When I'm building these settlements or any other settlement packs. Three things I've noticed that stop building from progressing. I'm sure there are others too. In no particular order.

1 No supplies. Sometimes I need to add supplies.

2 Settlement is at the build limit. When I built all these my build limit was set to 300-400 percent at the red workbench (space bar). But I've noticed when building them from the pack into a new game. Build limits are now set back to 100% and they then stop building. I'm not sure why the build limits I originally used were not transferred into the settlement pack. Go to red workbench and add to the build limit. If it's at 100% clicking 100% once will make it 200%. Clicking 100% again makes it 400%. It increases 100% of last value. 300% should probably be enough

In build mode (hold down V until build mode opens) there is a bar in the upper right of the screen showing how much of the limit you have used up. When that gets full, building stops until you add more. This bar is the only way to tell where you are at.

3 Script lag. On my computer just getting two or three settlement building at the same time really slows things way down. You know the top left windows that pop up telling when something gets done at a settlement? I wait until I don't get those anymore before adding more settlements. And I check those settlements to make sure they are done building. If I don't do that then adding more settlements to build just creates even more lag.

From Kinggath, "Holotape tool under Tools > Advanced, called Change Main Quest Settlement. This will allow you to change the settlement Jake’s quests use as their base. IMPORTANT - do not run if you have objectives from an SS2 main quest to build things in that settlement. Instead, finish that quest first before running this tool. This was added to help people using existing saves to start SS2 who can’t find where Jake is, or who want to change their decision about which settlement they built a beacon in to attract Jake."

If you would like more time before starting Jake's quests, you can delay them with this mod.

There is a gap in Jake's quest on teaching you ASAM's. It after he shows you the first three. At that time, you can start building settlements. 

Fast Track. Install the four settlements (one at a time) closest to HQ listed above. Then your choice of another one or two. This should unlock the advanced buildings. Then change those buildings to advanced, especially the farm. OR do what is below.

In the City Manager 2078 tape. Path: Options > Gameplay > City Building. [bypass locks] and [designer choice] have both on. This will bypass buildings you haven't unlocked yet. In other words, it will build the buildings. This is so you have access to the advanced farms and the other plots straight away.

One of my goals doing this is to try and not create problems for you. I've decided not to include a Red Rocket settlement. Here is why. Understanding CTDs in The Triangle of Death (Sanctuary, Abernathy Farm, and Red Rocket) - Sim Settlements Forums This is more important now than ever with Concord being built up.

There is a second triangle of death with Warwick Homestead, Spectacle Island, and The Castle. It's recommended not to build all three in one game and don't build the other two at the same time.

At the beginning of SS2 Jake takes you through building with ASAMs. I'm assuming you will be in Sanctuary. But you can change that to another settlement. Wait to build up settlement until Jake has completed both quests. You will know when he is done showing you the ASAMs.  Then build up that settlement with what's listed below.

You also will be letting Stodge build a settlement on their own. Make sure they are finished building the settlement then add from the list below. Choose some place roomy and close to HQ. Don't pick any of the girls or Paul. I don't want to give out a spoiler here. Just pick Stodge. He is your best bet.

A lot of times even though I build what's listed below you will unfortunately get something different.
So, change and add other plots for your needs.

Please don't use The Castle until you have finished all the Ronnie quests. Any settlement that has story line quests attached to it for that matter. Like Jake's quests, etc. I'm not talking about taking over settlements.

When you add buildings only choose the ones that start with [SS2] & [SS2C2] until your requirements are met. Afterwords, it doesn't matter. I've tried others and sometimes requirements are not met. Here is what happened to me. I had six basic power plants. But I didn't get that screen showing the advanced power plants. I changed the ones to [SS2] plants that were not. And shazam I was able to build advanced plants.

In SS2 you need five basic water and power plants to be able to get advanced water and power plants. Same for advanced farms I suppose.

In Ch2 you need power relay stations to send power to HQ. Currently HQ needs a lot of power. I have added a lot of power to most plans. You also need caravans to send supplies to HQ. For the disease system you need hospitals, sanitation, and funeral pyres. These plans were made with Ch2 installed and all associated mods are updated to the current version as of the posting date above (and beyond, I keep everything current).

