The NPC progress is paused until the AI Update, we want a more advanced AI, about as deep as the cooking itself, we want NPCs that react to you, the world and each other, this will be a solid 6 months minimum to do this, so we are pushing this update to later and try to add smaller features, we want to add Wood cutting, Stone mining, some crafting and such first.
The NPC Overhaul will also allow for events, festivals and a lot of more interaction, including romance and marriage.
Several parts of the UI are also waiting an overhaul, mainly the map, the NPC shops the inventory and the cooking UI.