Lo-Fi Games

I second this.

I very much agree with the sentiment of the OP, this kind of feature would help to bring the world to life with the cities competing on a population front too. It wouldn't need to be too in depth but attracting a workforce is quite an attractive idea.

This is a very good idea and not something that I've seen before. Seems like it'd be fairly simple to implement too?

Just my 2 pence worth but some form of sail based vehicles would be good aesthetically I think. Think rusty sail boats on wheels....