Settlement Tidy Bot

Version 3.3


Description:

Mr. Tidy "undertaker bot" that scurries around removing "remains" from a Settlement.


Key Features:

• Dead things removal
• Optional Battle Mode
• Optional Automatic Rescan
• Optional Stray Weapon Collection
• Limited to One per Settlement
• Continues working while its Cell is unloaded
• Recovered items are transferred to the Station Pad's chest
• Waits at the station pad when there is currently nothing to tidy
• Tidying requires wall-clock time and is not affected by Wait, Sleep, or Fast Travel
• The content of Mr Tidy's chest can be extracted using a Vacuum Hopper (Contraptions Workshop DLC)

This mod provides a "lore friendly" approach for removing corpses and other dead things from a settlement by enabling you to assign that task to a Vault-Tec Mister Tidy robot.  Just place the 'bot in a central area, instruct it to begin tidying, wait a minute for it to "beep" (or makes cheerful noises when there is nothing to tidy up), and then feel free to resume your adventures.

Mr. Tidy can be directed to tidy things within the boundaries of that settlement, or for a distance that can extend beyond those boundaries, with tidying always centered on its station pad. Mr. Tidy returns to the station pad upon completion.  It then waits there until it is instructed to resume, or is stored in its workshop, or is scrapped.  Items recovered from corpses are stored in the station pad's chest.

There is a brief initial mission / quest which provides a bit of backstory and conveys essential usage information.  It normally begins after escaping from Vault 111.  For those using an "alternate start" mod, it begins while outdoors in the Commonwealth (the main game area) -- or try visiting Sanctuary Hills and stand near the Workshop for a few minutes.

NOTE:  This is a mod for removing dead things, but which also automatically collects items for you from those dead things. It is not intended to be just a looting mod. So players who do not desire dead things to be removed (perhaps because of the behavior of some other mod) should simply not use Mr Tidy.

ANOTHER NOTE:  This is not a "scrapping" mod, so the things that are acquired by Mr Tidy and placed inside his chest are just the items that corpses normally contain (and which you would see if you looted their inventory items yourself). Which means skeletons are not scrapped into bones, and bodies are not scrapped into fertilizer -- they simply disappear.

YET ANOTHER NOTE:  Create a saved game before tidying a settlement -- one that you can return to if issues are encountered.

ALMOST FINAL NOTE:  Anything defined to be a Quest item and/or Unscrappable is always skipped by Mr Tidy.

ONE FINAL NOTE:  Vacuum Hoppers from the Contraptions Workshop DLC remove items from Mr Tidy's chest


How To Build:

Mister Tidy is placed in a settlement by using a WorkShop to build a Station Pad. The station pad can be found in the STRUCTURES>MISCELLANEOUS section of the WorkShop's building menu when an initial quest ("Rest In Peace") is completed. The quest appears shortly after leaving Vault 111 for normal play, or when outdoors in the Commonwealth when using an "alternate start" mod. If the quest does not appear when expected, then double-check to confirm that this mod has been enabled.

When opening a workshop to build something, you initially see the user interface positioned at a wooden building with "Structures" as a label above it. Go upwards one row from there, and then go over to the right along that row until you see "Structures>Miscellaneous" as a label; in the base game that label is above a bloodied super mutant pole but may be something different depending on the mods you installed. Now go up one row from there. Everything you then see horizontally in that row is the "Structures>Miscellaneous" subcategory. In that row will be the Mister Tidy Station Pad; perhaps as the very first item.

It is best to position the Station Pad on the ground (not in a building and not on a platform) in the central area of a settlement in such a way that Mister Tidy will have easy access to places within the settlement's boundaries. If positioned above ground, be sure to build appropriate ramps and stairways that can be easily used for leaving and returning to the pad.

