On that note there should be a clear aesthetic difference between abandoned places, temporary squats used by bandits, and actual settlements where people are intending to live long term. Like even if a building's made out of scrap sheet metal and other salvaged materials there should be something new to it, like a coating of basic plaster or mud daubing to help fill in the gaps and some basic whitewash with whatever simple dyes are on hand (so probably a lot of barn red, since that's literally just whitewash with rust mixed in for appearance and anti-rot properties) to make it look like something someone intending to live in it would make.
Like there are clearly still living trees, there are grasses, there's dirt everywhere, they could trivially make fresh planks and mudbricks to build actual structures from. That's honestly a big thing FO76 did right, where it had the settler faction clearing rubble and making actual new buildings to live in and building defensive palisades with logs and properly-used scrap, instead of everyone just being like "yep this half collapsed building with several giant holes in the wall and roof and multiple skeletons lying around will be my new permanent home where I will run a normal business from. No I won't patch the holes or clean up the pile of rubble mixed with human remains that you have to climb over to get through the living room, that would ruin the aesthetic!"
I want, after 250 years, for someone to pick up all the rusted tin cans lying about. I know it's a wasteland, but come on, have some civility
The centuries old skeletons in my living room add to the decor okay?
On that note there should be a clear aesthetic difference between abandoned places, temporary squats used by bandits, and actual settlements where people are intending to live long term. Like even if a building's made out of scrap sheet metal and other salvaged materials there should be something new to it, like a coating of basic plaster or mud daubing to help fill in the gaps and some basic whitewash with whatever simple dyes are on hand (so probably a lot of barn red, since that's literally just whitewash with rust mixed in for appearance and anti-rot properties) to make it look like something someone intending to live in it would make.
Like there are clearly still living trees, there are grasses, there's dirt everywhere, they could trivially make fresh planks and mudbricks to build actual structures from. That's honestly a big thing FO76 did right, where it had the settler faction clearing rubble and making actual new buildings to live in and building defensive palisades with logs and properly-used scrap, instead of everyone just being like "yep this half collapsed building with several giant holes in the wall and roof and multiple skeletons lying around will be my new permanent home where I will run a normal business from. No I won't patch the holes or clean up the pile of rubble mixed with human remains that you have to climb over to get through the living room, that would ruin the aesthetic!"