Lo-Fi Games

Currently the merchant ai behavior seems a bit wonky. It's never really clear where they will stop in or outside our town. I've personally seen them run through my whole town just to end up standing outside some far off gate. I've also seen them never even come close to my town and just stand at a far off gate I build for scenic purposes that wasn't even really connected to my town, making it very easy to miss such visits.

I would like to see a new structure for our settlement that will serve as the go-to point for the visiting merchant spawns. Something as simple as a signpost will do. This way the player can direct them to go to an area of our settlements that would make more sense and look better, plus this way we have far less chance of missing them.

Alternatively you could repurpose the already existing Animal Feeder container and add this function to it in addition to its food container use. Would make sense as well since merchants do come with pack animals that would no doubt enjoy a meal. (am not suggesting they should actually eat anything, but I also would not care if they did)

I like the idea. Althought it will only work outside of gates, since player's gates are mostly closed at nearly all time. I doubt anyone mimics NPC towns, and it seems that only i go commando with no walls or gates at all

But even having an outside spot would be great. I'm thinking some relatively small, half-cosmetic "market" structure, combo of market stall, large round tent and, sure, animal feeder. Or something like that. Would look awesome.

I like the idea.

In the same way, It would be great to have an attractiveness system for the player town, pushing the merchant and citizen to come in your town to shop or live there. you couldn't control them but it would make it more alive.
The attractiveness system could also influence the diplomacy and the frequency of bandits raids.