Most of the player interaction in this game other than checking menus and researching production chains, will be building buildings. This is kind of a broad category, and I'm going to purposely skip over power plants, and export buildings. I'll save those for later. In the mean time, I have some sub-categories for you.

WAREHOUSES

Since the main focus of this game is generating resources that you are going to either refine or sell, it makes sense that you will want to store some of that. Warehouses in the game can hold 10,000 tons or 1,000,000 units of resources or items. Farms, Mines, Refineries, and Factories also add 100 tons (base) to the storage of the country.
All warehouses within a country share their storage. The logic here being that this day and age, shipping goods from one end of your country to the other side can be done in a single day. Since days go by in seconds in the game we can just skip that tediousness.
I had to make one concession, and that is the storage is that number for each unique item. So while the warehouses can hold 10,000 tons, that is 10,000 tons of each item. (10,000 tons of iron ore, and 10,000 tons of apples, and 10,000 tons of mercury) This makes zero sense logically, but in games where resources are being generated, and warehouses have shared limits, you end up with 5 warehouses full of berries, and the remaining warehouse for everything else. Then you run out of space because you are overflowing with berries. Too much of a headache. (And if Anno can get away with it, that's all the convincing I need.)

FARMS AND MINES

These are the base resource generators. Wood, Crops, Livestock, Mines, Gas Extraction, and Synthesized Crystals. Your ability to get these items depend on your fertilities. Your ability to gather these resources will greatly determine where you want to set-up further supply chain production.
For example, while Mexico is the only current country in the game with agave fertility, it would make sense, if you want to make tequila to setup your refineries in Mexico rather than ship them elsewhere. (obviously, you can, you do you...)

Both farms and mines can have their target resource changed at any time, but cannot be emptied once assigned.

REFINERIES AND FACTORIES

Here we take the raw resources and refine them to more useful items. Combining refined items into sub-assemblies, and concluding with final products.

EYEDROPPER AND PAINTING

In an effort to make the building process easier you can use the eyedropper to copy a building and it's settings, and paint buildings (as long as you have enough money and influence)

Some buildings can't be painted.

Warehouses - because you can already paint with warehouses (no resource assignment needed)

Trade Buildings - because their exports are tied to the building... and that would lead to multiplying exports.

Power Plants - because they are both over-powered and can have high operating costs potentially bankrupting you instantly if you could paint several of them at once.

NEIGHBOR BONUS

This was supposed to be a bigger deal than it turned out to be, but it is very powerful if you use it correctly.

Basically if two buildings are next to one another, and they are producing the same item, they will give each other a bonus to their production. +100% for each neighbor (on standard difficulty)

Example:

Essentially, if you are trying to maximize your neighbor bonuses, 3x3 tiles seems to be the most efficient.

UPGRADING

All buildings can be upgraded. Currently the level limit of a building is 100, but I honestly don't recommend going past level 2. The only time you would want to push further is if you are going for a rare resource in a country that only has a few tiles to work with.

Upgrading increases output by the level number you are upgrading from.

Level 1 generation is 1 (1 base + 0 level bonus)

+1

Level 2 generation is 2 (1 base + 1 level bonus)

+2

Level 3 generation is 4 (1 base + 3 level bonus)

+3

Level 4 generation is 7 (1 base + 6 level bonus)

+4

Level 5 generation is 11 (1 base + 10 level bonus)

+5

Level 6 generation is 16 (1 base + 15 level bonus)

+6

Level 7 generation is 22 (1 base + 21 level bonus)

etc.

The cost of these upgrades increase exponentially as well. Leading swiftly an impossible to reach return on investment.
(Keep in mind, this is just the number of generation cycles. You may make 10x more items, but you still need 10x more supply.)

With every upgrade, your costs go up as well. (albeit by a small amount as to encourage upgrading over more buildings)

The following go up by 10% each level:

-Required Number of Employees

-Employee Wages

-Employee Benefits

-Electricity Usage

-Water Usage

-Property Tax

Upgrading warehouses will increase their storage by the same percentages as the other buildings.

Power Plants will also increase their power output, but will need more fuel (if it is a fueled power plant)

Upgrading Trade buildings give you 2 more export slots for each level.

DEMOLISHING

Demolishing buildings is a tough pill to swallow in this game. You don't get a refund of anything. Think of it this way: If you demolish your factory in real life, what do you do?

You pay severance to all your workers. (money spent)

You sell your usable equipment (money earned)

You have to pay someone to perform the demolition and remove rubble (money spent)

You might get some money for the rubble, but not much (money earned)

When you think of it that way, it is a wash.

Currently, this game is easy enough without refunding for demolishing buildings. If things get more challenging, I might reconsider.

HEXES:

At the time of writing this, I have already switched out the tile system for a hex system for the next update. All the same rules apply, it just looks a bit nicer.

Upcoming:

DD5: Inventory & Items

DD6: Influence

DD7: Market

DD8: Library

DD9: ???