The disease system. Hospital, Funeral Pyer, and Sanitation buildings.
An advanced farm. One farm takes the place of many saving space.
A power relay station. To send power to HQ.
A caravan.
A water plant. I'm not completely through Ch2. As far as I know you don't need a water plant unless you want to have an advanced water plant. You can probably omit these if not interest in an advanced water plant.
A power station. And a municipal power switch. WRK > Power > Misc.
Junk gathering
Building materials
The other materials buildings
A Communications building for Ch2 named settlers.
Recreation buildings.
You may need to manually assign settlers if they don't assign themselves.

If you have space, have all the industrial buildings. Or at least all scattered around different settlements. At this time Jan 21st, 2022, I'm not sure how much materials are needed at HQ. I'd rather you had too much than not enough.

recreation
endurance for advanced farms
intelligence for advanced power
perception for advanced water
You should have the other recreation plots. Agility, strength, etc. All are beneficial for HQ.

About the side quests. I was told I needed thirty homes and I believe three settlements to get the side quests. Unless this is a glitch, I didn't have thirty homes. I normally build multi person homes. I had more than enough beds, but not thirty homes. Maybe the game counts beds, not homes, I really don't know.

QuestorWI has reminded me about the communications building. I will try to incorporate that building in the remaining builds. That building spawns the Ch2 named settlers. Add that building or change a building in the current settlements (as of 1.2b) if you want that. As of SS2 & Ch2 v 2.0.3 Kinggath wrote in patch notes, "If a settlement has a plot with the Communications class building plan, it will now increase the chance of settler recruitment by 10%/20%/30%, depending on the level of the plot. This is a per-settlement benefit, so multiple Communications building plans will not stack this benefit." Now it's highly recommended to add the communications building to your settlements.

I have used the power connection (1646) to power a lot of the settlements.
The problem is when the settlement gets built, they don't put out radiant power as they should. Picking them up and putting them back down doesn't help. Only adding new ones helps.
This is very easy to do. WRK > Power > Power Poles > Power Connection (1646).
Three types. Wall, floor, or ceiling. Several power outputs. 10 – 100 units of power each.
I've contacted msalaba and I'm waiting for a reply.

Game crashing?  Buffout and GuardianMF can help. Start here.  GuardianMF can help if you get stuck setting that up: Go there and post your problem.

Youtube video. How to Determine Mod Conflicts and Load Order in xEdit/FO4Edit

Tarkkh also has an excellent guide on setting up game for SS2 and Ch2.

You can use these plans without Ch2.

If you would like more time before starting Jake's quests, you can delay them with this mod.

I found out the other day in the forum. In construction mode. Click on the plot's ASAM. Click R. It tells you it's going to scrap the item. Press Enter anyway. What that really does is open the window so you can select a building plan or other things too. Thats pretty cool.

If you haven't taken control of a settlement and are tired of doing the quest to unlock settlement. You can use Workshop Framework to unlock the settlement you are in. Or unlock them all. PATH: Workshop Framework > Tools > Claim All or Claim this Settlement. I choose to claim all.

I don't hide the planner's desk. I try to put it close to the red workbench usually. It's okay to add one, then if you find the one, I put in (If I didn't forget to put one in) you can delete it.

High emphasis is put on the disease system. Hospital, Funeral Pyer, and Sanitation buildings. Each settlement is ready to fight disease. May 2, 22. I have found some early settlements that don't have the disease system buildings. Among other things. I'm updating these and they will be in the addon pack. May 8th 22. Those are all fixed and in the pack. Sorry in advance if I missed something. Listed as "WG <settlement name> updated." The originals will NOT be in the pack. To save confusion. "Which should I install?"

May/ 18, 2022. When going to install a plan the Warning Plugins Missing should now be fixed. msalaba has made a fix for this so a button shows up in the window when installing a settlement. Go thank msalaba here. Or post any problems if you don't see the plugins. You can ignore the warning (It won't break the game or anything. You'll just get something different than intended). For Clean my Settlement you will get the bramble back that's all. UNLESS it's one of the three required mods above. You must have those. Otherwise, there will be no plots to fit the spaces.

