Laundry list of small suggestions
I read a total of 20 pages of suggestions. there are a LOT more out there so I have probably duplicated some things.
Game system:
In game note pad. (I notice that Imbecile just mentioned this one post earlier, but it is a good idea, so I'll mention it again.)
Home Island:
Request up and down arrows for queues (similar to the build menu) for barracks and for provision house.
Related concept: Let us use those up and down arrows to access the first item on build queue, (not just the second and later) ONLY WHILE the builder is still in transit.
Request a Cancel/Recall button for Explorers and Geologists. Not instantaneous, but let it halve the time until return maybe? Possibly the same thing for Generals en-route to/from islands
Display of the number of total deposits of each mineral that are currently worked/located as in: 3/8 iron if you have 3 iron mines and 5 more deposits located.
Display the total number of building of each type that is built. Perhaps this could show up in the economy overview.
Could we have an ability to plant temporary message signs? As in "future smelting complex here" or "buff this area".
Can we get some way to prioritize the deposits used by masons? I have one marble mason working two deposits. I 'found the second one just a of couple minutes too early, so the older one has 3 marble left in it. The mason shifted work to the closer/new one and I cannot re-find the old one until they BOTH empty. So, the mason will be out of deposit in half the time I planned. And with marble and stone, you cannot destroy the deposit. :-( True, I could maybe MOVE the mason...
Visiting friends:
Mentor mode: Allow a friend who is visiting to have their cursor show up on the visited island for the owning player. I hangout on help chat. It is a real pain to try and tell the new player. "Ok, place your storehouse just to the left of those trees that are in the western end of your number 4 sector. Right by the rocks." Let the owning player's cursor show up for the visitor as well
Also, let the builds by the owning player show up for the visitor. As it is now, you have to go home, then come back to see what changes were made.
Last item for visiting. Let the visitor click on buildings and look at the building's stats. It would help to know if a building has an Exclamation Point (!) because it is upgrading for a day, instead of no settler there yet, or no coal. It would make a difference in whether to buff. Possibly for mentor mode (above) you could have the owning player do the clicking and let the mentor see the details.
Adventures:
When you have started a new adventure such as "Witch of the Swamp," you get a quest book panel on the right hand side of the screen where you can visit, send armies, cancel quest, etc. The problem is, when you click on this panel, the new options appear right underneath the cursor and the one button exactly under it is the cancel button. As someone who hangs out on Help channel, I hear new players that gripe that they accidentally canceled the adventure by double clicking there. Can you make the cursor start at the top of that panel of new options? That way the worst that happens is they visit the island. Or maybe at the 'See details' button would be a better location.
A related problem is that of the 'confirm' notification for canceling adventures. It is very counter-intuitive to select 'cancel' to continue with the adventure and 'OK' to cancel the adventure. I assume this is partially due to the translation from German. May I suggest changing the wording on those two buttons to "Yes, cancel quest" and "No, continue quest".
Display of total number of troops on the adventure island, whether assigned or not. Something similar to the mouse-over of the settler figure while on the home island would work.