Been a looong while since I played this so I fired it back up again. It's progressing quite nicely! Feels much more like a game now. There are a few early game progression things that I've seen, including some stuff about deciding what type of town you are going for which gives you some bonuses.
I'm on day 13, I have 12 colonists, and things seem to be going well. Building AI is a good bit smarter, and I've made a few custom buildings pretty easily. Nothing too fancy, but much easier to use overall than I remember. I was able to make a basic watch tower building without any trouble, so that's a good sign.
Playing on standard difficulty and so far it has been pretty easy to fend off everything with two footmen. Enemy variety has been pretty good, I've fought 6 different types of enemies so far. (rock monsters, wood monsters, wolves, skeletons, giant zombie, and goblins). Things have been slowly ramping up in difficulty, which gives me a focus for getting new equipment. Probably going to convert one footman into an archer now that they are both high enough level.
I also recently had some goblins show up and demand tribute. They attacked when I refused, but were pretty wimpy and easily fought off. But they have a camp on my map now, so that's a goal for later to drive them off.
Not all that far in yet, obviously, but other than whatever late-game challenges the game has I'd say the only thing that feels really lacking is any actual social connections amongst the townsfolk. They chat and have moods and whatnot, but there don't seem to be any actual relationships formed. Nor is there any sense of property ownership or anything. You can assign beds, but they won't claim them on their own nor do they claim houses or anything. No children yet either, though that's less of a big deal. I imagine that lack is a bit more noticeable as the town grows, though.
I'm also having issues canceling mining jobs, though that's just been a minor annoyance so far. But I do have a random set of channels dug out on the map where I clicked accidentally and couldn't remove the job. Which got me clay, so not a total waste of time I suppose.
Considering it's still very much in Alpha, I'm having fun with it!