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One of the biggest knocks against workshop settlers is that, for the most part, they are useless. Sure, you can assign them to various jobs that produce resources for your settlements, but the settlers themselves don't bring anything to the table. Skilled Settlers changes this by bolstering the vanilla settler pool with a host of additional settlers who possess a variety of passive skills and abilities that benefit settlements even if the settler in question is never assigned to a job. At present, Skilled Settlers are derived from six archetypes; namely, Entertainer, Forager, Scavver, Soldier, Survivalist, and Vendor, detailed as follows:
Common Traits
Skilled Settlers, regardless of type, share the following traits:
Entertainer
Entertainers are the most abstract Skilled Settler, as their exact role is for you to decide. Perhaps they are stage performers or campfire storytellers, or maybe they engage in more sordid activities such as prostitution. Whatever your head canon says there are, however, Entertainers bring a 10-point happiness bonus to their settlement. While Entertainers can be assigned to any job, if you want more specificity in your game, mods like Singing Settler, Simple Prostitutes, or the like may be in order.
Forager
Foragers are experts at finding wild edibles and potable water, and as such, provide to their settlement a 2-point bonus to both food and water resources. Although they can be assigned to any job, using them to farm wild edibles from a mod like Fully Functional Wild and Fresh Crops may be the most immersive use for them.
Scavver
Where Foragers are experts at finding wild edibles and potable water, Scavvers are experts at locating useful scrap. By default, Scavvers provide a 2-point scavenging bonus to their settlement, function as if they are assigned to a scavenging station. This bonus is passive and applies even if they're assigned to another job (or don't have a job at all), but if assigned to a scavenging station, they essentially double the station's output.
Soldier
Soldiers are settlers who, at some point in the past, received formal combat training. Where they got this training is for your own head canon to determine, but regardless of your decision, all Soldiers automatically provide two points of defense to their settlement. Furthermore, unlike other Skilled Settlers, Soldiers scale in level at half the rate of the Player Character, allowing them to grow far stronger than other settlers over the course of a typical play through. Obviously, their ideal job is defense.
Survivalist
Survivalists combine elements of both Foragers and Scavvers, but with lesser skill in either discipline. Specifically, Survivalists add 1 point of both food and water to a settlement, as well as 1 point of scavenging production. Additionally, they account for 1 bed so as to reflect their ability to construct a makeshift shelter, making them completely self-sufficient, as they don't draw on settlement resources. While they can be assigned to any job, their skillset makes them ideal provisioners.
Vendor
Vendors are divided into six categories, which includes Armor Vendors, Bartenders, Clothing Vendors, Doctors, General Traders, and Weapons Vendors. As expected, Vendors can buy and sell goods appropriate to their field of expertise (even if unassigned or assigned to "generic" jobs such as farming, defense, scavenging, and provisioner duty), although their funds and inventory will be limited. If assigned to a vendor stall appropriate to their type, their inventory and funds expand as expected, but their primary benefit is that they function as Tier 4 merchants when assigned to level 3 stores. Warning: Do not assign Vendors to jobs with barter menus not associated with their primary focus, as this will likely render their primary menu inaccessible.
Important Notice
Skilled Settlers will not spawn in Far Harbor or Vault 88, as both DLCs have their own set ups for spawning settlers. If there is sufficient interest, I'll create "Skilled Settlers - Far Harbor" and "Skilled Settlers - Vault 88" variants in the future. In the meantime, Skilled Settlers from this mod can be sent to those locations, if desired.
Compatibility
Skilled Settlers is not compatible with mods that edit the WorkshopNPC and/or LCharWorkshopNPC records, including my own Diverse series mods (although the Diverse series will receive its own integrated version of Skilled Settlers at some point in the future). However, the optional files section contains a patch to make Skilled Settlers work with Workshop Framework and, by extension, Sim Settlements 2.
Common Traits
Skilled Settlers, regardless of type, share the following traits:
- Skilled Settlers use the same faces as vanilla settlers, but they can be distinguished from vanilla settlers (and each other) by their name plates, which display the appropriate Skilled Settler type (e.g., Entertainer, Soldier, etc.).
- Skilled Settler NPC (Actor) records are flagged as "unique" so that the aforementioned identifiers won't get overridden by random name generators. Theoretically, the "unique" flag should make them accessible to LooksMenu, too, although this hasn't been tested.
- Skilled Settlers are higher level than vanilla settlers, instead being on par with the named, unique settlers at Abernathy Farm, Warwick Homestead, and the like.
Entertainer
Entertainers are the most abstract Skilled Settler, as their exact role is for you to decide. Perhaps they are stage performers or campfire storytellers, or maybe they engage in more sordid activities such as prostitution. Whatever your head canon says there are, however, Entertainers bring a 10-point happiness bonus to their settlement. While Entertainers can be assigned to any job, if you want more specificity in your game, mods like Singing Settler, Simple Prostitutes, or the like may be in order.
Forager
Foragers are experts at finding wild edibles and potable water, and as such, provide to their settlement a 2-point bonus to both food and water resources. Although they can be assigned to any job, using them to farm wild edibles from a mod like Fully Functional Wild and Fresh Crops may be the most immersive use for them.
Scavver
Where Foragers are experts at finding wild edibles and potable water, Scavvers are experts at locating useful scrap. By default, Scavvers provide a 2-point scavenging bonus to their settlement, function as if they are assigned to a scavenging station. This bonus is passive and applies even if they're assigned to another job (or don't have a job at all), but if assigned to a scavenging station, they essentially double the station's output.
Soldier
Soldiers are settlers who, at some point in the past, received formal combat training. Where they got this training is for your own head canon to determine, but regardless of your decision, all Soldiers automatically provide two points of defense to their settlement. Furthermore, unlike other Skilled Settlers, Soldiers scale in level at half the rate of the Player Character, allowing them to grow far stronger than other settlers over the course of a typical play through. Obviously, their ideal job is defense.
Survivalist
Survivalists combine elements of both Foragers and Scavvers, but with lesser skill in either discipline. Specifically, Survivalists add 1 point of both food and water to a settlement, as well as 1 point of scavenging production. Additionally, they account for 1 bed so as to reflect their ability to construct a makeshift shelter, making them completely self-sufficient, as they don't draw on settlement resources. While they can be assigned to any job, their skillset makes them ideal provisioners.
Vendor
Vendors are divided into six categories, which includes Armor Vendors, Bartenders, Clothing Vendors, Doctors, General Traders, and Weapons Vendors. As expected, Vendors can buy and sell goods appropriate to their field of expertise (even if unassigned or assigned to "generic" jobs such as farming, defense, scavenging, and provisioner duty), although their funds and inventory will be limited. If assigned to a vendor stall appropriate to their type, their inventory and funds expand as expected, but their primary benefit is that they function as Tier 4 merchants when assigned to level 3 stores. Warning: Do not assign Vendors to jobs with barter menus not associated with their primary focus, as this will likely render their primary menu inaccessible.
Important Notice
Skilled Settlers will not spawn in Far Harbor or Vault 88, as both DLCs have their own set ups for spawning settlers. If there is sufficient interest, I'll create "Skilled Settlers - Far Harbor" and "Skilled Settlers - Vault 88" variants in the future. In the meantime, Skilled Settlers from this mod can be sent to those locations, if desired.
Compatibility
Skilled Settlers is not compatible with mods that edit the WorkshopNPC and/or LCharWorkshopNPC records, including my own Diverse series mods (although the Diverse series will receive its own integrated version of Skilled Settlers at some point in the future). However, the optional files section contains a patch to make Skilled Settlers work with Workshop Framework and, by extension, Sim Settlements 2.