I'm wondering if I'm missing something with settlements or if it really has been implemented as badly as it seems to be:
1) I'm not seeing a way to monitor what task each settler is assigned to and what tasks have no settlers assigned to them. This seems like such a basic and obvious thing that I'm mostly convinced that I'm just missing it somehow. Surely Bethesda wouldn't bodge the job badly enough to have tasks requiring settlers and no way to monitor it?
The only way really, at least until it gets modded is to ring the bell that you can build which brings all settlers in the settlement to you, highlight them and it highlights what they're currently working on. Still hopeless, though, but it's a start.
What most people seem to be doing (myself included) is to dress your settlers according to what they're assigned to. For example I put suits on all my store settlers, armor on my guards (not that I use them) and then farmers in something else (currently covenant armor cus it's what I had). This works well enough for now, I've found.
2) I'm not seeing a way to change perspective when building. First person is very badly suited to settlement building, so it would be an obvious choice to allow zooming out at least and preferably "god view".
Nah it's first person only at the minute I think. Not sure why they did this, but again I'm sure there'll be a mod soon.
3) I'm not seeing a way to change the length of stairs to ensure they line up with where you want them to go from and to.
No way to change the length of stairs unfortunately. What I do is have a shack foundation/wood foundation at a lower level and when you line it up right it snaps between them.
4) I'm not seeing a way to build anything to go under a floor so it matches the level of adjoining flooring on slightly higher ground, e.g. to extend flooring off a pre-existing foundation. Nor am I seeing a way to use concrete or cement for the same purpose (or any other purpose, come to think of it).
If I understand this right, you can use the shack foundation for that (under wood->floor) as it clips through pretty much anything to a certain extent.
5) I'm not seeing a way to build construction items of specific size. Anyone who could build floor, wall, ceiling and roof sections from scrap wood and/or steel should be able to build them to whatever size they require to neatly fit gaps.
Yeah I don't know why you have to build in single squares either. Same with fences having to build them post by post instead of just connecting two posts and having them auto complete the fence for you, that would be so much easier and more efficient.
Settlement building and management looks like a tagged-on afterthought to me, done as a rush job. It seems very clumsy and missing some important things, especially (1). It's not like settlement building is a new thing in games - there have been entire games of it for years. Bethesda wouldn't have had to come up with new ideas for a new type of game.
Yeah, as much as I've enjoyed it I feel like it's despite the controls and features instead of because of them. I feel like they saw the popularity of the New Vegas settlement mod and decided to put it in but did JUST enough to call it a feature and then let modders take it from there. Probably not a bad plan really considering the extent of their modding community and the size of the rest of the game.
Less importantly:
6) I don't seem to be able to have settlers harvest plants I've planted. They work on them, but I'm not seeing an increase in the number in my inventory.
7) I'm not seeing an option to build a kennel for Dogmeat.
The harvested plants go into your workshop, not your inventory. Same with caps from stores and water from purifiers.
Kennel is under miscellaneous in the resources tab I believe (you definitely can, I'm just not 100% sure that's where it is.
Though I assume I am at a lower res and with only a single card. Will have a look anyway.
What about all the magazines you find whilst exploring, do they count but just not show on your Perk chart?
