Sorry to hear about the Steam API. You would expect a big player like Steam to have technology that is really easy to interface with. It sounds like you will want to use Steam in the end when you get it working, so you could put your old crash reports back in, just to get us that testing build. (I want a go!)
Geology is probably a good idea. Mana loses its value later on in the game and more technologies are needed. Some of them should be expensive enough to not quite reach during an average game.
