Lo-Fi Games

From what i've seen, it appears that the justification for the economy of kenshi is going to be based around observable production of goods (I.E. settlements with cheap narcotics will have farms where it is presumably produced, etc.) Most justifications like this are easy to see and implement, and add a minimal amount of player value, so they arent very high priority. The case of justifying building materials isn't as easy to see, but in my case has a pretty significant impact on realism

I've noticed that in kenshi, essentially all buildings are constructed out of concrete and metal. Iron is generally found abundantly everywhere, and so mines can be placed near any exposed bedrock to justify metal production. Concrete requires sand and chunks of rock, which are both in ample supply in the world of kenshi, but more significantly it requires cement. Cement production requires quarrying of limestone and lots of heat, both of which are a bit trickier to justify in an environment of rolling dunes, but still doable with implementation of some more varied rock formations and a valid fuel source.

It may sound like it isnt worth all the attention involved to make a feature that would only really be noticed by people who know about concrete, but i think that extra real-world authenticity will add to the overall feel of the game, and honestly, seeing a ton of concrete buildings in a sparse desert is as weird for me as, say, seeing a ton of log cabins in the same desert would be for most people.

Here I thought the buildings were all made of rock and painted white - silly me!

Not necessarily, ancient Egyptians had a material similar to concrete but used a specific type of clay instead of cement, baking it in the sun to harden. Pretty good stuff, but very vulnerable to water erosion. In short, just because it looks like concrete from our vantage point, dosnt really mean its 'proper' concrete.