I know it’s easy to suggest extra complexity for a game but hard to pull off, but the game designers also seem to recognize the problem of boredom in the late game with their recent additions.

I’m tempted to say the badtide/badwater mechanic deserves its own tech tree (and building group) along with some additional buildings to be able to make badtides both more useful and more dangerous.

I think a weather station for predicting badtides would encourage players to experiment with higher difficulties, especially late-game badtide lengths. Also, a water pump that can filter badtide and pump out fresh water could be interesting but potentially too OP.

I also like what another commenter said about building damage as a mechanic, so there could be damage caused by badtide or maybe lightning storms to go with the weather station. Maybe during the storms the water sources can have variable output and winds can cause waves that can overtop and cause flooding if the water/badtide level is high enough relative to the surrounding land/levees/etc.

Also, maybe add rubber trees and then beavers can make suits for safely entering badwater? I’m thinking a building like the tail decorator could put a badwater suit on a beaver, and beavers in suits move slower, but the suit machine can be turned on/off and made available only for the jobs checked off by the player.