Can you elaborate?
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Like in Rimworld, there is an entire planet made up of procedurally generated hexagonal tiles that can together make different biomes generated according latitudal position, which also determines the average temperature of the tiles themselves and whether you will have a year-round growing season, a growing season that will only last part of the year, or no growing season at at. Within the tiles, that is where your pawns (people) live, build, and work. The tile essentially is the loaded map in which you are playing in where youâre managing your colony/tribe. On the world map, it shows you where your colony/tribe is, where there are roads, rivers, and other factions with there settlements. Sometimes within your tile you will see a raiding party from another faction or a trade caravan appear, or refugees seeking shelter. With your pawns, you could pack up all your stored resources and leave your tile at any time, this takes you to the world map, where you plan where your trip will take you, how long it will take, and how long your food supplies for the journey will last. Then, the icon on the world map that represents your pawnsâ location will move along the selected path. Along the way you can be ambushed, trade with nearby settlements, or camp to look for food and other supplies if running low. As far as diplomacy, that is mostly just trading and raiding, very primitive. These settlements on the world map are pre-loaded and stay in there position throughout the entire game not changing. Some of the settlements are more advanced than others but they donât build new camps or buildings within their tiles.
I hope that helps! Iâm no expert so definetly check out the game yourself to better understand these mechanics. 
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Looks exciting, but probably works only in a setting with very sophisticated culture. It assumes the presence of sophisticated technology. The very foundations for this are being discovered and explored bit by bit in the Neolithic period. The random number generator could be worth considering (with other coincidences).
But - interesting tip! 
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Unless Aliens gave a hand us a hand up. 
Reminds me of the map generator in Dwarf Fortress, which similarly generates a world map based on several environmental variables, like drainage, temperature, elevation, mineral scarcity, erosion cycles, both locally and regional, with other variables relating to the wildlife, like savagery, population caps, or maximal number of independent sites.
In Ancient Cities, I believe the point would be to not know very much about the world, other than locally (the city map) and sparse knowledge regionally (âon the other side of the great forest live the Avvars, our friends and across the salty waters live the Chasind, evil menâŚâ), a bit like @tschuschi indicates . News would travel very slowly, if at all, meaning it would be difficult to stay informed about the state of the outside world. Sure if there were a lot of trade, a lot of neighbours, high population density⌠but that seems like something for an expansion, when our tribe becomes a more organised entity among others.
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Iâm not sure if there are any way to know how fast new spread back then, but this question is funnily something that itched me yesterday after having read an article showing that there were tools coming from immediate vicinity, a larger territory (30 to 50 km, possible by parties being send to collect such flint stone or sandstone) and a very wide area (hundreds of kilometers).
To be honest, I always imagined other settlements would be only a list of variables, that could be read on a very crude regional map by hovering over or clicking an icon: population, opinion of us, prestige, etc.
Technically (meaning with the devâs point of view dealing with the engine) those data could be updated every month or year, using random factors: population evolution being randomly decided between -10% and +10%, and sometimes a greater randomness allowed e.g. by a plague, a battle or the arrival of migrants there, so that this would allow e.g. +25% or -50% inhabitants.
But your post definitively helps me to imagining this a step further:
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not a âgeographicalâ map with a physical representation of distance (like on modern maps) but distances measured by days of travel: this village is 2 days away, this one is 17 days away.
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Aside of that, it would be a very cool idea to have information âdelayedâ: everytime you have someone of your settlement going in another settlement, or a traveler coming from another settlement 2 days away because he wants to buy some of your sandstone to make millstones, then the game could make the calculation: basically, if the last new from this settlement was 4 months ago, the randomization could be repeated 4 times â or, rather, percentages of randomization would be x times higher (+/- 10% becoming e.g. +/- 25%) to avoid making the maths 18 times in a row for 18 months.
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The farthest settlements could be also revealed randomly from contacts with nearer settlements: if a traveler comes from the first time from this settlement 13 days ago, he surely would have âfreshâ news from this settlement nearer of his own, and this would display the information noted as 3 months old.
Maybe the part 3) could be considered a bit too much if this needs heavy code working for a minimal gain. But parts 1) and 2) at least would create interesting situations.
Letâs imagine you have a new family coming from a foreign settlement, that want to settle with you. Usual reaction: âSure, welcome here new workers!â
Now, if the displayed information on the regional map say there has been a plague in their settlement 2 months ago⌠Well, maybe youâll trust your shaman saying they seem to be fine. Or youâll allow them to settle in a remote area on your map â which would be basically the best way to have a plague happen, as they evidently would have contact with your own one way or another.
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The developers seem poised to create a system just like the one you and I hope for. I can understand how some of the qualities and variables you are looking at might cost more than they offer, but weâll see, I think there should be at least some of that randomness. Maybe it could even change over time: âGreat leader, a mudslide has blocked of our path to Ugga-buggaville, the new path will take much longer!â, or âGreat leader, the heavy spring rains have made the fording sites over the river Ugga-bugga river impassable!â, or âGreat leader, lake Ugga-bugga has frozen over completely, we can now cross it much easier!â. Not to mention accidents and mishaps on the roadâŚ
Of course, if we are living by a river, it might be very easy to move upriver or downriver. However, moving across the mountain chain behind our river might be almost impossible. So even though we are closer to the people living in that valley⌠we might very rarely see themâŚ
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Many thoughts, good thoughts.
Think it should not be too complicated. Always oriented to the questions: what can you know, what do you want to know and what is important to know for whom?
Ex. (think of ourselves) We were on vacation somewhere. We know where this was, what it looked like and how long the journey lasted. a) It was wonderfully warm, there was a great restaurant and there were nice shops there. The people were friendly and happy. One often wants to return to this place. b) there was nothing but beautiful scenery, people poor, thieving and rude, the weather bad. Not interesting.
But, in both cases you know where it is, what it looks like, what you can expect on the spot. More information about the present is obtained through more frequency. Frequency needs a reason, a need or a wish.
Especially, there is not only place a or b, there are 2 x a to z. Keeping track of such a case is probably just a mixture of graphical info and text. And the priorities should be: good for me, dangerous for me, neutral.
One more question in this context: does information automatically become collective knowledge or, in the course of time, form knowledge stores accessible only to certain people.
Detailed travel information, condition of routes and the presence of special bartered goods, for example, are a knowledge advantage for merchants. Why should they publish these infoâs (without consideration)?