I have been thru ONE play of this game.. Here are my current stats.. I am playing the PC version.. and from what Im gathering certain things on the "gaming boxes" arent the same..From what I am gathering and reading is I really have only 1 more achievement to make.. its getting a settlement to 100.. and let me tell you something.. its impossible.. closest I have had is one of 26 settlements The airport doesnt count as one.. so really 27.. be at 90 for a brief time and go back down to 88.. ONCE.. and it was brief...

I have come to the conclusion just like real life.. you deal with the fall out of you choices AND no one is ever happy.. EVER.. maybe for a brief fleeting moment.. No matter how much food or water or electricity or how many shops you have or beds or housing or whatever.. its the same.. some settlement is usually in trouble in some shape or form.. never ending.. the milk of human kindness is just always helping people no matter how happy or unhappy they are in the game.. at this point I'm about to call it and move on to start a new game all over.. any suggestions or ideas... Yes I have brahamin in ever single settlement multiples of them in each an feed troughs. and junk yard dogs.. they do help fight.. 3x food for the people.. tons of defense over 100+, 4x water. 3x electricity and beds usually over 25 in all locations.. did I mention shops ? some with as many as 6 shops.. provisioners and caravan tents.. you name it I have it in each settlement.. YET NO ONE IS over 88 ..

Stats

Locations Discovered 290

Locations Cleared 246

Day Passed 312

Hours Slept 374

Hours Waiting 59

Caps found 137,515 ( dayum)

Most caps carried 41,416

Junk Collected 9005

Chests Looted 1594

Magazines found 57

Quests

Completed 249

Combat

People Killed 1477

Backstabs 0

Crafting

Objects built 2832

Supply Lines created 53

Crime

Locked Picked 528

hacked 137

Pockets Picked 1 ( only 1)

Items stolen 299

Murders 10

Trespasses 6

ALL Specials ate 10 and Perception is 11..

Not sure what else there is left to do.. completed every mission I think..

Any ideas? Suggestions or answers...lol

Start a new character?

To get a settlement to 100 happiness, use a mod. There is one mod that I use that changes the happiness bonus from 30 to 3000.

As far as what to do next, you can either do Settlement building to create impressive settlements, create pixel art with settlements, get all the achievements which is actually easy except for Benevolent Leader due to happiness being bugged, start a new character, take a break until GECK or DLC comes out, or find something else that I haven't mentioned.

How many light bulbs or Jangles the Moon Monkey have you collected? Have you built a shed, and stuffed it full of junk and weapons?

A few tips for 100% happiness.

Build another Clinic, Clinics increase happiness more than any other store. Couple of extra clinics would raise it a lot. Weapon and Armour shops apparently do NOT raise happiness! Bar, Clothes and general store all do though. I think stores are actually the fastest way to build happiness.

Make sure all of your settlers are assigned to a bed, go there at night and send any late night alley cats to bed, this will make them happier as they don't always assign themselves, especially if you build the beds after their arrival. And it makes them happier to have surplus beds. Same for water and food, extra power cant hurt (even if it's not needed). Extra is always good. (saying that I'm not 100% whether power affects happiness).

Also make sure that they are all assigned to a job, whatever it may be, any settler not doing anything will bring the happiness down. This is pivotal (as with the beds)

Might sound crazy but stay in town longer, they are happier when you are there, and their happiness often goes up just because you have called them all over to you!!! Call them to the bell, sleep for a few hours, repeat a few times and your happiness will most likely go up. Stay in the area, it can take a while but it does work. Just stick around. Watch a movie or something while you saunter around town.

Defenses should be at least 100.

Don't have companions there, they are an empty stat that will most likely make it harder to get to 100 as they don't affect happiness to my knowledge.

I don't know how true this is but some people have said that settlers don't like generators being out in the middle of nowhere or to be seen in general, try to keep them out of the way where possible, same with turrets etc, think about where they are.

You might have missed a generator or something that was broken in an attack, crops can be broken as well.

Trust me if you do all of these things something is bound to make those ingrates happier.

Could try giving everyone better gear.

There are bugs that could stop you getting 100, some settlers might not be able to get to their beds for whatever reason etc.

I hope you manage it, wish I could be more helpful.

I have done ll these things.. didnt know about companions being dead points... as for the shed I will try that.. Yes they are INGRATES.. all of them.. trust me n one is ever happy.. just like life.. you deal with the same issues.. the FALLOUT of your actions.. as my mother said.. NO good deed goes unpunished... tell me about it !!! Milk of human kindness my ass...lol

Have you unlocked all the perks?

What about trying to get to 1 million caps? lol

Must be a bug, it's happening to a lot of people, if you have done all of those things and nothing is happening all I can suggest is spending even more time at the settlement, I hope they make a patch for this because it seems that an awful lot of people are having trouble with the happiness.

Try building as many Lvl 3 Clinics as you can without your food getting too low (about 16), and get rid of all of the other shops (so they are not unmanned), try this in just one settlement obv. It might do something.

Maybe getting Happiness to 100 would be easier if you only had 3 or 4 people in a settlement? Send everyone else away on supply lines?

Yes, I've got two people at the airport.

One does the supply line, the other sits on his [censored] all day doing nothing.

Last time I visited he had the gall to say he couldn't talk now because he had work to do.

After which he promptly went and sat in his chair and drank from his cup.

I bought them a cow the other day.

They are 80+ happy all the time.

I wish the man who sells dogs would turn up again, so i could buy them one..

The last one I bought was killed by gunners.

At my other settlements I give them all the bells and whistles and they still moan.

My back hurts, my feet hurt. I've got dirty fingernails.

Highest I've got is 87 so I gave up trying.

If you have to do stupid things like providing multiple clinics it's not worth trying.

Im telling ya its some kind of horrible way of torture.. no matter what you do... they are always unhappy.. clinics.. do nothing

It's definitely not impossible. I got to 100% happiness at Sanctuary without using any mods and without using any of the 'forced' workarounds like assigning everyone to level 3 medic stations and such that many people have done. I just have an insanely high defense there, everyone has at the very least their own bedroom, if not their own house. The place is thoroughly decorated. I have all of the level 3 vending stands, including two bars and two medics. There's a (very) ample amount of resources there. I wasn't even really trying to get it. It just happened eventually.

and some things like TV's can break other settlement things I have heard. So one less thing to improve their lives . if that is so, the whole system may be due an overhaul to get our towns happiest!

Okay, I'll give it one last try.

Perhaps a separate house for everybody.

I wonder if Spectacle Island would work as a safe place, seeing that it gets attacked regularly.

Unlike Sanctuary which gets attacked infrequently.

Did you use the existing buildings at Sanctuary or build all new accommodation?

I used a combination of the pre-existing houses and new buildings.

For what it's worth, most people seem to have better luck at some of the smaller settlements. Red Rocket is a popular one.