Still trucking away at this one. Been doing alot of retexturing of native armors and clothing to make them acceptable for the time period, and some to just make new items.
Got a fair handful of custom weapons now;
Flint Knife
Sharpened Stick
War Club
Bone-Spiked Club
Tree Limb , two handed club
Sharp Rock
Wooden Spear
Stone Hatchet
Rabbit Stick
Throwing Stakes
Boomerang
Tomahawks
Darts
Macana, a meso-american wooden 'sword'
I think the taking of prisoners will be much more useful than in the original mount and blade. There'll be places to sacrifice them to the local Gods, which can improve your relationship with the local populace and improve morale, sell them into slavery, or of course, cannibalize them. If you're feeling charitable, you may just try to convince them to join you.
Raiding villages is much more difficult this time around, as average villagers are still pretty dangerous. They don't have shields or weapons or war of course, but they do have tools like logging axes and wooden pitchforks, and bows and spears for hunting.
General population of the game world is being decreased at the moment, to reflect that there just aren't that many humans. Also means that the power gap between you and Lords(now called Chiefs) is a bit smaller.
Recruitment is the main issue I'm looking at right now. I think one of the main methods is going to be capturing prisoners and drafting them, but I'm not sure about other methods. I was thinking perhaps the wandering groups of Scavengers could also be convinced to join you if you have a decent sized party and some persuasion and leadership.
Another cool idea I'm looking at right now is having animals as a kind of 'resource'. Its touched upon in Native, but I aim to really expand it and make it a gameplay mechanic. Hunting is in the game at the moment, but I was thinking about having the ability to raise your own herds of cattle, and slaughter them as necessary for food. If you do become chief of a village, you can expect to go on cattle raids of neighboring villages if times get tough.
Also playing with semi-permanent settlements. That is, villages that function as they do now, but if they become horribly poor, they'll be able to pack up shop and move elsewhere. As Chief of a village, you'd be able to order them to move. If you manage to catch a village as its migrating, you can expect a very nice haul of goods. I think this mechanic will replace Caravans. When a village moves, it'll lose all of its improvements.