Ooh, do I get to point out first that your world map is missing New Zealand and the British Isles? And Sicily and Madagascar and Hawaii, but they're pretty minor. Might want to have the map guy do a higher resolution pass. There's actually a surprising amount of arms dealing in the South Pacific, so some indicator for the islands there would be good. At the same time, that big dead space would also be a good place to put your largest pop-up menu.
I would suggest having a clock up by the date indicator, since events have clocks by them too. You don't want time passing to ever be opaque.
Gameplay question: what sort of mechanics are there for dealing with with different actors in the same country? Talking to both sides of a civil war, for instance.
Hawaii is missing too! It's ok though, it's not a final map, just a quick concept drawn up by a competing artist. I have two in my employ now, one will be the art director and conceptual artist and the other will refine his work. I have to produce low and hi def assets for every piece of the game since most phones can't handle loading a lot of art assets like a simple dual core processor. The whole thing has to be streamlined in single thread processing due to my own project limitations, which means low resolution settings for phones and older computers.
There will be a clock at the top center and most likely a more detailed clock(with seconds/tenths) in the bottom right for timing more accurately. As for the islands, all of the major land masses will be in the game but not all countries will trade in arms. Just like in real life, several countries don't have standing armies and therefore don't deal in arms.
For dealing with multiple actors in the country, first, there is only one actor until an uprising occurs. It can happen naturally(rare) or the player can hire a mercenary intelligence firm(Think Blackwater Intel services) to instigate an uprising. The news service will let you know and the color or icon on the country will change to make the player aware of the change. At this point the communications menu(Looks like Skype, sort of) will now have two opposing generals instead of one. The purchase/sale menu will have another tab but once an uprising starts, neither actor will sell weapons to the player. Right after a conflict there is usually a big sell off though as the country stabilizes.
These are great questions and comments. Please keep them coming. Once I have some art assets in place I will move the game over to other games. The game has three full time employees and a decent budget, so it's getting finished. However, after some famous disappointments on Bay12, I am don't want to give anyone any reason to doubt the game or receive it any more negatively than necessary. Don't worry, I know some people will be jerks about it for no reason anyway. It's the internet, it's to be expected, even on Bay12.
EDIT: A sample of my composer's work. The intro song to be played while the game loads and waits for the player to "press enter" or what-not. The actual game music will be a little less intense, but of similar quality. Go to his page and then select the 10th track down named "Game Music"
https://soundcloud.com/elyssius