Tried and failed to replicate a bug #3, so maybe it was just a fluke.
Regarding accessory as a way to recruit villagers: won't it make a process even less streamlined? One problem I noticed when playing is that it's difficult to figure out mechanics, even after reading the in-game tutorial text. They are not complex but there's a bunch of them; I figured it all out while clicking around and failing a run or two but I'm used to this kind of games (CK2, rimworld etc). But I can definitely imagine another player getting frustrated quickly. E.g., besides aforementioned missing maintenance requirements for buildings, nowhere it is mentioned that you can't gather food in autumn (or something like that, I remember that some non-winter seasons were counterintuitively barren), that chars randomly increase/decrease relationships when interacting and you need to reach certain threshold to breed, that goblins can't gather stone (maybe it's a bug, in my game they never do it). I still hadn't figured out if the happiness (mentioned in the tutorial) is actually implemented and if the structure placement actually matters (in my experience they still do the work they are assigned to anyway regardless of home placement?). Adding another not-so-obvious mechanic will probably make things worse, unless you add A LOT of tooltips everywhere.
Do not consider it a harsh criticism, I still like your game a lot.
Yes, I've found that it's quite difficult to get all the information across in the tutorial. Adding in some more tooltips like you mentioned might make things a bit easier for players.
With the food, you should see food spawning in every season (berries in spring, apples in summer, chestnuts in autumn, and pinecones in winter). Everything but berries requires training in the gathering skill, which is probably why nothing is being gathered in the other months. The tutorial should mention stocking up in spring if I updated it correctly, but I probably haven't made that clear enough. Also, with the fairly low rate of skill levelling limiting players to berries for a while, I might need to balance that with the availability of each food source.
Goblins not gathering stone is definitely a bug. It's probably the new equipment system messing up their pickaxe animation, similar to how the Pit's combat is experiencing issues.
Better implementation of the happiness is actually part of the next update! It ties into the social system, so that certain relationships can have perks or disadvantages like extra stamina or fights resulting in injuries. I'm still toying with a global happiness modifier for the settlement, but that won't be implemented for a while as it depends on the unimplemented decoration system.
The same goes for the effect of structure placement, which will benefit from the decoration system, advanced resource structures (like mines and farms), and also the day-night cycle I plan on implementing (where having your structures too far from one another results in time being wasted travelling).
Thank-you once again for providing feedback (it really helps me fix the problems my players encounter), and I'm glad you like my game.
After some pondering I think a lot of player confusion can be cleared by making ALL map objects clickable in the same vein characters are, and showing a small info window on click, similar to the existing battle info window that appears on hovering over any fighter. E.g. you click on a stone and see a small info window saying: "Stony outcrop. Can be mined out for +3 stone. Required mining skill: 0". Or a chestnut tree saying that it can be harvested in autumn for +3 food and requires 20 in gathering, etc. And also a button on everything to mark it as a priority target, so that we could intentionally clear space for building placement. This clickability was actually my expectation when I first launched the game.
A lot of char info and settings could be probably moved to a similar window that shows up on click and disappears after clicking on anything else, instead of being shown in multiple separate menus that require manual closing. Redundant clicks to perform any frequent, repeatable action are always a horrible chore that kills games quickly.
BTW found one more bug while writing this; game crashes on clicking "battle skills" menu of a goblin.
Also can't wait for interspecies sex.
An excellent pair of suggestions! I might move a lot of the character stats to the top bar when an inhabitant is selected, but keep the menus for when a player wants more details (as there will eventually be too much information that'd clog up the screen). I might unify the separate stat menus to a single menu with separate tabs too.
As for your last point, I'm actually working on the goblin animations for the next major update!
It might take a bit to get them finished though, especially if I start introducing the multiple animations (unlocked through different levels of lust) that I have planned.