If you are not able to find the"Structures>Miscellaneous" subcategory, then you installed a mod that alters the basic construction categories of the game. In which case you may not be able to build the Station Pad, and hence will not be able to use this mod -- if you are lucky, the conflicting mod may have simply rearranged items, with the Station Pad now residing elsewhere in some other category or subcategory instead of where it was intended to be.


Mr. Tidy Status:

Mr. Tidy's station pad has colored indicators which identify the bot's current status:

Yellow -- Mr. Tidy has not yet been activated.  Interact with the station pad to begin tidying.  The colored indicators will then become Blue.

Blue -- Mr.Tidy is currently gathering cleanup information.  The player should remain in the settlement while the indicators are Blue.  When the cleanup information has been collected, the indicators will become Green if there are "remains" to be tidied, or will become White if there is no work to be done.

Green -- Mr. Tidy is currently analyzing cleanup information or actively traveling around to tidy things up.  Mr. Tidy will Beep when the indicators become Green.  The bot will now be able to continue tidying while the player is away from the settlement.  The indicators will become White when cleanup has been completed.

White -- Mr. Tidy is currently idle while waiting to begin the next tidying cycle.  This is the time to store (or scrap) a settlement's Mr. Tidy when its job is completed.  Tidying is resumed by interacting with the station pad.


Tidying Up:

Mr. Tidy automatically removes the following "remains" (if not a Quest item) and stores any recovered items that they may have contained in the station pad's Chest:

• Corpses
• Dead Things
• Skeletons
• Bone Fragments

Each item is examined to determine whether it is in Mr Tidy's lists of things that can be scrapped. If not, it is ignored. An item is also ignored if it is a quest item (IsQuestItem script function) or is set to be an item that should not be scrapped (UnscrappableObject keyword).


Commands:

Begin/Resume Tidying:
Scan for things to tidy away, process what has been discovered, and then return to the station pad. Applies to that Mr Tidy robot only. Note that a corpse is not processed if it is a Quest objective or defined to be Unscrappable.

Change Tidying Area:
Select "Stay within Settlement boundaries" to only process things within the settlement (default setting), or "Tidy everything within Scan range" which ignores settlement boundaries. Applies to that Mr Tidy robot only.

Set Tidy-Up Scan Range:
Select the scan range that is used when "Tidy everything within Scan range" has been selected (see below). The default is "Long Range Scan". Applies to that Mr Tidy robot only.

Enable/Disable AutoScan:
Provides periodic rescanning for things to tidy away (Disabled is the default). Applies to all Mr Tidy robots. Disabled is the default.

Enable/Disable Battle Mode:
Provides its own faster automatic rescanning regardless of the setting for regular AutoScan. Applies to the specific Mr Tidy (not all of them). Disabled is the default.

Enable/Disable Stray Weapon Collection:
Allows Mr Tidy to collect weapons that were not dropped by dying NPCs, are not inside containers, and are not a Quest objective. Disabled is the default. Applies to that Mr Tidy robot only (not all of them).

See the various settings sections below for details.


Settlement Bounds and Scan Range:

Mr Tidy can be set to tidy away only the things that are within a settlement's boundaries, or can be set to ignore settlement boundaries and tidy away things that are no farther away than a specified distance from his station pad. For example, there is a dead dog and a human corpse just beyond the wooden bridge near the Sanctuary settlement. They are beyond Sanctuary's settlement boundaries, so are not removed when boundary checking is enforced. But they are removed when a "long range" scan is selected with no boundary checking and the station pad positioned in a central location.

The scan range for both "long range" and "within settlement boundaries" is 10,000 units of game-world distance. So the difference between those choices is simply whether particular remains are processed (inside the bounds) or not (outside the bounds) when Mr Tidy's station pad is positioned in a settlement's central area. Short Range is 3,500 units. Medium Range is 6,000 units.

10,000 units is far enough to span the interior of base-game settlements when Mr Tidy's station pad is centrally positioned. I have never used the DLCs so do not know the coverage for their settlements. And of course coverage will vary when using mods that alter settlement boundaries or add new settlements.