Sometimes I don't use beacons. I use the City Plan Contest Assistant. I can spawn in settlers as needed. You can use it without being in a contest.

Here is what I do. I find this to be the easiest way (for me). I will place a plot. I tell it what to build. Add power, etc. Then I go into the City Plan Contest Assistant and spawn one settler. They will appear at various spots in different settlements. If the settler doesn't automatically start building that plot in a few minutes. I go into build mode. Find the settler. Point at them. Click enter. Then point at the plot and click it (make sure it shows the red silhouetted person, if it's green they are already assigned). Normally building will begin almost immediately (Except when lag is going on). Keep doing that until you have built what you need. Only build two or three things at a time due to lag. I like doing it this way because I can keep track of the settlers and the building process.

If I just let them come in randomly it's been hard to figure out who doesn't have jobs. Using the gavel doesn't always work trying to find the jobless (Or homeless). The advantage of this is you are making sure things will get built. The disadvantage to this is you are taking time at the settlement. If you want to be hands off, then you need the beacon and let it do its thing. But when you come back to the settlement a week later and find several things not built, you'll have to do the above anyway. Hahahah. So, why not just git-ur-done straight away?

In the forums a lot of people are having troubles with ROTC plans. Thats why I've built these. Another reason. Don't get me wrong. This isn't a complaint. How can anyone complain about mods so wonderful? The fact is though SS2 doesn't tell us what is needed for down the road. When I came to play Ch2 I didn't mess with any extra stuff. I didn't play any Fallout quests. I built what was required in SS2 and that's it (which is pretty much nothing). All I wanted was to play SS2. Then Ch2.  I spent all this time getting into HQ to start "How to HQ" and got a shock at all the stuff HQ needed. Then I had to go out and start building settlements. I was then way behind. Had I known about this in advance I could have had settlements growing. Thats why this is here for you. I truly hope it helps you.

Each Department at HQ runs better if the people in the department have more of a certain trait. 
This is verified and you can get more info here.
Some clothing adds benefits. Check what drops and check what you can craft.

security is agility,
logistics is endurance,
engineering is perception,
science is intelligence,
administration is charisma
facilities is strength

By the time you get to that quest (How to HQ) you should have the vit-o-matic. You can scan people before sending them to HQ. This is another advantage for having settlements early on. Settlers can build up their stats over time. If you need people for facilities, for instance, you can scan them until you find one with a lot of strength. Send them to HQ and assign someone else to the job that person had.

GuardianMF brings up an interesting point and question from a post here. So, I thought I would address it here too. I'm told the basic plans in SS2 are single level plans. I've never used the premade plans in SS2. Multilevel plans can also be basic plans. But how do you know if it's a basic plan? By the file size. Goto Files tab and look at the file size. File sizes less the 15kb. Maybe even 20kb are going to be what I consider to be "basic" plans. My Nov contest build was 58kb. Quite a bit of difference, isn't it? I feel leveled plans are much easier on your computer. It lets the computer build in stages instead of all at once. GuardianMF mentioned having trouble getting a leveled plan to build. I'm guessing the trouble wasn't with the plan but something else interfering with the plan. BUT! My statement above is with larger sized plans. In my testing these plans work fantastically as single level plans.

Updated. Only available in the pack. Abernathy, Castle, Graygarden, Hangmans, Jamaca Plains, Sumerville. Added in what's needed for our typical builds.

I always stop with around 15-20 settlers, so the game runs smoothly for most computers. There is usually room for more plots if your computer cooperates. Go for it! Although 21 settlers is the recommended limit.

These plans are built without a lot of clutter to keep a small file size. You can decorate as you desire.

**Abernathy Farm. When you build the plan, it may say there are missing plugins or something like that. It's okay just continue. It's a large lot so I added the five gathering industrial buildings. Also, five recreation buildings. Along with a hospital, decontamination building, funeral pyre, two advanced defenses, a small player home, a workshop, and a partridge in a pear tree. In the workshop there is a fence I removed but it came back, so remove that please.

