I don't actually have the capability to make this on my own. I spew out ideas, but I have no modding experience in Bethesda games.

 

People want more out of their settlers. If you don't want more use out of the feckless masses wandering around your bases, this idea is not for you. If you are interesting in making those farm-fodder imbeciles do something other than mass produce glue, this may interest you.

Obviously, there needs to be improvements in settler management. No-one is going to argue that the vanilla method of settler 'management' is optimal. In fact, sometimes it isn't even functional. And that's obviously an issue I would like to address, that everyone would like to address. For this reason, I'm not going into detail about fixing up the Settler assignment issue until later in this post.

Settlers need to be useful. Sure, they are already, but no settler is any more useful than any another settler. You have no reason to care about them. So what if one dies? Ship in another from elsewhere, it's not like you lost anything. Even if you leave a settler farming for a year, they don't get any better. A guy on guard duty for a year won't give any more defence than a guy freshly assigned to a post. Wouldn't it be better if settlers got better at something the more they did it? If some settlers arrived with skills in one area?

And finally, one of the least important mechanically, but most important in making your settlers people... Giving them names. Without names, settlers don't have identities. Simple as. There's no Ivan the Guard, with his room full of anti-tank mines, ammo boxes and gas masks. There's no Mrs. Mira, with her room decorated with a broken crib, littered with toys for a lost child. Of course, you decorated these rooms. But with names, you can give these settlers lives. You can give them histories and meanings.

 

Role Identifiers
Names are all well and good, but they still won't tell you what a settler actually does. Not unless you remember the names of everyone in your settlements. To help this, role icons are added to help identify your settlers. Functioning like the "Legendary" and "Hard" enemy icons, role icons sit beside a settler's name to help you identify their role.
ALTERNATIVE: Prefixes to names. However, this may not be compatible with randomly generated names, or overwrite them completely.

 

Additional Settler Job Types
Mods will probably introduce new settler job types. For the sake of streamlining everything (and not becoming Dwarf Fortress), many jobs will share related skills.

 

 

 

 

Settler Skills
As mentioned earlier, settlers have skills which function as multipliers to their ability to perform their assigned roles. I propose a numbered value to their skills, spanning from 0 - 8. A score of '0' gives 0% increased output at their assigned role - they produce vanilla quantities. Alternately, it could be configurable for them to produce less than baseline amounts of a resource. It depends on how 'hardcore' you want your experience to be, or more appropriately, how laughably easy food production could get if you leave your settlers to specialise. As an idea, each point from 0 - 8 gives you an additional 25% production. So...

0 Skill - Value x 1.00          5 Skill - Value x 2.251 Skill - Value x 1.25          6 Skill - Value x 2.502 Skill - Value x 1.50          7 Skill - Value x 2.753 Skill - Value x 1.75          8 Skill - Value x 34 Skill - Value x 2.00          Maybe also a special ability at Rank 8.

 

 

 

 

Settler Perks
Sometimes you get a settler with a rare Perk. This Perk is (usually) not related to any skills, but can combine with many for a distinct advantage to your settlement. You may want to carefully organise your Perked settlers around your various Settlements, or have them rotate through them providing their bonuses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children and Elders
Children: Occasionally, child settlers join your settlement. They don't really do much - they are limited to gathering and scavenging within the base (not scavenging patrols). However, having children in your settlements makes everyone feel better about the world. [No guarding or anything involving combat, as children are unkillable by default.] I wouldn't be surprised if they were prioritised for kidnapping events, though. Unsurprisingly, everyone gets very upset if you let the Settlement's kid die.

Elders: Rarely, old folk join your settlement. How they've survived so long, you have no idea. But don't worry! They're going to tell all your settlers how they're still alive and everything they know. Just so long as they can settle down inside your base, and not go out on Raider-raids or hunting. With an Elder sharing all their stories, everyone learns what they're doing faster with the Elder's wisdom.

Names
Compared to everything else, Names have the least mechanical impact. But it's really nice to be able to identify and find your settlers. Randomly generate the names of new settlers for sweet, delicious immersion.

