I'm a little surprised that there are so few posts here, not because you're not doing your job or anything because you're doing an absolutely excellent job at creating updates for the game especially considering your job as a teacher and your time is incredibly limited, but because SO many people have played this game!
Mostly everyone else touched on late game aspects that could be added, and a person or two mentioned armor, but that's definitely something that I would like to expand on. I'm not sure if you already have a huge line up of ideas for armor and what not, but I noticed that the item "leather" does not get used that often, so leather armor is an awesome idea. I was also thinking it would be neat if little lizards spawned in the desert while exploring or just around your base and you could kill and butcher them for a scale or two, a new item. I figured it could be used to make scale armor. Maybe turtles and have turtle shell helmets or something. However, it seems like a bit of a waste to add a whole new animal only for it to have pretty much one purpose, huh? I was just trying to think of ideas for some basic armor for early game players, for defense against raiders and strangers on the outside. It only makes sense that if you're about to implement Raids into the game, a sort of defense system for players and recruits seems applicable. As for late game, maybe bullet proof vests made of metal and leather, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Maybe heavier armor makes the player run slower. To make sure players don't get certain elements of the game until later, maybe through XP or something, they can level up their armor/weapon/knowledge level and have access to better gear and items to craft. I'm not sure. I'm just giving little tidbits and it's up to you where it goes! You're the creative one, that's why you're the coder and makin' the big bucks. Haha.
The strangers surrounding the Anchor Rage area ARE faster, as you mentioned in one of the updates. Now, I noticed that in... exercise, was it? I can't remember the name. The exercise work bench? You can upgrade your stamina, now, does this up your speed as well? I've upgraded it a few times, don't know if I really notice a difference. It doesn't say it will make you faster, but that might be a neat upgrade, just to keep up with the enemies as they keep progressing and the game gets harder. However, I guess we do have llamas. So it's not that important of an update, I suppose.
I was doing the quests in Anchor Rage and the dye lady wanted some pods, the thing is (and this might just be my total lack of knowledge about that) I had NO idea the little cactus thingies were called "Pods" I was trying to figure out what in the world a "Pod" was and I didn't figure it out until I saw "Pod Stack" and placed it, and saw it had the little symbol of the cactus thing. I'm sure every single time I've harvested a cactus it's probably said +1 Pod, but I guess I never noticed before. I don't even actually have a fix for this, this was just my obliviousness. Lol. Also, do none of the robots harvest cacti? Mine harvest everything else EXCEPT cacti. That could be something you could add. :)
I'm not super creative or anything, just wanted to expand on some things that other players have already mentioned a little more. I also wanted to tell you that I love your humor. I hope you're not too overwhelmed by all this text, I'm sure you're thinking "Holy cow woman learn to paraphrase so I can get back to coding". Anyways, happy creating!