The one thing I would have wanted to be included in the original game is a leveling system for settlements, allowing for eventual independence that lets you set a goal or plan for the settlement and have the NPCs do it. That way you don't have to keep going back to 19 settlements in late game.

I think Bethesda should have added a fix up building option where you can select what materials to use (wood, steel, concrete) to patch up pre existing buildings in places such as Sanctuary, Sunshine Tidings Co-op, etc. The buildings will still have that scrappy look after getting fixed, but it shows that humans haven't lost the ability to build shelter, one of the first skills humanity ever learned

One thing I slays wish they had was settlement bonuses. Like, imagine Sanctuary just comes with a bonus to settler happiness built in, or Abernathy Farm creates more crops per plants because it’s a farm, red rocket has an increased chance to scavenge oil, county crossing makes more money from trading posts, and on and on. Would really add some interest in specializing your settlements.

so basically every settlement would benefit from either the ability to patch up the broken prewar structures or make the holes in them clean enough to patch up using structures

There should have been two options when gaining a location. Scraping everything which gives resources or rebuilding the buildings which will cost resources.

I have three wishlist items:

1. Just allow clipping by default. Especially for walls, it doesn't give players an advantage and allows them to fix up buildings so much easier.
2. Snap points: following up #1, set up the ruined structures in such a way that they line up nicely with the standard wall lengths, and the player-built walls snap to the foundations
3. Give us the option see a visualization of settler navigation mesh while in build mode. It would be so helpful to see what npcs are able to walk on

> "coastal" cottage
> buildable space is nowhere near the coast

They should have allowed us to "rebuild" existing structures at settlements, if we aren't able to scrap them outright - just have it be an option in the workshop menu, similar to how you repair destroyed structures...

the ability to repair the castle walls and some of the other buildings at other settlements  in a similar way to building the heart fire homes from skyrim would have been nice.

This video perfectly encapsulates why I'll never be able to go back to vanilla settlement building.

crazy how entertaining this is while barely ever touching base building

Damn this is giving me the itch to do a new playtrough with lots of base building

'Scrap everything' mod (makes everything scrapable) is one of the highest rated mods for these reasons!

I think the first thing Bethesda should have given npc's in settlements is a broom, the amount of rubbish verges on disgusting in some settlements and then the collected trash should be turned into building resources.

That is why i love modders, they can repair tons of content in nearly all games.

always held out hope for a mod that would let you sink caps and or materials to reconstruct things. Sim Settlements was the best we got and its lovely. had a mod once that a guy would show up to sanctuary and you paid him and donated lumber and he'd rebuild the bridge. Personally i always liked murkwater, i made it my water filtration depot.

For Croup Manor, I would have been perfectly content with the ability to remove or repair the interior walls.
The walls inside the house had the most mind numbing collisions even with the rug glitch. Flooring and roofing were fairly simple overall.

That and the skeletons/ bodies being removable. But that's an issue with 90% of the settlements in the game.

Vault 88 is massive, takes forever to clear, but has a massive amount of nuclear material. There's 3 spawn points; main entrance, subway, and pharmacy stairs (I think it's the stairs, never had anyone in the store). Concrete walls block/glitch them at 3 interior spots. First time I was there for an attack it showed I was still under attack after I killed everyone at the entrance.  I moved up and failed the defense.  Now I just go to the concrete walls in the tunnels,drop a pillar or 2 and shoot them down.

If the settlement system linked into a quest restoring the commonwealth provisional government, that would have easily made it better.
And based on the faction picked it would result differently.
Even institute play through players could use it to "fix" one of its biggest blemishes, and make an actual argument to join them.

Honestly, I wish the boats at the Marina and Lighthouse, instead of scrapping them, could be salvaged, maybe have a set of short quests getting or making parts to make them seaworthy, assigning a settler to them, like a waterbound caravan to other waterfront settlements, or even better, a method of fast travel to certain waterfront settlements in survival mode.