So, I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks the game dumps too much on your plate at once with these settlements. Seems like every time I went to Sanctuary Preston was asking me to go take another place under my wing. Well I've done some building, but apparently not enough as some settlements I haven't gotten to yet have a really low happiness rating. I got a notification saying if I don't raise it I'll lose the settlement. So I ask this, if we lose settlements can we gain them back, with new setters, later?

My suggestion is do NOT accept his offer to join the Minuteman until much later in the game (if you want to). I have found that finding and joining the Railroad (or BoS) generates much better rewards. I know none of these are exclusive (at first) but the Minutemen quests do focus on the Settlement aspect of the game much more heavily.

Or you can just ignore the settlements and their problems. I joined the Minutemen because the main quest kinda just shoves it on you early, and it seemed like the thing to do at the time. But anymore I leave them on their own.

You can just accept a mission from Preston, go do it (some are timed) and then when you get to th point where you are supposed to report back ---- DON'T. The mission is completed, so it won't matter that it was timed, but as long as you don't "turn it in" you cannot get another one. Well, not from Preston. I set up a Settlement in Hangman's Alley and noticed the happiness was dipping, so I went there and one of the settlers gave me a quest to go clear out an area to set up a new settlement. I did that mission, but did not turn it in... and so on.

If you DO have a few settlements, you really just need beds, food, and water enough for the number of citizens (10+ Charisma, I think, so no more than 20 most likely)... and then you need Defense at least equal to food + water... so potentially 40 Defense from dropping turrets / barricades (remember to assign a Settler to the barricades). Once you get that bare minimum you shouldn't have to worry about settlements. If you DO get an unhappy rating and they have plenty of beds and food and water, chances are they have a new mission for you. Let them stay unhappy or go do that mission.

Still doesn't answer my question.

I'm assuming things have to be extremely dire for you to lose the settlement but id imagine you won't be able to as they'll be no new quest to get it back.

If you're finding it too much hassle turn off the beacons so they stop growing. Most of my settlements have 2-3 settlers and only have 1 big one over 10 settlers as I can't be arsed to babysit them all the time.

Sorry, yah, I didn't answer the question at all. 8) I imagine if you ~did~ lose a settlement the only way to get it back would be if some ~other~ settlement gave you a mission to clear out X location of Y beasties in order to allow folk to settle in this "new" location (your "lost" one).... if that even happens, I do not know. I doubt raiders would actually set up camp in your lost settlement, though. You'd likely just lose access to the workbench and so on, and the citizens might grumble about, "Thanks for nothing" or something. I suppose ~they~ could give you a mission to clear out a nearby area to make things safer for them and if you did, they might relent and let you run things again.

Dunno; I've never heard of anyone actually losing one, to know for sure what happens.