I think some of this clashes with your vision for the game, so I hesitate to post, but here are some things I've been thinking about. I think there should be different ways to participate in the game.
I can imagine some people, for example, just wanting to hang out in a coffee shop and be there for chat when their friends drop by. Maybe they would always leave the game "on". (The game as a substitute chat room.) These people may not want to explore endlessly and might want to minimize the repetitive (and let's face it, sometimes tedious) tasks that seem to be the bread and butter of the game.
Other people might want to use the game as a quick diversion during work time, hopping on to play for a bit and then logging off. (The game as a substitute Tetris.) I think the current game style allows for this form of play. But you might consider mini games as an option as well. I realize this is VERY different from the current vision for the game, and would most likely appear as discrete "game rooms" or something if you did ever add it. But it would attract more people than are drawn to the current style of play.
And I don't have as clear a sense of this one yet, but I feel like the game could draw in still more people if there were a way to participate that depended on developing game-playing skills, the way that most console games work. (So I guess this is the game as a substitute console.) Again, I think this is VERY different from the vision for the game and maybe doesn't mesh at all. So many games involve some form of shooting something, and that obviously doesn't mesh here. But as you've done with other things, such as where the pigs just give up some meat without me needing to kill them first, I suspect there are clever ways around. I'm also reminded of Pokemon Snap, where what you were "shooting" was a camera. Very clever -- you still had to get something in your sights and shoot, just like a gun -- but the product was a photograph! And you got more points for what you caught in the picture (e.g., how many rare pokemon, or what the pokemon were doing) and how well centered the subject was, etc.
(Okay, I'll shut up now. :-)