TLDR: Placing one of these beacons in a container sends a team of settlers to come pick up everything you put in that container and lug it all back to a workbench for you.

To Use: Build a Communications Station in a settlement (found under Resources->Miscellaneous), assign a Settler to it, then craft Salvage Beacons in the Chemistry Station under Utility and place one in a container out in the world along with the loot you want to move.


The idea behind this mod is to solve the disconnect between the exploration game-play Bethesda games do so well and the interruptions created because you need to hoard everything you find in order to build up settlements - and to solve it in an immersive way.


The Why

How often do you find yourself enjoying some exploration, finding a cool "dungeon", and mid-way through you hit your carrying capacity? So now this awesome little ass-kicking adventure is interrupted because your're forced to manage inventory or else leave valuable stuff behind.

Obviously there are many simple solutions, like waiting to pick up stuff until after you kill everything, using a zero-weight mod, or just use the console to add yourself a boatload of crafting materials. The first method requires you to double-back and walk through every space twice - not to mention you still have to keep running back to a settlement, and the other two are un-immersive cheats.

One of the more immersive solutions available right now is to add more carry capacity, excellent mods like Wearable Backpacks and Pouches, are  awesome!

But wait, I'm supposed to be the General of the Minutemen and the leader of dozens of settlements, why am I hauling hundreds of pounds of junk?


The How

This is where Salvage Beacons come in to play. Using basic radio technology, you set up Communications Stations in your settlements and assign Settlers to monitor for your beacons. When you're out adventuring and need to clear your inventory, you just drop a beacon into a container and write a note on it so your settlers know which of your Settlements to deliver the goods to. Then anything else you put in that container will be picked up and dropped off at the Settlement workbench you wrote down.

Requirements:

• Local Leader - Rank 1
• At least one Settler to assign to a new Miscellaneous Resource called "Communications Station"
  

Important:

• Settlers will not steal for you, if there are any items marked red in the container, the Salvage Beacon won't activate - if you want to steal those items first and empty the container, you'll then be able to use a beacon there.
• The Railroad HQ, Prydwwn, and Institute are all no-go areas for your settlers, they just aren't welcome in these secret/fortress hide-outs, so Salvage Beacons won't work in those locations. (This will change in a future version, where the mod will check certain story conditions to change these limitations)
• (as of version 0.4.0) All* Settlements are supported, both Bethesda and user created. So long as the settlement appears on the "Move Settler" menu, it will appear as an option for your Salvage Beacon. * Settlements in custom worldspaces should work, though the distance calculations may not work correctly.
• Far Harbor - Far Harbor is just over 200 miles from the Commonwealth, so the beacon radio signals are too weak to reach the Commonwealth. This means you'll need to build a Communications Station at one of the settlements in Far Harbor before you can use Salvage Beacons in that area.
  

The Future

This is an excerpt from a larger mod I'm working on which will weave this and many other useful gadgets right into a normal playthrough so you come across them organically. Since the larger mod will take a while yet, I thought I'd release this gizmo as I find it extremely useful for Survival play-throughs and would love some feedback and bug reports on this particular item. 


Popular Mods To Avoid

I want to start this by saying, I've used and loved these mods in the past. I'm listing them here because they not only cause problems with this mod, but in general were built in such a way that will cause havoc on your game and load order cannot fix them. I have contacted each of these mod authors with suggested fixes and have not heard back, so my current assumption is that they have been abandoned. 

All other mods I've found that conflicted with mine, I have reached out to and modified my code to eliminate compatibility issues. So I have no vendetta here, I just want to protect your save files!

1. Welcome to Goodneighor - Why? It packages core game scripts from a previous patch, causing severe issues with many mods, and even some vanilla and DLC features. (UPDATE: While the mod author has released a fix for the packaged scripts issue, the forum posts over there show it still has some game-breaking bugs)
2. Don't Call Me Settler - Why? This one pains me, as it's one of my favorite mods. The mod has massive performance overhead and one of the scripts that runs in the background periodically can break individual settlers permanently in your save (there's a complex solution in the Posts section of that mod). Ever had a settler that just refuses to allow you to re-assign them? This is probably why.



Tutorial

FAQ

Q1. Do Settlers actually carry my items?

A: Yes and no. Yes, NPCs will actually wander from the nearest settlement with a Communications Station to the container. No, they don't actually carry them, this is because AI travel is sketchy and unreliable, so I didn't want to risk your items being lost in the abyss - instead the time needed for the NPCs is calculated and the items are transported after that amount of time has passed.

Q2. Why are the Salvagers at my workshop and my items still haven't been delivered?

A: There are 2 major reasons for this, 1)the calculation may not be perfect (see Q1 answer), 2) If you use ever use the Wait function, traveling NPCs are skipped WAY ahead of where they should be on their path. This seems to be a game engine "bug". So if you "Wait" for 2 hours, the NPCs will pretty much finish their entire travel path, even if the actual in game travel time should have taken the NPCs 20 in game hours.

Q3. These Salvager NPCs and their Brahmin are stuck at some spot, what gives?

A: As you've probably seen playing this game, the AI can do odd things. You're welcome to report the specific spot the NPCs are stuck, but know that after your items are delivered they will automatically despawn when you get far enough away from them, and they are purely cosmetic - they never actually hold your items, so you don't have to be afraid of them being killed or getting lost with your items. It just feels cool to occasionally stumble upon a caravan you know are headed toward some place you just cleared out to pick up your spoils.

Q4. How long does it take for my items to be delivered?

A: A short distance from say Sanctuary to Red Rocket, takes 1-2 in-game hours. Across the entire map will take the NPCs about a day in game. The time is calculated based on how far the NPCs have to travel from the nearest Communications Station to the beacon and then from there to the selected settlement. So if you build Communications Stations and assign settlers to them in each of your Settlements, the items should always be delivered by the time you end up back at the Settlement, this applies even for fast traveling as in-game hours pass when you fast travel. You will be notified when your items are delivered, and a Miscellaneous quest marker shows where you left each beacon so you never have to worry about where your stuff is.

Q5. Why does it say my settlers won't steal for me when I place a beacon in a container?

A: In general, if items are red in the container, you won't be able to use it as a beacon container unless you first empty the container yourself and place the beacon first. There are a few containers out in the world, that are flagged as owned but aren't considered theft when you loot the items that still trigger this warning about your settlers not stealing. If you find one of these, please send me a screen shot of the container, as well as one of your location on the map so I can find it and figure out why it isn't working - it's generally faction related and just takes some small tweaks to fix.

Q6. Can I get a version without the Local Leader perk?

A: Sort of. If you would like to use the beacons without having the perk, use the console to add them to your inventory. Start by running the command: help "salvage beacon" 4

Then page up through the results looking for the line that starts with MISC, get the 8 digit form ID your game assigned to the beacon. Then run the command player.additem XXXXXXXX X, where the first 8 Xs are replaced with the form ID you found, and the last X (which is after a space) is the number you want to add.

Q7. Is it available for XBone?

A: Yep! Works exactly the same as the PC Version!