yeah, the mapgen changes seem to have made the likelihood of barred paths increase at least tenfold. I'll have a look and try a fix or two. The unprotected mine is fine - since v095, there's a small chance of that occuring on purpose
I'd like to recommend removing the resource cost on upgrading to a village. I don't really see how why the village upgrade is so costly at this stage, more than the next level, but the high rock/wood cost can completely eliminate the ability to build troops if you can't find enough of these resources, or alternatively eliminate a kingdoms ability to generate wealth, I just beat a game where one of the last AI kingdoms still hadn't gotten a village, meaning they basically had no income the entire game.