About this mod
Robots that provide delivery services for settlements
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
Version 1.4
Robots that provide delivery services for settlements
Description:
This mod provides a "lore friendly" approach for robotic delivery services:
• Mister Caravan robots can be constructed to provide Supply-Line services as provisioners -- the Local Leader perk is required.
• A single Mister Express robot can be constructed to deliver goods by assignment to original base-game settlements within the Commonwealth.
• Mister Postman robots appear automatically and travel throughout the Commonwealth, delivering mail to various original base-game cities and settlements along their assigned routes.
• Construct a Delivery Services Callbox in a settlement to request follow-on deliveries by Mr Express, to cancel current Mr Caravan supply-line routes, and to suspend or resume Mail Service.
• Use only the services you like -- services can be cancelled or suspended and robots can be dismissed.
There is a brief initial mission / quest. 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.
WARNING: Before uninstalling this mod, first cancel *all* supply-line routes that are currently assigned to a Mr Caravan robot -- otherwise you will not be able to reassign those routes to regular settlers.
How To Build:
Mister Caravan and Mister Express are placed in a settlement by using a WorkShop. They can be found in the DELIVERY SERVICES section of the WorkShop's main menu when an initial quest ("The Steadfast Courier") 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.
The Robots:
• Mister Caravan
Mister Caravan robots can be constructed to provide Supply-Line services as provisioners -- the Local Leader perk is required.
First build the robot on the ground in an area with easy access into and out of the settlement. Then assign the destination settlement while in Workshop mode (just as with a regular human settler provisioner), or directly interact with the robot to assign that destination settlement. They are constructed using a Workshop within the DELIVERY SERVICES section of the main menu.
Mister Caravan robots can be controlled by interacting with them directly. The available commands include: Assign Caravan Supply Route, Reassign Caravan Supply Route, Cancel Caravan Supply Route, Change Home Settlement, Reset This Robot (if ever confused or stuck while traveling), and Dismiss This Robot.
When Mister Caravan supply-line routes are cancelled, the robots return to the settlement in which they were originally constructed. Supply-line routes can then be reconfigured (with or without Mr Caravan robots) as desired.
Mr Caravan is especially for players who do not use the Automatron DLC. He is also for those who like my style of robot mods. There are 11 different "packmule" possibilities (including the original live brahmin) with the actual one to be used being randomly chosen each time a new a supply-line route is selected. So each Mister Caravan potentially has a different packmule. Which also means you can cancel a caravan route, and then select it once more, to have a new packmule created ... in case you do not like the appearance of that Mister Caravan's current packmule.
Mister Caravan and his Caravan Guard will aggressively defend their caravan against all foes.
• Mister Express
A single Mister Express robot can be constructed to deliver goods by assignment to original base-game settlements within the Commonwealth. Deliveries are placed in a wooden crate near the destination settlement's Workshop. Crates can be scrapped when emptied (to avoid hindering Workshop access). Subsequent deliveries to a settlement are placed in that same crate if still present. A destination settlement need not be player owned or previously visited.
Build the robot on the ground in an area with easy access into and out of the settlement. Then directly interact with the robot to assign the destination settlement and supply the items to be delivered. Mister Express is constructed using a Workshop within the DELIVERY SERVICES section of the main menu, and is summoned thereafter using a Delivery Services Callbox which is also constructed.
Mister Express is especially for the earlier stages of the game before you have the Local Leader perk, and hence before you have caravan routes for automatically sharing resources between owned settlements. So use him to send construction material (and items that are turned into construction material) plus gardening supplies and other things to a settlement which might not be owned yet or even visited. This enables you to more quickly and more easily build defenses (et cetera) at a new settlement location.
• Mister Postman
Mister Postman robots appear automatically and travel throughout the Commonwealth, delivering mail to various original base-game cities and settlements along their assigned routes. Mailboxes can be constructed to encourage deliveries.
Supply-Line Overview:
[ abstracted from https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Supply_line ]
Supply lines can be created between settlements to share resources and inventory among them.
Requirements for creating supply lines:
• At least two owned settlements
• The first rank of the Local Leader perk
• The two settlements must not already be (directly) connected with a supply line
Linking the settlements with supply lines provides the following benefits:
• When building at a workshop or using a crafting station inside a linked settlement, one can use the junk, aid and miscellaneous items in the inventory of all linked workshops from all linked settlements (junk does not have to be salvaged first).
