I've heard many times that people dislike or either out right hate the settlement system. I for one enjoy using my ideas and imagination to make great and lore friendly settlements Like Evilviking13 and many others.

I understand that it was most of the DLC but I didn't care since it was more stuff for me to build with.
I also understand that "It took up time and most of the story" You know you don't really have to do it if you don't want to only a select few times where you were sorta forced to use it but it was for a short time.

Tell me your thoughts

I personally don't dislike the settlement system, I do however dislike the attention it was given in regards to the DLC.

Settlement building is a nice little distraction in-game but not a game in of it's self. The DLC focus should have been on new stories and discoveries not new ways to build an inconsequential settlement.

...and I don't know about anyone else but, I always come up with an idea for a great settlement to build with full intention of constructing my lore friendly metropolis and the give up half way through coz I just can't be bothered

I think it's the lack of imagination in the radiant quest system. It's always "go here and kill this" "Ghoul nests" "save us from Raiders". They're all variations of the same thing. The lack of extra quests, like perhaps negotiating between two of your settlements to calm tensions, solving issues other than with the business end of your gun... it felt all too simplistic in it's execution. It feels like Bethesda missed the opportunity to expand on what should feel like a growing movement of hope in the commonwealth (for the Minutemen) or an age of tyrannical rule (from the raiders). It comes back to my major complaint that the players actions don't really amount to much in the grand scheme of things.

A lot of the dlc oriented hate comes from the fact that Bethesda claimed the settlement system was optional. The fact that they realised four seperate pieces of (if I'm being frank, over priced) DLC, which were basically little more than mods kind of left a bad taste in people mouths because it was purely bethesda scraping pocket change off of their fans. People were expecting DLC on the level and quality of Fallout 3 or New Vegas' content. Even Nuka World relied on the settlement system in a way for it's Raider leader outcome. The main game forced the player to use the system in the main quest as well. Considering it does require the player to invest a good amount of perk points into the system as well, it means the players build is ultimately screwed around with in order to accommodate a system that, while fun and immersive, becomes rather repetitive with experience.

In honesty, the settlement system is a fun addition that really adds to the lifespan of the game. Unfortunately, the game fell short of what could have been a great system. The materials used to create these settlements can be either found or bought, and more likely than not the player would acquire these materials through radiant quests and the caps gained from them. In short, the system goes:

Kill a few super mutants > Come back to questgiver > Recieve caps > Buy materials > Rinse and Repeat

The formula seems a little too simple. This was not the main reason why it was seen in a poor light seeing as games like GTA: Online follow the same formula but with money instead of materials. The problem was is that despite that they executed it poorly, they then preceded to create microtransactions in place of the expansion packs they are known for, which put the last nail in the coffin for Fallout 4 and the settlement system. It's a lazy poor attempt at dodging responsibility on Bethesda's behalf. The community was expecting something like Point Lookout or The Pitt, not some obvious cashgrab that added no replayability to the game. It's sad really, being how one of the greatest parts of Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas was the DLC but because the writers would rather sit around drinking whiskey than doing their job as a writer, there was no real DLC to Fallout 4 apart from Far Harbor and arguably Nuka World.

Not to mention the loathsome Minutemen quests that Preston Garvey gives you to save another settlement from it's impending doom at the hands of four or five raiders. The Minutemen storyline was lazily written and to rub it in the face of the player they have to keep tending to their settlements every 5 or 6 minutes. There's a reason this became a f*cking meme. Bethesda writers need to put the whiskey down and put some thought into some of the factions they create instead of creating NPCs like Preston Garvey with no real personality and are more of a burden to the player than a fun little addition.

So, in answer to your question, I don't think many people want to get rid of the settlement system entirely, I think that they want it to be executed well or not at all, which I can personally agree with. I think that the settlement system has a lot of potential, although it could've been done better. A better system would be similar to the Skyrim Hearthfire DLC, where you can optionally buy a plot of land and find materials along your journey for your settlements.

I think it can be better summed up as not everyone are fans of Minecraft and Simcity. However Bethesda fell far short of making the Settlements like Simcity. In fact they're near pointless.

However, thanks to Kinggath, he's really breathed new life into and can make it worth investing time into the settlement systems.

In theory, the idea was a novel one. Mods like Wasteland Defense and Tundra Defense allowed( not require) the player to create a settlement, a merchant and then armed personnel to defend the place. The difference, however, is that you could determine who would attack your settlement and at what frequency.

I love it but I feel like they barely put any work into settlements, I mean all your settlers can only be named Settler or Provisioner, they don,t even thank you often for taking them in and giving them jobs, you're pretty much saving their lives and all they can offer is giving you some scrap or fruits even though you have to build the farms and scrap benches all by yourself

Also you're pretty much either a tribal warlord or someone who owns multiple homeless centers - there's no depth given to how you can actually lead your settlements you just build houses for people and tell them where to work pretty much, there's not even any way to set any kind of policies for your settlements, like no synths or no ghouls

It'd be cool if there were random events like raiders defecting to you, either because they actually want to reform or because you're the baddest wastelander in Boston, or even just doing small tasks like nursing a brahmin or something like that molerat quarry pet in New Vegas.

