I do have a suggestion though. It would be great if the excel you send us went into more deatil, saying things like how much it would cost for us to buy a new agricultur/domestic etc workforce in each city. How much it costs to grow that city by 1 population, and other useful things like that. It would be good if it was colour coded to make it easier to work from. These would make order writing much more efficiemnt and easy, and means we wouldn't have to go through the whole rule set each time, looking for the growth forumla...
Sure, do it up! I'll use it for a template to send out to everyone. Seriously though, the rules are all on the first page. I'll try to simplify it by making up a sample order (but not today).
Also, is it possible to directly research one of the trechs mentioned in the update?
Yes, but only if you have already researched the 'linguilism' tech.
Can excess/unwanted food be sold to other countries?
yes, i don't see why not- you would have to have roads to connect you or the 'small water craft' tech and rivers or a better water-type tech (think sailing) and coasts or an awesome water-type tech (think optics or astronomy) and oceans
What is the point in building plain communal farms when you can build resource communal farms?
Not all provinces have grain resources. I mentioned barley and wheat in the update for some provinces. Those provinces can build 'wheat farm' and 'barley farm'. Most provinces are stuck with standard communal farms.
REMEMBER:
The Provinces
Each province may have one or more resources, not all of which will be immediately obvious. Players are encouraged to perform geological exploration and agricultural development.
Can outposts have more then 1 population?
No.
Is there any bonus then actually making resources other then being able to trade them?
Some will enable buildings. For example, you can't build a potter's workshop without clay and you can't build a flint axemen unit without flint. There's a pretty good chance that you can't build a tannery without hides, etc.
How are research points per turn calculated? Also, can we trade resources now or do we need a tech?
Basically, you get 15 per turn from your capital and 5 per turn from cities (and zero from outposts). In addition, you get a straight-up bonus of 3/turn when you research linguilism and another 3/turn when you research writing. In addition to that you can build elder councils, apprenticeship programs, libraries and other improvements to increase your per turn reseach income. With every order set you'll have to say what your research priority is and you'll accumulate research points towards a particular tech (either random or known due to 'bee-line' or 'stream-line: see the research section, first page).
Trading resources requires a trade route. The techs to unlock trade routes have not yet been uncovered. In addition you'll need roads or 'small water craft' or better.