Lo-Fi Games

This may be something that is already intended but I haven't found mention of it in the suggestions or gameplay threads. That is have resource/geographic variability across the map. Greener areas would have greater soil fertility and/or water sources and thus produce more bountiful harvest and support a larger and/or better fed population, or create a food surplus as a tradable commodity. Conversely more barren areas would have greater energy resources such as wind energy or oil/fuel to power generators; or more productive quarries. This would create an impetus for both trade and warfare to secure resources that are scarce in your and the npc faction regions. It could also impact faction ideology as more fertile lands tend to produce more egalitarian societies while food poor/energy rich societies tend to be more hierarchical. This would create more strategic depth both in where you locate your settlement and who you ally/war with, as well as being geologically and geopolitically more realistic.

i had mentioned this in my thread "smart terrain"

I imagine something along these lines will emerge once additional environments have been implemented. Chris has already implied that, for example, there will be certain technologies that can only be researched near old-world ruins, for example. This opens the door to having farms be more productive in some locations, stone mines being more productive in others, and the science skill seems to indicate that there will be metal deposits we'll have to specifically search for in order to produce iron mines.