• Excess food and water will be used to supply all the settlements in the supply network. This can allow certain settlements to specialize in food or water production to make up for others that may be less viable.
• In the Pip-Boy "Workshop" menu, the game will show actual shortages for individual settlements with warning triangles, which causes unhappiness, but if the category is green, then the network is supplying the shortage.
• Provisioners can double as friendly patrols and will engage enemies that obstruct their paths. An abundance of supply lines intersecting the various settlements can make traveling across the Commonwealth much safer, particularly if the provisioner is equipped with proper weapons and armor to deal with the kinds of enemies that they might encounter on their route.
• It is possible to establish supply routes between the Commonwealth, the Island, and Nuka-World, giving one access to stored resources in all places.
Installation:
It is very highly recommended that this mod be installed using a mod manager. Otherwise the game's initialization (.ini) files might not be updated correctly, and the mod might not be properly placed or enabled.
For a manual installation (which is not recommended), unpack this mod and copy the .ESP (or .ESL) and .BA2 files into the game's \DATA folder, then enable the mod. Position this mod's .ESP (or .ESL) file to be as low as it will go in your "Load Order" sequence. Then edit the game's Fallout4.ini text file to include the following information. The text file can be found in \My Games\Fallout4 within your Documents folder.
[Archive]
bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
sResourceDataDirsFinal=
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.
To Uninstall:
WARNING: Before uninstalling this mod, first cancel *all* supply-line routes that are currently assigned to a Mr Caravan robot -- otherwise you will not be able to reassign those routes to regular settlers.
To cancel a Mr Caravan route, interact with that robot and select either Cancel Supply-Line Route or {* Dismiss This Robot *}. All current Mr Caravan routes can be canceled by simply interacting with a Delivery Services Callbox (constructed via a Workshop) and then selecting Cancel Caravan Services.
Then uninstall with the mod manager that was used for the original install, or delete SettlementDeliveryBot files.
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 robot is busy" might appear when interacting with Mister Caravan and Mister Express -- wait a moment and try again.
• A robot might have difficulty figuring out how to get from one place to another. If that happens you can try leaving that location via fast travel -- it will potentially become unstuck and continue on its way. Or activate the robot and issue a "reset" command if it becomes completely stuck or confused.
• Problems can arise if an install places one or more structures which block a Mr Postman's delivery route in such a way as to confuse the game's navigation AI. Mr Postman primarily walks designated roadways and bridges, avoiding cross-country travel.
• Problems can arise if an install changes the game world in a way which adversely affect underlying navigation mesh information (used by the game to help something travel successfully from one place to another) and/or which harm waypoint markers this mod places to facilitate navigation. For example, Mr Postman primarily walks designated roadways and bridges, avoiding cross-country travel. So an install that alters bridges and roadways will cause issues if the changes are not done correctly. Mr Caravan and Mr Express are likely to take advantage of shortcuts across open terrain.
• If you are starting a new character and you have quite a few Creation Club mods or patches installed, then you should also install the Creation • Club Delayed mod. It prevents too many of those running at the same time, which can block this mod from starting. It can be found here: Creation Club Delayed.
• 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 shows incorrect information). Within that PLUGINS interface you can activate/enable the mods that were not properly set when installed.
• If this mod's initial quest is not starting for you after being installed with the Nexus Mod Manager, it might be because it has not been properly activated/enabled. If you click the PLUGINS tab within NMM, you will then see which mods are truly activated/enabled or not. Activate/enable the mods that were not properly set when installed.
• If this mod's initial quest is not starting for you, and you have quite a few Creation Club mods or patches installed, then you might have too many quests running at once with this mod's quest being blocked. To fix that, try installing the Creation Club Delayed mod which can be found here: Creation Club Delayed.
• Mailboxes provided by other mods, and which are specific to those mods, will not be noticed/discoverable by Mr Postman.
Known Conflicts:
• 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. 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, it is then highly likely that some other mod has been installed that "breaks" the Vault 111 area (or possibly the Sanctuary settlement) thereby preventing this mod from working correctly.
• Robots look too small or too large? SCOURGE F4SE (available only via Discord) is probably the reason why.
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 these robots "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.
Settlement Radar Station & Drone Defenders can be found Here.
Settlement Tidy Bot: "Mister Tidy" can be found Here.
Settlement Salvage Bot: "Mister Salvage" 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 Gardener Bot: "Mister Gardener" 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!