As an example, just over the bridge from Sanctuary there is initially a dead NPC and a dead dog. They are outside Sanctuary's settlement boundary and so are never processed when using "within settlement boundaries", but are processed when using "long range" with Mr Tidy's station pad positioned near Sanctuary's workshop. The distance from that workshop to the corpses is approximately 8,500 units.


Recommended Settings:

One-time tidying or very infrequent tidying in all settlements: Auto-Scan Disabled, Battle Mode Disabled

Occasional automatic tidying in all settlements: Auto-Scan Enabled, Battle Mode Disabled

Frequent automatic tidying in specific settlements: Auto-Scan <any>, Battle Mode Enabled


Installation:

Install using a mod manager, or unpack the mod and copy the .ESP/.ESL and .BA2 files into the game's \DATA folder, then enable the mod.

Position this mod's .ESP/.ESL file to be as low as it will go in your "Load Order" sequence. This helps to ensure that Mr Tidy performs as best he can by overriding any conflicting mods. If you know with absolute certainty that there are no conflicting mods, then this mod can be positioned anywhere your installer normally allows.


Install ESP or ESL?

If you are reaching the maximum allowed number of .ESP installs, and want to install more mods, then install the .ESL versions of those new mods ...

Back-in-the-day, many players were reaching the maximum number of allowed .ESP installs, so Bethesda introduced a way to permit more via .ESL files.

The Light Master (.ESL) file is an optimized file format introduced in the Fallout 4 v1.10 update. Using Light Master files allows more plugins (mods and patch mods) to be installed than previously possible with .ESP files. For .ESP files there is a limit of 255, whereas a maximum of 4096 .ESL files can be loaded (but in practice is difficult to achieve due to other technical constraints).

Both file types can be used together, which means you can install just .ESP files if your install count remains below the .ESP maximum, or just .ESL files if your count remains below the .ESL maximum, or some of both such as using .ESP files initially and then adding .ESL files thereafter when the maximum for .ESP has been reached.


ESP/ESL Compatibility:

Saved games that currently use an .ESP mod are not compatible with an .ESL of that same mod. Similarly, saved games that are currently using the .ESL for a mod are not compatible with an .ESP of that same mod. That is a basic game restriction in terms of switching between .ESP and .ESL versions of a mod. There is no "fix" or workaround -- it is inherent in the game's design.

So, to switch from .ESP to .ESL, or from .ESL to .ESP, you must:

1 ) uninstall the mod
2 ) load the current saved game
3 ) create a new saved game (while that mod is not installed)
4 ) install the other download of that mod
5 ) resume play with that newly created saved game

Objects and NPCs provided by the mod will not be there now and must be created once more. Similarly, quests will need to be done again.


Requirements:

No special requirements. DLCs are not needed.


Compatibility Limitations:

This mod and my other mods might or might not work correctly with Sim Settlements and Transfer Settlements. The same is true for mods which adversely affect my mods by altering base-game locations and base-game content which my mods depend upon.

There is no support for compatibility issues with those, and there are no plans to provide compatibility patches.


Known Issues:

The game can be a bit quirky at times, which can result in an NPC becoming a bit confused (or even stuck) when traveling from one place to another. When this happens for a Mr. Tidy, it automatically performs "fast travel" (teleports) back to its Station Pad.  So if you are watching Mr. Tidy, and it suddenly disappears, it has returned to its Station Pad and resumes its tidying activities from there.

Mister Tidy, by necessity, uses a pathing mechanism that is less robust and more error prone than the one that NPCs and other Robots typically use.  As a result, Mister Tidy can be more readily befuddled by obstacles, especially with regard to fencing and walls that surround a settlement -- they will hinder its ability to enter and exit that place.  So an "open" settlement environment is generally best.

