Settelements definitely have some weirdness in them. In my case, Sanctuary stopped receiving new people and stopped at 7 for many hours. I even setup another beacon to see if the effects stack.
I have beds, food and water to support 14+ people, around 35 defence. No one wants to be my slave friend.
I've setup a supply link to the farm-settlement nearby to see if I can put a beacon there and if people will spawn in it.
I'm 1 level from building shops, it will be really sad if it doesn't work anymore. I'll have to build other settlements, recruit people there, and move them all to Sanctuary.
I don't really understand it either. I did what you did. I made a bunch of radio towers and asked everyone to move to Sanctuary. Now there's 21 people in Sanctuary and 10 everywhere else. I think the game just dice rolls after a certain amount of time to see whether you get a new settler or not. By the way, stacking radio towers don't work. I did it at Sanctuary and it didn't do anything.
With the other places, they'd be at 0 or 1 for the longest time. Then I'd do something for a bit then check and it'd be 6 out of nowhere and I have to rush there and build a bunch of stuff.
Hey, I forgot to thank you for the heads up. Was on the phone and couldn't post right so I gave up.
What I think that happens, is that your beacon covers a small area of the map. If you listen to the Recruitment Beacon Radio, it's very short-ranged. So, I'd speculate, having one in Sanctuary is almost useless since there's nothing around there.
So I think it's balanced and understandable if that's how it's supposed to work.
What did make me a little sad, is that there seems to be "Radio Boosters" stations - you hack the terminal and tell it to boost radio signals, so you can hear distant signals. I found that really cool, but I'm not sure if it has an effect on Recruitment Beacons. I'd be really happy if it did, just for "realism" and "You Are Changing The World™" reasons.
I'm also curious if giving water to random Settlers around the map have any effect on you, your settlements, or anything.
I know we're all adults, but I don't believe karma is really gone. There has to be something watching over us all.
EDIT: I also agree with your above post. FO4 gives me a much more authentic feel than FO3 did, and a greater "Wanderer" vibe than both FO3 and NV.
As you said, the flaws are very nitpicky and can be fixed. I'm having so much fun with silly stuff like "Hey, why there's a hole here?" and then a fucking legendary ghoul comes out of it, making me jump from my chair.
I wonder how many "scares" people are getting. I already counted 5. They were really SPECIAL.
PS: I don't think the game TRIES to scare you. But I always play fallout with eyes everywhere except the center of the screen (looking for loot and secrets), so I'm always EXTREMELY distracted.
PS2: Yesterday I said the sentence "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKING FUCK THE FUK DOGMEAT GO" as 3 Mirelurks came out of the ground. That fucking borrowing noise, man..