Hardcore Survival of the Commonwealth - Settlement Building (HSC-SB) is a mod that drastically increases the difficulty and realism for constructing almost every single type of structure in your workshop settlements. In the vanilla game, you can scrap 30 pencils and get enough wood for constructing a small house. To put it simply; that's unimmersive from the perspective of a survival game. With HSC-SB, the requirements for almost all items that you can build in your workshop settlements have been adjusted to be more realistic. In terms of difficulty, HSC-SB is designed as a way to complement HSC, but it should also work fine by itself.


Description

The majority of the items affected by this mod (which again, is almost every single craftable settlement object in the game) are not of great importance to the gameplay. It's realistic that things like walls, chairs and lamps should take some effort to be built, but they are ultimately just there in the background. The most important structures are those related to the production of water, food, electricity and defense. These items can really have a great impact on the gameplay. Considering all the talk about how rare things like running water and electricity are, it's fair to say this mod probably is more lore friendly than the vanilla game itself.

Resources

First of all, the quantity of resources needed for construction has been increased. For most objects, this typically means they require three times as much resources as they did in the vanilla game, but for special or important structures, it can be more. Even with this mod, the resource requirements aren't perfect, but they are closer to reality than they were in the vanilla game.

In addition to this, the overall variation of components is more realistic too. For example, most types of furniture and electronics typically need screws or adhesive when being assembled, and a device such as the Fusion Generator now actually needs a Fusion Core. For constructing devices that consume fuel, you need fuel, and for constructing devices that use ammunition, you need ammunition. For constructing the "clean" variants of some furniture and technology, you need soap and water.

Tools

A new game mechanic has been introduced for building. It is no longer enough to just have access to the right components – now you also need the right tools. In a world full of build projects, and where there are old tools littered all over the place, it's strange that the vanilla game never gave them any real purpose. Now however, any item that's used as a tool can't be scrapped, does not contain any components, and will be found at the Miscellaneous page in your Pip-Boy. The following types of items are used as tools:

• Screwdrivers
• Hammers
• Saws
• Wrenches
• Blowtorches
• Buckets
• Shovels
  

Which tools are used for what should be logical based on what you are constructing. Where the screw is the universal component, the screwdriver is the universal tool. Most objects made of wood should require a hammer and saw, and objects with big metal parts should require the use of a wrench and a blowtorch. Objects made from concrete would require you to have some form of bucket available. Planting crops or digging a well in the ground would require a shovel. Many types of more advanced technology won't suffice with just any wrench, but specifically requires an adjustable one. All in all, the game obviously won't provide animations for any of this, so in order to "use" a tool, it's enough that you have it in your inventory. If you have FallMisc installed, you are able to craft some of these basic tools yourself. For technical reasons, the things you can build will only be visible in your build menu when you actually have all the necessary tools in your inventory.

This could potentially be a bit confusing, but again, as a rule of thumb, you should remember that:

• If it contains screws, it will require a screwdriver.
• If it has parts made of wood, it will require a hammer and a saw.
• If it has parts made of metal, it will require a wrench and a blowtorch.
• If it has parts made of concrete, it will require a bucket.
• If it has parts below the ground, it will require a shovel.
  

Determining what materials a structure would contain is primarily done by looking at its actual model in the game, rather than its resource requirements, even though those can be used as a reference as well. For example, many kinds of furniture contain screws, wood and cloth. This means that in order to construct these, you would need a screwdriver, a hammer and a saw, seeing how those tools are associated with their respective components. To make another example, some of the water pumps contain screws, have parts of both metal and concrete, and piping extending into the ground. Naturally, these would require you to have a screwdriver, a wrench, a blowtorch, a bucket and a shovel. At the same time, observe how these structures do not have any parts made of wood, and thus don't need any hammer or saw to be constructed.

Perks

Along with everything else also come the new perk requirements. These requirements are attempting to fit with whatever you are constructing. Simple things generally have simple requirements – advanced things generally have advanced requirements. This also means that less commonly used perks, such as Robotics Expert, Hacker and Nuclear Physicist now could come to play a bigger role in your game, since they are involved in the construction a greater number of items than in the vanilla game. Along with this, the Local Leader perk is now used for the construction of more logical items related to settlement management, for example the Recruitment Radio Beacon.

The main exception would be most of the items that are related to quests or other special events before you are able to construct them. These items are still generally affected by the new resource and tool requirements, but tend to be free of the new perk requirements. With a few exceptions, the player should never be prevented from completing an important quest just because a device is locked behind a perk that's unobtainable within their current playstyle.


Water Production

Having access to purified water is a huge part of the survival experience. For that reason, a lot of focus has been put on making it more difficult, but logical, to obtain.