If this mod's initial quest is not starting for you after being installed with the Vortex mod manager, it might be because it has not been properly activated/enabled.  If you click PLUGINS within Vortex, you will then see which mods are truly activated/enabled or not (whereas the MODS section sometimes shows incorrect information). Within that PLUGINS interface you can activate/enable the mods that were not properly set when installed.

Corpses for NPCs created by the NPCs Travel mod are intentionally not removed because it would break that mod by preventing those NPCs from re-spawning as intended.  So depending on the frequency/quantity/importance of NPCs Travel's enemies for a player's settlement fights, this mod might not be very useful for anything other than a one-time settlement cleanup.


Known Conflicts:

For anyone with the Tesla Cannon CC content, make sure to limit a Tidy Bot in Somerville Place to settlement bounds, or it will scrap a body necessary to that questline. [thanks to cowfez for this warning ]

There is a conflict between this mod and War Of The Commonwealth which can result in crashes. I have identified the specific conflict, but at present there is no fix or workaround that I can provide. So it is best to not use the two mods at the same time.

[ Fixed by NPCs Travel v2.95 via an optional setting ] Corpses for NPCs created by the NPCs Travel mod will no longer re-spawn as originally intended if those corpses are tidied-away by Mr Tidy.

The initial quest can be prevented from starting, or become stalled part-way through, when using a buggy "quick start" or "alternate start" mod.  The quest normally begins a short while after exiting from Vault 111 for the first time, or a short while after loading a saved game when already outdoors in the Commonwealth.  Otherwise, it might (or might not) begin when standing for a few minutes outdoors at the Sanctuary Hills workbench.

If you experience crashes while traveling during the initial quest, or are unable to complete that quest, it is then highly likely some other mod has been installed that "breaks" the Vault 111 area (or possibly the Sanctuary settlement) thereby preventing this mod from working correctly.

If you are not able to find the "Structures>Miscellaneous" subcategory, then you installed a mod that alters the basic construction categories of the game. In which case you may not be able to build the Station Pad, and hence will not be able to use this mod -- if you are lucky, the conflicting mod may have simply rearranged items, with the Station Pad now residing elsewhere in some other category or subcategory instead of where it was intended to be.

Please be aware that "Anom's Sanctuary Hills Overhaul" has been reported to conflict with some of my Settlement mods, such that when both are installed the player is then no longer able to create a new saved game. This might (or might not) be the case here as well.


To Uninstall:

Uninstall with the mod manager that was used for the original install, or delete SettlementTidyBot files.


Permissions:

This mod may not be reused in part or whole for any purpose other than its original intent.  It may not be uploaded to any other web site.

Get in touch with me if you wish to discuss translation into a non-English language; prior approval is mandatory.


Change Log:

See the Change Log to review what is included in each update.


Credits:

Bethesda Softworks - for the original Models and Textures [I merely provided the ingenuity and scripting to bring Mister Tidy "to life"]


My Other Mods:

Workshop Menu Fixer can be found Here.

Shield Bubble can be found Here.

Qwirky can be found Here.

Sparky can be found Here.

Silver Streak can be found Here.

Silver Streak UFO can be found Here.

Whirly can be found Here.

Whirligig Sentry can be found Here.

Alien Disruptor can be found Here.

Settlement Radar Station & Drone Defenders can be found Here.

Settlement Medic Bot: "Mister Medic" can be found Here.

Settlement Police Bot: "Mister Law" can be found Here.

Settlement Repair Bot: "Mister Mechanic" can be found Here.

Settlement Salvage Bot: "Mister Salvage" can be found Here.

Settlement Gardener Bot: "Mister Gardener" can be found Here.

Settlement Delivery Bots: "Mister Caravan / Mister Express / Mister Postman" can be found Here.

Carry-Your-Stuff Robots can be found Here.

Alien Disruptor can be found Here.

Alien Blaster Long-Barrel Fix can be found Here.


In Memoriam:

In memory of my Father (may he Rest In Peace) who was a model airplane maker (gliders & gas powered) and an RC enthusiast.


Enjoy!