Some update ideas i had

Doubt all of these are "new" but they kept bouncing around in my head so felt the need to post them.

Consolidating skills:

1h & 2h sword shares a skill, maces & warhammer fall under "clubs", so why do spears & Atgeir have their own skills? (should be combined under the "polearm" skill)

Bows and crossbows should be combined under archery so c'bows don't start from scratch in late game.

Run Jump & Swim could be combined under "Athletics" (i doubt i'm the only one who barely sees their swim skill hit double digits cos who ever uses it?) Maybe riding too.

Maybe combine knives & unarmed into "close quarters"? as UA is basically worthless until mountains.

Levelling from damage dealt instead of hits landed: making it easier to level untrained skills when you have better gear & speed up progression from new skills (magic) released late game, allowing stealth to level from the sneak hits landed (like Skyrim) rather than just from slow bumbling around.

Staves getting an "alt" fire mode:

Embers: Hold alt fire to launch motes into the air that auto target the nearest enemy doing low to moderate damage with no splash or dot, being safer to use than primary fire during base attacks, letting you safe spot from cover or even attack behind you while retreating

Frost: locks you in place for a second whilst you slam your staff down releasing a wide aoe (10m~ radius at 1 skill to 20m~ radius at 100 skill) that slows all targets for 10-20 seconds~ & deals moderate damage, a great cc ability against large hordes but not being spam able.

Dead Raiser: Rapidly summons your max amount of skeletons (10 at 100 skill?) rather than slowly summoning 1 at a time (would be used primally before a fight or once all of your summons are dead to quickly rearm rather than summing 1 at a time as they die)

Protection: current shield would be moved to alt fire whilst new primary fire would be a "blood bolt" that does low-moderate damage & heals a portion of damage dealt at cost of mana rather than health like most necro abilities to offset self damage.

All plants having seeds & being farmable (i recall developers saying they didn't want this to force people to harvest plants in the field but would REALLY like to be able to plant everything for both convenience & aesthetics in built gardens) maybe make seeds rare (1/30-1/50 for mushroom mycelium that grows 10~ mushrooms in a 2mx2m fairy ring, make fruit seeds only obtainable from destroying the plants, lowering the total amount in the world for the convenience of having some in your base (maybe give farmed bushes a 100% drop rate for easy relocating) & allowing all plants to "snap" to each other & other building items.

Release the Ashlands & Deep North biomes as a single update with progression requiring parts from both biomes (Ashlands boss requiring an item from Deep North & vice versa) gear being spread between both biomes ("blazing hatchet" from ashlands, "enchanted frost pickaxe" from deep north, maybe "frostfire bow" & all 2h weapons requiring items from both to craft)

Ashlands would cover the southern 30%~ of the map in a 100~° area, with Deep North covering the northern 30% 100° of the map & a third "final" biome of the game covering the 80° east & west portions of the map

Ashlands "dungeons" could be 2 types of castle, one above ground surrounded by a sea of lava (requiring fire protection mead from deep north to cross) & one sunken into the ash with just a tower above ground to enter. Enemies would include lava elementals, demons, maybe an advanced type of surtling.

Deep North "dungeons" would be icy ravines, the biome often heavily obscured by raging blizzards requiring frost resistant mead enhanced by ashland plants, with enemies including frost giants, wendigo & frost elementals

Fire roses that can only grow in the ashlands or "enchanted ash" which would be a rare drop from dungeons that allow a patch of ash to be built in any biome with a cultivator as a new option alongside cultivated soil, Ice lilies would grow in the deep north or in any biome requiring "enchanted snow". When enchanted ash/snow cultivated ground is replaced by any other terrain alteration (cultivate, grass, pathen ect) the full area is replaced & the rare drop is returned to you to place elsewhere.

"Bonemeal" could be an upgraded version of the default "cultivate" with crops grown in bonemeal taking half the time to grow with the bonemeal degrading to regular cultivated soil after a period of time (10 days?) giving bones (one of the most common "junk" items in the game) a more consistent use across a playthrough.

A new boat that has a secure hold making it easier to transport tamed animals across water rather than the super sketchy way we have to transport animals currently.