I have 39 beds in Sanctuary for my 21 settlers, almost all of which are in the pre-built houses, and I still get settlers blathering on to me about the bed situation.
Ive given the new survival mode a go today. Although my character is pretty bad ass, so the difficulty so far hasnt been too bad. Ive not got into any fights that have been too significant though.
A few observations:
When you first enable survival mode, it will essentially create a new character. To toggle, you have to "load" and press Y to change character. So make sure youre in a good position to start it off. Luckily I was in the the institute carrying 4000 weight of ammo which immediately over-encumbered me, but i managed to stash it all in one of the cupboards there. The game seems to lock you out of the survival mode on your "normal" character, so prepare before you want to start survival on any existing characters you have.
Plotting routes to objectives is more interesting. Weaving between settlements to stock up on sleep, water and food has been my strategy.
I havent used cooking stations before, but now theyre coming into effect alot more. Carrying food and cooking it to avoid rads.
Stimpaks seem to dehydrate you, so either carrying water or using the water pumps at settlements is useful.
You seem to need 8hrs sleep in a proper bed to allay being tired.
The lone wander perk and dogmeat as a companion really helps boost the reduced carrying capacity.
You can still fast travel to the institute from anywhere on the map. So ive been using that and Hangmans alley settlement to get me out of trouble when needs be.
Ive already got the sunshine/healing perks so not sure what other perks will be useful? Maybe the water one for the forthcoming Far Harbour DLC.
Strong Back, the perk which increases your carry weight, the last level of which allows you to fast travel while over-encumbered. How does that last level work in the new survival mode? I mean, is it just superfluous now?
Apparently the last strong back level perk on survival mode has been replaced with not having penalties for being over encumbered.
A few more things ive noticed about survival mode. The enemies seem to give more exp. But because the respawn time has been extended, the wasteland can become a lot less populous of enemies once you have killed them. Antibiotics are very scarce so taking the chemistry perks does help.
No penalties for over-encumbrance, eh? So, you can run without losing AP?
I think I'll be grateful for a less populous wasteland, given that a: I'll be playing a new character, and don't want to be overwhelmed en route to or past locations I've recently visited, and b: it's a wasteland, not a populous jamboree.
Not sure about the details of the strong back perk and the AP, only what ive read. My interpretation is that you still use AP. Personally I dont rate the perk.
Because ive started survival with an existing character, I had already killed alot of enemies - and they seem to have stayed dead. My character is also relatively powerful. I have come across enemies at the same level as me and i killed them without too much trouble. There has only been an invisible assaultron that has killed me. Playing as a new character would be a big initial challenge. And a frustrating one from the stuff ive read elsewhere on the internet.