Hey there! Thanks for the feedback!
Great points. I ran into similar issues during my own playtests and thought I'd patched those loopholes. I'll get right on it.
Regarding the massive distances, I’ve been thinking about adding portals or waystones so "Peons" could teleport from one part of the map to another. What do you think about a feature like that?
PS: I'll roll out the markets in the next update.