First of all, any device that can be used to produce purified water in a workshop settlement is now much more expensive to build, and may also require the player to have some relevant perks. In most of the default settlements you come to, they only have a single one, at best. As such, it didn't make sense that in the vanilla game, the player could come in and quickly construct a dozen without effort.

If your settlement has access to an open water source, you are free to build your purifiers there. On the other hand, if the only way to access water is by setting up some form of water pump, then you must dig a well. In accordance with the tool system, this means that in order to construct either of the water pumps in the dirt, you must have access to a shovel.

Diamond City often boasts about having access to purified water. Yet in the vanilla game, you could just go up to any settlement you own, and for merely three pieces of steel and no additional competence whatsoever, immediately construct an infinite supply of running water. This was all thanks to the water fountain and sink, which were added as settlement objects with the Vault-Tec Workshop DLC. With HSC-SB installed, along with the new resource, tool and perk requirements, these items must be constructed indoors. In summary, you can no longer take some scrap materials, build a random wall anywhere out in the open, attach a few pieces of steel to it, and then immediately receive an infinite supply of purified water out of nowhere.


Food Production

In order to plant crops, you now actually need to use water and fertilizer. Combined with the Food Add-on from Falltoxin, this makes for a much more challenging farming and survival experience. Having this mechanic means that any water you actually produce in your settlements will be a key component used in the production of food, rather than just sitting unused in your inventory. Furthermore, when planting the crops, just as with the water pumps, you are once again required to have a shovel.

It makes a lot of sense that in a game where water and fertilizer are common resources, there is a need to irrigate and fertilize your crops. Those resources will of course also become necessary for repairing your crops, should they be damaged in a settlement raid. This puts more emphasis on the importance of actually protecting your farms.

Fertilizer can be be produced at a Chemistry Station if you have FallMisc installed. Its ingredients are largely consisting out of crops, which means that planting food now could be seen as an investment for later.


Electricity Production

"See those big lights? That's right. Working electricity."

It's clear that electricity can be a rare commodity in the Commonwealth. As such, having even a small generator should feel like a luxury and an actual accomplishment. Although the game doesn't provide any method for refueling generators, now you at least need to use gas canisters as a fuel component when setting them up. This also gives the Windmill a new advantage, now being the only type of generator that doesn't need any fuel.

Being complicated electrical devices, generators will of course require you to have the right perks before you are able to construct them. Obviously, smaller and simpler generators have lower requirements, whereas larger and more advanced generators have higher requirements.

Gas canisters can be produced at a Chemistry Station if you have FallMisc installed.


Defensive Turrets

The game doesn't provide any method for reloading turrets, but now at least you need to use ammunition as a component for setting them up. For all the turrets that don't have an external power source, you now also need to use fuel in their construction.

Along with the costs, the perk requirements for setting up various turrets have of course been increased as well. It didn't make any sense that you were required to have rank 2 of Gun Nut in order to attach some scopes to a Pipe Gun, but without any experience at all you could construct fully automated turrets from scratch.

In terms of gameplay, this means that you aren't likely to have dozens upon dozens of turrets in your settlements anymore. What sense did it make that Diamond City, the biggest settlement in the game, had fewer turrets than most random farms with three inhabitants? Now, getting even a single turret up and running should feel like a huge difference to the security, and nothing less.

If you have WDI installed, turrets are more powerful, which means that a single turret becomes more useful and valuable than in the vanilla game.


Balancing

This mod is very much open to feedback and ideas for additional modifications and improvements to be made – as long as they are aiming to make the game more realistic, and are focused around Survival Mode.

"It's really hard and takes so much time to find resources! I can almost not build anything I need anymore."

Yes. That's the point.

If you are not looking to turn Fallout 4 into a realistic hardcore survival experience where you feel like a scavenger just barely scraping by in a dangerous world, you should not download this mod. If you prefer to play the game casually or more for the story, this mod is absolutely not suited for your gameplay preferences.

As the description mentions, a lot of the components used for constructing various items here, are available to be crafted with FallMisc. HSC-SB works fine without FallMisc, but has been balanced with it in mind.


Installation

Using Vortex is the recommended method.


Requirements

For the main part of the mod, all you need is Fallout 4.

For the optional DLC files, you need their respective DLCs.


Compatibility

HSC-SB should be compatible with most mods, unless they make edits to any of assets that were modified here.

HSC-SB is potentially, but not definitely, incompatible with mods that affect settlement building in a significant way.

HSC-SB is almost certainly technically compatible with mods that add new settlement objects, but they would presumably not be proportionally balanced.


