hay Mike this is sounding good, and yes, it was indeed me who asked about the music silencing while harvesting so that you can indeed do as you did and go and do something else while your character works.
I am loving the idea of the quests and extra harvestables etc and of the random encounters change I think the update will be a lot of fun.
Okay, here are a few suggestions for random encounters, note that I don't currently know what larger areas you have the game divided into so I am just going to have to guess.
Streets of dalgrim:
1: Pickpocket, someone steals some gold from you.
2: litter happening in autumn or winter, there is a high wind and goes everywhere this could result in you finding a random item uncovered by the litter.
3: Stop thief, someone tries to pick your pocket but you catch them at it and point them out to the constable, they drop some gold as they're dragged away which you pic up.
4: Alchemist, a traveling alchemist asks you to try a random potion they've been working on. Could result in either A, a bad tasting potion where you get nothing, B, A healing potion where your healed (and also given the potion as a reward), C, a harmful potion that makes you sick and costs some hp, or D, a delicious potion which the alchemist then immediately sells the recipe of to the in and gives you some gold.
5: Bad cook, a woman runs into you in a great hurry, she's burned the meal she was cooking and asks to buy a loaf of bread from you because the inn was out, results in selling a loaf of bread and gaining more gold as a result.
Note I don't have any beggar events in Dalgrim since I always got the impression dalgrim was a comparatively nice city, so things like giving food to starving children or refugees should probably be reserved for say out on the road.
Harvesting fields:
1: IN a haystack, you find something in a haystack. It could either be a quantety of a given harvestable, say a cart of grain that got missed by a farmer, or a stranger item, EG you find a fish in a haystack and wonder how it got there.
2: Bee sting, you get stung by a bee and lose some health (ahppens in spring and summer).
3: cold, it gets very cold and the snow makes you lose some health (ahppens in winter). This could also occur in other outdoor areas as well such as the woods or beach.
4: Rain, it rains and the water spoils some of your food, again, this is an event which could happen in any outdoor location. Theoretically you could include some ways of negating these weather events, EG by buying or tailoring some warm clothing and stout containers such as backpacks, but even if this doesn't make it into the game it would be nice to have some acknolidgement that wandering into the wilderness isn't easy.
5: Robbed survivor: You meet someone who's been attacked by robbers and have to choose to take them back to Dalgrim city (get paid as a result), or give them som some food and let them go on their own, perhaps this gives you some xp.
6: Old scarecrow, you encounter an old scarecrow in the fields that is magical. This could go several ways depending upon how wild the grain fields are, but hay its a fantasy kingdom with sentient pieces of toilet paper, so why not a sentient scarecrow? Either it could be a friendly scarecrow who tells you about how to harvest and gives you some xp, or it could be an evil scarecrow who attacks you leading to either a fight or just loss of some health.
the forest:
1: attack. Hay its a forest, and a forest in a fantasy kingdom what's more so presumably there are lots of nasty beasties around, from evil crows, to giant wolves, to potentially even a goblin or two.
2: Tree herd, you meet an ent ala treebierd. Again this coul.d go various ways depending upon how evil you thought the ent could be, if it were it could give you some nuts or berries or maybe even some dead fall wood, if evil it could attack you or do you some damage.
3: Fairy, this could be either evil or good, or possibly random, fairies traditionally being quite capricious.
4: Lost child, a child has got lost in the woods, you could take them back to Dalgrim for some experience.
5: ranger, you meet an old ranger who gives you some tips about surviving in the forest, gain some xp.
6: Wizard, you encounter an apprentice wizard who has come out into the woods to gather herbs and practice magic. she asks to try transforming one of your items, lose one thing and gain one other thing.
The beach:
1: Beach comber: You find a chest of supplies washed up from a shipwreck.
2: Shipwrecked sailor, again various ways this could go, perhaps the surviver of a shipwreck who you could help out to get some xp or cash, or maybe a pirate who attacks you (since pirates are cool!).
3: Mermaid, rather like the fairies this could have random magical effects since mermaids are again quite capricious.
Okay there are some suggestions, obviously when you expand the game with more crafting and more items it'd be possible to have different things, for example when you have craftable items in the game you could find an axe stuck in the tree in the forest and pull it out with enough strength, or if your in the fields you could find an old scythe blade that you could then put a handle on (scythes traditionally broke a lot when used for harvesting).
Same goes for weather, clothing as I said.
either way I look forward to the update and seeing where this one goes with more quests, more craftables and generally more of everything, has the potential to be lots of fun I think.
With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)