**Egret, Murkwater, Jamica plain, and Sommerville Place. I read in the forum that in the beginning it's best to build settlements close to HQ. The four closest are these two, Jamica plain and Sommerville Place. Jamaca plain will be next. Egret and Murkwater have the five industrial and recreation buildings as above. Along with a hospital, decontamination building, funeral pyre, and two advanced defenses.

**Greentop Powell house and Franklin's Shop. You need to install first: Wasteland Venturers Sim Settlements 2 Addon Pack. This has the Powell house, along with other assets I used in this build. This build also keeps HQ in mind. It has the power transfer building along with most everything else. I'm guessing you need to complete Powell's quest first. What was it called? It came from Kinggath's mind?

**Jamaca plain. I wasn't able to get everything in here, but I got most of it.

**Outpost Z. I put in all seven recreation plots and as many other plots as I could. Hospital, sanitation, etc. My idea for this is to use it for building up settlers and moving them to HQ. Of course, they can be done anywhere but this settlement has the most recreation plots.

**Spectacle island. This needs the Wasteland Venturers Sim Settlements 2 Addon Pack. I’ve used assets from this to add some variety to this plan. I used this pack because we have used it before. I have most everything in this build using 18 people. But you can add more if your computer will allow it. I really enjoyed building here because I didn’t need to lay it all out on grids.

**Hangman’s alley. This build is loosely based on the default basic plan. It also requires Wasteland Ventures. I needed to use that pack to get everything to fit in the small areas. I put in what I could because of the small size. I really like the layout; I hope you do too. I’m using Wasteland ventures over and over, so you don’t need to add more packs. It’s one of the better packs IMO.

**Warwick’s homestead. Big settlement. Got most everything in here. Two long rows. I needed to do that to get it all in. I was only able to assign Father Warwick to a job. The other wouldn’t assign. 

**Oberland station. I had a problem trying to build a multi person home. It would either not build. Or give me a single person home. Also. I traveled in and out of that settlement many times and never got stuck in the foundation of that recreation building. If you do. You could try moving it a little. Raising it some. Or removing it. It's not essential.

**Boston Airport. Tight build, less than fifteen settlers. Put in a few industrial conversion buildings. Switch out to meet your needs. Very tight walking on north end. After buildings are level three move the ASAM's and power poles a little for easier walking if you want.

**Nordhagen Beach. Used Sixteen settlers. Used several [SS2] industrial conversion buildings here too. Room to add more of what you need. Can remove the yellow industrial decorations for even more room. If you have a strong computer, you could make a big settlement here.

**Bunker Hill. Needs eleven settlers. When you go into construction mode it shows more settlers. I believe there are eight settlers there to begin with. This has the three disease building. Change the other buildings to your desire.

**Covenant. Small build that needs all three addon packs listed above. It has power, relay, comms, hospital, sanitation, cemetery, and many recreation buildings. All as indoor plots. Not able to build on rooftop. Many settlers already there. You might want to try to assign some. Sometimes you can’t assign them. Sometimes you can assign them but they end up unassigning themselves.

**Taffington, Da Croup, Finch, Coastal C, Kingsport LH. I believe they all have the basic requirements with no known issues.

**The Slog. Known issues. Some magazines are floating on the table. I’m not able to select them to fix that. I don’t know why I can't but it happens that way sometimes. Also, over at the pyre ASAM’s and power polls block the way. After everything is level 3 move those items to get through there. I'm hoping all the mods related to building will get a redo before chapter 3.

**County Crossing. There is something wrong with the water readout in build mode. It’s a fraction of what's available. I tried several different water sources with same result. It seems that cannon defense takes three or four settles. If that's too many. Change that plot.

**Sunshine Tidings. Updated.
I moved two residential buildings out and separated them some to gain rear access.
Added a communication building.
Added two recreation buildings.
Added one industrial building.
Added Powel home. (Delete if you don’t want it)
Added a planners desk and beacon.

Tenpines, Starlight, Sanctuary. Typical builds. Kept Starlight very compact because I’ve heard people having troubles there.