Lo-Fi Games

This isnt a major thing. but having one of your men with the most strength and a large traders backpack being set as a runner to not work any machines but to constantly pick up water for farms and raw materials and deliver them around would make production a lot smoother. also an alarm gong that would draw all your men away from mindlessly working and attack as a group as soon as invaders come would be great.

Your idea for some type of alarm mechanic is a must in my opinion. It would make no sense for all your people to be slaughtered without a fight just because you were distracted with another task for too long. At least some kind of on screen pop-up with an audio warning, something to at least let you pause the game and react.

This. All of this. Especially a feature that makes workers instantly stop what they're doing and initiate a flight or flee response. I lost my first recruit when he and the others didn't even bother to stop building to attack bandits that crept up on me and nearly resulted in a TPK. That was a very sad day, indeed...