Just wanted to follow up to say thanks for all the quality-of-life improvements, including addressing the ideas I mentioned above.
The interface is starting to feel really nice, like I was a militia's quartermaster or the mayor of some besieged village. I'd say the only thing missing is a bit of flavor text expressing a greater sense of objective and urgency—what really are we trying to accomplish in the woods, mountains, swamps, and ruins? Is there some specific lost artifact? Some Big Bad we aim to slay? Even if the goal is just to build an empire of scrap, seeing it put to opulent use might be fun, a la the various Dwarf Fortress megastructures: palaces, giant statues, even gateways to the Underworld if you're into that sort of thing.