I mean all this potential to make settlements great and all they did to fix it was adding more building objects into 2 dlc's when they could've and should've been added in the base game!
It could've been great and it is kind of fun, but it just feels so unfinished.

Also why do almost no settlers have any families?! All these people just happen to be mid to older age single people, none of them ever mention where they came from or if they even know anyone else who would be better off in your settlement, like, when I first heard Fo4 was gonna have settlements I was imaging groups of barely surviving wastelanders, struggling to care for elderly, disabled people, children and pregnant women, to beg entry to your settlements, but nope, just abunch of people who seem to barely even care whether or not you want them in your settlements, all just named Settler.

@"commissar197" Don't get me wrong, it's a decent system that can be very enjoyable. Rebuilding a desolate wasteland can be fun and enjoyable in certain playthroughs. Personally for me, I like things to be a lot more simple. I just want a house to store my stuff and call it a day. I do not want to spend my time baby sitting idiot AI 24/7. Oh and don't get me started on the horrible settlement DLC...

I think that the settlement system are fun addition to game and give more hours of gameplay. I seen that the people did many settlements which are did great.
If i had a powerful PC and same F4 i'd did fully defended settlement.

yeah I agreed with you that settlement system is a nice mechanic to fallout, besides, its does inspired by our great community wasteland defense mod even though Bethesda never want to say they got this idea of settlement from our community to fix their buggy game. anyway, I must say that they, bethesda get overrun with this settlement tied to main quest line, as you can see, if you want to get into Institute, you need to build this kind of machine in your settlement if I recall? what bad about it is that, it doesn't matter which kind of faction did you choose to side with, all of faction need you to build that machine to get into Institute, which predetermined bethesda writing department are lacking. and yeah, most of DLC got settlement stuff which is BULLSHIT because, before bethesda did that kind of dlc, our great community modding scene already add various settlement stuff for FREE?!

I sometimes wonder why Fallout 4 had to include the settlement system, there was just no point to it, so I never really bothered with it since it was a waste of time anyway... but still helps if you want to play post apocalyptic tower defense.

i love Evilviking13 builds but i feel to much of the game is based on it.

@xxitsapotatoxx I think it was a really good idea, but quite poorly executed. I think Bethesda saw the amount of home and village type mods and saw, correctly, that there was a want within the community for an easier way to make a home for yourself in the game, and that Hearthfire didn't go quite far enough with that concept. Unfortunately, with the settlement system in FO4, I think they went too far with the concept. The system is far too bloated and far too much effort to be fun imo. It becomes a chore to build up and maintain all the possible settlements in the game. This in and of itself would not be a problem, but as the ever eloquent @Corvo already outlined, the game actively forces encourages the player to have as many settlements active and running at a time as possible. This, to me at least, makes having more than a few settlements active at a time an absolute chore. As I'm pottering about the Commonwealth doing quests and exploring, I'm being constantly bombarded with "X Settlement is being attacked! They can't hold off 3 super mutants and a mirelurk without your help, even though you armed them with fucking Fat Mans and 6 Laser Gatling turrets!!" notifications. The utter lack of consequences if you don't help out (oh no, two unnamed 'Settlers' and a dog died and they took 4 steel...), coupled with the sheer amount of settlements available, so many that you can't tell/remember which one is which until you fast travel there, created a deep sense of nihilism with me towards my settlements. I saw that notification pop up and I just simply didn't care. I didn't know who or where was being attacked, I didn't care if they won or lost, it just didn't matter.

I think the settlement system suffered from the same case of too broad-not enough depth as the rest of the game, like the quests and the weapon modification system, and would have fared much better with less settlements that meant more. There's already enough micromanaging in the game without the need for me to nanny 400 unnamed NPCs that can't figure out how to salvage a fucking bed or grow a goddanm Mutfruit bush. If there was just Sanctuary, and maybe 3 or 4 other big(ish) settlements that the player could use as they wished it might have gone down better. That way you could get to know each one, how well it was armed, what it's job was, and who was living there.

Personally, although I think this applies to many more players than myself, I would have much preferred to see a few customisable player homes, scattered about the wasteland that you had to find/stumble across, instead of settlements. Places like Red Rocket, and other small little plots of land, that the player could set up base in, have a few friends over, set up a few defenses, have a meaningful workshop and other areas that they could fully customise - to a level at which they could even add clutter and stuff like that - would have been the best way to implement this kind of a system. Have it completely cut off from any main quest, so that it really is fully optional. Thats just the way I'd have it, and thanks to mods and the complete avoidance of the Minuteman questline I can do that. But because it's such a huge part of Fallout 4 I feel like I'm missing out on half of the game, just because it's not for me, and that doesn't sit well for me in a Fallout game.

FO4 settlements are all cool, but badly implemented. 1st aspect is that it is not really integrated to games story. The radiant "another settlement needs your help" plays no difference to overall story, and other is that it is impossible to build anything remotely good without Place Anywhere typed of mods or extra assets. I did build my 1st settlement at l92, when 1st such proper building tools started to appear. And it is only in my main game I build anything, other characters are not into it at all.