A Few Ideas: Agricultural help, Snake fangs and more...

[Owlant]

1) Agricultural help from companions.

I recently was harvesting my herb patches and I had a companion. As I cut down the nettles, I wished I could ask him to either thresh the plants behind me or pick them up for me. It would make agricultural fields a lot more easier to manage and maybe even I could ask him to sow seeds for me in the spring if I gave him the seeds and harvest/thresh if I give them a grain flail. 

2) Putting branches in an ice hole to help delay refreezing.

Putting branches in an ice hole will help it stop freezing. It is annoying when you cut a hole in the ice and it freezes over so quickly. It won't permanently stop it from freezing just delay it just like real life.

Please note I know this is not going to be a popular idea:

3) Player characters shouldn't start with perfect knowledge of traps.

It would be nice if they are higher level, then they will know more types but I don't see a Driiki maiden at 16 years old with 12% trapping knowledge, knowing how to build and set bear traps.  Perhaps it can be added to the quests. A village trapper with a cold asking you to check his traps for him? Re-bait them? And in return he will show you how to build them? Could be snares, paw traps, lever, pit or dead fall.

Based on your starting Tribe you know different traps. Driiki starts off with knowledge of snares. While Owl Tribe knows about pit traps from capturing reindeer. Reemi knowing lever traps from protecting their fields from game.

4) Snakes should drop fangs/teeth.

Maybe could be a spell component. A Sage request item? 

5) Trading with different types of people should mean what items you trade with should have different values.

The Craftsmen will put maybe a 5% increase value on any boards/furs you have. Trading with Sages have increase value on herbs. Trading with Maidens put an increase value on jewelry and valuables.  Adventurers will value armour and weapons. Maybe to balance this maybe they have items they don't care for. Such as trying to trade with a Craftsmen using a sword makes them go "Hmmm I don't have a need for this but I suppose we could find a use."

[Dungeon Smash]

Snake fang shouldn't be hard to mod in, depending on what you want to do with it. 

.Snake fang. "Hunting horn" [effort:0] [phys:hands] *HIDEWORKING* /15/
{*snake carcass*}       'Pick up snake carcass'
[MATERIAL:antler]

Something like this.  I haven't actually tested to see if that will work, you can also add a custom graphic if you like. 
Then all you need to do to integrate it into other recipes, would be to add a line {Snake fang} [remove]

[PALU]

Snake fangs are rather small, as the snakes are rather small. I don't know if they had any ritual value in iron age Finland, but my guess is that they didn't.

When it comes to crafting knowledge restrictions (why stop at traps specifically?), there would have to be a balance between "realism" and playability.
For instance, removing the smallest lever traps would have caused all of my characters in trouble, because the birds caught in them is what keeps them fed until the first big kill (and the intervals in between them). Snares will work, but only if you have suitable tying equipment that doesn't rely on kills (and I think some of the new typing equipment might work).
If you remove bear traps you also remove trap fences where you can't dig (marshes, for instance) and when you can't dig (i.e. when it's frozen).

[Owlant]

Snake fangs are rather small, as the snakes are rather small. I don't know if they had any ritual value in iron age Finland, but my guess is that they didn't.

When it comes to crafting knowledge restrictions (why stop at traps specifically?), there would have to be a balance between "realism" and playability.
For instance, removing the smallest lever traps would have caused all of my characters in trouble, because the birds caught in them is what keeps them fed until the first big kill (and the intervals in between them). Snares will work, but only if you have suitable tying equipment that doesn't rely on kills (and I think some of the new typing equipment might work).
If you remove bear traps you also remove trap fences where you can't dig (marshes, for instance) and when you can't dig (i.e. when it's frozen).

If you are curious about Ritual Animals in Iron Age Finland I would suggest these reports.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321424778_Ritual_deposition_of_animals_in_late_iron_age_Finland_A_case-study_of_the_mulli_settlement_site_in_raisio

Or

http://www.sarks.fi/masf/masf_6/masf6_2018_3_saipio.pdf


Or

https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/299558/BETWEENS.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

My favourite is called Snake Court Stones, a bit of Finnish Magic stories. 

https://archaeomagic.blog/2018/10/31/snakes-court-stones/


There is evidence that snakes were used ritually. Their skin particularly as well as they did decorate many ritual objects like Cairns with images of snakes. Made gold staffs even and more. There is an indication that snakes were viewed important ritually. They also used bear claws which maybe considered another suggestion.

Crafting knowledge is an odd thing. While I can see a village person who was raised in a village understanding the building of fences/homes and crafting of clothes and tools because these were daily/weekly/yearly chores occurring around the village. Perhaps not kotas, such a thing may be learnt from the northern tribes for tribes who don't build them. 

I would suggest that you ca also be self taught? If you trap enough you figure out how to build traps. If a character is 30-40% skilled in trapping, it is not unreasonable to imagine they could figure out how to build a lever trap on their own.

[Sami]

Firstly, it's a good policy to pinpoint a suggestion or two rather than post lists. That way it's easier to find, read and discuss these things.

1) Agricultural help from companions.

I recently was harvesting my herb patches and I had a companion. As I cut down the nettles, I wished I could ask him to either thresh the plants behind me or pick them up for me. It would make agricultural fields a lot more easier to manage and maybe even I could ask him to sow seeds for me in the spring if I gave him the seeds and harvest/thresh if I give them a grain flail.

Yep. The ways that companions can help out the player character need to keep increasing. And this surely should be included.

Putting branches in an ice hole to help delay refreezing.

This would be an interesting trivial addition. It immediately comes to mind where to find data about how much this should delay the freezing.

Player characters shouldn't start with perfect knowledge of traps.

Agreed. And player characters shouldn't start with perfect knowledge of all the other crafts and constructions either. It would suit the game world perfectly is if things needed to be learned gradually and in more culturally dependant fashion.

Snakes should drop fangs/teeth. Maybe could be a spell component. A Sage request item?

Would be nice little detail, among many others. We'll see if a proper in-game context comes in our way at some point.

Trading with different types of people should mean what items you trade with should have different values.

Yep. This is the trading direction we'll turn to at some point. The timing can't be predicted, though. It needs detailed planning and some unhurried time to concentrate on trading as a whole.