One thing I would like to see possibly implemented soon are early-game non-lethal weapons.
This came up to me after watching last week’s playthrough, where they again mentioned the passive vs. aggressive event tree. Currently, this is only based on thieving goblins. The problem is that, aside from letting the goblins take all your stuff and terrify your villagers or wall off your entire area, there’s not much your settlement can do to passively resolve the situation.
That’s why I would like the ability to create/substitute basic non-lethal weapons for your footmen to use against this first threat. Particularly, a net crafted by the weaver seemed to be a viable possibility, as it could be produced and used by the current classes available so far. The footmen could additionally have a fight/capture behavior, where the latter would weaken the enemies to increase the chance of capture, Damage dealt to units might be more likely, since they’re trying to subdue the foe and can’t outright fight them as normal.
Perhaps all (or most) weapons could have a “non-lethal mode”? Such as the flat side of a sword, butt of a spear, back of a katana, blunt arrows, etc. The option to use either mode could be decided in a squad tactic for a group of soldiers.