As someone else already said:
Railroad tracks.
I intentionally don’t suggest train vehicles (here) since this is probably FAR from being simple. 
I already have code for the map tiles! (But I don’t know where to drop it! :-()
Read what’s going on in this topic: http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=5678.0
Different ranged weapons having different costs in action points(or whatever they are called) for aiming and firing a single shot, like different melee weapons do for each melee attack. That will give a greater gameplay purpose to the existing variety of ranged weapons and pump-action vs. semi-auto shotguns will have a greater difference between them, among other things. The firearms decay, different reliability and maintenance already helped in making guns less fluff and more meaningful, and this would be a very good next small step that is probably harder to implement than I imagine in that area.
I like many of these ideas. Sewing machines. Coastline. Stick-it-notes.
We have descriptions for many things in the game. We have descriptions for items, mutations, skills, bionics, monsters, status effects.
So it does not seem far fetched to also have descriptions for
[ul][]terrain types,
[]furniture,
[]constructions (in the construction menu) (short description about what possible uses the result of the construction may have),
[]fields (like blood splatters, cobwebs, etc…),
[]placed traps and
[]vehicle parts in vehicles.[/ul]
Also a possibility of re-reading the descriptions for the melee styles one has obtained would be useful.
I hope this list was simple enough. But I am pretty sure more in-game descriptions would be incredibly useful. Possible use cases are for interactive terrain where the function is not obvious, for example ATMs and recyclers. Another example: “This is a underbrush. With a high survival skill you may find wild vegetables.”. Another use case: With good descriptions the player could possibly find out alone how to farm without having to peek to the wiki first. So I think it is safe to say more descriptions are needed and therefore justified.
Another related suggestion:
Stop abusing the “examine” function. The examine function is really just a catch-all function for doing all sorts of things with terrain. Rarely it is about examination.
Instead the curreent so-called examine function could be split to two functions: One for examination (and ONLY examination) and one for interaction. With the (new) examine function nearby terrain/traps/furniture/etc. which is examined will be described. And the interaction function is basically everything which actually did not belong the the examine function in the first place: Pick up items, pick apple tree, use ATM, use vending machine etc. This suggestion goes hand in hand with the previous suggestion, because a REAL examination function is missing.
I am unsure if this qualifies as “simple”.
(Changed my original suggestion, after rereading the guidelines for what was being asked for. You want building ideas? I got em!)
It kinda bugs me that there are "bikini top"s but no "bikini bottom"s, so seeing those added would be nice. I second the person earlier who suggest adding in some randomly generated names for stores/towns. It would be a small addition that would add a lot more character to the world.
Notes scattered about the place that give a civilian perspective on the the cataclysm would be cool. They would serve a similar sort of purpose as the Research logs founds in Labs, but either have misinformation, random non-important notes, or funny/strange comments. Maybe occasionally have useful tips for new players (ex: “One of those things broke into my makeshift shelter today. It is a good thing I smashed out my neighbors window and made a crude spear using the string, curtain rod, and a sharpened rock earlier, or it might have gotten me!”, or “Got so desperate for water today that I actually drank out of a toilet. Now I can’t stop puking. Maybe I should have tried boiling it or something first.”) I know that sort of detracts a bit from the whole rogue-like vibe of killing new players because they don’t know any better, but learning from the mistakes of others is just as valid and less frustrating than being killed because of a mechanic you could only know about by using the wiki. or by accidentally discovering. Still, because it IS a rogue-like, and failure is part of the fun, I’d say these “tips” should be really simple stuff, and not always actually correct. That ought to keep things interesting.
Suggestions for new buildings/locations (with suggestions for what could be found at them):
Post Office buildings, and mail-carrier z’s which spawn there (perhaps have them drop fliers, magazines, and packages that can be dismantled for random clothes/electronics). As is, random z’s are wearing bits and pieces of a postman’s uniform, but there is no mail, and there are no post-offices to justify it.
Campsites in forests, with the corpses of backpackers, granola, canteens, tents, and other camping supplies. A cursory look at any sporting goods store shows that backpacking and camping were alive and well in the setting, so it is a little weird that there aren’t actually any campsites.
Carnival Grounds. They would be a great source of metal frames, be an interesting location to have a stand-off with z’s, and maybe have lots of junk-food scattered around. It gives an excuse to add more junk food to the game (funnel cakes, cotton candy), and another location to add in the rarely-seen food carts. Also zombie clowns are terrifying. Perhaps they could drop clown suits, clown shoes (high encumbrance, make noise when you walk), and bicycle horns. The parking lot outside the grounds might be a good place to find working cars, or even a bus or two (for the carnies).
Beauty Salons in the towns, where you can find some housecoats, spray cans (for hairspray I guess), beauty magazines and the like. You could probably dismantle the tanning beds for heating elements. Chemicals and scissors could probably be found here too, as well as whatever items were left by panicked patrons who fled when the cataclysm happened.
Community Theater Houses. They would have tons of seats, be a large concrete building with few entrances/exits and no windows (so not a bad place to turn into a base), and backstage you could have lots of floodlights, prop weapons, and exotic costumes. It would give an excuse to add in clothing that otherwise wouldn’t make sense a “20-minutes into the Future” setting.
