Written By Benson Yee
Jamaica Plain is a real life location in Boston represented in the fictional world of Fallout 4. This (relatively) small neighborhood is only about 4.4 square miles and the game sets it up accordingly, making the actual build area limited to an open square area and two houses. To some fans this is maddening and to others it is a fun challenge. I fall into the latter category. This build was made using the “Game of the Year” edition on PS4 with no mods.
The build area of Jamaica Plain is not particularly wide and your main build areas fall into three sections: a partially destroyed house, a building next to it (that some have described as a former school) and an open lot near them. There is a house in the area, but it is boarded up and not accessible by normal means. I say “normal means” because you can technically get into it. Check out this trippy video by the Skooled Zone to see it in action.
The Foundry
Sitting side by side is a residential house and the remains of what may have been a school. The house is largely intact except for a hole on the second floor. This opening lets you connect it to the larger structure next store. After watching several Youtube videos on rebuilding the larger structure, I wound up utilizing the Barn structures to rebuild it. I started by pillar glitching a floor in and then built around that. In my role play scenario the bottom level of the former school is now “The Foundry”, a workshop for my character to do her work and even fix up Power Armor if needed. Meanwhile the upstairs is accessible only by cutting through the residential house next door via the second floor. I wanted to create a “work/life” separation figuring my Settlers would not want to be reminded of work every single moment of their life.
As someone who only visits now and then, I decided the Sole Survivor would have her own space to sleep in The Foundry so as not to bother the other Settlers as she flits in and out of the Settlement. This was the first build where I really began to get a sense of creating “clutter” using Junk Items from various adventures I had gone on. This was also the first build where I realized you could pick up items without putting them into your inventory to bring over to another location. The blue plastic crate, safety cone and wood crate in the photo above were all brought over from a nearby house outside of the build zone.
The Residential House
For the lower floor of the residential house, I tried to keep some of the design integrity of what it once was, using the “fancy lights” and slightly more ornate furniture than before. In the photo above you’ll note two photos in frames and a hat rack. Both were dragged in from nearby houses outside of the build zone. Pro-tip: If you take the framed photos and add them to your inventory, you “lose” the picture. However if you pick them up and bring them to another location the picture stays intact.
Taking another lesson from The Skooled Zone, I built a backlit gun rack (though I ran out of patience and just put pistols instead of rifles inside). My "role play rationale” is that the Settlers wanted to have weapons not only on them, but ready to go in the house even if they were just relaxing in the living room. You can see open and closed photos in the gallery below.
The second floor has some beds and paintings put up to fill out bed requirements, but I wanted to imagine these Settlers would try to make the best of a bad situation, so they extended their living area into the building next door. This open doorway between the two helps connect them.
The beauty of the Barn pieces in the workshop is their height. Using the barn walls, I was able to create a living room/gym/recreation area on the main level, then add in loft like bedding above. The windows and glass panels on the roof were a deliberate choice to let light flood in whether it is day or night. The lighting engine in this game is really on point sometimes and I love the way shadows play over the interior.
The Marketplace
The other main build area is an empty lot surrounded by short stone walls. I’m guessing this was once a parking lot, but I decided it made for the perfect place to build a small marketplace. Dubbed “JC Market” (yes, I know, amazingly creative) this marketplace has a “motel” (really an excuse to find more places for beds), clinic, junk store, clothing store, weapon store, diner and bar. They are divided up into two sides of the lot with an open area in the middle for customers to mill about.
I would say Jamaica Plain was the first build where I really felt like I was hitting my stride in some ways. I had absorbed hours of Youtube videos on building by this point and it offered me a chance to practice a lot of what I had learned. Much of what I learned building this area would later inform choices I would make for Nordhagen Beach and County Crossing!
Some notes:
Water is being supplied by a large water pump. While there are no bodies of water nearby for a purifier, parts of the street will allow you to use a pump, including the pile of garbage inside The Foundry workshop! I wound up putting walls around it for aesthetic reasons.
Food is mostly supplied by Mutfruit trees which double as decoration around the marketplace and Foundry building. Interestingly I do not have a Brahmin at this settlement but the food production is at a solid enough level to keep my happiness levels above 80% (but I have yet to hit 100 here).
Power is mostly being supplied by two small generators. I rug glitched these into the “inaccessible” house to make some use out of it (seen partially sticking out of the house in the last pic in the gallery).
Defense turrets are largely pointed in the direction of the enemy spawn points. Kudos and thanks to Oxhorn’s Spawn Points video which I have been using as reference for all my current builds.
Benson Yee
