A Leveling System where you can Unlock Certain Things such as buildings and tools at a certain Level, like level 1 you can unlock a wooden axe and a pick axe then if you unlock a axe you can make a upgraded axe from stone, the same as the pick axe and you can unlock a level 1 campfire if you have a axe and a pick axe at level 1.

I don't really like the levelling system in general, specially if we're talking about "skills" that allows our player to improve their "combat techniques", speed, and so on.
Anyway, it might be interesting to make a leveling system which will allow us, for example, to gather more quickly, or give us more wood when cutting a tree.
Leveling system related to crafting system could be also interesting, but always considering that "high level" players don't have a huge advantage from "first level" players. A solution for this could be, anyway, introducing perma death: When the player is death, all the skills and levels die with him

Sooo, seems like the consensus here is that leveling should be about Crafting and Harvesting - but NOT so much Combat.

I tend to agree on these points.

I'd prefer to only level up Combat for Animals!

Yeah, i think combat should be more about player skill than player level even for animals. other than age is there any real reason why two of the same animal would have vastly different capabilities?

Love the feedback on this topic everyone! I think the team has a pretty good understanding of the direction to take this one.

I think the leveling system should also be based on skills and combat should be a part of those skills in which can be trained and raised.

I feel like a minor combat leveling system would be cool especially for those who might want to do something like a tournament pit. In tribal cultures fighting was how they appointed leadership and also decided things like mating rights, territory etc so I feel is very important to any game especially in crude caveman setting such as this.

I sort of disagree with the above. My reasoning is that all humans etc are actually pretty different from each other. Like if you are making your character out to be a weightlifter and vs a skinny gatherer who has no combat knowledge chances are the gatherer is not going to be on the same par as a giant hulking muscle man. That is just realistic to how people are built. That isn't to say an assassin type can't down a giant but it would require more strategy. Therefore I think there should be benefits given to those who take the time to train up in different skills. Not everyone should be good at the same things...maybe to start yes as a base line but it should depend on what is important to that player. That also makes for more unique social dynamics and a use for specialist in a tribe.

For ex. If everyone only trains up combat then they would find tanning pelts or chopping wood to take a long time or yield crap results. A more balanced team might have a few warriors whose focus is combat...while others train up gathering skills, healing skills, pelting, hunting, etc. That is what makes good tribe dynamics in my opinion. Everyone isn't going to be amazing at everything unless you put in those hours to raise it. But a jack of all trade isn't going to be as good as a specialist in whatever that area is and they should certainly be given their credit for being good at it if they put that time in.

Not to say they should be overpowered in it or anything but certainly as in terms of combat for example maybe the ability to use their environment to their advantage. The ability to craft better weapons and their shields blocking more damage. Being able to take more damage and deal slightly more damage. I'm not talking anything ridiculous like one hit ko's or anything though. But they should certainly have an advantage in my opinion.

On a side note. I saw someone mention what should happen when you die. I don't like the idea of putting in 30+ hours into a game to have to start over from scratch every time you die. I do think since it's a survival game there should be major consequences it shouldn't hurt the replayability of the game.

Some consequences could be everything in your current inventory gets dropped. However it will remain in world and you can return to it and pick your things back up. (it can show up on the map to show you where it is) but it does allow other players to collect your items. (Though I would suggest it be a looting system involved that also requires skill. The player who stumbles across the loot get 3 picks out of the bag. If their gathering skill is high would yield them being able to take rarer items and these items should be obtained randomly. Or like the higher the gatherer skill the more picks they could get.) I think this would help with thrill killing as well so that people know you are only going to get up to 3-5 items...and not all the items in a person's bag...diminishing the fun of random spam killing since the haul of the reward is small compared to skill rleveling. (adding in rewards for achieving a certain level could also help with this. Ex. A person raises weapon craft to lvl 5 and unlocks the ability to make weapon out of obsidian. On top of this is rewarded with a bundle: 2 obsidian, 1 flint rock, 1 wood shaft. To help in their journey of making their new weapon. Might keep people more interested in their own skill building to get those resources then trying to sunder them from others.

Also I believe this skill tree kind of system and death system could improve the tribal sense of the game. Being nomadic and therefore having to carry around your items might not be the safest idea knowing that if you die you might get your pack raided. Vs being in a protected tribe land where you might have a protected storage place that is harder for raiders to get to.

hope you guys like these ideas.