One thing that has come to my attention that seems like it might be an oversight is the size of the “short” swords for most of the rest of the content (came with the arena pack, I believe). For example, the iron short sword, is the same length as the iron broadsword, however it is broader than the broad sword. This seems like a pretty big oversight to me. I suppose my suggestion would be to re do the short swords. The only one that I see that I don’t have a problem with is the Argosian short sword. That one seems to be the right proportions for a short sword.
The one detail in the Argos DLC video that I immediately noticed was the fact that the shortsword looked realistic. Which implies to me that I had already come to expect shortswords in this game to be irritatingly broad.
All sword proportions in the game are off, except for a handful of happy accidents. Realistically, the longer your (cutting/slashing) sword, the thinner the blade, so as to keep weight distribution manageable. Short swords can be pretty broad, especially on the forte part of the blade. But you’re right, some of the shortswords in the game are ridiculously broad and look more like cleavers than swords. Short swords also come in various shapes - compare e.g. the classic Roman gladius to a Renaissance era Italian cinquedea (one of my personal favorites, aesthetically).
Greatswords in real life, on the other hand, have surprisingly narrow blades compared to the oars we often see in games. (They’re also stupidly fast, nimble weapons compared to the clubbing animations we often see in games. I’m happy that at least some of Conan Exiles’ greatsword animations are realistic, or at least in the right direction, and even though they’re much too broad.)
Regarding “broadswords”: most of the time throughout history, sword types didn’t really have the fancy names they have now. It wasn’t until the victorian era that people started to feel a compulsive need to classify things and make typologies. So in historical texts, most swords were called “swords”. A contemporary reader would know what shape and size the sword was because within any given era and culture, one type of “sword” was the most overwhelmingly popular at a given time. The term “broadsword” was actually used in reference to a basket-hilted military and dueling sword because it was broader than its other popular contemporary colleague, the rapier. So the broadsword is not really very broad compared to most swords.
And of course there’s the problem of most games, Conan Exiles included, calling one-handed arming swords “longswords”.