to secure the place from raiders and creatures. Does the settlement have building material to build defenses and does the prewar layout or nature help with fortification? - Now we have secured a settlement that provides any basic needs to the inhabitants and that is sustainable. Now we enter the area of luxury aspects. Total building area is the most important out of these 3, because it allows the settlement to thrive. - Next is the layout of the settlement. How easy will it be to build something and to realize our concepts without having to build around unusable prewar or natural structures? - And if everything else is somewhat equal, we might even take symbolic landmarks (Bunker Hill) or highly specialized machines (Mechanist Lair) into account. I would create a list of all settlements that the Minutemen might have known and give each of them a score made out of 2 values. The first is the Basic Needs Value (0-40), which consists of the first 4 aspects. Since the metrics are hierarchical, I can say that every of these 4 aspects must be over 3/10 to make them even care about the next metric. The last 3 make up the Luxury Needs Value. If the BNV of two settlements is somewhat equal, the LNV helps us prioritize which settlement we would claim and defend first if we have to choose.

​@@henryneubert7798 I wish RU-vid notified me when there were comments on comments and not just new comments. We spoke about this a bit on the community post since, I'm here now pulling this alongside the community post text to start researching the next video

This truly means so much. I am in agreement, and I love that there has been so much input on it. I definitely once I get a bit more comfortable with everything and feel I’ve leveled up my skills some and can actually optimize stuff in the editor etc to where it’s more workable, I would love to remake this taking in account everything everyone has contributed. Especially with like a little splash page starting it with everyone’s input screenshotted or something I was mid-editing when I saw this comment pop up and like it’s nice, I’ll have small lapses in my head where I feel like “no one’s gonna wanna watch this” and that’s how I felt with like 90% of this video I’m commenting on, but I see your comment alongside the others and it helps so much and just keeps me working.. until I come to comment 😂 W break time though

@@GGReactorMaybe to complete the “PRSTN” scale you could also add a “E” that stands for environment. Environment is measured by the sustainability and how you can use water pumps and food. For example: Boston’s airport settlement has 1 or 2 very tiny dirt patches so it would get a 3 in environmental.

I appreciate finding it creative and original, truly though every time I open the inspiration tab in RU-vid studio I’m inspired by how creative the fallout 4 creators are, especially given the age of the game and how much unique content they’ve managed to make, they’ve gotten so much out of this game I could never imagine doing. I just like building 😅 and exploring a bit

@@GGReactor I tried making some on a different channel and lost all motivation out of nowhere

@@NonchalantBoyo7896 you should start again! What I found is helps a lot is having a plan. I didn’t prior to the PRSTN scale at all and now I have all sorts of ideas and sorts of deadlines that kind of keep things interesting. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t lost motivation many times, but I kind of account it to just needed to do something else for a little while and end up coming back. It definitely there’s some parts that are far more worky than others too but it really makes up for it in the end

I appreciate this so much! That also means so much about being surprised, I’m at a bit of a loss for words seeing this is getting views 😅

Super professional put a huge smile on my face 😅. I am far from it, if you lurk my channel back to “what really happens when you prestige” a decade ago, I’d be lying if I said I was new to adobe programs, but I probably have more hours in fallout than I do in adobe 😅. like maybe I have found something I actually am kind of good at. & reading this is very motivating to keep at it. Thank you a lot for the comment!

I don’t wanna say it but I’ve spent so little time at murkwater I never realized she respawned (my 300ish hour save has a barn attached to that shell of a workshop and that’s it), I thought it was just on the new save I made because I didn’t claim the workbench. This is extremely notable and good to know and would have changed how this settlement was rated drastically

​@@GGReactorYep. It's one of those things that I personally think makes it a very good settlement, but with this rating system I'm not too sure. Perhaps a higher notable elements rating. I personally find it appealing aesthetically, but radiance is fairly subjective.

I put a few walls around my purifier to stop stray bullets from damaging them set up a bunch of turrets and the mirelurk queen dies almost instantly upon respawning.

The respawning Giddy Up buttercups in the factory nearby are so good for screws.

@@greenspiraldragon same here. I have a big concrete wall around the purifiers with a bunch of turrets round

For how much people want RU-vid lore videos I wish I could get you to make this into a RU-vid video. I don’t have the mind for lore at all, I enjoy it so much but things like this always go over my head. I mean I’m 1000% for using this idea and gathering the video to make it a presentation of sorts, but I imagine this isn’t the only thing you’ve noticed. In less words, if you truly don’t want to make it yourself and post it, im sure at some point ill make it and this comment will be screenshotted to it, but realistically I’d like to see you outgrow my channel because that’s the content people want, and I’m more than willing to help with editing and stuff in the discord

also the slaps roof of island got a laugh out of me 😂 there’s a lot more I’m gonna have to take into perspective when it comes to the future more confident version this video lol. I haven’t thought about the entirety of buildable volume essentially, I think it may have been mentioned in other comments but it’s just now hitting me the actual concept of measuring every settlement’s entire build limits vertically too

That is something I want to find a way to recalculate in the future. My idea for proximity was based just on how easily you can run from the settlement to acquire loot so the islands did poorly, but I could have figured in swimming better than using islands at the baseline for low proximity. I don’t like that there’s no rating for difficulty to obtain them and I’m realizing that now

@@GGReactor Then Essential and Obtainable is needed, you got a full P.R.E.S.T.O.N. ranking Essential - some settlements really help you to explore the map; some are useless Obtainable - is it easy to obtain?

This is good to know, I just saw another comment mentioning Oxhorn doing this, I’m gonna have to check it out! I’ve built up to where the stairs are and love the view from up there. I’m confused on if there’s anywhere to build up there though now 😅

If you’re referring to the one with the square hole glass roof that you fall through and up some, I definitely love these spots, I really just didn’t include them because of the weirdness of that roof’s collision. Am I missing somewhere even higher though? I haven’t actually tried on top up high on the other side

@GGReactor a youtuber name oxhorn do it in his hangman's alley

@@AaronBurns-qm6zuI’ll definitely check this out

Definitely added to the feedback for the PRESTON model, which is slowly in progress! I plan on making a post announcing its progress with everyone’s feedback officially soon

If it’s the video and not me I’m all for it 😂 on a serious note this is one of my favorite comments to see on RU-vid videos, seeing it on one of my own is a 10/10 feeling, thank you so much!

I very rarely dislike things enough to like, really really dislike them, but Marcy Long 😔 I’m pretty sure I still got her in caravan duty 😂

Unfortunately yeah, it’s one of my favorite settlements but that’s where it ended up with the scale in mind. Hopefully the next version of this will give it some more points!

@@GGReactor nah man i was just joking, i do agree with the scale. it may be small in terms of build space but it definitely brings out your creativity in tryna figure out how youre going to design and fit everything 😂

@@JohnletsLopezYou only have half of the available build space because settlers can’t path to half of the alley.

Which stood out the most to you? I was definitely conflicted on some of them myself. My goal was to balance them using 5/10 for surroundings and 5/10 for junk, but some were altered a bit from that and I maybe should have stuck to it the initial way 😅 I appreciate the feedback!

​@@GGReactori feel like you didnt see some really good defensive potential for some places