Settlements and Gameplay Vision

Today I worked on the settlement dialog that is shown when you click on a settlement on the overworld map.  There is also a button on the selected unit panel called 'Settle' which allows you to make a new settlement at that location and select how many people in your expedition to settle in the outpost. 

The market view shows commodities in the outpost but doesn't yet allow you to transfer/buy/sell, etc.  That functionality will be coming in future releases.

If you want to create new expeditions to explore more of the terrain, you can do so by visiting the citadel and clicking on 'Form Expedition'.

In addition to settlements, the units can also build roads now.  It takes 1 turn to build a road over a square and any expedition can do the work.

I'm also working on some of the game rules, trying to nail down some figures that provide a fun balance at least just to get some gameplay going.  There will be certain amounts of food and water that can be foraged in a square depending on the terrain, and consumption rules which will determine how many people in your expedition can be fed by foraging alone.  If you have more people than can forage in the square, they will consume rations from the expedition's cargo and if there are no rations many of those people in your expedition will starve or desert.

Settlements will also use these rules to harvest resources form the immediate vicinity (IE: the square it is founded on) and they will accumulate in the market.  Eventually the settlement will be able to build constructions outside of the town itself (IE: on the squares surrounding the town) to gather more of the resources in the hinterland (such as wheat farms, mines, cotton plantations, etc).  Those resources will be accumulated in the town also provided there are enough workers.

These are some of the short-term goals I'd like to implement just so that we can get basic gameplay going.  Early gameplay will essentially be Explore -> Settle -> Production -> Export to Europe.  Later gameplay will evolve into more economic development with diplomacy and warfare being introduced.