Working on a basic buy/sell screen. Right now I'm just working on the GUI underpinnings and creating the basics of an "economy" which has buy/sell prices of commodities.
The idea is, each time the balloon comes, it will bring all the commodities that you buy for you, and your dwarves will automatically pick the commodities that you sell and put them in the balloon. I'm still trying to decide whether this buying/selling mechanic can occur at any time, or just when the balloon is coming. Like, there are two options:
OPTION 1: The Complicated Option The balloon will come at regular intervals (probably once every few minutes). Each time the balloon arrives, you will get the stuff you bought from the company, and will ship off commodities to sell. You also get to send a "shipment order" for the next time the balloon comes. This essentially amounts to a "promise" that when the balloon arrives next time, you will have all of the goods/money you promised to give the company. If you fail to meet your obligations, you will be fined by the company. If you go too far in the red, you simply lose the game. This adds an extra layer of complexity to the game, where you sort of have to prospect on the company's future.
OPTION 2: The Simple Option The balloon works sort of like the rocket in Cortex Command: you can place an order at any time, and if you have the required money/goods, the balloon will come for you automatically after a few seconds (sort of like you sent a phone call to the company and said "give me a balloon stat!"). Much simpler and easier to understand, but probably less deep and interesting.
I'm also planning on having an "HR screen" where you decide how much wages to pay your employees, who to fire and hire, and who to give promotions to.
I've also been replacing the stolen interior art with my own programmer art: