Here's a game that looks good

It's evidently been out for a while, but A Tale in the Desert II looks exactly like the kind of thing I'm after. You're in Egypt. You learn and build things. That's it. No combat (not that I don't mind a hack n slash occasionally, but it becomes a bit tedious). No faux-medieval crap.

As soon as I get the aforementioned ASDL, I'll be downloading it!