Jewelry Stores. Pretty self explanatory, and give those survivors so inclined a way to bling themselves out. You might occasionally find ridiculously extravagant jewelry in there. (Giant iced-out dollar sign necklaces, crowns, tiaras, pretty much anything Flavor-Flav would wear). Also would be a reliable place to pick up a watch.
Gentleman’s Clubs. Not in town, of course, and I dunno if these sorts of places are all that prevalent up North, but down here in the Southern states you can pretty well count on passing at least one strip club along the road if you go on a long road-trip. These would be found a bit outside of towns (like gas stations, perhaps even next to gas stations), and would be good sources of booze. In the back rooms you might find various undergarments, costumes, drugs, and in the managers office maybe some guns and money piles.
Zoos. It would give an excuse to add in some more exotic animals, and be a really interesting location to explore/use as a base. Though if zoos make it in, I would suggest having them be an optional thing, to accommodate differing ideas of the time-frame of how long ago the cataclysm happened.
I feel like any and all of these would add more variety, and therefore entertainment, to characters who have made it past the initial couple of days of frantic looting and have begun to actually explore the world.
Most of those ideas are, IMO, great, but i am not sure if they are “Basic” like Kevin said. For this kind of ideas we have the Drawing Board.
Some are really Needed Right Now tough!
Could someone of the core devs reply which of those suggestions are legit (in other words: are on the TODO list) and which aren’t? This also may give the suggestors a feeling about where the border between “simple” and “not simple” lies.
I agree with Wuzzy about examination and about sorting through the thread.
I’d like more cars that simply ran out of gas or something. Right now, it seems like every vehicle crashed into some mime’s imaginary wall, or ran over non-existant spike strips…
I can deal with lugging around gas… But tires are cruel, and engines are even crueler…
Also, could you make it so that folks can refuel car batteries with normal batteries? I know that’s unrealistic, but it’d be nice.
I think you can already do this one, or at least you used to be able to.
I would love to see telephone poles… on the side of the road, doesn’t have to have wires, just the poles… because speeding going on the curb and nailing a pole would be awesome.
Personally I would love a way to dump everything in a shopping cart onto the ground without using several hundred keystrokes. Also, some way of sorting the pickup menu by function, for when I’m trying to find that one whatever I know I threw into my trunk somewhere.
Also, a ‘toolbox’ type item. Now that crafting is being broken into items with hammering, screwing, bolting, sawing, etc. qualities on items, it would be nice to be able to craft the standard set of tools into a single (high volume) item for ease of inventory management. I’m sure the SS13 players would love to bash in zombie skulls with a metal toolbox as well.
Really the most needful thing right now is to improve late game difficulty. If my idea about making item spawn % work better doesn’t count as simple, then how about the following:
We need more ranged enemies.
Tough zombies, zombie brutes and hulks could hurl heavy objects at the player. Hulks could probably even hurl nearby furniture. Make spitter and shocker zombies more common as time progresses, and add another cyborg zombie who uses ranged weapons (perhaps a harpoon to pull the player close, a-la Scorpion). Some of the smart zombies (zombie master, zombie necromancer) could use guns or thrown knives. Zombie soldiers probably too, not because they have the intelligence, but because basic reflexes are kept upon zombification, and soldiers learn to shoot until it’s an ingrained skill. I am not sure if they would know how to reload, but zombie masters would.
We need more environmental challenges.
I’ve posted before about making winter more harsh. Snowstorms should lower running speed and visibility distance severely, and winter itself should be colder.
More enemies underground.
As it stands, subway tunnels and sewer ducts are a safe haven. I’ve never encountered anything down there unless it followed me from the surface. More mutated rats would be a good start, and crocodiles as per the urban legend. Perhaps make new types of otherworld creatures that would fit underground.
+1 to Murphy’s post. Especially concerning new ability to dig underground - some underground enemies should be a threat for those who decide to build their fortress (maybe add some who would emerge from underground walls like giant worms or something).
I don’t agree with zombies using guns (or that Scorpion idea) or zombies turning into different kinds later on in the game (especially doesn’t make sense with static spawning), but I do think we need some enemies with ranged ability.
Same. Zombies should remain as they are; dumb, shambolic and interminable. We have NPCs in the game, remember? No need to make zombies do everything.
My call would be harder optional areas, on the line of labs but with a higher risk/reward type thing. Throwing in more nasties is only really good if you are already a very experienced player
Like to see some domestic animals expansion stuff. Farm animals for food and/or resources and, especially, mountables. Lonely horse-rider in post-apoc world… seems good to me.
Wait, did sewing machines get taken out at some point?
Hmm.
Let the safe mode also kick in when the player takes damage.
This could prevent situations like this: players walks to the west, holding down the key, walks on land mine (not dead yet), continues walking, walks on another land mine and dies. The first land mine may be bad luck, but the second land mine could have been avoided, because the player simply did not react fast enough.
With the tweak, it could look like this: Player runs to the west, holding down the key. Walks on land mine (still alive). Safe mode kicks in and the player does not automatically walk to the second land mine.
I am sure there are other uses of this tweak as well.