As I was playing conan exiles (and reading the comics) I thought of several quality of life changes ranging from the lore friendly to the lore plausible, as well as from the easy to the complicated.
Small changes:
- Copper/bronze age: I mean I know conan is in no way real life but to jump straight from stone tools to iron tools is a little hard to believe so why not add in a earlier tier of metal tool, maybe make them castable so you straight up make the tool heads in the furnace then craft them with wood to get a finished tool)
- Reed arrows: cheap easy to produce arrows that deal similar to the iron head arrows but they always break and weigh less
- Bucklers: smaller lighter shields that only protect from melee damage and possibly parries?
- Crystal weapons/arrows high damage low durability, aka slightly beater then stone in durability. Why I thought this is needed I can early game get 200 plus crystals easily yet struggle to find iron so why not use what you have.
Harder additions:
- Throwing knives: I love playing a ranged character but bows are hard to use close up and axes and javelins are too slow so why not add a faster throwing weapon that deals less damage,
- Short swords: a shorter weaker sword that uses less materials and can be dual wielded, probably would swing faster (uses stab animations) also pairs well with a buckler
- Sling: A very primitive projectile launcher that uses stone as ammo, lower damage and no armor penetration. Could be used to launch orbs farther and harder
- Firelance: a simple bamboo tube filled with explosives attached to the end of a spear. Invented in the 10th century china. Single shot then can be used as a spear.
- Hakenbuckse or hand cannon: moderately lore friendly these early firearm was as primitive as it can get. no aiming can be done just aim and fire. Right click could bash with it as they often had spikes on it for melee attacks. Invented around the 12 century. Best used in groups. Also have them be end tier.
- teeth weapons: clubs studded with with teeth of various animals used to add slashing and tearing potential to an otherwise blunt weapon (aka craftible dafari weapons), causes bleeding. Maybe have the right click do “topor” damage.
- Hand grenades: Yes I know some people think you can use orbs or explosive jars but they are too clunky. Now in terms of feasibility well the first documented case of grenades was in 12th century china. Have them have significantly smaller blast radius to prevent them from being op, like a well timed roll would prevent any major damage. Kinda a shock and awe tactic so to speak.