 

Settler Management
The most important thing that everyone seems to want. A way to manage what the bloody hell our Settlers are doing. To do this, you build a special object within your base (found in resources, like the Settler Bell) that allows you to manage your settlers. What is this special item? It's a desk. With folders on it. You sit at the desk, and a UI is brought up (looking like pages in a folder) that you navigate through to see information on your individual settlers (their role, their skills), current complaints and reports (X settlers joined, caravan returned, X gained skill level). Frankly, I imagine this would be one of the hardest things to make. I've heard that UI based stuff can be an absolute pain in the arse. I'll spawn a mockup of this idea in screenshots / photoshop... at some point. Maybe.
Alternately: By assigning icons to settlers, this UI may not be needed. It should be clear who is idle and who has a job.
Talk to Settlers: An extra option in the chat menu allows you to ask your peasants settlers what they are good at. A central pop-up (the type that pauses the game) appears with the info.

Raider Attacks Overhaul, Raider Monitoring
First off, I'd like to completely do away with the current useless system of base raiding and defence. Instead, replace it with an "aggressiveness" meter for the local raiders. Certain actions and resources will increase this meter, others can deplete it. Having a water purifier and a lot of stored food increases the raiders aggressiveness towards your Settlement - they're jealous. Sending hunters out to kill Raiders makes them angry. Caravans let them know you have money and resources, which they want.
When talking to a Guard, you can ask them how things are. They will respond with a report on what the local area is like, specifically local raider / super mutant / whatever activity. Note that, apart from at the All Quiet level, attacks can happen at any time. Increasing aggressiveness links to the LIKELIHOOD of an attack, checking on a daily basis with an RNG based chance mechanic (or something). Each time you repel a raid, the chance counter resets and sticks at zero for a while. On triggering the raid chance, it does not happen immediately, but at a random point in the next 5 days.
In an ideal world, it would also be possible to spawn single scouting raiders to approach your base. This serves no real purpose other than immersion - to watch your settlers cut them down as you stroll around your base. Maybe, if you have no defences or alert guards, these scouts can steal resources or sabotage equipment.
"All quiet ma'am/sir." - No raider activity, no chance of a raid any time soon
"Lookouts saw a little activity, but nothing much." - Under 20% raid chance.
"They're scouting closer, but I don't think they'll attack yet." - 20-40% raid chance.
"They're taking pot shots at our walls." / "They're getting cocky." - 40-70% raid chance.
"We've seen them preparing for an assault, it can't be long now." - 70% upwards.

Raid / Provoke the Raiders
Counter-Raid: Are the raiders taking pot shots at your walls, but you don't want to wait for THEM to make the first move? No worries, take a selection of Settlers out and attack the nearest Raider base instead! A successful attack drops the raider chance back down again.
Provoke: With loud speakers (now with an actual use!), blare out a challenge to the raiders. Come on, if you think you can! At 40%+ chance of Raider Attack, this will provoke the raiders to launch their attack on your base. Tower defence, anyone?

Wounds
Probably an option rather than a default feature. It's mostly for immersion and realism, and would likely be inconvenient to some. Then again, maybe it balances out some of the other advantages within the mod idea. Ideally, it comes in two flavours.
Anti-Death Wounds: Settlers become wounded rather than dying. While wounded they are bedridden and cannot contribute to your settlement for a week. Having a Medic in the settlement reduces this down time.
Combat Wounds: Settlers can become wounded if they take damage in raids or on missions. Depending on how harmed they are, they are bedridden for a few days (up to 4).

Self Sufficiency
Are you pissed off that your settlement will automatically fall if you aren't there to defend it? Even though you build enough turrets to give it 200 defence? I know I find the idea irritating! Settlements are given a percentage chance to survive and even repel attacks (although there may be a loss of life without you there, at least they don't ALL die) based on their defences. It's RNG, but at least there's a reward now for building enough defences for a base to fend for itself.

Immersion - Miscellanious
Area Markers: Place down special 'mats' on the floor that mark areas of your settlements as certain places. For example, mark your dining hall as such, and have the NPCs walk there in the morning and evening for their meals. Place a floor marker in the room you made to be a hospital, and have your wounded settlers carted in there. Designate an area as the 'recreational / relaxing' area, for settlers (and idlers) to relax. Designate a small area as YOUR ROOM, to keep the peasants from sleeping in your bed and using your chairs.
Firing Range: Occasionally, settlers go here to shoot at targets and practice their marksmanship. [Maybe gain a very small amount of Guard exp]