First off: I really love the idea of building settlements and do some good out there.

But I was really disappointed by the lack of reason to actually found settlements because they do not produce anything special like concrete.

There is also the problem that the wasteland doesn't actually changes even with "our" interference. Raiders, Supermutants and the like still infest the land no matter how many are killed and no matter how many settlements are near it.

I did play some RTS in NV shortly before Fallout 4 came out and I did notice that there are some interesting similarites between building there and building in F4. So why isn't there research represented and resources?

What I would have wanted (sorry for the list)

- Forming the foundation of a true nation and not remain as an angry farmer militia. (training an army, gather representatives, ...)

- The ability to build and upgrade better housing depending on the overall progress.

- Research (not only depending on my own perks).

- Having at least zones of controll around settlements where stuff doesn't just respawn.

- Actual production. (for example building a woodcutter and then have the ability to buy shipments of wood from traders in connected settlements)

- Delegate tasks

I want to ask the rest of the players since that is pretty far off from the obvious shooter direction the game takes.

Nation building quests would be nice. It would give some purpose to the hell that is being Preston's errand boy/girl

I intially thought that was what the Minutemen were and that the player was supposed to be General Washington type. Was I wrong. The MM are basically a random quest generator/level up faction that doubles as a back door for finishing the MQ.

Said hundreds of times by now. The MM need fleshing out in patches, DLCs, and expansions.

Absolutely agree. The Minutemen should have been the faction for those players that want a largely 'good guy' faction to join. Instead, they quickly become a chore.

Totally agree as well. Isn't the goal of The Minutemen to rebuild and reunited The Commonwealth?

I do feel like the improvements that you can make don't really move the settlements forward much. Then we have farmers trying to kill Super Mutants and Deathclaws when attacked, but fail miserably?

It would be awesome to have the resources to upgrade each settlement to almost pre-war quality, put actually troops in place for protection with better armor. Adding tech/research facilities would be awesome to unlock other resources.

Also the radiant quests just aren't random enough and far too frequent. I'm the "General" yet I'm the errand boy instead of Preston or someone else. Delegating tasks would be amazing.

You realize that you can do this, right? The settlers at all of my main settlements are decked out in army/military fatigues, full suits of combat armor, and either army helmets or combat armor helmets. They're also equipped with an array of weapons, mostly heavily modded combat rifles, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and combat shotguns. Some of them have grenades, and I've even given rocket launchers to a few of them.

Rocket launchers aren't really a good idea....... as the settlers really don't care who else is around when the fire them fellers off. They are just as deadly to YOU and your allies, as they are to whomever happens to be attacking.

Preston is a con man. He fools you into thinking that YOU are "the General", when, in all reality, HE is. HE is the one sending folk (you...) off to do the dirty work. He even gets you to help him delegate that task to someone else as well... Take the fort, set up the radio, and Preston no longer has any reason to talk to you. The radio does it all. (provided you actually listen to it..... I sure don't.)

I like the idea of being able to develop settlements in places that can harvest resources that you need. Would be nice to have a 'placeable' workshop, so you could 'adopt' certain areas. (like, thicket excavations, for instance.....) and generate steady supplies of specific resources.

I like the idea of being able to 'assign' someone to be in charge of defense of the settlement, so I don't have to come a'running three-quarters of the way across the map to watch my turrets take out a supermutant or three......

If a settlement gets more population, than it has beds, and has the resources to create more, then, it should..... (this may get complicated in some places, where there isn't any more 'indoor' space to create one.....)

Etc. Etc. Etc...... So much stuff these folks should be doing for themselves, but, seem incapable of doing anything at all, without being specifically told.

I absolutely predict some sort of DLC like this, in the vein of Hearthfire from Skyrim. (Though hopefully with even more options.)

I've seen some really nice areas I'd love to build my own Settlement. Way better than many of the options you're given.

I would like to be able to 'close out' some of the settlements as well...... some locations just don't lend themselves to being good living spaces.

You can sort of do that. Send any settlers away, scrap everything, and just leave.

If you need them to finish quests but don't want to actually use the settlement, just build the radio beacon and then immediately turn it off/scrap it. The quest still completes but no Settlers will show up there.

I still have two show up.... almost immediately after powering up the radio tower.

Interesting. The worst I've had is one show up almost immediately, but most I turn on and back off and no one shows.

Maybe it's because I scrap everything else first. I've noticed that settlements with less resources recruit settlers at a slower rate. This is even true for my non-farming settlements that get their food in surpluses from my ones that farm.

Try that if having them show up bothers you. Otherwise, just send them to another of your settlements. (I keep one that is set up but with the beacon turned off just for sending stray settlers to in case my main ones fill up.)

Sounds like a good plan. If nothing else, they can become provisioners.

Oh yeah, I know that I can do that. I did that with my settlers at the Castle. What I was referring to was the buildings. Some of the building that are partially destroyed can get in the way of rebuilding a settlement and you can't scrap them all. Being able to fill holes in walls and patch roofs of original buildings using that building's materials to bring back structures to pre-war quality or be able to scrap it for extra materials.

I gotcha. I totally agree. It bugs the hell out of me that we can't scrap buildings that are like 60% destroyed. The Coastal Cottage is one example. The building that comes with that site is basically worthless. The entire back half of it is rubble on the ground. But it takes up a bunch of the available land and it's right in the middle of it, so it's a pain in the ass.

That's more of a workaround. They are without training and there isn't much of a command chain. I try to roleplay by giving everyone suitable clothing. Guard all have minutemen uniforms and leather/ combat armor with laser based weapons but that is not real enough.

What more do you want exactly? I'm not really seeing how this is a 'workaround.'

Well. I want to not pretend of course and I also want proper soldiers to controll the Commonwealth.