I'd like to see the settlement system built up to a full game in of itself. I'd envision it being a cross between Fallout, Civilization and Rebuild 3. A completely different idea, when the player is defeated, instead of death & reload, it'd be neat to be beaten down and either robbed and left for dead, dragged off to a creature's den or carried off to an NPC's lair. The idea here would be that you'd regain consciousness and need to escape captivity but you would be missing some of your gear (which was either stolen by the NPCs that captured you or came loose as you were dragged through a creature's den).