I put around 150 hours into my first play-through and a fair bit of that was in settlement building. I really enjoyed building as a whole but the biggest disappointment for me was how it felt pretty inconsequential. The game was really hinting at the settlements being more involved in the world than they were, and I was genuinely surprised when it didn't play out the way I assumed it would, as was hinted in the early game.

It would have been great if you could have assigned a settlement to a faction, and this would have a positive impact on the faction's presence in the world. After the first few minutemen quests (and subsequently finding minutemen patrols across the map), and getting the radiant BoS farm quest (which after a few lines of dialogue really doesn't change anything), I figured that's where they were going.

I've given it a bit of thought since then and I think this would have given the settlements a purpose, as well as fleshing out the factions. Assigning different settlements to a faction (Institute research post, Railroad Outpost, BoS farm, etc) could have given that settlement unique structures/decorations/defense to that faction.

Maybe it would have given the settlement attacks some variety, attacks from that faction's rivals, escalating as you progress through the game and the factions become stronger. I'd even go a step further and having the strength of your faction determine their presence in a couple of the scripted encounters (Bunker hill for example), or that faction's presence in the wasteland (increasing the chance they'll appear to back you up in a tough fight), giving you a reason to invest in backing a faction early on. This is touched on slightly with the minutemen, but with a bit of tweaking could have been an interesting element.

Sorry if this has been mentioned elsewhere already. Just curious if anyone else thought the settlements could have had a few small changes that would have gone a long way towards immersion and feeling like you're building for a reason.

I like your ideas, but they do lend themselves to having to actually pick a faction to back. There is a 5th ending possibility in the game where you don't do that (well, except you do turn on the Institute and destroy them -- but aside from that, the Minutemen, Railroad, and Brotherhood all survive and agree not to destroy each other. Personally, I'd have liked to have found a way to integrate the Institute's scientific & technological history & wealth into a new government alongside the other factions, but that's an entirely different discussion...).

If your ideas were to be added by Bethesda in a DLC, I'd put in my vote for a 'neutral zone' to also be part of the package (represented by the U.S. flag wall hanging, which can represent the new Commonwealth government you're trying to build, where everyone gets along). These places would allow any faction entrance, and create a 'safe space' where they can trade/share resources with each other, and generally just hang out (maybe with a dance floor, a pool table, a good restaurant...sort of like Good Neighbor on steroids). No crops, just seller stalls, and all caps generated go into the new Commonwealth government's coffers, not to be counted among any faction's personal stockpile. It could also be a place where members of the various factions gather to go out on raids together (to remove raider encampments, super mutant nests, feral hide-outs). Maybe through such interaction, the factions would stop thinking of themselves as separate and as united in a common goal of rebuilding the world. It would take time, but it would create a true Commonwealth in the end.

That, to me, was really what the building of settlements was supposed to be about anyway...otherwise, why bother connecting them with a web of trade routes and shared Artillery protection?