... by building safe and secure settlements that attract and keep settlers? It seems obvious to me that if it is working for the Minutemen, the other factions would be quick to try the same strategy. Raiders would set up something like Bartertown (Mad Max III). BoS would secure settlements from which they could draw new recruits. Institute would create propaganda outlets that look a lot like how West World was _supposed_ to function. ("See, people? The Institute isn't the bogeyman everyone fears. We're here to give you a better, safer life!") Supermutants... meh. Hard to get past a cerebral cortex that stops thinking past "Must SMASH things!" Still, I'm sure you get the idea.

Unlike the completely destroyed wastelands of California and the Southwest, the Commonwealth is far too preserved with bountiful fields and a massive amount of agriculture-ready settlers and a wealth of material resources.

That's just boring. Post-apocalyptic empires only fight over dirt, not fruits.

Until your character comes along, it is very much not working for the Minutemen. They fell apart, lost track of their goals, and destroyed everyone's faith in them. Up until you enter the fray, nobody is looking to follow their example.

The Raiders do sometimes enter financial arrangements with settlers, but it's mostly of the protection-racket kind, i.e. "pay us to not rob you".

I'd talk about the other factions, but that would be too spoilery for this board. Suffice to say that some of your suggestions aren't all that far off.

don't they?

Raiders have their camps and buildings... there are even several stories in the terminals about how raiders want to fight the gunners for a building ^^

Super Mutants have their decorated camps as well

Well raiders are to disorganized to do it (especially since long term wise, if more then one raider group shares a living space there bound to infighting)

BoS mission in the commonwealth is not to conquer, they are there to war against the institute, sure once the story is over with there "ending" im sure they start to build a base, off screen.

And the institute according to a windscreen text already tried to coexist with the commonwealth people and failed, hence there new secretive bogeyman approach.

BoS Terminal also says how they intend to set up trade links in the commonwealth and their patrols bring stuff worth trading.

Raiders as has been said don't have the interest to try to set things like that up, they do have at least 2 places with side buisnesses they've taken part in or taken control of.

But on average they just want to kill, tourture and other nasty things while drinking and doing drugs. Not really the type to build up a trade base here.

Because I keep killing them.

One farm at least is run by supermutants. I always steal their melons.

I think the other factions don't really care to try and unite the Commonwealth. The Institute has reasons not to try. The Railroad is only about synths and couldn't really unite the Commonwealth under their cause anyway. And the Brotherhood is pretty much on a Holy Crusade, not really looking to establish a permanent kingdom as far as I know.

Pretty sure they violently took over that farm.

Actually, they do?

The landscape is dotted with raider, super mutant and gunner sites. Also, there's some triggermen sites.

And they do quite often seem to engage in combat with each other around these settlements (and around the wasteland).

Those factions don't really need to start new bases imho. I'd say they pretty much already have the available turf devided between them.

Probably, but maybe they are peaceful melon farmers.

I am wanting the legion to come back and start taking over. Side with them or not.

Maybe modders will make it happen.

Legions like 2000 miles away...

New Vegas will be their Rome, and Boston their Constantinople >:c Just... give them a few years to march across. What was the time difference again... they've got time, yeah? 2281 and 2286? Six years is plenty for a leisurely stroll

The raiders have lots of really nice places as well and most don't at all feel like raiders to me. They in fact seem to be more organized than any of the large city settlements and more invested in preserving their way of life.. Raiders and the Gunners are the only ones out there defending everyone else from super mutants. ..They are fighting a war of preservation while the city dwellers and settlers just hide away and don't fight for anything. It's quite bizarre to me that those two factions are merely treated as fodder. They feel more like unfinished story arcs that the developers just didn't have time to place into the story or something.

Look at the rw history of pretty much anywhere the Romans or any other empire conquered before and after they got there. Small, fractious clans tend to only learn how to unite and govern after they get boot-heeled by a larger entity, and then that entity goes away or falls apart for whatever reason, leaving the provincials to apply the lessons learned.

It 'aint nice, but "civilization" historically spreads at sword-point.

A couple things. One is that while there are, indeed, several Raider camps, Supermutant bases, etc., it doesn't seem like any of them are trying to do empire-building. More like city-states at most. Second, despite what Preston says, he is NOT "the last Minuteman". The story he relates tells more a tale about the political infighting in the leadership of the several Minuteman chapters. Like Preston, I'm certain that many, many Minutemen hold his same ideals of growing a unified Commonwealth. The several chapter leaders that betrayed Hollis at Quincy also betrayed the ideals of many of their own chapter members. If anything, several of those betrayed Minutemen would feel obligated to splinter off to rebuild the Minuteman organization "to be what it was supposed to be". Sort of like BoS and Outcasts in FO3. As an alternative to rebuilding the Minutemen, I'm sure some of them would have come up with other names, primarily because the name "Minutemen" has become "tainted". Maybe something like "Commonwealth Revival" or "USA Reborn" or a variety of labels involved with rebuilding Society and Civilization. (It would be interesting if one of these revivalists was named Cid Meyer. )

Every faction in the Game has at least one settlement quest.

The BOS is empire building in the game. And has a repeatable settlement quest.

The institute isn't interested in 'empire building' because that isn't their goal.

The Railroad faction is a resistance movement empire building would just make them targets. Their strength is in secrecy NOT empire building.

Seriously I think you need to either play more or research more because it is possible to never help Preston and create a series of settlements.

The minutemen are not the only group and with settlements. The gunners have them and they are building are series of bases. As for factions the player can join, 2 out of the 4 factions can have large numbers of settlements. So I honestly don't know why so many players think you can't play the settlement 'game' except with the minutemen.