I haven't had a chance to really post between starting work and moving. I'm still just getting back into things but I've already made a big improvement on the overall flow system, Quests now have physical start points and can be "picked up" and added to a sort of quest inventory. You can (finally) advance forwards in time by a day as well by interacting with another NPC, and it is structured in a way that updates each quest individually before beginning the night or combat phase.
After all that logistical work I decided it'd be a good break to work on some actual art, so I have been putting some effort into setting up the day cycle system to actually affect the in-world lighting, and have made a more detailed non-procedural cube map to use as a skybox. I should be able to use the same skybox for both night and day by using atmospheric fog, but I've only used volumetric fog so far.
Once the day-night cycle is set up (along with UI updates and updating the save code to work with the new building system (still works with the old one before buildings were mobile)) I'llbe able to add additional quests easily, which will give me the ability to finally start focusing specifically on the game's art content and story,. as the game's core building and game flow systems will be basically ready to go, with the exception of combat (which, still has made considerable progress this year)
I should have a few playable quests by the end of november. That's my goal for now anyways, minus any combat that they might include.