I feel like I'm missing something. I've mostly been playing like Fallout 3 or FNV - running around doing quests and scavenging for loot.

I'm at level 15 now and I haven't done much with settlements. I have some people living in Sanctuary Hills and I've done a few of the Minuteman quests where you clear out an area for settlers. That's about it.

It seems like I need to be doing more, since settlements are apparently a big deal in Fallout 4. I'm not sure what advantage I get from having settlements other than a place to sleep.

Later on you can get artillery (min men / castle / fort quests) which has a range of 4 or 5 squares on the map. The more settlements, the more arty, etc.
Run supply lines as soon as you unlock the local leader perk. Makes everything much easier to build & stuff.
The settlers run supplies, and man the artillery.

Settlers to run supplies - while in the workshop mode, hover over a person & hit Q or C?? Then select where to go. They'll be fine & can travel any distance. Instant materials at other location / pooled.

Settler to artillery - like how you assign to food harvesting.

There only as big of a deal as you (literally) make them. Personally, I like having a place to store my bobble heads, all my power armor. I like a place where I can dump all my collected junk, somewhere where I can show off all the outfits and armors I've collected by giving them to settlers for them to wear. Creating stores is also another way to generate income if you're looking to buy ammo or legendary weapons from vendors.

Even though you have the option of creating at least a dozen settlements, creating one was more than enough for me.

Nice ideas! I haven't tried giving them new clothes or setting up stores yet. :/

Bethesda needs to add a grid system to make building Settlements easier then having to fight a war to have a bed in the perfect spot as it is now, It's rather pathetic that they didn't come up with this themselves

I was just wondering... for those whose settlements get attacked relentlessly... Do you have a big settlement? Do you have more than one big settlement?

I've done a bit to three settlements but have never been attacked. I mostly just use them to grow the crops needed for one under-served sticky resource, one just attracts new workers, and another has a few shops. I've been playing over 50 hours and not one attack. I wonder why my villages go unnoticed?

I enjoy building up settlements... I make them simple and arm them with missile and heavy turrets and have only seen an attack failure message once. I plan to visit the failed settlements and try to line the missile turrets up better to correspond to spawn points and see if it makes a difference, should the need arise. It's nice to be able to dump loot in any red box and use it at any settlement... though if you don't build settlements you won't need the loot as much. I just enjoy the process.

I'm running three settlements.

1: A farm that makes mutfruit, tato and corn. 30 total production with 6 settlers and it keeps me in adhesives for crafting.

2: The scavenging town. 18 (whatever)food/water production with the necessary farmers for the food. One guard/runner and 11 scavenging stations for junk items.

3: Mercantile center. Just enough food production. 6 shops and the rest guards.

One of those three gets the big water purifier when it's time.