How Well Do Kingmaker Kingdom-Building Rules Work?

[The Glyphstone]

So I'm putting together notes for a campaign themed around being the henchpeople for a powerful-but-incompetent evil overlord, and figured I'd pillage the Kingmaker rules for useful material. But how well do they actually work in practice, from people who have played or run Kingmaker games? I've seen a few comments about how the optimal economy centers on mass-producing magic items and vendoring them, but that's it. Knowing what works and what doesn't is necessary before I start changing stuff.

[emeraldstreak]

I remember running some Excel simulations prior to my Kingmaker campaign and concluding the rules aren't that great long term.

In reality, however, we never got to that point because of a TPK at the fey ruin in part II.

I'd say keep an eye on the settlement development, fix anything you come to dislike. However, Kingmaker is about much more than these rules. Exploration is a big thing, but one the PCs can miss on if they lack a high Perception character. Combat is even bigger, however there are encounters, both scripted and random table, that are prone to TPK (ie the fey one if the party doesn't do well against the enchant, or a will o'wisp against 1st level party).

[stack]

I understand they made some changes in the rules when ultimate campaign came out and it is generally recommended that those be used instead of the ones in Kingmaker. I can't speak to what was changed though.