Quality

This mod has been made with a lot of attention to detail. The majority of objects should have requirements that seem logical based on what you are building. If you actually would find a structure not having had its requirements set properly at all, don't hesitate to submit a report, and it will be looked into.

Because of the way some items were grouped together in the vanilla game, a few structures will automatically appear with slight inconsistencies to their resource requirements. If you can live with the fact that some items, such as a few prefabricated walls, will cost around 50% more or less than their appearance would suggest, you should be fine.

Special thanks to user kjg92 for merging files and uploading an all-in-one version of the mod with included support for all DLCs.


Mod Collection

This mod is part of a larger collection of mods aiming to make Survival Mode more difficult and immersive. They come packaged as separate mods in order to allow the player to choose which they want or not, but using them all together should hopefully bring out the best and the most immersive survival experience possible. The mods come in three main categories:

Survival

The mods in this category are aiming to make the game significantly more difficult and immersive in every way they can.

• HSC
  The primary mod of the entire series, HSC is the foundation for an extremely challenging survival experience. This mod focuses on making food, water and sleep management much more essential, as well as making sure things such as carry weight, healing, medical services and damage scaling are far more realistic and challenging than ever before. All the other mods in this series are designed or updated according to the standards set by HSC. For anyone looking to make their survival experience harder and only were to download a single mod in this collection, this should be it.

• HSC-SB
  Where the main HSC mod made sure to make food, water and sleep more important, HSC-SB makes these things more difficult to obtain. Introducing massive challenges in what you are able to build, along with a system for using tools in the construction of more or less everything, settlement building should be far less of a convenient safe zone than it was before.

• Falltoxin
  This mod significantly increases the danger and potency of most types of poison in the game, both from wild creatures as well as the syringes you are able to use. Falltoxin also comes with an optional secondary set of mods known as the Food Add-on, which increases radiation in food, and introduces simple mechanics related to food poisoning and nutrition. These mechanics add a third layer to the food aspect, and are of course designed with HSC and HSC-SB in mind.

• FallMisc
  Enabling the player to craft a bunch of tools and other useful items, this mod adds a lot of convenience. Aside from essential items, many other mods in the series will be referencing FallMisc, rather than having each mod introducing its own set of craftable tools. Both HSC-SB and Falltoxin rely a lot on FallMisc for this purpose.

• WDI
  This mod increases the damage for a variety of weapons from the vanilla game. It also introduces a few new special mechanics for a few weapons, making them more unique than before. Additionally, WDI increases the durability of most turrets. All in all, most of the changes made by this mod will be useful both to you, your allies, and your enemies.

• PADI
  This mod increases the defensive capabilities of Power Armor, a few other types of armor, and gas masks. It also introduces a variety of new features related to Power Armor, making it more detailed and functional. All in all, most of the changes made by this mod will be useful both to you, your allies, and your enemies.

Environmental

The mods in this category are focusing on making various obstacles in the world more difficult to overcome.

• Fallfall
  This mod increases falling damage to a much more realistic level. This should encourage the player to navigate the world in a more careful manner. Not only does it make the world feel bigger, but it also adds a lot to the immersion when you actually have a reason to properly navigate the environments, rather than carelessly performing super dangerous jumps and stunts without as much as a scratch.

• Swimout
  This mod significantly increases the amount of radiation in the various bodies of water across the game. This should encourage the player to actually stay on land, use bridges to cross rivers, and avoid falling into the water.

• FallExD
  This mod increases incoming and outgoing damage for the player in Survival Mode. This makes the game's combat far more dangerous.

• Fallock
  This mod makes lockpicking significantly more difficult, and gives lockpicks some weight. All in all, this should encourage the player to be more careful when picking locks.

Perks

The mods in this category are focusing on improving the variety of features some perks can have, but they also exist as a way to prevent certain perks from completely undermining gameplay mechanics intended to make the game more challenging.

• SPI
  A mod that improves a bunch of perks that had too little or too weak usage throughout the game. This mod comes in three editions, where the two others could be considered for everyone, but the HSC Edition is particularly designed for being used alongside HSC.

• Night Stalker
  A mod that adds new functionality to the Night Person and Cannibal perks. Aside from being fun and allowing for a new playstyle, this mod introduces a small new penalty to cannibalism.

• TWG
  A mod that adds new functionality to the Ghoulish perk. Aside from being fun and allowing for a new playstyle, this mod introduces small penalties depending on where you are.

• RTT
  A mod that adds a few small mechanics to the Solar Powered and Rooted perks. Aside from adding a few new fun and convenient mechanics, the main point of this mod is to reduce the ability to heal radiation damage when in the sun. Being able to get rid of radiation that easily undermined a huge part of the mods with features related to radiation, such as HSC and Falltoxin.