I’ve been playing a game of Lowland Lakes of Vanquisher after this patch came out, love it! Have to give Arid Highlands a go once I’ve done what I can do in this game.
Taking the current point of the game, and leaving out things already touched upon in the past into account, I wanted to share some ideas that could give the game some more interest.
Arborists are something I believe can do with a bit more complexity, but said complexity means complexity in other areas too, so not a simple job. Currently we have Peaches which are available to pick in one period (would be nice if the real life months noted in that interface could instead say in-game month numbers, especially as a Southern Hemisphere enjoyer), and Apples & Pears in another, which may as well be the same thing currently.
A solution could be two fold; Arborist can be upgraded to allow growing of Grapevines and single tile Strawberries. Strawberries are simply Berries that are harvestable at a different time than the rest. Grapevines are harvested, alongside Pears, to be made at an upgraded Brewery, into Wine and Perry. These are sold at a Tavern, an upgraded Pub. While the idea of a Desirability increase from a Tavern would be up to balance, the sale of Wine and Perry could have different levels of demand and could sell at a higher price, helping the town gold economy. Since one would have to bend over backwards to figure out a secondary ingredient to make Wine or Perry (like Honey in Ale), perhaps a new Barrel resource could fit that function?
Eggs from Coops presents an opportunity; Upgradeable Bakery which can make Cakes alongside Honey. Cakes could function as a level 4 luxury item and a shelter-only food, perhaps? Another thing the upgraded Bakery could make as a regular food (replacing Bread) is Pies. Ingredients could be Fruit or Meat, Flour, and Tallow (as fat is a main ingredient of pastry), giving another much needed use for Tallow. These foods could perhaps count as 2 food groups in one item, increasing the efficiency of Markets?
Perhaps that could open up space for other extra-processed food items that cover 2 food groups for better Market efficiency? Market efficiency is a big thing in late game, and too often do villagers stop their work to stock their shelters. If Grocers were changed to carry a large amount of a few different kinds of items (Firewood & Water) and go house to house until they’ve used up what they’ve carried or all shelters have an adequate amount, then eventually you would run into the problem of there being too many types of items for them to get into all shelters without falling behind. Something like a 3rd tier upgrade could allow for them to carry not just more types of items at once (Firewood/Water/Herbs/Soap, Candle/Pottery/New T2 luxury, as examples of parcels a Grocer could carry at once), but also open the Market up to carrying the multi-group foods and be able to carry a parcel of 3 food types that consist of all 5 food groups at once (perhaps something like Fruit Pie/Casserole/Cheese?)
This avoids the solution to Market efficiency just being adding more Grocer slots, and enables a lot more interest in late game.
If there’s room for another livestock, perhaps Sheep could fit the bill? Infrastructure could be identical to Goats, except instead of providing Milk they provide Wool, which can be an alternative raw item to create Clothing (Arid Highlands would be a handy map to have these). If ropes are ever introduced, which would be made of Flax, then Wool could reduce the Flax burden as the game goes on (avoiding the need to buff Flax production from farms to meet these needs, or nerf it in it’s current state back to where it was before the previous patch when much became needed in Tier 4 with Paper).
Edit: I thought of another idea that could really help; Slaughterhouse. With the amount of animal farms we can now fit around, all butchering their excess livestock at the same time and flooding supply of meat early into the year (and being barren the rest of the year), a Slaughterhouse building could hold all excess livestock from each building (has livestock food, no breeding) where each worker slaughters animals one at a time. A warning could come up when animals are born to tell you if and how many animals are left over, to let you know when you need to increase workers.
This could also give you a bigger window to transfer livestock being held to a new appropriate building, which can be important in the later game when more things are taking your attention.