I came to the realization that players want to know where their resources come from. Some things are laughable obvious in hindsight.
In the mounts update I randomly gave each city some starting resources, mostly animals. The idea was to add some more tactical asymmetry to the factions, plus I needed a starting point for the animal breeding. This just led to everyone asking how they got the animals and how to get more. This is probably the reason that some developers leave chests on the map in RTS games.
My solution was to add wild animals to the map, and let the player capture them with a trapper’s hut. I reused the animal pens to save time, the only difference is that they are locked from being picked up until a trapper is placed.
The animal pens are remade to use animals to produce more animals, and you now have to slaughter them for the resources, or use them in the soldier conscription. (Currently they just produce food)
All 22 animal types are in a tier system and you have a chance to breed better animals. For example a pony can produce horses. And then horses can be used to breed war- or draft horses. The war horse is great for mounted soldiers, while a draft horse will be able to pull heavy wagons.
I even made a cesspit building for those who want to create a massive animal breeding industry and need to flush any unwanted “products” down the drain. The cesspit will convert a portion of destroyed products to fuel, as a little bonus.
You don't want to know how the sausage is made
As a small side note; I have been working on Steam Input + Deck support.